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Sprint’s Nexus S 4G Gets Final Price Cut: Free At Best Buy, A Penny At Amazon | Jordan Crook | 2,011 | 7 | 27 | Less than two weeks ago, cut the price of its by half to just $99 on-contract. That had me pink in the cheek with barely controlled glee, so you can only imagine my reaction when I saw that both and were offering the device for free (and nearly free). Best Buy promises all the Google phone you can handle as long as you sign on for a two-year contract, while Amazon lists the handset for (still on-contract). The phone originally launched with Sprint in May for $200 with a two year agreement, and then got when AT&T a couple weeks ago and listed it for a Benjamin at Best Buy. Obviously the deals at Amazon and Best Buy beat both carriers’ prices, but you’ll have to be a Sprint fan to take advantage of it. Honestly, we didn’t expect a phone like this to fall into the free bin so quickly, so if you aren’t already salivating over a soon-to-be-launched phone, the Nexus S 4G is definitely worth consideration. Specs include NFC support, a 1GHz processor, , a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and a 5-megapixel camera. [via ] |
Two Free Tickets To Our Mobile First CrunchUp This Friday #GoAdlibrium | Elin Blesener | 2,011 | 7 | 27 | Tickets to our sold out in one day and we just released our last set of tickets to our annual summer party at August Capital. If you were not able to get a ticket to the CrunchUp (which also gets you into the after party), here is one more chance. has offered to give away their two tickets to the CrunchUp to two lucky TechCrunch readers. are the guys behind , the first local advertising and commerce platform that runs on mobile devices. They are also doing a non-profit mobile advertising initiative. You can check out their CGI commitment . As you know, the Mobile First CrunchUp is this Friday, starting at 1:00pm, at the AOL Auditorium in Palo Alto. Our annual summer party at August Capital is following right after in Menlo Park. You can read all about the logistics . If you want at chance at winning these tickets, just follow the steps below. The contest starts now and ends tonight at 10:30pm PT. Please only tweet the message once or you will be disqualified. We will choose the winners at random and contact them tonight with their tickets. Anyone can enter, but please note this giveaway does not include airfare or hotel. |
null | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 7 | 18 | null |
New Battery Tech Is Partially Transparent, Flexible | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 7 | 27 | at Stanford University have put together that combines two theoretically coveted attributes: transparency and flexibility. The method of making the battery transparent is rather clever, and while the resulting product is far less energy-dense than its opaque relatives, it’s still an interesting development. The secret is organizing the components in a certain way on a microscopic scale. The electrode material isn’t see-through, but there’s no reason it has to be a solid block instead of something less substantial. Materials Science professor Yi Cui made the electrode layer of this battery a grid of threads which, at only 35nm thick, are invisible to the naked eye. By arranging them in a sparse grid, he produces an array with tolerable energy density but which light can easily pass through. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5boywxr8ot4&w=640&h=390] The grid is embedded in a non-conductive, flexible substrate, and then a gel electrolyte layer interposed between it and another grid, placed precisely above the first. By stacking the electrode grids in this way and using only clear materials for the other components, they’ve been able to achieve around 60% transparency. The wattage is nothing to crow about, but that’s next on the list to improve. Applications? I’m no engineer, but I’m sure there are plenty of places where a flexible and/or transparent battery could be useful. Wrapping it around other components, embedding it in already-transparent items (screens, windows, etc), and other ideas are quick to come to mind, but who knows what the research will enable? Cui and his team of students are working hard on scaling the technology and working out the bugs. |
Newly Public HomeAway Reports Q2 Revenue Up 41 Percent To $58.7M, Profit Down 85 Percent | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 27 | Newly public home rental service is reporting today, posting a 40.9 percent revenue growth, to $58.7 million in the second quarter, compared to $41.6 million in the second quarter of 2010. The company said growth was buoyed by renewal rates, coupled with increases in new listings and revenue per listing. Net income for the quarter was $2.2 million compared to net income of $14.9 million for the second quarter of 2010 (the company said that income for Q2 2010 was positively impacted by the release of a deferred tax asset valuation allowance, resulting in a one-time benefit of $13.4 million). HomeAway, which on June 29, saw cash flow increase 23.1 percent to $16.9 million from $13.7 million in the second quarter of 2010. Adjusted EBITDA increased 45.5% to $18.2 million from $12.5 million in the second quarter of 2010. While the company saw net income fall, other metrics show that revenue and engagement continue to show steady growth at HomeAway. Listing revenue increased 33.9 percent to $51.0 million from $38.1 million in the second quarter of 2010. Paid listings were up to 626,661, compared to 525,187 at the end of the second quarter of 2010 and 575,166 at the end of the first quarter of 2011. Paid listings increased 19.3 percent year-over-year, and average revenue per listing was $339, compared to $298 during the second quarter of 2010 and $328 during the first quarter of 2011. Renewal rate was 76.2 percent, compared to 75.1 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2010 and 76.1 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2011. HomeAway’s share value has been pretty steady over the past month, hitting a low of $34.92 and a high of $43.98 per share in the period since the offering. HomeAway’s shares closed at $42.77 at market close, giving the company a $3.41 billion valuation. |
The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed | Michael Arrington | 2,011 | 7 | 27 | Until now everything has been just great for , a service that lets people rent out their homes and become a sort of mini-hotel. The company and has grown rapidly. They’ve been , which is always a mark of success. And they’re now a part of the . Even the clone . Which is all super great. But now the story of a trusting Airbnb user who’s had her home sacked (it’s the only way to describe it) is starting to spread. Airbnb’s response so far has been tepid at best. It turns out that when something like this happens, Airbnb isn’t financially responsible. The facts: Last month “EJ” wrote a long blog post about how a renter spent an entire week . Walls were cut through to get to locked valuables, including her grandmother’s jewelry. They smashed a hole through a locked closet door, and found the passport, cash, credit card and grandmother’s jewelry I had hidden inside. They took my camera, my iPod, an old laptop, and my external backup drive filled with photos, journals… my entire life. They found my birth certificate and social security card, which I believe they photocopied – using the printer/copier I kindly left out for my guests’ use. They rifled through all my drawers, wore my shoes and clothes, and left my clothing crumpled up in a pile of wet, mildewing towels on the closet floor. They found my coupons for Bed Bath & Beyond and used the discount, along with my Mastercard, to shop online. Despite the heat wave, they used my fireplace and multiple Duraflame logs to reduce mounds of stuff (my stuff??) to ash – including, I believe, the missing set of guest sheets I left carefully folded for their comfort. Yet they were stupid and careless enough to leave the flue closed; dirty gray ash now covered every surface inside. and The kitchen was a disaster – the sink piled high with filthy dishes, pots and pans burnt out and ruined. Comet Cleanser was dumped everywhere; the kitchen counters, wood furniture, my gorgeous new bed frame, my desk, my printer… all were doused in powdered bleach. The death-like smell emanating from the bathroom was frightening (and still is) and the bathroom sink was caked with a crusty yellow substance. Various pairs of my gloves were strewn about – leather, dishwashing and otherwise – I imagine in a weak attempt to cover up fingerprints. Whoever these people were, they were living large and having one hell of a time for an entire week inside my home, unwatched, unchecked, free to do whatever destruction they wished. And damn, did they do a lot of it. The creepiest part of this is that the renter was sending cheerful emails during the week’s rampage: All the while, Dj Pattrson was sending me friendly emails, thanking me for being such a great host, for respecting his/her privacy…. telling me how much he/she was enjoying my beautiful apartment bathed in sunlight, how much he/she particularly loved the “little loft area” upstairs… with an “lol” closing one sentence, just for good measure. It makes me sick to my stomach to think now of these emails. EJ also explains how Airbnb’s policies of not letting people know who they’re renting to until the last moment makes a situation like this more likely to happen. She explains (convincingly) how Craigslist is actually safer because they warn people of the risks. Airbnb, in effect, is vouching for the renter. Yet now I ask myself this: for what, exactly, did I pay a service fee to Airbnb.com? What did I get in exchange for my 20-something dollars? What was the advantage of using this service over Craigslist, which is free? Ironically Airbnb.com’s site states “the promise of our site is that it is entirely transparent” when in reality, it is not. And therein lies the fundamental, though not immediately apparent, difference: on Craigslist, I am warned loudly and repeatedly that use of the site is at my own risk. I am encouraged to take certain precautions, and I have the ability to do so by gaining quick access to the email addresses, phone numbers, and other identifying information of the person(s) I am communicating with, all of which can be researched and at least somewhat verified by means of basic internet searches. Alternatively, Airbnb.com tightly controls the communication between host and traveler, disallowing the exchange of personal contact information until the point in which a reservation is already confirmed and paid for. By hindering my ability to research the person who will rent my home, there is an implication that Airbnb.com has already done the research for me, and has eliminated the investigative work that Craigslist requires. In effect, the friendly, community-based site with its Golden Rules creates a reasonable expectation that some basic screening of its users has occurred, and speaks little to the risks involved, primarily within the very small print of the lengthy Terms of Service. Thus by the time this reservation was confirmed and I was given Dj’s email address and phone number, I was on a plane heading East, and he/she was armed with my welcoming instructions on where to pick up the keys to my apartment. Airbnb’s response has been diplomatic but tepid. CEO wrote : Hey everyone – we were shocked when we heard about this unsettling event. We have been working closely with the authorities, and we want to reassure our community that, with the help of our security infrastructure, we were able to assist the police in their investigation, and we understand from authorities that a suspect is now in custody. We’ve created a marketplace built on trust, transparency and authenticity within our community, and we hold the safety of our community members as our highest priority. We will continue to work with our users to stamp out those who would put that community at risk in any way. The vast majority of our community members genuinely respect and protect each other, but we urge users to be careful and discerning with each other and to hold others accountable through reviews, flagging and our customer service channel. Our hearts go out to our host and we will continue to work with her and with the authorities to make this right. The fact that the police may have arrested the person responsible is great. But EJ’s life has been completely turned upside down by this. I can’t stay here much longer. The feeling of having been violated is overwhelming. The apartment’s energy – once light and airy – now feels thick and disquieting. Suddenly Airbnb’s only FAQ on a situation like this doesn’t sound as witty and fun as it must have before. Will someone steal my grand piano? Highly unlikely. Grand pianos weigh thousands of pounds and do not fit through doors. I wonder how Airbnb would answer a FAQ question that’s more to the point, like Probably with something less pithy than before. There’s a very short window of time for Airbnb to deal with this before it may spiral out of their control. Hotel lobbyists are trying to crush Airbnb before it becomes more of a threat. I spoke to Airbnb about EJ’s situation. They won’t reimburse her for damages, they say, and they do not insure against losses. They are helping police track down the person who did this, but their help ends there. The hotel lobbyists couldn’t ask for anything more. I spoke with Brian Chesky. He says the company has offered He says they intend to to make the situation right for her. This is different than what a company spokesperson said earlier (see above). I asked Brian if this sets a new policy, and he responded that they’ll look at it on a case by case basis. The company also sent this email with corrections: 1) We have been assisting investigators and they have a suspect in custody. 2) We have been working with the host since the event and we have offered to assist her to the situation to everyones satisfaction. If you read the blog post, you’ll see that she points this out: I would be remiss if I didn’t pause here to emphasize that the customer service team at airbnb.com has been wonderful, giving this crime their full attention. They have called often, expressing empathy, support, and genuine concern for my welfare. They have offered to help me recover emotionally and financially, and are working with SFPD to track down these criminals. I do believe the folks at airbnb.com when they tell me this has never happened before in their short history, that this is a one-off case. 3) We actually have an entire safety FAQ for our users. You can find it here: http://www.airbnb.com/safety . |
Xperia Arc Comes To US Without Carrier Support | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 7 | 27 | Ever since it was first , we’ve wondered how long it would be before we’d have an Xperia Arc of our own to not notice in our pockets. For months rumors flew about which U.S. carrier would be lucky enough to nab the svelte smartphone, with . Well, summer has come, and so has the answer — the Xperia Arc is, It’s frankly a little weird to see a phone that received as much hype as the Arc not get picked up domestically, especially when our Molson-swilling neighbors to the north can pick it up for $100 on a contract with Rogers. What’s more, the U.S.-spec Arc packs support for AT&T’s 2G and 3G bands, which makes rather clear Sony Ericsson’s carrier of choice. AT&T could still pick the device up down the road — the X10 sold in plenty of foreign markets before it flew under an orange-and-blue banner — but nothing’s a given yet. The Arc is set to debut on Sony’s retail website, Amazon, NewEgg, and Buy.com this August. Expect to throw down $599 for a piece of the action if you don’t feel like waiting for an acquisition that may never happen. |
The iPad Was Built For Something Like StumbleUpon, Now They Have A Worthy App | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | Since its inception, has always been one of the most perfect lean-back apps. Long before anyone even used that term, the StumbleUpon toolbar took various pages on the web and allowed you to quickly jump between them to find new things of interest. This concept seems perfect for a device like the iPad. Unfortunately the app just wasn’t very good. Until today. StumbleUpon has just launched an entirely redesigned and rebuilt iPad app to finally bring the experience iPad users deserve. “I feel like stumbling is perfect for the iPad — for sitting on the couch. It never took off like we wanted,” founder says, talking about the first iteration of their app for the iPad (which was built by a contractor). “We decided we were going to re-do it from the ground up. We re-did the interface. It’s much better than before. It’s almost like a black version of Flipboard,” he says. And that’s a good comparison. is often looked at as the pinnacle of media consumption design for the iPad sor far. But it’s mainly concerned with text. StumbleUpon’s app takes on both web pages and things like pictures, and videos, which have become vital parts of the stumbling experience — particularly on mobile devices. Camp notes that mobile usage of StumbleUpon is soaring. On the iPhone and Android devices, the service is growing 35 percent month to month, he says (compared with 20 percent overall). Since the mobile apps launched last August, a full 10 percent of stumblers now visit that way, he notes. With this new iPad experience, Camp believes they can take tablet usage which is now hovering around 1 percent and at least triple it. Again, it’s a form factor that just seems natural for the service. The iPad experience now has things like swipe-to-stumble, the ability to flick through content. And the app pre-loads content, meaning they look to see what you’re next stumble will be and they pre-load it so you can flick and see the new content instantly. But the coolest addition in Camp’s view is the Social Bar. It’s a new gray bar that resides at the top of the app that shows the user who submitted the page you’re on and links to their profile. “Right now, you can’t easily access who liked the page. You might not know who it came from,” Camp says of the mobile apps. They’ve updated the iPad, iPhone, and Android apps to now all have this. “It’s a much more social kind of experience,” he says, noting that in the future, they’ll extend it to including friends’ comments and tweets, etc. “I think we’ll now fit into other slots of people’s free time,” Camp says of the new iPad experience. “It’s just like the iPhone experience that people love, but it’s so much better on the big screen,” he says. You can find the new StumbleUpon app for iPad in the App Store . |
Copygram Lets You Download All Your Instagram Photos | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | Like similar service , allows you to easily download all your photos into one .zip file. In addition the service provides a web interface for the popular photo-sharing app with the ability to search through other people’s Instagrams, download the pics from other users’s feeds as well as print them out through its partnership with SnapFish. You can also share any Instagram through a Copygram link. Because Instagram has yet to figure out its online presence, web interfaces using its API are nothing new. Copygram (random typos notwithstanding) is the most comprehensive I’ve seen so far. In the nice days since its launch, it’s had over 130K images downloaded and over 540 archives “developed.” Also: It introduced me to the Instagram fanboy blog , which is straight up really cool and dorky at the same time. If any other fans wants to “go deeper” on the appeal of Instagram, you can read take in “ .” |
Kleiner-Backed Katango Organizes Your Facebook Friends Into Groups For You | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | Perhaps there’s something to these friend circle/list/groups after all. As you’ve doubtless heard by now, Google recently launched a social network that revolves around one core idea: people want to share different things with different groups of friends. Of course, it’s an idea that isn’t all that novel — Facebook has allowed users to do just that via its friends lists, which launched years ago. And it’s barely been touched by their userbase. But is the problem that people don’t care for this selective sharing, or that they simply don’t want to put the effort into building out their friend lists? A hot new startup called thinks it’s the latter, and it has the answer: it’s going to sort your friends for you, hooking into your Facebook account via Facebook Connect and automatically generating Lists based on your interactions with your friends and a host of other data. You can download their app . The company has some strong credentials behind it — founded a year ago, it’s since raised $2 million led by an investment from the Kleiner Perkins S Fund (Bing Gordon is on Katango’s board). Cofounder and Chairman Yoav Shoham is a professor of computer science at Stanford; the other two cofounders, Michael Munie and Thuc Vu, are Stanford PhD grads. And they recently brought on Yee Lee as VP of Product, who was an early employee at PayPal, Slide, and founder at TipMobile and Crave. So what exactly is Katango launching? Today the startup is introducing step one of its plan: an iPhone application, which just went live on the App Store. Fire up the iPhone app, connect it to your Facebook account, and it will generate a handful of Friend lists based on a variety of factors: how closely you’re connected on the social graph, your stated geographies, and, most important, how you’re interacting with each other on Facebook. I haven’t gotten to try this out for myself yet, but if it works as advertised, the lists Katango produces should be surprisingly accurate. VP Product Yee Lee says that there will likely be some errors, but the friends that don’t fit in a given group can be easily flicked away. Once you’ve created your lists in Katango, you can selectively share content to the friends in those lists in a handful of ways. The app gathers contact information from both your phone’s address book and Facebook. And you go to send a message or photo to a group, the app will send it via email, Facebook message, or push notification, depending on which contact information you have for them, and if they have the Katango app installed themselves. But the iPhone app launching today is really a proving ground for the technology. Eventually Katango plans to let other services and apps tap into its algorithms, allowing them to integrate its auto-grouping functionality (this wouldn’t be a purely benevolent move, either — Katango would also be able to improve its algorithms from that additional data). And the Katango will eventually be on other platforms, like Android, and a web-based version of the app. Katango is tackling an immensely challenging problem, but if they get it right, the resulting engine would be invaluable. I asked Lee if the company has gotten any offers from Facebook and Google yet. He chuckled, but did say they’ve talked to a couple of “big names in social”.
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Technicolor LED-TV Dreamcoat Is Fantastic But Somewhat Impractical | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtSm8Oom2n4&w=640&h=390]
This brave fellow plans on wearing at Burning Man, which you may know is in the desert. I can’t think of anything I’d like to be wearing less than a full-on labcoat loaded down with PCBs, batteries, and so on.
