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The Long Hard Road To The Edge | Jon Evans | 2,011 | 8 | 27 | Delaware, the state with the lowest highest point. David Argentar, a biochemist by training and bioinformaticist by trade, has launched a startup. Of sorts. Well – more of a hobby, he’d be the first to admit. He has no business plan, no investors, no employees. All he really has, in fact, is an idea and a pending patent. And as everyone is eager to tell you these days, ideas are a dime a dozen, and patents are practically a scam. It gets worse. Much. His idea is hardware. A new kind of solar concentrator, to be exact, made mostly of water. His first version was too heavy; but he thinks his redesign could conceivably, in his wildest dreams, drive down the cost of solar power by quite a lot. But—come on, now, really—a hardware startup? With only one founder? Hardware is . It allows for no binary abstractions, no digitized purity to protect you from the real world. It is the real world, in all in its vicious and unforgiving glory, perpetually at the mercy of a hundred unexpected environmental factors. And almost by definition it is incredibly expensive to develop. I should know: I myself have a degree in electrical engineering – but I fled to the warm embrace of software as soon as I graduated. Hardware was much too temperamental for me. Argentar, fortunately, is made of sterner stuff. Good thing, too. Over the next year he’s going to need everything he’s got. Argentar acquires two new things:
* a small crew of university undergraduates who have signed on for a . They may not be experienced, but they only cost $5K/month.
* A blog. What follows is a selection of its greatest hits over the next roller-coaster year. (No, you can’t go read the whole thing: it’s mostly private. I have some access because I’m a friend of a friend.) He and his minions get to work designing a working prototype of his concentrator. Everything seems to go well for a couple of months, until – They hit the first of many hardware pitfalls: parts. As Argentar says, “Badly written software often still runs, but badly build hardware usually doesn’t.” and meanwhile Ah, another charming quirk of hardware: the threats of, say, accidental blinding or death by electrocution. Have I mentioned that I really like software? The other problem is solved by the simple expedient of throwing his scarce money at it:
Oh yes. Another endemic hardware problem: it . And now, on to a milieu perhaps even less forgiving than hardware: business development.
Today, has $200,000 in seed funding, and a new batch of students is working on the concentrator’s frame and cooling system, while professionals are being brought in to build the next, fully functional prototype, with a target date of early 2012. Argentar has already sunk a year of his life and $100,000 of his own money into the project … but even though the science still seems very promising, there’s no guarantee of market success. An entrepeneur’s life is never easy. When he or she is building hardware, it’s even harder. |
TechCrunched: The Week’s Top Tech News In 90 Seconds | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 27 | We’re back with another episode of TechCrunched, a whirlwind recap of the week’s top tech news in 90 seconds (or so). This week’s stories include HP’s TouchPad liquidation firesale, the latest tweaks to Facebook privacy, and, in sad news, Steve Jobs’ resignation as Apple’s CEO. Tune in for the details. Here are some articles related to this week’s episode: |
Gillmor Gang 8.27.11 (TCTV) | Steve Gillmor | 2,011 | 8 | 27 | The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — explored the legacy and impact of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. @dsearls called him the Beethoven of Business, and we spent the hour and 15 minutes matching that to what I called Jobs’ ability to listen to the future. In recent years, Jobs has turned his focus on perfecting the microcomputing experience toward inventing a mobile platform that will last for decades to come. For those of us who saw the tech revolution as a child of the space program and the music of the ’60s, living in the time of Steve Jobs has been the same kind of rare gift, swimming in real time with the giants of our history books. It’s hard to predict what will come next, for Apple or any of us, but something tells us Jobs will be there in spirit as we build on his vision. @stevegillmor, @dsearls, @scobleizer, @kevinmarks, @jtaschek |
U.S. Judge Slaps Around Brazilian Court In Zynga v. Vostu | Michael Arrington | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Ah, litigation. Nothing ever really gets done, but the lawyers get paid, and there’s always drama. The Vostu v. Zynga case exemplifies all of this. And it just got weird to boot. Today a U.S. judge just told a Brazilian court that they can’t shut down a Brazilian startup. That’s definitely a new one for me. Background: On June 16 Zynga Brazilian clone Vostu in California for stealing Zynga’s games. Vostu’s initial press response was to (1) point out that the two companies have overlapping investors, and (2) make note of Zynga’s less than pristine past when it comes to respecting others’ intellectual property. the That’s always a crowd pleaser, but courts often hold themselves to a higher standard. So to Zynga’s lawsuit. That response also brings up another defense – that the lawsuit is retribution by Zynga over a failed attempt by Zynga to create a “strategic relationship” with Vostu. That should have been the end of the news cycle for a while – U.S. courts never really decide anything, so a year could go by before we heard about this case again. Everything above is standard lawsuit behavior. But Zynga’s next move was a good one. , this time on Vostu’s home court – Brazil. They also sued Google for distributing the games (notably they did not sue Facebook, their golden goose). A Brazilian judge quickly granted Zynga’s request for an injunction. Vostu had to shut down its games in 48 hours. A Brazilian judge siding with a U.S. company against a local startup? No one saw that coming. But wait…there’s more. Today U.S. District Judge Edward Davila issued an order restraining Zynga from enforcing the Brazilian decision. Despite the fact that says Judge Davila, they don’t get to do so. So which argument wins? Davila’s opinion is that his court’s desire to retain the ability to decide the case outweighs Brazil’s right to enforce its copyright laws. His words, neatly spliced and moved around of course, but not mine. With this decision, I’m officially no longer really interested in the merits of the case. What I’m fascinated with is how these two courts are going to thrash out who gets to decide what. I sort of agree that this Brazilian court may have acted rashly in giving Vostu 48 hours to shut down. But they definitely get points for being awake and making decisions quickly, just days after the Brazilian lawsuit was filed. U.S. courts would never move that fast. Unless, apparently, someone’s trying to usurp their jurisdiction. My favorite part is near the end where Judge Davila, after trashing the Brazilian court’s decision, then goes on about how this isn’t meant to cast doubt or express opinion about the wisdom of the Brazilian court. It deserves strong emphasis that a TRO would not enjoin the Brazilian court at all. Nor does a TRO from this Court cast doubt on or express any opinion about the wisdom of the Brazilian proceedings. Rather, a TRO would enjoin Zynga…from flouting this Court’s jurisdiction. The fact that the flouting mechanism involves foreign courts is incidental. It’s just such a wonderful way to rub it all in. No offense, Brazil. We’re not doing this to make you look bad. That’s just “incidental.” The full order is below. [scribd id=62140643 key=key-slow9np4lpghmaejhju mode=list] |
Daily Crunch: Eye Array | Bryce Durbin | 2,011 | 8 | 27 | Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets:
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Google Unleashes Native Client Into Chrome, Next-Gen Web Apps To Follow? | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | For well over a year now, Google has been hyping up something called Native Client. It’s an open source technology that allows a web browser to run compiled native code. In other words, it’s between native apps and web apps. And now it’s finally getting baked into Chrome. As Google on their Chrome Blog blog today, the latest beta version of Chrome (version 14) has Native Client built-in. Their implementation allows for C and C++ code to be executed inside of the browser while maintaining the security that a web technology like JavaScript offers. Writes Google: Native Client apps use Pepper, a set of interfaces that provide C and C++ bindings to the capabilities of HTML5. As a result, developers can now leverage their native code libraries and expertise to deliver portable, high performance web apps. This work has been a long time coming. It was in May 2010, that Google first started talking about the potential of Native Client at their Google I/O conference. This past February, Google that Native Client was getting close to reality when they announced a new SDK for developers to play around with. At this year’s I/O, that it would be ready to go this year, ushering in the future of Chrome. While Native Client is an open source project, it has been heavily driven by Google. Not only have they done much of the Native Client work themselves, but they’ve done much of the work on the Pepper Plugin API (PPAPI), which is an evolution of the Netscape Plugin API (NPAPI) which most current web browsers use (except IE, which naturally has their own technology). PPAPI offers better performance than NPAPI, which is key to making Native Client work. All of this could add up to the next generation of web apps, if developers take advantage of Native Client. Intensive code will now be able to be run on a local machine (with native code) while being accessed in real-time by the browser. This should lead to better web-based gaming, media, etc. Google also notes that Web Audio API is a part of Chrome 14 beta as well. This too will help with the development of immersive gaming done through the browser. |
Chill, Yes THAT Chill, Is A Turntable.fm For Videos | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Imagine innocently launching your Facebook app one night and waking up to a bevy of emails saying that Mark Zuckerberg thinks the thing that you built is And let’s say that your app is like a DJ interface for videos, like a for YouTube. And did I mention that it’s also a pivot for your startup ( ), much like Turntable.fm from Stickybits. Add an investment offer from and a and you get today in the life of founders and , who, because of a stray autopost to former Facebook Platform manager , were so bombarded by user demand this morning that they had to close the gates to their product, which is now just an email sign-in page. Gould and Norgard plan on letting in Chill users slowly this time (those interested can sign up ), they’ve learned their lesson the hard way. An outgrowth of the synchronous video viewing activity the founders were seeing on discussion aggregator Namesake, Gould and Norgard decided to build out the Chill product five weeks ago. Users sign up with Facebook Connect (sans spammy message this time) and are immediately given the option to start a Lounge or hang out in an already existing Lounge. Lounges are the equivalent of DJ rooms in Turntable. Once in a Chill Lounge you can find videos to add to your queue by searching Vimeo or YouTube or plopping in a direct link in the Find Videos tab on your right. Once in a queue a video will have to wait its turn among the other videos in line in order to get played. Again like Turntable you can thumb up and thumb down a video selection and chat with other users. An admin feature will eventually be added so that users who create the room have some say in which videos get played or skipped. Sure there are other places to watch videos with friends online; lets you do it with your Facebook Friends and Google Plus, if it would ever work, lets you share YouTube videos with randoms and people in your circles. But, while Chill is buggy and basically a direct analogue of Turntable, it is the only app I’ve seen thus far that offers an extended and open synchronous viewing experience, a social layer for video watching where anybody can join and become a DJ. Fifteen minutes in the Chill room and I wanted to stay there all day, gorging on videos like and I was actually making delight noises, by myself, in our office. “We’ve built a culture around sharing links to YouTube videos. How many times have you been looking at a video on your laptop and spun it around and said ‘Hey you’ve got to check this out?’,” Norgard says, describing the appeal of Chill. The act of sharing a YouTube link is essentially isolating, in that the receiver must go off for a period of 3-4 minutes to consume the content on their own. With Chill you have a peanut gallery. Norgard and Gould’s future plans include “fixing everything that’s not working” as well as including an option to build private rooms. Norgard tells me that they’re still trying to figure it out, “The interesting thing about the consumer Internet space is that it happens so fast. You only learn the mistakes when you’re in the game. Pivot can be used as a pejorative but for us this is keeping our heads on a swivel.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYEsYcACGYM&feature=player_embedded#at=24 |
Apple Patents Hint At Multi-Part Gestures, Touchable OS X | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Designing a user interface for touch isn’t an easy thing to do. At least, it isn’t easy to do well. The great number and variety of gestures possible when four fingers and a thumb hit a touchscreen may well cause development and design paralysis. Yet the gestures we see implemented often seem so simple and intuitive that as soon as we perform them once, we wonder how anyone would have trouble coming up with it. Apple’s early success with the simple and intuitive gestures on the iPhone has actually worked against it in a way, as adding gestures over-complicates a UI known for accessibility. On the other hand, it has prevented them from providing richer gestures like drawing shapes, creating spontaneous UI items, and so on. But I doubt they ever stopped looking into it. Some newly published patent applications, while questionable as far as patentable ideas go, is chock-full of interesting ideas and promising new UI concepts. was found by IP sniffers . The patent, filed in February 2011, covers a number of multi-part gestures in which a gesture is done to create or invoke a certain UI element, and then a second action using that element is enabled. For instance, “digging a hole.” In this case, you’d tap or “scratch” the screen a few times to create a “hole,” which you could then drag files into, either to delete, hide, or what have you. The hole would presumably fill itself in, or a second gesture could be used to do this. Another example: opening a portal, trap door, or window by drawing a rectangle. This is a similar “drag and drop” concept, but as the gesture and the graphic would be different, it can fulfill a different purpose: creating a folder or archive, or adding an attachment to an email. A more involved gesture described in a second patent application ( ) has the user drawing a circle or blob around a set of files, which would then be enclosed in a graphical bubble. The device could then be physically tipped and the bubbled data “poured” into a second device. I know what you’re thinking. How can Apple expect to patent gestures that have been used in games, applications, and other UIs (using a mouse, for instance), in similar fashions, for ? I have to imagine that somewhere in the hundred thousand games there are for iOS, there’s one where you have to dig a hole by scratching the screen. If not on iOS, then on the 3DS, a platform saturated with interesting touch-based UIs. And we even had a demo of data being “poured” from one device to another . To be honest, I really don’t know. The patent really does claim the “digging a hole and then dragging an item over it to be processed” method, as well as the others, and it doesn’t restrict it to anything as specific as managing file representations or app icons. Apple seems to want a patent on digging virtual holes and putting things in them. There are examples of these UI elements going back a long, long time, and even with the permissive patent system we have in place, I can’t imagine Apple’s approach will be deemed sufficiently different just because it’s done on a touchscreen. Drawing an X on something to delete it? Is it even possible that they could let that fly? I certainly hope not. Patent worries aside, the gestures are very interesting from a user point of view. I’ve always advocated rich touch interaction in tablets, and have been disappointed by the refusal of tablet OS makers to implement things that are only possible with a touch interface. Games have done a much better job of exploring the possibilities than OS developers. It’s nice to see someone going beyond clicking and dragging. Given Apple’s focus on the trackpad and touchscreen, it was always a good bet that they’d be among the first to integrate rich gestures, even if they aren’t even close to the first to create them. Interestingly, the patent application uses very OS X-esque images in its tablet illustrations. This doesn’t have to mean anything; the patent writer might have just felt the explanation worked better with a more traditional desktop interface. But there’s more to it than that. Lassoing files, transferring them to nearby devices, hiding and deleting files and windows — these aren’t things you do on Apple tablets. They’re things you do in OS X. The portal? Sending a window to your other desktop — on the other “side” of the tablet, perhaps, where iOS lives? The “trap door” is a great metaphor for passing things between two distinct areas. Or is it for saving things for later — like the reading list in Safari? What about X-ing out items? There isn’t room for that in many places on iOS — you delete listed items by swiping, and icons by long-pressing and bringing up their little x boxes. Besides, how would you make an X without swiping over to another screen? A quick flick is interpreted as a directional swipe, not a stroke on a touch canvas. The X gesture itself demands a single-screen desktop, where there is dead space that isn’t interacted with. The same can be said for the “pinch” gesture, which requires negative space on all sides of an item. There is very little such space on iOS — but your OS X desktop is covered with it. Sharing files from one device to another close by? Sounds familiar — oh right, it’s a marquee feature of Lion. Creating a bubble on an unlocked device is a tacit approval for a file transfer, without going into any menus or selecting a network. Bubble up some files on the other device, the devices pair, and when you pour, it transfers. These are desktop concepts, not iOS concepts. Or are they both? Lion brought iOS-like interface elements to OS X, and half the world thought we’d have right now. No — Apple is bringing OS X to the tablet, though not completely, of course. But I can imagine a second “face” to the iPad, for file management and sharing, with a more familiar desktop metaphor, updated with gestures like these. Apple seems to be imagining something along these lines as well, and while there’s still a good chance this patent is more a “just to be safe” collection of interesting ideas not actually being implemented, you have to admit it’s compelling to think about how they might apply if they were actually executed. |
null | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 8 | 18 | null |
Facebook Revamps App Canvas Page, Includes Ticker For Game Updates And Full Screen Option | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Facebook has just spilled the beans on its announcement for today: A more streamlined, engaged App Canvas page, including a ticker for game updates (see below). Canvas Pages, for those unaware, are the “blank canvas” that apps get to occupy on Facebook. With 200 out of 750 million users playing games on Facebook monthly, games are definitely one of the social network’s core strengths and design adjustments are a key step towards keeping users hooked. With the launch of Google+ Games earlier today the arena of gaming is poised to become a battle ground for anyone who has their sights set on social. Changes for all users now include a game ticker at the top right of the Canvas Page where they can choose to receive updates on their friend’s game-related stories like high scores and achievements. Facebook says that users can control what stories they see by adjusting . Facebook has also decided to give all developers the option of “Fluid Canvas” or increased real estate on the Canvas Page in order to better fit a user’s browser — games like Cityville, Monster World, Mystery Manor and others have already implemented a larger playing field. In addition users can now bookmark their favorite games both on the Canvas Page and the Facebook homepage. While Facebook sent us a brief earlier highlighting the accomplishments of smaller game publishers in preparation for this announcement the changes seem to apply to anyone who runs an app on Facebook and not just game developers. Maybe there’s benefit in the long tail and promising smaller developers more ways to market themselves to users? According to Facebook, its top 80 games have at least 1 million monthly active users. |
Y Combinator’s 7th Annual Startup School Set For October | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | has just unveiled the dates and times of its 7th Annual ; 2011’s event will take place on October 29th at Stanford University, where hundreds will gather to listen to talks about entrepreneurship and innovation by some of the Valley’s most influential founders and investors. While the event is free, it is always extremely popular. Attendees must fill out an application form, with a September 28th deadline, and founders and aspiring founders will find out whether they’ve been accepted on October 4th. Past Y Combinator Startup Schools have included talks from , , and , which explains the high demand. founder and Y Combinator part-time advisor describes why the experience was so unique, “Startup School 2008 was my first interaction with YC — I didn’t know anything about starting a startup even though I had worked at one. It is probably the most direct way to get valuable wisdom from the most brilliant people in the industry, meet others like you… real hackers and future founders, not like any other startup conference.” We will of course be covering it just like we did |
Sony Cuts Prices On Google TV-Integrated HDTVs | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Google TV hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, and while we could argue all day about what exactly prevented it from achieving greatness, the expensive hardware has to at least be part of the discussion. Logitech bit the bullet two weeks ago and lowered the price of their Revue — and it seems Sony has decided they might take a bit of that medicine too. , which debuted in October, are . Sony also made clear that these are not being made cheaper because there are better ones coming out soon — they just want to capture more market. That’s code for “they were too expensive to begin with.” Here’s the breakdown (according to Amazon, and confirmed by Sony), by display size: : $295
: $498
: $723
: $961 The best savings are on the 24″ version — and while Google TV wasn’t exactly a big hit among the TV-watching public at large (they prefer just watching), an internet-powered display like this could be a hit in a dorm room or kitchen. Google TV will probably be around for a while, so it’s not a bad investment (and not a bad price for a 24″ set anyway), and the platform should be getting an update in the next few months as well, so you could be doing yourself a favor picking one up now. |
Is This What Android 4: Ice Cream Sandwich Looks Like? | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Google has been awfully protective of their latest version of Android, but thanks to the folks over at and , we may have our first ever glimpse at Ice Cream Sandwich. As always, keep those grains of salt handy — they claim their source is solid, but there’s no guarantee this isn’t just a smartly skinned Nexus S. We reported a few months ago that Ice Cream Sandwich , and these images seem to confirm that statement. One thing to note right out of the gate is that it seems to be much more spaced out: the distances between app icons and their names have increased a bit, and though the change is minor, it makes the whole layout more open. This could be a hint at the hybrid phone/tablet nature that Ice Cream Sandwich is shooting for. The notification bar is probably the biggest change, with room for bigger icons and updates. The app drawer also seems to have undergone a facelift, with different headers for apps and widgets, and an integrated link to the market for easy access. And you probably noticed the neon blue highlights; apparently Google is sticking with Tron as their design inspiration.
