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Samsung’s Galaxy S Smartphone Series Passes 100M Channel Sales, Driven By Flagship Galaxy S3 | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | Samsung just announced another smartphone sales milestone: its Galaxy S series has passed channel sales (or sales to retailers, not end users) of more than 100 million units since launching in May 2010, the Korean conglomerate announced . The sales were driven in large part by the series’ flagship Galaxy S3: Samsung Electronics’ flagship Galaxy S series surpassed the accumulated sales record of 100 million units from the supply side in only 2 years and 7 months after its launch in May 2010. Galaxy S III is selling at much faster rate of 30 million in 5 months and 40 million in 7 months, after becoming a million seller in only 50 days after its release last May. Currently, its average daily sales are 190,000 units. The driving force behind Samsung Electronics’ rise to the top on the global smartphone market is Galaxy S II which is gaining ground as a steady seller hitting the sales of over 40 million in only 20 months. Last week, Samsung issued , saying that it expected a record quarter with consolidated profit of around 8.8 trillion Korean won ($8.3 billion), on consolidated sales of approximately 56 trillion Korean won ($53.6 billion). The Q4 figure compares to 8.06 trillion Korean won in the previous quarter, and 4.66 trillion Korean won in the year ago quarter. Samsung’s winning streak of five record quarters in a row, however, on weaker seasonal demand for its smartphones, due in part to markets in emerging countries reaching saturation. Samsung reportedly hopes, however, that , or 20 percent more mobile phones than it did in 2012. This is an optimistic goal based on a report from research firm Gartner, which estimates that Samsung will actually ship closer to 300 million smartphones. |
Carvoyant Is Ready To Put Your Car In The Cloud | Sarah Perez | 2,013 | 1 | 12 | , a startup that’s been busy developing a platform that will tell you exactly what’s going on with your vehicle’s general health (and ), is today to early adopters and developer testers. It has also signed a couple of agreements with auto dealer partners, who will be the first to distribute the system more broadly to potential customers. For those unfamiliar, the system Carvoyant offers is somewhat similar to companies like , for example, as it also involves a transmitter that’s plugged into the car’s onboard diagnostic port (OBD) in order to capture and analyze the data stream from the car’s computer. This is how Carvoyant knows what it means when warning lights on a car’s dashboard appear, but it will also go a step further. The company wants to help you proactively prevent problems, too, by alerting you to issues like a battery that’s about to die, for example, or even a teenager who’s driving too fast. However, unlike other companies operating in this space, like , or , or apps like , Carvoyant isn’t about building just a gadget and/or an app; it’s about developing a platform. On that front, the company is today , who could use Carvoyant data in their own third-party applications – including those listed above, for that matter. While there have been a lot of announcements related to the “connected car” coming out of this week’s CES event in Las Vegas, Carvoyant founder and CEO Bret Tobey tells us his team skipped the big show. “We chose not to go to CES, and stayed home and started shipping instead,” he says. “That’s been working out well. We’ve been selling to dealers for a couple of months now, and those rollouts are in progress.” While he doesn’t yet have permission to announce Carvoyant’s early auto dealer partners, he does have a total of 400 units committed to two dealers currently, and is in various stages of discussion with others, ranging from the initial introduction to the nitty-gritty of detailed deployment discussions. “When we looked at Carvoyant, we knew that in order to really grow an economy around connected cars, we needed three things: obviously, we need drivers. We need developers. And we need the distribution channel. And automative dealers – that’s the natural point of aggregation of most services,” says Tobey. The company now has , which will begin shipping in March (or sooner, if enough critical mass occurs ahead of that time). The devices plug into the OBD port, and then share data over the cellular network directly with Carvoyant. This is a bit different from – an Android app that synced with the device, then communicated only when your car was parked within range of your home’s Wi-Fi network. The new devices are offered at $149, but if there happens to be a dealer sponsor in your area, you might be able to receive a full or partial discount, in exchange for opting in to data-sharing with that business. That decision is entirely under your control, however, and it’s more about you telling that data partner about your check engine light, or other issue, as opposed to them spamming you. Tobey insists that Carvoyant’s goal is to build an open platform where users and developers are in control. The company’s tagline even reiterates this: “your car, your data, your control.” (For developers, it’s “your API,” instead.) Carvoyant has also been working with MIT’s , which is about creating a true open framework for vehicle data through better standards. The signup page . Carvoyant previously had seed funding from , but has now raised a partial seed round of around $300,000 with investors who include (SK is Eric Norlin and Paul Kedrosky), , and other angels. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5erdKHM99Dc?feature=player_embedded] |
Apple Cuts Orders For iPhone 5 Components, Reports WSJ | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | Apple has cut orders for iPhone 5 components due to weaker-than-expected demand, the Wall Street Journal. The article said that “Apple’s orders for iPhone 5 screens for the January-March quarter, for example, have dropped to roughly half of what the company had previously planned to order.” In addition, orders for other components have also been reduced. Suppliers were notified last month. The company’s stock dropped last month due to reports from analysts that Apple was cutting into iPhone 5 orders for the first quarter of 2013, leading to speculation that demand for the smartphone is lackluster. But as Business Insider , there are a few other reasons why component orders might have been reduced. Manufacturing of the iPhone 5 might have gone better than expected (though was a shortage of the device after it was first released due to ), and some analysts have speculated that Apple plans to by this summer. Rumors of a new iPhone were partly responsible for a back in July. Apple has been emailed for comment. |
GetGlue-Viggle Merger Called Off | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | GetGlue today that it is not merging with Viggle, though the social TV app maker said in a statement on its blog that “the two companies remain friendly and think highly of each other.” A Viggle-GetGlue merger was first announced in November and the deal between the two competitors, which never closed, could have been worth $70 million or more. Though the deal looked good in concept, however, it started to fall apart when you , as Ryan Lawler wrote. For one thing, the merger was contingent on Viggle raising an additional $60 million in funding, which it –just last week, the two companies disclosed in a SEC filing that they were “discussing an extension of such date and other potential modifications to the Merger Agreement” and Viggle said it was still expecting to raise the money from a strategic investor. Meanwhile, Viggle CEO Robert Sillerman was , extending his existing loan agreement with Viggle from $12.5 million to $15 million in mid-December. Viggle also seemed to be using up cash much faster than it was getting it. The company had just $1.7 million in revenues through November, but spent $32.6 million on operators. In a press statement, Sillerman said: “During the time we started talking to GetGlue about an acquisition and since the merger agreement was signed in November, we have seen impressive growth in our business. We are pleased with this positive momentum.” |
PDF Tribute to Aaron Swartz Attracts Roughly 1,500 Links To Copyright-Protected Research | Kim-Mai Cutler | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | An online tribute to Aaron Swartz, , has attracted more than 1,500 links to research and academic papers. It’s an effort to honor Swartz, who faced up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines after he downloaded 4.8 million documents from JSTOR. He had wanted to make them more freely available before he took his life this week. Micah Allen, who researches brain plasticity, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive science, : “A fitting tribute to Aaron might be a mass protest uploading of copyright-protected research articles. Dump them on Gdocs, tweet the link. Think of the great blu-ray encoding protest but on a bigger scale for research articles.” Two acquaintances of Swartz, and Jessica Richman, picked up the call and ran with the idea. “Open access is something he was and we are really passionate about,” said Richman, who also co-founded , a non-profit that encourages academic scientists to include citizen science in their research. “Imagine you’re a musician and you have to pay someone to produce your music, and then your can’t even access your own music unless you pay them again,” she added. Swartz five years ago, in which he criticized research journals for locking up valuable scientific knowledge and history and urged people to engage in civil disobedience to make these works more widely available. “The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations,” he wrote. “Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.” Richman says she hopes that maybe this nascent effort to help lead to the creation of a repository, where research that is funded with public money and grants be available and openly accessible. JSTOR for limited free reading by the public. This didn’t happen in connection with Swartz death, however. |
Anonymous Appears To Have Hacked MIT Website, Leaves Swartz Tribute | Gregory Ferenstein | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | Hacktivist organization, Anonymous, appears to have hacked MIT’s website and left a tribute message to the late Internet activist, Aaron Swartz. “We tender apologies to the administrators at MIT for this temporary use of their websites,” writes a postscript to a memorial note posted by Anonymous, on a subdomain of the official MIT.edu website. “We do not consign blame or responsibility upon MIT for what has happened, but call for all those feel heavy-hearted in their proximity to this awful loss to acknowledge instead the responsibility they have — that we all have — to build and safeguard a future that would make Aaron proud”. Earlier this evening, and there was notable evidence that Anonymous had caused the outage. Swartz was set to next month for releasing millions of pay-walled academic papers from the popular JSTOR database. The case has set off a firestorm of online protest related to overzealous litigation and copyright policy and the President of MIT has of the accusations. The hacked page calls for an investigation into the Swartz case, the reformation of copyright policy, and greater protections for a free Internet. The page also posted an open-information manifesto Swartz composed, “Guerilla Open Access Manifesto”. For now, the link is still live. Since it will likely be taken offline soon (if it was indeed a hacked page), we have posted the full message below in block quotes, . A brief message from Anonymous. Whether or not the government contributed to his suicide, the government’s prosecution of Swartz was a grotesque miscarriage of justice, a distorted and perverse shadow of the justice that Aaron died fighting for — freeing the publicly-funded scientific literature from a publishing system that makes it inaccessible to most of those who paid for it — enabling the collective betterment of the world through the facilitation of sharing — an ideal that we should all support. Moreover, the situation Aaron found himself in highlights the injustice of U.S. computer crime laws, particularly their punishment regimes, and the highly-questionable justice of pre-trial bargaining. Aaron’s act was undoubtedly political activism; it had tragic consequences. Our wishes For in the end, we will not be judged according to what we give, but according to what we keep to ourselves. Aaron, we will sorely miss your friendship, and your help in building a better world. May you read in peace. —- Who was Aaron Swartz? A hero in the SOPA/PIPA campaign, Reddit cofounder, RSS, Demand Progress, Avaaz, etc…: —- Guerilla Open Access Manifesto Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier. There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost. That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It’s outrageous and unacceptable. “I agree,” many say, “but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it’s perfectly legal — there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” But there is something we can, something that’s already being done: we can fight back. Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot — keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends. Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have been sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends. But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It’s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn’t immoral — it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy. Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less. And the politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving them the exclusive power to decide who can make copies. There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture. We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access. With enough of us, around the world, we’ll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we’ll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us? Aaron Swartz July 2008, Eremo, Italy —– You were the best of us; may you yet bring out the best in us. -Anonymous, Jan 13, 2013. —- (Postscript: We tender apologies to the administrators at MIT for this temporary use of their websites. We understand that it is a time of soul-searching for all those within this great institution as much — perhaps for some involved even more so — than it is for the greater internet community. We do not consign blame or responsibility upon MIT for what has happened, but call for all those feel heavy-hearted in their proximity to this awful loss to acknowledge instead the responsibility they have — that we all have — to build and safeguard a future that would make Aaron proud, and honour the ideals and dedication that burnt so brightly within him by embodying them in thought and word and action. ) [ : Digiphile/Alex Howard] |
Participating In Hackathons Is the Best Way To Become Pitch Perfect For VCs | Drew Olanoff | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | The proliferation of organized “hackathons” has been a big story over the past few years. Quite a few developers that I’m friends with see them as a way to keep themselves sharp on their own products and ideas, especially when a different company is the one putting the event on. I recently attended, and judged, a Foursquare hackathon in San Francisco, and saw about 20 presentations from some pros and beginners alike. Usually the participants hack away on an idea, or series of ideas, over a 24-hour period. During the hacking, teams are built, careers can be made, and new features and companies can be found if people are paying close enough attention. At the , where the participants hacked away on Foursquare’s API, as well as some other sponsors’, I found the things you’d expect at a hackathon – stickers, beer, pizza and geeks. After attending quite a few of these hackathons in San Francisco, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, Mexico and Israel, I’ve found that this is a great testing ground to get ready for pitching VCs for the product you want to spend all of your time working on. Most of the projects aren’t ready for prime time, but facing judges and an audience with a five-minute presentation is a great way to sharpen your pitch skills. Some of these things might seem obvious, but they can serve as a reminder for you. There are only so many hours in a day – and in a hackathon. Sometimes, you don’t get your project finished, and you go ahead and present anyway. That’s pretty cool, but it’s a good idea to focus on having something finished. Even if you have to divert from your original idea, showing something that works is putting your best foot forward. If there are recruiters at the hackathon, they want to see nimble teams that can move and shake in any situation. Simply “running out of time” isn’t an excuse, it’s a hackathon after all, so hack your way through the stumbling blocks. Even if you don’t win, you’ll show your peers that you can get shit done. At the Foursquare hackathon, there were a few teams that said that they didn’t realize how hard their idea was until the first few hours of hacking on it. When you say that to yourself, it’s time to start on something else, so have a few backup ideas written down before you get cranking. Having nothing to show for all of your hard work bums everyone out. Yes, after 10 or 20 hours of coding, you might find it difficult to be coherent in front of an audience. Over the past few hackathons I’ve been to, I’ve witnessed teams trying to explain all of the technical aspects of what they just worked on, but the judges and audience just want to know what it does and then see it work. If your idea and project is cool enough, you’ll be immediately surrounded by curious coders who’d like to hear about how you did this part or that part. Keep it short and simple, so everyone watching can “see themselves” trying out what you just made. This is what you need to prepare when you are ready to pitch a VC one day. If you can’t explain exactly what your “thing” does, you won’t make it too far. So you’ve shown your new app that uses the Foursquare API to show all of the ice cream stores in California with layers of weather information on top of it. That’s pretty cool, and it worked! The next thing that you have to explain is who this product is for. Is it for kids? Is it for ice cream enthusiasts? Saying that the product is for “everyone” shows that you really didn’t think about it. Even Instagram had to think about who their app was for, and maybe it was for people who loved to take pictures but didn’t want to edit them. That simple explanation got them past all of the boring questions when looking for investment. When you’re in a hackathon, you should be working on your pitch in parallel with the progress of your project. Your idea will change during the competition, and the pitch must change, too. Believe me, I’ve heard pitches that match a product that I didn’t see demoed. They probably wrote the pitch before they started coding. Now that the judges and audience understand what you’ve created, who you’ve created it for, and seen that it works, they will want to know where you see yourself taking this. Basically, “What are the next steps?” At hackathons, I’d say that the answer is “we don’t know yet” about 75 percent of the time. While you aren’t expected to quit your current job to switch over to this new project, it is a good idea to have a prepared answer for this, or assert it during your pitch. If you’ve created a fun game, maybe you won’t be doing anything else with it at all, and that’s okay. If you’ve created something cool that’s a feature, and not a product, maybe you can open source it and put it on GitHub for other developers to use. When you have an answer for that question, it means that you value your work. There’s probably no set amount of hackathons that you should attend before you venture out for funding or try to find a next job. If anything, it’s a great way to keep your coding skills in the now, keep updated on the latest technologies and nuances of popular APIs, meet new people and network a little. At the Foursquare hackathon, where a team called Droptask won the main prize, I was on a judging panel with two very prominent VCs in Silicon Valley. Will this team get funded for the project? You never know. Maybe Foursquare might hire them for their own team. You won’t even know what could happen if you don’t step out and do something. You can connect your Foursquare account to the service, and based on where you are, you can assign tasks or accept tasks based on what you need and where you need it. For example, you could be checked into Starbucks, and someone could set up a task to hold a place in line for them. You could accept it. It’s quite brilliant, and in the vain of services like Exec and Taskrabbit, except that there’s no money changing hands. It’s all fun. is for people who live in big cities like San Francisco or New York City, where there are a lot of lines and a lot of people using a service like Foursquare. The team was pretty excited about their project and they plan on adding more features to it, potentially allowing you to see where all of your Foursquare friends are, then allow you to assign them a task on the spot. Basically, if you were at the movies, I could then ask you to buy me a ticket through . You’ll be asked quite a few questions if you have the interest of the judges, so make sure that you get the “boring stuff” out of the way during your presentation. If you do that, then the judges might want to get to know you better and could even give you suggestions to take something to the next level. Hackathons are usually free, and it’s more than just the free beer, pizza and sticker. You can check out all of the , and maybe you’ll find something that you like. I’ll be interviewing some of these teams later in the week, as well. |
Shenzen New Degree’s Touch Panel Tech Doesn’t Mind The Rain And Still Delivers Killer Input Detection [Video] | Darrell Etherington | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | Shenzen New Degree Technology was one of the companies showing its stuff in the Eureka Park portion of CES 2013, and this China-based hardware startup had some impressive tech to show off related to touch input. Combining capacitive and resistive touch-based input with a means to make it work even on solid stainless steel surfaces, Shenzen New Degree hopes to pave the way for a wide range of new products with built-in controls that are highly durable, retaining their touch sensitive abilities even after considerable wear and tear. The interesting thing about Shenzen New Degree’s tech is that it can provide both the levels of accuracy and sensitivity it manages while still also remaining durable enough that you can pour water on it, as the company showed me at their booth in Eureka Park. The environmental toughness of this implementation means it’ll be able to be used in a wide range of applications where touch devices would be exposed to the elements, like in kitchen appliances, outdoor digital keypads and parking meters, and the high sensitivity will make for a much better user experience than the resistive touch tech generally used in most commercial-grade touch panels. Another benefit, as you can see in the video above, is that the panels can detect not only standard number sequence codes, but also the degree of force used to press, meaning that if someone wanted to not only have the numeric entry, but also the force with which it was entered as a secondary security measure, they could easily do that. All in all, it’s a pretty amazing component technology that I’m sure we’ll see picked up by a lot of OEMs fairly quickly. |
Pentametron Is A Twitter Poet That Gives Bots Some Literary Cred | Ingrid Lunden | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | If you’re reading this post, chances are you use Twitter as a place to chat about, link to, search, debate and debunk the big and little things going on in tech. But as you know (and as Twitter likes to remind us and and ) Twitter is also home to a lot of other kinds of conversations. And bots. And spam (boo). And some creative types, too. I use Twitter for work. But because work is something I seem to do quite a lot, my use of Twitter has ranged over time to include a lot of other content. One of my favorite discoveries in the last year has been , a bot — represented by Shakespeare’s face framed by the classic Twitter egg — that seeks out public tweets written in iambic pentameter, which it then retweets in rhyming couplets. The purpose: “To find inadvertent poetry in the endless torrents of language that slosh around the internet,” according to the where Pentametron’s tweets later reside in groups of 14. The couplets are typically like this: [tweet https://twitter.com/lazerspewpeww/status/289123315233210368 align=’center’]
[tweet https://twitter.com/Blaine3Blaine/status/289128428282732545 align=’center’] The end result is a little like when you are in a crowded room and overhear a sudden voice saying something above the din. Ranjit Bhatnagar, the conceptual artist behind Pentametron, tells me the project was borne out of work he had already been doing with collaborative poetry. The earliest of these “network experiments,” as he calls them, was 20 years ago, when he asked different people to each contribute a line to a sonnet — in a hat-tip to the surrealist’s games. A version of that was eventually used for a project for the — this time with tweets, but still with manual manipulation by Bhatnagar. “The results were silly and interesting,” he said. For the next evolution, which became Pentametron, Bhatnagar tapped his interest in programming. “I’ve been a nerd since I was a kid,” says New York-based Bhatnagar, who was raised in San Francisco but in a family that had nothing to do with tech and Silicon Valley. Earlier in his life, he used to work for a computer gaming company. “Last year I was looking at the Twitter API and I could see that you could sign up for a feed for 1 percent out of every 100 tweets,” he recalls of his discovery of Twitter’s so-called “ ” data API. “It’s a way for developers to test out Twitter software, but you could sign up to use it for free, so I did.” After that, he wrote a program to search for tweets that were written in iambic pentameter (10 beats to the line in a heartbeat rhythm), by referencing every word in each tweet received against the , an online resource produced by Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science that identifies the stresses in words. Word began to spread about what he was doing, and eventually Twitter heard about it, too. “I was visiting the Bay Area and they invited me over, and they arranged for me to get a bigger feed of tweets” — the 20 percent “gardenhose” feed, which ususally requires payment but is given to the Pentametron project, which generates no revenue, for free. “They’re nice folks,” he adds. That meant that Pentametron got “about 5 or 10 times more tweets than before.” And that had a second effect: “I had so much more coming through that I could be more selective.” At that point he refined Pentametron to search for tweets that fit the meter and feet but also rhymed with each other, and when two were found, it would retweet them in a couplet. “To get a rhyme you throw away 100 lines that are in pentameter that don’t rhyme,” he notes. “With the wider feed access I could do that and still keep Pentametron going.” It’s been running like that for at least eight or nine months now, he says. I’ve often looked at Pentametron and thought there may be even more coding involved to get lines that actually made sense together. Example: “ .” And then: “ .” Bhatnagar says the serendipity is “only a coincidence” and not something he has programmed himself. In fact, he’s created a blacklist to make sure that things don’t become too repetitive. Blacklisted items include lines that are quotes from movies, popular songs or popular phrases — e.g. “The angels sang a whiskey lullaby,” or “Each day’s a gift and not a given right.” And there are some pending items that are about to get blacklisted because of how often they appear. Among them: “I pay attention to the little shit,” “Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar,” and “meow meow meow meow meow.” Pentametron is an interesting kind of barometer for the growth of Twitter. Using its gardenhose feed for the last nine months, Bhatnagar says that Twitter has grown double in the last year and Pentametron is getting a lot more material. “We’re posting twice as fast now as nine months ago,” he says, working out to some 30-40 times per day on average. Some people find that too much, so he has been working with more ways of trying to whittle down the numbers and “increase the quality while decreasing the output.” That included the addition of a rule where Pentametron wouldn’t repeat a rhyme for at least three couplets. He’s made little experiements too, such as, on Christmas, omitting certain letters, like the letter “e.” That slowed things right down, he said. But in general he doesn’t like to meddle too much: “I’m reluctant to give it guidance because it pretty much reflects what is said on Twitter.” What’s next? Bhatnagar, who isn’t signed to an art dealer, is working on different art projects around sound sculptures — one in Paris and another in Basel later this year — and he has had “vague” ideas about a book based on Pentametron. He’d like the book to be an extension of how Pentametron itself has worked: “The way Pentametron is artificially constructed, I thought it would be fun to mail it to one of the PDF mail-in places, where the process is as automated as possible.” But he also thinks that putting the couplets into a book format, and figuring out the best way of presenting it, and working through the legalities of doing this could end up being “more work than there was to create Pentametron in the first place.” He is also teaching Pentametron to recognise full quatrains soon, too, where the rhyming scheme is A-B-A-B. Perhaps after that he would try the full format. Some have derided the literary merits of Twitter. [tweet https://twitter.com/alaindebotton/status/290414307559219200 align=’center’] Whether or not you agree with de Botton (I definitely don’t), Pentametron serves as a reminder that there are still a lot of ways that Twitter might get used beyond simply as a rolling feed of short news clips with ads thrown in and lots of links – some of which you can consume on Twitter itself, and some of which you . Image: , , |
Never Lose Your Keys Again Thanks To StickNFind’s Bluetooth Stickers | Anthony Ha | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | Here’s a novel way to keep track of your wallet, your cat, or, yes, your keys. Jimmy Buchheim stopped by the the TechCrunch booth at the Consumer Electronics Show to demo StickNFind, a bluetooth sticker technology that you can use to track almost anything. Once you’ve attached the sticker to an object of your choice, you can track it down again using the StickNFind iOS and Android apps, which tell you whether you’re getting farther from or closer to the object in question — basically, it’s the tech version of that that hotter/colder game. In the video, you can watch me track down a sticker that the TechCrunch crew has hidden. It took the app a little while to refresh as I walked around, but I was eventually able to find the “keys.” (Full disclosure: They told me the sticker’s location ahead of time.) StickNFind uses Bluetooth technology, so it still works in situations — like CES — with limited cell phone reception. The company said it has a range of about 100 feet. Other features include a “virtual leash,” so you’re alerted when something moves a certain distance away. It plans to sell two stickers for $49.95 or four for $89.95. StickNFind is also in the final stretch of . It has already blown past the goal, raising $734,000 on a $70,000 target, but you can still support the campaign and pre-order the product. |
The Best And Worst Of CES 2013 | Jordan Crook | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | CES has come and gone, but the memory of this year’s show will live on forever. Not necessarily because the 15-20 TechCrunch staffers who attended will remember it — chances are the night-time debauchery has wiped away all recollection of the past week — but because this post exists. We met . We discovered a phone with an on the back, a giant spider walking vehicle, and that tells you when you’re eating too fast. We conducted . (Even one .) We met the Nyan Cat founder, and we even had time left over to film a . And, of course, we went on a in the iLounge accessories area. But most importantly, we realized just how much (for now, at least.) We had a blast, and we hoped you enjoyed as much as we enjoyed delivering it. |