The TV plays NTSC video and it’s 160×120 (for smooth resizing of 320×240). The PCB is flexible, so no need to worry about breaking it when you’re twiddling with the knobs on your shoulders. The batteries last about an hour, which is probably longer than it will take this poor guy to die of heat exhaustion out there with this thing on. [via ] |
The Bowers & Wilkins C5 In-Ear Headphones Will Hold Your Ears In Sweet Harmony | Matt Burns | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | Bowers & Wilkins has a new set of ‘buds that your ears are letrally crying to hear. Seriously, hear that soft hum? It’s your poor ears telling you to ditch those stock Apple earbuds and opt for B&W’s new hotness instead. The high-end audio firm has always been known for its high-end sound but also high prices. The B&W P5 over-the-ear cans carry a $299 price. With that, the new C5 in-ear headphones are downright affordable with their $179 price — relatively speaking, of course. As is the case with most things high-end audio, B&W didn’t announce the exact specs. Instead the press announcement drools on about the colorfully-named proprietary features: Micro Porous Filter and Secure Loop . The latter is easily deducted from the pic above to mean the ‘bud’s loop that wraps around the ear to keep it in place. The Micro Porous Filter is a clever name for the noise-isolating (note: not noise canceling) surround on the earbud’s tip. Yep, that rubber thingy. Joking aside, the C5s likely sound like heavenly angels singing Coldplay’s greatest hits. B&W makes quality kits. Expect the new earbuds this August in the US and Canada for $179. |
Samsung Wave 725 Specs Trickle Out, Bada 2.0 On Board | Jordan Crook | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | Back in April, three Bada-powered phones were leaked onto the web, only one of which had a name: the Samsung Wave 578. At the time, all we knew was that the trio would sport NFC chips, and that they all run Bada 2.0. Now, one of the mysterious unnamed handsets has been discovered in the Bada 2.0 SDK by BadaWorld as the Samsung Wave 725. Specs include a 3.65-inch HVGA display with 320×480 pixels of resolution, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a VGA front-facing camera for video chat, along with support for NFC, WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0. The Wave 725 will run Bada 2.0, which, if you live here in the States, probably means nothing to you. But it should, because the Bada platform seems to be doing well overseas and we’re excited to see how America receives the new OS. Bada 2.0 will bring with it multitasking, an enhanced UI, and better security. We’re not sure what pricing will look like on this bad boy, but from the specs, we can only assume that this handset will be somewhat wallet-friendly. Samsung plans to launch the Wave 725 in December. [via ] |
HTC Status Goes Up For Pre-Order On AT&T | Jordan Crook | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | The Facebook-centric HTC Status smartphone is now available for pre-order from AT&T, with an official launch date of July 17. We knew the Status (once the ChaCha) was officially headed to AT&T, and we had pegged the launch for July, but we didn’t know pricing or availability details until today. The HTC Status will cost you $50 with a new two-year agreement, an understandably low price given the phone’s old-school form factor and awkwardly small screen. To be specific, the screen measures 2.6 inches, which is much smaller than almost any of the screens we’ve seen in the last year, and has a resolution of 480×320 pixels. On the back, you’ll find a 5-megapixel shooter, along with a VGA front-facing camera for video chat up front. The Status runs Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread over an 800MHz processor. The phone comes with support for WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and a microSD card. Additional specs include a 2.6-inch display offering 480×320 pixels of resolution, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a VGA front-facing camera for video chat. Running Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, the Status is powered by an 800MHz processor and has support for a microSD card, Wi-Fi connectivity, and Bluetooth 3.0. Clearly, those specs aren’t exactly awe-inspiring — but wait just one second. Don’t write the phone off just yet. The Status’ claim to fame is its Facebook integration, which, had it not been stuck in an arguably craptacular phone, would be pretty freaking cool. Basically, whatever the user is doing at the moment, whether it be listening to music, flipping through pictures, or surfing the web, can be posted directly to Facebook by simply pressing that Facebook button in the bottom right corner. That’s all well and good, but the truth of the matter is that if you’re more serious about your phone than you are Facebook, this probably isn’t the device for you. On the other hand, it’s probably a pretty budget-friendly option for a teenage son or daughter. [via ] |
Red Bull Creation Spawns Wheelie Mobile, Spinning See-Saw, And Other Crazy Contraptions | Jordan Crook | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | Red Bull gives you wings, right? Well, apparently it also gives 16 teams the energy necessary to build brand new and quite random inventions as a part of Red Bull’s annual Red Bull Creation event. In a nutshell, Red Bull throws out a secret theme at the very beginning of the weekend and teams are asked to create gizmos and gadgets that exemplify that theme, all in a matter of 72 hours. This year, it was “Energy In Motion,” and that’s exactly what we saw there. From spinning see-saws to a “WPV” (wedgie-powered vehicle), imagination was certainly not lacking at McCarren Park in Brooklyn yesterday. It would be almost stupid to try and describe what we saw there without images: Innovative Thirst
A clay-powered mobile pod with suspended electricity-generating swing set. NYC Resistor
A steam-powered off-road trolley car, with a nice bronze-style finish. Hack RVA
A hacked up shopping cart that does its own hardcore poppa-wheelies, fittingly named the Wheelie Mobile. Maker: Donner Party 2.0
Creation: A electric hybrid tricycle fitted with a dryer that also works as a humongous blender. Strawberry daiquiris anyone? Team Doublewide
A robot called “The Amazing Cyclo.” Think Johnny 5, but as a puppet, with an LCD face and a single wheel made of shoes for a foot. And a remote control, of course. Techshop
A spinning see-saw that lifts riders 12 feet in the air, while an accelerometer waits for the perfect moment to trigger an attached Polaroid camera, ultimately grabbing amusement-park-style candids of the riders’ faces. Drum roll please! And the winner is… 1.21 Jigawatts
Alright, this one’s a bit more difficult to explain. Basically, 1.21 Jigawatts wired an enormous wooden hamster wheel into a wireless network and gave it its own phone number. According to its maker, the massive wireless wheel could receive up to 60,000 one-word text messages at the same time, and then print out the texts on the pavement by rolling along the ground. In all honesty, the only purpose of this contraption is to make people stop in their tracks, drop their jaw, and stare. Obviously, that’s exactly what 1.21 Jigawatts created: a show-stopper. Team Award winner Techshop went home with a brand new Makerbot 3D Printer, which creates little 3D sculptures from a scanned images (pictured below). 1.21 Jigawatts, Red Bull Creation’s grand prize winner, left the show with $5,000 and four 40W Hobby Laser Cutters. |
PayPal VP: Supporting Payments In The Physical World Is Critical For PayPal | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | eBay owned PayPal has been making some interesting acquisitions over the past few months that clearly show the direction of the company in capturing payments flow from digital goods, and physical products at a local level. The company bought local payments and advertising company Where for over in April, snapped up mobile payments company and most recently shelled out for mobile payments company Zong. The payments giant is clearly serious about mobile and local payments and is buying its way into commanding the space. In terms of future strategy, PayPal that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the U.S., from local businesses to large chains. Of course, this ambitious goal is easier said than done. Considering that PayPal is a digital product and doesn’t have built in reach to local businesses with point of sale systems, scaling to the local level is going to take a significant amount of work. We were able to chat with Sam Shrauger, VP of global product and strategy for PayPal about the company’s future strategy to dominate the ‘digital wallet.’ Shrauger tells us that PayPal’s plan is less about making the wallet digital and more about letting people take advantage of technology to use money better. As for making this a reality, Shrauger says that letting people use PayPal in the physical world is critical for the payments technology. He explains that innovating in the payments space in the physical world is about giving customers mor options to pay, as opposed to offering a single technology. PayPal wants to add more ways your money can work for you, beyond just the payment itself. As for what that means, Shrauger declined the reveal the company’s plans but did say that PayPal would be launching new products later this year dealing with this issue. There are two advantates PayPal has in its favor. First, the company now has over which is impressive. And second, the company’s userbase is increasingly using mobile devices to pay for products. PayPal that it was upping the estimates of the amount of mobile payments transactions using the technology this year; doubling the estimate to $3 billion in mobile total payments volume (TPV) in 2011. Payments in the physical world is going to be a big step for PayPal and I’m very curious how the company is planning to use its technology in this expansion. For Google, NFC and mobile phones are part of the gateway for payments in local, with the For Square, small businesses popularity and ease of use have been helping the mobile payments startup It’s not the first time I’ve that PayPal has an on its hands by becoming the digital wallet. And it should be interesting to see what killer technology the company has up its sleeve later this year. Check out this video below in which PayPal President Scott Thompson to use only digital currency to pay for all of their purchases. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fopJQGxvHoQ&w=425&h=349] |
DataSift – The little startup (from Europe) that could [TCTV] | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | When I first in a tiny, unassuming office an hour’s drive from central London in October 2008, I realised I was meeting someone who was passionate not just about startups, but had the kind of deep technical knowledge that would stand him in good stead. Unlike some non-technical, paper-thin ‘MBA entrepreneurs’, Halstead could see what was happening with the underlying trends of the Internet ecology and its drift towards realtime. Long before Twitter’s firehose was released, Halstead was trying to fix the broken problem of RSS feeds and commenting systems with “Favorit”. But with with Twitter’s emergence he pivoted away from to create , the consumer curated Twitter portal, which really took off and . But that experience let to him building a team to deeply analyse Twitter’s underlying data, and not in Silicon Valley, but from Reading, in the UK county of Berkshire. Thus was created, one of only two companies globally licensed by Twitter to re-syndicate its content. That raw commitment to keep going, to pivoting, to building a profile in Silicon Valley and to raising money in a smart way has now lead Halstead from US-based investors IA Ventures, and GRP Partners. The cash is to build a global sales and support teams in the US and build out the platform further. Datasift has even been anointed by Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO. as providing “meaningful insight” into Twitter, and a greater interface for developers wanting an easy way to access Twitter data. Twitter simply does not want to deal with the thousands of requests a day for its data. It makes sense to hand that to a third party, like Datasift, where you can just make enquiries with a credit card. Datasift is out to change the data business which has traditionally been about picking up the phone and signing an annual contract to buy data. It wants, if you like, to become the Amazone S3 for data, or, as Halstead puts it, “We want to be the Twillio ofr Dataprocessing” Does that mean Twitter will buy Datasift some day? Who knows, but they are certainly doing the right things to keep them sweet. Always a proponent of building startups for Europe, Halstead is also realistic. “Having a brand like Tweetmeme was the game changer,” Halstead tells me. That success opened doors in the Valley. Not unlike Iain Dodsworth’s (and later acquisition by Twitter), Tweetmeme gave Halstead an “in”. People didn’t care that he might be based in a provincial city outside of London – they cared that he’d proved himself with Tweetmeme. And now he has investors who are quite happy to see him stay in the UK and build out Datasift – with a correspodning team in San Francisco which this funding will now power. And there is a win-win for Europe here. Datasift investor for board meetings, and as a result will start doing investments in Europe, though don’t expect a firehose just yet. I met with Halstead today to get a heads-up on Datasift and to also discuss the process of raising funding in the US versus Europe (comes up half way through the video). It’s worth catching what he sees as the lack of risk-taking by UK and European VCs holding back the eco-system here. |
Formspring's Marketing Moment Comes With Its First Promoted Question Of The Day | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | Social Q&A site , where more than have been answered so far, had a marketing moment today. For the first time, the Question of the Day was a promoted question: “What do you think would happen if apes took over? #apeswillrise” The question promotes the upcoming movie , which is the prequel to the classic hence the hashtag). The question has been answered more than 76,000 times, which is a decent level of engagement for a one-day campaign. (You can see above). It is on track to beat yesterday’s non-sponsored Question of the Day, which garnered 148,000 answers. This is not the on Formspring, but it is the first promoted Question of the Day. Formspring uses the Question of the Day to keep up overal engagement with its users. Formspring is a service where and spread those questions on Facebook and Twitter. It is close to hitting 3.5 billion answers, and now has registered users. |
DIY Hoverpuck: Fun For The Whole Family | John Biggs | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe2CuVw2rsw&w=640&h=510] If you’ve always wanted to play air hockey in real life and couldn’t shrink yourself down enough to stand comfortable on a regulation table, this may be a solution. It is a DIY hoverpuck that uses a motor, propeller, and a puck-shaped case to create a real air hockey experience at full scale.
Don’t want to waste your life building this thing? If you’re a teacher you can pick one up and use it for physics experiments. I’d suggest actually doing it yourself, though.
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Indian Mobile Bank Eko Raises $5.5 Million, Processing $270 Million in Payments a Year | Sarah Lacy | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | Innovative mobile banking platform Eko India Financial Services has raised $5.5 million from Creation Investments’ Social Venture fund, Promus Equity Partners and several unnamed angel investors. Mobile banking is one of the most exciting trends in the tech world outside Silicon Valley. And now that more people have mobile phones than toilets in the world, there’s a real chance at bridging the unbanked gap. Forget glitzy iPhone financial apps. The most innovative stuff is mobile payments is being done using basic SMS, and it’s dramatically changing people’s financial lives. Savings soar when your money isn’t readily available, people can safely travel between villages without fear of being robbed, and paying for goods and services no longer requires an in person transaction. The coolest part of this trend: Much of the strides are being made by for profit companies, not aid groups and NGOs. They help millions of people and build self-sustaining businesses that make money doing it. One of Sequoia Capital’s hottest Indian investments was SKS Microfinance, which makes micro-loans along the lines of Grameen Bank and went public last year in an over-subscribed IPO. Two more of my favorites in India are Pune-based , an SMS-based newsletter that delivers literally life-saving information to rural India, and , which makes telecom services available to people for less than $2 a user, per month . at these types of startups and good thing: Fewer than 14 million people work in India’s formal economy, and more than 700,000 Indians still live in villages without access to roads, sanitation or electricity. Reaching the poor digitally is the only way to unlock the huge demographic potential of the country. There’s a broader cultural impact from services like these too. As Eko’s founder Abhishek Sinha explained the last time we met, “My duty is to disrupt other people’s aspiration levels. Why shouldn’t we all have big dreams? No more putting money in a jar, no more sewing money into a false pocket inside of their shirts, no more money under the mattress. The unbanked poor in India will only have real control over their financial future when the cash is out of everyone’s physical reach.” I first met Sinha (pictured to the right) in Delhi in November 2009, met with him again on my next trip and we’ve stayed in touch since. The last time I saw him he’d processed less than $1 million in transactions over the life of the business. He’d just deployed a major shift in strategy that’s apparently worked: In the twelve months following our last meeting Eko has processed a staggering $270 million in transactions– most of them for less than a few dollars at a time. What I love about his approach is how drop-dead simple Eko is, totally tailored for the basic needs of India’s massive unbanked market. The product relies on a numerical system, so that people don’t have to know how to text alphabetically, don’t have to speak a certain language or dialect or even know how to read to use it. The verification system is a paper-based version of an RSA token that VeriSign endorsed early on. (You can read more about it in my previous on Eko.) The most clever part of the business is its distribution network. While the accounts are backed by the State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, Eko has created “tellers” out of the trusted corner grocers who operate throughout India. These are the masters of the country’s huge micro-economy that sells cell phone minutes by the Paisa, medicines by the pill and Western brands of shampoo by the ounce. These grocers are the center of the unbanked migrant poor’s world, and the best people to evangelize and trouble shoot Eko’s accounts. And Eko has made those accounts work with their varied and rudimentary book keeping and transaction systems. The challenge for Sinha has always been the grand scope of his vision. This is obviously a business that needs scale to survive, but getting that scale is near-impossible without deep pockets. India is a huge country with deplorable infrastructure, and the very people he’s seeking to reach are the most fragmented, transient and most difficult to market to. While the corner grocer delivery model is ingenious, it takes work to sign up and manage each store and each store only serves a neighborhood. The challenge of even rolling Eko out comprehensively to a single Indian city makes the notorious challenges of selling to small businesses in America seem like nothing. Originally Sinha tried to outsource managing the distribution partnerships and signed up only 6,000 accounts. That jumped to 20,000 new accounts per month once Eko took a more expensive hands on role to managing the grocers. Today Eko has jumped to more than 900,000 accounts, processing nearly 2.3 million transactions through a growing network of 1,300 agents. “Things have been messy, tricky and exciting since we last met,” he wrote to me yesterday. That probably sums up entrepreneurship in emerging markets better than my 75,000 word book on the topic did. Eko has had several champions during its up-and-down journey from The Gates Foundation to the World Bank, but the bulk of the money has come from Sinha who sold a software company before starting Eko. I’m surprised it took Eko this long to secure more funding, but not surprised Sinha eventually found it. I included him in my recent book because he personifies the “Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky” personality type I was seeking. He’s one of those entrepreneurs who burns the boats and will find a way to make things happen, no matter what it takes. More than a year ago when funding was already running low I asked if he was worried he just wouldn’t find it, and he’d have to give up on Eko. He laughed off the idea. “I’m not proud to say I’ve defaulted on every credit card and on every loan I’ve ever had. I’ve paid bribes to get more credit,” he said. “After a point in time you stop worrying. You get to know you’re a lucky guy and push yourself further.” |
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ROAR! Apple Puts Out The Call For Devs To Submit OS X Lion Apps | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | A Lion is quickly approaching. OS X Lion — aka OS X 10.7. Some are it will hit this week. Other signs point to next week. Either way, it’s coming very soon. How do we know? Apple has just put out a call to developers asking them to submit their OS X Lion apps for the Mac App Store. The email message (pasted below) notes: OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, will soon be available to millions of Mac users around the world. Submit your Lion apps for review now so they can be on the Mac App Store when Lion ships this month. A GM build of Lion was released to developers last week. By most accounts, it is solid and seems ready to go. The hold up now may be Apple’s preparations to ship new MacBook Airs (and ) alongside the new OS. One key feature of OS X Lion is the Mac App Store. While the store has been available for OS X Snow Leopard since early this year, it will be fully baked into Lion. That is likely to make it the main way OS X apps are distributed. The fact that Apple is only distributing OS X Lion this way as well (though you apparently can also go to an Apple Store where they can download and install it for you) says all you need to know. You’d think Apple will need at least a few days to start reviewing these Lion-specific apps from developers. You can be sure they’ll want a range of them ready for launch. Will there be enough time to review a bunch of them before the rumored Thursday launch? We’ll see. Regardless, “this month” only has 20 days left… |
Zipments: The Zaarly Of Courier Services Arrives In NYC And Chicago | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | Back in March we wrote about , a startup that lets you post an and find someone to complete it for a modest fee. It, and similar services like , have honed in on a key idea: there are a lot of intelligent, hardworking people who have some spare time and would love to make a few bucks during their off hours. And there are also plenty of people who would love to skip running to the dry cleaners when they have a report due the next morning by 7AM. Now there’s a startup called that’s offering a similar service with a slightly different twist: they’re focusing exclusively on courier jobs (or, as they call them, logistics). Need something delivered in a jiffy? Fire up Zipments, set a price, and someone will (hopefully) be ready to deliver it within the hour. In short, Zipments is looking to create a crowdsourced courier service that lets you send things across town on the cheap. The service has been live in Grand Rapids, Michigan since May, and starting today it’s expanding to Chicago and New York City. The interface for Zipments, which is currently web-only but has mobile apps in the works, is pretty straightforward: you describe the job, mark out the start and end points on a map, and say how long it can take (the specified time needs to be reasonable). You can set an initial price, but other users are free to make other offers (either higher, if they think the job is worth more than you’re asking, or lower, if they’re facing a lot of competition). Choose someone to serve as your courier and they’ll be sent your phone number, pick-up/delivery addresses, and other relevant information. The word “courier” may remind longtime TechCrunch readers of ill-fated startups like , which were essentially aggregators of professional courier services. The difference here is that Zipment isn’t relying on these professional services, so the prices involved should be lower. Of course, that comes with a tradeoff: Zipments isn’t doing much to guarantee that your order will be completed properly (there’s a small risk that someone could actually run off with whatever you want delivered). The service does a few things to address this — you need a Paypal account to register, for example, so users aren’t anonymous. And each user has a profile where you can leave a poor review if you have a bad experience. But for the time being, even the company isn’t recommending that you use this to transport highly important or valuable goods. And in the future, they’ll be looking into offering insurance and bonding options for these more sensitive jobs. Zipments doesn’t appear to have any competitors that are focusing exclusively on these courier tasks, but if it takes off, it isn’t hard to imagine TaskRabbit or Zaarly launching a similar product (and you can obviously post delivery jobs to both of those services today). |