Both sites sport different changelogs, but in short, the IRK36b build packs the following: If this is in fact a fake, it’s a pretty convincing one. It’s admittedly an early build, and pixels will certainly shift between now and the release date, but it seems quite possible that Ice Cream Sandwich will ultimately look like this. |
NewNewTwitter Continues: Twitter Profile Mentions Rolling Out To All | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Hot on the heels of their big , Twitter is keeping the features coming. Today brings a smaller one, but one that’s nonetheless useful: a profile mention box. First noticed in very limited test about a month ago, this feature now appears to be rolling out to all users. Right now, it looks like users with a smaller number of followers are getting it first, and it’s spreading to those with higher follower counts. The feature is straightforward, and quite frankly, it’s surprising Twitter didn’t have this a long time ago. It places a Tweet box on users’ profile pages so you can direct Tweets at them right from those pages (without having to jump back to the main Twitter.com page or reply to a specific Tweet that user sent). The box features grayed-out text that reads: “Tweet to @USERNAME”. When you click in the box, that text is replaced by a pre-populated @USERNAME intro, after which you type to that user. Yes, this is a bit like what Facebook has done forever in order to write on someone’s Wall. Of course, unlike a Facebook Wall, your Tweet won’t appear on another users’ profile page, it will simply go into the main Tweet stream. I suspect Twitter is testing several other little tweaks such as this one, all in the name of engagement. That seems to be the main theme of NewNewTwitter. Yes, I just called it that. |
Next Generation 911 Will Support Text, Photos, Video, And Data | Jordan Crook | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Nobody ever wants to be in a situation that requires emergency services, but when you are, that whole “dial 911” thing really helps. Sort of. In truth, our emergency response system is pretty outdated when we consider all the various forms of communication that have basically become mainstream. But luckily, Charmain Julius Genachowski recently announced that a five step plan is in place to bring text, photo, video and data support to the Next Generation 911 service. “It’s hard to imagine that airlines can send text messages if your flight is delayed, but you can’t send a text message to 911 in an emergency,” said Genachowski. “The unfortunate truth is that the capability of our emergency response communications has not kept pace with commercial innovation — has not kept pace with what ordinary people now do every day with communications devices.” That’s pretty sweet news considering there are plenty of situations in which phone support just wouldn’t cut it. Let’s say you are in some sort of bank robbery hostage situation (knock on wood). You can’t just whip out the old smartphone and yammer on to the cops about the masked gunmen. But a text sure would help, and anyone who’s young enough to have had a cell phone in class with them knows that sneaky text messaging isn’t all that difficult. Another hypothetical: You’re at the convenient store one night perusing through the ice cream selection when a robber pulls out a gun and grabs all the money from the register. You know he’s going to run for it, but if you could just snap a pic or a grab some video, the cops might actually find him. In a few years, photos and videos sent in through the next-gen 911 service could be one of the best methods of catching criminals. The service won’t roll out for another five to ten years, but in the meantime dialing 911 will do just fine. |
Time to rethink every website in the world | Cyan Banister | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | I tried out and holy shit, I feel like Mosaic was just invented and now we have <IMAGE> tags. (Do some of our readers even know what is these days? Well, it was really cool at the time. Revolutionary even.) Or rather, that someone finally figured out how to use the image tag. HTML 5 has been out for some time, but everyone else seems to have been asleep at the wheel. Earlier this week wrote a about Amazon’s new reader, but he didn’t point out what an amazing technical advancement this is for all of us. To me, it hardly matters that it looks great on my iPad. The coolest part is that it works beautifully OFFLINE. Gmail and a few other sites have creaky offline modes, but they aren’t nearly as cool as what Amazon has done. (For instance, Gmail doesn’t even have an offline Outbox.) What Amazon has built is a sneak peek at our Internet future and this will change everything. Try it yourself: Start reading a book on Cloud Reader after clicking on the nifty pop-ups (see below). Now go offline, reboot Safari, go to , and sure enough, without any connection at all, you’ll be able to retrieve your books from exactly where you left off. Every other web site in the world, even Gmail, throws up an ugly error when you try this. Just imagine a world without ever seeing the “no connection” page on a favorite site ever again. I have to believe that the unemployment rate for programmers is about to go even lower. |
SeatGeek Redesigns Its Ticket Marketplace, Launches Sponsor Platform | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | NYC-based startup is adding a fresh coat of paint to its ticket marketplace, introducing an overhauled design that incorporates some helpful new features. And it’s also announcing a new route of monetization that it’s hoping will serve as a strong revenue stream going forward: sponsored placements. For those who haven’t used it, SeatGeek is a search engine for secondary ticket sales — it lets people buy tickets that are being sold on sites like eBay and TicketsNow. And it has a strong focus on removing the clutter typically found on other ticketing sites. This week the company has rolled out a cleaner look with more space dedicated to browsing for tickets and around stadiums. The site now features over 700 interactive stadium maps, many of which include 3D-rendered snapshots of what your view will actually look like from a given seat. SeatGeek also recently introduced a feature called the Deal Score. Most sites let you rank tickets by price, but don’t take into account whether those prices are actually a good deal. After all, bleachers seats might only be $15, but if you had a chance to nab tickets behind home plate for 75% off, you might well decide to get those instead. That’s where Deal Score comes in — SeatGeek will look at historical data to determine how much a ticket typically sells for, and highlights the ones that are especially good deals. SeatGeek’s new sponsored placements are essentially highly targeted ads, with pricing that varies depending on how deeply the promotion is worked into the site. Different ads are shown to people depending on which events they’re viewing, and where they’re browsing from. Some of these ads are typical banners, while the most expensive placement actually puts a button within the ticket listings themselves. For example, TicketsNow has currently sponsored a button for some events that lets users view tickets that are available through its site (see the screenshot below). At launch, sponsor partners include TicketsNow, Hipmunk, ToughMudder, and The Lion King musical. The SeatGeek team says they’re excited about the sponsorship platform because Kayak (an aggregator/search engine for travel tickets) generates over 50% of its revenue from similar sponsorship programs. Right now the company is working with each sponsor directly, but it plans to introduce a self-serve platform down the line. |
TC Cribs: Inside Etsy’s Handcrafted Wonderland | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | We’re back for a new episode of TC Cribs, and this one is chock-full of unique, incredible creations that you’ll never see in another office: yep, we made it to . The Brooklyn-based company gives artists, designers, sculptors, and all sorts of other creative people a place to sell their wares online — and the startup is eating its own dogfood by decorating its office with items purchase from the site. And boy, does it work. You can’t walk three feet without stumbling across a man-made out of metal wire or freakishly massive owl. Bonus: if you watch til the end, you’ll see a sleep-deprived version of me make a painful attempt at playing . Yeah, we had to cut out . Thanks, as always, to Ashley Pagán and John Murillo for the camera work, and to Mr. Murillo for the editing and fantastic music selection. Also make sure to check out our previous episodes of TC Cribs: |
Google Wastes No Time Putting Games On Google+: Angry Birds, Bejeweled, Zynga On Board | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | For all the hype it has gotten and all the users it has gained, it’s easy to forget that Google+ has only been out for a month and a half. But they’re moving fast to ensure they don’t flop again in the social space. And today brings the biggest “next step” yet: Games. Gaming has obviously been a huge part of the success of Facebook over the years. It has been so popular, in fact, that one company, Zynga, has become a major player in the gaming space, and will soon go public as a result. And guess who is on board with Google+ Games too? Yep. Zynga. Before you get too excited, no, Google+ won’t have FarmVille or CityVille (those may be exclusive to Facebook via deal the two forged), but they will have Zynga Poker. And you can be sure other titles are coming. You may recall that Google made an investment in Zynga a while back. This was but both sides confirming for months. Of course, . And this launch is exactly why such an investment makes sense. But Zynga isn’t the only player bringing games to Google+. In fact, they may not even be the most hyped. Google+ also gains Angry Birds on day one of gaming. Other popular games like Bejeweled Blitz are here as well. Here’s what Google : Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life. And here’s how it will work within Google+: When you’re ready to play, the Games page is waiting—click the games button at the top of your stream. You can see the latest game updates from your circles, browse the invites you’ve received and check out games that people you know have played recently. The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear. So you can comfortably share your latest high score—your circles will only see the updates when they’re interested in playing games too. Most importantly, says Google: If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them. Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about. Google is also asking developers interesting in making games for the platform to check out their new . Google says the Games roll-out on G+ will be gradual. It starts today for some users. |
Leaked Samsung Road Map Reveals Big Screens And Bada Phones | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | It had to be translated from two different languages, but a road map from Lithuanian retailer has surfaced that appears to outline some big new devices that Samsung has waiting in the wings. Well, some of them are big, anyway. The report reveals a number of entry-level devices that will pad Samsung’s portfolio, but at the top of the heap is the GT-I9250. Running on Ice Cream Sandwich, it sports an impressive 4.65-inch Super AMOLED display running at 1280 x 720 and a pixel density that rivals even the iPhone 4. No word yet on what kind of horsepower it’s got under that hood, but considering the phone’s other specs, it won’t leave users wanting for much more. The GT-I9220 retains its brother’s high resolution Super AMOLED display, and crams all those pixels into a pocket-busting 5.29-inch screen. The I9220 also sports an 8-megapixel camera and a 1.4 GHz processor, but is left to make do with Android 2.3.3. Rounding out Samsung’s 9200 series is the I9210, another Gingerbread phone with a 4.5-inch, 800 x 480 display and support for 4G — a solid device by any measure, but it’s made to look shrimpy compared to its brethren. Not ones to give up easily, Samsung engineers also seem to be working on two new Bada devices: the entry level S5380, and the flagship S8600 (codenamed “Wave III”). Bada device sales have been surprisingly , but unlike their Android offerings, Samsung’s Bada seems unlikely to pick up much traction in the U.S. Samsung’s plan of saturating each mobile market segment seems to be continuing unabated. The original road map has been pulled from Mobili linija’s site, but the for all of you that want to dig further into Samsung’s plans. [via ] |
Facebook And Google Duke It Out Over Gaming (Same Day Announcements, Zynga?) | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Sometimes the platform wars can get so dramatic. A couple of minutes before we were tipped off on we were also tipped off on a Facebook Gaming announcement and developer-only event happening later this evening. While this really is amazing timing, it highlights how realtime the competition between the two ‘Gang of Four’ social networks is. Rival announcements even! Google+ Games debuts with Angry Birds, Sudoku, Bejeweled and most importantly Zynga Poker which means that Facebook is no longer the only Zynga-powered social network in town. that Google will attempt to undercut Facebook’s stronghold on games by offering developers competitive perks like lower fees instill an optimism that Google+ games might have a fighting chance at attracting a critical mass of game titles. But the fact that Farmville and Cityville are very noticeably missing, because of , means the battle has just begun. Here’s Facebook’s pre-announcement brief, highlighting some smaller game developers on the platform, eh hem. It’s war. I wanted to give you a heads up that tonight we’re hosting a game developers event and will be announcing a series of updates. The event is exclusively for developers, but keep an eye on our developer blog this evening for details ( ). We’ll also share materials with you later this evening. In the meantime, we wanted to share with you some recent highlights from what’s happening with games on Facebook Platform from developers of all sizes, around the world. Small developers focused on a variety of areas – from sports to strategy to mainstream – are getting big fast. —– More than 200 million people play games on Facebook each month. Social discovery is driving growth.The top 80 games on Facebook have at least 1 million active users. The developer, who builds exclusively on Facebook, has grown its company from 35 to 100 employees in the past year, and doubling its staff every six months. Their hit game, Island Paradise, has been installed more than 20 million times in the past two years without any marketing. They have also been successfully monetizing: when they switched Ranch Town to in-game Facebook Credits, they saw a 3x increase in the number of paying players over night. Launched Crime City on Facebook last year and it quickly became one of the top five Facebook games of the year. Raised $20M in funding earlier this year, and plan to grow their business from 55 employees to 100 by the end of the year. The developer of Family Feud, Deal or No Deal and 1 vs. 100 saw their monthly active userbase increase by 40% ober the last month. Launched just last month, Deal or No Deal has grown to 900k MAUs and 1 vs. 100 has grown by 700k MAUs. iWin has added 30 new employees this year and has offices in San Francisco and Kiev, Ukraine. Ninja Warz, the company’s first game, has stayed above 125,000 DAU for two years with zero marketing. They launched Miscrits: World of Adventure in January and have 4.5 M MAU. In just over a year they’ve moved into a new office building and doubled their team from 11 employees to 23. The company grew from 20 people last year to more than 500 people this year, in 4 offices on 3 continents. 9 out of 10 Kabam players play daily, and play for 3 hours per day on average. MAUs for the company grew from 4.8 million at the end of July 2010 to 7.5 million at the end of July 2011 (60% growth). DAU to MAU ratio has increased from 15% at the end of July 2010 to 23% at the end of July 2011. Additionally, the GSN Social Games team has tripled in size over the last year. (Bosnia): The small team of developers built a football app, Top Eleven, that grew to 3.5 million monthly active users in just three months. Without raising any venture funding, the developer now rivals major brands. (Israel): The developer of Slotomoania and Farkle Pro draws in 4.8 million active users each month. Last year, Cesars Entertainment Corporation purchased 51% of the company at a value of $80-$90M, the largest acquisition of an Israeli gaming company. (Turkey): Founded less than a year ago in October 2010, the company already has 50 employees, 10 games, and 10 million monthly active users playing traditional Turkish and Arabic card and board games on Facebook. On a daily basis, 2 million people play the games across five time zones, four continents, and five languages. The company has raised $7.5M, and says expects to grow to 250 million users by 2015. (Finland): Founded in June 2010, the hardcore social gaming company has raised $12 million from Accel partners, and has 20 employees. Gunshine, a crime-fighting game on Facebook where players shoot criminals and other enemies, currently has more than 300,000 monthly active users. (France): In December 2010, the company launched MyShops, a game with more than 1.5 million active users that allows players to create their own shops and interact with customers. The company has raised $3.6M in funding to date. (France): With games like Pyramidville, Goobox and RobotZ, the French developer has more than 4 million monthly active users and raised $7.75M to date. (France): The French developer has more than 2 million monthly active users on Facebook. They are the only social gaming company listed on a public market (Euronext), and grew from 30 to 85 employees in the last 12 months. |