MIT.edu Currently Down Following Investigation Into Swartz Tragedy | Gregory Ferenstein | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | Following calls and recent suicide of internet activist, Aaron Swartz, MIT’s website is currently down. President L. Rafael Reif today called for an investigation into the handling of the case brought against Swartz for his release of pay-walled academic papers from popular database, JSTOR. There is a possible connection to the hacktivist organization, Anonymous. An unverified Twitter account, AnonymousIRC, tweeted this curious message: [tweet https://twitter.com/AnonymousIRC/status/290620236183519232 align=’center’] Anonymous, however, has a history of taking credit from their main verified Twitter accounts, so their involvement is still speculative. |
Cars Are The Next Playground For App Developers | Frederic Lardinois | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | This year’s CES may have been about startups more than ever before, but over the last few years, the car industry has also increased its presence at the show. In previous years, we heard a lot about the connected car, but until now, those cars remained virtually closed to developers. In one fell swoop, that changed this year, as and announced concrete programs with and that are either already open for developers or will be available within the next few months. The approach the two companies are taking is very different: Ford is betting on drivers bringing their own smartphones into the car and having apps run on the phone, while GM is actually setting up a framework for running apps right in the car’s built-in infotainment system. Both of those systems have their merits: Ford’s AppLink system is easy to integrate into existing apps and drivers don’t have to pay for yet another data plan. GM’s framework, on the other hand, is more deeply integrated with the car and doesn’t necessitate a smartphone. For the car industry, betting on the developer community makes a lot of sense. Because of the long lead times between designing cars and launching them, it’s virtually impossible for the manufacturers to keep up with the fast pace that we’re used to in the world of mobile development. That’s where Ford’s system may also be an advantage. We tend to get new smartphones much more often than we buy new cars, after all, and while those will only get more powerful, a system that directly tied to the car – like GMs – will look massively underpowered in four years and the average car is now on the road is now . If the early success of these programs is any indication, developers are clearly excited about these new opportunities. Ford tells us that more than 1,000 developers have already signed up for access to its SDK since it was announced earlier this week and that it is seeing high and sustained traffic to its developer site. What will be interesting to see now is what apps developers come up with in this new environment. While these programs were still in their private closed betas, the focus was mostly on offering radio alternatives through services like Pandora, Rhapsody and iHeartRadio. There are also some apps available already that automatically read newspaper and magazine articles to you. Other obvious choices are location-based and location-sharing apps like and turn-by-turn navigation apps like . But the most exciting applications, of course, will be the ones that neither the car industry nor us pundits have thought about yet. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsGv3IL-xV8] |
MIT’s President Orders Internal Investigation Into Its Handling Of Aaron Swartz’s Case | Frederic Lardinois | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | After news about Internet activist on Friday started to spread across the Internet, many at least partly blamed for the 26-year-old hacktivist’s death. This included his own family, which openly criticized the way MIT handled Swartz’s case after the school detected his attempts to download millions of articles from JSTOR in 2011. MIT president L. Rafael Reif today announced that he has asked Professor Hal Abelson, “to lead a thorough analysis of MIT’s involvement from the time that we first perceived unusual activity on our network in fall 2010 up to the present.” Abelson is the Class of 1922 Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and an IEEE Fellow. He teaches, among other things, a course on the “ ” at MIT. He is also a founding director of Creative Commons and Public Knowledge, as well as the Free Software Foundation. In his letter, MIT president Reif notes that he wants Abelson’s report to summarize the options MIT had when it learned of the case and “the decisions MIT made, in order to understand and to learn from the actions MIT took.” Here is the full letter: To the members of the MIT community: Yesterday we received the shocking and terrible news that on Friday in New York, Aaron Swartz, a gifted young man well known and admired by many in the MIT community, took his own life. With this tragedy, his family and his friends suffered an inexpressible loss, and we offer our most profound condolences. Even for those of us who did not know Aaron, the trail of his brief life shines with his brilliant creativity and idealism. Although Aaron had no formal affiliation with MIT, I am writing to you now because he was beloved by many members of our community and because MIT played a role in the legal struggles that began for him in 2011. I want to express very clearly that I and all of us at MIT are extremely saddened by the death of this promising young man who touched the lives of so many. It pains me to think that MIT played any role in a series of events that have ended in tragedy. I will not attempt to summarize here the complex events of the past two years. Now is a time for everyone involved to reflect on their actions, and that includes all of us at MIT. I have asked Professor Hal Abelson to lead a thorough analysis of MIT’s involvement from the time that we first perceived unusual activity on our network in fall 2010 up to the present. I have asked that this analysis describe the options MIT had and the decisions MIT made, in order to understand and to learn from the actions MIT took. I will share the report with the MIT community when I receive it. I hope we will all reach out to those members of our community we know who may have been affected by Aaron’s death. As always, is available to provide expert counseling, but there is no substitute for personal understanding and support. With sorrow and deep sympathy, L. Rafael Reif , the service Swartz was accused of illegally downloading articles from, published its over the weekend. In it, JSTOR says that “the case is one that we ourselves had regretted being drawn into from the outset, since JSTOR’s mission is to foster widespread access to the world’s body of scholarly knowledge.” JSTOR also notes that “Aaron returned the data he had in his possession and JSTOR settled any civil claims we might have had against him in June 2011.” |
The Upcycling Filabot Turns Regular Plastic Scrap Into 3D Printer Filament | John Biggs | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | A fascinating project is making the rounds this weekend that could change the way we think of 3D printers. The is a robot that can turn scrap plastic into 3D printer filament, thereby allowing an almost endless supply of material for prototyping and manufacturing. While it’s probably not that exciting for non-hobbyists, the Filabot is essentially a way to make the raw materials used in products like out of stuff you’d throw away. The creator, Tyler McNaney, ran a Kickstarter campaign last year and he is slowly but surely bringing the devices to market this year. Obviously you’re going to run into problems with such a small system – the impurities in the plastic and bubbles being of primary concern – but at about $50 a spool, PVC isn’t cheap and if you’re printing quite a bit of prototype hardware there’s room for a bit of error. Kickstarter backers paid $350 for their Filabots and a “public” price isn’t yet set. While there are problems with any recycling technology, the Filabot is a fascinating study at the potential for in-home 3D printing. Imagine, for example, printing out repair parts or toys using stuff that you would normally recycle? It’s a wonderful example of technology finally digging us – imperceptibly slowly, I’ll grant you – out of the plastic waste problem. |
The Playsurface Brings A Lot More To The Touchscreen Table Than Just Touch [Video] | Darrell Etherington | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | The Playsurface, a spin-off project from Templeman Automation that aims to provide a low-cost alternative to interactive touch table devices like Microsoft’s PixelSense (formerly known as the surface), was at CES showing off their functioning units, which the company will be shipping out to 40 or so Kickstarter backers this month. The Playsurface made headlines when it back in May, reaching almost double its $40,000 funding goal. Playsurface’s goal, unlike a lot of the large-sized shared touchscreen surfaces we’ve seen, is to be as affordable, open, and hackable as possible, with the aim of being a legitimate option for use in education even in situations where budget might otherwise prohibit the use of such technologies. Templeman Automation teamed up with Tufts University to help boost its education mission, and target applications for schools and students more effectively. To help with that goal, they’re looking into just what kind of “smart tangible” accessories like the one that replicates an X-ray/microscope device seen in the video, would be most useful to K-12 educators. These accessories could be what turns the Playsurface from a great tech demo into a genuinely useful and widely used way for schools all around the world to replace not just computing devices, but a variety of expensive and hard-to-source teaching objects that might not otherwise be an option. Just under $3,000, the goal is to get it under $1,000 and TA believes that’s entirely possible, thanks to improvements in manufacturing efficiencies and materials. The Playsurface is available for general pre-order now, with shipments to retail customers ready to begin after the first devices roll out to the company’s Kickstarter supporters. |
Messenger For iPad, One More Thing Facebook Could Be Unveiling On Tuesday | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | Take a look at that “reach friends wherever they are now” image to the left. What’s missing between the iPhone and the laptop? Ding ding ding! You’re right! A tablet. Okay, I’m sure it was obvious. In fact, many of you may have already assumed that Facebook has a version of its Messenger for iPad. Well it doesn’t, and seeing as though it to launch Facebook for iPad, the lag comes as no surprise. This graphic might have to change next Tuesday, when Facebook is holding an event for press to While my colleagues are hearing that this “what [they’re] building” is a “big deal” – as in a or a – I’m hearing that one of the products that could be announced is Messenger for iPad. Specifically I’m hearing that Messenger for iPad, replete with all the Messenger features we’ve come to love like emoticons, photosharing, read receipts, location tagging, group messaging, and the new voice-recorded messaging feature, is ready for the public eye. And basically, it’s what exists on the iPad but in a bigger format. According to one source, the app is “totally” ready to launch on Tuesday, and if the event is indeed a series of mobile product announcements, it could “totally” fit in conceptually. Other points that back this up: We’ve heard that Messenger head Peter Deng was “cranking” a couple of days ago and Facebook partner Microsoft is exactly a month after whatever it is is being announced. A fully fleshed-out Messenger for iPad, eventually including video chat, VoIP, and voice messages, could be another Facebook attempt at killing your home phone. The combination of cheap VoIP with Facebook’s social graph and distribution network could be enough to get people to cut back on their home phone plans and save their mobile minutes/data. And “reaching friends wherever they are now” includes on the couch watching . With voice and video, Messenger for iPad could become the way you have Sunday afternoon conversations with family or distant friends. Other Facebook apps that need to be extended to the iPad include Instagram and Poke. It could be that Facebook is rebuilding its apps in preparation for a revamp of its core product on mobile and is starting with Messenger. In any case, Messenger for iPad is coming, so whether it’s Tuesday or not, get ready to be Messaging in a bigger format. Go iPad or go home. I’ve gotten word that a standalone is likely not happening, though a trial app was in the works when we reported on it. Basically Messenger was not seeing the growth Facebook hoped for (turns out people don’t want a messenger app PLUS a Facebook app) after Facebook’s primary app became less buggy and slow with Messages. So, nixed. |
Phablets Are The New Normal | Natasha Lomas | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | As trends go, it’s been hard to miss this one: Smartphones are getting bigger. Much bigger. has been championing huge phones for well over a year, introducing its original 5.3-inch whopper — the Galaxy Note — in 2011, and firing out a 5.5-inch successor last year, going on to ship in the first two months. More recently was awash with whoppers – from to (incidentally, screen size inflation also struck in the tablet space: witness this ). Even Apple hasn’t been able to stand firm against the ever-expanding waistlines of its rivals, adding half an inch to the ’s pane last year, pushing it up from 3.5 to 4 inches. But unlike many a flash-in-the-pan craze, the so-called phablet (phone-cum-tablet) phenomenon is, I would argue, here to stay — and I say this as a person with small hands who still uses a phone with a 3.5-inch screen because it’s the perfect size to fit into my palm. But this no longer feels normal, or, increasingly, entirely functional. The thing is, phones are getting bigger for a reason: what we use them for is changing. This is technology evolution in action. Put simply, smartphones are turning into tablets. Being a slate to eye and interact with content is increasingly what phones are used for. Consider the meaning of the word tablet: a ‘flat surface for an inscription’. For inscription, read data, and the phablet phenomenon makes a lot more sense. Our fingers are at the helm of pocket computers, not pocket telephones – doing more and more digital stuff, be it , social networking, browsing, gaming, messaging or streaming. (Meanwhile a quick glance at the PC market underlines that desktop dinosaurs as mobile computing ramps up.) The typical behaviour of a smartphone owner today involves a lot of eyeing and prodding at the screen, and a lot less holding the device blindly against an ear. But the swelling size of the smartphone is far more than an ergonomic consideration. Indeed, few people would argue larger phones with 5-plus- and even 6-plus-inch screens are generally easier to handle; they’re not – typically requiring both hands to get involved for tasks like typing. But any added awkwardness is outweighed by the benefits of having more glass to play with, which in turn increases the usefulness of the device in several ways, including: There is an upper limit for smartphone screen size. The mini tablet category starts at around 7 inches and that — along with physical hand-span size — puts something of a natural break on phone screen inflation. But there is still plenty of room for plenty of phones to gain a few inches. And while there is obviously a healthy market for bona fide tablets, too, smartphones have a mobile connectivity advantage over tablets since they have cellular network access as a given, versus the many tablets that are Wi-Fi-only (and buying a 4G/3G tablet means taking out a second mobile contract which not everyone will be keen to do). So that’s another reason why smartphones are being used as tablets: They are both in our pockets almost certainly online. The reason phones are bulking up in the screen department comes down to our addiction to consuming data, coupled with the ever-increasing richness of data services. Higher-speed mobile networks — built to ferry data from the get-go — are also making it possible to do more on the go. Streaming video content and socially-gaming on the fly is only going to get slicker and more commonplace as networks get more capable and capacious (carriers willing). And as services get smarter they’re also taking up more of our time – so we’re spending more time gazing lovingly into screens, rather than talking to people on the phone. In any case, talking feels very 1.0 by comparison in this age of chronic multitasking. In many instances there is no need to talk verbally in real-time when you can message someone in a bewildering variety of sophisticated ways (as Alexia pointed out way back in 2010, ). Data is not a simple conduit like voice. It delivers a whole network of services in its own right, which can be sliced and diced further as we tap in and out of our own personal pick and mix of apps and services. Another factor to consider when thinking about smartphone screen-size is that app design increasingly appears to be favouring gestures rather than buttons – as this post on design trends astutely observes. Gestures are great but a by-product of having your fingers on the screen is that your digits obscure some of the content. So the more screen there is to swipe and prod, the richer your gesture-based interaction can comfortably be. Slap a second, e-ink screen on the back of a smartphone — as — and our mobile pocket rockets can even become our e-readers. Device convergence makes sense when convenience is the driver. Sure, if you look far enough into the future of mobile devices the recognisable slab phone form probably disappears entirely – or rather morphs into something that we wear, whether it’s , or even a pair of . But until then we have to make do with slabs – and the bigger the slab, the more data we can comfortably cram in and mash up in richer and more interesting ways. Who knows, , flexible screens might even make phablets (comfortably) pocketable in the not too distant future. Beyond pocketable slabs, the future of smartphones looks likely to be becoming a layer sitting atop our lives, rather than being a box we break away to poke and stroke — existing most obviously as digital data augmenting and overlaying the real-world physical stuff we interact with on a day to day basis. And the biggest, most high-definition screen in the world is the one we see through our eyes, the one that’s all around us. Compared to that canvas, today’s phablets really are laughably tiny. So here’s to a future of expanding horizons. But before smartphones can disappear entirely, expect them to get bigger and harder to ignore. So is that a phablet in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me? |
CrunchWeek: Those Pesky Cheap iPhone Rumors, Facebook’s Mystery Announcement, Startups Win CES | Colleen Taylor | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | This past week the TechCrunch TV crew was in Las Vegas for the , so this is a special Sin City version of CrunchWeek. Our usual host sat out CES this year to help down the fort back in San Francisco, so , , and I took to the TechCrunch stage at CES to discuss the latest rumor of an , the to a big press event this upcoming week, and how startups rose above those to really at this year’s CES. |
Non-Profit Innovation: How Minerva Plans To Make Its Affordable, Next-Gen University A Reality | Rip Empson | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | burst onto the scene last year with an ambitious goal: To create the next elite American university, online, and, in so doing, help rethink the role of higher education in the Digital Era. Not only that, but the startup wants to establish rigorous, Ivy League-caliber standards, admitting only the best and the brightest, with a faculty to match, while offering tuition that’s “substantially less than half” the price of today’s elite universities, according to founder Ben Nelson. Given the current landscape, in which states are under pressure to cut spending, tuition costs and student debt are skyrocketing, class sizes are increasing, infrastructure is archaic and outcomes are suffering, it couldn’t come at a better time, yes, but it’s also an extremely tall order. Furthermore, while the company by the time classes begin in 2015, it hasn’t offered much in the way of it plans to make them a reality. In fact, for all intents and purposes, Minerva has remained largely silent since its debut in April of last year. But today, the company finally offered a first look into how it intends to attract and retain top-tier professors and students while keeping tuition affordable. This morning the startup announced the creation and launch of The Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship, a non-profit organization that will help attract and direct financial support for its academic programs and for faculty research. The Minerva founder says that the Institute is part of the company’s effort, in part, to re-shape the traditional university business model to make it more effective and efficient. Particularly, it aims to to this by providing additional means of recruiting talented professors, offering the funding that will both support their jobs in a challenging economy and allow them to pursue their own studies and research in their field of interest. that the other impetus for the creation of the Institute was to safeguard the R&D side of its university, providing a check that will make sure the for-profit university doesn’t end up profiting excessively from funding that should be put towards innovation and development. In principle, it sounds a lot like the , a nonprofit organization that helps transform University of Wisconsin research into products that benefit society. The separate, but affiliated foundation supports scientific and technological research by patenting and licensing inventions that come out of university discoveries, generating revenue which it then funnels back to the university. And it’s more than peanuts. To date, the organization has contributed more than $1 billion to the university through annual “margins of excellence” grants and other modes of funding. It’s a smart move, and one inspired by successful non-profit university R&D and investment vehicles, like WARF. In fact, the move has attracted another big-name to Minerva, as Bob Kerrey, former U.S. Senator and Governor of Nebraska, joins as the Executive Chairman of the Minerva Institute. Needless to say, this seems like a big victory for Minerva, as Kerrey’s political and governmental relationships will no doubt be of great value to an organization whose sole purpose is to build the financial resources that can sustain an elite faculty and cutting-edge research. Kerrey also has plenty of experience in higher education, being the President Emeritus of The New School, where he served as president from 2001 to 2010. The former senator also joins former Harvard President and Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, on the startup’s advisory board, and follows Minerva’s quiet addition of senior execs from Yahoo and Grockit to its (for-profit) leadership team. Cheerleading it may be, but add the $25 million in seed funding Minerva raised from Benchmark last year (notably, in Benchmark’s largest seed investment to date), and one can understand why the new Executive Chairman is jazzed: “I believe the Minerva Project is the single most important innovation in higher education in my lifetime,” he said. I, for one, am not as willing to get giddy with superlatives. Really, The Minerva Project was born out of the ongoing struggle to prove that online programs and institutions can provide a legitimate alternative to the traditional, purely-on-campus model — at a high level. But it’s far from being the first in this regard. that online education has traditionally been of lesser quality, comparatively, because it isn’t striving to be great, defined instead comprised of a million crappy micro-correspondence courses and make-shift MOOCs. As one of the most-funded education startups out there, 2U has been partnering with graduate schools at elite universities to build legitimate online programs that allow institutions to offer the same rigorous standards for academics and admissions online as they do offline. Capitalizing on the progress the 2Us of the world have been able to generate in higher education, Minerva — to its credit — is taking it one step further. Besides being built from square one around online resources and only going after the best and the brightest, Minerva is also looking to differentiate its model by eschewing federal aid. Nelson says that, in reality, financial aid only leads to higher tuition rates and restricts how universities construct their admissions policies. So, in order to live up to its goal of accepting any student that lives up to its academic standards and its focus on building an international student body, Minerva will instead fight for favorable loan rates and create its own scholarship programs, which will allow it to avoid federal assistance. Through its new Institute, Minerva also hopes to be able to attract top-notch faculty by offering incentives that are different from traditional universities. Because the university is online, professors can presumably work from any location, and if it’s able to secure funding, the opportunity for professors to lead teams of bright young students in R&D projects. Nelson also says that the Institute plans to let professors and students retain the rights to the intellectual property developed while at Minerva. However, it’s not yet clear how exactly it will approach tenure. In the end, there’s a lot of friction working against Minerva in terms of attracting and retaining great talent, but the startup university has already begun to put some important pieces in place which could make its virtual campus an attractive alternative for the alternative-minded. There’s still a long way to go, and even if Minerva doesn’t fulfill its goal of becoming the next elite American university, the work it’s doing now could very well lead to a solution that will allow the liberal arts education to survive in an increasingly Digital World — without bankrupting those future generations of students. |
Polycom And AT&T Partner For Video Chat And Collaboration On Multiple Screens | Ryan Lawler | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | Video conferencing is fast becoming a popular tool for communications among a growing number of businesses. But few want to invest the money in deploying the hardware necessary to make enterprise-class video conferencing and collaboration. That’s why Polycom is teaming up with AT&T to roll out a new managed offering to its business customers. Today, AT&T and Polycom are announcing a strategic partnership that will combine Polycom’s RealPresence conferencing and collaboration platform with AT&T’s network to enable businesses to use video for communicating with employees, partners, and customers in real time. Polycom RealPresence is available either on-premises or in the cloud, giving customers a choice as to how they want to enable video conferencing between participants. Not only does the platform work with Polycom equipment, but the company has worked hard over the past few years to make it interoperable with existing teleconference equipment from partners and competitors alike. It also supports multiple desktop and mobile platforms, enabling users to log in and video chat from outside a Polycom telepresence room. That includes connecting via Macs or PCs, as well as a growing number of mobile devices, such as iPads and iPhones. As part of the deal, AT&T will add the Polycom RealPresence platform to its telepresence offering, which will provide virtual meeting room capabilities and video collaboration features with a low overall cost of ownership. Since AT&T customers likely won’t be buying hardware of their own, but leveraging managed services and bundles that include AT&T-based telepresence rooms and personal systems, these telepresence services will provide cost-effective ways to leverage video chat services. Those services will be available in 40 countries for a monthly fee, reducing the upfront cost of introducing enterprise-class video conferencing. It also reduces the amount of tech resources they need to deploy in their own organizations, since the offering is completely managed by AT&T technicians. In addition to the partnership bringing managed video chat services to AT&T customers, the deal also means that Polycom will leverage the telco for its VPN services. While its customers will likely be able to specify their own VPN provider if necessary, AT&T will become the preferred VPN source for Polycom video and data communications for more than 80 different locations around the world. |
Baidu-Kingsoft Alliance Rumors Gain Further Credence As Qihoo 360 CEO Fumes | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | Reports that Baidu, the Internet giant known as “the Google of China,” is planning to become a strategic investor in security software company Kingsoft gained traction today when Kingsoft that it is in discussions with “independent third parties relating to a possible disposal,” though it gave very little away in the rest of the release: “If materialised, the possible disposal may or may not constitute a notifiable transaction for the Company. The Company will make further announcement as and when required in accordance with the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.” The rumors were further stoked when Zhou Hongyi, CEO of Baidu and Kingsoft rival Qihoo 360, criticized the potential deal in an (link via Google Translate). Zhou said an alliance of his two competitors was “a big joke” that would form a monopoly, adding that he hopes Baidu will compete with Qihoo “head-on and fairly.” Investors also believe that a deal is imminent, as Qihoo 360’s took a dip on the reports and is still clawing its way back up. If the Baidu-Kingsoft partnership does indeed go through, it won’t be the first move Baidu has made against Qihoo 360 in security software. In October, Baidu launched its new Baidu PC Faster suite, which is targeted at the fast-growing Southeast Asian market. As , launching first in Southeast Asia serves as a preemptive strike against Qihoo 360’s potential plans for international expansion in that region. Qihoo 360 has not been sitting idly, however. The company is rumored to be inking its own deal with Google China, which will start soon according to a . Baidu had no comment. |
Moontoast Raises $5M For Premium Social Ads | Anthony Ha | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | Social advertising startup just announced that it has raised $5 million in Series B funding. CEO Blair Heavey told me that the company currently works with about 50 clients. It’s not an enormous list, but one that includes names like Universal, Lexus, Nike, Hyundai, Lady Antebellum, Time, and Simon & Schuster. Advertisers use Moontoast to create custom, interactive ads for social media — the ad types include a “social store,” surveys, sweepstakes, and a unit to offer free MP3s in exchange for email addresses. Co-founder and CTO Marcus Whitney told me that the ads usually incorporate some form of rich media, but they aren’t just traditional ads repackaged for Facebook or Twitter. “In the social advertising world, the actual creative is conversational,” Whitney said. “It’s much more marketing than standard, old world advertising. Our units are meant to really bring the conversation to life.” The round was led by The Martin Companies and brings Moontoast’s total funding to around $14 million. Heavey said the funding should allow the startup to reach profitability. In addition to announcing its Series B, Moontoast is also updating its platform today with what Whitney said is a new version of its analytics service incorporating data from the Facebook Ads API. He said the company plans to continue improving the analytics side of the platform throughout the year. Moontoast was founded in Nashville, and even though , Whitney said you can still see the Nashville influence in some ways — for example, in the fact that many of its initial clients were musicians. |