NCR To Buy Hospitality And Retail POS Software Company Radiant Systems For $1.2 Billion | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 11 | NCR is buying , a company that develops point-of-sale systems and software to the hospitality and specialty retail industries, for $1.2 billion in cash, or $28.00 per share. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter of 2011. NCR says it will raise approximately $1.1 billion of new funded debt to finance the transaction. Radiant’s SaaS caters to a variety of industries and markets including stadiums, arenas, cinemas, restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores, museums, wine and liquor stores and other speciality retail stores. The company offers hardware includes point of sale systems, kiosks, customer displays, terminals, servers and more. Radiant says it more than 100,000 installations worldwide. NCR is using Radiant Systems to expand into another software vertical, in addition to its financial and retail businesses. NCR developers security technologies for the financial services market, retail technologies and sells self-service kiosks to the retail and hospitality, travel and gaming, healthcare, and entertainment industries. In 2009, NCR bought DVD-rental kiosk company . |
Three Companies Chi-Hua Chien Of Kleiner Perkins Would Love To Invest In | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | , a number of entrepreneurs, VCs, and executives gathered to discuss the state of the mobile industry and mobile technology. After a series of individual panels, the day concluded with the crowd of panelists gathering together for a lively discussion about the future of mobile, current mobile trends gaining legs, as well as what’s missing. , a partner at Kleiner Perkins, stepped in to give an example of what’s missing in the industry by sharing three particular business models that he’d like to see make their way into the space. , Chien, Skype investor Howard Hartenbaum, and Tango founder Eric Setton, spoke about how closing the “redemption loop” is becoming one of the most important goals in the daily deals space, specifically on mobile. ( ) Chien pointed out that one of the big goals is to forge a future where a customer can walk into a store, and the merchant will immediately know who they are and what they want — and that someday soon Twitter and Foursquare will be acting in a way akin to a CRM platform for businesses to help make that happen. But, as to the three companies that Chien wants to see, and invest in, for starters, he envisions a killer mobile company offering a completely automated personal assistant — something he said really wasn’t possible to do well “before mobile”. He cited the example of one having dinner reservations with a friend who lives, say, 30 minutes away. The user’s mobile device, thanks to location awareness, knows exactly where they are and how far away they are from the restaurant. What’s more, thanks to the fact they made their reservation on OpenTable, the automated assistant will know exactly what time they planned to meet. But, based on the fact that you’re 30 minutes away from where you’re having dinner, and tapping into a traffic app, they know that there’s congestion on the way. It then might send out an alert to the person you’re having dinner with, or can, in an automated way, message both people to confirm that they’d like to push the reservation back by 30 minutes, make that change, and close that loop with no effort. Part of what’s making that possible now, he says, is the very existence of mobile, but it’s also thanks to the maturity of the platforms that are now being accessed by maturing APIs. The automated personal assistant addresses a need set that couldn’t be solved in an asychronous environment on a desktop. (For those who immediately thought of Siri’s Personal Assistant when reading this, check out the video below.) Secondly, education is a trillion dollar market “that’s completely screwed up”, because it involves millions of children going to sit in a classroom for 7 hours, and it combines three different businesses for the state: the real estate business, the union labor management business, and certification business. When, in reality, education should be delivered in a realtime basis to students who are learning at their own pace, who don’t have to sit in a room full of 30 people in an antiquated environment — a realtime, mobile solution that’s learning based as opposed to curriculum based. This second idea is a bit more nebulous, but Chien is hitting on an important theme here: How badly American education is in need of disruption and innovation, especially as that would relate to mobile. The third model Chien alluded to was health and fitness. “We all wish that we could lose ten pounds”, he said, and now there’s a device in your pocket that can seamlessly manage its owner (personal assistant theme again), encourage the user to exercise, eat healthier, whatever the case may be. It can truly manage the pace at which you are paying attention to your health, your exercise regimen, and helping you to lead a healthier lifestyle. There’s a huge need here, Chien said, something that never could have been tackled in a PC environment, simply because the overhead of checking a website every day (as opposed to a mobile device that’s portable and always with you) is just unsustainable. It knows what you’re eating, what the caloric intake of that food might be, can advise you against consuming that third ice cream cone, and can tell your heart rate after a 5 mile run. When one combines that with display information designs and notifications optimized for a mobile setting — well, it’s enough to make an entrepreneur water at the mouth. Afterwards, Schonfeld asked Chien if these were actually three stealth startups that Kleiner Perkins had recently invested in, to which Chien laughed and said, no, but if there are companies out there making these products, Kleiner may very well be interested. “And those aren’t just dinky features … those are companies”, Chien said. “Those are companies attacking trillion dollar markets.” I also kept hearing a theme of automation in what Chien talked about, and clearly, at least in his mind, (though I think it’s in the minds of many others as well), that automated processes, whether they be customer service, healthy living, or retail processes, are going to be big not just because we’re lazy, but because they help us focus on doing the things we love. |
360: TeliportMe Brings Its Killer Panorama App To Android (Oh, And It Works On Over 200 Phones) | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | Last November, TechCrunch’s own Sarah Lacy from “social streetview” startup, , which, at the time, had just received term sheets from a number of high-profile U.S. investors and had recently been awarded the “Top Emerging Technology Company of 2010” by . The startup was the first international, non-funded, under-20-member company to win the award, according to Devaiah. Since then, Phototour added Academy Award certificate-winner and entrepreneur as an advisor (who was honored for “technical achievement” for his contributions to optical technologies used in films, including Star Wars) and has gained more than 47,000 users for the alpha version of its image and panorama crowdsourcing app, , on Android. Users have logged more than 75,000 panoramas in a relatively short period of time, so, considering the rumors that app, sources tell us that 360 might be a candidate for a potential partnership with Android so that it can remain neck-in-neck with Apple. What’s more, today the startup is officially announcing that it is rebranding as TeliportMe and is bringing 360 out of alpha and into the public sphere in ready-to-wear form. For free. Granted, 360-degree panorama apps for smartphones are nothing new. There are quite a few cool apps and gadgets that have these capabilities on the market, like , Occipital’s , and , to name a few. In light of this competition, TeliportMe wants to distinguish itself from the field by building a high quality Android app, that works across OEMs. According to Devaiah, panoramic apps tend to be very hardware centric because of their reliance on a smartphone’s camera, accelerometer, gyroscope, RAM, and so on. Because Android relies on so many different OEMs, it becomes a tricky proposition to build a good 360-degree app for Android and is the reason why most panorama apps are built on iOS (thanks to the vertical integration it has with its hardware). Another obstacle for Android is that only about 20 percent of its smartphones have the processing capability of the iPhone, and as panoramic apps require a lot of image processing during photo stitching, many Android phones don’t have enough RAM to make this possible (at least at speed). Devaiah cited the example of a phone like the , which has processing capabilities lesser than that of an iPhone 2G. (Burn!) This is where the technology that won the startup the “best emerging tech” award comes into play. TeliportMe is bringing its photo stitching technology to the Android smartphone, which to a large extent negates the issues caused due to multiple hardware configurations, allowing it to function smoothly over 200 models of android phones, the CEO says. (The startup has also built a version of its photostitching app that works on the browser, which it will be launching soon.) So, 360 allows its users to quickly take high quality panoramas, which they can then view on the app’s 3D viewer. Users can share panoramas via Facebook and Twitter, as well as view, comment, and “like” photos taken by people all over the world on 360’s public realtime feed. The app also taps into the phone’s location to allow users to discover other people using 360 in close proximity, using its “Around Me” option. Check out 360 in the Android Marketplace , and for the 360’s humorous take on “the Google+ guy” dissing other photo apps, check out . For more on 360, look out, video below: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjQCjGODOHk] |
Android’s Matias Duarte: Ice Cream Sandwich Will Help Devs Cope With Myriad Form Factors | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | As we closed out today’s , all of our speakers took the stage for an extended roundtable discussing a variety of topics affecting mobile: design, gaming mechanics, and, of course, iPhone vs Android. One of the last questions posed during the roundtable came from Mike Isaac, who asked how the next version of Android, which is called Ice Cream Sandwich, would help developers produce applications that look nice across the multitude of form factors Android will spread to. The difficulty developers face when designing for Android came up multiple times during the day (during an earlier panel I asked straight-up ), and Duarte’s message was consistent: things will be getting better as the platform becomes more mature. And the Android team is trying to do what they can to make it easier to develop for multiple form factors. Here’s what Duarte had to say about the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich release (paraphrased): Ice Cream Sandwich will continue the very challenging job of trying to create an embeddable platform that has the flexibility of the web. We’re trying to make one size fits all, and there are different products for different needs. That said, we know it is hard to design in that environment. Ice Cream Sandwich gives you a lot of tools to help you build one app that works more seamlessly across a variety of screen sizes and different form factors. And before that, we’re rolling out tools that help developers focus and optimize. We recently launched features that let you have and specific device targeting. We’re looking to make that transition easier and create really good-looking stuff on Android. |
Chamillionaire Pleads With Android Design Lead To Give Him A Decent Device | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | “I’ve used all these different devices — they suck.” Short. Sweet. To the point. Rarely do you find that at tech conferences. Luckily, loves coming to ours. That was the hip-hop star’s words to Android design lead during our today. During the closing panel, Chamillionaire got up to express his love for the iPhone and his frustration that Android has not been able to create even one device that can match it. Obviously, this drew a big reaction from the audience. And Duarte took it in stride. He told Chamillionaire that everyone has different tastes ( earlier in the day). And he admitted that Apple does make great devices, as do competitors like Microsoft and HP. But Chamillionaire kept pressing. He wanted a single, clear answer. Which Android device should he use? “I’m hoping that pretty soon we’re gonna have an android phone you’re gonna love,” Duarte responded, seemingly hinting at a new Android device yet to come. When our own Erick Schonfeld asked Duarte what device he used, Duarte said it was the Nexus S. For now, that’s the one he recommends. Chamillionaire agreed to try it. We’ll see — . |
Mobile Neighborhood App Blockboard Now Covers All Of San Francisco | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | What would Craigslist look like if it was a mobile app? It might look a little bit like , a neighborhood which is expanding today from its initial neighborhood of the Mission in San Francisco to the rest of the city. Co-founder demoed the app at our Mobile First CrunchUp today. It is designed from the ground-up as a neighborhood app through which neighbors can interact with one another. They can report potholes and graffiti directly to the city, alert each other about crime and vandalism through a Blockwatch, post general observations about the neighborhood, ask their neighbors questions, and post pictures of lost and found items. The app has the feel of a bunch of neighborhood flyers on your phone. “Have you seen this dog?” “Free kitchen cabinet in original packaging on sidewalk.” “Dropped baby hat. Blue with pom poms. Near little star?” A week ago I asked, where is the best Cuban food in the Mission and received 8 answers (and that was in the private beta). At some point you can imagine people listing items for sale. Chief engineer and co-founder was actually a former senior engineer at Craigslit. Before that he was at Delicious, where he met Hood. There is another Delicious connection in that founder Joshua Schachter is an investor. The company raised a seed round last May. The company renamed itself and retooled the app from its original of pinning virtual notes to GPS coordinates. You can still pin pictures and notes on a map, but that is almost a buried feature. The app is more about creating a community, but one that is grounded in your real neighborhood. You pick your neighborhood, which limits the posts and other neighbors you see in the app to that micro-community. In a day and age when people no longer talk to their neighbors, much less know who they are, maybe it will take a mobile app to make people good neighbors again. |
Mobile Has The Opportunity To Re-Think The Ad | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | Kleiner Perkins VC kicked off the “Money Matters” panel at the TechCrunch Mobile First CrunchUp with a telling understatement, “There seems to be a lot of new business models around mobile.” Indeed, what makes mobile unique as a communication platform is that traditional advertising isn’t the default. See: As Chien pointed out, because of constraints on-screen size, display ads won’t cut it when your screen is 3 inches wide. As constraints often necessitate creative solutions, we’re seeing a shift on mobile that has resulted in many businesses trying a multitude of solutions for monetizing mobile transactions, specifically commerce and deals or offers. “A pop up over on mobile is really obnoxious,” said Chien. “Is [an ad] really a solution if it’s interrupting the user experience without the user completing an action?” August Capital partner and founding Skype investor compared the struggle to find a model that works on mobile to Skype’s early attempts at monetization, “The biggest challenge in communication is how to make money off of it,” he said. “Something will come up, whether its paid candy hearts on Valentines Day …” Hartenbaum went on, referring to Tango founder story about offering his customers hearts they could impose on videos, and pay for. Skype originally planned to monetize by turning itself into an open Wifi network, charging customers who didn’t want to share Wifi $7 to use its voice services. Companies are also presented with a unique opportunity with monetizing on mobile, the chance to close or track an ad or an offer from where the customer sees it, to when it is redeemed and providing analytics around its redemption like how much was spent and where. Brands like Foursquare are perfectly poised to close this loop, and are making incremental moves towards the goal, Foursquare most recently with announced this morning. “It’s more than just the ad, it’s the measurement of its effectiveness,” said Foursquare’s Tristan Walker. Chien closed the panel by referring to the “redemption loop” as the dream, when one day large retailers and small retailers will know exactly who their customers are, and that companies like Foursquare and LivingSocial will basically function as automated CRM services. He envisions a future when someone will walk into their local store and the merchant will immediately know who they are, and possibly what they want. “But we’re a long ways away,” Chien said. “Everyone’s [currently] focused on acquisition.” Watch the rest of the CrunchUp live |
Springboard presents 10 startup graduates to investors | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | Ten startups were showcased to investors at the brand new accelerator programme in the UK today, which has joined Seedcamp, Startup Bootcamp and Hackfwd as one of the bigger programmes across Europe. The startups to present were the following, (click the links to get our coverage of each company): , , , , , , , , , and . The teams have been through a 13 week bootcamp programme and come from across Europe. Each team gets a super low £15,000 of investment capital, reflecting the very product-oriented nature of this scheme. For that they take 6% in ordinary founder shares. Office space is free for the duration. Springboard is backed by an angel investor syndicate, the Cambridge co-working facility ideaSpace, and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), The prgramme http://eu.beta.techcrunch.com/2010/11/29/springboard-launches-startup-incubation-for-the-y-combinator-generation/ |
Next Jump’s Mobile App Ella Rewards You For Sharing Local Shopping Tips | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | , which for thousands of corporations and credit card companies, has been steadily expanding its platform to offer a more social experience for consumers. For example, the startup inked a to get access to its inventory of daily deals, and to use Next Jump’s WOWpoints to buy deals and merchandise from retailers like Target and Walmart. Today, Next Jump is unveiling another piece of the puzzle with the debut of Ella, an iOS app that allows you to earn and reward WOWpoints for sharing fashion and shopping tips with your friends. Ella’s iOS app opens up a map of your current location that shows you where fellow Ella users have posted a tip and photo of a fashion item or good deal at a store nearby. If you like the tip, you can comment on the share and reward users with one WOWpoint, which is worth a penny on Next Jump’s rewards platform, OO.com. And when you post tips and photos, you have the opportunity of earnings WOWpoints as well. Essentially Next Jump is attaching a reward to the act of liking a shopping tip. Ella also features the top users who have WOWpoints and share via the app. You can spend these WOWpoints you accumulate on OO.com, which lists millions of products from more than 30,000 merchants including Target, Walmart, Amazon, and Buy.com. Next Jump says that in the future, Ella will include Facebook Connect so you can access tips from your friends as well. And the company will soon launch similar apps in other verticals, such as travel and restaurants. |
Stealth Social Mobile Startup just.me Raises $600K From Google Ventures, SV Angel And Others | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | a stealth startup playing in the social and mobile spaces, has just raised $600,000 in seed funding from a list of all star investors including , , , , , , , Steve McArthur, and Four Horsemen LLC. just.me was founded by , a serial entrepreneur and a co-founder of TechCrunch. Teare previously co-founded RealNames Corporation, and The EasyNet Group. Teare tells us that just.me, which was born from his incubator , is focused on the post-PC social network. He declined to give us specifics but he says that just.me will change the way we think about mobile and social networks. From just.me’s site, When asked if just.me has any co-founders, Teare responded ‘it’s just me.’ Teare says that just.me will launch later this year. is a shareholder in Just.me. |
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Publification aims at Amazon, Google and Apple with amazing HTML5 eBook app [Springboard] | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | Perhaps one of the most interesting new startups to emerge from the at its first investor day today has been . Right now there is a problem with ebooks. They are files. They are not dynamic. You need a reader. Not all readers work with all files. Plus, publishers are in hoc to the platforms like Kindle and iBooks. It’s a total pain, for publishers and for writers. Publishers don’t have any control over what is promoted and don’t get enough data about the customers. The companies that win are the platforms, Amazon and Apple and the rest. disrupts that model by creating an ebook reader for browsers, creating a beautiful reading experience through an HTML5 app inside a browser. That means it can access 2 billion existing devices. The HTML5 based Browserbook reader automatically fits any screen size and having seen it myself I can say it actually works extremely well, including swiping on an iPad. No files to download, no software to install, no dedicated e-reader devices. Publification has a number of interesting security features to stop piracy. Because of its HTML5 nature you cannot ‘view source’ and just steal the book’s text. Plus, the app uses Facebook or Twitter authentification. If you wanted to share a book, you’d have to hand over your Facebook password. The app supports rich media like audio and video. The business model is selling a license to the technology to publishers or a retailers. For self-publishers, Publification will offer a web based drag ‘n drop editor. For self-publishing authors, the startup allows any author to upload a manuscript and start promoting it, very easily. Plus, because we are talking about HMTL5, Publification could offer “In book purchasing” so people can access special areas of a book, like premium content. It can also cache content for offline browsing. (Not unlike the FT’s HTML 5 app). Since it’s tied with social accounts, reading is synced between iPad and iPhone etc Competitors such as Google’s eReader won’t sell as a white label to publishers and won’t be as flexible (just like Apple). And they are not focusing on the self-publishing. While 24Symbols has a browser reader technology, most publishers don’t think this ‘Spotify-like’ approach of ‘books as a service’ will work. It’s also not a surprise that the Publification technology was developed in tech-powerhouse Estonia by founders Marius Arras, Rait Ojasaar and Janek Priimann. |
Matias Duarte On iOS Vs. Android Looks: “Why Are Sicilians More Handsome Than Other Gentleman?” | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | Today during our in Palo Alto, CA, our own Jason Kincaid led a panel focused on designing the mobile experience. On the panel were Bump’s , Soundtracking’s , and Google’s (the Director of User Experience for Android). Not surprisingly, much of the talk was iOS versus Android. Such is the state of the mobile world right now. It was a good panel for such a talk because Soundtracking is iPhone-only right now, Bump is out there for both iPhone and Android, and Duarte is obviously an Android guy. Jason came right out with it. “Why are iPhone applications better looking than Android applications?” After a laugh, Duarte answered. “Why are Sicilians more handsome than other gentleman?,” he asked, which brought even bigger laughs from the audience. In other words, this is a case where beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in his view. But then he tried to answer the question more directly. “There’s no reason why you can’t have a beautiful Android app or an ugly iPhone app,” Duarte noted, saying that he sees a ton of Android applications every day (obviously), and many of them are very nice-looking. “The Android ecosystem is honestly just a little younger,” he continued, to explain why some may view things this way. “You need to give people time to develop on it.” Mintz had a theory along the same lines. “Right now we find it harder to hire Android developers. People who are really excited about mobile — iOS came out first,” he noted, again signaling that the iOS first-mover advantage. “They learned iOS first.” But he also had another theory. “I bet if you put 100 designers in a room, more are Mac users and more are iPhone users,” Mintz said. “It’s reflecting the users of the platform,” he continued. Jang agreed with Mintz. “There’s a cultural advantage working on the Mac platform. Most designers use Macs,” he said. “But now there’s an opportunity on both platforms for designers,” he continued, indicating Android’s huge growth. All seemed in agreement that over-time, Apple’s iOS app design advantage will even out. |
With 7M Users In His Pocket, Kevin Systrom Says The Biggest Opportunities For Instagram Are On Mobile | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | At today’s , Erick Schonfeld sat down with AdMob and Churn Labs founder and founder to discuss how both founders approached mobile development vs. the web. Systrom, whose popular iOS photo sharing app just passed 7 million users, explained that the biggest opportunities for Instagram are on mobile, not the web. “I don’t believe Instagram could have been a website and website only,” Systrom explains. “The nature of the app is about sharing photographs in the moment.” And the mobile phone is the optimal platform for this task. Of course, Instagram is growing fast for an iOS only app, adding in less than two months. While Systrom believes the future for Instagram lies in mobile development (hopefully that means an Android app soon?), there is work being done on a stronger web presence. But he says it’s not as simple as just putting all the iPhone app’s functionality on the web. He explains, “We’re trying to create what we have on the iPhone and make it an interesting experience on the web.” In the final panel at the CrunchUp, Systrom did say that and Android app will be launching in the future. But no timeline yet. |