YC-Funded Launchpad Toys Looks To Create The Next Generation Of Early Learning Toys | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | Assumptions are rarely safe. But I’m sure most of you will come with me when I go out on a limb to say that, by and large, kids love toys. Yep. And they also love cartoons. This has been true as long as either have been around, however, a more recent taste to trend among the world’s wee ones: Love for the iPad. A new startup launching today, called , agrees that tablets are big among kids — and that they just happen to be an incredibly effective educational tool to boot. In short, Launchpad wants to bring toys into the digital age. The startup is building a suite of apps for the iPad that allow children to create, learn, and share their ideas through games — in an effort to become “the Lego of digital play”. Through its apps, the startup aims to bring classic toys (and toy makers) like Play-Doh, Crayola, and Erector Sets to the iPad, but with an educational backdrop that is standardized and meets national educational requirements. The first piece in Launchpad’s suite is , a game launched in January that enables kids to create and storyboard their own cartoons (choosing from a bunch of different characters and backgrounds) and even move their characters around the screen via touch and record audio to give them a voice. The goal is to help children learn about the art of storytelling, while allowing them to enjoy the fun of animating their own cartoon, before sharing it with friends and family — and even winning awards. Toontastic has been featured by Apple four times since going live and was recently added to the App Store Hall of Fame, which in turn has seen the app attract over 40,000 paid downloads and has led to its users creating over 170,000 cartoon characters. ; not surprisingly, they love it. (And so do their parents, apparently, as Toontastic was the recent winner of the Parents’ Choice Award.) That’s probably because the subject matter in the app meets with late elementary-level creative writing standards, which gives parents a sense of well being while watching their young ones on an iPad — not to mention that the iPad’s multitouch functionality gives the app a collaborative spin that encourages parents to join in to play with their kids. Touchpad also creates a parent/teacher guide for its apps; check out the guide that . What’s more, Launchpad didn’t just want the user experience to be limited to the standalone app, so the team created , a global story-telling network, which allows kids to share the stories they’ve created on Toontastic with their family and other kids from over 100 countries. Users can browse the network from within the app, vote on the cartoons they like best, and interact with other kids. If a cartoon attracts more than 8 “likes”, then the creator of the cartoon earns a badge, while each badge collected unlocks new characters that can be used in stories. The Launchpad team, headed by co-founders Andy Russell and Thushan Amarasiriwardena (who hail from prior lives at Hasbro and the Boston Globe, respectively) said that they’ve tried to take a specific educational subject matter — in the case of Toontastic, it’s creative writing and storytelling — and match it with a form of play (puppets, in this case) to provide an experience that fuses non-pedantic educational material with the fun of games. Russell also tells me that Launchpad has had some great reaction from teachers — across the U.S. — and though the startup designs its apps to be consumer-facing (not for classroom-only use), he says that touch devices give both educational and game developers an opportunity to design for schools and kids, which was previously difficult to do because of the barrier for entry involved in integrating game consoles, etc. into the classroom. Launchpad’s suite of apps will continue to be designed with the home in mind first, but the key, he says, is to tailor the experience so that it is optimized for both. In terms of the future roadmap for Launchpad: The founders said that they want to continue building apps that merge learning goals with play patterns, using this formula to expand into other verticals. They also plan to soon create a toy store to enable in-app purchases, like new characters and backgrounds. Using the iPad’s ability to save, share, and collaborate as a launchpad, the startup is on its way to creating a new generation of early learning toys. So far, they’re off to a great start. . Let us know what you think. http://vimeo.com/thushan/toontastic |
Zynga’s New S-1: Zynga’s Internal Valuation In March 2011 Was $11.5 Billion | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Zynga just filed for the company’s and here’s what’s new. First, Zynga says in the filing that in March of this year, the company had an internal valuation at around $11.5 billion. From page 70 of the filing: That was five months ago, and clearly Zynga’s valuation has skyrocketed. Many are expecting the company to be valued at the time of the offering in the Fall at nearly $20 billion. Second, the company updated its revenue breakdown from its games. Four years ago, 93 percent of Zynga’s online revenue came from its top three games. As you can see on page two of the updated filing, the top three games accounted for 63 percent of online revenue in Q1 2011. So basically, it’s becoming less dependent on FarmVille and its other hits for revenue. The company also published information about a revolving credit facility on page 63, in which Zynga has a line of credit of up to $1 billion. Zynga corrected an accounting error for its Q1 2011 revenue, which added a $7.5 million increase in Q1 revenue (page 30), bringing the social gaming giant’s Q1 revenue up to Zynga also added 300 more employees in the past two months, bringing the total count to 2,543 employees worldwide. In July, Zynga to include a comprehensive list of its investors and more details on its relationship with Facebook. |
BoltJS: Another Secret Piece Of Facebook’s Spartan Puzzle? | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | After a steady stream of information in June, all has been quiet on the in recent weeks. Originally, at least some thought the plan was to in July — but that obviously came and went. It’s certainly possible we won’t hear anything until now. But one new bit of information has come to our attention that could be related. Say hello to . BoltJS is a UI framework that’s being built by Facebook for the purpose “helping developers build fantastic mobile web applications in HTML5 and Javascript,” as you can read for yourself . It is written entirely in JavaScript and runs in the browser, meaning no backend processing is required. And guess where the focus of the project lies right now: mobile WebKit browsers — just like Project Spartan. Here’s the description in developer Shane O’Sullivan’s own words from : BoltJS is a UI framework designed by Facebook to be compact, fast and powerful. It is written entirely in JavaScript and runs in the browser, needing no server backend. While BoltJS can be used in a progressive enhancement approach, it is primarily designed for UIs that are built mostly, if not completely, in the browser. While it is the aim of the BoltJS project to support as many modern browsers as sensible, it is currently focused on supporting mobile WebKit browsers, with the intention of being the best possible development platform for mobile sites and HTML5 apps. O’Sullivan is a software engineer at Facebook on the Client UI team. The other authors of the project are Will Bailey, Vlad Kolesnikov, and Tom Occhino. BoltJS is built on top of Javelin, and plays nicely with Facebook’s current code, O’Sullivan notes. It also features modules that use the CommonJS standard. For all the other technical details, check out the . But here are a few other interesting things about the project. First, Facebook doesn’t seem to want to say a word about it. I asked them about it several hours ago after a back and forth about something else. So far, nada in response to this. That’s not surprising given what I’ve been told about BoltJS — namely that it’s still meant to be a secret. While the documentation does reside on GitHub, the source code hasn’t been released to the public yet. The links on to the zip and tar source files don’t work. But I’m told that BoltJS is already being licensed secretly to third parties who are preparing apps to show off using the platform. At least one of those third parties is a major player in the consumer web space. Again, this sounds a lot like Spartan. Also found on GitHub is a demo app built using BoltJS called “ “. If it looks familiar, it’s because you own an iPhone. It is essentially the Weather app re-created using the JavaScript framework. Still think Facebook doesn’t intend to battle with Apple in mobile down the road?… That’s all for now. More as we get it. : As Holger Eilhard on Twitter, several other BoltJS examples that are no longer live. Among them: a few maze games. |
Mobile Q&A App Opinionaided Raises $4.3 Million From SoftBank And Others | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Mobile Q&A service has raised $4.3 million in funding led by SoftBank Capital and BlueRun Ventures with General Catalyst, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mark Wachen, Jonah Goodhart, Karl Jacob, ENIAC Ventures and Vince Monical participating. This brings the company’s total funding to $5.3 million. Opinionaided’s free iOS app allows users to get advice and opinions on the fly. Within the app, users can input a question, determine a category (i.e. relationships, politics) and submit it for other Opinionaided users to answer. You can also publish your questions to Facebook and Twitter. After a question is posted, fellow Opinionaided users can comment on the question and the app will calculate the percentage of users that responded positively or negatively. From there, consumers can reply back to the comments or create a new question for peers to vote on. To date, Opinionaided’s users have delivered 125 million responses to consumer questions since launch last year. As we the app is seeing an average of 73 responses per question asked. And users are spending nearly 3 hours in the app per month. The startup is also announcing a new version of its iOS app, which includes a new UI, and allows users to post questions via SMS, Twitter and Facebook. a a mobile Q&A service. |
Rumor: Windows Phone 7 Mango To Launch On September 1st? | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | If recent reports hold true, Microsoft may be preparing to release their long-awaited Windows Phone sooner than expected. Based on information from “trusted sources,” reports that Mango’s official rollout will begin on September 1, ahead of the generic “Fall” launch window Microsoft had previously announced. Aside from providing the date, Pocket-lint’s sources were unable to confirm much else. Although Microsoft has stated that all current WP7 devices will receive the Mango update, the particulars of the release schedule are still up in the air. It’s entirely possible that users of some devices will get immediate access, while others may be relegated to the wait-list. Still, even just the date seems to speak volumes. Microsoft’s timing here is no coincidence: Europe’s largest consumer electronics show will begin the very next day. The (or IFA for short) will be playing host to tons of new gadgets, and new Mango-powered devices may well be among them. The software update was finalized back in July, and given Windows Phone’s European popularity, it wouldn’t be a shock for new Mango devices to come out of the woodwork at IFA. With manufacturers like HTC and LG having committed to making new Mango handsets, there may be a few surprises on the show floor yet. |
OKCupid Integrates Location Based Dating Into iOS And Android Apps | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | Online dating site is making a big move today in the mobile space—the service is adding location-based functionality to its Android and iOS mobile apps. For background, OkCupid singles tend to be younger, which is one of the reasons why IAC’s Match.com decided to buy the dating startup for earlier this year. The use of mobile apps for dating and even meeting friends is e, and it seems that the future of this industry could lie in mobile platforms. Co-founder Sam Yagan agrees, and says that , a dating app for Gay men, helped pioneer this. But there’s still room left for innovation in other markets, he says. Which is why OkCupid is bringing location to the mix with the latest version of its mobile apps. You can now broadcast if you are free, want others to join in plans and more. The bonus of OkCupid is that you can set up the feature to only send these broadcasts to people who are personality and interets matches for you in your location. Other functionality includes the ability to chat with other people nearby, share photos, and more. If OkCupid finds a good match for you in their database for someone who lives nearby, the app will recommend the potential date. You’ll also be able to browse all your matches nearby. There’s no doubt that the trend of matching people based on their interests and location is catching on. is a startup that is also playing in this space. And it would make sense for more dating apps to start including location in their mobile offerings. |
Pony Ma and Lei Jun Anchor Disrupt Beijing Line-Up | Sarah Lacy | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | Even before I worked at TechCrunch, Disrupt was one of the few industry conferences I looked forward to every year. There were two big reasons why: The enthusiasm and excitement of the startups who launch there, and the unparalleled lineup of the most exciting people in tech engaging in frank, honest conversations. When we expanded the franchise to New York, it was natural to bring the most exciting Silicon Alley names on stage. That has included people like and , but also the top names in media like and . We even threw New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the mix. In thinking through the lineup for Disrupt Beijing– our first ever International conference– I wanted to make sure we were bringing some of the most interesting personalities from the West to China. But more important was that we anchor the show with the most interesting names in the Chinese tech scene we could find. This is not a conference about Silicon Valley coming to China to tell the country how it’s done. China is the only other country in the world where entrepreneurs are already building $1 billion Internet powerhouses. This is a conference that seeks to bridge the gap between the two preeminent tech ecosystems in the world today. So after many months of work and early morning transcontinental phone calls, I’m delighted to start announcing our lineup. It’s a mix of veterans and newcomers, investors and entrepreneurs, and of course East and West. The conference will kick off with one of the most captivating people in the tech world today: CEO and founder Pony Ma. While Alibaba’s or Baidu’s are more common on the International conference circuit, it’s Pony Ma who has proven what a force Chinese entrepreneurs can be on a global scale. Tencent is not only the largest Internet company in China, it’s the third largest . It’s a titan of China’s surging online game/virtual goods universe– the one area where the Valley are the copycats, not the Chinese. Tencent is the company you worry about if you’re a startup in China, and if you’re a startup in the US– like Groupon– it’s the company you want to do a with. It’s the perfect time for Ma to headline a TechCrunch event. After years of focusing on the Chinese market, Tencent is starting to get more international, expanding its staff in the US and . If you can’t make it to China, this will be a keynote you’ll want to make sure you catch on the livestream. Lei Jun isn’t nearly as well known as Ma, but when I asked friends and entrepreneurs in China who they most wanted to see on stage at Disrupt, nearly all of them mentioned him. He’s a and angel investor who’s been compared to everyone from Ron Conway to Peter Thiel. Earlier this month, he made waves with of Xiaomi’s upcoming Android phone in a Steve Jobs-styled keynote. Xiaomi is one of the in China right now. It’s aiming to make the first high-quality smart phone made by and for the Chinese market, priced cheaper than other locally made smartphones and at less than half the price of the iPhone. It will run on Android, but have features and apps specifically tailored for the Chinese market. It’s sure to set off a pricing war that will affect everyone from HTC to Google to Apple, and be one of the biggest tech stories of the fall. We’ll be announcing more speakers over the next few weeks, so you might want to grab your tickets here . And if you don’t speak Chinese or only speak Chinese– don’t worry. TechCrunch is investing in real-time translation headsets for the conference so every one of our guests can address the audience in their native language and everyone in attendance can follow along. As I said at the beginning of this post, the other thing that makes Disrupt such a special event is the Startup Battlefield. We can stack an agenda with big names, but we rely on the TechCrunch community to make the Battlefield just as memorable. If you’re a startup, and you want to demo your product on the same stage as Pony Ma and Lei Jun, send us your application . Application forms are available in and , and the presentations can be done in either language as well. The Battlefield isn’t limited to just Chinese companies– as with all of our Disrupts startups from all over the world are welcome to submit. Questions about whether your company is a fit? When in doubt, it doesn’t hurt to fill out the application. Only TechCrunch staff will be vetting the applications, and we want to see everyone great. Stay tuned for more information about Disrupt Beijing in coming weeks and go here for . |