Wi-Fi And Cellular Versions Of The iPad Mini And 4th-Gen iPad Will Hit China This Week | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | Apple that the Wi-Fi and cellular versions of the iPad mini and the fourth-generation iPad with Retina display will be available in China this Friday. iPad mini and the fourth-gen iPad are currently available in more than 100 countries, including China, the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. The launch makes good on Tim Cook’s statement in a (link via Google Translate) that the cellular model of the iPad mini would be available in China by late January. The Cupertino-based company’s last rollout in that country was just one month ago, when the iPad mini and fourth-gen iPad arrived on December 7, and the iPhone 5 on December 14. Reports surfaced that of buyers at Apple stores for the iPad mini was low immediately after its debut in China, but that could have been because of the reservation system set up by the company after a by customers who had waited overnight in front of the Beijing Apple store for the iPhone 4S. Apple’s China product launches have become increasingly important as it looks toward that country becoming its most important market in the “not too distant future,” as Cook during his visit to the country last week. Though Chinese consumers had to wait two months for a Wi-Fi and cellular iPad mini or fourth-gen iPad, Cook has focused on speeding up the rollout of Apple products in China, a task that involves overcoming regulatory hurdles and hashing out a deal with China Mobile, the country’s largest carrier. |
Y Combinator-Backed InstallMonetizer Is A Selective Ad Network For Desktop Software | Anthony Ha | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | is an ad network for desktop software developers, a group that co-founder and CEO Vince Mundy says he once belonged to himself. “We looked really really hard to find legitimate sources of income [from free downloads],” Mundy said. “We found that there were other developers facing the exact same problem, so we created InstallMonetizer.” If a publisher is part of the company’s network, an offer from a related advertiser will appear after a consumer installs the software, and the publisher gets paid for each install. Large desktop software companies can already make money this way, but smaller publishers might not reach a large enough audience, so by bringing a bunch of publishers together, Mundy said InstallMonetizer can “help high-quality software developers monetize the same way larger companies do.” It’s a well-estalbished model in the world of smartphone apps, but there are similar desktop networks, too, such as and . One of the main things that sets InstallMonetizer apart, Mundy said, is the fact that the company provides non-personally identifiable data, allowing advertisers to target specific groups of users and to see whether the ads are not just driving downloads but actual usage, too. The company also claims to be extremely picky about the publishers that it works with, checking domain ownership and anti-virus history, then ultimately rejecting 95 percent of applicants. InstallMonetizer actually launched two years ago, and it was part of the winter 2012 class at Y Combinator, but it hasn’t sought out any attention from the tech press until now — something that Mundy attributed to just being really busy. The company says that it now works with more than 9,000 publishers. It’s profitable, and the number of installations that it’s driving doubles every two or three months. It has also attracted high-profile investors, raising $500,000 from Andreessen Horowitz, Digital Garage, Fenox Venture Capital, SV Angel, and Transmedia Capital. |
Canadian Internet Provider Rogers Buys Mountain Cablevision, Wireless Spectrum Licenses From Shaw | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s largest wireless and Internet provider, said it will buy Mountain Cablevision and some wireless spectrum licenses from Shaw Communication for about $710 million USD ($700 million in Canadian dollars), . Shaw will buy the 33.3 percent stake in the TVtropolis General Partnership it does not already own for $59 million Canadian dollars. TVtropolis, a TV channel, is currently jointly owned by Rogers and Shaw. Rogers said that the acquisition allows it to upgrade networks and uphold its share of the wireless market in Western Canada as data usage “explodes.” In a , president and CEO of Rogers Communication Nadir Mohamed said: “We’re investing in spectrum to ensure our customers continue to enjoy the incredibly fast speeds and throughput they crave, while ensuring our continued network leadership. We’re also strengthening our Cable portfolio by acquiring a valuable cable business which complements our existing Ontario cable system allowing us to deliver even more value for our customers and shareholders.” Rogers system upgrades and strategic initiatives may help it avoid snafus like September’s on both its cellular and cable home Internet data networks, which the company attributed to “wireline interruptions.” |
null | Matt Burns | 2,013 | 1 | 13 | null |
Backed By New Partnerships With Humana, Aetna & Verizon, Blueprint Health Debuts Its Third Class Of Healthcare Disruptors | Rip Empson | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it one bajillion times. If you’re going to start a business accelerator, don’t clone Y Combinator or TechStars. Find a niche. With the glut of new accelerators today, the most successful are building vertical-specific approaches that bring together seed capital with meaningful industry partnerships to create real business (and learning) opportunities for their startups. Lately, digital health has been leading the way in this regard, as Rock Health, Healthbox, New York Digital Health Accelerator, DreamIt Health and Startup Health are all beginning to blossom. One of the veterans (a relative term) of this space is the NYC-based , an accelerator that got its start in 2011 and . Today, the accelerator is announcing its third batch of startups as part of its Winter Program, which kicks off on Monday. For those unfamiliar, Blueprint, like Rock Health and its brethren, is focused on helping early-stage health startups build their businesses by giving them access to customers, capital and business development opportunities through industry partners. A charter member of the Global Accelerator Network (started by TechStars), Blueprint has created one of the largest healthcare-specific mentor communities out there, which now counts over 150 health entrepreneurs, investors and executives among its ranks. When the accelerator opened for applications in 2011, it already listed a large group of , which included those who founded or helped lead companies like Eliza, Everyday Health, Keas, Livestrong, Medivo, ShapeUp, ZocDoc and New York Presbyterian Hospital, along with representatives from Union Square Ventures, Aetna, Verizon, CVS, Teladoc, Cerner and Premera. Since then, the accelerator has continued beefing up its roster, and recently added 10 additional mentors to its program, including: What’s more, Blueprint has also been looking to bring further resources to the table that will help its startups accelerate their growth, get insight into the inner workings of the industry and validate business models with potential customers. To do so, the company has struck partnerships with Verizon, Humana and Aetna in recent months, each of which offer access to key decision-makers within these organization and hope to lay the groundwork for potential revenue-generating relationships down the road. Blueprint Health has helped launch 18 digital health startups, and today it’s adding 11 more to its portfolio. Over 80 percent of its first two batches have gone on to raise additional capital, at an average of $400K per startup. On January 1st, the accelerator also launched Blueprint Co-Work — a healthtech-specific co-working space — that is currently home to 25 health startups, which are now plugging away in its 12,000 square-foot loft in SoHo. But without further ado, here’s a peek at the 11 companies that are part of the accelerator’s most recent batch: (Philadelphia, PA) — Led by Puneet Maheshwari & Archana Gupta, DocASAP has taken a unique approach of forming ecosystem alliances to solve the problem of long wait times for seeing a doctor. DocASAP partners with health insurers and hospitals to manage their provider directories for free and charges doctors a monthly fee to offer online booking via their partner web sites. Puneet is a Wharton and McKinsey alum with over 15 years of experience working in technology startups. Archana is an engineer with extensive experience building enterprise applications. (New York, NY) — Led by Greg Chang, Sameer Tanakia, Kris Brower, Mike Gagnon, and Chad Mather, MD, forMD manages physician networks for associations and societies and allows users to exchange with peers and subject matter experts. forMD already manages networks that include 20 percent of all orthopedic surgeons in the United States. (San Francisco, CA) — Led by Wendy Nguyen, Jonathan Hironaga, and Dan Myers, HealthyOut helps consumers discover and order healthy restaurant dishes matched to their personal health and taste preferences. HealthyOut aggregates food items from menus and online ordering sites, and provides consumers with an easy to use interface to enter dietary requirements (e.g. Weight Watchers points, Paleo diet, low sodium), find appropriate dishes, and easily purchase items for delivery or take out. HealthyOut is currently a Top 10 Food & Drink app in iTunes. (Charlotte, NC) — Led by Matthew Johnson and Flaviu Simihaian, iMedicare provides pharmacies and insurance brokers with a platform to quickly analyze the cost of Medicare and Medicare Part D plans for their customers. This platform saves the pharmacies and brokers time and allows them to differentiate their ability to help their customers. iMedicare is generating revenue. (Sarasota, FL) — Led by Seth Freedman and Dave Mullinix, Intelligent M provides data driven hand hygiene related infection control solutions for hospitals that dramatically reduce Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAI’s). HAI’s cost the US Healthcare System $30B annually and over 10 percent of the average hospital’s operating budget is related to infection control. Intelligent M’s patent-pending solutions include on-the-spot notification for missed hygiene opportunities, as well as detailed compliance reporting at the individual healthcare worker level. Seth is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in manufacturing and technology that includes a successful track record of growing companies in the consumer goods and GPS channels. Dave is an electrical engineer technologist and a patent holder with 30 years experience creating market leading B2B products from start-ups to multi-billion dollar enterprises. (Chapel Hill, NC) — Led by Oakkar Oakkar, Jason Skowronski, Jimmy Kaanapu, and Stephen Dean, Keona Health provides an online triage system that reduces the amount of staff resources that need to be dedicated to triage and allows providers to focus staff on billable services. The company has five paying clients and SBIR funding. Oakkar worked as an analyst with the Hawaii State DoE on case management systems and enterprise integrations. Jason was an Amazon.com developer responsible for analytic quality inspection systems, shipping, and global fulfillment and was formerly at Microsoft and IBM Research. Jimmy was an award-winning programmer and architect at Prudential. Stephen was a lead engineer behind IT integrations at HP. (Washington, D.C.) — Led by Shally Madan, Sidd Sinha, and Jessica Hsu, LuminateHealth provides a platform for labs and healthcare providers to easily and cost-effectively enable patients to access, manage, and understand their lab data. Shally is a former Googler and spent several years developing and leading commercial development strategy at Genentech, where she won the firm’s prestigious Innovator Award. Sidd was formerly a consultant at Bain & Company, has several years of product development experience, and was previously co-founder and VP of Product Development at Husk Insulation, a cleantech startup. Jessica is an engineer with several patents and a dozen published technical papers on efficient algorithms she has developed. She also previously co-founded two companies: Clairvoyant Technologies and Biogreen Energies. (Boston, MA) — Led by Liz Keyser and Chris Betti, MynewMD provides condition-specific market research to hospitals via its crowd-sourced consumer survey methodology. Liz is a master’s graduate from Emerson College and Tufts University School of Medicine. She is an expert in health communication and consumer psychology. Chris is a developer and database architect who was formerly at Endeca and TripAdvisor.com where he focused on eCommerce, enterprise search, and analytical database development. (San Francisco, CA) — Led by Adam John, Paul Schultz, and Nick Damiano, Nurep has developed a mobile telepresence application that allows medical device manufacturers to offer guaranteed product support in and out of the operating room. Physicians can access the latest product information and instantly connect with the best available representative with a single click. Nurep tracks and optimizes the sales and support team effectiveness and reduces healthcare costs by minimizing unnecessary overheads. Adam has 12 years of international sales and marketing experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. Paul worked for Campbell Alliance where he earned the first Pacific Northwest leadership award for work done in the field of commercial effectiveness for biotech and medical device companies. Nick worked as an engineer for several medical device companies, developing a novel motion-tracking algorithm for the world’s first functional lead-less cardiac pacing system. (New York, NY) — Led by Nir Altman and Dr. Gabe Vorobiof, PadInMotion helps hospitals improve patient satisfaction and reduce readmissions by providing customized medical and entertainment content to patients via tablet technology. Nir was a manager in the Strategy & Operations practice of Deloitte Consulting and is a former executive at American Express and TheLadders.com. Gabe is a Board Certified Cardiologist and Director of Adult Non-Invasive Cardiology at UCLA. Gabe was an Assistant Professor at Yale University School of Medicine and trained at Columbia University, University of Rochester, and Harvard University. (London) — Led by Jean Nehme, Advait Gandhe, Andre Chow, and Sanjay Purkayastha, Touch Surgery is a mobile education platform changing the way surgeons learn through novel technology: cognitive task simulation. The medical device industry uses the platform for brand awareness, cost-effective education, safe introduction of devices, identification of advocates and qualification of individuals for high-cost interactions through analytics. Four surgeons determined to improve medical education developed Touch Surgery. Since launching in 2012, Touch Surgery has been downloaded over 40,000 times with interest from academic institutions globally. Jean is a plastic surgeon and achieved honors in a Surgical Simulation MSc. Advait is an orthopedics surgeon, iOS coder and expert in 3D imaging. Andre is a general surgeon, developer, and recently completed a PhD in stem cell research. Sanjay is an academic surgeon specializing in obesity surgery and consulting on . |
Financial Planning App SigFig Crosses $50 Billion In Assets Managed Through The Platform | Colleen Taylor | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | , the startup that tracks your financial assets and provides detailed visualizations of your investments and recommendations on how to manage them, is now officially playing in the big leagues. SigFig tells TechCrunch that it just crossed $50 billion in assets on the site’s platform. For comparison, that’s in the ballpark of decades-old financial planning stalwarts such as , which $68 billion in assets under management. Not bad for a startup with around 40 staffers that officially launched its app to the public . SigFig’s growth has almost certainly been bolstered by the fact that it has inked some big-name partnerships in its relatively short lifetime. The company’s technology already powers portfolio trackers for the and , and just recently signed a deal to power brand new portfolio tracker apps for CNN. It also bears mention that SigFig is not as new of an entity as it seems on the surface. The company was formerly best known for building , the financial Q&A site that also provided portfolio tracker tools — in December 2011, the company had under management thanks to Wikinvest users. But I’m told the majority of growth in terms of assets under management has happened over the past nine months with SigFig as the main driver. SigFig is certainly not the only startup looking to lead the trend of bringing the financial planning industry into the digital realm — and are just two prominent players also in the space, although it bears mention that they are not all completely direct competitors. Just as there has historically been room for a plethora of traditional financial planning and advisory firms to prosper ( ), we may see a variety of web-based companies to establish themselves as the new generation of money management experts. : SigFig has reached out to clarify that $50 billion in users’ assets have been plugged into its platform and managed through it. The term “assets under management” is typically used by licensed broker/dealers, which SigFig is not. SigFig users keep at their respective brokerages and sync their accounts with SigFig; SigFig does not actually control money and invest it on its users’ behalf. This story and headline have been updated to clarify that. Watch the video embedded below for a closer look at what exactly SigFig is; this interview is from May 2012, when co-founders and stopped by TechCrunch TV to demo their app and talk about their aim to disrupt traditional investment consulting.
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Ask A VC: Venrock’s David Pakman And Kleiner Perkins’ Ted Schlein Answer Your Questions | Leena Rao | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | After a break for the holidays and CES, Ask A VC is back with two all-star investors, Venrock’s and Kleiner Perkins’ investment partner . Remember, Ask A VC allows you to ask the hard questions and put VCs in the hot seat Pakman is visiting us from New York, where he’s been a partner at Venrock since 2008, focusing on investing in early-stage Internet and digital music companies. At Venrock, Pakman has led investments in Klout, Dollar Shave Club, Smartling and others. Prior to his career in venture capital, Pakman was the CEO of music retailer eMusic and co-founded myPlay, which was sold to Bertelsmann’s e-commerce Group. Before Myplay, he was vice president at N2K Entertainment, which created the first digital music download service. He also was the co-creator of Apple Computer’s Music Group. It should be interesting to see what Pakman’s views are on the New York investment scene and where the next disruption in the music industry will take place. You ask questions in the comments or and we’ll ask them of our VC guests. Schlein, who joined Kleiner in 1996, is one of the most experienced investors in the venture world, and makes investments for the firm in early-stage technology companies in the enterprise software and infrastructure markets. He’s led investments in Jive Software, ArcSight, Internet Security Systems (ISSX), Oakley Networks, and many others. He also serves on the board of directors of 3VR, 41st Parameter, Alien Vault, Chegg, Hara, Inspirato, IronPlanet, Jive, Mandiant, Nebula, Reputation.com, Shape Security, and Verdiem. And Schlein oversees KPCB’s investments in Endgame Systems, LifeLock and Bit9. Schlein was also an early employee at Symantec and was the former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Want to know Pakman’s views on Spotify’s future or who Schlein thinks will be the break-out enterprise company of 2013? Please send us your or put them in comments below today or tomorrow! |
Facebook Preps Radically Visual Redesign Of The Mobile News Feed | Josh Constine | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | Today, Facebook’s mobile apps look like its website shrunk down. Soon, that could change. I’ve seen first-hand the employee-only iOS app build of an evolved form of Facebook’s mobile news feed, which ditches the empty blue and white chrome for full-screen photo tiles and overlaid text. Reminiscent of Flipboard, Google+ for iPad, and Microsoft Metro, the fresh design could make Facebook’s feed exciting again. I have no information on when this could be released. It could be announced at , take a few more months, or get scrapped altogether. I don’t know if it could come as a standalone app, an option in the main apps, or be mandatory. But it exists, and I’ve seen it, though I wasn’t authorized to. Regardless of the exact release date, it’s about time for an aesthetic shake-up of Facebook’s main mobile apps. Facebook for iOS and Android moved from a grid of icons for navigation to in October 2011. Much of the rest of the app, and the news feed in particular, has looked almost exactly the same for three-and-a-half years. In that time, the mobile space has gotten a lot more visual. Smartphone cameras and connections have improved. Visual-focused apps like Instagram that minimize chrome in exchange for showing content as big as possible have grown popular. There’s also been an increased interest in design after Path 2.0 set a new standard for beauty in social networking. Facebook’s attention has been elsewhere. After an admitted misstep with poor-performance HTML5, Facebook concentrated its resources in 2011 to its iOS and Android apps. It also released several standalone apps including Camera and Poke. Meanwhile, the look of Facebook’s flagship app has languished. But behind closed doors and on the phones of employees, Facebook has been thinking outside the list-style vertical feed. This is not a rumor or a “sources say” situation. I’ve seen this app on a phone with my own two eyes. That’s not to say this is going to launch tomorrow (though it could), but Facebook has gone as far as to build a functioning app with this re-imagined design. Things could certainly change before it does launch in some form, but this will give you an idea of how Facebook is experimenting with a design language that’s much different than what it has used to date. The news feed of the evolved Facebook app I’ve seen creates separate feeds for a few different content types including news and photos. Users navigate between them by swiping sideways on a photo that serves as a header tile filling the top quarter or so of a portrait layout iPhone screen. Below the header is a larger body tile that takes up most of the rest of the screen. From what I saw, it shows one story at a time, with text and who posted it laid on top of a full-screen image. For example, instead of the screenshot above where most of the screen is taken up with white, blue, and gray chrome and empty space, the app looks like the mock-up below. I’m sorry to the app’s expert designers out there, but I’m no artist. This mockup is just my approximation from memory of the Facebook app I saw (and the icon up top is a mockup of what’s been on Facebook employee homescreens). The real app is much more polished. Still, notice the full-width image instead of a small thumbnail, with the text laid over the image. The sliding tiles remind me of (Windows 8), the focus on imagery evokes the , and the over style is similar to Flipboard. Print magazine covers could be an inspiration, where the text and images merge rather than being formally separated. After years of daily news feed reading, some power users may have started to consider it a chore to wade through their streams. The more visual interface could make Facebook feel much more dynamic from day to day. The existence of the new app, or at least a redesign of the mobile feed, backs up some chatter we’ve heard. When I spoke to , former CEO of Gowalla whose company was acquihired and now heads the Facebook Nearby product, he said there was a lot that Facebook could do in separate feeds for different content types. The app I saw at least has separate feeds for news and photos, and more for videos, music, etc. could be in there, too. A said the company will make big changes to the mobile experience and the news feed in 2013. This redesign would certainly constitute big changes. How Facebook would roll out its starkest change to its mobile interface yet is an important question. People tend to freak out when their ingrained Facebook browsing behavior patterns are changed, and some people have been set in their ways for several years now. Facebook might cause too much drama and risk losing users if people woke up one day to find this visual interface had replaced the classic feed. Instead, the redesign could be rolled out as an optional news feed interface selectable from the main Facebook app’s navigation menu. Alternatively, Facebook may use its strategy. In that case it would release this as a standalone “Feeds” app, and if it proved popular, it might then add it as an optional or mandatory new interface for its main app. Either way, Facebook is almost nine years old now, and it’s got too much public-market scrutiny to risk another “Students Against Facebook News Feed” protest by forcing such a radical change on everyone at once. In some form or another, though, there’s a new Facebook on the horizon. |
Social TV Startup Kwarter Raises $4 Million To Help Broadcasters And Brands Build Second-Screen Apps | Ryan Lawler | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | TV viewers increasingly are using their mobile phones while watching TV, mostly ignoring commercials while doing so. As a result, a number of startups are emerging to try to get viewers’ attention during those times, instead of letting them play games or do email during ad breaks. To meet this demand for interactive experiences between the phone and TV, social TV startup has raised $4 million from Deutsche Telekom venture arm T-Venture, as well as Kinetic Ventures, to help grow its platform and expand the number of partners it works with. There are no shortage of social TV apps out there: Startups like Zeebox and GetGlue and Viggle are trying to change the way that viewers communicate with each other while watching TV, or at least to tap in on changing user behavior that is already occurring thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices and tablets in the living room. To date, that’s mostly meant rolling out consumer-facing apps that use check-ins or built-in chat and messaging clients to lock users into discussing TV on their devices. But San Francisco-based Kwarter has a different approach to unlocking the second screen: Rather than try to build a B2C second-screen app on its own, it’s partnering with broadcasters and brands to enable to reach their viewers and customers more directly. That’s becoming ever-more important as those brands and broadcasters are seeing their main audience become distracted by email, Twitter, Angry Birds, and all the other things that users do on their mobile phones instead of watching commercials. It’s all about keeping viewers engaged, even if that means keeping them engaged on some sort of branded mobile app. Kwarter’s value prop is in providing a platform that partners can use to quickly roll up and integrate with their existing broadcasts or advertising campaigns. Initial rollouts have been focused on sports, with user polls and in-app games, as well as built-in messaging. Users can accrue points across different apps, and then can cash them in for real-world rewards. Partners include broadcasters like Turner Broadcasting, which leveraged Kwarter’s technology for its Social Dugout app, launched to coincide with the MLB playoffs last year. They also include brand marketers like Bud Light and InBev, which used Kwarter’s platform for its Bud Light Sports Fan app. As the official beer of the NFL, the Bud Light app launched to lure beer drinkers and football fans to take part in second-screen activities, but it will also be used during other sports that Bud Light sponsors. Kwarter’s new funding brings total money raised to $5 million, including $1 million in convertible notes. The company was founded in 2011 and has nine employees. It expects to more than double that, ending 2013 with more than 20, as it goes after promising new deals with other brands and broadcasters. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xILIU5r8y6I&w=560&h=315] |
Amazon Launches Instant Video For Nintendo Wii | Jordan Crook | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | If you own a Wii, you were probably a little bummed out to hear that Amazon would be serving up Instant Video to the Wii U and not to your older console. But fret no longer, as that its library of streaming video content is now available to Wii owners. Amazon’s Instant Video library is home to over 145,000 titles, and if you’re a Prime member you have automatic access to over 33,000 titles right off the bat. Other features you may have grown accustomed to on Amazon’s media streaming platform are also present, including Whispersync, which lets users pick up right where they left off on another device. Like, say, a Kindle Fire. Navigation is relatively simple, giving users categories like Recently Watched, Watchlist, Genre Recommendations and Your TV Shows. Users will also have access to Parental Controls and Kid Zone title lists to make sure kids aren’t wandering into treacherous territory. The service is available now to all Wii owners and can be found in the Wii Shop Channel. |
Microsoft Launches “Next App Star” Competition For Windows Phone Developers | Frederic Lardinois | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | You know a mobile app store is still young and needs more content when the company behind it still when interesting new apps appear in it. With 150,000 apps, the isn’t actually quite as empty as the Windows 8 store, but Microsoft could sure use some marquee apps for its mobile platform. To get developers and consumers a bit more excited about it, the company is launching its “ ” contest today. Registered Windows Phone developers can to participate in the competition by March 5th and the company will then announce the 64 finalists. Public voting will start in April and the top 64 will then slowly be whittled down to the grand prize winner. Microsoft says there “will be prizes along the way to encourage people to participate […] and ways for you to promote your app and gain new fans.” Overall, there will be “thousands of dollars in prizes for the developers of the 64 apps that get selected, including a Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone and a one-year free Dev Center subscription.” The grand prize winner will be featured prominently in Microsoft’s Windows Phone TV ads in the U.S., “bringing national exposure and a lot of buzz to one developer’s creation.” The contest is open for all developers, including students and hobbyists. While it would be easy to make fun of Microsoft by saying that Apple never had to run a contest like this for its platform, it’s worth noting that Google regularly ran in the early days of its mobile operating system, and and others continue to run similar Android-focused events. |
The Aaron Swartz Hacking Case Has Been Dismissed By The US District Court | John Biggs | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | The US District Court in Massachusetts has dismissed the case against Aaron Swartz. on January 11 after an investigation into his involvement in the theft of digital documents from , a journal archive. noted: Information on his memorial service . that this case is an example of draconian informations security laws gone horribly wrong: Please remember that there are sources of help if you’re troubled including , , and those close to you. [scribd id=120328201 key=key-uuxnbhebdalx654btm4 mode=scroll] |
Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago | Michael Arrington | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | [tweet https://twitter.com/nikcub/status/290714899036897280 align=’center’] points out that people were significantly by Aaron’s legal troubles just a few months ago. Apparently Swartz to make a direct plea for help: For in the 18 months of negotiations, that was what he was not willing to accept, and so that was the reason he was facing a million dollar trial in April — his wealth bled dry, yet unable to appeal openly to us for the financial help he needed to fund his defense, at least without risking the ire of a district court judge. That’s probably why the request for funds didn’t include much information. One thing I know from personal experience, judges hate it when parties talk publicly about their cases. There are a about our criminal legal system that need to be changed, and this is just one of them. Prosecutors know how to play the press. Most defendants don’t. But regardless, some people have done a complete 180 degree turn. “ ” for example commented on the first article (this comment was upvoted to the top spot): Now let me see if I got this right:
1. Brilliant programmer gets chance of a lifetime.
2. Turns that into lots of money early in life.
3. Decides to change the world in his own way.
4. Consciously & purposefully breaks the law.
5. Has a webpage to get others to pay his legal bills.
I’ve never met Aaron but I’ve always enjoyed his writing and looked forward to meeting him one day. But there is something seriously wrong about this.
Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills.
And if this is his idea of changing the world, perhaps he should reconsider his choices and find a better way of paying it forward to other brilliant programmers who never got the breaks he did. Compare to more recent comments: edw519 2 days ago | link | parent | on: Cory Doctorow: RIP, Aaron Swartz Thank you, Cory. This wonderful post will bring understanding (and maybe even comfort) to many of us who are sad and confused today.
It will also probably save some lives.
reply edw519 2 days ago | link | parent | on: Aaron Swartz commits suicide OH NO!
Stunned & heartbroken. |
Finally, There Is A Conference To Talk About Information Overload To Add To Your Already Overloaded Schedule | John Biggs | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | As someone who just wants to run away to the desert with a tent and a paperback book and live on a mesa somewhere, solving the problem of information overload is near to my heart. If you’re like me, then the non-profit Information Overload Research Group’s should be up your alley. The conference, to be held on February 9th at the . Full disclosure: they asked me to speak because I was in San Francisco for the Crunchies but I felt too overloaded. The participants are a group of academics, executives, and startups and the goal isn’t to sell product but to actually discuss the future of information overload, which is quite refreshing. “The purpose behind IORG (and this conference) is to bring together these various disciplines and spread their message so that more people can better understand and address the information challenges of today,” said Jared Goralnick of , one of the organizers. “Whether you’re building tools that help with managing information or looking to improve the situation at your own office, this is the one event to attend that brings together the researchers, the products, and those helping others with best practices.” The speakers include Victoria Bellotti from PARC, Robby Macdonell of , and Stephen Whittaker, a Professor of Psychologist at UC Santa Cruz. The first can get 15% off although I wouldn’t blame you if you couldn’t go. Who has the time with all the email? |
BOKU Co-Founder Ron Hirson Departs To Take On EIR Roles At Khosla Ventures And Mayfield Fund | Colleen Taylor | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | , the co-founder and president of mobile payments company , is stepping down from his full-time position at the company. Hirson is leaving to take on entrepreneur-in-residence roles at two separate venture capital firms, and , according to an today. Hirson played a part in building the original BOKU product and has been one of the company’s more alongside CEO . But in the meantime, Hirson has also been in advising other startups, such as personal investment app SigFig and password management service PasswordBox. This will also not be Hirson’s first turn as an EIR, or his first time working at Khosla: For several months back in the spring of 2009, he served as an entrepreneur in residence at the firm, according to Hirson’s . So in many ways this looks to be a natural move in accordance with Hirson’s interests. When reached by TechCrunch, Hirson offered the following statement on his plans for the future: “BOKU is an amazing organization, and poised for an incredible 2013. I’m excited to work on my next project alongside some of the best investors in Silicon Valley at Khosla and Mayfield.” Hirson is not walking away from BOKU entirely. He will continue to serve on the company’s board and steer its strategy in an advisor role, the company says. Additionally, BOKU says that it has beefed up its executive team in recent months with leaders who will fill in any gaps from Hirson’s departure: Jon Prideaux from Visa to run business development, Adam Lee from Intuit to run product, and Ray Ramillosa from Visa to run marketing. BOKU has raised a total of in venture capital funding from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, DAG Ventures, and others. |
NRA’s New First-Person Shooter For Ages 4+ Profits From Assault Weapons Upgrades | Gregory Ferenstein | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | The National Rifle Association must have a media mole inside its executive team directing the organization to conjure up the most incendiary policies imaginable. Today, the NRA for Apple’s iOS, suitable for children as young as 4 years old. Just in case that didn’t offend enough people, children can purchase military-grade assault weapons for the price of a pack of gum, if a simple pistol doesn’t satisfy their young trigger fingers. Apple rated the game suitable for children 4+ because the app is entirely devoted to non-human targets, like practice dummies and skeet disks. Additionally, offers a litany of insightful gun safety tips, such as this gem: “Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.” All of this may be perfectly defensible in the name of proliferating gun safety. Or, in the words of the official game description: “It strikes the right balance of gaming and safety education, allowing you to enjoy the most authentic experience possible.” But, why (why?!?!) would the NRA profiteer from the very assault weapons its attempting to protect by charging children money to purchase them? The meager amount of profit made from allowing children to purchase an AK-47 or MK-11 sniper rifle for $0.99 just can’t be worth the public condemnation. Aside from the very reasonable debate America should have about gun rights, this could quite possibly be the dumbest PR move I’ve ever seen from any organization. Dear commenters, go wild. |
RIM Launches BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 For Government & Corporate Clients | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | Research In Motion that BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10), a device management system, is now available for government agencies and corporate clients. BES 10 is a successor to RIM’s enterprise mobility management (EMM) and consolidates device management, security and mobile applications management for BlackBerry smartphones, Playbook tablets and BB 10 smartphones. It also provides a single console for managing BlackBerry, Android and iOS devices, and supports BlackBerry Balance technology, which separates work applications from personal content. Other features include: This video presents a walkthrough of BES 10’s features. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umeta3OhVe4] BB10 is scheduled to launch on January 30. |
Free, Open-Source Digital Textbook Provider, Boundless, Releases Its Content Under Creative Commons | Rip Empson | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | Since first emerging early last year, Boston-based startup has been on a mission to give students a free alternative to the financial and physical costs of bulky backpacks brimming with pricey hard-copy textbooks. Co-founders Ariel Diaz, Brian Balfour and Aaron White believe that the incumbents, the old-school textbook publishers (the top four of which still control the market) have been driving up the cost of educational content for years, so Boundless has been fighting the Powers That Be by offering a free, digital alternative culled from existing, open educational resources. Naturally, with their “open” approach to curating educational content, Boundless has been met with a number of lawsuits from top textbook publishers and is currently trying to resolve these differences in court. But, in the meantime, it’s pressing on and is today officially adding a familiar name — some legitimacy — to its open textbooks through Creative Commons. The startup has released 18 open textbooks that features content licensed by Creative Commons, under the very same license used by Wikipedia, in fact. The 18 textbooks cover college subjects that range from accounting and biology to sociology and economics, and with content now licensed under Creative Commons, Boundless is assuaging some of the concern that teachers might feel over using open textbooks — as compared to the more “trusted” (or controlled) content from the familiar names. Co-founder Ariel Diaz says that students at more than half of the colleges in the U.S. have used Boundless’ resources to date and, as a result of Creative Commons’ blessing, he expects this number to grow. on its website devoted to explaining how it uses open educational resources and describes best practices for users, but users of its free textbooks will find that, at the end of each chapter, sources are cited as a list of links where students can locate the original material. The chapter above, for example, references several articles in The Encyclopedia of Earth and, if a reader follows the links, they’ll see that the articles are “OER governed” by Creative Commons “BY-SA” licenses. It’s easy to see why open education resources and the startups taking advantage of them are frightening the [bleep] out of traditional textbook publishers. Boundless textbooks are completely free and don’t come with the expiration dates one finds on textbook rental platforms and doesn’t require students to deal with bookstore buybacks. Instead, Boundless continuously updates its content as theories change, additions are made, we discover intelligent life on Mars, etc., and, thanks to the magic of digital technology, it can seamlessly push these changes into its content without the high costs and without forcing students to buy another book. Plus, it makes all of its subjects easily navigable in the footer. To monetize, Boundless will likely turn this into a freemium model, adding optional preemium features on its own platform and in its textbooks, which will help students study more effectively (get smarter, etc etc.) and will be available for a cost. Diaz also says that the company will now offer additional features (as seen above), like flashcards, quizzes and study guides, for example, that will include Creative Commons-licensed material and will be available within its textbooks. In this way, Boundless wants to go beyond what the traditional textbook offers, pushing the space ahead, along with startups like Inkling and Kno. To take advantage of those, students will have to create a user account, however, access to its textbooks will remain free, Diaz says. If you want to know where to find out whether or not Boundless has your book, check out the list of its . The company will be updating as it continues to add more. You can check out a few examples of Boundless textbooks and . |
Ooyala Adds Twitter Integration, Signs Up ESPN As First Client To Embed Videos In Tweets | Ryan Lawler | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | Video distribution platform wants to make videos available wherever users may be. That means enabling its customers to distribute their content onto all sorts of mobile phones and tablets and connected TVs and crap like that. But it also means distributing video directly into platforms like Twitter. Since Twitter , enabling publishers to add additional media — like photos, and, uh, video, among other things — Ooyala has been working to integrate it with the company’s video platform. The idea is to let publishers quickly and easily add embedded videos to their tweets. According to Brian Theodore, group product manager at Ooyala, ESPN will be using the platform to post highlights and other short-form videos to its Twitter stream. Doing so will enable it to take advantage of the real-time nature of conversation that happens during live sports. Like, for instance, this video embedded into . Now that all the hard work is over, ESPN won’t be the only Ooyala client to take advantage. The company is offering an SDK to clients for free, so that they too can connect with the wonder that is Twitter. And that means that if you’ve ever wanted the power to watch an ESPN video directly within a tweet, you’ll now be able to do so — thanks to the power of Ooyala’s video platform. The Ooyala-Twitter integration not only lets publishers embed videos in Tweets that can be viewed on Twitter.com, as well as various apps and its mobile web site, but it also provides monetization and deep analytics. That includes ads that can also be embedded in Twitter streams, as well as the ability to drill down and see which devices and apps were used to access videos embedded in tweets. There’s also a content discovery piece, as Ooyala videos in Twitter can provide recommendations for other related content. For users, that means more places and ways to find and watch videos that might be of interest to them. And for Ooyala clients, it means bigger possible revenue streams as more video is consumed. |
UPDATED: Microsoft Korea Reportedly Shuts Down Its Seoul-Based R&D Unit | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | UPDATE: A Microsoft spokesperson said: The phrase R&D has been misinterpreted and Microsoft’s R&D is not moving from South Korea. Last month, after evaluations that the company regularly does, Microsoft made adjustments to its Office workforce in South Korea. With work completed in a particular product area, some roles have been redeployed to Office in their Redmond headquarters, consolidating with the Office team there. Some roles moved to other areas within Microsoft. Some employees chose to accept severance packages and leave the company. None of this, however, involved positions in R&D or Microsoft Research or China. Microsoft Korea will close its research and development unit by the end of next month, (h/t ). The company announced last year that its Asia-Pacific R&D Center will be , which represents Microsoft’s largest R&D investment outside of the U.S. The company plans to leverage the facility to develop China-based talent and research as a “core contributor” to its global portfolio of products and services.Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing now has more than 230 researchers, as well as more than 250 visiting scientists and students. , it “conducts basic research in natural user interfaces, next-generation multimedia, data-intensive computing, search and online advertising, and computer science fundamentals.” The center includes the , which was founded back in 2003. Ten Seoul-based R&D employees were asked to work at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, while 11 others have the option to transfer to another department in Seoul. |
FitStar Reinvents The Home Workout With Upcoming iPad App From NFL Tight End Tony Gonzalez | Kim-Mai Cutler | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | , that uses the iPad to transform home video workouts, just announced its first creation. In it, Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez becomes a user’s personal trainer, leading them through about 60 different video exercises. The idea is that the iPad is much better suited toward helping people achieve their fitness goals. Unlike DVDs and videos, which are passive, the iPad can respond to a person’s changes in their workout habits. It can send reminders or offer custom combinations of exercises to meet their goals. Arriving this spring, the new FitStar app tracks a person’s progress through about 60 exercises in a regime that Gonzalez helped design. If they get lazy and slack off for three weeks, the app will start a person at a slightly easier level than where they left off. “I want people to feel like I’m really there with them and going through the workout with them,” Gonzalez said in an interview. “I’ll put in one liners and I try to keep it light and fun. I’ll say things like, ‘Hey, I haven’t seen you in awhile, but that’s OK. We’re going to go through this together.'” It also collects information about their age, weight and personal goals — whether those involve just staying in shape or training for a triathlon. The exercises don’t require any fancy equipment and can be done at home. It’s mostly your body weight that’s necessary. Gonzalez said he spent about two days filming all of the different exercises for the workout. “I was exhausted,” he said. “This workout — it can be for a beginner, or it can be for an expert.” The app also includes basic social features that let users share achievements with friends, so they stay engaged and maybe a bit competitive with workout buddies. It’s the first app built on FitStar’s platform, and the company will offer products down the line that appeal to different demographics and have other routines. FitStar is pursuing the freemium model that has been proven to work really successfully among mobile app developers. The Tony Gonzalez app is free, but the company will charge for premium content down the line. They add that this should be a fraction of the cost of most fitness DVDs without specifying further pricing details. FitStar was founded by former AOL and Digg executive Mike Maser. After going on a solo trip to New Zealand, he meditated on what he wanted to do and felt like he finally wanted to start a company after serving in senior roles at several other companies. He partnered with co-founder Dave Grijalva, who was the director of platform at Ngmoco, the mobile gaming company that DeNA bought for around $400 million. They then raised funding from a number of different firms that are connected to the worlds of entertainment, sports and technology. They took funding from Advancit Capital, which is the venture capital firm launched by Viacom Inc. and CBS Corporation vice chairman Shari Redstone. They also took funding from Kevin Rose at Google Ventures and Mike Maples at FLOODGATE. [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/57825883 w=400&h=300] |
Google Expands Southeast Asian Presence With New Office In The Philippines | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | Google announced today that it is opening a representative office in the Philippines, which will be headed by country manager Narciso Reyes and based in Manila. Reyes, a former Friendster exec, was brought on as sales head in the Philippines by Google . The Mountain View-based company plans to start hiring for its new office and will post in the next few days. , Google has been filling positions in the Philippines since last spring, when job listings for that country started popping up on Google Singapore’s site. “The Philippines is a key country in Southeast Asia in terms of its digital economy and tech-savvy population. This new office will allow us to better engage with our local users, partners and advertisers,” said Julian Persaud, managing director of Google in Southeast Asia. Google’s Manila office is the fifth in Southeast Asia, which is one of Google’s fastest-growing regions , and underscores the importance of the country to the company’s growth strategy. The Philippines currently has 33 million Internet users, a number that the Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA) expects to double by 2016. Its Singapore office opened in July 2007, followed by locations in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. The Philippines was to get Google’s Free Zone last fall and every school there . Other localization initiatives have included the in October 2011. |
Chinese Government To Open Mediation Center For Online Piracy Disputes | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) plans to establish a center that will deal with disputes over intellectual property and online copyright issues, (link via Google Translate). Slated to launch later this year, the center will be part of the MIIT, which made the announcement at a meeting of the Internet Society of China and the Mediation Center of Internet Legal Professionals held in Beijing on January 17. The conference, convened to discuss the surge in intellectual property disputes and litigation, was attended by more than 100 people representing the Chinese government and court system, as well as Internet companies like Baidu, Sina and Taobao. The MIIT hopes that technology companies will use third-party mediation and dispute resolution as a cost- and time-efficient alternative to litigation. Beijing’s High Court vice president Zhang Xuesong said that IP cases jumped by 17 percent from 2011 to 2012, of which 16 percent were related to online piracy. Last year, China on how Web sites can be held liable for recommending unlicensed work from content including movies, music and books. |
Peter Thiel & Reid Hoffman-Backed 100Plus Unveils Its First iPhone App, “A Life Coach In Your Pocket” | Rip Empson | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | Founded in late 2011, set out to tap into the growing popularity of the movement to create a personalized, mobile health prediction platform to help Average Joes like you and me stay active and get healthy. Like some of today’s better known activity and health trackers, like Fitbit, Jawbone’s Up and RunKeeper, 100Plus wants to leverage our ever-present mobile devices to create a more accessible way to analyze, understand and digest our health data — in turn, encouraging us to complete small, healthy actions, while receiving realtime feedback on how those actions affect their daily routines and long-term health. Of course, (who have similar aspirations for their iOS app, albeit without the same health-focus) that’s easier said than done. So, rather than spending a year honing a “final product,” , they decided to launch a series of “app experiments” to test their hypotheses and to learn what people really want from a health tracker. Through these two “app experiments” (100Proof and Outside), the team learned that people are most likely to succeed in changing their lifestyle when given small, micro-goals and activities that make it easier to gain momentum and actually achieve those goals. They also want a personalized product, that’s engaging, easy to use and enables them to understand the long-term impacts of these small, daily actions on their health. Why am I telling you this? Because of these experiments, the startup has essentially been in prolonged beta (or stealth) mode, so there hasn’t been much in the way of a public product. But, today — at great long last — that’s no longer the case. This afternoon 100Plus launched its first official iPhone app in beta (with Android set to arrive in February) that combines all the lessons learned from its app experiments into one complete experience. Because people want concrete, diverse and personalized suggestions as to how they can add health to their day (beyond simple commands like, “hey, go to the gym, bub”) and feel good about doing it, 100Plus’ new iPhone app shows user activities created by other users, recommended based on a user’s location and preferences. The app helps users discover healthy activities that they can easily add to their day and tells them how these small, everyday behaviors — like drinking more water, taking a walk down the block — actually effect their lifespan and overall health. The idea is to make the app the central platform for 100Plus’ future growth, as the startup is in the process of integrating with passive tracking devices (like Fitbit, Jawbone’s Up and RunKeeper, for example) to make it easier for users to get their health data into 100Plus’ system, while adding value to the user experience. As part of the launch, 100Plus is also adding another revenue stream, going beyond being solely consumer-focused by adding a B2B2C-type distribution model, in which it plans to work with companies to distribute the app to employees for use within corporate wellness programs and, presumably, keep them happy and productive. As to how it works? After entering basic stats on your gender, age, height, weight and where you live, users can begin discovering “Hopps,” or health opportunities, allowing them to track and get credit for taking small, health actions, which are associated with specific places and served based on GPS proximity. Once a user creates a “Hopp,” it is then blasted out to other users based on location and their preferences (i.e. nearby, home, office, activity, food and mood, for example), at which point they can complete and check-in to these actions, using a photograph (which are shared in a social feed). Users can also form groups of friends, colleagues or based on similar interest, a la Google+, so that shares aren’t just blasted out to anyone and everyone using 100Plus. The app also allows users to tap into large datasets from the CDC and digital health records (from Practice Fusion) to model the long-term impact of their healthy micro-behaviors. As they progress, users receive an overall health score (called LifeScore), which is modeled on the standard Life Expectancy, to show the long-term impact of those behaviors. At launch, the app has over 18K Hopps and over 7K locations in its database. The app shares a lot in common with apps like Lift, RunKeeper, Runtastic, Beeminder and includes elements one finds in MapMyFitness apps and Foursquare, and even shares (in its plans to help people get healthier by leveraging eHealth Records) similarities with startups like Zipongo. In that sense, 100Plus is officially entering a crowded space where there’s plenty of competition. Nonetheless, having taken the experimental, iterative approach to development, 100Plus scores high in terms of usability and design, and manages to combine some of the best aspects of similar services into a cohesive experience that has enough differentiation to warrant a test-run. What’s more, rather than being a competitor with some of these services, 100Plus sees them as potential partners and will be able to add significant value the more it adds integrations with Fitbit, Up, RunKeeper, MyFitnessPal, and so on. What’s more, 100Plus is led by a co-founding team that has a lot of experience in the health space, with healthcare and health data specialist Chris Hogg as CEO and Ryan Howard, the Founder and CEO of free EMR service, Practice Fusion. As a result, the startup has been able to attract advisors like Klout Co-founder Binh Tran, Gretchen Wustrack (health and wellness lead at IDEO), Atlassian CMO Paul Willard and LinkedIn’s head of machine learning, Romer Rosales, to name a few. The startup from an impressive line-up of investors, including Reid Hoffman and John Lilly (via Greylock’s Discovery Fund), Felicis Ventures, Band of Angels and Founders Fund, via Peter Thiel. The app should go live in the App Store in the next month, but readers looking for an early test-run and use “Techcrunch” as the beat invite code. You should then get a link to download the app shortly thereafter. |
A French Artist Is Posting DIY Robot Parts So We Can Print Our Own Androids | John Biggs | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | wants to give you a robot. The French artist is posting 3D printer files for a humanoid robot he’s building as he completes the various parts, allowing us all to create our very own plastic helper/lover with some ABS plastic, a few Arduino boards, and some motors. The plans for the and Langevin will release more parts over the next few months. He has . The robot is completely open source and all the plans will be available for download. You should be able to print most of the pieces on a home 3D printer, although I suspect some of the bigger pieces might be tough to build on a Makerbot. While the robots do look a bit unsettling – like Sonny from with bad skin – it’s definitely a compelling project that could really change the way we think about 3D printing at home. When this thing is complete, I suspect Gael will have minted quite a few new roboticists, which is great for everybody. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W62Wfz1xqYg#!] |