TotalGigs plans live location-based content sharing at music events [Springboard] | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | : A “Color for live music” might be stretching the analogy (and the comparison) but wants to be in the same location-based content sharing field, even if it probably wouldn’t like Color’s negative press. They intend to launch an app on the iPhone, RIM and Android to allow sharing of Pictures, Messages and “Moods” based on location. Then, when the event finishes, the stream closes but users can go back and relive the memory through shared pictures, thoughts and emotions that were captured at the time. Right now when go to event you use a mobile to capture and share. Total Gigs reckons it’s easy to lose that experience when the event has worn off – although to be honest, the hail of Facebook photos usually means you don’t… Their idea is to focus is on the live music market first and in the longer term to allow location based sharing at any event. Foursquare is not really oriented towards sharing the content or experiences at an event, although personally I would go for the bigger market first, as Foursquare did. Total Gigs thinks music promoters and bands want this app. They don’t know who the customers are at events and can’t get at the data. Long term? The Groupon of live events, maybe. The team of four is looking to raise a £750,000 seed round. |
HTML5 Developer Joe Hewitt: “There’s A Place For App Stores Long-Term” | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | Here at the TechCrunch storied mobile developer spoke about the future of native and mobile Web apps with TC writer MG Siegler. Hewitt is most famously the Facebook mobile developer that stopped doing work on Facebook’s iOS efforts after he got fed up with Apple’s staunch App Store rules. Eventually leaving Facebook five years after the Parakey acquisition, Hewitt is now working on his own, heavily HTML5-based projects.” Hewitt seemed softer on his Apple stance at today’s talk, even telling Siegler that he was an iPhone man, “I never said I didn’t love the product.” Hewitt also said that he’s heard that Apple has gotten better with regards to its often strict rules, “They’re more responsive to developers and the wait times are shorter.” Hewitt also admitted that he personally hadn’t submitted anything to the Apple App Store in past two years. Hewitt thinks that while a lot of people were now writing native apps because it was trendy and exciting, some content does absolutely not work on the platform, bringing up as an example of an institution that successfully decided on a HTML5 web app of iOS participation. He hopes that more developers will follow this lead as the mobile web becomes more functional but native apps aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. “There’s a place for app stores long-term .. [for example] games are great for app stores,” he said, referring to the format’s ability to take payments and the fact that games would be most aided by the hundreds of millions of credit cards retained by iOS for example. Hewitt held that other formats, like news and magazine apps, were not ideal, “The user experience really suffers,” he said. You can watch the video below and rest of the Mobile First CrunchUp on the livestream . |
Buy A New Mac, Install iLife On Your Other Macs With This Simple Workaround | Jordan Crook | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | Good news! If you’re missing a little iLife in life than have no fear, ’s got it . iLife has been included on the new MacBook Air and Mac mini, in the form of GarageBand, iPhoto, and iMovie. As luck, and Apple, would have it, once you have a licensed copy of iLife ‘11 (like the one that comes with your new Mac) attached to your Mac App Store user account, it’s available for download on other Macs also linked to that account. Once you’ve purchased iLife ‘11 (either in a box at the store, or as a part of your new MacBook Air/Mac mini purchase), it will show up under the Purchases tab of the Mac App Store. That is, as long as you’re running OS X 10.6.6 Snow Leopard or later, which gives you access to the Mac App Store in the first place. So you’re sitting at your new MacBook Air, looking at the Mac App Store under Purchases, and there sits iLife ‘11. Still with me? You should be, that was the easiest part. (I kid, this is really easy.) Ok, so now we head over to your other Mac, likely older, and see that it needs a little shot of iLife ‘11, too. As long as you registered your new mac with the same Apple ID, iLife ‘11 will have suddenly appeared for download under the Purchases tab on that computer, too. All you have to do now is install it, and the latest version of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand will be ready and waiting for you in a just a short while. |
SpaceX To Launch ISS-Bound Supply Ship In November | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | With the demise of the space shuttle program fresh in my mind, I’m forced to find my space-related solace wherever I can. Luckily, with companies like SpaceX still devoted to removing the obstacles to commercial space flight, I can’t be too bummed — and as has reported, SpaceX is preparing their next step. After their a few months back, SpaceX is aiming their sights just a little higher. Late this November, SpaceX is set to launch their second test pod to the International Space Station and bring her back home again. Should it succeed, Elon Musk and company will have come one step closer to their goal of becoming one of two commercial entities who can deliver cargo to the ISS. SpaceX is also looking to transport people between the station and home, and is currently looking at their Dragon multipurpose craft to do much of the people moving. Admittedly, it’s no mission to Mars, but it’s an important project that will help sustain the International Space Station and hopefully pave the way for similar projects in the future. Besides, once we get all this low Earth orbit business down pat, it should be time to move onto some loftier ambitions. |
Google Retires 13-Year-Old ‘Google Friends’ Newsletter | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | a charming thirteen year old newsletter that a few old-time techies still subscribed to has decided to shut down today, citing flat subscription numbers and the prominence of Google news on Twitter and the official Google blog as impetus for its retirement. Created by co-founder and current CEO Larry Page on April 29, 1998, the newsletter started while Google was on the Stanford servers and provided fans with incremental Google updates like ” I created a new logo using Gimp (of course).” Seriously though, run through it’s awesome. From the last Google missive: “Obviously a lot has happened since then, including changes in how we communicate updates to all of you. So this will be our last Google Friends Newsletter. We started the Official Google Blog in 2004 and joined Twitter in 2009, and we’ve seen dramatic growth on those channels. Meanwhile, the number of subscribers to this newsletter has remained flat, so we’ve concluded that this format is no longer the best way for us to get the word out about new Google products and services.” Google recommends that the Google faithful now get their news from , like the Chrome and AdSense blog or the various Google . While one might take the move as indicative of a larger trend of how Twitter is killing all other forms of communication blah blah blah, it might just be that the search engine is now way too big for email newsletter. |
Arachnys pulls big data from emerging markets [Springboard] | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | What do you get if you cross an ex- analyst with a technical co-founder? Remember, Control Risks is about entering and dealing with emerging new markets, where anything can happen. So is about digging deep into the data about business information from emerging markets like India, China, and Russia. Think Google for emerging markets. For instance: India has 27 states, and separate courts in each state. A search on a litigation action is almost impossible. The information about these areas is fragmented, badly organised, and often unsearchable. Most existing providers don’t have real-time data. Thus, their first product will be to help customers find data form deep web that they would not get from Google or specialist data providers. It’s actually not unlike Quid or PalantirTech.com In the short term they are building a compliance product – this is not just raw data but insight. Useful for people who do things like background checks on prospective employees, or and checking court cases against individuals. A prototype is on trial with 10 customers and they hope to convert them in the next couple of weeks. The business model is licensing, similar to Quid. |
MiniMonos to take on Moshi Monsters with a fun 'Green' game for boys | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | : In a sentence, is a ‘Green for boys.” The longer story is that this is a 2D virtual world for kids to have fun in (it’s focused on entertainment with green/sustainability themes, not education). MiniMonos has been going for two years and is led by an experienced team led by of CEO Melissa Clark-Reynolds, but only came out of beta last month. It’s growing at 20% per month and now has about 300,000 registered members. Revenue comes through subscriptions and microtransactions. The target market is 8-12-year-old boys. Buy a virtual good inside the game and you contribute to a clean water supply for kids in India (14,000+ days to date), as well as adopting orangutans, supporting wild tigers, and other feel-good rewards. There are also in-world rewards for real-world eco-actions. Why boys? Disney tends to target boys with TV shows as girls will happily watch boys’ shows, but not vice versa. But online, there’s lots of entertainment for girls, but not much for boys. So if you capture the boys online, you bring the girls along with them, thus increasing the value of the company. Its four main countries are the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand; memberships is driven through natural traffic (word of mouth), Google Adwords, the Miniclip games aggregator site, and PR, via primarily kids’ television. The company has just launched TV commercials in the UK and will launch branded prepaid cards in Sainsbury’s in the UK in October. The startups is shooting for a Series B funding round by the end of December. So why are they in the Springboard programme? A soft landing in the UK, they tell me, where the company is now incorporated. BTW a “Mono” is a monkey in Spanish. |
Tastebuds.fm launches its bid for investment [Springboard] | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | has been making waves recently with an innovative approach to dating which is a lot less run of the mill. Today it launches to investors at the accelerator programme in Cambridge, with a bid for £500,000 of Seed investment. Users import their music profiles from last.fm, facebook or just put in some of their favourite artists. They are then shown single people who share their musical preferences. A lot less tiresome than trawling though people who might look good but are not as keen on the Smashing Pumpkins as you – and a lot more emotionally connecting. Tastebuds is also integrated with music events website . Thus, an event Matchmaker lets you declare your intention to go to a gig and ask if anyone wants to come – a perfect dating feature. This focus on music means that almost half of Tastebuds’ users are new to the dating market online, and one can see the appeal since music is a natural conversation starter – they claim a 33% higher response rate to opening messages than OKCupid. The site has attracted 25,000 users/music lovers to date, 40% of whom have been active in the last month The founders – developers Alex Parish and Julian Keenaghan – came up with idea three years ago and released a prototype last summer and have become known partly for pulling interesting stats form the dat, such as the stat that Coldplay fans are least likely to go ‘all the way’ on the first date. A mobile app is in the planning stage and a revenue model may come in the future from premium membership, micro transactions, virtual goods (virtual roses etc). |
Why startups should be .44 Magnums | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 16 | Disruption. It’s been playing on my mind since something happened at the eG8 Forum in Paris. Since then, I’ve been to many events involving startups and seen many pitches. Then recently, Nick Halstead about whether startups get enough support from VCs in Europe to ‘think big’, with a weighing in on . And that’s what disruption and startups are about: thinking big. Because to my mind, not enough startups do that. Time and again I see pitches from companies that want to create, what in effect is a widget. An application. Something which simply extends an existing ecosystem, or tinkers around the edges. For instance, if I have to see another startup which wants to ‘aggregate travel experiences’ I will gnaw my right leg off. I don’t, in all honesty, care. Because, what would be better, would be a startup which disrupts the entire travel industry altogether – not allows me to book another skydiving holiday from ‘a variety of existing providers’ (as if I would). I was reminded of this imperative to disrupt at eG8 Forum, the ‘talkfest in Paris earlier this year. Perhaps the best panel of all featured Niklas Zennström, co-founder of Skype, Sean Parker (involved in Napster and Facebook) and Yuri Milner, of investor DST. All three of them are involved in massive disruption from Skype, to Facebook to (in the case of DST) shaking up the investment market in Silicon Valley. Not one of these guys would do anything small. All of their plays have been ambitious, almost crazy. Disrupt the entire entire telecoms industry? Skype. Change human interaction? Facebook. Assault the music industry? Napster. None of them bother with mere apps and widgets. They subscribe to what I have decided to call . It goes like this: You build the biggest handgun you can (in the real world this would equate to a .44 Magnum). You then hold it to the metaphorical head of the largest industry you can find (telecoms, music, media). You then say: “Do you feel lucky, punk?” Because that is exactly what the three mentioned above did. Their ability to create extreme value came out of their extreme threats to existing industries. They did, if you like, threaten “with extreme prejudice”, to borrow a phrase from Apocalypse Now. These are the startups I am most impressed with. Don’t get me wrong – the startups that are changing industries in a slower manner can still be good businesses. And likely as not they will start to pull revenues sooner, as they sidle up to partners, create white label versions or whatever. Often they are successful, but they do not – as the English Archers did at the Battle of Crecy – ‘aim for the moon’ to hit the charging phalanx of knights. Note: I am not saying you to find an industry to threaten. Your ‘big play’ could simply be a brand new idea, in the same way Twitter was a brand new idea. But ultimately Twitter has threatened something: from the news industry to the SMS revenues of big telcos (which I hardly do these days). Of course, to build a big gun, you need big investment. Or, at the very least investors who believe in you enough to go with you on the journey towards the ‘weaponising’ of your startup. So, is this something you want to do? Or do you want to tinker around the edges? Do ? |
Zing! Larry Page Calls Out ‘Competitors’ (aka Facebook) For Lack Of Social Data Portability | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 16 | At the end of yesterday’s , CEO Larry Page made a very interesting comment about data portability, Google+, and competitors (aka Facebook). In the an analyst asked Page what the most compelling reasons are to switch from existing social platforms to Google+ or if the company sees a future where people can be a part of multiple social networks and platforms (paraphrased, at the 57 minute mark in the call). Page responded with this statement on Google+ and switch costs: Clearly, Page is referring to Facebook in his statement above, which has notoriously been uber-protective (bordering on restrictive) around exporting data from its network into clients like Gmail. And for some time now, data portability has been a between Google and Facebook. Facebook a number of contact-exporting tools that aimed to take data out of the social network to import into other services (i.e. Google+). And how could we forget the infamous Facebook-Google back and forth over sharing contacts. Last year, Google began to download Google contacts. Facebook , and Google subsequently issued a statement that they were . Facebook Platform engineer Mike Vernal in the comments of one of our blog posts about the slap fight, defending Facebook’s policy and calling it “consistent”. Shortly afterwards, a that allowed you to scrape your Facebook contact information into Gmail was . The key part of all this is —Google feels that since they are providing the ability to export Gmail contact data to Facebook, Facebook to do the same. And they don’t. With Google+, the search giant is offering a , which gives you the option to download all of your profile data, stream data, photos from Picassa, Buzz data, Circles and Contacts. You can download it and do what you want with your data. Facebook also allows you to of your photos, friend lists, messages, and wall posts, but it is not in a format third party sites can use, which is why Page made the passive aggressive remark. There’s no doubt that he was referring to Facebook when talking about competitors not having the same open data portability position. There’s no doubt that Google+ is in terms of usage, and its hard for Facebook to ignore this. In fact, Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg at a recent press event. Fast growth and engagement aside, data portability between Google and Facebook will continue to be an issue until both companies settle this and call a truce. The question is whether the battle has gone too far for a reasonable peace treaty to be made. Photo credit/Flickr/ |
The Underground Promise Of Turntable.fm | Semil Shah | 2,011 | 7 | 16 | One of the most vinyl collections belongs to a DJ who only surfaces every now and then. And when he does, legions of fans wait on baited breath, desperate to taste the latest brew from Josh Davis, otherwise known as . DJs like Shadow usually begin creating underground. Their music is the result of months of sampling and cutting to form entirely new sounds. These new tunes form in darkness, outside the purview of record labels, radio stations, and the majority of listeners. It’s a bit romanticized, but there’s also much truth to the underground creative process and secretive DJ battles that occur in real life, where other DJs rate their peers. For those who have witnessed a live battle, it’s a unique environment where an unknown DJ can conceivably, on any given night, spin records better than pros like DJ Shadow. Yes, this is another post about . Erick Schonfeld was the about the service back in May. Since then, it’s taken off like a hot summer single. Nearly everyone believes Turntable become a big deal, though it faces dangerous landmines (see below) and may struggle to stay in the limelight now that Spotify has launched in the U.S. There’s a great story about the company’s and creation of the service. Investors have circled around Manhattan, and the company’s should be announced soon. Every tech blog and have covered its numerous times, it’s technology , how it could make , how to create , a DJ event in NYC, and even mainstream pubs like in. I won’t regurgitate or summarize any of the coverage thus far, but many of these pieces miss the key points about this site has so much promise. I’d like to shine some light on these. to build their reputation, their audience, and perhaps even get discovered. In the real world, DJs create tracks and battle underground, earning their reputation by performing in various venues, trading mix tapes, referencing (or dissing) their peers, and incorporating new tricks into their cuts. What has been happening underground for years may now slowly be coming online, where someone could as a DJ and, perhaps even be discovered by a club or promoter. in a music world that contains Pandora, iTunes, Rdio, and now , which will feature some integration with Facebook. I believe there will be room for all of these services and that they each satisfy different needs. In other words, Turntable won’t “kill” Pandora nor be “killed” by Spotify, which may not “kill” Rdio. Pandora is about letting machines learn your music tastes and help you discover new tunes. Recently, it announced its own social . iTunes wasn’t able to break into social with , though a young startup is trying to crack the code. Spotify, which launched this week and may with Facebook, could offer more choices than iTunes for less money and theoretically could recreate the “social rooms” ambiance of Turntable. All of these services carry a large song inventory, largely composed of mainstream music, both current and extensive back catalogs. Not everyone’s tastes are mainstream and/or homogenous, however. For some, buying music on iTunes is simply boring, chock full of pop hits and TV soundtracks. A service like Turntable allows users to organize themselves by type of music, geography, work groups, and so forth, and helps unlock niche areas of music that make up an interesting long tail in discovery. and . The labels could conspire to kill this service, and their track record isn’t pretty. Or, Turntable could die under the weight of onerous licensing fees. On the other hand, the record companies are so beaten up that they may have actually reached a point where may want a service like Turntable to succeed, so that it cannot burn bridges to future distribution channels, especially now given the promise around Spotify. While I wouldn’t underestimate the battle scars inflicted on the likes of or , it seems the continues to move in favor of the consumer, and that the timing for Turntable could actually be impeccable. . Right now, there isn’t a mobile application, and given the user load issues the site is experiencing, it may be a while before they build this. For now and the foreseeable future, Turntable’s music will be heard through laptops and desktops, where a small few could create new content, and some others could help spread it through voting, and help it reach the remaining mass of listeners. Imagine being at a club during a DJ battle where audience members could register their votes via mobile apps or SMS, in addition to their applause? Or, maybe you’ll want a certain crew of DJs to play at your birthday party in San Francisco, but they’re located in Berlin—a service like Turntable could help bridge that gap, and offer your guests a chance to chime in on the music selection. All of these possibilities surround audio files, but is there room for video, too? I recognize it’s early days for the Turntable.fm team. I don’t mean to suggest that overcoming any of these hurdles will be easy. In fact, it will be extremely interesting to see who joins as an investor in the Series B round, because an endeavor like this will require both entrepreneurs and investors taking the fight to the record industry, or creating incentives for them to play along nicely. In some ways, it reminds me of with its up-votes, entering “rooms” instead of following “threads,” and could also follow the 1-9-90 rule of content generation—where 1% create new music on the site, 9% help spread it by voting and sharing, and the rest of us consume it. Among most music fans I run into who have tried Turntable, there’s this initial, almost indescribable fascination with the service and shared desire to see it to succeed despite any challenges. They have cultivated a great deal of good will. There are other real threats to the service. Will DJs and even casual listeners experience fatigue of waiting too long to DJ or hanging out in empty rooms? Will the technology stack hold up to the incredible demand for the service, especially when a celebrity DJ wants to spin for his or her fans? Or will the site succumb to trolls, invasive brand accounts, or SPAM? Is the site really about discovering music, or just chatting about music, or both? Or is this entire package seen as a possible antidote to Spotify’s upcoming Facebook plans, where Turntable could be gobbled up as a strategic acquisition, especially for artists and record labels who may be uneasy abowithut Facebook’s growing footprint in media? Turntable.fm has the makings of a huge hit, already attracting world renown DJs like and . Perhaps even DJ Shadow will give the site a whirl before he releases his new album later this fall. For someone like Shadow, selling out shows worldwide isn’t a problem. Reaching new fans is, however. And, there may just be that part of him which misses the old days of DJ battles, something his status now rarely affords him. A site like Turntable.fm could give him and a variety of other established or hopeful artists an entirely new platform to test new beats, find others to collaborate with, test geographic demand for new music, interact with fans, sell albums and merchandise, play special shows online, and so much more. The possibilities are endless. That is the promise of Turntable.fm—and here’s to hoping it all gets realized one day. https://twitter.com/#!/ewiesen/status/91505013213495296 |
Following Twitter | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 16 | In honor of Twitter’s the folks at have made the following graphic plotting out key milestones on it’s path to 200 million tweets a day. Following Twitter, get it? |
Keen On… Don’t Steal This Book (TCTV) | Andrew Keen | 2,011 | 7 | 16 | “Steal this book,” wrote Abbie Hoffman in 1970. So, today, why should we pay for our books – especially in a digital age where intellectual theft is both ubiquitous and pretty much risk free? According to the best-selling author of novels like and paying for his books means that he doesn’t have to work at a gas station or a car dealership. When we pay for one of his books, Shteyngart explained when we spoke earlier this week, it “allows me to produce more work.” Buying a book, he insists, represents an investment in creativity. And creativity – real creativity – may be at a premium today – at least according to Shteyngart. As he the Internet may be killing our eccentricity and transforming all of us into 140-character conformists. Thus, in today’s networked age, he says, there is an acute need for writers who can grab our attention and drag us away from broadcasting our boring selves on Facebook and Twitter. This is the second in a two-part interview with Shteyngart. he explained why, in the not-too-distant future, everyone will know everything about everybody.