Windows 8’s New Explorer: This One Goes To 11 | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | The development blog has been an interesting read for a while. Hearing straight from developers and then seeing unfiltered responses from users and secondary devs is refreshing, even if the topic isn’t particularly compelling or I don’t agree with their design choices. Today is perhaps the most extreme example of this so far. The discussion of their is worth reading — but is the file manager worth using? The new ribbon UI for the explorer window is so cluttered with different-sized buttons, labels, multi-part icons, and tabs that I can barely parse it. It’s more like a hall of mirrors than a task-oriented workspace. Is this really the new, streamlined Windows? Microsoft appears to be going in two directions at once. With the sleek Metro interface , they are pushing towards the full-screen, super-natural, gesture-based navigation that people have come to expect to some degree in tablets. But under the hood, it looks like Windows is only getting more and more Windows-esque. I wrote some time back that Windows is , and this seems to support that. At the same time, Apple is comfortably moving in one direction, not that this is better. The UI changes in Lion are questionably efficient and powerful file management is simply not a priority. I don’t want to inject my personal preferences into it too much, but I think it’s beyond dispute that for some users, this is good, while for others it is frustrating and counter-intuitive. But is there anyone who thinks that this wilderness of buttons is an effective way to communicate options and present actions to inexperienced users? The debate about the ribbon has gone on for a while, and again, it really seems like for some it’s a good idea, for others not so much. But this one in particular seems rather overpopulated. This is mainly because of the way Microsoft has designed the ribbon — it’s not a limitation of the grouped-buttons idea itself, which is something I see implemented well elsewhere every day. Look at the sheer number of Just in the top part of the window I count three up, ten down, one up down, four right, and two left. With different contexts, weights, graphics, colors, and purposes. I should add, in fairness, that there are other real improvements being made, some of which are detailed in the blog post. Do give it a read so you have some context for the parts I am criticizing. The research they did on user actions presents a sort of fundamental choice, which is illustrative of the difference between Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft found that more than 85% of users perform the most common actions (cut, paste, rename) with the context menu and keyboard shortcuts. Only around 10% used the command bar, and hardly any used the top menus. What would you say the important lesson is here regarding future development? There are two very different interpretations of the data. concluded that the command bar is underused because it’s not robust enough, and upon further investigation found that few of the common actions were even to be found there. They are looking for what they need to add. The solution, obviously, is to pump up the command bar until it becomes equally usable. This means putting every popular command in there, sorting and labeling them, filling up the empty space with stuff they think might be useful, and isolating less-common options in other tabs. The result is what you see: button salad, with every item at your fingertips, a great number of which millions of users will never touch. would have concluded that the command bar is underused because it’s not effective. They are looking for what they need to subtract. Whether the items necessary are in it or not, the user preference towards context menus and keyboard shortcuts seems clear. The solution is to eliminate the command bar altogether and find a way to make the more popular access methods even more accessible. The result is a simplified interface with fewer options, and users are forever doomed to follow the road Apple has chosen. Which is the correct lesson? Clearly neither. That’s why we have two warring OS styles, both successful, both powerful, with serious differences between them. But one thing that Apple has on Microsoft is that it commits to the ideas it forces on its users, and usually carries them out with style and taste (in the Strunk style of mispronouncing words loudly). You can’t finish a project faster with style and taste, but you can make it intelligible to grandparents who can’t wrap their minds around a double click or ctrl-drag. The Metro UI is a breath of fresh air for Microsoft because, and this is not a superficial compliment, it looks good. It doesn’t look “impressive” or “powerful,” it looks good. It looks like something people can use. It’s going to be an awkward time for Microsoft as this new UI competes with the old (and despite what you say, I guarantee they are competing), but they need to start making real design decisions that advance the usability of Windows. This explorer interface, which will be among the most commonly used on all Windows 8 PCs, will be terrifying to new users and ignores many subtle and not-so-subtle design guidelines. It’s possible that this UI could be made successful with better art and execution, but it’s just not compatible with high-level decisions being made regarding the direction of Windows altogether. These engineers shouldn’t be having to worry about which never-used button should accompany “new folder.” It’s a waste of their time and Microsoft’s money. Microsoft needs to commit the way Apple commits. Sometimes that means leaving things behind, which has never been Windows’ strong suit. If they hope to retain their existing users and maybe even gain a few back from Apple, they need to do more than keep adding lacquer to their existing methods. That doesn’t mean just imitate Apple and make the same mistakes they do, but they need to fight on new grounds and make hard decisions. ARM, Metro, and WP7 were good but difficult decisions because they deemed successful — things which for many were useful! But when they let things like this cling like barnacles to their fresh new OS, they’re allowing their legacy to interfere with what needs to be done. : Sinofsky has describing their approach to fusing the Metro and traditional UIs as being “without compromise.” Depending on how you define it, he is either right and the approach they’re taking is indeed without compromise… or it is compromise. |
iEmu Aims To Bring iOS Apps To Android, Windows, and Linux | Greg Kumparak | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | Ready for this week’s almost-too-ambitious Kickstarter project? Meet iEmu, a new project from one of the iPhone’s earliest hackers. The goal? To get iOS up and running in an emulated state on Linux, Windows, Mac, and Android. By building on top of the open-source emulator, project leader Chris Wade (who had a role in some of the earliest iPhone jailbreak exploits) is hoping to fully emulate the Samsung S5L8930 (A4) chipset used in the iPhone 4 and first generation iPad. That should all be easy enough, right? I mean, your computer can play SNES games arcade games! This should be a breeze! Yeah, no. Even once they’ve figured out how to emulate the CPU (which, , they’ve done), they still need to hack together emulated support for the GPU, USB controller, Multitouch controller, the memory, the audio system, and all of the secondary components (the Bluetooth chip, GPS, compass, etc.) And once they’ve got all the hardware stuff covered? Then they get to figure out how to force all this stuff to . As much as I’d love to see this all happen, to call it a massive project would be an understatement. “But wait!” you say. “Doesn’t Apple already provide their iOS emulator?” Sort of — but with some rather large footnotes. First and foremost, Apple’s solution is Mac only. Second, and not quite as easy to explain in a few words: Apple’s iOS testing system is a ulation, not an ulation. While it looks like iOS and acts like iOS, Apple’s simulator isn’t running a virtualized version of iOS. It’s a trivial difference for 99.9% of the world (and even the very vast majority of iOS developers) — but for a tiny chunk of people (security engineers digging for system flaws, for example), the difference is massive. Now, for the ever-important question: Why? Because they (hope they) can. Beyond that, the goals are to get “most iPad/iPhone apps” up and running on non-iOS devices, allow for true iOS emulation on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices (Why iOS devices? Think virtual machines), and allow security engineers to properly explore iOS malware without potentially wrecking their actual devices. Plus, all the reverse engineering involved theoretically leads to documentation on all sorts of aspects of the iPhone that no one outside of Apple really understands. Chris is trying to raise $20k for the project, which he says should cover his living expenses for 3+ months, as well as covering hosting costs and the production/shipping of Kickstarter rewards. If you’re down to throw a few greenbacks into the mission, you can , but know this: these guys have one of a mountain to climb. If they do manage to get things up and booting in a reasonable timeframe, don’t expect your Android device to be chewin’ through tons of iOS-native apps and games any time soon — there’s still the matter of hardware emulation being crazy computationally expensive to deal with. And that’s not to mention what Apple Legal might think of all of this… |
Venturocket Launches An AdWords-Inspired Jobs Marketplace To Kill The Resume | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | It may not be receiving quite as much media coverage as the VMAs at the moment, but we’re all acutely aware of the fact that the economy remains in the toilet. , and detail just how long it takes for the average American to find a job — and that job seekers are giving up on the search after as little as 5 months. Of course, part of the problem is there just aren’t enough jobs being created, but it’s also true that the present state of job sites and marketplaces today leaves a lot to be desired. , a job connection service based out of San Francisco, is today launching a new spin on the old model that it hopes will prove to be a more effective way to match job seekers to the right employers. With an AdWords nod, to boot. For starters, Venturocket Founder and CEO Marc Hoag says that he wants his service to dismantle the old job search standards and rebuild the model from the ground up. For Hoag, this means no more resumes, no more cover letters, and a dearth of classified ads. Out with the old, in with the new. Venturocket also does away with listing charges and membership fees — for both job seekers and employers — the startup instead only charges a small fee when an actual connection is made, i.e. the job seeker gets called in for an actual interview. As an alternative to resumes and applications, the service requires prospective employees to list their skills and proficiencies in those skills — by selecting them from a common pool of choices, removing the interference of duplications and picky search filters. But here’s where Venturocket’s model sets it apart from the rest: Job seekers actually bid on the keywords that describe their level of expertise at a particular job or skill, so that you’re in very real terms, putting your money where your mouth is. Are you an expert developer? Well, then you might say that you’re worth $20, and prospective employers pay that price to speak with you, and you pay that price in return. Essentially, Venturocket is bringing the same model Google’s AdWords uses to determine the payment structure for its ads to the job search process. It’s a different (and perhaps slightly higher method) of determining the cost-per-connection, but Hoag says that he thinks that, by having providers and seekers pay the same nominal fee, it will ensure that both parties are genuinely interested in one another — and that a connection will be made. A quality connection. Otherwise, the service is open to jobs in every sector, and is free to join, search, and use for job postings. Job skills are easily sorted and selected, serving results from commonly-used listings and related fields. Venturocket wants to eliminate your having to spam hundreds of job posts and employers with your resume and a hastily written cover letter, by allowing employers to pick only from candidates with the best skill matches, leaving job seekers to relax in knowing that they will automatically be contacted by companies — that they don’t have to waste time drafting a saccharine cover letter or prepare a professional headshot. Now, some may be put off by the fact that you have to spend money to bid for the top keywords, but as Hoag pointed out, there is generally a misconception that it’s wrong or not feasible to spend money as part of the job search. In reality, people spend a lot of money looking for work, and with Venturocket’s model, you only pay for the skills that best describe your level of expertise — and the employer pays the same to get in touch with you. Hoag said that he realizes this model may not be appealing to the top 2.5 percent of job seekers, but the other 97.5 percent of people are the ones that really need the help. Now, of course, as to the price of keywords, Adwords’ model runs the gamut from $1 to $100, and just as for Venturocket, the price of keywords is going to be determined by competition. So there’s a chance certain titles are driven up, but Hoag says that, like Adwords, he expects the average price to be far lower — under $2. One might also think that this model would find people adding hundreds of keywords to describe their levels of expertise, but Hoag says that he wants to limit these to manageable numbers to incentivize completion, so employees can enter up to 30 keywords, while employers can add up to 15. Venturocket is testing an interesting solution with its new service, and it will be really interesting to see if the Adwords model tests well in the job marketplace. The idea has some real validity to it, but can people really become comfortable with a service that circumvents the traditional job assets like resumes and cover letters and replaces them with keyword bidding? Chime in and let us know what you think. For more on Venturocket, . |
Beyonce Pregnancy News At MTV VMAs Births New Twitter Record Of 8,868 Tweets Per Second | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | Beyonce helped push Twitter to a new record in terms of Tweets per second yesterday evening when the pop singer announced her pregnancy at the MTV Video Music Awards. According Beyonce at the awards show last night, and the announcement culminated in the singer rubbing her baby bump on stage after her performance. That’s when Twitter saw the record number of Tweets sent. MTV also saw record online viewership of the event, with 2.3 million video streams for the day. MTV reports that on Sunday, MTV.com attracted its biggest VMA day audience ever (nearly 2 million), while MTV’s mobile site scored its biggest day ever, including 2.7 million mobile views. MTV.com also had its highest level of referrals from Twitter ever on Sunday and it was ‘the most social VMA day ever,’ according to the network. It’s a little surprising that baby news from a celebrity has taken the record for Tweets per Second. The previous TPS record holder took place of the U.S. women’s soccer team’s game against Japan in July, with 7,196 Tweets per second. In terms of past record events, Bin Laden’s death drew a in Tweets Per Second with 5,106 TPS. 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. I probably wouldn’t place Beyonce’s baby news in the same shock or news worthy categories as the events above (I actually didn’t even watch the VMAs last night). But the fact that the news did reach such high engagement for Twitter does signal that people are using the communications tool in record numbers. Photo credit/ |
null | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 11 | null |
YC-Funded Bushido: An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | If you’re a developer, there’s a good chance you have a handful — or more — of side projects. Things you tinker with on evenings and weekends and may upload to GitHub, but that you’ve never seriously considered releasing to the wild as a standalone service. Not because you think they’re , but because they’d be a lot of work to maintain — and you still have that day job to worry about. , a startup that made its debut last week at , wants to give developers a hand: they’re making it super-simple to take that app and post it online for other users to sign up for — and maybe even make some money off of it in the process. The problem, explains Bushido cofounder Sean Grove, is that the process of converting these open-source projects into usable services, complete with authentication and payments, is something that many developers don’t want to deal with. So instead of unleashing them to the masses, they sit in their GitHub repositories without getting much attention. Bushido looks to fix this by handing developers everything they need to get their app up and running. At this point the service supports Rails apps (it offers Bushido Ruby gems), and there’s a straightforward API for quickly integrating user authentication, payments, and other common features. Bushido also hosts the project, so developers don’t have to worry about paying for AWS or other services. In return, Bushido takes a 15-40% cut of the profit of each application (the percentage you pay goes down the larger your app gets as economies of scale kick in). For starters the service is allowing users to deploy installs of open-source apps like FatFree CRM and Locomotive CMS, and more apps will be coming as developers add them to the service. Bushido also has some much more ambitious goals than just streamlining things for developers — they also want to serve as a centralized database for both user authentication and data for open source apps. In other words, they want to become a web layer that allows apps to interoperate. Right now, if you sign up for a Bushido powered app, you’ll be creating a Bushido login that will work on all other apps running on the platform. This helps lower the barrier to entry, so users can quickly start using new applications. And, provided the data is being stored in a consistent way, users can even access the same data between different applications. Of course, this approach isn’t going to appeal to everyone. Bushido is going to have control of both your users and your data — and at this point, it doesn’t have an export function. Grove says this will be coming, and that for the time being the startup is looking to gain the trust of developers (Grove and the rest of the team are open source developers themselves, so they have a good idea as to what the concerns are). Another possible issue: some developers might not like Bushido’s single sign-on approach, because it makes it easy to hop to a competitor’s app. Grove acknowledges this as well, but says it would be a good problem for them to have, and adds that in general open source developers prefer to compete on merit versus lock-in. It also sounds like if this becomes a big enough issue, Bushido would consider making some changes. |
Event Deals Site Goldstar Sells 5 Millionth Ticket, Adds Feature To Automatically Seat You With Friends | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | For ticket-selling businesses, nothing beats “sold out”. But whether or not a flight sells all of its tickets, or a sports team fills their stadium, the show must go on. Businesses with perishable inventory stand to gain the most from the daily deals model, and those that can make money on complementary goods (creating purchases that make up for revenues lost in offering the discount) can often break even — take movie theaters or sports venues, for example. This is where a company called enters the field. Goldstar is membership-based website for half-price live entertainment tickets, that allows venues to unload their extra tickets, make some additional revenue, and generate word-of-mouth marketing. Goldstar, which currently has relationships with more than 5,000 venue-partners around the country (from Cirque du Soleil and Ticketmaster to the San Francisco Giants) and counts Matt Coffin, Emmy Award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris, and former Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty as members of its advisory board, wants to avoid just becoming the “Groupon for entertainment tickets”. To differentiate its model from the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial, Goldstar avoids splitting revenues with merchants and instead monetizes by taking a cut of the service charge on each ticket sold ($4.50 on average), allowing entertainment venues — or the shows themselves — to take home the full cost of each ticket sold. So far, this model has been working for the entertainment ticket site, as Goldstar recently announced that it has sold its five millionth ticket and now has over 2 million members in more than 20 major U.S. markets. The site now offers 1,200 to 1,500 half-priced tickets each day. Of course, as anyone who has taken advantage of ticket discounts knows — while the simple gratification of scoring a deal on tickets is all well and good, we want to be able to go to a movie or a show and sit with our friends. . And today, Goldstar is announcing its own solution designed to allow ticket buyers and vendors to tackle this problem with its “Sit With Friends” feature. Goldstar’s new patent-pending feature allows Goldstar members who buy tickets to receive a personalized link that they can then share with friends via email or their social network of choice. Users can use that link to purchase tickets to the same event and get automatically seated with their friends. With five million tickets sold, Goldstar has come a long way since it sold its first batch of tickts to a horse ballet in Pasadena back in 2003. The company has never accepted outside investment, yet has managed to stay profitable — with a sales staff of only a dozen employees. Goldstar CEO Jim McCarthy says that the key to resisting large sales forces a la Groupon has been to cultivate their existing relationships with venues and shows, rather than focus on closing new merchants who may never use the site again. In terms of the future roadmap, McCarthy says that Goldstar is looking to expand into new cities across the U.S., and improve on its core technology, building out new features like Sit With Friends that encourage people to get out to see live entertainment — in spite of a tight economy. |