What Google Does Best Is A Stark Contrast To Apple, According To Larry Page | Jordan Crook | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | are the single-fastest-growing consumer electronics segment in the world, and Google and Apple are the most formidable players in the arena. iOS and Android together hold of the global market, and both Apple and Google have their own hardware ventures (the iPhone/iPad and the Nexus tablet/smartphone family). But once we move past the battle for mobile souls, there is little else that these two giants have in common. In fact, even a layman could list the differences between Apple and Google all day long. But rarely does the CEO of Google. Yes, Larry Page shared a few new interesting factoids on that elucidated his perspective on the rivalry. Page started by mentioning that Google’s “long-term investment in Maps has paid off.” The app was downloaded over , with partial credit for the spike going to Apple’s Maps product. Google has spent over a decade laboriously perfecting its mapping product, with the help of street view cars and sheer user volume. Apple, on the other hand, clearly hasn’t been working on the product for more than five years, though the exact R&D time isn’t clear. Regardless of who succeeds and who fails at mapping the entire universe, these companies are approaching the project very differently. Google is looking to monetize its Maps product directly. Page explained on the call that Google Maps already generates a significant amount of revenue via search. “The number of search queries that we receive that are geographically related is very high, and we generate quite a bit of money from our web search business,” Page said. “But we’re in the early stages of monetizing Maps directly in the Maps product.” Apple has any plan to monetize Maps, we don’t know about it, and it wouldn’t make sense with Apple’s software trajectory. Apple Maps is more of a responsive product offering than a long-term revenue generator — Apple didn’t like Google pulling in data through iHardware, and that was reason enough to launch a premature Maps product. But it’s not just Google’s Maps app getting iOS users excited. Page boasted on the call that six Google apps were featured in Apple’s Best of 2012, such as Gmail, YouTube, and Maps. Apple only had one of its own apps on the list, iPhoto. Sure Google iOS apps have more downloads, but Google has more apps in general. “Google’s biggest challenge is focus,” said the Google CEO, highlighting another way the company differentiates itself from Apple. With hundreds of different products and operations, seemingly launched and discontinued willy nilly, this comment isn’t news to anyone. Google has brought this “challenge” upon itself, fostering this type of imaginative wandering and creativity in its employees, with its 20 percent time. If you ask employees to spend one-fifth of their time on a special project they’re interested in, it’s inevitable that some will lose focus. Apple, in stark contrast, creates very few products each year. The company doesn’t immediately discontinue a service or product just because they launched it as a beta, and it isn’t doing well. Apple stuff is only discontinued when something better has come along to replace it. Though there are noticeably fewer product failures to come out of Apple, Google employees seem much happier. Google was at the top of Forbes’ this year, up from the fourth-place spot last year. Apple wasn’t on that list. Larry Page emphasized on the investor call that he wants every employee at Google to feel like “part of a big family,” and that’s been clear with the way that People Operations (Google’s internal term for HR) . Steve Jobs may have wanted Apple to feel like a family, but his management tactics aren’t what many would call nurturing. Because he keeps his cards close to his chest, Tim Cook’s management style is less clear. What is clear, is that Apple and Google are like night and day in Larry Page’s eyes. Apple makes money on hardware, a game that Google is relatively new to. Google, on the other hand, makes its money off of search and ads. Google powers its way to market with spurts of tons of new products as opposed to very focused, almost repressed product launches from Apple. Apple pressures its employees to perfect their work, while Google encourages and nurtures employees to create whatever tickles their fancy. And while Apple is busy reacting to anything that might threaten its complete control over the ecosystem, Google is focusing on long-term revenue streams from its core products, while opening up the code to the world. Their fighting styles are very different. But like it or not, these two will be duking it out on mobile for years to come. And it’s these differences that make it such a riveting fight to watch. |
Google Appears To Arrest The Decline in Cost-Per-Click; Page Is Hopeful That Mobile CPCs Will Rise | Kim-Mai Cutler | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | One of the reasons that Google’s shares is evidence that the company is stabilizing declines in cost-per-click. The closely watched metric is a measurement of how much advertisers are paying on average when consumers actually click through on paid search keywords or on other ads. It declined dramatically throughout 2012, raising concerns that the shift toward searches on smartphones Cost-per-click was up 2 percent quarter-over-quarter, but down 6 percent year-over-year, . If you exclude the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations, they were up 1 percent quarter-over-quarter, but down 4 percent year-over-year, according to the earnings call. While the annualized declines don’t look great, they’re far lower than year-over-year declines from the second and third quarter of last year, which were 16 percent and 15 percent respectively. While Google CEO Larry Page and Senior Vice President Nikesh Arora didn’t really explain what helped slow declines in the last quarter, both were optimistic about prices for mobile ads. “We’re in uncharted territory in these things because of the rapid rate of change,” Page said on the earnings call. “The CPCs will improve as these devices improve.” He later elaborated as analysts asked two or three variations on this question (most of which he frankly evaded). “I don’t think this is a long-term problem,” he said. “As I’ve said before, there are a lot of advantages to mobile. You know the location of the user.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he’s similarly hopeful about mobile ads. The company has been aggressively pushing app install ads and sponsored stories in the mobile news feed throughout the winter. But we won’t know how well these have done until the company reports earnings next week on Jan. 30. At , he said on-stage, “I’m really optimistic. It’s more like TV than the Web. The ads we run on mobile perform better than the right-hand ads do on the site.” |
White House Announces National Day Of Civic Hacking, Asks Americans To Solve Problems With Govt Data From NASA And More | Josh Constine | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | The White House wants you to hack for a better America. Today it the on June 1-2 where many government agencies will liberate data for citizens across the U.S. to use to build tech that helps their communities. Twenty-seven cities have planned events where hackers will have access to data from The Department of Labor, The Census Bureau, and even NASA’s space stats. The National Day Of Civic Hacking is a joint project from the U.S. government, , and Eric Schmidt’s early-stage venture fund . Part of a growing initiative to increase government transparency and civic engagement, the group explains that: The event will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs from all over the nation to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country. National Day of Civic Hacking will provide citizens an opportunity to do what is most quintessentially American: roll up our sleeves, get involved and work together to improve our society. Participants could create apps that visualize government data sets or combine them across agencies. For example, Census and Department Of Labor data could be mashed up to examine what demographic and industry factors combine to reduce unemployment. Alternatively, while a ton of government data has become “publicly available” over the past few years, much of it isn’t truly accessible, because it lacks strong APIs or user interfaces. Hackers could build these to lay the groundwork for future innovation with public data. Dror Berman, managing partner of tells me the simultaneous nationwide event “is a collaboration party for America, with technology at the heart.” There are several ways you can join this civic engagement party (it will be more fun than that sounds). You can or support a local event by becoming a host. For an example, check out Innovation Endeavors’ hack day it held in Palo Alto last year. You could , provide code you’ve written, or propose a problem people should fix. Or, you can and just come out and hack. The White House wants you to “roll up your sleeves, get involved, and get civic-hacking…around the shared mission of addressing and solving challenges relevant to OUR blocks, OUR neighborhoods, OUR cities, OUR states, and OUR country.” |
Yahoo Buys Snip.it, The Pinterest-Meets-News Startup, For $10 Million Plus Earnouts | Colleen Taylor | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | With Marissa Mayer , is continuing to flex its M&A muscles, with a on startups with smart teams that have made well-designed apps. The latest target: , the San Francisco-based startup that created a web application for clipping news articles and arranging them in a visually compelling Pinterest-like format. The deal, which we understand to have been in the works for several weeks now, was first reported this morning and subsequently confirmed by both Yahoo and Snip.it . We’re hearing that the purchase price was $10 million, plus several million dollars worth of earnouts tied to team retention. All but one of Snip.it’s approximately 10 full-time staffers will be joining Yahoo, a source familiar with the deal says. The Snip.it app has already been shut down, and users will have the option to download their data for a month from now, until February 21st. The Snip.it team will focus on the “social news” space in their new roles at Yahoo, the company said in a announcing the sale. The size of the deal, along with the immediately effective shut-down of the service, points to this being a standard “acqui-hire” situation. Snip.it, which in October 2011, had attracted an including Khosla Ventures, True Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and SV Angel, but it seems that ultimately its service did not get as much standalone traction as may have been hoped. That said, the Snip.it app was impressive to see in action, as we saw when we sat down with CEO this past June . It’s clear that Adeeb, a very sharp young executive with both technical and business chops, was almost certainly a big part of what attracted Yahoo to the company. It will be exciting to see what he comes up with next. Here is our interview with Adeeb and his hands-on demo of Snip.it from this past summer: |
null | Jordan Crook | 2,013 | 1 | 14 | null |
Keen On… Injustice: What The Aaron Swartz Case Says About The American Criminal Justice System | Andrew Keen | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | The tragedy has unleashed an intense debate about computer “crime” and the US criminal justice system. Heavyweights like , , , and have all written with great passion about the case. But the one article that really resonated with me was written by the blogger . Provocatively “Aaron Swartz’s “crime” and the business of breaking the law”, Allworth compares Swartz’s “crime” with crimes committed by money launderers and deadly corporate criminals. As he told me, there appears to be a “systemic” problem with an American legal system in which an activist hacker like Swartz faced personal bankruptcy and 35 years in jail, while a healthcare executive guilty of bringing a product to market that killed innocent people only got 9 months in jail. It’s “extremely unfair” Allworth told me, arguing that the Swartz case proves that the American criminal justice system can be bought by powerful corporations. So is Allworth right? Has the Swartz case exposed the flagrant unfairness of the legal system? And do we need an to, at least, ensure that the Swartz tragedy will never happen again? |
Commenters, We Want You Back | Elin Blesener | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | It was early 2011 and TechCrunch’s comment section was overrun with trolls. Bullies were drowning out our smart commenters. We hated our commenters because, well, they hated us. So we Facebook Comments in an attempt to silence the trolls — by removing their anonymity. But we eventually that our anti-troll tactic worked too well; The bullies left our comments sections, but so did everyone else. Now, several years later, after dozens of endless meetings and conference calls, we’ve decided we’re going to try out Livefyre instead of Facebook Comments. Frankly, our trial with Facebook Comments lasted way too long at too steep of a cost. Sure, Facebook Comments drove extra traffic to the site, but the vast majority of our readers clearly do not feel the system is of their interaction. And we want our commenters back. Livefyre offers the best mix of commenting and admin tools currently available, and our developers stand behind it. Some sites have killed comments altogether, turning instead to Twitter and aggregators for user interaction. But we your feedback. We want to know what you think about an article. Call out our typos, join the discussion, give us counterpoints — just don’t be a dick. Remember, Elin is always lurking in the comments with her banhammer ready. There are bound to be bugs at launch. Let me apologize for those now. But to us, a buggy Livefyre launch, with lots of you using it and breaking it, is still better than Facebook Comments. What you will be doing: How it works: |
Kim Dotcom Tackles Mega Security Concerns, Points To Password Changes In The Pipeline | Chris Velazco | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | Though it launched to considerable fanfare, Kim Dotcom’s Mega encrypted storage service has recently drawn fire from the press thanks to supposedly questionable security practices. Well, Mr. Dotcom is none too pleased with the conclusions that some news outlets have come to, and has taken to to address some of those issues head-on. There were plenty of sites that echoed those initial security concerns, but Dotcom focused on debunking claims in two pieces published by and , respectively. Most of his post runs through rather dry explanations of why the assertions in those pieces weren’t completely accurate, and some of his points are oft-repeated best practices for using the Internet (he says the recently touted MegaCracker tool is “an excellent reminder not to use guessable/dictionary passwords” for instance). Still, some of his comments do point to some changes in the works for the nascent secure cloud storage service. Take the issue of passwords for instance. recent story notes that Mega doesn’t have a password recovery system in place and notes the potential problems that could arise because of its absence. After all, if the key needed to decrypt your files hinges on your password, forgetting it could leave you completely unable to access your stored goodies. While he admits that is indeed the case, Dotcom notes that it won’t be going in the “near future.” He says that a secure password change feature is in the works, as is a reset mechanism to partially aid the tragically forgetful: A password reset mechanism will allow you to log back into your account, with all files being unreadable. Now, if you have any pre-exported file keys, you can import them to regain access to those files. On top of that, you could ask your share peers to send you the share-specific keys, but that’s it – the remainder of your data appears as binary garbage until you remember your password. Ars also took issue with how the service uses keyboard inputs and mouse movements to add entropy (and by extension, security) to the RSA keys it generates. While signing up for the service, users are treated to a splash screen that says that’s exactly what’s happening, but Ars’ Lee Hutchinson wasn’t convinced that was the case since the statement remained very vague about when those entropy-enhancing movements were recorded (and I can’t blame him). To address that pain point going forward, Dotcom also notes that some changes for that part of the onboarding process are in the pipeline: We will, however, add a feature that allows the user to add as much entropy manually as he sees fit before proceeding to the key generation. |
The Europas – Europe’s Tech Startup Oscars – Showcases A Booming European Scene | Mike Butcher | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | – Europe’s tech startup awards – hit Berlin on Tuesday evening with over 1,000 guests gathering to celebrate the best of the continent’s tech entrepreneurship. ZeptoLab, the Moscow-based makers of the smash hit Cut The Rope game took the ‘winner of winner’s’ Grand Prix award after hitting 300 million downloads, marking it out as potentially the next Rovio/AngryBirds killer combination. Another gaming firm, Wooga, snatched the People’s Choice Award. The Berlin-based social gaming company won after 300,000 votes were cast by Europe’s tech industry. London’s Wonga was named Best “Heavyweight” Startup after a year, which saw the online short-term loans pioneer’s profits surge. The best Startup Founders were named as the team behind science platform Mendeley. And Atomico was named Best VC of the year in Europe by the judges. As someone who four years ago – initially just in a bar in London – it’s been fascinating for me to see the scene grow. The Europas were an order of magnitude bigger this year, with over 1,000 entries making it a tremendously difficult task for the 75 judges – drawn from entrepreneurs, investors and the media – to pick out the winners. From recent successes like Sketchfab, to titans of the industry like the Hall of Fame winner Niklas Zennstrom, the awards showed that, despite its fragmented nature and a tough economic climate, Europe’s startup scene now has a real head of steam. The judges included partners from Kleiner Perkins, Accel, Index, Google Ventures and CrunchFund, entrepreneurs like Jawed Karim (founder of YouTube and Youniversity Ventures) and Michael Birch (founder of Bebo, Monkey Inferno) and Lady Gaga’s manager and angel investor Troy Carter. Journalists from Europe’s tech news scene, including The NextWeb, VentureBeat, Reuters and some of Europe’s leading blogs also took part in the process. It was also great to see , supporting the awards. Paddy Cosgrave, The Europas’ co-organiser and founder of the series of events in Dublin and London, said: “These awards show just how hot European startups are right now. It was fantastic to see so many people from the community together to celebrate the level of innovation and excitement out there.” You can see a . And here are the winners:
Winner: Markafoni
HC: Cinemoz
Winner: NextStories
HC: Infogr.am
Winner: AlterGeo
HC: Zeptolab
Winner: Instabridge
HC: PowerKiss
Winner: Qunb
HC: WriteThat.name
Winner: MyTaxi
HC: EyeEm
Winner: GoCardless
HC: Skimlinks
Winner: DataHug
HC: CurrencyFair
Winner: InternAvenue
HC: Adzuna
Winner: Socialbakers
HC: Conversocial
Winner: Shutl
HC: BlaBlaCar
Winner: Scolibri
HC: Memrise
Winner: 33Seconds
HC: Ballou PR
Winner: Seedcamp
HC: Springboard
Winner: Mendeley – Jan Reichelt, Paul Foeckler & Victor Henning
HC: SoundCloud – Eric Wahlforss & Alexander Ljung
Winner: Intellitix
HC: Crane.tv
Winner: DataHug
HC: Duedil
Winner: Paymentwall
HC: WalkMe
Winner: Sketchfab
HC: Infogr.am & Memoto
Winner: Wonga
HC: Supercell
Winner: Face.com
HC: Qype
Winner: Atomico
HC: Index Ventures
HC: Passion Capital
Winner: Neil Rimer (Index Ventures)
Winner: Transferwise
HC: SwiftKey
Winner: Toshl
HC: Dashlane
Winner: Lyst
HC: Soundrop
Winner: Zeptolab
HC: Playmob
Winner: EyeEm
HC: Infogr.am
Winner: Zeebox
HC: Everplaces
Winner: Max Niederhofer
HC: Philipp Moehring
Ben Rooney (Wall Street Journal)
Christophe Maire
ZeptoLab |
Google’s Larry Page Talks Improving Nexus Hardware Supply, Motorola’s Opportunities For Device Innovation | Darrell Etherington | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | Google’s conference call regarding its mostly rehashed themes we’ve heard before – cross-platform remains a priority. But Google CEO Larry Page had a few words to share about hardware in his own kick-off spiel. Page reiterated what we’ve heard recently about hardware supply levels from the Google Play store, and dropped (it’s a pun, you’ll see why later) a hint around what Motorola is doing at Google in terms of hardware. Page said that there is “work to be done managing our supply better… and that is priority for the teams.” While it isn’t very detailed, it is at least acknowledgement that the issues around low supply for the hard-to-get and very much in demand Nexus 4 are fully recognized by the very top brass at Google. Page’s comments didn’t go so far as French LG Communications Director Cathy Robin, who promised , but they show both Google and LG are working together to resolve the backlog. Also on the hardware front, Page talked briefly about Motorola, and what they’re doing in terms of delivering innovation on that front from their new position under the Google umbrella. Page was even more cagey on this front, but he did come up with possibly telling examples of what kinds of issues they could be looking at. “Battery life is a huge issue,” and he added that you shouldn’t have to constantly worry about your devices, noting that, for example, “When you drop your phone, it shouldn’t go ‘splat.'” Clearly, these are obvious pain points for mobile devices: durability and longevity in terms of battery life. If Motorola’s hardware engineering team is genuinely being put to work on making real improvements to these and other major smartphone sore spots, I’m content to wait and let things percolate a while longer before we see the union bear fruit. We haven’t yet seen what Google will do once it holds the reins with Motorola’s hardware division, because as Google’s Patrick Pichette pointed out on the call, the company is still working through Motorola’s existing hardware pipeline, which he said accounted for about 12-18 months of releases at the time of acquisition. |
Visual FX Specialist GenArts Gets Into Mobile With Vivoom, A New App For Video Editing | Ryan Lawler | 2,013 | 1 | 22 | Visual effects company GenArts is introducing a new app that it hopes will leverage some of the same technology used by movie and TV production studios to improve mobile videos and make them actually watchable, and hence, shareable. The app, called , has yet to be released, but will be positioned to compete against existing mobile-social video apps like Viddy and Socialcam and Magisto and Montaj and all the others. At the core of Vivoom’s video-editing platform are a wide range of video filters, which it believes will inspire users to share some of the unshared content shot and trapped on their mobile devices. Unlike other mobile video editing platforms, Vivoom has tons of these filters. Dozens. Hundreds, even. Close to a thousand premium looks in total. With so much choice in how you make your videos look good, one of the challenges users face is making sure they have the look that’s best for the video they’re creating. And so, one of Vivoom’s key differentiators is a recommendation engine for choosing filters, which is based on an analysis of the user’s video, profile, social data, and previous preference data. Unlike other social video tools, Vivoom’s filters aren’t just overlaid on top of the video. Leveraging GenArts’ visual effects background, the app actually changes pixels within the video to match what’s happening in the footage. According to Vivoom CEO Katherine Hays, the average user has 20 to 40 videos that they’ve shot with their mobile phones but haven’t shared with anyone. Usually, those videos aren’t shared because they’re not visually appealing. Vivoom hopes to change that through the addition of “premium looks,” or filters. Vivoom’s editing platform is actually cloud-based, so it will have Web and mobile editing apps available soon. Since it’s based in the cloud, the videos render faster and use up less processing power than if they depended on the device’s CPU. And being based in the cloud also allows for near-instantaneous previews of the videos being created. The cloud-based architecture will also make it available to third parties for use with their own video-publishing suites. Hays told me that the company will have at least one third-party launch party leveraging the Vivoom technology and make it available to end users in the next few weeks. The Vivoom platform was incubated within GenArts, but has an exlusive license to the visual-effects engine and related technology. We’ll wait to see how it compares once it’s released, but it’s already got a ton of competition. Still, consumer mobile video editing is a tough nut to crack. Maybe what the segment needs is a professional video-editing company to show everyone how it’s done. |
The Weekly Good: Here’s How $7 Can Help Change The World | Drew Olanoff | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | What if just by buying a t-shirt that spreads a message for a charitable cause, you could help fund that cause? What if there were a website that highlighted a specific cause and t-shirt every week? And what if that website donated $7 from each sale to that cause? You’d have , a pretty amazing startup with the sole purpose of helping to raise both money and awareness, all with fashion, e-commerce and you, of course. By highlighting one cause a week, puts all of its focus on promoting that cause, which benefits from it, and giving you a simple call to action…buy a t-shirt. I spoke to Ryan Wood from Sevenly and here’s how he describes his startup’s mission: The way that our model works is that for every single product purchased from our website, Sevenly donates $7 to that week’s cause on behalf of the supporter. For example, if our supporters purchase 1,000 products during the seven-day campaign, Sevenly will write a check for $7,000 and donate it directly to the cause (charity partner) for that week. Through this model we’re also able to do some pretty exciting things. Often times we’re able to quantify our purchases to say, for example, for every item purchased an orphaned child in Thailand will be provided with daily meals for an entire month. Or, for every item purchased a child struggling with cancer will be given a jar full of toys that will bring joy and happiness to their lives. In addition to being able to quantify these purchases, we are able to introduce match donors occassionaly for our campaigns, raising the donation amount from $7 to $14 per item purchased, and in some cases, a full $21 donated per item purchased. This week’s shirt benefits , which is dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect. The company has already raised $1,554,040 for various causes since its launch, with its items being shared on various social networks 4,018,721 times. That’s quite a network effect, and pretty good for a company that started less than two years ago. While I’m not a fan of infographics, Sevenly has put one together that shows you why its model works and was necessary. As you’ll see, there’s a surplus of charitable causes out there, but there’s no clear way for them to reach the right audience of supporters who will both donate and spread their message: Does the company make some money? Yes, of course. It has a staff to pay and it takes time, effort and money to design and print t-shirts. This is what Sevenly does, and all you have to do is buy a t-shirt to participate. If you’re a non-profit and want Sevenly to highlight your cause, simply . |