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In The Battle Of The Music Tweets, Turntable.fm Has More Klout Than Spotify Or Pandora | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | Have you noticed an uptick in the number of Tweets that mention Spotify, Turntable.fm or other music services lately? It’s all part of their diabolical plans. Online music services live or die by word of mouth, which is why most of them have hooks into Twitter and Facebook for users to share invites and the songs they are listening to. But which ones are winning the battle of the music tweets? Social media analytics company looked at a one week sample of tweets linking to one of three music services: Spotify, Turntable.fm, and Pandora. It found that 51 percent of the Tweets linked to Spotify, 26 percent to Turntable, and 23 percent to Pandora. So at first blush, Spotify seems to dominate. But if you strip out invite tweets, it’s a different picture altogether. Since a couple weeks ago, people have been flooding Twitter with invite links. Take those out, and it’s share of remaining tweets is only 2 percent. Turntable comes out on top with 52 percent of the tweets, followed by Pandora with 46 percent. What this data suggests is that Turntable.fm is still a very strong And it too is still in a limited beta. Yet its users tweet out more than Pandora’s. turntable user share the songs that they DJ, with 40 percent of its tweets falling into that category. Finally, Turntable users have an average Klout score of 34, compared to 32 for Pandora users and 29 for Spotify, suggesting that its users are more influential on Twitter, at least according to . |
Looking To Sink Their Teeth Into Some Tasty Northwest Startups, Google Takes A Bite Of PIE | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | If you haven’t heard of , it’s probably because you don’t live in the Pacific Northwest. But the Portland Incubator Experiment has already amassed such an impressive roster of startups that everyone may know about them soon enough. Recognizing that, Google is getting out in front and partnering up. Google joins Coca-Cola, Target, Nike, and Wieden+Kennedy (the largest privately-held advertising and communications company in the world) in helping out PIE. Like many of those companies, they’ll provide 5 mentors (from Google, YouTube, Google Ventures, Android, etc) to the incubator that will help the startups associated with the program. PIE accepts 8 to 10 startups each class, with each receiving up to $18,000 and three months of office space in Portland. Applications for the newest class close on August 1, and it will begin on September 1. “Where else can startups get the chance to learn from the guy who invented the wiki, the guy who built Twitter’s API, the folks who made Old Spice entertaining, and some of the most easily recognized brands in the world?,” is how co-founder Rick Turoczy pitches it. So why does Google want a piece of this? Again, the roster they’ve already put out there is impressive. , , , , are the already-funded bigger names. Then there are the quirky players, like Bac’n —a startup to sell bacon on the Internet, which was quickly by Bacon Freaks. You can’t make this stuff up. As a partner sending several mentors, Google will get to sniff around early for deals. See what I did there? Sniff, PIE, Bac’n. In the , such deals make sense for them. |
Tap2print secures funds for printing platform aimed at photo app developers | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | KiMA Ventures has made a small $150,000 investment in , a global ‘In-App Printing Service’ for mobile applications that makes print product ordering possible from any mobile app worldwide. Clearly there are a lot of photos out there unprinted. The idea is that developers download Tap2print’s ‘In-App Printing Service’ SDK and hit its developers portal. This allows access to integration, testing and income status tracking. Thus, developers get to concentrate on making their app a success while Tap2print takes care of all the technical, logistical and service aspects of a worldwide print and delivery service. A “significant share of the revenue” is generated by every order. Tap2print’s technology enables easy connection of any mobile application to a global printing service. Tap2print is targeting the vast amount of photo and image applications and invites developers to connect and monetize their apps while offering their users a unique service for ordering the images they create and have them printed on a range of attractive products. Tap2print’s CEO Assaf Margalit says “We want to bring application developers a true way to monetize their apps while making as many people as possible ordering print from their mobile devices, and together with KiMA Ventures we’ll be able to take some major steps in that direction”. Tap2print plans to make many print products available. It includes photos, photo albums, accordions, puzzles, posters, canvases, mugs, t-shirts and more. |
Battle Of The Goofy Email Campaigns | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | The heated battle between two of the biggest email services on the web has taken a decidedly humorous turn. Yesterday Google unveiled , a site “built by a few folks from the Gmail team” that encourages users to get their friends to switch from draconian email systems and their “embarrassingly outdated addresses” over to Google’s service, which features such niceties as free phone calls and video chat. The site taps into the power of peer pressure, prompting you to send one of three pre-written letters to your friends that are still stuck in the past — and you can include a custom video if you really want to get on their case. But Microsoft, whose Hotmail service is obviously one of the targets of the site, isn’t keeping quiet. Earlier today someone uploaded a video a spoof featuring ‘Gmail Man’, who digs through people’s email as he tries to find keywords that he can run ads against — with unimpressive results. According the video was featured at Microsoft’s Global Exchange sales conference last week, and it was subsequently uploaded by a sneaky attendee. The ZDNet report goes on to say Microsoft hasn’t confirmed it’s behind the video, though it sure seems like it is — and the timing seems a little too perfect for it not to be. Of course, these tongue-in-cheek projects still have plenty of bite to them. Gmail’s Twitter account that 100,000 interventions were sent in the site’s first 24 hours, and that ‘Gmail Man’ video could help salespeople rekindle Gmail privacy fears that have largely died down over the last several years. : A Google spokesperson points out that Microsoft’s video is misleading — Google Apps for Business (which is what Microsoft’s Office 365 products compete with most directly) actually lets users turn off ads. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE1il5znICA&w=560&h=349] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrkAuwaoFGg&w=560&h=349]
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Toshiba-Fujitsu IS12T: World’s First Windows Mango Cell Phone Up And Close (Video) | Serkan Toto | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | Two days ago, Toshiba-Fujtsu in Japan took the wraps of the IS12T, the world’s first world’s first phone running Windows Phone 7.5 (aka ). We were quick in giving you , but we now have a video that shows the 1 Ghz Qualcomm CPU-powered device in action – plus some more detailed specs. First, here are the main specs (in more detail), as [JP] by the provider of the IS12T in Japan, local mobile carrier : Second, our friends at in Tokyo have shot this professional video (in English) that shows the IS12T in action: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFHU_K3O2LE&w=560&h=349] |
null | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 29 | null |
Stocial Launches In Beta To Blend StockTwits With Yahoo Finance (Invites Herein) | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | , the market seems to be showing that there’s ample demand for a social micro-blogging service that targets stocks, trading, and financial information. Or at least that’s what is hoping. The Seattle-based startup, which is launching today in public beta, wants to be, in conception, the love child of StockTwits and Yahoo! Finance — or, said another way, Bloomberg for the people, by the people. Essentially, Stocial wants to give its users access to realtime market data and trending stock sentiment in a virtual and “game-ified” venue. Of course, most tickers are capable of the those first two, and StockTwits has certainly shown that Twitter can be a great resource for realtime financial information. But Stocial Founder and CEO Fahad Kamr says that, with its 140-character limit, Twitter doesn’t embody the full potential for sharing stock information. Stocial wants to incorporate the Twitter feed, but go a couple of steps further, by giving users access to the top stories from Business Insider, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Bloomberg, etc., all curated in a live feed. So users not only have their Twitter feed but a social feed, where they can see information coming in from friends and followers, as well as a “Stock Pick” feed that tracks, you guessed it, which stocks people are picking and sharing on Stocial. More feeds equals more engagement. Users can also customize their Stocial stock platform to view news and trends for the overall market, or for specific stocks, keep watch on those stocks, or create circles of experts and follow top investors on Twitter and Stocial, as well as experience news and tweets in realtime or by top items. And much of its infrastructure is powered by , so it’s all scalable and realtime. But, perhaps the best part is that Stocial offers “contests” in which its users can win cash and, eventually, even land a job. In these contests, users get to pick stocks, go long or short, and pick their price. Contests generally last for two days or a week, at which point the winner receives $50 in cash. And, eventually, $100 and more. Stocial is thus incentivizing its users by offering a carrot at the end of the string. The startup is currently working with investment firms and banks to source top trading jobs. So, as the startup allows its users to collect badges and lift their reputation score on the platform by picking stocks, interacting, and sharing, when one reaches a high enough level of engagement, the user becomes eligible for a nifty prize: An interview at one of those top firms. While startups like by offering users the ability to trade in real markets — on Facebook in the Zecco’s case — Stocial is instead focusing on virtual trading. Rather than be a site where users can trade in real markets (and there are plenty of these), the Seattle startup wants to be a resource for personalized content, a training ground for users looking to jump into real markets. To make trading stocks less scary, Stocial created a simple virtual stock trading platform. Stocial only focuses on making stock picks, or, in other words, make forecasts over where the stock may be headed, taking portfolios and the risk-laden aspect of speculation out of the equation. At its core, stock trading can really feel like a game, but of course, when you’re playing with real money, it’s anything but. Thus, with its virtual stock market, Stocial seems positioned to take advantage of the inherent game-ification in trading, yet without the risk and plus the rewards. The Stocial value proposition, at least in comparison to StockTwits, is that the startup offers realtime, personalized financial news curation, and allows users not only participate in stock conversation via Twitter, but also via the platform in threaded comments (that look a lot like Facebook comments). Like StockTwits, Stocial is also going after social discovery, by allowing users to discover new friends and experts based on the stocks they’ve selected. It also incorporates your existing social circles, so that when a friend on Facebook joins Stocial, users will immediately be alerted. Currently, Stocial’s team of four is in the process of testing the viability of its business in the space, and is fully bootstrapped at this point, though it is looking to begin raising its first round of investment in the coming months. TechCrunch readers can grab early access to Stocial’s beta . |
Polaroid’s Z340 Isn’t Quite The Gaga-Inspired Beauty We Saw At CES | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | Back at CES, we spent a long time waiting for Lady Gaga to show up (again) and introduce her new product line, a collaboration with Polaroid called Grey Label. The and Bluetooth printer didn’t exactly blow our socks off, but the GL30 camera prototype sure did. Of course, no matter how much I bugged Polaroid, I never got word one about availability or what have you. And then thing turns up! Now, I’m not convinced this is the same product we saw at CES. A relative of that product, perhaps, but not the real thing. I refuse to believe that they’d throw away a perfectly good design like that, one associated with Gaga herself. So what is this? , has similarities with the prototype GL30, but I’m not digging the differences. Gone is the shiny veneer and bellows motif. Gone are the (slightly impractical, I’m guessing) controls under the LCD. The shots show an interface that isn’t particularly lovable, and although I don’t want to bash it too much without trying it, that forest of buttons doesn’t look like a lot of fun. I down with Zink, but this isn’t something I’d like to carry around with me. Polaroid hasn’t gotten back to me, and we weren’t invited to the hands-on party (sniff), so until we hear about the fate of the actual GL30, it’s anybody’s guess how this thing fits in. All we know is it costs £229.99 (around $375) and it’ll be available in December. : Polaroid writes “The Z340 is launching this October in both the US and UK. The GL30 Instant Digital Camera will be available in the spring of 2012.” I suspected as much: the GL30 is taking a bit too long to finalize, and this, perhaps a polished-off version of a more consumer-oriented prototype, is being made available in the meantime. |
Softbank Shifts Focus To Early Stage Companies, Renews Focus On New York Startups | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | Today, is announcing a series of updates, including the launch of its . Some of these changes have been brewing for some time now, but, hey, the redesign of its website is as good a time as any to spread the word. Over the past year and a half, Softbank has been in the process of shifting its investment strategy to one that focuses more heavily on early stage businesses. Rather than investing larger chunks in series B rounds, Softbank will be seeking to invest in seed and early series A rounds, in smaller doses, giving the firm the opportunity to invest in a greater number of companies. What’s more, since launching its new fund (SoftBank Capital Fund 2010) at the end of 2009, the firm has been more aggressively investing pieces of its $100 million pool in New York City-based startups. Having invested early in New York media companies like Huffington Post and Buddy Media, and with offices downtown, the firm has been investing in New York since its inception, but in the last year especially, interest has been renewed. Softbank has made 22 investments in the U.S. in the last year and a half, ranging from $100,000 to $4 million, which have included startups like MocoSpace, Boxee, Cheezburger, OMGPOP, YouAreTV, betaworks, Paper.li, and SocialFlow. Of these recent investments, 14 companies are based in New York. Since 1995, has been investing in early stage, high growth technology businesses. The firm was originally an offshoot of , a Japanese telecommunications and media company founded in 1981 (that, oh by the way, has a market capitalization of around $20 billion) — while Softbank’s venture wing, on the other hand, has a portfolio of companies that is primarily focused on the U.S. Of course, while the firm’s investments have focused on the U.S., new Softbank Partner Joe Medved said that the firm has been influenced by the evolution of the mobile industry in Japan, and its explosion in Asian markets. As such, Softbank has paid particular attention to early-stage socially-driven mobile businesses. This is where Softbank can be a asset to startups and perhaps has a legup over other VC firms: With Softbank’s establihshed connections in Japan and Asian markets, mobile startups looking to take advantage of these rapidly growing international markets will have a head start. As part of the activity of its new fund, Softbank promoted Joe Medved to partner, and Nikhil Kalghatgi is joining Softbank as a senior associate. Medved has been at Softbank since 2005 and has led investments in BestVendor, Ohanarama, Opionionaided, and YouAreTV, among others. Kalghatgi is a recent Harvard Business School grad, and a TechStars alum with Localytics. Though it should not come as a surprise knowing the relationship between the two firms (thanks largely in part to Eric Hippeau), Softbank officially acknowledged its involvement in Lerer Venture’s recent . While Softbank would not disclose the actual amount, Medved did say that it was a significant player in the investment. Oh, and for those West Coast startups, Softbank has also opened a west coast office in Palo Alto, which will be run by the head of Softbank’s China & India Funds, Kabir Misra. For more, check out the new site . |
Twitter Adds “Possibly Sensitive” Designation To Tweets With NSFW Content | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | Twitter has to developers that it has added a field for “possibly_sensitive” content in its streaming API, in a test that will eventually result in more granular end-user media settings for Twitter. Writes Twitter developer Taylor Singletary, “Beginning today you may notice a new boolean field in API responses & streams containing tweets: “possibly_sensitive”. This new field will only surface when a tweet contains a link. The meaning of the field doesn’t pertain to the tweet content itself, but instead it is an indicator that the URL contained in the tweet may contain content or media identified as sensitive content. During this initial testing phase, there’s nothing you need to do with this field and the field values cannot be relied on for accuracy. In the future, we’ll have a family of additional API methods & fields for handling end-user “media settings” and possibly sensitive content.” Twitter representative Carolyn Penner tells me that this API change means that eventually when users their own or other users’ content as possibly sensitive, a warning will show up before in the media details pane of the tweet informing other users of the flagged content before they click-through. While the ability to flag content as sensitive has existed since Twitter launched Photos, the “sensitive content” flag on the details pane is new, Penner says. Penner tells me that the sensitive content field will pertain to all photos and video links in tweets including those from Instagram, Twitpic and Pic.Twitter.com. “We want to make sure that users are having a good photos experience, while giving them control over what they’re going to see,” says Penner on the decision to add the new designation. |
So much for TechCity if BT can't install a simple phone line in 78 days | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | It goes without saying that there is a great deal of activity in the tech startup world these days, whether you think it’s a bubble or not. At the same time governments all over the world are realising that with economies in dire straits, anything which shows hypergrowth like technology is to be encouraged. Little wonder then that Chile is doing , Berlin is and the UK government is under an organic tech cluster in the East of London. So what’s the one thing you don’t need in a “ “? How about no basic phone lines, maybe? [See update below] We’ve already BT Openreach is capable of when being asked, in simple terms, to connect a central London building up to a fibre broadband connection. We even put a on them to get it sorted out. Now word reaches us that , a company with significant VC investment and which is threatening to become one of the hottest startups in the UK is simply trying to get… a phone line. You see, Shutl needs phones to operate its customer service function which acts as the intermediary between retailers, couriers and shoppers when things don’t go quite to plan. It is a critical part of keeping Shutl’s customer and making their proposition compelling to retailers. Shut decided in May to switch ISDN provider to BT when it moved into a new bigger office in Scrutton Street, slap bang in the heart of “Silicon Roundabout”, designated part of the UK government’s Tech City initiative in East London. The previous tenant already had BT ISDN at the location and BT proposed this as the solution to avoid disruption. In June they scheduled a switchover date for 7th July with their previous provider and BT. They set their DDI range to forward to mobiles in case there was any delay in the handover, expecting possibly a couple hours. From 7th July BT has been providing… an engaged tone. After 10 days of constant chasing they were told it would be another 10 days to get an Openreach appointment. Then it all went quiet. Regular chasing did nothing. As founder and CEO Tom Allason says: “I don’t even understand why an Openreach engineer needs to attend our office… we already have a BT line, that was why we went with them.” Shutl set up an outsourced call centre to take customer service calls and have its teams using mobiles for outbound calls. The cost of the call centre alone will likely exceed £15,000. “The bottom line is that we are a small startup, BT has put our business in serious jeopardy. Had we less capital this could have killed us. It is absolutely shocking. I recently attended a breakfast at Downing Street where Tim O’sullivan pledged BT’s support for TechCity & London’s emerging tech startup scene. This is completely at odds with the service we are receiving,” Allason told us. ‘High Level Esalations’ contacts at BT have offered extra mobiles and So, about that Tech City…. The phones have now been installed properly – magically, a day after this post… |
TC Cribs: Inside Tumblr’s Reblog-Worthy Digs | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | We’re back with a new episode of , and this one is sure to be a crowd pleaser: red-hot blogging platform . The NYC-based startup has been growing like crazy (they’re now up to 11.6 billion page views per month), and they’ve given us a chance to take a peek inside their headquarters. For a company with over in funding the Tumblr team is still surprisingly small, and the office is relatively humble. But there’s plenty of charm: handcrafted furniture, board games abound, and robots that look suspiciously like my favorite wizard. Be sure to watch til the end, when I get to walk Tumblr founder David Karp’s dog. Huh? As always, credit to Ashley Pagán and John Murillo for the camera work, and to Mr. Murillo for the fantastic editing. Also be sure to check out our previous episodes of TC Cribs: |
Motorola CEO: Droid Bionic Will Launch In September | Jordan Crook | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | After six… Wait, let’s make that months of uncertainty, we might finally have something solid to work with. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said in an interview with that the Droid Bionic will land in September. Just so we’re clear, that’s nine months after the phone was , five months after , and four months after Motorola promised it would arrive this summer via tweet. In other words, this thing better pack one helluva punch. And from the looks of its specs, that’s just what it’ll do. The Droid Bionic runs on top of a dual-core OMAP 4430 1GHz processor, with a stellar 4.3-inch qHD touchscreen display with 960 x 540 pixels of resolution. Oh, and the 8-megapixel LED flash-equipped rear-camera shouldn’t hurt either. It’s worth noting that, as most of us already know, the should launch in September. The fact that Motorola feels comfortable launching the Bionic alongside one of the best selling smartphone lines in history says quite a bit about just how sweet this Android handset could be. Now it’s all about how patient we can be. Hey September: get here now! |
Mobile Research Firm Zokem Acquired For Up To $24M | Greg Kumparak | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | Tearing through a mountain of mobile phone data isn’t much fun, but someone has to do it — and it looks like it pays well enough. Just 4 years after its founding, mobile research firm Zokem has been snatched up for $11.7 million up front, with a potential payout of an additional $12 million through 2014. Their buyer? Arbitron Inc., a company focused on — hey, whatd’ya know? — consumer research. Zokem is sort of like a European . Their main product is an SDK which developers can plug-in into their smartphone (iOS, BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Phone) application to gather up all sorts of anonymous data like usage patterns, signal strength, and creepier stuff like location. Zokem had raised around $2M in funding prior to the acquisition, all from European VCs (specifically, Finland’s Veraventure.) Up until this point, Arbitron’s primary research beat has been on collecting listener data for the radio industry. They poll a random chunk of the radio-listening population in just shy of 300 regions, then sell that data to broadcasters, networks, and ad agencies. With the acquisition, Zokem will be changing its name to Arbitron Mobile, with Zokem’s CEO Dr. Hannu Verkasalo leading the mobile division. Just shy of $12 million with a payout of another $12 million within a few years? Not bad for a company with just 14 employees. Not bad at all. |
Motorola Mobility Beats The Street, Shipped 440k Xoom Tablets, 4.4M Smartphones In Q2 | Matt Burns | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | Motorola Mobility just released its Q2 earnings and it’s loaded with fun stats. First off, the company posted $3.3 billion in net revenue with non-GAAP earnings of nine cents a share. That’s up 28% over last year’s second quarter and beats the Wall Street’s estimate of just six cents a share. The company also realized a GAAP net loss of $56 million compared to a net earnings of $80 million in 2010. Over that time period Motorola Mobility managed to ship 11 million devices including 4.4 million smartphones and 440,000 Xoom Android tablets. That’s up from 8.3 total devices last year . Part of this growth came from the Latin America and China markets where revenue grew 40% and sales more than doubled from the previous year. Note, the company reported shipments rather than sales to consumers. Sanjay Jha, chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility, stated regarding growth “With a focus on profitable growth and delivering differentiated LTE smartphones and tablets, we expect to achieve profitability in Mobile Devices in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2011.” The company’s wireless division’s net revenue’s grew a whooping 41% over last year to $2.4 billion, partially lead by the Droid product family and International expansion. Motorola made a big push with Sprint during Q2 and announced plans to launch 10 devices on the carrier including the carrier’s first international phone and a new iDEN Android smartphone. The company also credits part of the growth from new home entertainment devices such as Motorola Televation IPTV and Medios Xperience. That sector of the company grew 2% over last year and end with net revenues at $907 million. This report also clears the air concerning the much debated Motorola Xoom. Analysts couldn’t agree on a shipment estimate and most simply stated they were . Motorola is now saying it shipped (read: shipped, not sold) 440k Xooms during the second quarter. Apple previously stated that they sold 4.69 million iPads during the same time period, outselling the original Honeycomb tablet by at least a factor of ten. Moving to Q3 Motorola Mobility is predicting a non-GAAP earnings of zero to ten cents a share with Wall Street expecting the company to report a 24 cents a share profit on $3.37 billion in revenue. Then for Q4 Motorola Mobility is expecting 47 cents a share on a revenue of $3.84 billion. The market didn’t like what it saw and Motorola Mobility took a hit in after hours trading. |