Seesmic Focuses On The Social Enterprise; Debuts Android, iPad Apps For Salesforce CRM | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | Social application developer is making a big move into the social enterprise and is debuting a dedicated Android app and iPad app for Salesforce’s CRM product (Windows Phone 7 will also be added soon), called Seesmic CRM. The Android app will be launched tomorrow morning at Salesforce’s annual conference, Dreamforce, and Seesmic will launch the iPad app in a few weeks. For background, Seesmic, which was founded by French entrepreneur , helps you the social web. Seesmic’s desktop, web, and mobile clients integrate with Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. The bonus of using an app like Seesmic is the ability to aggregate your streams from a number of social web services, like YouTube, Foursquare, Techmeme, LinkedIn and others. But of late, Seesmic has been dabbling in the enterprise and launching more business-focused features. Last Fall, Seesmic launched a with Salesforce’s social network for the enterprise, Chatter. And then earlier this year, Salesforce round in Seesmic. Basically the Seesmic CRM Android and iPad apps bring all the functionality of Salesforce’s CRM to mobile phones. Users can search their Salesforce.com account from the native apps; look up leads, contacts, accounts, related activities and chatter newsfeeds on the go; create and update leads, contacts, tasks, and events; log calls and emails after meetings; and much more. And the apps leverage the mobile OS; allowing users to see maps of their leads respective to their current location; upload photos and more. While pricing hasn’t been announced yet, Seesmic may charge $10 per month per user for the apps. Le Meur tells us that he isn’t competing with Salesforce because the CRM giant currently doesn’t offer in-depth Android and iPad apps. In fact, Seesmic has been working ‘hand in hand’ with Salesforce’s mobile team to develop these native apps. And Salesforce is particularly bullish on the social enterprise of late—’Welcome To The Social Enterprise’ is the theme of Dreamforce this year. As Le Meur says, “We are working with Salesforce, not competing with the company.” Of course, it is interesting that a Twitter-platform developer is shifting focus away from building for the consumer and focusing on the enterprise. In March, Twitter to avoid competing with them on native clients. It’s not that Twitter doesn’t want developers to build off their platform, they just don’t want developers to build clients that mimic Twitter’s own services. Thus, Seesmic has found a new user base in businesses. Le Meur explains that bringing mobile and social to the enterprise is the future for Seesmic. While the startup won’t give up its web and mobile apps (the company’s Android app has over a million users); all of Seesmic efforts are now fully ‘focused on bringing social to business users,’ says Le Meur. Seesmic also a few months ago. You can watch Le Meur’s recent conversation with TechCrunch TV’s Andrew Keene (Disclosure: TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington was an early investor in Seesmic.) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8RgEXkxBW4&w=560&h=345] [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpHYYoamcbQ&w=560&h=345] |
Google+ Source Code Snoop Gets Hired By Google | Sarah Perez | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | Austrian blogger and developer recently discovered a lot of Google+’s upcoming features just by digging around in the source code for the new social networking service. He was one of the first ( ), to reveal Google+ Games before its launch, for example, as well as still unreleased features like “Shared Circles” and social search, . Now, it seems, Google has had enough of Rohrweck’s snooping. It’s hiring Rohrweck to help secure the code instead. This story sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? After all, just last week, , Nicholas Allegra, also known as “ ” on Twitter, to work on securing its mobile operating system. Likewise, Rohrweck will be tasked with securing Google Web apps from leaks, and possibly working as a developer advocate as well. (Even he doesn’t quite know what his duties will include, he says.) The ink isn’t dry on the job contract, Rohrweck notes, so technically he’s hired, not hired yet. But to be clear, it was the code snooping (and blogging about it, ) that got Google’s attention in the first place. Says Rohrweck in an exchange, “yep, it was my leaking and lurking that made them nervous!” Google had previously taken notice of the developer, and by way of an easter egg. We suppose that getting hired by Google means Rohrweck’s detailed and sneaky (and yep, sometimes ) glances into the future of Google+ will now no longer be published for all to see. That’s too bad for us, but probably a smart by Google. |
Isis: AT&T, Verizon, And T-Mobile’s $100 Million Gamble In Mobile Payments | Jordan Crook | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | NFC will be ubiquitous one day, but we still have quite a ways to go. Unlike other smartphone features, this requires adoption on a huge scale from just about everyone, which will definitely take a while. But we are getting closer. While Sprint fiddles with its Google Wallet, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have reportedly made plans to invest upwards of $100 million in their . Can anyone else smell the competition simmering? the carriers may invest way more than that depending on how much traction they can get out of banks and merchants. Isis already has the support of a major player in commerce: Visa. However, has its own big name credit card company in MasterCard. The two mobile payments networks also have “offers” services, which send coupons to users that they can save and redeem with their phone. At least in the case of Isis, the network will monetize the offers by charging marketers a fee to send out coupons to user’s mobile phones. The carriers had originally planned to launch Isis around mid-2012, but since Google (and Sprint) seems to be on a faster track in terms of setting up merchants to use the service, Isis may pick up the pace. In fact, it had better hurry, as the mobile payments industry is expected to generate $240 billion by this year alone, according to Juniper Research. That number is only expected to triple in the next five years. |
What Kills Startups? Blackbox Releases Report/App To Help Founders Avoid The Deadpool | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | It’s not easy being green — or an entrepreneur. The inherent risk in becoming an entrepreneur or founding a startup is high. Sleepless nights, sweat equity, bribing new users to come to your product — it’s all part of the nerve-racking, code-spinning, and teeth grinding process. . But the truth of the matter is that few startups ever make it far enough to find the buried treasure or piggyback on Facebook all the way to glory; in fact, the cold, hard reality is that more than 90 percent of all startups fail. That’s why four young international entrepreneurs (Bjoern Herrmann and Max Marmer) created the so-called , because they wanted to a deep dive into what makes a startup successful — and what causes so many to drink from the cup of FAIL. The 67-page report, created in collaboration with researchers from Stanford and Berkeley, has collected data from 3,200 startups to date in order to work towards laying the foundation for a new framework for assessing startups more effectively — by measuring the thresholds and milestones of development that early stage web companies move through. ( .) The report, which brought a comprehensive and scientific approach to the analysis of startup trends, was a success; it was downloaded 15,000 times and covered in more than 150 publications in 20 different languages. But perhaps more importantly, the report (and subsequent data added by new companies and entrepreneurs) has already begun to show some interesting results — that can actually benefit the very people they analyze. Namely, Co-founder Bjoern Lasse Herrmann tells me, the number one cause of startup failure: Premature scaling. Herrmann said that the team’s research found that of the 90 percent of startups that fail, 70 percent scaled prematurely, which had a sometimes subtle and sometimes dramatic effect on the success (or lack thereof) of their business. Self-destruction and not competition is the bane of most startups, it seems. So, the team behind the report, which also created a business accelerator called (designed to leverage the data collected from their R&D projects), wanted to move beyond static reports and create a tool for startups that would help them combat this widespread problem of premature scaling. Today, the Blackbox team is releasing the “Startup Compass”, a tool built to be a prescription for premature scaling by mapping a company’s progress along “5 core interdependent dimensions”, according to Herrmann: Customers, Product, Team, Business Model and Financials. The Compass provides entrepreneurs with a dashboard to monitor their progress along these dimensions, helping them to set better priorities on a monthly basis — and also help them locate any inconsistencies in these dimensions. According to Herrmann, many startups have trouble deciding which priorities to follow, not to mention measuring their effectiveness once they do, “almost always landing in the proverbial grey zone”. He gave these questions as classic examples of startup uncertainty: “Is a 5 percent increase in retention good? Do I have enough users to declare product/market fit? Is now the right time to step on the gas pedal and scale?” The Compass, then, is a simple benchmarking tool designed to reduce this grey zone by assessing a startup’s type and stage of development, and then comparing that data to that of other startups of the same type and stage — on 25 key performance indicators — to help them get a better sense of their current location (and the efficacy of their direction). For those looking to check out the Compass beta, . Blackbox is looking for feedback from entrepreneurs and founders, too, as it wants to make tools that actually benefit those out there in the wild and woolly world of entrepreneurism — not just the researchers. This is a collaborative project, Herrmann says, and one that can have real effects with the more data it collects. Readers that want to check out Blackbox’s mini report . |
If You Cite Compete Or Alexa For Anything Besides Making Fun Of Them, You’re A Moron | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | Earlier today, I was checking out some new questions in the area on Quora. One in particular caught my eye: ? This has been something I’ve seen asked here and there given the radical changes we implemented — and, I assume, given the audience issues Gawker faced after their recent redesign. Mostly, people seem to want to know: is TechCrunch tanking? I was set to weigh in, when I noticed that someone else already had. This person (not affiliated with TechCrunch) painted a picture in which our site was essentially crashing and burning since the redesign (the answer has since been removed by Quora, presumably due to down-voting). Their source? . Dear Internet, I thought we’ve been over this? If you cite Compete or Alexa for anything other than making fun of them, you’re officially a moron. How bad is their data? Well, in the case of Compete, if you reversed their chart, then it would be much closer to being correct than it currently is. I seriously wonder if they’re tracking anti-visits or some new metaphysical stat I’m not aware of? TechCrunch will set a new all-time record for traffic this month (both in uniques and pageviews), breaking the previous record — set last month. And that broke the previous record set the month before that. In other words, things are on the up and up. How do I know this? I have the luxury of seeing directly-measured results from both Google Analytics and WordPress.com’s own analytics area. Both confirm that Compete and Alexa are absolutely worthless when it comes to this type of measurement. I mean seriously, the data from each service is so bad that I’m not clear how either is still operating. I have to cut the stat-searching public some slack because they are two of the only free public tools out there for gauging traffic data. But seriously, you’d be better off just guessing. Yes, Quantcast is much better, but , which is why we don’t expose data publicly that way. The newer seemed to be halfway decent for a while, but in the past year, they’ve also fallen off a cliff in terms of accuracy, it seems. Given that Google never talks about this product any more, I’m going to assume it’s one of many that has fallen into neglect — which is too bad. As for Alexa, which is owned by Amazon, I have no idea what’s wrong with them. It seems to be more of a landing page for advertisements above all else now. And yes, I know Compete focuses on U.S. Internet usage. But looking at our charts, that segment of the data is even more inaccurate when compared to reality. Compete has always been rather quiet about the way they actually gather data — and at times, — but the fact of the matter remains constant: the data stinks. But I will give Compete some credit: their data showcasing their own downfall , as backed up by comScore. As for the Quora question itself, . Long story short: traffic is up pretty significantly since the redesign. Thanks all! |
Review: Fujifilm X100 | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | A unique and powerful camera hampered by uneven attention to detail and an inadequate menu system. For a camera so strongly and effectively focused on going back to basics, the legacy of ugly menus, slow focus, and chintzy dials seems especially out of place. In this case, beauty truly only is skin deep. Except for the fabulous lens and sensor, I should say. I’ve made no secret of my excitement regarding the X100. Since playing with it at CES early this year it has been pretty much the only camera I’ve been seriously looking forward to. Finally, something to replace my aging Canon. A triumph of retro design and modern engineering. And in a way, it is. But while they certainly created a beautiful camera that can produce beautiful images, they failed to make a camera that makes you want to use it. Before I go any further, let me just remind our readers that this is a rather late and decidedly anecdotal review. For thorough testing and image quality comparisons, I recommend . This is just me adding my thoughts to the pile. There’s no denying that Fujifilm has crafted an amazing object. Too many cameras today, especially compact ones, have a feeling of high-tech chintziness, of thin bits of metal, chippable plastic, and toylike dials. Fujifilm has made a camera that feels almost as solid as my old Canon film SLR from the early 70s. You have the retro look, of course, but it also has the feel, for the most part. I love the way the shutter and bias dials and aperture ring feel. It’s so nice to be spinning something again, to be selecting something etched in metal, not using a jog dial to tell a piece of software to open the aperture a bit more. The threaded, metal shutter release button is a joy to press. The pancake lens and compact form factor make things a bit close for comfort if you have big hands, but it’s hot hard to figure out. And the hybrid viewfinder! What an accomplishment! Seeing that overlay on the rangefinder for quick reference, then snapping over to the high-res electronic viewfinder — it’s magical. It works as advertised, it looks great, and makes you want to show it off. Here’s how it looks; excuse the poor picture quality, putting my lens right up to the eyepiece limited my compositional options. Cool, isn’t it? There’s a definite difference in what the rangefinder and EVF show, but that’s the reality of rangefinders. Knowing your framing in the rangefinder is something that takes time, and the ability to switch instantly to the EVF is very handy. But then I started taking pictures. The first thing I did was try to focus the camera on something on my desk. The autofocus labored, the image flashed, and… nothing was in focus. I tried again and again. Apparently I had to switch to macro mode for objects closer than 20 inches or so. And that’s when I first used the d-pad/dial. What a cheap-feeling little piece of junk it is! It wobbles all over, you have to kind of hit it with your thumbnail, and the center button is microscopic. was on a $1200 camera? The whole menu system gives me the same feeling of low quality. It’s a consumer interface on a professional camera. The information on the LCD and EVF is haphazard and poorly organized. Taking a video means going into the drive mode settings on that crappy little d-pad. Why isn’t it, say, on the shutter speed dial, since you can’t use that dial anyway while in video mode? If you have to have a macro mode, why do I have to hit the button and choose between on and off? If there are only the two modes, why doesn’t the button just switch between them?! It’s nothing I couldn’t get used to, but it’s not something I want to get used to. And the manual focus, one of the fun things to have in a “professional” camera, especially one with such a great, fast lens and HD video, is useless. You have a nice (if narrow) ring with a smooth action, but the actual focus only changes in little spurts about half a second apart. Not only that but the sensitivity felt to me incredibly low. I brought it to about its minimum focus, which is quite close (~4 inches) using macro mode AF (accurate when you’re within its range), then used the manual focus ring to bring the chair on the other side of the room into focus. Averaging about a quarter turn per movement, it took me 16 spins to get the chair in focus! That’s three or four full revolutions of the ring! My Canon’s lens goes from macro to infinity in a revolution. I don’t want to make this into a litany of complaints. But I am disappointed in this camera. Could it ever have lived up to my expectations? I certainly think so — but even with the updated firmware there is still a huge amount of improvement needed before this camera is a workable replacement for something like a DSLR, or even a really credible alternative to other ~$1000 cameras. The X100 is a unique and powerful device, but its shortcomings simply make it too much of a chore to make it worth a recommendation. The camera simply isn’t ready for anyone who isn’t willing to make compromises in how they shoot. That said, this is the first version of a camera that has sold incredibly well and will almost certainly see real improvements over the next few years. It’s a “visionary” first-generation product, essentially, with all the pros and cons associated with that class of device. If you’re willing to grapple with the camera’s interface and don’t mind a few dozen quaint operational habits, the X100 is an interesting and capable camera. But if you’re looking for a shooting experience that is user-friendly and quick, look elsewhere for now.