“We Are Supposed To Be Truth Tellers” | Michael Arrington | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | A CNET was put into an absurd situation – they could not favorably cover a technology product because the company behind that product was in litigation with CNET’s parent company, CBS. I wasn’t all that interested in the story at the time. Reporters and bloggers are constantly pressured to write or not write about things by parent companies and even business executives in their own companies. CBS telling CNET what it could and could not write about wasn’t anything I haven’t seen before. I understand why CBS was trying to control messaging about a company that they were suing, although they certainly weren’t very smart about how they handled it. The kicked in and not only did the product end up getting tons of extra positive press, but both CBS and CNET looked like idiots. Still, big companies do stupid things all the time. It’s a big part of why small startups are often so successful at disrupting them. What I don’t get is why CNET staffers have stuck around. They’re the ones who are supposed to be journalists and all that entails. They’re the ones I blame right now. I blame them because they’re the only reason CBS is able to get away with this. Every single journalist at CNET should have resigned by now. More than once at TechCrunch we made AOL extremely uncomfortable with things that we wrote. But they never ordered us to write or not write about something because they understood that not only would we not comply, we’d write a post about the whole thing. Our independence from AOL was so important to me that I negotiated an extremely odd provision in our purchase agreement that allowed me to disclose confidential information about AOL. It was their job never to give me that information. It was not my job to protect it in any way. If AOL had ever ordered me to remove a piece of content from the site for any reason I would have immediately written about it and disclosed the situation to our readers. And if I had ever ordered a writer to remove content I would have expected that writer to have done the same to me. In fact, one of the things I am most proud about at TechCrunch is the culture of independence in its writers. Many times I have been criticized publicly by my own team. We’ve even had absurd arguments break out, on the site, about the pros and cons of one gadget over another. It can drive readers crazy to see all the conflict, but there was never any question about whether or not people’s unfettered opinions were being expressed. When (to my knowledge the only person who’s resigned over this mess) I thought he’d be the first of many. – – rang true. Why haven’t others followed him? Why are they but not actually doing anything about it? CNET reporters need to either be resigning or be reporting this story, or both. On CNET. If someone higher up removes their content then they should republish it on their personal blogs. If they are then fired for that they should sue the company. And either way, other tech sites, including this one, would be more than happy to make them job offers. I left ( ) TechCrunch in 2011 over editorial independence. The Huffington Post tried (and was successful for a time) to take control of TechCrunch. And not only did I leave, a whole string of writers and editors left shortly afterwards. It wasn’t until AOL removed TechCrunch from the control of the Huffington Post that things stabilized. And today TechCrunch is stronger than it ever was, by far. And, importantly, even when all of this was going on at TechCrunch, AOL and Huffington Post never successfully tried to censor TechCrunch writers from saying exactly what they thought. got , but they were . Earlier today I read short post about what’s happening at CNET. He wrote that the situation was untenable, and Those are almost the exact shortly before I left TechCrunch – either sell the site back to the original shareholders or give us true editorial independence. As with AOL and TechCrunch, it’s unlikely that CBS will do either. But at the very least, it might make CBS think twice if CNET’s editorial and reporter teams were to simply say exactly what they think, and then walk out. In short I expect big companies to be some combination of stupid and evil. But when the people affected do absolutely nothing, they’re just part of the problem, too. See |
Time Spent In Retailers’ Mobile Apps Grows More Than Five-Fold In A Year, Flurry Finds | Kim-Mai Cutler | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | compared to a year earlier, showing that shopping and commerce is finally beginning to take off on mobile platforms. Flurry, the mobile analytics startup, looked at about 1,800 iOS and Android apps from December 2011 to December of last year. They also broke it down into five other categories including Retailer Apps, Price Comparison, Purchase Assistant, Online Marketplace and Daily Deals. Time spent in apps overall grew by 132 percent year-over-year, so as you can see above, basically every category except for daily deals outpaced growth in the rest of the ecosystem. Retailer apps like ones directly from Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, Gap and Saks 5th Avenue, grew the most in terms of time spent. Time spent in ‘Price Comparison’ apps like eBay’s RedLaser and Grocery IQ grew by 247 percent year over year. At the same time, “Purchase Assistant” apps like ShopSavvy and ShopAdvisor saw 228 percent more time spent. Even though Daily Deals apps like Groupon, which have spent millions on user acquisition, have seen their market share fall, they still saw the time spent metric at least double. Groupon has said in the past that . But you can see how market share has changed for mobile commerce apps. Daily deals apps, which were very early to mobile platforms and could spend millions upon millions to acquire users every year, were first-movers. Now the rest of the space is catching up as big box retailers figure out how to use mobile apps to promote transactions. Retailers nearly doubled their market share in the shopping category, with 27 percent of time spent up from 15 percent a year ago. Virtually every other category was either flat or down year-over-year in terms of market share. Marketplace apps like eBay and Amazon fell to 20 percent marketshare from 25 percent a year ago, while price comparison and purchase assistant apps were basically flat year-on-year. |
Realtime Polling Startup GoPollGo Begins To Show Real Business Potential With “Promoted Polls” | Rip Empson | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | Back in early 2011, Ben Schaechter, Sam Grossberg and Paul Kompfner launched to address a perceived deficiency in analytics, geographical info and social integrations from the Web’s go-to polling platforms. Six-months later, , the startup decided to re-focus on Twitter — on providing everyday users with the ability to more easily poll their users and drill down into realtime analytics, not . Today, GoPollGo offers open graph integration, allows users to embed multimedia within their polls, embed polls on any website and to offer a more synchronized user experience across platforms. Since launching, the startup has begun working with big media properties like ABC and Yahoo to allow them to offer realtime polling and audience analysis, powering ABC news’ realtime Q&A . While these partnerships have provided some monetization opportunities for GoPollGo, it has still been unclear how the team was going to construct a viable, sustainable business. But, today, we got a peek into the future of GoPollGo-as-a-business, with the launch of . Essentially, the startup’s Promoted Polls now allow anyone to leverage the startup’s audience to get responses to their questions quickly. “Think of it as simple, speedy market research,” says founder Ben Schaecther (who, for sake of full disclosure, is a former TechCrunch developer). Now, when someone creates a poll, they’ll have the ability to promote that poll to get responses for a fee of $0.50-per-response. Similar to what Twitter now does with Promoted Tweets, this means that GoPollGo will intersperse promoted polls within the stream of questions that users cycle through and interact with on a daily basis. [Except, of course, Twitter pushes Promoted Tweets into specific users’ streams, while on GoPollGo, people are just responding randomly to polls, so the startup will surface its own Promoted Polls more randomly as well, though they’ll have a set duration.] To incentivize businesses, media and individual power users — and make sure they get their money’s worth — GoPollGo guarantees that data for Promoted Polls will be gathered within 48 hours, or the startup will refund the promoter. (The aforementioned “set duration.) The founder says that, although this system is new, the team has already seen thousands of requests for this functionality . Today, Promoted Polls opens in a kind of private beta format so that the team can ensure that it’s able to scale the back-end support efficiently without affecting the overall GoPollGo user experience. The tool is currently limited to one-questions polls and focuses mainly on mobile, but the team plans to offer more robust capabilities (and open the whole shabang publicly in self-serve mode) in the near future — along with potentially offering rev-share opportunities for survey takers themselves. Going forward, as the GPG community continues to increase, Schaechter says that the team will begin rolling out new filters (like gender, age and location, for example) that will be offered for a higher price. In the big picture, the team is eager to transform from just-another-social-polling tool (albeit an addictive one) to a sustainable business with consumer and business-facing services that provide more monetization opportunities. To add more value and a little more diversification, the founder think that GoPollGo’s software can be easily adapted to surveys. SurveyMonkey’s colossal raise (and valuation) last week proves unequivocally the (surprising) size of the opportunity in offering an easy-to-use, cloud-based survey tool. SurveyMonkey has been able to monetize by offering pay-per-response surveys, and it wouldn’t be a stretch for GoPollGo to begin offering a similar service. While Google offers a basic poll and survey service (what don’t they offer, seriously,) it comes at a $0.10 price point and most other similar tools fall on the more expensive end of the spectrum. Plus, GoPollGo’s community has begun to offer more incentives to those interested in the quick-turnaround option of Promoted Polls, as it’s now seeing 25 percent of its iOS users return daily, pulling in users’ social graphs so that whenever someone they follow creates a poll, etc., they get a push notification. In turn, its registered user base has increased 20 percent in the last 2.5 weeks, while the app has accumulated “thousands of downloads” and power users are taking as many as 50 to 60 polls per session, Schaechter says. The nice thing about GoPollGo and one of the reasons it’s been able to sustain traffic (and that widgets typically receive about 1 million to 2.5 million page views per month) is that users don’t have to login to vote, they can do so straight from the widget or embed — wherever the poll happens to live. None of the users who voted during its ABC integration, for example, were required to login with GoPollGo to interact with the poll. And that’s key. Things could get thornier the more robust Promoted Polls functionality becomes, but it’s a step in the right direction. For more, you can find GoPollGo’s video demo below or check out [vimeo 56643763 width=640&height=380] |
How Long Till Facebook Clones Vine? No, Facebook Should Have Invented Vine | Josh Constine | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | Facebook used to build the future, but since the mobile era began it’s been chasing what’s next — buying Instagram, reskinning Beluga as Messenger, copying Snapchat as Poke, and now getting beat to animated photos by Twitter’s Vine and Cinemagram. If Facebook doesn’t bust out its crystal ball, it could get picked apart by visionary competitors, or lose its reputation for innovation. Mark Zuckerberg may not have invented the concept of social networking, but he sure executed on it. Facebook went on to pioneer some powerful products, including photo tagging, the relevancy-sorted news feed, the off-site Like button, and the unified cross-platform messaging system. The entire concept of a social network that used your real name and offline social graph to create an authenticated online version of your identity seemed forward thinking in the age of Myspace. These features helped Facebook blow past competitors to become the dominant social network for the whole world. Up until the last few years, Facebook seemed to pay little attention to competitors, and its acquisitions were focused on talent, back-end technology, and patents. But since 2011 as mobile has increasingly become the access point to the web, Facebook seems to have slowed down. Many of its latest products and app launches were done first by its competitors. Beluga and GroupMe proved English-speaking markets wanted dedicated mobile messaging apps that could replace expensive SMS and let you communicate with multiple people at once. At the time Facebook offered mobile messaging, but it was buried in its bloated primary apps. It ended up in March 2011 and turning it into , which has been a solid success with by the end of 2012. From there, the chase was on. Facebook launched its which is basically identical to Twitter’s asymmetrical following system. It bought location discovery service and turned it into its own Foursquare competitor called . Then it acquired social gift-buying and morphed it into its real-world e-commerce debut . The trend was really crystalized, though, by Facebook’s willingness to pay $1 billion (eventually $715 million) dedicated photo filtering and sharing community Instagram. Considering tagged photo sharing on the web was what originally made Facebook go viral, why hadn’t it foreseen the need for a bigger mobile-photos play? It lucked out on the Instagram acquisition, too. Other companies, including rival Twitter, were trying to buy the startup, as well. And while it didn’t get as much support due to the acquisition of already thriving Instagram, Facebook Camera finished 2012 with just . If that had been Facebook’s only mobile photo app, and a competitor owned Instagram, Facebook’s future would be much bleaker. Facebook’s tardiness didn’t stop there. Most recently it saw Snapchat growing fast as people discovered the joy of self-destructing photo sharing — a vacation from the permanence of everything shared on Facebook. So it , a near carbon copy of Snapchat, and bragged that a small team had built the app in just 12 days. Sure some top talent might see that news and think, “wow, Facebook’s not like red tape-saddled giants like Google. It really moves fast if it can build a full-fledged app that quickly.” But many other great engineers, product managers, and designers might much prefer to be at a startup inventing new ways of communicating, not fast-following them. The talent crunch in technology is no joke. There are rock stars out there that can make or break a company. With the explosion in seed funding, it’s easier than ever for them to start their own company and join a nimble new one. And with cash-rich companies like Apple and Google around, Facebook may not be able to pay the most to attract these 10x or 100x team members. If it’s going to win the best workers, Facebook has to rely on its image as a world-changing innovator that brings people closer together. It can’t do that by simply buying or cloning the next big thing. It has to amp up the futurism, and think outside the blue box it seems trapped in. We’ll see how this plays out with , the 6-second looping video standalone app Twitter launched yesterday. Facebook considered it a big enough threat to to its Find Friends API because Facebook functionality. By Poke’s schedule, you could expect Facebook’s version of Vine by February 5th. I’m imagining a Facebook standalone app called Movement or Moment that lets you shoot and tag friends in short animated videos. Honestly, I’d probably use it. But Facebook can’t think like that – or it can and has to think farther into the future, too. It needs to build what’s at the end of the Vine, what’s faster than a Snap, and what carries more weight than any Gram. — |
Mobile Ad Platform Aarki Acquires Mobspire To Improve Rich Media Ad Creation | Anthony Ha | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | , which offers a platform for creating and delivering mobile ads, just announced that it has acquired another mobile ad startup called Mobspire. The financial terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. Aarki (its size was also undisclosed) led by Walden Venture Capital last year, while Mobspire was entirely self-funded. It also looks like Mobspire’s technology has already been integrated into Aarki’s offerings — when you visit , the front page declares, “All our rich media ads are built upon the cutting edge Mobspire rich media platform.” In the acquisition announcement, CEO Sid Bhatt (who previously worked in business development at Mint.com) said that Aarki has already run “hundreds” of ad units built on the Mobspire platform, with users spending an average of 64 seconds engaging with the ads. Mobspire founder Nitish Aitharaju has joined Aarki as the head of brand advertising. He told me that the rest of the Mobspire team “decided to continue onto other adventures.” Two-year-old Aarki said that its workforce has quadrupled in the past year, and that it has been profitable “for quite some time.” |
Twitter Could Relieve IPO Pressure By Selling $80M Of Early Employee Stock To BlackRock At $9B Valuation | Josh Constine | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | Today in a paywalled article that Twitter is brokering a deal for investment firm BlackRock to buy up to $80 million of stock from early Twitter employees at a $9 billion valuation. By giving employees liquidity, Twitter may not need to rush to an IPO the way Facebook did to satisfy veteran talent. The $9 billion valuation means Twitter’s worth has increased just 10 percent since it . However, it’s lower than the $10 billion to $11 billion valuation Twitter agreed to for two smaller secondary sales done in 2012. If enough employees accept the tender offer to hit the $80 million limit, BlackRock will own just less than 1 percent of Twitter. BlackRock’s fund will give some long-time Twitter team members their first chance to trade their equity for cash. that only a small number of employees, possibly around a dozen, are getting the chance to sell. Whether the sale would relieve IPO pressure depends on who those employees are. If they’re critical team members, their departure in search of liquidity could strike a serious blow to Twitter. If they’re simply early employees who don’t contribute much any more, their retention or exit would have less influence on Twitter’s IPO schedule. Going beyond the facts from the Financial Times’ report, there are several benefits to Twitter providing a liquidity release valve for employees sitting on tons of stock. First, it’s sure to make these employees happier. Some of them could be worth tens of millions of dollars on paper, but have much less money in the bank. The ability to sell some stock means they could upgrade their lifestyle to be more in-line with their worth. Giving them this option could keep great employees from leaving the company. Second, depending on Twitter’s internal regulations regarding independent sales on secondary markets, the offering to BlackRock could keep employees from tipping Twitter over the 500 shareholder limit that triggers the need to file for an initial public offering. Without offerings like this one to BlackRock, the only way to get employees liquidity is to IPO. That hasn’t necessarily been productive for companies like Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon who got chewed up by the public market. Many suspected that after eight years as a private company, some early Facebook employees were considering ditching jobs at the social network to escape regulation on secondary sales and gain some cash. By going public before its mobile advertising business had proven itself, Facebook withered intense speculation that shift of its user base to mobile could sink the business. $FB shares plummeted to as low as $17.73 in September from its $38 IPO price in May, though it’s recovered somewhat to $31.54 since then. Seeing Facebook trip over its IPO, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo may have wanted to instead adopt a strategy similar to Pinterest. this week, Pinterest recently sold $30 million in stock to SV Angel. In this case it was early investors, not employees, that got liquidity. Still, it was likely done to keep investors happy and delay the distraction of considering an IPO. If the deal goes through, it could allow Twitter to avoid Wall Street until advertising business really gets rolling. Costolo would then have fewer employees clamoring for an IPO, allowing him to continue building Twitter’s business privately until it’s ready for the public spotlight. |
BlackBerry 10 To Star In RIM’s First Super Bowl Commercial | Chris Velazco | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | Waterloo-based RIM is gearing up to take the wraps off of BlackBerry 10 in just a few days, but a bit of showmanship in front of journalists and analysts won’t be enough to convince the masses of the platform’s worthiness. For that, RIM is gearing up for a big advertising push, including a 30-second spot due to run during Super Bowl XLVII. It’s hardly the first time we’ve seen a major smartphone player peddle their wares during the Super Bowl (Samsung’s immediately leaps to mind), but it’s RIM’s first ad for the big game, and you’ve got to wonder what sort of approach they’re going to take. Brusque and informative? High-minded and vague? Dare they try to be funny? Only time (or if we’re lucky, a chatty rep at the BB1o launch event) will tell. Curiously, recently-installed RIM CMO Frank Boulben hinted in an email release that the company may have more on its mind than just pushing smartphones onto the market — the statement invokes the possibility of tablets as well. I don’t need to tell you that RIM’s PlayBook wasn’t quite the runaway success that the company may have been hoping for, but it’s heartening to hear that RIM may have something up its sleeves that hasn’t already been leaked to hell and back. Of course, it’s very possible that the ad could tackle RIM’s tablet ambitions with mockups and uncertain terms, so we may be getting worked up over nothing. One thing is clear though — this going to be a pricey little gamble for RIM. It’s said that the base ad rate for Super Bowl XLVII is hovering around $4 million, a non-trivial amount considering RIM’s once-rough financials. Then again, the Canadian company’s stock has been on the upswing lately, so this may be its best bet for introducing its long-awaited OS to the (and the rest of the world). |
Ask A VC: Kleiner Perkins’ Ted Schlein On How The VC Industry Has Changed; What’s Next For The Enterprise And More | Leena Rao | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | I was fortunate to have Kleiner Perkins’ investment partner join me on Ask A VC this week. Schlein, who joined Kleiner in 1996 and has nearly two decades of experience in the VC world, discussed what’s changed in the VC industry as well as what the expectation is for a return on investment for startups. We also tackled what’s next in the enterprise world as Schlein sits on the boards of a number of enterprise companies including Jive Software, and was an early employee at Symantec. |
Next-Gen Video Format H.265 Is Approved, Paving The Way For High-Quality Video On Low-Bandwidth Networks | Ryan Lawler | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | The ITU has that could bring 4k video to future broadband networks, while also making streaming HD video available even on bandwidth-constrained mobile networks. The H.265 standard, also informally known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), is designed to provide high-quality streaming video, even on low-bandwidth networks. The new video format is the successor to the H.264 codec, which nearly every video publisher has standardized after the release of the iPad and several other connected devices. It seems crazy now, but once upon a time, Apple’s adoption of H.264 and insistence on HTML5-based video players was controversial — especially since most video before the iPad was encoded in VP6 to play through Adobe’s proprietary Flash player. The hope is that, through improved compression techniques, H.265 will . That should make true streaming HD video available not just in broadband households, but on mobile and tablet devices, using networks that are a lot more bandwidth-constrained. Doing so could make online video more widely available in markets with poor connectivity or mostly mobile connections. In places where there is decent broadband connectivity, H.265 could enable even higher-quality video. With 4K TVs finally becoming available, there’s an opportunity for even greater video resolution. The only problem is that networks aren’t built to support the load that streaming that video would require. With H.265, 4K streaming could be possible with as little as 20-30 Mbps of bandwidth. Still a lot by today’s standards, but not completely unheard of. Of course, just because the format has been approved doesn’t mean that we’ll start seeing video files shrink or lower bit-rate streams anytime soon. While there will likely be software-based encoders available by the end of the year, the codec won’t see mass adoption until it gets embedded into chips and hardware. It could be 12 to 18 months, maybe longer, before the first devices with H.265 hardware acceleration make it to market. Once those initial devices do make it to market, however, we can probably expect a quick ramp up in the amount of content that begins to take advantage of H.265. Since the launch of the iPad, the percentage of video published in H.264 has climbed from less than 10 percent to more than 84 percent in less than three years, according to MeFeedia. The adoption of H.265 could mean less network strain, more HD video, or some combination of the two. I personally expect that the availability of a more efficient codec will more likely mean higher quality rather than smaller video files, but every little bit helps. |
New York Startup Caskers Offers Rare Spirits Online | John Biggs | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | Whether you’re into delicately sipping a fine brandy in the company of beautiful men and women in some smoky, wood-paneled bar in Zürich or, like me, you would rather drink an entire bottle of Maker’s Mark in your shed while dreaming of Melissa Wycliffe, the girl who wouldn’t go to prom with you, aims to be your one-stop shop for all your tippling needs. Founded by Harvard Law School graduates and , the pair left the legal profession to pursue drinking full-time in January 2012. The site sells artisanal and rare booze and so far it’s been going quite well. They’ve reached $1 million in annualized revenue and have 20,000 members who participate in the site’s flash sales of craft booze. The pair bootstrapped their business and haven’t found the need to seek funding. When the pair says they curate the spirits on the site, they mean they curate the spirits on the site. “Between 2009 and 2011, 1,800 new spirits were launched,” said Ali. “Our team samples and tastes each spirit we feature on Caskers before we feature it in order to ensure that it represents a compelling value to our members.” While online booze sales are nothing new, by adding a bit of flash-sale frisson and some nice design, Caskers makes looking for booze just a bit cooler. “We recognized that the spirits industry was ripe for disruption – while thousands of new brands were being introduced each year, there was no one curating the products for consumers and thus, no way for consumers to discover the best new spirits,” said Ali. When traveling they’d try new tipples and find that they weren’t available back home. Caskers was their solution. “Brick and mortar stores have limited shelf space, and devote most of it to ‘corporate spirits.’ In addition, B&M stores aren’t designed for browsing – the spirits are often located on a shelf behind a cashier who simply asks you what you want.” For example, the pair recently spoke with about carrying their whiskey, grappa, and rum and they’re constantly in talks with small distillers about new boozes. “We target the person who has an interest in spirits, but doesn’t want to spend 2 hours a day reading Whiskey Advocate. In just 60 seconds, we educate you about a new spirit and tell you why you might want to buy it!” The site is live, but it’s invitation-only and invitations are hard to come by. With a little perseverance, however, I’m sure we’ll all soon be able to fill our red Solo cups with sweet, sweet bourbon. TechCrunch readers can join by entering invite code “TECHCRUNCH”.