British Court Orders ISP To Block Filesharing Website In Potential Landmark Ruling | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | The issues of censorship, net neutrality, and file sharing will be kicking for years to come, and the necessity of making the relevant laws agree internationally will be by no means a small part of the conflict. But those laws have to be reasonable and scalable to begin with. , where a judge has determined that BT must use its Cleanfeed censorship technology, intended for blocking child pornography, to prevent its subscribers from accessing the file sharing website Newzbin2. It seems that even the Pirate Bay defense ( ) will be ineffective in this case. As I wrote before regarding : when lobbyists and short-sighted legislators start cutting off certain sources at whatever choke point seems convenient, that’s nothing short of a slippery slope. The very nature of the suit is suspect to begin with. In the introduction to the ruling, it is stated: In these circumstances, the Studios contend that the only way in which they can obtain effective relief to prevent, or at least reduce the scale of, these infringements of their copyrights is by means of an order against BT (and thereafter the other ISPs) of the kind now sought. While this is likely boilerplate in part, the idea that this is the way they can “obtain effective relief” is only acceptable to the laziest of investigators. It’s a sign of the times that such a large and influential organization can not only contend that with a straight face, but have it pass without comment in a judge’s written opinion. The abuse of a tool made for a very specific and justified purpose shows just how unscrupulous the MPA is in their actions. Cleanfeed, administrated by the Internet Watch Foundation, works to “minimise the availability of… child sexual abuse images hosted anywhere in the world” — it’s a scalpel, not a mallet. But The MPA specifically requests it be used as a means to prevent access to content of their choosing. If they were serious about doing things right, they would be reaching across the aisle, or whatever it is you reach across in the UK (the gap?), to come up with long-lasting and correct adjustments to law and enforcement capabilities. Of course, the legislation we’ve seen on our side of the pond isn’t exactly promising — but at least they haven’t started lobbying for pirates to be entrapped on “To Catch A Predator.” Anxious to please the court, the MPA also magnanimously acknowledged the existence of DNS, IP, and DPI based methods of detecting and intercepting these rogue packets. Even if the websites they ask to be blocked could be proven to be in violation of law (a fine point considering the nature of NZBs, which, like torrents, do not and cannot in themselves contain copyrighted material), why is it left to monolithic private entities like the MPA to make that determination? The goal of this lawsuit is ostensibly to reduce losses from piracy. The MPA (Europe, America, or other) maybe stupid, but it’s not stupid. They know as soon as they cut off one head, two more will appear to take its place. They know that even if they were to shut down the top 20 providers of quasi-illegal content like torrents, it wouldn’t affect the numbers one iota. This operation, like most of their legal operations, is to determine the extent to which they can turn private grievances into public ones. They’re just flexing their muscles. I don’t want to seem unduly harsh on the judge, one Honorable Mr Justice Arnold; his opinion is quite thoroughly researched and a great number of precedents and existing European law are cited. Unfortunately his judgment simply leans in the direction of the plaintiffs. For instance, on the important but subtle issue of whether it is Newzbin2 or the BT subscriber who is doing the infringement, he simply rejects the idea that the subscribers are the first and final infringers. It’s not an ignorant conclusion (like a few we’ve seen stateside), just an unfortunate one that increases overall liability and muddies the issue: Once it is concluded, as I have, that the users are using BT’s service to infringe copyright, then it follows that the operators [of Newzbin2] are too… The operators make the works available in such a way that users can access them over BT’s network (among others). In my judgment that is sufficient to constitute use of BT’s service to infringe. In other words, according to this judgment, every ISP is liable for the actions of every website or service accessed by their subscribers. Apparently it is sufficient to show that a user is using a service in a way that is illegal. Certainly there’s the aspect of the issue that the vast majority of the content on Newzbin2 is copyrighted material. But it’d be incredibly easy for them to upload 10 public domain items for every copyrighted one, immediately invalidating the statistical analysis cited by the MPA. “If users prefer copyrighted files, what business is that of ours?” Newzbin2 might reasonably ask. “We provide a service that tracks these files, that’s all, and charge for the oversight of our editors, who are not concerned with the nature of the content they organize.” BT actually objects on grounds like these, first with the objection that if the judge grants this injunction, the plaintiffs will immediately seek duplicate injunctions against other ISPs and other sites. To this the judge says that while that may be the case, it’s not material to this case. Hard to argue with that, strictly speaking, as this guy is clearly guided by the letter of the law here, but a lack of concern for precedent is partially what got us into this mess in the first place. BT also contends that the block will be ineffective, saying the users will easily circumvent the Cleanfeed block or whatever is put in place. The judge acknowledges that the tools and expertise to circumvent the system are readily available, but says: “Even assuming that they all have the ability to acquire such expertise, it does not follow that they will all wish to expend the time and effort required.” Really, now. That’s a bit optimistic, in my opinion. The objection is substantial: the injunction sought would be ineffective. Dismissing it by saying these technically proficient people won’t bother with that trivial changes necessary to get around these restrictions is just pigheaded, and he drinks the plaintiffs’ expert kool-aid in accepting that the shutdown of The Pirate Bay was an effective measure. The evidence supporting this position is of the flimsiest quality, while the burden of proving that all the infringers have the ability, desire, and time to circumvent the measures weighs heavily on BT. BT and the MPA will reconvene in court in October to work out how the nuts and bolts of how blocking will work. Newzbin2 has , but they don’t really bring anything new to the case. BT is not appealing the decision, and who can blame them? The comments of Peter Bradwell, from digital rights organization , ring disturbingly utopian in this age of lowered expectations from the powers that be: If the goal is boosting creators’ ability to make money from their work then we need to abandon these technologically naive measures, focus on genuine market reforms, and satisfy unmet consumer demand. He continued: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us – and the world will live as one.” Here is the full ruling: [scribd id=61157373 key=key-sy1x6zuvfuatprvn78j mode=list] |
Is This The iPhone 5? | Greg Kumparak | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | iPhone fans, start drooling. Skeptics, have your grains of salt at the ready. An iPhone 5 — or at least something closely fitting the rumored description of the iPhone 5 — has just been spotted… on a train, of all places. The shot up above (and the ever-so-slightly-different one below) comes from , who received them from a tipster who claims to have spotted the device on his way home from work. Alas, these two just-too-far-away glimpses are as good as it gets for now. While most news reporter-types out there would run through a pack of angry charging bulls and scale a building covered in butter for a shot of the iPhone 5, the tipster seems to have practiced at least a of caution in their undercover photography session. The person holding the device was supposedly being quite cautious to keep it at least partially covered, masking the Apple logo behind their fingers throughout. Fortunately, their eyes worked a bit better than their camera. Here’s what they had to share about the purported prototype: Could this be the real deal? It’s plausible. The iPhone 5 is said to be coming in just over a month (sometime in September), which means there absolutely iPhone 5s out there, right this second, being field tested. Apple can install as many cell towers on their campus as they want, but it’s nearly impossible to release a phone without testing its signal attenuation and performance in the real world. After Antennagate, you can bet that Apple is going to make damned sure that the iPhone 5 has rock solid signal performance. With that said, think back to the lost iPhone 4 prototype. At first glance, it looked just like an iPhone 3GS — because Apple had it as one. A special case was made to mask the new hardware as something not worth a second glance. Would Apple really let an iPhone 5 prototype lurk about in public in the nude? Maybe in the back of a blacked out van — but on what looks to be something like CalTrain? Doubtful. Also doubtful: where the heck is the camera flash? While my geek side would love for this to be an iPhone 5, my skeptic side is saying it’s a 3GS shot from a strange angle. What say you? Real? Photoshop? Just a really fancy fake from China? Weigh in down in the comments. |
Carriers To Obama: Give Us More Spectrum Access! | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | President Obama announced back in February his support for a , which he believed would (among other things) “benefit all Americans, bolster public safety, and spur innovation in wireless services, equipment, and applications.” Under his plan, 500 MHz of spectrum would be freed up over the course of the next ten years in order spur on mobile broadband expansion and the development of 4G networks. Rather than leave things up to fate, today the heads of Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint have decided to reach out to President Obama and let him know exactly what part of the spectrum they’re gunning for. In a [PDF], they candidly lay out what they would like to see happen: …We urge you to direct the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to identify and work to clear broad, paired, internationally-harmonized bands below 3 gigahertz. Access to spectrum in these critical bands will greatly enhance efforts to realize the important goals set forth in your Wireless Initiative and the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan. But what does that mean? In short, the Big 4 carriers believe that freeing up those bands will help drive expansion in mobile broadband coverage into much needed areas, a key focus of the FCC’s . A benign, seemingly altruistic request from the looks of things, but make no mistake — they would certainly stand to benefit. Still, if it means that people will be able get access to much-needed internet service where they couldn’t before, I’m willing to look past financial motivations. |
Google’s Two-Factor Authentication Now Live In 150 Countries And 40 Languages | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 7 | 28 | Good news for Google users outside of the United States: the internet giant has that Two-Step Verification is now available in 150 countries worldwide and 40 languages. You should use it. Really. No, the feature, which is more generally referred to as two-factor authentication, doesn’t sound cool. In fact, it’s sort of a pain to set up. But it helps protect your Google account against phishing and some other security attacks — which is vitally important given how much data many people are storing on Google servers, and will only become more so. Here’s how it works: after activating two-step authentication, whenever you attempt to log into your Google account you’ll be prompted for both your ‘regular’ password a second password that’s only available via your phone. In other words, logging in requires both your password (which could potentially be phished) and a code from something you physically have (which is harder to get). You can opt to receive this second code via smartphone, phone call, or SMS (it’s easiest to just use the smartphone app, which is available for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry). And you can use a cookie to save that second token for thirty days, so you’ll only have to go through the process once a month on the computers you use frequently. Of course, many applications and devices ask for your Google credentials (iCal, phones, tablets, whatever), and they don’t have this two-factor flow built in. For these, Google lets you create application-specific passwords — Google will spit out a unique string of random letters, you type them into the application’s password field and save it (you don’t have to memorize or write down this password). This process is probably the most confusing thing about two-step verification, but it’s not too tricky once you’ve done it a few times. Google first two-step authentication last fall and made it available to everyone in the United States . [youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMabEyrtPRg] |
Why Can’t You Search Google+ On Google+? | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 17 | One of the most counter-intuitive details about Google’s new social network is that you can’t actually search for public posts from it. Instead you have to use the clunky workaround or use one of the new search engines that have cropped up since its launch like or . The latter also has the added boon of searching Buzz and Reader posts. But why not offer the feature on the platform itself? When I the other day on Google+, Google Product VP humorously replied, “Thanks for the great suggestion! ;-)” because seriously what idiot thinks that search wasn’t the first thing Google thought of here? When further pressed for when we would possibly see Search+, Horowitz said, “We’re in limited field trial… and making changes on a daily basis. Agree that we’re quickly accumulating enough data that search would be extremely useful. I don’t have an ETA on this feature, but agree it’s a great suggestion.” Har har. According to one source familiar with the company Google be offering an easier way to search Google+ and eventually adding Google + to its main search index (I have no idea whether Google+ will offer its own search widget on Google+ profiles but yeah, it would probably be handy). Apparently the theory is that Google wants to get Google+ search perfect before it unleashes it to a critical public. Commenter put it best, “Google may risk doing something poorly, but not search.” So will we be seeing Search+ at Google+’s public launch or sooner, along with other Google+ product integrations like YouTube+ or Calendar+? My bet is yes — But in the meantime the service’s 10 million “field test” users have to make do with the odd and funny lack of a search feature. It still sort of bugs me. |
Women’s World Cup Soccer Final Scores New Twitter Record With 7,196 Tweets Per Second | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 17 | After an epic run, the U.S. women’s soccer team today in the final of the Women’s World Cup tournament. And if you were paying attention to your Twitter stream today, you may have seen an influx of Tweets about the game, which ended in a penalty shootout. Twitter just that the Women’s World Cup final scored a new record with 7,196 Tweets per second. Even U.S. President Barack Obama joined in about the game. And from the Tweet, “today’s end to the Paraguay/Brazil game is now 2nd with 7,666 TPS.” The Men’s World Cup soccer tournament last year also on Twitter at the time. For basis of comparison, last year’s men’s World Cup Final marked the largest period of sustained activity for an event in the service’s history, with over 2,000 Tweets per second (TPS) during the last 15 minutes of the match, and 3,051 tweets per second when Spain scored its winning goal in the final match. Of course, Twitter, which just turned five years old, has in the past year, especially in international markets. In May we saw Twitter see a in Tweets Per Second, following the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death. The event reached a high of 5,106 Tweets per second. In terms of past events, Super Bowl 2011 saw 4,064 TPS, and the all-time high was New Years Eve 2010 in Japan, which hit 6,939 TPS at its peak. On the day of the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami in March, Twitter usage reached 5,530 TPS. And during the Royal Wedding in England in April, Twitter reached a peak of 3,966 TPS. This past week, Twitter that its users are sharing and are signing up for the service daily. |
Redpoint Ventures: Making Money the Old Fashioned Way | Sarah Lacy | 2,011 | 7 | 17 | Last week we broke the news of the impressive-but-not-jawdropping by Citrix and the stellar year of returns that Redpoint Ventures is having. What makes Redpoint’s record so unique is that the firm is having a good year despite the fact that they’re not in one of the big five: Zynga, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Groupon. Hell, let’s make it a big six and throw in Pandora since the IPO made so much noise. The venture world has never been more polarized between have and have-not firms. There’s talk that Accel is sitting on a fund that will have the highest returns the industry has , thanks mostly to Facebook. Meanwhile, Greylock must be sitting on one of– if not — best funds in its history between early stakes in LinkedIn, nicely priced stakes in Facebook and Pandora and a late stage investment in Groupon. Of course no single individual in the venture business may be in a better position to enjoy 2011 than Reid Hoffman: He’s the founder and largest shareholder in LinkedIn, the first money into Zynga, a partner at Greylock, and an angel investor in Facebook. Meanwhile, there are dozens of venture firms on the other side of this divide who are going out of business. Like the kid stuck practicing the violin while he watches his neighbors play football in the yard, these firms can only look on as we endlessly debate whether it’s a bubble or not. It certainly doesn’t feel like 1999 to them. 1999 was a time that anyone with a plausible reason to call themselves a venture capitalist could raise money. These firms– and there are a lot of them– are struggling to raise another dime. My best guess is there are dozens of them, but there could be more. Dying venture firms are like the walking dead. They can have years of staggering around with stakes in still active portfolio companies, hoping they’re still holding a lottery ticket that could put them back in the game. If not, they just slowly wind down. Part of the reason for such an industry disconnect is the polarity of returns. The consumer Web companies that are this cycle’s winners are some of biggest the world has ever seen, thanks to the spread and maturity of the Web, and the fact that most of them have waited so long to seek an exit. But the other big trend has been the feature/app company flip for less than $100 million. It’s been well documented that small and mid-cap companies can no longer go public, and those several-hundred-million-dollar acquisition singles and doubles– like Cloud.com and fellow Redpoint exit Clearwell– have been hard to come by. All of that is what makes Redpoint’s winning 2011 such a hopeful sign that there’s still something in between the two extremes. The firm has found multiple exits affording them returns of 10x or more without stakes in the big Web 2.0 names. They’ve done it through less sexy Internet companies like Home Away, international exits like Qihoo, and some solid doubles and triples in the enterprise business. Redpoint hasn’t counted on lucking into the big score, the firm has made well-reasoned investments at reasonable prices and dug out its own luck. I caught up with Redpoint’s newest partner Satish Dharmaraj on video last week to talk a bit more about the firm’s run. He joined the firm two years ago after a stellar record as an entrepreneur, and Cloud.com was his first deal. We talked about how Redpoint is making money, and we also talked about what it was like for Dharmaraj to be on the other side of the table.
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OMG/JK: Yes, Of Course You're In My 'Friends' Circle. Swear. | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 7 | 10 | We’re back for a new episode of OMG/JK, and, in the spirit of Skype’s new integration with Facebook, we’ve decided to try out this nifty video conferencing technology for ourselves! Okay, so the split-screen action was primarily motivated by the fact that I’m now out in New York, but it’s certainly timely. In this week’s episode we discuss the new Skype/Facebook launch at length, and we also do a deep dive on that other social network that now has a heavy emphasis on video calling: Google+. I think that’s how it’s spelled. We also touch on MG’s recent decision to ditch email for the month of July, which will only make his August that much worse. Oh, and don’t worry — video quality for my half of the screen will be much better starting next week, as I’ll be beaming in from AOL’s studio. Here are some recent posts relevant to this week’s episode:
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College2Startup Wants To Connect Startups To The Best Young Talent (And Vice Versa) | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 7 | 10 | Those media experts among us may be familiar with , or HARO, which brings reporters and bloggers to quotable sources, and helps small businesses promote their brands. It’s an interesting, if not completely proven, model. Now, what if you apply that model to startups, and the startup hiring process? This was thinking when he created , a resource for startups looking to find quality collegiate or postgraduate talent. Startups are always looking for talent, and it’s not unusual to see established companies acqu-hire a startup just to get access its talent. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg is . But, that being said, it’s no easy feat to find talent that is the right fit for your startup, especially with all the white noise coming out of sites like CareerBuilder, Monster, and Craigslist. In creating College2Startup, Babalola did some quick surveys of those currently employed at startups and found that nearly two-thirds of them were hired based on referrals by friends, former colleagues, etc. It would stand to reason, then, that it can be pretty difficult for undergraduates and recent graduates to find openings at startups if they don’t happen to know someone who’s already inside. Thus, College2Startup allows prospective employees to subscribe to a daily newsletter (that Babalola curates) to receive job opportunities. College2Startup’s daily newsletter is opt-in and meant to target only those that have job-specific talent. When a prospective employee receives the newsletter, he or she can scroll through the list of job openings to find the opportunity that best suits them, and click to apply right from the newsletter. And, once a user has signed up, they can filter results from jobs listings as well. Of course, the model may not sound particularly mind-blowing, as sites like (and many others) offer the ability to get tailored email alerts for the types of jobs you’re looking for, and you can apply straight from those emails. So, while opt-in and apply-straight-from-an-email are cool features, the founder says that what distinguishes College2Startup is in how it treats the application process. The questions that companies ask prospective employees on the big job sites tend to be generic, and they don’t do a great job of finding out what the applicant’s specific skills are. Babalola said that he wants to get the interview process rolling right from the first application, which is why candidates are asked questions about their specific skill sets. Once the user has clicked the “apply to” link in the email, for example, they are taken to an application page in which Babalola has arranged a series of questions he knows startups will be eager to see the answers to, before calling the applicant in for the interview. If the job is for a backend developer at Groupon, for instance, candidates will be asked questions like, “What languages do you code in?”, or asked to talk about (and provide links to) sites they’ve built in the past, links to their GitHub profile, or even provide a video introduction. Babalola said that he thinks sending the answers to these questions directly to startups can help streamline the process and get the ball rolling faster, so that startups have a relevant sneak-peek at prospectives before interviewing. It also helps limit the often labyrinthine application process inherent to larger sites. But the big goal with College2Startups, the founder reiterated, is to target a younger crowd that is desperate to work at a startup but may not yet have connections or people to refer them. While this may sound silly or even alien to talent in Silicon Valley, outside of the Bay Area, things aren’t quite so easy. , Babalola said, While I’m all in favor of resources targeting startups specifically and young talent that might go undiscovered otherwise, a potential drawback to College2Startups is that it charges $100 to startups that want to post a job on the site. InternMatch, , charges a similar fee, while Internship.com is free and Urban interns charges $40. Yes, College2Startup is targeting real jobs, and not internships, but startups aren’t always flush with cash — every penny counts. Another somewhat comparable and , which is like a CarFax for job candidates, and also targets startups and the tech industry. (In fact, College2Startups may be more similar in conception to Jobby, which the RescueTime guys sold to Jobster in 2006.) College2Startups is obviously still in the very early stages, though it has racked up over 3,200 subscribers in lead up to the first newsletter, which went out last week. Check it out, and let us know what you think. |
Power To The People | Jon Evans | 2,011 | 7 | 10 | As I type this, a UPS beeps furiously behind me, over the growl of half-a-dozen diesel generators on the street outside. I’m in an Internet café in Leh, a city nestled in a Himalayan valley surrounded by 6,000-metre / 20,000-foot peaks, the fast-growing capital of India’s northernmost territory . It’s clearly outgrown its electrical capacity; power cuts hit several times a day. Power generation is a but profoundly important subject in the developing world. Technology is busily transforming lives all around the globe even as you read this—but a dearth of reliable electricity is a massive obstacle even in major cities, much less faraway villages. People do find various imperfect and ingenious ways to cope. I was once on a riverboat in Guatemala whose captain distributed newly powered phone batteries to inhabitants scattered along the river, and collected their old ones to charge when he returned to civilization. You’ll find stores selling small-scale solar power equipment in remote small towns throughout Uganda, and occasional microhydro generators in the Himalayas; and people everywhere burn through enormous (and toxic) amounts of scarce (and expensive) diesel to power generators when their lights go out. But there has to be a better way: and, increasingly, there is. In particular, I’ve had my eye on for awhile now. Their battery has two cigar lighter and two USB outputs to charge radios, lights, and batteries, and can itself be recharged via solar, bicycle, or wall power. Plus, they’ve recently released that can power up almost any lithium-ion battery via a USB plug. (I wish I’d known this before I’d set out on this trip; I could have left both of my camera-battery chargers at home.) It gets better, and wackier. There is also this that charges your cell phone And the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded $100,000 to a project that seeks to use soil microbes to power fuel cells, which, it is claimed, could be built . I have to confess I’m a little skeptical, but I’ll be watching with interest. In the long run, of course, localized micropower projects aren’t enough for serious economic development; you need a sizable and stable electrical grid. But in the interim, a little power is a whole lot better than none, and can and does make a huge difference. So here’s hoping that those microbes are a megahit. |