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New Zelda And Golden Wiimote To Arrive November 20th | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | When I first saw , I have to admit I wasn’t impressed. The demo was obviously rushed out, the Wiimote was being unresponsive, and it took him like a dozen slingshot rocks to knock down one spider. But it has definitely shaped up nicely over the last year or so, and was looking better than ever at PAX. Now that the doubters had been satisfied to some extent, it only remained to set a date for availability. And we just got that. , just in time for the holidays. I get the feeling there will be a lot of Zeldas under trees this year. And what’s more, you’ll be able to buy it bundled with that fabulous golden Wiimote we saw teased at E3 this year for a mere $20 extra. The bundle will sell for $70 and the plain version for $50. Why would you get the bundle? Both versions, however, will come with a Zelda 25th Anniversary Concert CD. If you’re still not sure about it, we’ll have a review of the game up as soon as they start sending those little buggers out. |
Video: Raspberry Pi $25 Computer Running Quake III | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | You may recall the , a barebones PC for emerging markets that they hope to sell for $25. When we wrote it up earlier this year, there wasn’t much in the way of demonstration: a few stills of the PCB and a video with founder David Braben describing his plan for the device. But today we have a demo that both captures the geek imagination and proves the device has legs: . Not that it’s some big accomplishment to run a game released in the last millennium, but it actually does pretty well. The device uses a 700MHz ARM processor and has 128MB of RAM enabled here, and lacking any on-device storage, it’s running the OS (Debian CLI) and the game off an SD card. Check out the video: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_mDuJuvZjI w=640] They could hit higher framerates, but wanted to show that 1920×1080 with 4xAA was possible. Naturally you could reduce this quite a bit and max out the refresh rate on your monitor; Q3A isn’t exactly the most graphics-intensive game on the market. The game isn’t being emulated; they actually compiled the open source version for their Debian build. They plan on networking a few together and playing a deathmatch soon. Now, the point of this isn’t that now, impoverished children in Kazakhstan will be able to hone their all-important FPSing skills. It’s more of a proof of concept showing that a (fairly) modern piece of software can be adapted to the hardware they’ve put together: the Raspberry Pi really is a full-on computer. And while there are Micro ATX boards and systems out there (very useful ones in fact), they don’t come anywhere near the $25 mark. You still need an LCD, keyboard, SD card or USB drive, and so on, but the Raspberry Pi Foundation is all about lowering the entry barrier and providing everything that’s needed in a basic computer for as low a price as possible. . They’ve still got a lot of work to do before they make this a viable product, but things seem to be moving along rapidly. |
iPhone Rumors Gone Wild! New Leaks Point To Two Models, Similar Casings | Matt Burns | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | It’s time for your weekly dose of next-gen iPhone rumors. This edition is a doozy, friends. Purported iPhone components are leaking everywhere with every site claiming to have the real deal. It’s hard to say which components are lifted straight from Foxconn’s lines, but when they’re viewed as a whole, these components paint an interesting picture that Apple is about to dramatically shift course and fully disrupt the cell phone market. Apple is reportedly going to announce the next iPhone (or iPhones) either in September or October. Right now there are two competing rumors circulating that states Apple is working on a low-cost iPhone, likely the iPhone4S codenamed N94, and a higher-end iPhone 5 called internally as the N97. Just within the last week, a slew of claimed iPhone parts hit the web. Most are of similar design to the current iPhone 4 with a spot for a physical Home button and similar overall dimensions. and both posted the same set of “leaked” photos this morning showing what most assume is the low-cost iPhone 4S. The parts are labeled N95 with the EVT1 (Engineering Verification Testing) date of ’03-March-2011′. Several other leaks including these early repair parts further support the claim that at least one upcoming iPhone model will be very similar to the current iPhone 4. Reuters furthered this claim last week when it announced Apple will soon release . Even claimed to be for the iPhone 4S is very similar to the one used in the iPhone 4 besides a little tweak to the antenna and the lack of space for the home button. So far, including talk of a , seems to suggest that Apple is targeting the low-end of the market with the next iPhone. But that just doesn’t feel right. Apple has so far stuck to a pretty tight two year refresh cycle, which stated a major redesigned was due last June. That never happened. Then just this morning, , citing upstream panel suppliers and contrary to previous rumors, reported the iPhone 5 will have an LCD smaller than 4-inches and feature a metal back panel rather than reinforced glass used in the iPhone 4 and leaked iPhone 4S parts. This source states that the internal components, including the single-core A4 chip, are likely to remain in play for this iPhone model. It’s not unheard of that Apple would out similar products aimed at different market segments and separated only by cosmetic differences. It is however without precedent that Apple releases two iPhone models at the same time. The iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, if they are both real, kills Apple’s legendary Keep It Simple, Stupid mantra, but officially signals war with lower-end BlackBerrys and Android devices. Of course this is all just silly speculation until Tim Cook, Jonathan Ive or whoever takes the stage and officially announces the next iPhone, or rather, iPhones. These leaks are hitting at an absurd rate, though. Apple might soon be dealing with the iPhone 4 fiasco all over again. |
It’s About Time Someone Translated The Facebook TOS Into Bro Speak | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Thank you Miles Lothe for taking the whole thing to the next level by reading the entire Facebook TOS and . This is amazing because Facebook, aside from (yes it exists), is the most brogrammy startup on earth — Please email or IM me if you want me to elaborate on this, because it’s late but I can totally prove it. And for those of you don’t know what a brogrammer is please check out this Quora thread or this um, Fun fact: , a Facebook engineer, runs the very popular on Facebook. Also, .
“Your privacy is very important to us. We designed our to make important disclosures about how you can use Facebook to share with others and how we collect and can use your content and information. We encourage you to read the Privacy Policy, and to use it to help make informed decisions.” “When you publish content or information using the everyone setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture).” “We always appreciate your feedback or other suggestions about Facebook, but you understand that we may use them without any obligation to compensate you for them (just as you have no obligation to offer them).” “You will not tag users or send email invitations to non-users without their consent.” “If you collect information from users, you will: obtain their consent, make it clear you (and not Facebook) are the one collecting their information, and post a privacy policy explaining what information you collect and how you will use it.” “You will not misrepresent your relationship with Facebook to others.” “You give us the right to link to or frame your application, and place content, including ads, around your application.” “You understand that we may not always identify paid services and communications as such.” “We can use your ads and related content and information for marketing or promotional purposes.” “WE TRY TO KEEP FACEBOOK UP, BUG-FREE, AND SAFE, BUT YOU USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. WE ARE PROVIDING FACEBOOK AS IS WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT FACEBOOK WILL BE SAFE OR SECURE.” Read the rest Since this blog was posted, Schrock has unpublished the Facebook “Brogramming” page. |
iTunes Rival Rdio Launches Gift Cards, Available Online And At Target | Sarah Perez | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | Streaming music service from Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, is today launching two new music gifting options – physical gift cards and online credits. Consumers will be able to purchase the virtual gift card options in $10, $25, $50 and $100 values or in user-selected amounts. Meanwhile, physical cards in the $10 and $25 values will be sold in over 600 Target retail stores here in the U.S. The Rdio Gift Card is flexible in that it doesn’t specify how the money has to be used. The recipient can choose to use it towards their monthly subscription, offline music downloads or with the . The gift cards are the first time that Rdio is being sold in retail stores in the U.S. Although they’ll be sold alongside top competitor iTunes, the two services are actually quite different. iTunes charges you for the music you download, which can then be saved and synced to your Apple devices. Rdio, instead, provides streaming access to all the music in its catalog of nearly 11 million songs for a monthly fee. In other words, with iTunes you own the music you buy, but with Rdio, for the most part, you rent it. Like Apple’s service, Rdio also employs a matching tool which scours your local library (in iTunes or Windows Media Player) to look for the names of artists, albums and songs that are already available in its catalog. This is included with Rdio’s monthly fee, but Apple will charge $25/year to do the same. However, Apple will also upgrade tracks to a high-quality, DRM-format when performing its match. In addition, Rdio users can buy select tracks for offline listening, if desired – a feature that’s more on par with the traditional iTunes offering. Often this option is due to the music labels and/or rightsholders’ restrictions on streaming. The new Rdio gift cards are available at Target now, or on Rdio’s website at . |
Jeremy, Call Your Mother — She’s Worried Sick | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | When we switched to Facebook comments several months ago, we spun it as a way to combat the trolls. But you know, there was actually a secret agenda. We wanted to bring families closer together. And it’s with great pleasure that I can now announce that it’s working. Earlier today, we ran a post entitled, “ “. Apple, Android, courts, lawsuits, intrigue — fairly standard TechCrunch fare. But a comment on the story was easily better than the story itself (no offense, Jordan): “call me ASAP,” wrote Kathy Krumsick. Sounds urgent. What was it in relation to? Well her son, Jeremy Krumsick, on the post. Sure, Jeremy was sort of calling out our writer (again, sorry Jordan). But we’ll forgive that because we’re helping families bond here. With that in mind, Jeremy, please call your mother! She’s worried sick! The back-and-forth between Jeremy and his mother actually continued in our comment section. “damn mom, always gotta be blowin up my spot on techcrunch…,” Jeremy wrote. “don’t let your phone go dead and I won’t have to use these extreme measures!! sorry honey!,” his mother responded. Indeed. “Mom – I love you. But you just gotta stop talking to me via TechCrunch comments…,” Jeremy said in response one final time, ending the rift. Jeremy, not only should you be calling your mother more often, but you shouldn’t talk back! In all seriousness (well, more like half seriousness), this is one downside of using Facebook comments. Because the comments get pushed back to commenters’ Facebook Walls, anyone is free to respond from there, off-topic or not. At least, that’s what I have to assume happened. Or perhaps Jeremy’s mom really was reading TechCrunch looking for her son. Either way, we’re here to help. Let us know if you need anything else Kathy and Jeremy! : Kathy has us in the comments below: Please know that Jeremy has called! Facebook/TechCrunch worked! The reason I was looking for him was to talk about his job search. So now this must be fate, he has always wanted to work in a startup! And you told me you would help if we needed anything else! Success! Now if any startup wants to hire a good son, let him know! |
Ooyala Now Powering ESPN’s Billion-Plus Video Streams | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Today, Mountain View-based , the fast-growing online video services provider, is announcing that it has landed a big content partner: The so-called “worldwide leader in sports”, . Those avid sports fans among us may have noticed some changes in the look and speed of videos on ESPN.com. Over the last few weeks, Ooyala has begun integrating its video technology into ESPN’s website, and is now officially powering all of the sports media behemoth’s streaming video content. It’s a serious feather in the cap and vote of confidence for the four-year-old video startup, as ESPN is one of the biggest producers of online video content, with 400 unique visitors hitting play on ESPN videos every second (and serving over 1 billion streams per month), according to Ooyala Co-Founder and President of Product Bismarck Lepe. For Ooyala, Lepe said, this partnership with ESPN is evidence that it has achieved scale, and in the big picture, shows that the online video industry is at a point where the fundamental building blocks are in place and can support viable, healthy businesses. Another sign that Ooyala has achieved scale? TechCrunchTV uses the service to power its on-demand videos. ESPN VP of Technology and Product Development Jason Guenther told TechCrunch that the company had been using its own video system, based on Disney technology (ESPN is owned by Disney), and had been experimenting with a number of different video platforms and technologies. Yet, the company is at a point, Guenther said, in which it really wants to begin focusing on content and the overall user experience of its digital platform, rather than have to worry over the technology necessary to serve billions of video streams or refining its own video player. The VP of tech said that after vetting a number of third party platforms, Ooyala “landed a bit higher” than its competitors, because it enables the sports giant to shorten video load times and to take advantage of a multi-bit rate that can deliver HD at up to 2.8 Mbps. ESPN’s new player is Flash-based, though users can tap into an HTML5 version on their iPads, and offers dynamic video quality that adjusts to the individual user’s network connection, bandwidth, etc. in order to serve the best quality video according to each viewer’s capacity. For ESPN, not only does Ooyala step up load times and increase playback quality, but the video startup also enables the sports broadcaster to better utilize internal resources by streamlining the management of their videos and related data, according to the announcement made today on Ooyala’s blog. Ooyala also offers its customers a realtime analytics engine, with detailed per-video and per-user reporting for both on-demand and live video streaming, as well as integrations with payment systems so that customers have the ability to launch both paid and ad-supported video business models. ESPN has generally lagged behind its big media competitors in terms of its utilization of social media, so the fact that Ooyala enables visitors to easily share videos via Facebook and Twitter from within the player, is a huge social boost for ESPN. Guenther told me that scaling has been a big issue for ESPN.com, and the tech team has been looking for ways to take advantage of new mobile channels, as well as keep content quality consistently high on the Web. Ooyala allows ESPN to serve video of consistent quality across platforms and scale effectively. Going forward, he said, ESPN will look to innovate on top of its new video platform, as well as explore ways to beef up and publicize its API. All in all, it’s great to see ESPN finally offering a quality player with fast load times and a more linear on demand experience in which video queues and layouts feel more akin to a television viewing experience — and can compete in ease of video use with YouTube. And for Ooyala, who recently inked a deal with Yahoo! Japan and will soon account for more than 50 percent of all Japanese online video viewership, according to Lepe, this is yet another sign that it is reaching that elusive tipping point. But don’t worry, Ooyala has no plans to change. |
YC-Funded Science Exchange: A Central Marketplace For Core Research Facilities | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Scientists, get ready for some disruption. Last month I about , a nifty startup that’s looking to help scientists streamline their labs by making it easy to keep track of who has which reagents (which is actually a bigger problem than you’d think). And today we see the launch of another Y Combinator-funded startup called that’s looking to help researchers in a different way: it wants to make it easier for them to conduct experiments on the expensive and sometimes rare equipment housed at universities across the country. And eventually, the company hopes to reinvent the way scientists outsource research in the hopes of making it much more efficient. Before we get into how they’re going to do that, here’s some background on how science research is conducted. Cofounder Elizabeth Iorns, who has a Ph.D in Cancer Biology and is on the faculty at the University of Miami School of Medicine, explains that major universities often have what’s called a Core Facility — a special lab that houses the most valuable equipment, which can exceed $1 million per machine. It would obviously be cost-prohibitive to put these in each scientists’ lab, and many of them are only needed occasionally anyway. So, instead, scientists submit their experiments to the Core Facility, where they’re carried out by resource scientists (scientists who exclusively perform these ‘outsourced’ experiments, and aren’t conducting their own research). The resource scientists then give the results back to the researcher who requested them. Of course, not every core facility has every piece of machinery. And Iorns says that when a researcher wants to use equipment that’s housed elsewhere, the logistics involved can be painful. There’s no central database tracking which universities have which equipment, there’s no standardization around payments systems, and even the price each core facility charges for an experiment can vary widely (this is in part, she explains, because the facilities that are used infrequently need to charge more to recoup their costs). Science Exchange hopes to be the solution to this. The company is working to build out a central database that lets researchers look up where they can outsource an experiment, and how much it will cost them. It also processes the transactions, so researchers and universities don’t have to worry about making sure their payment systems are all integrated with each other (Science Exchange makes it money by taking a commission on each transaction). Average experiment prices are around $5,000 — and despite the commission universities oftentimes save money, because they can find core facilities with lower fees. And Iorns says that the universities with underutilized core facilities, which typically charge higher fees, can close them without having to worry too much about their faculty leaving, since they’ll be able to more easily outsource their experiments. In the longer term, Iorns says that the startup wants to help streamline an even broader range of experiments that don’t necessarily involve core facilities. What if, for example, a researcher could dedicate one day per week to conducting experiments submitted by other researchers? They could offer to perform experiments specifically related to their specialties, which could generate even more accurate results than if these researchers had conducted the experiments at their own labs. Of course, this could lead to issues around establishing who is actually reliable, but Iorns says this could be addressed using a reputation system. But that’s still a ways off. For now, they’re sticking with the core facilities. So far, they say the results have been promising — and I think it sounds like a great idea. The startup’s team consists of Iorns, Ryan Abbott (formerly cofounded Loudpixel), and Dan Knox (formerly a VP at DailyMe). |