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Y Combinator Backs Its First Non-Profit, Watsi; Paul Graham Says He’s “Never Been So Excited” To Invest | Rip Empson | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | Back in August, , which offers anyone and everyone the opportunity to fund “low-cost, high impact treatment” for those who lack access to necessary care. Again, considering the fact that there are more than one billion people who are unable to afford adequate medical services (or don’t have access to them), Watsi’s mission has enormous (global) implications. And, honestly, it’s a pleasure to see a startup tackling such a big problem, in spite of the fact that it’s inherently complex, thorny and nearly impossible to solve. Today, we’ve learned that Watsi also caught the attention of Paul Graham and the Y Combinator crew. In , the YC co-founder says that he (like us) discovered Chase Adams’ venture as part of . “After about 30 seconds of looking at the site,” he says, the “revolutionary” potential became clear. As a result, Watsi is officially the first non-profit that Y Combinator has funded and accelerated to date as part of YC’s 2012/13 program. For those unfamiliar, Watsi is crowdfunding for a good cause, a Kickstarter for funding quality medical care in third-world countries — applying that familiar model to global healthcare. The platform allows donors to be able to make direct, personal connections with their beneficiaries (donating as little as $5 or as much as they want) in an attempt to put a face on what can be very inhuman and impersonal statistics around global healthcare (or the lack thereof). Like Kickstarter’s businesses, each person has his or her own profile which includes pictures and a synopsis of the person, describes their condition, what they need, where they’re from and so on. Again, while there have been scams that have operated on similar premises before, Watsi is the real deal and isn’t just out to make a buck. Founder Chase Adam tells us that Watsi is hoping to fight the traditionally high costs of healthcare by working with doctors, providers and payors (when they exist) to donate their time, research, materials and equipment to reduce overhead. In turn, because the procedures sought by Watsi campaigns take place abroad, they tend not to have the same cost one would find in the U.S., and thus, they don’t have to raise the same amount. What’s more, as Graham describes in his post, peer-to-peer fundraising channels have the tendency to be disruptive when introduced to unfamiliar spaces and markets. Although it takes work and the willingness to set the bar high (in spite of regulatory friction, legacy infrastructure, distribution, pay channels, etc), it also can come with a “much higher level of transparency.” Watsi offers 100 percent of the donations it collects from the crowd to the person in need (specifically to fund their medical treatments), thanks in part to Watsi.org being funded separately. Graham also says that the startup is paying “all their operational costs from their own funding, and none from your donations,” and in turn, even stomach credit card processing fees. A noble gesture in its own right. That, in practice means, that more of your money goes to people in need, not to funding the administrative costs of the company itself, or towards grabby hands in between. non-profit organizations (and tax-deductible donations) on its crowdfunding platform. It’s great to see the Y Combinator partners so excited about giving back. “I’ve never been so excited about anything we’ve funded,” Graham concludes. And Harj Taggar just had this to say, via tweet: [tweet 294903662738821120 align=’center’] What’s more, since we last covered Watsi in August, we’ve learned that the company has been building some solid early traction. The platform has funded 75 treatments thus far, raised about $60,000 for patients, received 1,300 donations and is now operating in eight countries. In all, Adams tells us that 20 percent have donors have already returned to donate for a second time and 30 percent of giving is coming from outside the U.S. and that Watsi is currently seeing about 28 percent average week-over-week growth. Oh, and Ron Conway has also made a generous philanthropic contribution to the site as well, Adams tells us. Pretty impressive for five months of work. Stay tuned for more. Go , in PG’s and find a more extensive background in . |
Gillmor Gang Live 01.25.13 (TCTV) | Steve Gillmor | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | – Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor. |
Rabois Left Square Over Sexual Harassment Claim, Calls Accusations “A Shakedown” | Eric Eldon | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | In a very surprising twist to yesterday, the reason is now known, and it wasn’t about business like everyone speculated. He was charged with sexual harassment by an employee. Here’s Square’s statement, which highlights both that it has found no evidence for the claims, and that he used poor judgement: The first we heard of any of these allegations was when we received the threat of a lawsuit two weeks ago. We took these allegations very seriously and we immediately launched a full investigation to ascertain the facts. While we have not found evidence to support any claims, Keith exercised poor judgment that ultimately undermined his ability to remain an effective leader at Square. We accepted his resignation. Rabois has written an emotional post about the situation . Here’s an excerpt: Last week, a New York-based attorney threatened Square and myself with a lawsuit. I am told this lawsuit would allege that the relationship was not consensual, and would go on to accuse me of some pretty horrible things. I was told that only a payment of millions of dollars will make this go away, and that my career, my reputation, and my livelihood will be threatened if Square and I don’t pay up. I realize that continuing any physical relationship after he began working at Square was poor judgment on my part. But let me be unequivocal with the facts: (1) The relationship was welcome. (2) Square did not know of the relationship before a lawsuit was threatened; it came as a complete surprise to the company. (3) He never received nor was denied any reward or benefits based on our relationship. And (4), I did not do the horrendous things I am told I may be accused of. While I have certainly made mistakes, this threat feels like a shakedown, and I will defend myself to the full extent of the law. It is impossible for us to know all of the facts right now, and we’re not going to speculate due to its personal and legal nature. |
Cheezburger Creator’s Startup SimpleHoney Shifts Focus From Travel To ‘I Want Wish List’ App | Anthony Ha | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | , the startup co-founded by Joyce Kim (former CEO of Korean pop site Soompi.com and former co-host of the GigaOm show) and Eric Nakagawa (creator of the I Can Has Cheezburger blog), is pursuing a new goal — creating the perfect app for “wish list commerce.” in May of last year, its goal was to connect travelers with the right hotel based on their personality. The problem, according to Kim (who’s also the startup’s CEO), was that people just didn’t travel enough for the site to build an ongoing relationship with its users — it probably didn’t help that the site was limited to hotels San Francisco and Hawaii. At the same time, the team saw that its “stickiest” feature was the ability to create travel wishlists, so it decided to build a wishlist-focused app, which became . The idea of creating a wish list is hardly new, but the new app is appealingly simple — Kim described the development process as “stripping down” all the unnecessary features. You search for products that you’re interested in, then add them to your list, which is presented in a clean, image-driven layout. The list is private by default, but you can share it with friends via Twitter, Facebook, and email. For now, the products are all pulled from Amazon (the team wants to add other online retailers eventually), and the app also alerts you when there are price changes and allows you to make purchases. The ultimate result is a list that’s easy to consult and to update while you’re on-the-go. (I don’t imagine that this will be a common use case, but I’m starting using the app to create a list of books that I want to buy when I’m visiting my neighborhood bookstores.) In , Kim says that with I Want Wish List, “You simply create a list of the products you want to buy and we let you know when it is the right time to buy and where.” The company will be adding more features, especially on “the right time to buy and where” side of things, and also expanding to the desktop web and tablets, In the first month after the app launched, Kim said it was downloaded around 30,000 times. During the peak holiday season, its users were performing one search per second. And sixty percent of those searches result in an addition to the wish list — so these are real, purpose-driven searches, and they’re bringing up products that people really want. Kim even told me that Nakagawa has compared the initial user response to the excitement he saw in the early days of I Can Has Cheezburger. As for the SimpleHoney travel site, it’s still available, but Kim said the team won’t be doing any more serious work on it. Both I Want Wish Lists (which you can ) and SimpleHoney are now branded as products from Honey Labs. |
Canceled Soaps “All My Children” And “One Life To Live” Coming Back From The Dead On Hulu, iTunes | Sarah Perez | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | ” but Hulu is today announcing that it, too, is bringing TV programs back from the dead. (Coming back from the dead – hey, that sounds like a soap plot!). Hulu has now signed a deal with media production Prospect Park to air the previously canceled soap operas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” on Hulu and Hulu Plus, where they’re air in addition to Apple’s iTunes. Though clearly not the kind of programming that everyone enjoys, soap operas have a core audience of fans addicted to their cliff-hanging story lines, and often serve as the launch pad for actors who later go on to do higher quality work. In the past, soap opera alumni has included household names like Demi Moore, Julianne Moore, Meg Ryan, Kevin Bacon, Susan Sarandon, Eva Longoria, Ryan Phillippe, Teri Hatcher, Ray Liotta, Kelsey Grammer, Tommy Lee Jones, and dozens of others. So knock ’em if you must, but it’s a living. And a long-time part of the Hollywood machine. That being said, with the variety of TV programming choices which have emerged over the years, and viewers’ changing tastes (let’s even go so far as to say “more sophisticated tastes,” shall we?), these types of programs have fallen in ratings, leading to “One Life to Live’s” final airing on ABC in January 2012 after 43+ years of being on TV. “All My Children” had wrapped the previous fall, after 41 years. That’s, like, nearly twice as long as “The Simpsons,” to give you an idea. Starting this spring, the shows will return with a new, now shorter 30-minute episode each weekday, with the exact launch to be announced at a later date. Prospect Park, which runs its own online network called, very creatively, “ ,” will also feature the shows, as will Apple’s iTunes. The new agreement with Hulu will allow it to manage the ad sales for the two soaps, and package them for other integrated sponsorship opportunities. Hulu will also promote them across its free and subscription-based platform, Hulu and Hulu Plus. The production company has been trying to revive these shows for some time now, after first the content from ABC in mid-summer 2011. , but those deals due to funding and negotiations with the various unions involved in such a venture. But it has now closed on a consulting agreement with Agnes Nixon, the two series’ creator, as well as deals with labor groups the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Directors Guild of America, in order to , as well as another deal with the Writer’s Guild of America. And it has closed its financing with ABRY Partners, the company says. Now the bigger question is whether or not the remaining fans, who may or may not reflect the demographic profile of your average Hulu or iTunes user, will return to find their shows on their new online homes. Hulu . The network has invested in a handful of originals, and has expanded its Exclusive Series lineup to 20 on-demand TV shows to date. |
TechCrunch Giveaway: Nike+ Fuel Band Plus 2 Free Tickets To The #Crunchies | Elin Blesener | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the are nearly upon us! Voting and the last set of tickets are . If you want to purchase them in time for next week’s show you’d better hurry, because the tickets are going fast. Next Thursday is going to be a night you will never forget. We have all-star surprise guests, musical guests and an Emmy Award-winning writer hosting the show. That’s not all; the after party will be a blast as well. This is one of your last chances to win tickets to this year’s show. The Crunchies are being held at the gorgeous in San Francisco next Thursday, January 31st, starting at 7:00pm, with the after party following directly after. The after party will have drinks, hors d’oeuvres, special guests, and more. Also, it’s a fancy show, so be sure to dress your best. :) Just because we love you all and want to give everyone a shot at coming to the show, we are going to pick three winners for this giveaway. Each winner will receive 2 tickets to the show, plus we’ll throw in a free where you can track your day, set goals for yourself and more. Oh, and we’ll even let you pick which color you want. Darrell Etherington and I each bought one in Vegas after CES, and we have been competing with each other every day since. They are each valued at around $150. You can check out more about the Fuel Bands . So, who wants a chance to come with us and win a Fuel Band? If so, all you have to do is follow the steps below: 1) 2) – Retweet this post (making sure to include the #Crunchies hashtag)
– Or leave us a comment below telling us why we should PICK YOU Please only tweet the message once or you will be disqualified. We will make sure you follow the steps above and choose our winner on Sunday, January 27th at 7:00pm PT. Please note this giveaway is for two free tickets and one free Nike+ Fuel Band only and does not include airfare or hotel. Good luck everyone. |
Facebook Clarifies Ban On Apps That Use Its Data To Replicate Its Features Or Don’t Share Back | Josh Constine | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | After to several competing apps, Facebook today to its Platform Policy, banning apps that use its data but don’t make it easy for users to share back to Facebook, or that replicate its core functionality without permission. Facebook Platform Head Justin Osofsky tried to calm fears by noting the majority of developers should “keep doing what you’re doing.” The full-text of the revised section I.10 of its now reads: Reciprocity and Replicating core functionality: (a) Reciprocity: Facebook Platform enables developers to build personalized, social experiences via the Graph API and related APIs. If you use any Facebook APIs to build personalized or social experiences, you must also enable people to easily share their experiences back with people on Facebook. (b) Replicating core functionality: You may not use Facebook Platform to promote, or to export user data to, a product or service that replicates a core Facebook product or service without our permission. This replaces the former policy that read “Competing social networks: (a) You may not use Facebook Platform to export user data into a competing social network without our permission.” In a developer blog post, Osofsky stressed that Facebook doesn’t plan to remove the ability to use it as a login mechanism, pull profile data for personalization, or allow sharing to the news feed. He explains that “For the vast majority of developers building social apps and games, keep doing what you’re doing. Our goal is to provide a platform that gives people an easy way to login to your apps, create personalized and social experiences, and easily share what they’re doing in your apps with people on Facebook.” However, Osofsky then addresses the issues of apps that use Facebook’s data to compete with it or that don’t contribute anything back to the news feed. “For a much smaller number of apps that are using Facebook to either replicate our functionality or bootstrap their growth in a way that creates little value for people on Facebook, such as not providing users an easy way to share back to Facebook, we’ve had against this that we are further clarifying today ( ).” These clarified rules apply to apps like , which recreates the functionality of Graph Search and Facebook Nearby, and , which recreates voice messaging within Facebook Messenger, and are not allowed. This week Facebook blocked all API calls from Wonder and Voxer’s Find Friends access. For the new policy requires a loose interpretation to give Facebook the right to to Twitter’s standalone looping video-sharing app Vine, which it did yesterday just hours after the app launched. Vine allows people to share 6-second looping videos — essentially animated GIFs with sound. The closest thing Facebook offers is standard video sharing through its web and mobile apps and photo sharing through Instagram. The more vague old policy that restricted “competing” apps better covered this enforcement, since Vine and Twitter are certainly apps that compete in the user-generated content-sharing space. If Facebook in fact sticks to enforcing its new policy to the letter, it should provide some reassurance to developers that the social network can’t go after simply any “competing” company. Considering the breadth of Facebook’s services, a ton of apps would qualify. But if it continues to cast a wide net around apps that “replicate” its functionality as it did with Vine, developers may still have a reason to be paranoid. Facebook’s new policy against replication could be even more worrisome for developers because of the speed with which Mark Zuckerberg’s company builds products. For example, ephemeral messaging app Snapchat was doing something unique in mid-December. But then in just 12 days, Facebook built , a direct competitor of Snapchat (which some call a clone). Suddenly, Snapchat was violating the new replication policy. This gives developers who consider using Facebook’s data a tough choice to make. They effectively have to predict what Facebook build and steer clear. Otherwise months of development by a small team could get steamrolled by the social giant in a few days. , Facebook’s social graph and other unique data sets are extraordinarily valuable. Handing them over to competitors could endanger its future as the dominant social network. So in some ways Facebook’s increased enforcement is forgivable, or at least understandable. But if it polices the platform too much, it may scare away developers who build apps that contribute content to Facebook. It needs that content to monetize with surrounding ads and inclusion in search. Facebook’s mantra of “Move Fast And Break Things” takes on a new meaning now that it’s your things it might break. — |
Just In Time For The Weekend, We Present The DIY LEGO Pancake Bot | John Biggs | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KCT-l642WGY] If you only watch one video today, it should be this one. You will discover that it is footage of a DIY LEGO pancake maker which is, in my expert opinion, the best thing to come out of Norway since the fjords. Created by , an American maker abroad, the project has been around for a few years but this video shows us how the project works in detail, further proving that the nascent robotic-pancake-making scene is a cultural juggernaut waiting to explode. The project uses LEGO and a ketchup bottle to squirt and cook pancake batter on a built-in griddle. While it is not able to feed us directly using a robotic arm, I definitely see a future for this sort of device in the homes of the catastrophically DIY-oriented, because I’d personally be afraid to trust LEGO to cook my pancakes for me. If you want to make your own pancake bot, simply or view this video again and again, marveling at how amazing those pancakes must taste on a hungover Sunday morning. They’re looking to go to Maker Faire in San Francisco this year and they’re looking for so please be generous. |
Come To The TechCrunch Singapore Meetup And Echelon After-Drinks Tonight | Josh Constine | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | TechCrunch is serious about covering Asia Pacific. So we’re holding a after the Echelon conference where you can connect with TechCrunch writers and teach us about the region’s startup ecosystems. It’s from 6pm-8:30pm today, Tuesday June 4th at , Changi City Point Mall #01-70/71, 5 Changi Business Park Central 1, Singapore City. Silicon Valley-based TechCrunch writer and APAC-based writer will be on hand to hear about your startup, offer entrepreneurship guidance, and have a drink with you. There’ll be appetizers too, plus a chance to meet other high-powered techies from Singapore and the rest of Asia. will be helping us have a techie good time, and afterwards we’ll all head to the official . We see APAC blossoming into an even more critical part of the world startup scene. But to offer great coverage, we need to meet you and get your insights. Tell us about local talent, funding, opportunities, and challenges to success. Turn us on to something fascinating and your company could end up in TechCrunch. So whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, dreamer, or tech enthusiast, come out to the TechCrunch Singapore meetup and unwind after a long day at the Echelon 2013 conference. Bring your friends and let’s grow this community! . MOA is in the Changi City Point Mall in the outdoor ground level Oasis area. This Foursquare listing has an . Come show us why Singapore and APAC are the next big things in tech. |
Brighter Launches A New, Free Version Of Its Dental Service To Bring Affordable Care To The Uninsured | Rip Empson | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | It was just about two years ago that Jake Winebaum (who had previously sold Business.com for $360 million) quietly launched , an online marketplace for discounted dental care. Within a few months, Winebaum and Brighter, which had launched with $5 million in its coffers, and a few others. The reason for this was simple: showed last year, more than 130 million Americans are currently living without dental insurance. Even with insurance, a trip to the dentist’s office can be pricey; without insurance, it’s equivalent to root canal. As such, the need (and demand) for more accessible and affordable dental care is high — and getting higher. Brighter has remained fairly quiet over the last year, as new startups have moved into the space in an attempt to bring affordable dental care to the masses, beginning with California. And today, Brighter followed suit with a service that targets the 40 percent of Los Angeles residents who are living without dental insurance and can’t afford those pricey visits. When Brighter launched in 2011, it followed a familiar roadmap for startups focused on providing more affordable dental care, offering 20 to 30 percent discounts on care to users for free, while promising those who shelled out for its $80 premium platform access to even larger discounts of up to 60 percent. With its new service, Brighter is now claiming that anyone can get better rates on dental procedures — at up to 50 percent off standard rates — for free. The company started by building out a network of dentists nationwide, in attempt to build a kind of Progressive Insurance price comparison site, or ZocDoc listings, for the nation’s dentists. But to provide real discounts and actually bring service to the uninsured, Brighter realized it had to narrow its focus and bite off a smaller piece of the pie. This means that, starting today, Brighter.com members can compare and select from over 350 (fully vetted) dentists in Los Angeles. Not only that, but Winebaum said that the team soon realized that, if it really wanted to make a difference, it would have to slough off the subscription model and go for broke. In other words, they’d have to go free. So, the dentists currently listed in LA are listed at pre-negotiated prices that are “comparable to those secured by large insurance companies, but without the premiums and complications of insurance,” Winebaum says. Now, instead of charging users a subscription fee to access these discounted listings, Brighter is now charging the dentists to list their procedures and services on the platform. Brighter gives each dentist an SEO-friendly profile on which they can list their procedures, location, background, qualifications and degrees, accompanied by an introductory video from Brighter and Yelp reviews. The idea is to make local dentists easily searchable for users, while giving dentists an easy way to list their qualifications and availabilities. Dentists negotiate lower prices for each procedure in hopes of attracting those in need by offering lower prices than the next dentist. The idea is to attract customers who are willing (and able) to pay up front for discounted dental services, without having to worry about filing paperwork, claims and all of the time-consuming stuff that comes along with insurance. For dentists, this should provide an easy way to market their services, to be found in pre-qualified dentist-specific searches, and get credit for offering discounted service to those who need it. Plus, Brighter integrates with dentists’ scheduling software (like ZocDoc mentioned above), making it easy for them to list times, book appointments and fill vacancies. Or so the thinking goes. Of course, without insurance being a bigger part of the picture, a lot of responsibility falls on Brighter’s vetting process. If one quack falls through the cracks and starts doing low-quality procedures that cause more pain or require patients to return again and again to the dentist’s chair, the trustworthiness of the platform begins to disintegrate. Of course, some of this can be prevented by making it easy for patients to view dentist ratings (and provide their own feedback), but a few bad seeds trying to game the system can spoil the game for everyone. To its credit, however, Brighter is confident enough about its extensive vetting process for its certified dental providers that the startup is offering its members a money-back guarantee on all appointments made through the service. At least it’s putting its money where its mouth is, and that’s worth a lot in the early stages. Brighter is one among a handful of startups and more established players looking to bring greater transparency to the health insurance market, including and startups and , for example. For the dental market, Brighter was competing with services , and , but services like these are still largely relying on the subscription model. Thus, when it comes to dental platforms offering free alternatives that eliminate those annoying monthly fees, that leaves Brighter alone with to duke it out in California and, going forward, the rest of the country. And, if these startups live up to their claims, the more successful they are, the better it will be for the millions of Americans currently living without dental insurance. Find |
Zynga Shares Plummet 12% To $2.99 After It Announces Layoffs | Catherine Shu | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | Investors were unsettled by Zynga’s that it is cutting 520 employees, or almost one-fifth of its workforce, with shares 12% to $2.99, before recovering slightly in after hours trading. Trading of Zynga shares were halted twice in the afternoon on the Nasdaq stock exchange, first for the layoff announcement and then again due to volatile trading during which the stock fell by as much as 15%. Though Zynga said the layoffs will result in $70 million to $80 million in annualized pre-tax savings, its guidance for its second-quarter earnings is still a loss between $39 million and $28.5 million. As Anthony Ha earlier, Zynga’s rationale for the mass layoffs is to create a tighter, leaner operation as the company hopes to replicate the success of mobile gaming startups like and , which have released huge hits despite their much smaller size. Zynga also plans to in order to focus on turning each franchise into a big brand name. But today’s plummet in Zynga’s stock price shows that the company still has a long way to go in order to win investors over to its restructuring plans, especially since this isn’t the first time Zynga has attempted to reduce costs by . Last October, the company fired 5% of its employees after , citing weakness in games like The Ville. CEO Mark Pincus as it continues to face a challenging environment on the Facebook platform, struggle to build its mobile revenue and deal with declining user numbers, but it’s still far from certain if the transition will be a positive one. |
Facebook Messages Just Went Down For 90 Minutes For Some Web And Mobile Users, Back Now | Josh Constine | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | Facebook confirms that Facebook Messages experienced a limited outage today. It prevented some users from sending or receiving messages on both the web and mobile for 90 minutes, but chat is back at full-strength as of 7:30pm PST. The outage comes at an inconvenient time as Facebook is seeing increasing competition in the messaging space from Google and mobile-first startups. Facebook says a small percentage of users were affected. We saw of the outage from California, Texas and New York, and I experienced it myself. When some mobile users experiencing the problems tried to press the Messages icon at the top of their Facebook app, the overlaid list of message conversations that’s supposed to pop up appeared blank. On the web, others and I received the message “Down For Maintenance: Sorry, messages are temporarily unavailable. Please try again later” when trying to send a message. Instability is a big issue for Facebook as it tries to new competition from Google’s unified chat system, which launched last month at I/O. Meanwhile, novel image-based messaging apps like Snapchat and Line threaten to pull away younger users. Reliability is critical to making users feel confident that they’ll always be able to communicate with Facebook friends at a moment’s notice. At least Facebook has come a long way from 2009, when outages were much more frequent. It’s been a day marred by social network outages, as earlier today, June 3rd. |
More Details On Why Zynga Laid Off 18% Of Its Workforce And How It’s Shifting To Mobile | Anthony Ha | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | Earlier today, . After the news broke, I spoke to a source with knowledge of the company’s decision-making process to get more details about why Zynga made the cuts and what they mean for its future. What they said won’t be revelatory if you have been following Zynga’s earnings reports or if you , but they did paint a picture of a company that wants to become leaner and more nimble while it’s also struggling to create more mobile hits. In some cases, it seems that executives believed that they were “banking” team members. Only a small portion of a given studio was really needed to create a mobile game, but Zynga didn’t want to lose the other team members, so they were kept around on the assumption that the mobile business would grow. Eventually, however, executives decided this was happening in too many locations and was ultimately unsustainable. My source compared the situation to older gaming companies making the shift to the web. Just as the growth of free-to-play social games has , the shift to mobile is forcing the previous wave of social gaming companies to become smaller still. Not that it’s just a few supposedly oversized studios that are being affected. I’m told that Zynga teams are being shrunk across the board. The company will also be spending less money on partnerships. And, , the New York, San Francisco, and Dallas studios are being closed entirely. Zynga is also trying to follow the lead of mobile gaming companies like and . Apparently executives were impressed to see massive hits created by small teams and small workforces. The hope is that by restructuring the company, Zynga can replicate the success of some of its startup competitors. The company has talked in the past about , and I’m told that’s still the plan — to focus on a smaller number of franchises and try to turn each of them into a big brand name. |
Facebook NY Signs 10-Year Lease To Move Into ~100K Sq Ft Office With 2X Space | Josh Constine | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | After weeks of rumors, Facebook has a 10-year lease to move its New York office into a new, nearly 100,000-square-foot space over two floors at 770 Broadway in Manhattan. The interior will be designed by famed architect Frank Gehry who is masterminding its Menlo Park Headquarters expansion. Facebook NY’s engineering, design, marketing, sales, and comms teams will move there in early 2014. The upgrade comes from the 55,000-square-foot space at 335 Madison Ave. it opened in 2008 for sales and marketing. originally leaked that Facebook was eying the 770 Broadway real estate but implied it would take over the whole building rather than just two floors. The space at the west edge of the East Village falls in the increasingly techie “Silicon Alley.” It will house all of Facebook’s New York operations and give it room to grow. Facebook tells me it chose Gehry after being impressed with , including his ability to achieve cutting-edge design at an efficient price. Facebook says “we expect the space to be very similar to our West Campus plan. This will include open floor plans, natural lighting, and an emphasis on space for collaboration.” Gehry says ” We are looking forward to creating a space that speaks to the values of Facebook and allows them to continue to do their best work.” 770 Broadway was originally built in 1906, designed by Daniel Burnham, and spans from east 8th to 9th street. It was the home of the Wanamaker department store, but now its main tenant is AOL [disclosure: TechCrunch is owned by AOL]. The building is with ultra-efficient lighting and water systems. The two floors will give Facebook room to offer more perks to employees, which are helpful for signing new hires in a very competitive talent marketplace. Serkan Piantino, the head of Facebook New York’s engineering team, wrote in a the new office that “We’ll have plenty of video conferencing equipment to make meeting with our colleagues in other offices really quick and easy. We’ll have room to build out a full service kitchen and serve great food throughout the day.” Even New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg is excited about the new space, noting “Facebook’s investment in New York City is another vote of confidence in our bright future and booming tech scene.” The 10-year lease shows that, while nimble mobile competitors are hoping to disrupt the social network, it sees a long future for its business of connecting people. |
Reeder, gReader & Other Popular Feed Reading Apps Partner With Feedly Ahead Of Google Reader Shutdown | Sarah Perez | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | In less than a month, Google Reader will shut down for good, according to on Digg.com, a company now in the process of building a replacement. For end users, the loss is one of a simple, fast and powerful front-end for browsing news feeds, but for developers working on apps in the RSS ecosystem, it means something even worse: the end of access to the Reader API. Today, is offering an alternative. Having to pick up where Google Reader left off, the company has announced partnerships with several RSS app developers, including , , , and , which will move to support the Feedly API before the Google Reader API is shut down. What that means for end users relying on these apps is that the app makers will be able to seamlessly transition their users to a new backend ahead of . The API is part of Feedly’s , which is focused on cloning the Reader API and is now running on Google’s App Engine platform. The Normandy backend will also power Feedly’s own app ecosystem, including its apps for iOS, Android, Chrome, Safari and Firefox. When Normandy was first revealed, the company fielded more than 100 developer requests, but only those app makers listed above were offered the initial invites. A second batch is now in the works. In addition to news of the API partners, Feedly also offered a brief update on progress, detailing the top requests coming from users on its support forum. The company says it has new dev and operations staff on hand to help it focus on improvements to Feedly’s speed, which is a top request. Users are also asking for better search, a web-only version, support for Windows 8 and Windows Phone, improved group sharing, and more. The company also touted its , and — other indications of the startup’s intent to build more than an online Reader replacement, but rather help re-seed the RSS ecosystem with the necessary tools. Since the Google announcement, several alternatives have stepped up to fill the void, including startups like , , “ ,” , and more. Many, however, only have an online interface, not a lineup of apps, an API and the other tools that make for a viable alternative to what Google Reader once provided. Digg, however, is now backed by betaworks, and may have the resources to deliver. It has now moved code to production servers ahead of wider testing. But Feedly has been at this game for much longer, so it has a big head start. Several weeks ago, Feedly announced that 3 million users had joined since the Reader shutdown announcement from Google. It says now that 68 percent of users who try the service now convert to weekly actives. |
One API To Rule Them All – Segment.io Lets Mobile Developers Send Analytics Data To Dozens Of Services, Without Resubmitting To App Stores | Sarah Perez | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | , a Y Combinator-backed startup making it easier for developers to integrate APIs from multiple analytics providers into their applications, is today expanding its service to include support for . The company is introducing mobile software development kits for both iOS and Android, which will allow developers to toggle on or off 25 different analytics services without resubmitting their apps to the various app stores. At launch, Segment.io’s will support sending data to a number of mobile analytics services, including Countly, Mixpanel, Localytics, Flurry, Google Analytics and others. Co-founder Peter Reinhardt explains that the new libraries will give mobile developers flexibility, because they’ll now be able to deploy the Segment.io analytics library just once, then switch on or off the services inside Segment.io that they want to work with. In addition, by proxying the data through Segment.io’s servers, the libraries provide mobile developers for the first time with access to , HubSpot, Customer.io, Vero, Klaviyo, Pardot, Woopra, Help Scout, Librato, Outbound.io and Salesforce. In the months ahead, the company will add support for dozens of analytics services, including USERcycle, Userfox, Web Trends and Omniture, for example. by former MIT roommates Reinhardt, Ilya Volodarsky, and Calvin French-Owen with designer Ian Storm Taylor, Segment.io grew out of the team’s earlier efforts in building a library called , an open source tool still available on GitHub. Though they had originally been focused on building a KISSmetrics or Google Analytics competitor, after watching the open source version take off, the founders decided to meet demand by focusing on a simple analytics API for developers instead. With Segment.io, the idea is to offer a single API that works across all providers. The service supports integrations with Chartbeat, comScore, Customer.io, Foxmetrics, Google Analytics, KISSmetrics, mixpanel, Quantcast, Perfect Audience, Uservoice and , plus access to premium (paid) integrations including HubSpot, Marketo, Omniture, Pardot, Totango, and Salesforce to drastically cut down on development time. As Reinhardt explained to us , each API out there is slightly different, so businesses want to use them for different things — one for tracking referrals, another for custom event tracking, and a third for targeted emails, for example. Developers then get stuck trying to figure out all these APIs, which is time that could be better spent working on product. Since January, Segment.io has grown from 60 sites using its service, to thousands today, and Reinhardt says that during that time, API call volume has grown from 60 million per month to now over a billion in May. “We processed as many events today as we did in all of January,” he tells us. Like Segment.io’s previously launched analytics API, for mobile is freemium-based, with access to a number of free integrations up to 1 million API calls for free, then tiered access afterwards for more calls and/or business integrations. Interested developers . Segment.io is backed by $600,000 in seed funding from NEA, General Catalyst and other angel investors. |
Vine Gets RickRoll’D With A Three Minute Video | Jordan Crook | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | Vine has over . And with this morning’s , chances are that number is climbing rapidly. But of all the Vines, from all the millions of users, across all of the world, this is the best one. Period. Trust me. might have used that seems to have been discovered about a month ago, wherein users can upload videos longer than six seconds to Vine as long as they follow a detailed set of steps and use a jailbroken device. Apparently Twitter’s API doesn’t check for how long the video is while it’s being uploaded on the server side. We originally believed Smidlein used the method above, which requires a jailbroken device. We that he actually re-created parts of the Android version of the Vine app, which was released today, to take certain liberties with creating posts, adding titles, etc. In either case, the API let it live for a while as a looping . Obviously, the Vine is down now. It was fun while it lasted.