Soap Media | Steve Gillmor | 2,011 | 7 | 10 | Oh lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz. That’s how I feel about the strange trip we’re on with our social studies. Used to be that I could just sit back and wish for a Mickey Mantle home run, and sure enough, it would be there. The powerful compact swing generating an arc unlike any other, still rising as it cleared the outfield wall. At some basic level we’re trying to find a home we can invest in. The social networking landscape seems to be shaken by Google’s new network product, but in a way it’s become more solidified. The monolith, Facebook, remains undamaged. The experiment, Twitter, no less unsure about what it is but confident of its value. What’s left, Microsoft. It’s way early to handicap anything along the scale of winners and losers, but many things are already obvious. Plus has conquered the media, but what of it? Unlike Apple, which changed the media with the iPad, Google has slapped a fresh coat of paint on the social chat room that was Friendfeed and provided a reasonably safe bet that the work we put in will be accessible for some substantial time to come. Worth investing in the stream of notifications as we remodel our graphs one more time. Without the aggregation of citations, Plus is more an interactive manual for itself than anything disruptive. Google has the time and motivation to get everyone in their seats before starting the game, and we’re comfortable enough waiting while we check our old familiar streams to see what we’re missing. This time around, we’re dealing with a platform that won’t collapse when Track is turned on. The question is when, not if. Twitter has already voted on this question by shutting down its firehose to Google Realtime Search. Basically, no way you get Track handed to you on a platter, just like no way we’re for sale. At stake: Twitter’s social graph and how it can be used to personalize the content stream. All the talk of overlapping Circles on Plus speaks to the same problem, how to derive signal on information other than how cool Plus is. Does Twitter have a price at which it caves? Not really. The second such a price is established, the overall value of the entire market segment collapses. Let’s say Google acquires Track and lets us bind our content stream to Plus identity with one click. Suddenly Facebook (and Microsoft) have a huge problem, as we use Circles to obsolete the Facebook personal graph while selling our media preferences to the highest bidder. So Facebook counters with a bigger number, which would be rejected because of Facebook’s scale. Back and forth, to the point where the numbers would be so far out of whack that only Microsoft could afford them and to what end? Whoever closes that deal loses an AOL/TimeWarner chunk of its value. In effect, Twitter would be acquiring a big chunk of either company that would evaporate on close. And what would they do if the deal was all cash? Nothing to buy into except the loser of the auction. More likely, Google will continue to be successful at building out its alternate identity graph, starting with the (social) media and moving into the content aggregation space with brands. An interesting test case will be what happens with the All My Children/One Life To Live deal, where the two soaps are moving to the iPad platform. How they will monetize this with a projecting $50 million in production costs depends on just the kind of Track or @Mention targeting that Apple just announced with, wait for it, Twitter in iOS 5. Coming as it does just in time for the new fall season, soap media may turn out to be the reason Twitter stays independent. With Netflix as the new upfronts, producers will launch on iPad and bankroll production with the streaming afterlife. It’s not coincidental that ABC retained the IP for the series, given Steve Jobs’s huge stake in the network. It also suggests broadcast will be used to launch shows and push them through the new soap media pipeline via iPad and AirPlay. As long as Google keeps Plus open and builds content aggregation traffic through API connectors, the quality of the network will help unbundle Facebook identity. Plus Track will encourage Twitter to syndicate its data, and Facebook to emulate Circles, Hangouts, and even Track. Instead of puncturing the bubble, Plus is buying enough time for the social media networks to transition to the new dynamics of Soap Media. |
Justin.TV: The Movie | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 10 |
While the of Facebook tell-all was questionable, the movie did tremendously well at the . And at the and Now Hollywood producers are looking for the next big story around a tech company. Next up— LA-based production company Riche Productions has to the story behind the development and founding of live video streaming startup Justin.TV. For background, the startup was founded by Justin Kan, Michael Seibel, Kyle Vogt and Emmett Shear, who were all buddies from college (Vogt went to MIT, the others graduated from Yale). Prior to starting Justin.TV Kan and Shear an online calendar program Kiko, and even got funding from Y Combinator. Unfortunately the product failed and the pair sold the business on eBay for around $250,000. Justin.TV got its start back in 2007 as Kan livecasted his life with a camera hooked up to a backpack that was loaded with batteries and modems, letting thousands of viewers watch his every move. It was basically the beginning of the live stream era. Even the Today Show took notice of Kan’s stunt . Flash forwards four years, the Y Combinator-backed company has become one of the most popular live streaming platforms on the web. And Justin.TV has spawned a few businesses, including an , Socialcam, and a You can watch our TC Cribs feature on Justin.TV’s office So why did Riche Productions, which has produced Starsky and Hutch, Family Man, Bride Wars, and many other blockbuster movies, choose to buy the rights to the story of Justin.TV out of the thousands of other successful tech startups that have been launched by college kids? tells us in an exclusive interview that compared to some of the previous movies that have profiled tech startups (i.e. The Social Network), he wanted to find a story where success in the entrepreneurial tech world has helped bring founder friendships closer (as opposed to spurring lawsuits). It’s true—despite the complications of founding a startup, and dealing with all of the challenges that fledgling businesses face in the tech space; Kan, Seibel, Vogt and Shear all remain close friends. And all are still actively a part of the company and involved in its day-today activities and development. Riche says he still isn’t sure what will make sense for Justin.TV in terms of the format of a piece; and his company is evaluating whether a movie or TV show make sense. While it’s impressive that the Justin.TV guys have been able to grow their friendship despite being on the roller coaster of creating and sustaining a startup, I have to wonder whether this would make a movie that would have the same appeal as The Social Network. I’m no filmmaker or screenwriter, but drama and conflict does seem important in developing a quality, dimensional film. As my colleague Alexia Tsotsis of The Social Network, the movie was built around heavily dramatized controversy and the exposure of the cold, calculating (and fictional) Mark Zuckerberg. Despite the fact that Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of the story included inaccuracies and fictional story lines, the drama, ruthless characters and arrogance were all part of what made the movie so fascinating to the mainstream public. On the other hand, considering Riche’s experience in producing comedies, a comedic movie or TV adaptation of Justin.TV’s story could be interesting. Would you watch a TV show or movie based around the Justin.TV story? |
Hotwire For Surgery | Mark Suster | 2,011 | 7 | 10 | The hotel bed that is empty tonight can never be sold again. That insight led Hotwire to create a disruptive model that has given travelers great deals on hotel rooms. It turns out there are “beds” and “suites” of a different variety – Surgical Suites/Beds – that have a similar phenomena. Just as top hotels rarely are 100% booked and can earn incremental revenue from otherwise empty beds, top surgical facilities have a similar dynamic. That insight is what led to develop a national marketplace for surgical procedures. ( ) Over 1.5 million Americans travel abroad each year for medical procedures in what is called . Services typically sought by medical tourists include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as heart surgery, dental surgery, joint replacement, and cosmetic surgeries. However, virtually every type of health care, including complementary & alternative treatments, psychiatry, and convalescent care are attracting Americans by saving as much as 90% off of medical procedures. U.S. based healthcare providers have taken notice as have self-funded employers and health plans. The reality is most people, if given the choice, would rather travel for medical purposes to Tucson than Thailand to save time and uncertainty. Top surgical facilities realized they can be price competitive and have extra capacity so they have embarked on a program of domestic medical tourism. The byproduct, if you follow it to the logical extreme, is the creation of a national market for non-emergent surgery that has historically been strictly a local market. As the USA Today recently , costs commonly (Source: ) for the same procedure and same outcome even in the same city let alone from one to another. The economics driving these savings are simple: National Surgery Network is one of the first to identify this opportunity and has created a national network of surgical facilities that have been aggregated to offer to self-funded employer health plans (i.e., the employer directly pays for medical costs rather than buying traditional insurance) who have been frustrated with the hyperinflation they’ve felt covering their employees health costs. Currently, 110 million Americans are on health plans that are self-funded. This is another example of the growing movement I call the movement such as MedLion that was profiled earlier in . That is, organizations such as National Surgery Network aren’t waiting around for politicians to fix what is widely understood to be the broken and most expensive facets of healthcare. Rather, through their own trial and error, they are refining care and payment models that are demonstrating impressive results. While the value proposition is clear for the employer who can save 10’s of thousands of dollars off of their employees’ medical bills, what’s in it for the employee? First, NSN only contracts with facilities that have shown the best track record for surgical procedures. The hospital closest to you may not have great outcomes and it’s tough for a typical consumer to assess that whereas that is NSN’s business to understand that. Second, a GetWell Benefit also rewards the patient financially for adhering to discharge protocols and for participating in longitudinal follow-up. One woman who had a long history of heart problems required an aortic valve replacement. The hospitals in her local market were poorly rated for heart care. NSN arranged for the procedure to be performed by one of the leading surgeons at Heart Hospital of Austin. Although the surgery required was more complex than anticipated, the outcome was a complete success. The patient reported that although she had been in and out of hospitals for years, this was the first time she was being cared for and not just treated. NSN has what they call Care Navigators to help with a process that can be intimidating for patients. NSN uses technology in support of personal interaction. They provide an on-line Health Information Portal to assist the patient in choosing a provider. They also have care coordinators that establishes a personal relationship with each patient. They use a secure on-line medical records system for easy access by the NSN physician specialist and the patient’s local/primary care. Each patient using NSN receives their own electronic personal health record as an additional benefit. NSN is also deploying social media to help patients share their experiences and connect with one another in an environment that protects privacy and anonymity where appropriate. TechCrunch contributor and venture capitalist has repeatedly stated that entrepreneurs should be solving the truly big challenges in our society — health, education and energy — instead of creating yet another social tool, location-based service or trivial application. NSN is doing exactly that. |
A Groupon For Sports? Crowd Seats Brings The Daily Deal Model To Sports Tickets | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 7 | 10 | Daily deal sites, by and large, seem like they’re here to stay, much to Rocky Agrawal’s chagrin, surely. Whether or not you agree with Rocky’s last month about Groupon and its claque of clones, the daily deals model is not perfect, and it’s certainly a worthy endeavor to make sure that small businesses and merchants are not coerced into structuring one-sided relationships with daily deals sites. Justin Cener, the Founder and CEO of , agrees that the daily deal model is not ideal for every industry and merchants shouldn’t force the model just because daily deals are all the rage these days. That being said, Cener thinks he’s found a niche that is suited well to the daily deal and group buying model: Sports tickets. The Crowd Seats founder told me that he thinks businesses with perishable inventory stand to gain the most from the daily deals model and that sports tickets are a prime example: If tickets to Sunday afternoon’s football game go unsold, those particular tickets can’t just be sold on Monday. Those tickets are lost. For good. What’s more, businesses that make money on complementary goods and can create purchases that make up for the money lost in the discount stand to do more than just break even on these kind of deals. Generally speaking, when a discount comes out to be 75 percent or more, it’s a losing proposition for the merchant — depending of course on the deal provider’s cut. The daily deal model can be successful in niche markets, Cener said, because in the case of sports tickets (and, really, any other ticket-selling business — movie theaters would be another), there can be “guaranteed overage” revenue generated from complementary sources, like parking, concessions, beer, souvenirs, and so on. The niche focus is also a leg up for Crowd Seats (especially in the face of the Groupon haters out there). When a user signs up for the startup’s service, they are signing up to buy sports tickets — and sports tickets only — compared to Groupon, where a user might be interested in massage deals, or restaurant deals, or movie deals. Targeting a niche market can also address the issue of long-term value; Groupon deals are becoming famously questionable as a means for creating loyal customers, but in a niche market, Cener thinks that sports fans are already rabid by nature. They’re also going to be encouraged to become repeat visitors, because they want to support their teams and get to as many games as possible, especially when they can take advantage of highly discounted deals. (Rates are negotiated on a game by game basis, and normally range from 30-45% of the total deal revenue, Cener said.) Another point: Daily deals sites don’t do a great job of conveying extra value to the merchants they partner with, which is why Cener hopes that by including social media links to teams’ Facebook and Twitter pages, and encouraging its users to “like” and “follow”, teams can connect with their fans on their own terms. Crowd Seats also provides “best practices” for merchants, offering teams advice on how to retain new customers, like encouraging them to sign up for an email list, or including marketing materials and flyers at the point of voucher exchange, or even welcoming Crowd Seats users via Jumbotron signage. The Los Angeles-based startup, which initially launched last month, offers discounts between 50 and 90 percent off the face value of sports tickets. At this point, the service is available in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Boston, but Cener says that he wants to continue expanding to all major cities in the U.S. As to how it works? Users sign up for Crowd Seats and confirm by email, whereupon they can the search for deals by city. Once a user chooses one of Crowd Seats’ deals, they enter billing information in a secure checkout and submit the order. They’ll then be redirected to their profile, or “My Stuff” page, which lists a user’s purchases and account information. Crowd Seats then sends the user an email, where they can view and print their tickets. Fairly straightforward. Crowd Seats has not yet received any outside funding, it’s completely early-stage bootstrapping at this point, but Cener said he hopes to being raising a round of seed funding once the model gets some traction. It’s going to be tough for Crowd Seats in the early going, because of the deep resources of sites like StubHub, users will quickly become disenchanted when they find that their favorite sports team isn’t yet on board, offering deals. But Crowd Seats seems to have picked a great niche market in which to leverage the daily deals model, and if the team can forge some early partnerships with big sports franchises, the startup could be headed for long-term viability. Check it out and let us know what you think. Oh, and Cener also did some due diligence and research on early daily deal experiments among sports teams, and found that revenue from ticket sales plus supplemental revenue generated at the stadium averaged out to over $50K per deal — at least for those NBA teams that tried out daily deals. You’ll find more in the infographic below: |
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Google+ Added $20 Billion To Google’s Market Cap | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 7 | 10 | How much is social worth to Google? Investors added $20 billion to Google’s market cap the first week after the launch of on June 28. A on Friday, brought the total down to $15.8 billion because of doubts whether Google will indeed be able to capitalize on new products such as Google+. But somewhere in between there, give or take a few billion, is how much more the market thinks Google is worth than before the launch of Google+. On June 27 (the day before the announcement), the closed at $482.80. It rose to a high of $546.60 on July 7, for a $20.6 billion gain to its market cap (with 322.25 million shares outstanding). Then the stock dropped to $532 at Friday’s close. Of course there are other factors at play here (the health of Google’s core search business, the overall market, etc.). In the past week, however, the most important new event for Google was it’s latest foray into social. And even though Google+ is still in a limited beta, the market is already rewarding the serious focus on social that it represents. . If he can deliver on the promise of social, Morgan Stanley will be tripping over itself to upgrade the stock. Anyone want to guess what will happen to Google’s market cap between now and then? |
Nearing 2M Members, One Kings Lane Lands A Lucrative Endorsement From Bravo | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 10 | I happened to be watching my new favorite show, Bravo’s , last week and noticed a very familiar name. The show, which follows five LA-based, high-end interior designers in their industry, prominently featured the K flash sales site for home décor, furnishings and accessories. In an episode that aired a few weeks ago, One Kings Lane was co-hosting a party with one of the decorators, Nathan Turner, to celebrate a new curated sale from Turner featuring hand-picked furniture and accessories from India. The site actually got a ton of air time, and even featured co-founder Susan Feldman (pictured in the post with Turner). The Turner-curated sale on One Kings Lane (which featured the Bravo endorsement) started the following morning after the episode aired and One Kings Lane saw most items sold out within minutes. This past week’s episode again featured One Kings Lane as part of the story line, with celebrity designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard accompanying Feldman and another One Kings Lane employee to London to pick out items for a similar curated sale. One Kings Lane got much more air time in this past episode, and when the sale hit the next morning, the event was 96 percent sold out 3 hours into the start of the Bullard-London sale. And Wednesday was all time high for daily new member acquisitions, thanks to the feature on the show. A Bravo endorsement is a big deal for the flash sales site, considering the channel is seeing among adults ages 18 to 49. Feldman tells us that the site was originally doing a Tastemaker Tag sale with Turner last year, and One Kings Lane actually took a TV crew with them to film the journey in the effort of pitching Bravo with the idea to use the flash sales site in the reality TV show. Upon return, Feldman says Bravo ended promoting the startup in the show because of the strategic fit. Nowadays, broadcast is traditionally not thought of as a “direct action” marketing channel for web startups. But this example with One Kings Lane and Bravo (who has also featured partnerships with and ) demonstrates the power of connecting broadcast to next generation commerce, such as the flash sales model. One Kings Lane has proven that a niche commerce model can not only draw a large userbase (the company is nearing 2 million users, says Feldman), but see revenue growth as well. The startup grew revenue over 500 percent from 2009 to 2010. In this , One Kings Lane CEO Doug Mack says that he expects to continue this growth (by “hundreds of percent”) this year as well. And more than 75 percent of sales come from repeat customers (I happen to fall into this category). The truth of the matter is that commerce is evolving and promotional deals with networks, technology companies and other content providers is just one way in which flash sales sites are innovating. Gilt has been combining editorial with commerce in its as well as in its . And Gilt just launched an with in-flight WiFi company Gogo Wireless to offer exclusive in-air deals and free access on the flash sales site. Celebrity partnerships are another way that flash sales sites are trying to draw business and engage with users. One Kings Lane featured a deal with actress Gwyneth Paltrow to promote her new cookbook and held and event in New York in her honor as well. Gilt and Lady Gaga for a curates dale featuring Gaga-inspired merchandise, access to Gaga events and more. Feldman explains that not every celebrity or broadcast partnership is the right one. It’s important to make sure the brands fit, she explains, “where there is good synergy, there’s a win-win for everyone.” |
Lenovo Outs The ThinkPad Tablet, An Android Tablet You Might Actually Want | Matt Burns | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Last week I tuned into a press preview of today’s Lenovo announcement. It was an online presentation so, you know, I went on and did other things while half listening. I was nearly ready to close the tab after listening to 20 minutes of some product manager explaining every little detail about the consumer-oriented IdeaPad K1 Honeycomb tablet. All he really had to say was, “We made a Honeycomb tablet. It’s the same as the rest besides it ships with Netflix. It has 32GB of storage and ships in August for $499.” That’s all I need to report as well. But then the presentation went to the ThinkPad tablet and I woke right up. This is the Android tablet the niche market has wanted all along. The ThinkPad tablet is like a legitimate dream tablet. It has nearly everything a person would want in a Honeycomb tab: an affordable digitizer pen, 2GB of cloud storage, a ton of built-in 3rd party apps, and a 1280×800, 16:10 IPS screen covered with Gorilla Glass. There’s an SD card slot, dual cameras, mini HDMI out, USB 2.0 host, micro USB port, and a SIM card slot. Lenovo states the Tegra 2-powered tab can run with WiFi enabled for 8 hours. The ThinkPad Tablet is built for enterprise and so security and encryption are throughout the whole system including SD card encryption, lost device disablement and anti-theft software. The tablet ships with McAfee and features layered data security. All this amounts to a tablet with proper data protection whether the owner needs it or not. Lenovo seemingly built this tablet differently from other Honeycomb tablets. It’s not a closed device with limited connectivity options. There are multiple ways to get files onto the tablet. Each ThinkPad tablet has 2GB of cloud storage and there’s a built-in Windows 7 file copy and syncing tool. Then there’s of course the full size USB host and SD card slot. The only major missing feature is the Netflix app found in the consumer IdeaPad. Still, the ThinkPad is loaded with a long list of included apps including but not limited to: Facebook, Twitter, AccuWeather, Kindle, Documents to Go, Zinio E-Mag, a ton of games, and of course, the whole Android 3.1 suite. The ThinkPad Tablet, being part of Lenovo’s business-oriented line, is it’s dressed as such. It carries many of the design cues found on the ThinkPad notebooks like a satin black casing, clean lines and a no-frills design. The digitizer pen even has a little red cap just like the ThinkPad’s trademark mouse nub. The ThinkPad Tablet will ship within the US next month with pre-ordering starting on August 2. The 16GB WiFi model is priced at $479 sans digitizer pen and $509 with it. The 32GB model runs $589 and ships with the digitizer pen. 3G models are on tap, but Lenovo didn’t announce the prices or release dates. Lenovo clearly concocted the ThinkPad Tablet from a different formula. It’s priced right, has compelling features, and is a solid step in the right direction. Hopefully the ThinkPad doesn’t disappoint in real life because the specs read like a dream. |
Kleiner Perkins Doubles Down On FindTheBest | Michael Arrington | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Santa Barbara and New York based has nearly doubled in size , so it’s no wonder is putting another bet down on the company. They invested . And now they’ve invested . I’ve been a fan of the company since I first heard about it. It’s a very useful comparison engine for large data sets (see or or , for example). And FindTheBest is starting to use their engine for other things as well. compares large data sets for more intangible things, like crime statistics. lets you compare, well, you can probably guess (still in early testing mode). is for the gardeners out there. And there’s also the more morbid . The company has 25 employees today, and will be adding 15 more shortly, says founder . |
Roku Launches New Media Streamers Complete With Motion Gaming Capabilities Perfect For Angry Birds | Matt Burns | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Roku just announced its fourth generation of media streamers and they’re unsurprisingly the best yet. They sport more features, an even smaller physical footprint, and the same Apple TV-killing price points as before. These new models, the Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, and the Roku 2 XS, have even more media streaming capabilities as the previous models. All the major streaming sources are present: Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus. Plus, Roku has live sports from the NHL, NBA, and Major League soccer along with on-demand radio with rdio, Pandora and MOG. There simply isn’t a more complete streaming offering from any other device. But clearly Roku wanted to build a platform not limited to just streaming. The new models feature built-in motion gaming capabilities with 2011’s hottest game. Yep, Angry Birds. In case, you know, already played Angry Birds, there are more games available after launch — like Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio along with other unannounced titles. With the new hardware comes new streaming stations, too. Roku is over 300 stations now and along with the Angry Bird channel comes Facebook, EPIX, Major League Soccer, AOL HD, and FoxNews.com.
All three models are compatible with a Bluetooth gaming remote that’s eerily similar to the Wii Remote. (Besides the obvious color difference) The Roku Game Remote comes with the top-tier XS model and within the next couple weeks, will be bundled with a 2GB MicroSD card for $29. At a press preview we found the 6-axis wireless RF Bluetooth technology worked as advertised. Slinging Angry Birds have never been so fun. The new models are tiny — not that the old ones were monstrous — and draw less than two watts of power. The entire line features Dolby Digital Plus, wireless connectivity, HDMI out and a microSD card slot for additional game storage. The top of the line XS model also sports an Ethernet port, USB port and, along with the mid-tier XD model, 1080P support. (the cheaper model 720p) Expect the Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, and the Roku 2 XS for $59, $79, and $99, respectively at Best Buy, Amazon, Fry’s, RadioShack and Roku.com by the end of the month.