Dell Misses On Q2 Revenue, Net Income Up 60 Percent But Cuts Q3 Outlook | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Dell this afternoon for the second quarter of fiscal year 2012. Revenue in the quarter was $15.7 billion, up 1 percent over last year. GAAP earnings per share was $0.48, up 71 percent; non-GAAP EPS was $0.54 cents, up 69 percent. The company blew past EPS expectations, Dell missed slightly on revenue. Analysts non-GAAP EPS of $0.49 on revenue of $15.75 billion. Cash flow from operations grew to a record $2.4 billion Non-GAAP net income came in at $1 billion for the quarter, up 60 percent from the same quarter last year. Dell ended the quarter with a record high $16.2 billion in cash and investments and repurchased $1.1 billion in stock in the quarter. Dell said the growth in its enterprise solutions and services, particularly in serverm storage, data management, security and cloud service, continued to drive the company’s profitability in the fiscal second quarter as operating income rose significantly on a 1 percent revenue increase. Revenue for Dell’s commercial business was $12.8 billion, up 1 percent from a year ago. Enterprise solutions and services revenue grew 4 percent to $4.6 billion in the quarter and now represents 35 percent of Dell’s commercial revenue. Servers and networking revenue increased 9 percent year over year. Dell Services revenue grew 6 percent to $2 billion. Growth countries outside of the U.S. and Canada, Western Europe and Japan increased revenue 14 percent over the previous year and now account for 28 percent of Dell’s total revenue. Specifically, India and China were up 21 and 20 percent, respectively. Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of the company said in a release: “We continue to see great momentum in the high-growth areas of our business, which is a direct reflection of the discipline and strong execution our global Dell team is applying to help solve real-world challenges for our customers. We’re creating efficiency across every step of the IT value chain and ultimately enabling all customers—from home users to large businesses and government organizations—to achieve the outcomes that matter most to them.” In the third quarter, Dell expects to see revenue roughly flat relative to Q2. |
AWS Launches GovCloud, A Secure Region For U.S. Government Agencies And Contractors | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Many government agencies have been slower to adopt the cloud because of the specific regulatory requirements, compliance issues and security regulations. To mitigate this, Amazon Web Services is , a new secure region specialized for U.S. government agencies and contractors to move more sensitive workloads into the cloud. Amazon says that many government agencies with data subject to compliance regulations such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations were not allowed to manage and store defense-related data in a cloud environment that could be accessed by anyone outside the U.S. Because AWS GovCloud is physically accessible by the U.S. only, government agencies can now manage more heavily regulated data in AWS while remaining compliant with strict federal requirements. Amazon says that GovCloud offers similar levels of security as other AWS Regions but also supports existing AWS security controls and certifications such as FISMA, FIPS 140-2 compliant end points, SAS-70, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS Level 1. AWS resources that can be deployed from AWS GovCloud include Amazon EC2, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). Already, NASA is using the AWS GovCloud, says the company. Over 100 government agencies use AWS in some form, so these agencies now have the option of moving over to the GovCloud. |
Keen On… What Really Turns People On? (TCTV) | Andrew Keen | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | What’s on the end of your fork? Do you go online to look at young women or and Do you like coercion fantasies about alpha males? Or do you prefer gay romance stories? Up till now, these questions about our online sexual behavior have, at best, been speculative. But at last, we have data – hard, authoritative data – on what we are really getting up to online when we think nobody is watching us. Two Boston University trained cognitive scientists, and , have crunched millions of data points from sites as diverse as Dogpile, AOL, OKCupid and Pornhub, to reveal the true nature of sexual desire in our Internet age. And they’ve published their findings in an incredibly provocative new book, that charts what a billion people do when you put them in a “virtually darkened room”. When I interviewed Ogi Ogas, he told me that A Billion Wicked Thoughts is the first scientific investigation of the “true nature of sexual desire”. More shockingly, he revealed to me what really turns on people. Men like watching, Dr Ogas explained, and they have an “unlimited appetite” for amateurs. More men search for photos of 50 year-olds than 19 year-olds. And women? Well, he explained, women like things altogether different.
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Google Gives Android App Inventor A New Home At MIT Media Lab | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Back in July 2010, Google announced a nifty educational project called . The goal? Give non-programmers a relatively easy way to build their own applications for the Android platform, using a drag-and-drop interface to add pre-written ‘chunks’ of code. It was heavily inspired by the learning language , but with an Android focus. I ran the platform soon after its launch, attempting to build some basic apps of my own. It was rough. It wasn’t even close to being easy to use. But it was fun, and it clearly had a lot of potential in a learning environment. A year later, around 100,000 people were using the platform, many of them in education. Unfortunately, last week Hack Education the news that Google was going to be shutting down App Inventor, despite the fact that it had gotten substantial traction with educators. The move apparently was part of Google CEO Larry Page’s drive to make Google a more focused company, which includes Google Labs. Today, Google has some better news: it’s announcing that App Inventor will as part of a new MIT Center for Mobile Learning, which will be housed at the famed MIT Media Lab and run by App Inventor creator Hal Abelson, along with fellow MIT professors Eric Klopfer and Mitchel Resnick (both of whom were also instrumental in the creation of the project). I really like App Inventor — it’s a good introduction to programming, and it also gets students used to programming with mobile devices in mind, which is obviously going to be a big deal going forward. And I’m glad that MIT has agreed to accept the torch from Google and keep it going. That said, I think it’s pretty ridiculous that Google announced App inventor and then killed it off (at least, as an internal project) only a year after its launch. There’s no way this was a serious burden for the company in terms of resources. And if Google was intending to work with a university on the project, why didn’t it do that from the start? Android is still very early in its lifespan, and some portion of the kids who cut their teeth on App Inventor are going to want to dive even deeper into the platform. If anything, I think Google should consider putting resources into making App Inventor more intuitive, expanding its functionality, and then launching additional learning tools to help students make the transition from a drag-and-drop interface to Java and/or HTML5. Hopefully that’s exactly what will happen at MIT. But I’m wondering why Google didn’t see fit to see it through themselves. Here’s an excerpt from Google’s post, which was written by Hal Abelson, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at MIT: App Inventor for Android—a programming system that makes it easy for learners to create mobile apps for Android smartphones—currently supports a community of about 100,000 educators, students and hobbyists. Through the new initiatives at the MIT Center for Mobile Learning, App Inventor will be connected to MIT’s premier research in educational technology and MIT’s long track record of creating and supporting open software. Google first launched App Inventor internally in order to move it forward with speed and focus, and then developed it to a point where it started to gain critical mass. Now, its impact can be amplified by collaboration with a top academic institution. At MIT, App Inventor will adopt an enriched research agenda with increased opportunities to influence the educational community. In a way, App Inventor has now come full circle, as I actually initiated App Inventor at Google by proposing it as a project during my sabbatical with the company in 2008. The core code for App Inventor came from Eric Klopfer’s , and the inspiration came from Mitch Resnick’s . The new center is a perfect example of how industry and academia can collaborate effectively to create change enabled by technology, and we look forward to seeing what we can do next, together. |
Sony Announces €99 PSP For European Cheapskates | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Instead of giving us any more concrete details on when the Playstation Vita will see the light of day, Sony announced the availability of a at their Gamescom press conference today. With it’s €99 price tag, Sony’s clearly gunning for the budget gamers, albeit only ones that live in Europe: while the E-1000 is poised to launch this fall in the EU, there’s no word that the bargain-priced portable will make its way anywhere else. The E-1000 takes most of its design cues from older model PSPs, and with that comes the inclusion of a UMD drive. The design is actually pretty dang slick, with its matte black finish, but Sony had to cut corners somewhere. First thing on Sony’s chopping block is the WiFI radio; impulse Playstation Store downloaders will have to resort to transferring purchases from a PC using Sony’s Media Go software. For those without an old PSP game library to fall back on, Sony has also announced the launch of a discounted line of UMD-based games. Games like Invizimals: The Lost Tribe, EyePet Adventures, and FIFA 12 are expected to launch along side the E-1000, but hopefully some… better… titles get the UMD treatment soon. Titles are priced to move at €9.99 a piece, but methinks cheapskate gamers may have better luck digging for games in the bargain bin. |
500 Startups Demo Day: McClure’s Second Batch Of Startups, Unleashed | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | We’re in Mountain View at s where the second-ever 500 Startups Demo Day is about to start. Today, 31 startups will present to press and investors here in McClure’s bright and sunny Mountain View office and you can watch them here, live. McClure’s primarily invests in early stage startups that focus on the “Three Ds,” design, data and distribution. The incubator invests between $25K to $250K in its portfolio companies; startups that are part of the 500 Startups accelerator program get a $50K investment from the fund at a $1 million valuation and can stay in the 500 Startups offices for around four months. Companies that are part of McClure’s seed program receive up to $250K in seed funding. McClure tells me that 500 Startups is primarily looking for startups that have an easily understandable story. “We definitely aim for monetization but there’s a few that are still working on that,” he says, “Runaway growth and no business model isn’t our thing, we’re far more interested in things that aren’t so sexy but make money.” All in all, the 500 Startups brood is now comprised of 175 startups, including InDinero, FoodSpotting, Twilio, Wildfire, Send Grid, Zozi, My Gengko, e La Carte, Ginzametrics and 955 Dreams. Thus far, McClure has had four exits: to LinkedIn, to Twitter, to Google and to Pixelfish. McClure tells me that the startups pitching at this Demo Day are unified by a strong international and female founder thread and “attitude” (which is why I cover 500 Startups I guess). He also tells me that he’s looking for new startups starting next week, specifically searching for groups from South America or Brazil. The new brood will start in October. Livestream above. List of the presenting companies, demo videos and their taglines, below. http://toutapp.com @toutapp
Are you tired of re-writing the same emails over and over? Toutapp helps you send and respond to emails faster with the power of Templates and Email Tracking.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/toutapp http://www.vidcaster.com @vidcaster
VidCaster is an easy way to make a video site on your own domain name.
AngelList:
SlideShare:http://slideshare.net/500startups/vidcaster www.dailyaisle.com @dailyaisle
Daily Aisle is the easiest place to plan and book your wedding (Expedia for Weddings Vendors).
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/dailyaisle http://appgrooves.com/ @AppGrooves
AppGrooves is a feedback platform for developers to optimize app discoverability.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/appgrooves http://loku.com @loku
Living local starts here – Big Data for local.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/loku www.kibin.com @kibininc
Kibin is the easiest way to get feedback and editing on your writing.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/kibin http://oviahr.com/ @teamovia
OVIA is a video interviewing platform that allows companies to screen people not resumes.
AngelList:
SlideShare:http://slideshare.net/500startups/ovia http://www.bugherd.com @bugherd
BugHerd is the visual issue tracker for the web.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/bugherd http://skipola.com @theskipola
Skipola saves restaurants money on online ordering fees by providing them with the tools to distribute their own white-label mobile apps.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/skipola http://www.launchbit.com @launchbit
Ad network for email.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/launchbit http://tinfoilsecurity.com @tinfoilsecurity
Tinfoil is the simplest way to protect your website from outside hackers.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/TinfoilSecurity http://www.culturekitchensf.com @culturekitchsf
Ethnic cooking classes taught by the grandmas you wish you had.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/culturekitchen http://www.storytree.me @storytree
Storytree helps you capture and share your family stories.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/storytree http://www.dailygobble.com @dailygobble
DailyGobble powers 1-to-1 marketing and yield management for restaurants.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/dailygobble http://www.vayable.com @vayable
Vayable is a social marketplace for experiences.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/vayable http://singboard.com @singboard
Singboard is where YouTube meets karaoke.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/singboard http://www.chirpme.com
Connecting people through amazing dates!
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/chirpme http://from.us @fromdotus
From.us crowd sources the gift selection and gift purchasing process.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/fromUs http://welcu.com @welcu
Welcu is the best way to manage high-end, unique events.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/welcu http://console.fm @consolefm
Awesome music, without the hassle.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/consolefm http://www.zerply.com/ @zerply
Professional networking done right.
AngelList:
SlideShare:http://slideshare.net/500startups/zerply http://getwillcall.com @willcall
WillCall is HotelTonight for live music and theater.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/willcall http://getvolta.com @getvolta
Volta is a cross-device, always-in-sync, call queue management solution for businesses.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/volta http://goappetizer.com
Appetizer makes it dead simple for small businesses to engage their customers with a useful mobile app.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/appetizer http://manpacks.com @manpacks
Manpacks makes purchasing men’s essentials like underwear, socks, shirts, shaving products and condoms simple, fast, and fun.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/manpacks http://www.snapette.com @snapette
Discover and share great fashion in stores around you.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/snapette http://cardinalblue.com @PicCollage
Cardinal Blue makes Pic Collage, a Top 10 Photo App for the iPad and iPhone.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/cardinalblue http://www.coderbuddy.com/ @coderbuddy CoderBuddy is a Next-generation Odesk meets Heroku.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/coderbuddy http://craftcoffee.com @craftcoffeeco
Craft Coffee is a monthly subscription service for amazing coffee experiences.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/craftcoffee http://launchrock.com @getlaunchrock
We GET users.