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Twitter Is Experiencing Site-Wide Issues, Including Timelines Not Updating And Profiles Not Loading (UPDATED) | Drew Olanoff | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | According to and all of Facebook, the service appears to be experiencing site-wide issues, including errors on just about every single feature of the site. So far, I’ve only been able to send and receive DMs without error; however you can still tweet. You just won’t see it. Along with the timeline refresh issue, you aren’t able to view anyone’s profile at the moment, which is a big problem, considering that a lot of traffic comes to the site via these pages popping up in Google search results. Here’s the page of empty sadness that you’ll see when you click on someone’s beautiful avatar: These issues have been going on for about 15 minutes, with Twitter’s engineering staff posting about it seven minutes ago. The issues are also affecting mobile apps, as you’ll get a similar error message when trying to update your timelines. Here’s what the status blog says as of right now: Some users may be experiencing issues accessing Twitter. Our engineers are currently working to resolve the issue. Twitter has actually done quite well with its uptime over the past few years, having very few major events that bring every feature down like this. It is, however, interesting to see the company always say that “some users” are experiencing issues, when it’s quite clear that more than “some” of them are. We’ve reached out to Twitter for more information, but have yet to hear back. We don’t usually hear about issues happen, just that they’ve been resolved, so don’t expect anything in-depth. [tweet https://twitter.com/ckanal/status/341659616234582016] It appears that Twitter is bringing all of its features back. Feel free to tweet about how that was the worst 41 minutes or so of your life. According to the status blog, Twitter is back to normal. Also, I take back what I said about Twitter not providing any reasons as to why this happened: Due to an error in a routine change, Twitter was not available from 1:08pm PDT to 1:33pm PDT. We rolled back the erroneous change as soon as we identified the issue. Additionally, some users may have experienced Tweet delivery delay from 1:33pm PDT and 1:53pm PDT. We apologize for the inconvenience. |
Microsoft Acquires InCycle’s Release Management Service InRelease To Improve Its Team Foundation Server | Frederic Lardinois | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | Microsoft has InRelease, a tool for automatically deploying application components to target services in different environments. InCycle is a Canadian company that specializes in application lifecycle management (ALM) and release management solutions on Microsoft’s .NET platform. As Microsoft is only acquiring the InRelease business unit, the rest of the company will continue to operate independently and focus on ALM consulting. InCycle was founded in 2002 and, last year, the company merged with , another ALM-focused Microsoft partner with offices in San Francisco and Seattle. InRelease enables agile .NET teams to automate the release cycles of their apps. It automates deployments directly from Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server, Microsoft’s own ALM and DevOps solution, to all environments, including production. This ensures all deployments are done the same way. It also automates the approval workflow and auditing support. “DevOps is an increasingly important part of ALM and a growing area of interest to chief information officers as businesses are pressured to develop and deploy quality applications at an increasingly faster pace,” said S. Somasegar, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for its developer division, in a statement today. “The InRelease continuous delivery solution will automate the development-to-production release process from Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, helping enable faster and simpler delivery of applications.” InRelease was already integrated directly with , and InCycle hopes that this acquisition will help it to add release management capabilities to Team Foundation Server. Microsoft did not specify how exactly it plans to do so beyond that “this acquisition will extend Microsoft’s offerings in the ALM and DevOps space” and that it plans to integrate it “from TFS through to production, all in one solution, and all integrated with TFS.” |
Zynga Confirms That It’s Cutting 520 Employees (18% Of Workforce), Says It Will Save $70M-$80M | Anthony Ha | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | The company says this was result in $70 million to $80 million in annualized pre-tax savings. Despite those savings, its guidance for its second quarter earnings is a loss between $39 million and $28.5 million. In a note to employees, CEO Mark Pincus described this as a “proactive” move that will “offer our teams the runway they need to take risks and develop these breakthrough new social experiences” on mobile and touchscreen devices. My original post, which went up before the company confirmed the news, follows. I also . It looks like Zynga is in the midst of laying off one-fifth of its workforce. At the end of last week, we heard that the company would be laying off 20 percent of its worldwide staff today, and that a number of Zynga’s global offices would be affected. A Zynga spokesperson declined to comment, but we’ve seen the first public sign that the layoffs are underway: A Zynga UI designer just that Zynga L.A. will be closing, with about 55 employees let go. This isn’t the first time Zynga has had significant cuts. Last fall, , and it subsequently . The company has also eliminated some of its less successful titles (and even some unreleased ones), though executives have also said that . As of its last quarter, . That’s probably slightly off by now, but if the 20 percent number that we’ve been hearing is accurate, then around 580 employees will be affected. Zynga’s revenue and usage statistics , with Pincus describing this as a “transition year” as the company shifts its focus to mobile. |
Julian Assange Unmasks Eric Schmidt’s Evil Plans To Enslave The World | Gregory Ferenstein | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | “General Schmidt, Julian is on to us,” said President Obama, as he sauntered through the steel doors of the Google Bunker, Secret Service in tow. The President wore his mandatory “I’m A Googler” t-shirt over his dress shirt. As always, he had stopped first at one of Google’s rainbow-colored snack stations to grab a bottle of fresh celery juice and some kale chips. “Let me stop you right there, Agent Obama,” said Schmidt. “I’m aware of , but he couldn’t stop Google+ even if he wanted to. No one can.” However, Schmidt was still visibly shaken. The Wikileaks author and had broken open the search giant’s meticulously calculated plot to realize the perfect technocratic vision of . Their goal – to destroy humanity’s will to resist by making it easier to look up pizza recipes – was nearly complete. “They have updated and seamlessly implemented George Orwell’s prophecy,” Assange had written in a column — words that echoed over and over in Schmidt’s mind. Assange couldn’t understand Google’s role in history, Schmidt thought. Caesar, Napoleon, Mao–giving free access to information had always been the secret of the world’s great authoritarians. Why else spend billions uniting all of humanity’s data into one cohesive mess of Reddit posts and Pokemon strategy videos? They couldn’t let the white-haired rabble-rouser ruin their plan. In strode Agent Justin Bieber. He was out of breath from dancing. “The journalists, Sir, they’re refusing an off-the-record meeting with Attorney General Holder. We thought spying would frighten them into submission, but the unthinkable happened: Arianna Huffington . It’s out of control,” said the shaken boy. “I know we were saving this option for an emergency but I think it may be time,” said Agent Mayer, who had been sitting near a workstation trying out different permutations of the words “Free Terabyte.” She still had a hand in the Great Destruction Of Humanity, even though she had already rolled her 401K over to Yahoo! Eric and Barack’s eyes widened simultaneously. “We can’t use the Biden offense,” said the President. “Yes, according to the analytics team he needs to conduct ,” said Mayer. Obama, calm as ever, relaxed into his executive beanbag; with a nod of his head, the order was given to dispatch the folksy pacifier of the masses. “Democracy is insidiously subverted by technologies of surveillance, and control is enthusiastically rebranded as ‘participation,'” Assange had explained. . People were participating all over the world. They were sending emails that were read by robots who placed advertising on the screen. Humans were chatting endlessly and downloading Angry Birds. Their enslavement was nearly complete. Just before Bieber had finished moonwalking out of the office, Obama’s chin rose. “Bieber, before you go,” he said. The boy stopped mid-pop-and-lock. “I didn’t want to have to do this, Eric, but I think we must. Agent Bieber, release the Biden announcement with a Google Doodle. Also, if you could Tweet it…” “Can’t do it,” said Bieber. “My Twitter feed is run by Monsanto.” “That’s fine. I’ll put it on the front page of Flickr. Now, what can we do with Asia?” asked Double-Agent Mayer. “Well, as Assange wrote, I ‘proselytize the role of technology in reshaping the world’s people and nations into likenesses of the world’s dominant superpower…It is a major declaration designed to foster alliances,'” said Schmidt, reciting the OpEd from his Google Glass app. “My favorite tactic, in this case, is by entertaining the public into an anti-democratic, cat-video stupor. This is a perfect opportunity to forge our alliances in the East.” Schmidt reached for his low-cost, low-resale-value Android phone from HTC. “Lieutenant Psy, sorry to wake you,” Schmidt said. “I’ve updated your Google Spreadsheet with new orders for Bieber. All their mind will belong to us.” A moment later, Schmidt pounded the hang-up button. Then he pounded it again. One more time and the phone turned off. “Psy?” huffed a surprised Obama. “He’s one of ours?” “There are no coincidences, Agent Obama.” Schmidt said, with his back turned. “After those meddling kids from Invisible Children , we worried that it would inspire citizens to see our free media platform as a tool of civic engagement. Naturally, we couldn’t have that kind of unpredictability. So, we made the decision to expand our popstar assets abroad. , I think we’ve quelled that little insurrection.” “And what about Assange’s comments on Android?” asked Agent Mayer. “Remember, Assange wrote: ‘Congolese fisherwomen, graphic designers in Botswana, anticorruption activists in San Salvador and illiterate Masai cattle herders in the Serengeti are all obediently summoned to demonstrate the progressive properties of Google phones jacked into the informational supply chain of the Western empire,'” said Schmidt. “I would love to point him to the many impoverished citizens around the world that Google’s products have helped, which, of course, hides the nefarious conspiracy to connect them all on the same phone operating system, so we can track their every maneuver and send them Zagat recommendations. However, we can show no weakness in the eyes of the Android-buying public.” “Fortunately, the code base of our low-cost open-source mobile operating system, Android, was completely transparent to the world’s developers – which meant that no one would ever – – uncover hidden features,” added Obama. And then, just before his meeting concluded, Schmidt had a stroke of evil genius. “Agent Obama,” commanded Schmidt. “One more thing: . We need to repair our relationship with journalists and we don’t want to know what news people are reading.” [ ] |
Google Launches Mobile Backend Starter, A One-Click Deployable Cloud Backend For Android Apps | Frederic Lardinois | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | Google today the launch of its that allows Android developers to deploy a basic cloud infrastructure for their apps that runs on Google’s . Mobile Backend Starter provides developers with a one-click deployable mobile backend and a client-side framework for Android that provides them with storage services, access to , and Google’s authentication and authorization features. Google argues that most successful mobile apps now use some kind of server infrastructure to power their services, but for most mobile developers, that’s a distraction and often not something they are comfortable with. This new tool essentially provides developers with most of the infrastructure services they need for their apps without the need to write any backend code themselves. Because it runs on top of App Engine, the backend should also easily scale to handle virtually any load a mobile app can throw at it. To get started, developers simply have to select the Mobile Backend sample app when they start a new App Engine project and follow the instructions . While Google describes the process as “one-click,” it’s worth noting that while that’s true for deploying the backend, it does take a little bit more effort than that to get everything up and running. Google first announced this tool at its I/O developer conference last month, but it looks like it only released it today. The project’s source code is , and you can watch the full I/O session about it below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v5u_Owtbfew |
New Android Alarm Clock App Warmly Wants To Wake You Up Right | Darrell Etherington | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eXuh-3_ygc?feature=player_embedded] Generally we seem content to be rudely shocked out of sleep, with alarms that blare at us and beep violently, rendering continued sleep impossible. New , from the Seattle-based , thinks it might be better if an app wakes you up with gradually mounting sounds that not only aren’t alien and frightening, but are actually comforting and familiar. It’s a project that’s characteristic of what The Chaos Collective hopes to achieve, according to co-founder Adam Kumpf, who I spoke to about the new project. We’ve previously covered another project of the Seattle-based group, the using any camera with manually adjustable focus. Kumpf says that both Warmly and that camera hack fit a loose product strategy that The Chaos Collective takes as its guiding light. “The Chaos Collective is about working on projects that excite us and sharing that excitement with the world,” he said. “Admittedly, it’s a pretty unconventional business plan, but we believe that working on things we love is the best way to create things that aren’t just clutter. The world is a huge place, but the Internet bring us all together; we hope that the passion we have for each project, hack and experiment translates into others loving them, too.” Warmly is something that has come from experimenting with concepts and technical elements that the team was interested in. And in many ways, it’s about giving them something to help them kickstart their own creative efforts, in a way that’s generative of more interesting results, since a good start is as important as anything to a good finish. “Warmly is a product that has grown out of much experimentation,” Kumpf explains. “We’ve worked on a lot of collaborative, real-time systems, but have come to realize that getting started can be as much of a barrier to productivity as the tools you use. So we started looking into alarm clocks and had many of the same criticisms.” The concept behind Warmly is that pleasing sounds are just as effective at waking you up as unpleasant ones, and the Collective played around with a few different sound combinations before coming up with the ones that are built into the app, including things like the sounds of breakfast being cooked. The app went from experiment to shipping product based on its success with beta testers and Collective members, Kumpf says, which is how all products make their way through the company’s pipeline. The Warmly app costs $1.99, which Kumpf says they believe is justified, since “if it’s not worth the price of a cup of coffee, [they] aren’t doing their jobs.” He says that while the Collective’s general preference is to embrace open source as much as possible, at some point, projects must become products in order to generate revenue and fuel further efforts. While Warmly is debuting on Android, owing to its generally more positive attitude toward experimentation, an iOS version is definitely in the queue if reaction is positive enough. |
Keen On… Stephen Wolfram: Confessions Of The Most Quantified Person On The Planet | Andrew Keen | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | , the founder and CEO of the software company , may well be the smartest and most interesting guy in tech. A PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech at the age of 20, the youngest ever recipient of the MacArthur “genius” fellowship, the inventor of both and , Wolfram’s life has been dedicated to the capture and organization of all the knowledge in the world. Indeed, Wolfram believes that this “data science” represents the most exciting opportunities now for startup entrepreneurs. But he isn’t only interested in the organization of public scientific data. Describing himself as the on the planet, Wolfram is also a of analyzing personal data. So why does Wolfram capture so much data about himself? What’s the point, I asked him, of measuring all of his daily activities down to even recording the number of keystrokes he makes on his computer each day. |
null | Sarah Perez | 2,013 | 1 | 25 | null |
Makerbot Opens New 50,000-Square-Foot Factory In Brooklyn | John Biggs | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | Makerbot, the hardware darling that , has just announced that they will open their new factory and warehouse in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, on Friday. The space is part of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard and will be set up in a complex of older warehouses that dot the waterfront. The company is looking to hire 50 new employees at the Sunset Park location to work alongside the current staff of more than 100 “productors” who assemble and ship Makerbots in Brooklyn. They also for the space. The company has also shown . They were, for example, able to scan an old statuette and reprint and paint it, creating a nearly perfect replica of an oddly shaped, if endearing, panda. The company, run by Bre Pettis, has been the poster child for the “Made in Brooklyn” movement and did most of its assembly in Downtown Brooklyn for years prior to the move. You can |
Fracture Raises Another $500K For On-Demand Printing Of Photos On Glass | Sarah Perez | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | , a digital “maker” startup offering an on-demand system for printing your photos on glass, has raised an additional $500,000 on top of its previous $1.5 million in outside funding, following a year that saw the company’s revenue double. Though photo printing on glass is not new, the company has developed a proprietary UV-based digital photo-to-glass manufacturing process, which, , allows the photos to last for at least three years in direct sunlight, or up to a decade with careful handling before any fading. Based in Gainesville, Fla., (also home to Grooveshark), Fracture was founded in 2009 by University of Florida graduates, Abhi Lokesh and Alex Theodore. Lokesh’s background is in biology, but his passion for technology later found him working in an undergrad lab at the university focused on building calibration technology for the Mars Phoenix Lander mission. Theodore, meanwhile (who Lokesh calls the “MacGyver of our times”), has been an avid photographer since his pre-teen years and has a degree in chemical engineering. Both founders had a desire to modernize photo-printing, drawn to the science and the technology behind building up their own manufacturing process from scratch. Explains Lokesh, “[photo printing on] glass had always been something that was very specialized, meant just for large-scale industrial purposes, and we looked at this giant vacuum that had left as far as a consumer photo opportunity — which is that printing framing has not changed in decades.” Fracture didn’t really begin shipping product until later in 2010, says Lokesh. But while the startup has done very little marketing during this ramp-up period while it has been stress testing its manufacturing process, it pulled in $86,000 in gross revenue during its first year shipping, and this past year, it has grown that number to $700,000. The company ships on average 30-40 orders per day worldwide, at margins around 40 to 50 percent. Fracture raised over half a million from friends and family in 2011, then in September 2011, received a $1 million commitment (convertible debt) with $530,000 as the initial disbursement from the Florida Opportunity Fund. Last May, the state’s Tamiami Angel Fund (TAFI) committed to $750,000 in funding, which the startup received $410,000 of initially. Now, as of April 2013, TAFI upped its second half from $340,000 to $500,000, based on Fracture’s performance. Though TAFI tipped a couple of local papers about its investment, the company itself never officially confirmed TAFI’s new funding until now. Fracture glass prints are available as portraits, landscapes or squares (which work well for Instagram photos) in a range of sizes, and they’re available as either wall or stand mounts. Pricing ranges from as low as $12 up to $125 for large portraits, and custom sizes are also available. The company now has a team of 11 working at its 5,300-square-foot manufacturing, packaging and sales facility in downtown Gainesville. Now that Fracture has stabilized its production process, it’s ready to start pushing demand by using the new funding mainly for marketing purposes. Further down the road, the company will work on bringing its service to mobile via an app, and then later expanding to new materials, as well as offering different displaying techniques. |
Google Updates Chrome For iOS With Conversational Voice Search, Faster Page Reloading | Frederic Lardinois | 2,013 | 6 | 3 | Google today to version 27, which introduces a couple of new features that should make using voice search on iOS a bit easier. Just like on the , as well as the , Chrome for iOS now allows you to speak your search query and — assuming Google’s natural language algorithms understand it and its Knowledge Graph knows the answer — it will also speak your results back to you. Here is what this looks like in the Google Search app for iOS. You can use the same queries and get the same results in Chrome for iOS: With this update, Chrome for iOS now also gets the new Google voice search interface with the pulsating microphone that you’ve probably seen on other platforms already. This means the voice recognition is now also significantly faster than before, and the application — just like all the other voice-enabled Google services — will now stream the text back to you as it understands it in real time. Google also says that Chrome for iOS can now reload pages faster, “even when the network is slow or unavailable.” I can only assume that this means the app now tries to keep more assets in its cache, but Google hasn’t detailed how exactly it manages to speed up reload times in this version. |
Xyologic Gives A New Personal Touch To Its App Search Engine | Kim-Mai Cutler | 2,013 | 6 | 4 | Talk to most developers and they will invariably say that the status quo of app discovery through rankings can’t really last. People have, of course, been saying this for a couple years. While Apple did , rankings still have an overwhelming influence over how consumers find and discover new apps. This where the long tail of apps have little hope of acquiring a meaningful number of downloads except through aggressive app store SEO or through paid marketing. So another app search company, Xyologic, has quietly built its own engine plus personalized recommendations platform. They found that while people would come to Xyologic to look for apps, they often didn’t know exactly what they were looking for. Instead of installing apps directly from search results, they’d browse through “Similar” apps and apps that “People also like”. “The problem we all have in the industry is that people don’t know what to type. Most of the queries show little intent of what people want to use,” says Xyologic co-founder Matthaus Krzykowski. In response, the Berlin-based company built an recommendations system based off people’s Facebook likes, their friends’ preferences and hundreds of topics their engine has categorized. “Personally, I think the pre-selected knowledge of your friend’s interests in search results is the way to go,” he explains. When you log into the new Xyologic search engine, you’ll use Facebook Connect to pull your “likes” and interests into the recommendations engine. It will then come up with suggestions. For example, I was recommended magazine app Zinio because I’ve liked The New York Times and The New Yorker. I was also recommended categories of apps like cooking apps because I like certain cookbooks. The company can also integrate many other kinds of preference data easily. “The point about this Facebook integration is not Facebook. We can use YouTube or any other data that tells us something about the personal preferences of a person,” Krzykowski said. The company’s business model could come from the licensing deals it has with companies like Nokia, which uses Xyo’s app search engine to help Lumia owners find from Rick Thompson’s Signia Venture Partners, GameForge’s Klaas Kersting and Soundcloud founder Eric Wahlforss. |
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