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UK startup guys plan game site after Murdoch pie incident | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | There’s nothing like an unexpected moment at a high profile event to bring out the mischevious geeks. It would appear the incident where Rupert Murdoch was attacked with a plate of shaving foam by a member of the public during his hearing over the phone hacking scandal today is just that kind of event. Alex Tew is best known as the creator of the Million Dollar Home Page, defunct startup Popjam and . Philipp Moehring is an Associate at . Above is the pie moment in question as filmed by committee room cameras and here are the guys planning it out. |
Google Now Detecting Viruses, For At Least One Form Of Malware | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Google has something pretty interesting, that it is using its own data to detect viruses and will as of today be using Google Search results pages to warn users if their computers are infected with a specific form of malware. Users infected with the virus, which is apparently rerouting traffic to Google and other sites through a proxy, will see the below warning. From the Google blog post mysteriously titled : “Recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers. After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behavior were infected with a particular strain of malicious software, or “malware.” As a result of this discovery, today some people will see a prominent notification at the top of their Google web search results.” Google’s offers more details about the virus , apparently it only affects Windows computers and hijacks Google results. “That’s how we learned about it,” Cutts says about the “results hacking” thing, without offering many more details. Google is recommending you follow the advice in its if you do receive the notification. This is the first time major search engine turns its results pages into what is ostensibly a malware alarm. Of course this is in the company’s best interests; if proxies are intercepting communications they could also potentially access Google accounts, thus creating more headaches for Google. |
Riverbed acquires Zeus for $140m – A win for Cambridge, DFJ Esprit and SEP | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | , which manages networks, has acquired which runs software-based load balancing and traffic management for the cloud. The deal is worth $140m. Zeus was backed by VCs DFJ Esprit and Scottish Equity Partners. Cambridge, U.K. based Zeus Zeus developed software-based scalable application delivery controllers otherwise known as ADCs, which support VMware, Xen, HyperV and KVM. Zeus has about 1,500 customers worldwide, including seven of the top 10 telcos, cloud service providers, broadcasters, and e-commerce companies. Riverbed will pay approximately $110 million in cash for the securities of Zeus and up to an additional $30 million in cash based on targets over the next year. Riverbed has also wrapped up an acquisition today of Aptimize Limited, a web content optimization startup. The two companies will now form an asymmetric optimization platform for Riverbed. It’s notable that this is something of a rise from the ashes because DFJ Esprit led a re-capitalisation of Zeus in 2004, with SEP leading a Series A round in 2005 – and went on to help build out the team from there. Andrew Davison, a Partner at SEP says “we were confident that the company had some very strong technology.” Nic Brisbourne, a Partner at DFJ Esprit notes that over the last 7 years Zeus has taken the company “from restart to category defining global leader.” So, trebles all round. |
The Primary Colors of Secondary Markets | Semil Shah | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | I find myself conflicted about . My cautionary side wonders how these private stock sales can potentially distort incentives within companies and artificially impact valuations. The libertarian side of me, however, says all in business is fair game. Everything can be bought or sold. Everyone has a price. Secondary markets for private shares, such as and , founders, employees, angels, and institutional investors with a new avenue for liquidity, matching them and their shares with outside demand. While the U.S. economy has struggled for the past few years, the pace of investment in technology shows no sign of letting up. And while public markets may have been icy toward public offerings for some time, secondary markets filled the void, a valve to reduce liquidity pressures facing founders and employees, and providing an additional (and attractive) financial option for institutional shareholders. Those holding shares in hot tech companies were often met with overwhelming demand from buyers, both here and abroad, willing to pay up to own a piece of the next thing. In some cases, demand outstripped supply to the point where private valuations rose to new, unseen heights. Despite these quick increases in valuation, demand persists; for some investors, bored with public markets, there’s more promise, potential, and possible upside in buying these types of shares, rather than ploughing more cash into traditional blue chip companies. There’s clearly supply and demand in this market, but its effects are unclear and hard to quantify. On one hand, there’s something not-quite-right about the high wealth requirements needed to purchase shares on secondary markets, the opacity of financial information required to be disclosed within each transaction, and the indirect effects trade volatility can have on a private company’s valuation. For instance, Goldman Sachs eyebrows when they attempted to execute a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to enable its premium clients to get a piece of the Facebook pie, valuing the company around $50B. As Fortune’s , the SPV would’ve helped Goldman circumvent the 500-shareholder limit rules around private companies traded on secondary markets. On the other hand, if capital markets aren’t ready for public offerings, especially in relatively new industries, and if founders and employees have worked long enough to have their shares vest, and if other investors are interested in owning a piece, why should the government or the company in question regulate or block the transaction? For instance, if I worked at a big company that couldn’t yet go public but I needed some liquidity for student loans or a mortgage, shouldn’t I be able to trade in my shares for some cold hard cash to help offset debts or the cost of living? Successful entrepreneurs and influential investors also share a range of opinions on the matter. Earlier this year, CEO some details on why his company will go public in 2012, stating that a big part of his vision for the company is to IPO a bit early. It’s part of his strategic vision for the company to have a long life after IPO and remain independent, as he believes that the controls placed upon public companies instill discipline. On the other hand, of his views on public markets at Techcrunch Disrupt NYC in May 2011, making the case that public markets can potentially ruin a company’s culture and place onerous requirements on it. By remaining private as long as possible, founders, employees, and investors can sell shares while the company is able to maintain its culture and also keep the lid tight on potential technologies it has developed. These are all great arguments made by experienced people. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, and that it depends on each company. There may be something unique about Eventbrite that leads Hartz to make this calculation, or something specific to one of Wilson’s investments that has informed his own view. has been able to avoid an IPO for now by selling shares to private investors, but then there are public companies like and which are currently demonstrating unbelievably strong signs of continued innovation. Through it all, though, one thing keeps nagging me: consumers that will eventually buy public stocks. It’s a risk to buy stocks on the public market, just like any other investment is a risk. There’s no guarantee will perform like , or that General Electric should perform like Apple. If you day trade on a site like , well, to me that’s just as risky as taking your IRA to a Vegas roulette table. Other consumers buy positions through mutual funds, which consist of hand-picked stocks based on “equity research,” which I put in quotes because, well….you know why. No matter how these stocks are purchased, it’s up to the individual investor to make sure that he or she knows the deal. The government mandates that warning labels adorn cigarette packs, but people still buy them despite all the risks. The SEC could put a softer version of a warning label on company offerings that have been traded on secondary markets, but would public investors even care? One company stock that is sure to generate significan demand is Facebook’s. Some people believe the company’s business prospects are so hot that it could, by 2012, have the same market capitalization as Google. Others believe the company’s valuation has been artificially driven up by excess demand and volatile secondary market trades, and that once it goes public, regular consumers will be left holding the bag. While I am in the former group, I can understand why someone would be cautious to buy public shares. But, when I line up to buy stock next year, I will be well aware of the fact that there are risks. Despite these obvious realities, it seems as if many have forgotten that even Facebook itself was a risk. There was no guarantee the service would mean anything outside a few dorms at Harvard, or that it would attract venture capital, or that it would become a major cultural phenomenon. Each private investment in Facebook to date carried its own risks, and the same can be said for each future public investment, too. When the gates open, let the public have their shares. The government and the SEC can or crack down on secondary markets, but that won’t eliminate the risk private and public investors face. The SEC can require more disclosures in S-1 filings, but not only is it unlikely the public will read those statements carefully, it’s also unclear whether experienced financial analysts or journalists will as well. You can put a picture of a tarred lung on a cigarette box, but if someone needs a drag right now, and there’s no promise for tomorrow, then what? Eventually, private companies traded on secondary markets will need some sort of exit. Secondary markets are a short-term solution to offer shareholders partial liquidity. That said, there is one aspect to secondary markets that does concern me, and it has to do with the potential distortion of incentives of specific company shareholders. If I’m slated to buy a public stock of a red-hot technology company, I don’t just focus on fancy numbers or accounting, or what a journalist or my broker tells me. I mainly want to know who’s steering the ship. I want to know the crew and the deckhands. If a majority of the company’s equity has traded hands from founders and early employees to a range of faceless institutions and passive investors, and less so to current employees, then who will drive the ship once I place my bet? This isn’t a calculus that generates any finite number—it’s a subjective bet. The public may think they are investing in the promise of rising numbers or other online metrics, but that’s only half of the story. The other half brings us back to how these technology companies start and grow in the first place—with people. Consumers looking to buy public stocks in companies that have traded on secondary markets should reflect on some of these basic questions while making their decision to invest: These questions get to the essence of the primary colors in secondary markets. Everything around Facebook, for instance, or any company that offers shares publicly, is a risk. There’s no such thing as a sure bet in real life and certainly not in investing. And, that’s all public investors need to be reminded of: there’s risk everywhere. Public investors shouldn’t expect that just because companies like Facebook go public that it’s a slam dunk investment. Public investors shouldn’t assume that only companies with healthy financials and solidified business models can convince Wall Street bankers to lead their offerings. It’s all a big poker game, and as the world has economy demonstrated since 2008, the only thing that’s certain is uncertainty. Place your bets accordingly. Photo credit: |
With $5 Million In Their Pockets, Ness Has Quietly Built A Subjective Search Engine | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | For the past 18 months, has been very quietly working on some new technology that they believe will be the next big thing in search. It’s a new, highly personalized search engine that they hope to launch in the coming weeks. But first, they’re happy to announce they’ve been given $5 million in funding to fulfill this vision. Vinod Khosla and Ramy Adeeb of Khosla Ventures led the Series A round, with participation from Alsop Louie Partners, TomorrowVentures, Bullpen Capital, a co-founder of Palantir Technologies, and some angel investors. The Alsop-incubated company is sometimes described as the “ for fun,” Ness CEO and co-founder Corey Reese says. “If you use search products today there’s plenty of things for solving objective inquiries. But what about things that are more subjective?,” Reese says. “What about, ‘what’s best for me?’. Is there a concert this weekend that I should go to?,” he continues. What Ness is building will attempt to answer these inquires. He notes that over the past 18 months, they’ve pulled together a team of 15 to work on this. Part of it has involved building what is essentially a recommendation engine that uses machine learning when looking at social data from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, and other places. The other part is the actual search engine to serve up useful results based on these signals. Reese calls this combination their “Likeness Engine”. This name comes from both your “liking” of things online, and your digital “likeness”. In fact, this is where the “Ness” in their name also comes from. With the Likeness Engine in mind, Ness secured the domain, where you can sign up now to learn more about the company when they’re ready to talk a bit more. “Google did a great job organizing the world’s data, but we’re about organizing opportunities,” Reese says. He notes that they’re in a much better position to do this than someone like Google because there are so many different social signals out there, and politics prevents Google from access all of them (like some Facebook data, for example). Because they’re independent, when a new service, like Google+ emerges, Ness can quickly add that data to their mix, Reese notes. Further, Ness’ first product will focus on the mobile space. |
Apple’s Tim Cook: “China Was Very Key To Our Results.” | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | By all accounts, Apple’s Q3 earnings report was , with the company bringing in a monumental $28.57 billion in revenue. When you break down that revenue into region — Americas revenue: $10.13 billion, Europe: $7.1 billion, Japan: $1.51 billion and Asia-Pacific (mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan): $6.33 billion — you realize why Apple speaks of its international expansion so reverently, especially the Asia-Pacific region in which revenue growth is up 6x year over year. “China was very key to our results” Apple COO Tim Cook during today’s earnings call, announcing that the country accounted for $3.8 billion in revenue this quarter and $8.8 billion cumulatively in the first three quarters of this year. Cook said that while the company hadn’t “learned to play perfectly” in the market he didn’t think anyone would have believed that the world’s most populous country would comprise such a large percentage of total revenue a year ago. Apple stores in China are the and have the highest numbers on average in terms of both traffic and revenue. According to Cook, iPhone sales volume is growing at 5x for first 3 quarters of the fiscal year and the iPhone was “the key driver” of that cumulative $8.8 billion in revenue number. “We feel very good about our progress,” Cook said. “We feel very very good about it, we’re taking those learnings and applying it to other markets as well.” Apple added 42 new carriers in 15 new countries in the quarter and is serving over 100 countries now. Right now the only Chinese carrier offering the iPhone is China Unicom. According to Cook, iPhone sales in China are up 5x year over year for the first three quarters and a “key driver” of that $8.8 billion in revenue. China Mobile President Wang JianZ hou recently said that it had 5.6 million iPhones on his network, alluding that a good percentage of those iPhone sales in China end up as pre-paid or unlocked phones. The WSJ reports that Apple may be in talks with China Mobile to to its 600 million customers. Apple products are considered status symbols in China, like the Dolce and Gabbana or Louis Vuiton of computers. And priced as such (at 5,999 yuan the iPhone 4 is about 1/4 the . “It’s up to us to convince people to spend a little more for a materially better product,” Cook said. Looks like they’re doing a great job. |
The Key Subtle Notes From Apple’s Earnings Call | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | When Apple announces their earnings, they typically do so with much pomp and circumstance. You get a superlative-laden press release, which in recent years have been more than backed up . But it’s the earnings call itself that is often even more interesting. Because there are other, more subtle things said, almost in passing. Like today, for example, when Apple COO Peter Oppenheimer that Apple would release their next major operating system, OS X Lion, tomorrow morning. Sure, everyone knew it would be coming before the end of the month, and tomorrow had been rumored this week as the launch date, but no one knew for sure — until Oppenheimer decided to disclose it during his opening statements on the earnings call. Of course, this was calculated. Basically everything Apple does is calculated. That’s why even what they say in passing is interesting. So let’s look over some of those things from today. |
Uber Calls TechCrunch’s Bluff, Opens Actual Lemonade Stand | Sarah Lacy | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Not enough startups have a good sense of humor. We all know Groupon is , and Uber is following suit. Rather than flame me for of Uber’s immediate business ambitions to a lemonade stand, the company has penned a fake (we hope) post about its — lemonade stands that track your movements as you get closer to them. Of course, they have to be called “Uber Stands” thanks to restrictive California laws regulating lemonade stands. (That part is so plausible for this state, it actually made me wonder…) In my next post, I’ll be sure to compare Uber’s corporate ambitions to something I need immediately, say, a diaper service. |
Twitter goes insane, becomes the default back-channel to HackGate, Smithers trends | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | I’m sitting watching a live feed of the UK Parliamentary hearing into the into the News International phone hacking furore featuring Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and, soon, Rebekah Brooks. But right now it’s Twitter which is running into over-drive. UK users ave jumped onto Twitter since the super-injunction scandals, and are clearly now using it in earnest. Top Trends on Twitter right now include: – In reference to Rupert Murdoch’s halting performance in front of the committee. – In reference to The S’mpsons characters Mr Burns and Smithers, whom the crowd are likening to James and Rupert Murdoch. – This is probably a joke about Murdoch Snr’s very slow perfromance in front of the committee. Saunders was a former British business manager, best known as one of the “Guinness Four”, a group of businessmen who attempted to fraudulently manipulate the share price of the Guinness company. He was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, but released after 10 months as he was suffering with apparent Alzheimer’s Disease. He later recovered, going against the medical history covering Alzheimer’s. |
Kickstarter Celebrates Its 10,000th Successful Project And $75M In Pledges | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Crowd-funding website has put up today in honor of their 10,000th successfully-funded project ( if you’re curious). We were privy to some of these numbers (or their predecessors, anyway) when co-founder Yancey Stickler and some successful project creators took to the stage at Disrupt NYC, but now they’re here in graph and blog form for those who missed the panel. The growth of the site is remarkable: it has funded the same number of projects in the last month as they did in their whole first year (1044). The trends seem to show some areas leveling out, but that may not be a bad thing. We tend to look for the tech-related projects (today I posted the gorgeous ) more than the far more popular media projects, so we have a bit of a skewed perspective on the site: the things we see are often on the more expensive and more rarely funded end of the scale, as they often require prototyping, manufacturing, and packaging. But a huge majority of the projects are in fact music and film. Fashion and games join tech at the bottom of the list, perhaps because those tend to find other avenues of bootstrapping. One eloquent graph shows the decline in number of days required to achieve $5 million in pledges: As you can see, it’s bottoming out. Steady growth in this display yields diminishing returns, as it will take quite a few people if they want to reduce that number from 23 to 20. And this graph shows a sudden peak in projects successfully funded (note that these graphs refer to different time periods, so don’t draw any conclusions by lining them up vertically): That could be for a number of reasons, though Strickler and Benenson (who authored the post) offer no explanation. I would hazard a guess that they are reaching the efficiency ceiling for their staff and layout. With over 300 projects being submitted a day (according to Strickler in May), approving and monitoring them is more than a full-time job. It’s possible that the way the site is organized doesn’t scale effectively beyond this volume of projects (like app and grocery stores, where at some point the multiplicity of options makes finding what you want difficult), but it could also be for another reason beyond the scope of the data they have revealed. Whether Kickstarter attempts to resume that sharp growth it’s seen in the last year or whether it decides to streamline and make it a more curated experience is entirely up to them. I’d like it either way; I’m no fan of growth for growth’s sake. The next year should be an interesting one for them. Lastly, check out this blink-inducing video of all 10,000 successful projects’ pages: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REnT5XrHeqw&w=640&h=390] |
Zillow Prices IPO At $20 Per Share, Now Valued At Nearly $540 Million | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Real estate listings site Zillow has at $20 per share, giving the company a $539 million valuation. Last week, the company of its IPO to $16 to $18 per share, from the initial range of . Zillow, which will begin trading under the symbol “Z” on the NASDAQ tomorrow morning, will raise as much as $79.6 million in the offering. The number of changes in Zillow’s pricing (and the steady increase in share value pre-IPO) is similar to LinkedIn and Pandora’s pricing increases. These companies saw fluctuations in the share value post-IPO (though both companies have ). Other tech companies like HomeAway, Fusion-IO and Yandex didn’t post a number of changed in pre-IPO pricing and have seen . Zillow, which initially filed its in April, currently lists over 100 million U.S. homes, including homes for sale, homes for rent and homes not currently on the market. Zillow a mortgage marketplace in 2008, and subsequently expanded into and . According to Experian Hitwise, Zillow.com is the third most visited Real Estate site in the U.S and received 5.36% of Real Estate visits in March 2011, which is a 53% increase compared to March 2010. While Zillow is growing traffic, the company yet to make a profit, and has been taking a loss for the past three years. This could be a factor in how the market reacts to Zillow tomorrow morning. Underwriters for the include Citi, Allen & Company, Pacific Crest Securities, ThinkEquity LLC, and First Washington Corporation. |
Apple’s Tim Cook: The iPad Is Cannibalizing Some Mac Sales, But There Are “A Lot More Windows PCs To Cannibalize Than Macs” | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Apple just announced another . Revenues were up 82 percent to $28.6 billion, it sold , but it also sold 9 million iPads. The iPad sales outpaced every other product. iPad unit sales were up 183 percent, growing even faster than the 142 percent growth of iPhone unit sales. Revenues for iPads and iPad peripherals reached $6 billion (up 179 percent), which is more than the $5.1 billion Apple made from desktop and laptop Mac computers. Asked on today’s earnings call whether iPad sales are cannibalizing Mac sales, Apple COO Tim Cook responded: “Some customers chose to purchase an iPad instead of a Mac, but even more decided to buy an iPad over a Windows PC. There are a lot more Windows PCs to cannibalize than Macs.” He further elaborated: “We sold every iPad 2 in the quarter that we could make. There certainly was not a shortage of demand. We are also gaining traction in the enterprise.” Last quarter, Apple even sold more iPads into K-12 schools than Macs, which is an indication of demand beyond consumers. Some of this greater demand for iPads than Macs can be attributed to people waiting for starting tomorrow, but iPads may very well have passed Macs in both units and total revenues for good. And they did so only five quarters after the iPad launched. Comparing the iPad to other tablets, Cook points out that there are “over 100,000 iPad-specific apps.” He points out that “you would be hard-pressed to find more than a few hundred on the other tablets.” With Apple already selling half as many iPads as iPhones, it’s lead in the tablet market looks like it will only keep getting longer for now. Below is a table breaking down Apple sales by product segment and geography. |
Get Taxi to launch in London | Sarah Lacy | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | You wanna bitch about valuations and call this a bubble? Go ahead. I, for one, love that a flood of we-can-do-anything enthusiasm fueled by seemingly infinite cheap venture capital is disrupting all kinds of annoying, antiquated corners of the real world. Groupon is changing local business in a fundamental way, Airbnb is disrupting hotels and of course in San Francisco and New York, Uber has given people willing to pay just a little more a superior taxi experience. But– as much as I love Uber– a new Israeli-based startup called Get Taxi is so ambitious it makes math-based, complex Uber look like a lemonade stand. I don’t mean this as a knock on Uber. Uber is building a company city-by-city in a sober rational way. Get Taxi is going huge, swinging for the fences. Obviously the bigger the initial ambition, the bigger risk it could fail big. (Just ask WebVan.) And a big advantage is that Get Taxi is skipping the US and launching in Europe, where the taxi industry is a lot easier to disrupt en masse because it’s mostly made up of non-union independent contractors. (Refresher: Uber invoked lawsuits immediately and can’t even legally keep “cab” in its name.) It launches in London in two weeks, Moscow in two months and cities in France and Germany soon after that. Forget proving a concept, it’s launching in the largest cab markets first. And instead of focusing on black cabs, Get Taxi is trying to replace dispatch systems in in . |
Apple Shoots Past $400 A Share In After-Hours Trading | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Yesterday we wrote that Apple had a very good chance of becoming in the world by this fall, as its stock hit a share. Today, after and beating analyst’s expectations, the stock is currently trading after hours at around $400 (we saw it at $404 at some point, now it’s hovering at $398), which would imply a market cap of around $366 billion. The AAPL stock price was at and a $347.18 billion market cap at market’s close. Tomorrow will most likely bring another record high with the release of Mac OS X Lion. You can read MG’s live blog of the earnings call . |
Mac OS X Lion Launches Tomorrow | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 7 | 19 | Hot on the heels of Apple’s stellar comes some more big news: the next version of its Mac operating system, OS X Lion, is coming tomorrow. The announcement was made (rather nonchalantly) by Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer during the earnings call, which is currently ongoing (you can find our notes from the call . Lion’s imminent arrival doesn’t come as a surprise — Apple had previously announced that it was coming in July, and many of the rumor sites pegged the launch date as Wednesday (there are also many rumors that the OS will be launching alongside updated Macbook Airs and Mac Minis, and possibly displays updated with Thunderbolt support). Lion is shipping with a low, — thought it isn’t technically , at least as far as physical boxes are concerned. Instead, Apple will be distributing the update as a download via the Mac App Store, weighing in at around 4 gigabytes.
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