AngelList:
SlideShare: http://slideshare.net/500startups/launchrock |
Sony Slashes $50 Off The PS3, Drops The Base Model To $250 | Matt Burns | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Watch out! Price cuts all around! Following , Sony just cut a cool $50 off the PS3, dropping the 160GB model to $250 down from $300. The 320GB model is also a little lower now with a $299 price tag. This puts the PS3 in a slightly better position ahead of the oh-so-important holiday season. The Wii is currently priced at $150 and comes bundled with Mario Kart. The base model Xbox sells for $200 or $300 with Kinect. The PS3 suddenly looks a lot more attractive. Unfortunately the price drop love doesn’t apply to European gamers. Sure, the price dropped there too, but only to €249, which works out to $359 USD. It’s a similar but not as harsh story in Japan where the system drops to 24,980 Yen or $325 USD. Sony has struggled behind Microsoft for sometime. The Xbox 360 is on a seven month streak of being the best-selling console month-over-month. The Kinect re-energized the user base last year and the effect still seems to be holding true. Because of this dominance, Microsoft might not respond in kind and follow with a 360 price drop. |
Foursquare And Skype Coming To Playstation Vita | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | During a press conference at the Gamescom gaming conference in Cologne, Sony announced a few new features for their new handheld console, the (watch our hands-on at E3 ). Among them were support for Foursquare and Skype. The references were made while talking about the 3G capabilities of the $300 model, but it wasn’t implied that a 3G connection would be required. More powerful than most phones and sporting a large, bright touchscreen and dual cameras, the Vita should be able to handle these services perfectly well. There was no demonstration and no screenshots, though, so the UI is still a mystery. It’s also unclear whether it will integrate with the Vita’s . Sony has a system-wide voice chat and friends list, and Twitter is already integrated to some extent, but these new services may also reach into games. Becoming the mayor of an in-game location could become a new source of points for check-in addicts. In addition to these announcements, it was confirmed that all Vita games will be downloadable. It’s reassuring in a way, but it seems likely that users are going to run out of space, considering these are true AAA games, likely clocking in at a few gigs each — and solid-state storage fast enough to load assets isn’t cheap. But an unconditional promise of downloadability is a smart one to make, it’s very “next-gen.” The Vita will be hitting the US market , though it may be possible to import one from Japan for the holidays — if you’re filthy rich. |
The Problem With Partners: Fake VisualHub Update Aims To Make Bank On Unsupported Software | John Biggs | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Tyler Loch is the creator of VisualHub, one of the best (and funniest) video converters for OS X. He shut down development a few years ago and left the app to linger completely, forcing folks to scour the Internet for copies. A few OS X versions came and went and the program still worked but a Lion killed the app for users fairly completely. I’m a former VisualHub customer and must have bought it through Tyler’s reseller, Kagi, when it was still available. Today I received an email informing me that I could update VisualHub to work with Lion for a mere $5. Excited that the app was supported again, I soon discovered that of this update and that Kagi had essentially spammed the VisualHub list in order to wring a little more cash out of the product. Here’s Tyler’s side of the story: We used Kagi as our official reseller for all Techspansion sales. We had a good working relationship for the years Techspansion was active. Although VisualHub had not been offered for sale in years I thought it would be a nice gesture to fix some issues that caused it to fail on Mac OS X Lion.
I quietly released some replacement components for free on techspansion.com a month ago for people who still used VisualHub and AudialHub. Last night, a former customer e-mailed me very confused. He had received an e-mail from Kagi about a Lion updater for VisualHub. For $4.99.
Then my father-in-law calls, asking if I’m going back in business, and just forgotten to mention it to him… More and more friends, family and former customers began to contact my wife and I last night, wondering what’s going on.
We began to realize that our entire customer base (or close to it) had been contacted with an advertisement for the $5 “vHub Updater”, something I’ve never been involved with, which touts our software’s name and company name — front and center. Though FFmpeg and the inner workings of my programs are open-source (FilmRedux, ReduxZero, etc), VisualHub as it exists in the world, is not. I gave no permission and had no prior knowledge of Kagi hosting, redistributing, and indirectly selling the components I wrote in their product. And I definitely did not (and would never) use the contact info of my company’s customers to solicit business like this. So, here’s the gist of it:
A former trusted business partner appropriates my copyrighted code…
…Packages it up and makes it available through an updater…
…Offers it up for sale…
…And mass-mails my customers about it. Honestly, I’m quite disappointed with this entire situation.
I’m in contact with Kagi to see how we can resolve this. First, you can get the for free and second this is probably the most egregious example blackmailware I’ve seen in a long while. vHub Update is, in short, a simple installer built around Tyler’s fix. In a note to , Kagi’s CEO Kee Nethery blamed Tyler for “walking away from the business” and said his customers were confused by his onerous update requirements. Writes : In the case of VisualHub, since developer Tyler Loch has stopped distributing his app, Kagi pointed users to Loch’s patch instructions on the Techspansion site. Despite the fact that the effort to patch the app is minimal, the process of showing the app package contents and replacing three script files was apparently beyond the “comfort level” of many users contacting Kagi for help. There is also some doubt that the app is a Kagi product. A quick look-up shows that the updater’s “website” (vhub.biz) is assigned to . We can clearly presume that Kagi would be happy to repackage and sell almost anything at this point, including OS X updates. It’s an open market, folks, and, if you’re Kagi, you know that there’s a sucker born every minute. |
Battery Ventures And NEA Back Social TV App Umami | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | More cash is flowing in for social TV apps. Stealthy company has raised $1.65 million in seed funding from Battery Ventures, NEA and other angels for the companion, social TV platform. While details about Umami are limited, we know the startup’s free iPad app is currently in closed beta with TV networks and is set to launch with the Fall 2011 television season. Similar to apps like Miso and GetGlue, Umami provides TV viewers with a second screen experience to television content. Umami adds additional contextual content around the programs viewers are watching, and also offers a platform for networks to engage with consumers. Umami was founded by Rovi’s former VP of Advanced Advertising Scott Rosenberg and Bryan Slavin, who has held technology and product roles at Lightningcast (acquired by AOL), Leap Wireless, and Broadsoft. At Lightningcast, he helped launch broadband video advertising products and solutions with TV networks and built the the startup’s online video ad network. The startup faces competition from GetGlue, Miso, TV Tune-In and others. |
null | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 8 | 29 | null |
Foursquare Adds Inline Photos And Even More Polish To Their iPhone App | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Back in the day, the knock on the iPhone app used to be that it wasn’t very visually appealing. That was especially true in comparison to rival . But much has changed over the past several months. And now that Foursquare has and a larger team to deal with the pains of fast growth, they’ve been putting a lot of emphasis into how things look and feel. And it’s paying off. Today brings an update to the iPhone app which is brings a new coat of polish. Most notably, you’ll see that pictures are now displayed inline when you’re viewing your check-in activity stream. This matches the functionality that was recently added to the Foursquare website. It not only ups the visual appeal, it makes the service feel more alive and personal. This new, more visual experience permeates the entire app. If you land on a venue page and click through to see who is there, if any of your friends are, you’ll see their photos and shouts from that place inline as well. With the update, Foursquare is also touting overall design tweaks including a cleaned-up header. One thing that will please many users is the addition of bigger tap targets within the app. Previously, you had to focus to click on the tiny comment bubbles to leave a comment. Now you can click on the entire check-in itself to do that. One thing not yet included in this update: Lists. The new feature that Foursquare to their website is still a work in progress on the mobile end. But it’s coming in the next version, they promise. Also, all of these new features are due in the Android and BlackBerry apps shortly. The iPhone app should be live shortly. When it is, find it . [slideshow] |
TechCrunch Giveaway: Three Free New Relic Pro Accounts #NewRelic | Elin Blesener | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | What do Groupon, Zynga, Airbnb, Crunchbase and LinkedIn have in common? They know site performance is critical to their success, so they use app monitoring to make sure their apps are quick and fast. Every second on the web counts and New Relic has been on a tear since raising $10 million in October from Benchmark, Allen & Co., and Trinity Ventures. They now measure over 20 billion metrics each day and have a goal of being ubiquitous – like the Google Analytics of web performance. New Relic recently agreed to be a Partner Sponsor of our September conference (where all Hackathon participants will get a free standard account) and we convinced them to give away three free pro accounts today to our readers. To enter for a chance to win one of these accounts, all you have to do is the following: 1) Follow both and on Twitter
2) Tweet your app’s URL, making sure to include the #NewRelic hashtag
3) Leave a comment below explaining your app and why you deserve to get one of the free accounts You can also sign up for a free . We’ll randomly choose three folks to get free New Relic services for the next year. One of these accounts is valued at around $1,800. New Relic tells us it takes less than 2 minutes to setup their app on servers, and works with PHP, Java, Ruby, Python and .Net apps. You have until 7:30pm PT tomorrow to enter. Good luck! The giveaway is over. We will update this post once we have our winners. Congratulations to Julian Paas, Vikram Goyal, and Matt Jurek! |
SEC Watch: Cloud Storage Startup Box.net Raises $18.6 Million More | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Box.net has raised $18.6 million out of a $35 million round according to an We’ve confirmed this with the company. This brings Box’s total funding to $96 million. Box, which has 6 million users and stores 300 million documents, is a cloud storage platform for the enterprise that comes with collaboration, social and mobile functionality. Box has into more than just a fils storage platform, and has become a full-fledged collaborative application where businesses can actually communicate about document updates, , and even add features from Salesforce, Google Apps, NetSuite, Yammer and others. Box just raised from Andreessen Horowitz and others earlier this year, but the company’s CEO and co-founder tells us that because of the strong venture market, the company’s strong performance, and the growth in the cloud, a new ‘expansion’ round made sense. He says this is a follow-on round to the D raise earlier this year, and it will involve current investors and new ones as well. The round hasn’t been fully closed yet, and could change, says Levie. Listed in the filing are current investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson, U.S. Venture Partners, and Scale Venture Partners. |
German Court Suspends Galaxy Tab Injunction In The Apple-Samsung Case | Jordan Crook | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Hope you’ve got some popcorn and a German law book at the ready because this between Apple and Samsung only gets better and better. Today, the banning Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the EU has been partially lifted. Now before you jump to the same conclusions I did, let me say that this suspension has nothing to do with the within Apple’s complaint. At least, that’s not the reason the Dusseldorf regional court gave for the lift. Instead, a court spokesman said that questions arose over whether or not a German court has the right to ban a company based in South Korea from selling its product throughout the European Union, . The injunction suspension is only in effect until , during which Samsung will present its argument to reverse the original ruling. Unfortunately, things won’t change much for German customers — the ban is still underway within Germany. The rest of Europe will be able to grab a GalTab as long as it comes through the Korean parent company, but Samsung’s German unit will still be banned from selling the device throughout the EU. According to , patent infringement cases must be handled by each individual European nation, whereas there are intellectual property rights and trademarks that can be issued by an agency of the European Union. Those IP rights can then be enforced across the entirety of the EU, as is the case with Apple. Apple’s original complaint was based on its own intellectual property right, Community Design 003781832, which you can find after the break. The German court system tends to lean more on the side of the right holder than the alleged infringer, so Apple already knew it had a pretty good chance of winning the injunction. Because its complaint was based on an IP right granted by an EU agency (rather than a patent issued by a national patent office), Apple also knew that the injunction would reach beyond Germany to the whole of the EU. In fact, the company only excluded the Netherlands because it has an even broader case to present there in mid-September. [scribd id=61944044 key=key-qixjrfwxn2xvyvlc2eq mode=list] |
DIY Device Mutes Your TV When Someone You Don’t Like Is Mentioned | John Biggs | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | Matt Richardson created a wild system that mutes a TV whenever a name or other keyword is broadcast on TV. It uses the closed caption track and an IR blaster to grab what’s currently playing and then mute the TV for 30 seconds – or more – depending on the current topic. The project uses the , , and some basic code to scan the captions for keywords. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SzB5OQUcOU] The best thing is that the product actually works quite well, muting the TV as soon as Kim Kardashian is mentioned, even in passing. It may make for an excellent election-year project for folks who may or may not be sick of certain politicians. |
Quixey Raises $3.8 Million For A Functional Search Engine For Apps | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 8 | 28 | , the Palo Alto-based startup that’s building a functional search engine for apps, today announced that it has closed a $3.8 million series A funding round. The investment was led by and , with participation from alongside follow-on investment by Eric Schmidt’s . The series A round from Innovation Endeavors, bringing total investment to $4.2 million. We’ve all heard (and perhaps even mocked) the quip “there’s an app for that”. It’s actually a wonderful quality of the mobile revolution: There really is an app for just about everything you can think of, from calling a taxi to managing your schedule to scanning for skin cancer or heart murmors. But, it’s also overwhelming, and searching for the app that you want isn’t easy. There’s a lot of noise, and a lot of imperfect approaches to app search. Quixey entered the game with the intention to build a new type of search, molded specifically to the unique characteristics of searching for those ubiquitous but sometimes elusive apps. Their solution, coined “functional search”, which not only scans the major app stores, but crawls blogs, review sites, forums, and social media sites to build a truly comprehensive picture of what an app can do — through reviews, word of mouth, and demos. Quixey’s search engine lets the user type in queries like “baseball scores”, and get a list of applications that provide just that (which they can then can filter by platform). And the best part is that the search engine suppors Windows and Mac apps, iGoogle, extensions, and more. It’s not just iOS and Android. Though Quixey would seem to be competing with the likes of and others, the startup also has the added value proposition of being able to power search for other app stores, search engines, and websites — just like Google — to help disseminate its search engine on third party sites across the Web. Not so surprising, then, that Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors is investing in a great app search tool. Bringing in outside info and data from blogs, review sites, and beyond, really adds an extra layer of depth to app search (especially in being platform agnostic), just as powering search across websites gives Quixey the opportunity to scale and become mixed in with the very sites it crawls. The startup will be using its new investment to continue securing partnerships with app stores and other big third party app resources, and according to the Quixey team, there are more than 25 potential partnerships in the pipeline. The more partners, the more effective the search engine becomes. It’s an interesting new approach, this “functional search”, and from my experience thus far, works as advertised. Chime in to let us know what you think. . |
Being Right | Steve Gillmor | 2,011 | 8 | 28 | One of Steve Jobs’ most devastating talents is in knowing when he is right. By he I mean he and his team of talented designers, engineers, supply chain wranglers, and technologists. Standing pat when the alternative is worse is a difficult move to make, but one Apple under Jobs has made a trademark. Take the iPhone 4 and its famous dropped calls crisis. Jobs responded by delivering a software patch, comparing the problem to other competitor’s offerings, providing a free case to those who’d already bought the phone, and making a deal with Verizon to fix the real problem: AT&T. You could see the resolve in the strategy. This is what we’ve discovered, this is what we will do, we bet you’ll stick with us. He was right. Same tune with the record companies. Did they want to continue to hemorrhage revenue and destroy the rationale for building support for emerging talent? Or did they want to accept a strategy that would give them some help in transitioning to a digital future at the cost of a powerful partner that sometimes seemed like a gatekeeper. Underlying the calculation was the realization that no one else in the technology business stood a chance of routing around the cartel and going direct to the audience. Over the years since he returned to Apple, and even before with the NeXT machine, Jobs laid down markers from which he would not retreat. Floppy disks were an easy call, as audio and video files overwhelmed the format. CDs were next, followed quickly by DVDs, as TV and film media blew out the physical storage model. But as with WiFi on the iPhone, the introduction of networked storage as the default medium drove the buildout of those technologies. It took some heavy lifting to get AT&T to let WiFi into the base platform. The carrier correctly concluded that it would put pressure on its cash cow SMS, and exacted limits on 3G bandwidth usage for downloading music, video, and apps in return. Even so, email and web surfing blew through expectations, forcing the company to build out its network as fast as it could. Antennagate was in reality more about the transformation of the phone to a mobile computer. Once Android phones showed the same usage patterns, Jobs kept the pressure on with the iPad, rebooting the PC as a network-centric device sans DVD drive and even an addressable hard drive for all intents and purposes. Again the exclusion of Flash was a stubborn event at first, but soon it became clear that Apple was redefining the laptop OS around a new platform, the app, which wrappered around the browser and not the other way around. By excluding plug-ins and at the same time opening HTML 5 as the downlevel dev environment, Jobs took advantage of the Android competition to raise the bandwidth stakes yet again. Much is made of the AppStore requirements for taking 30% of subscriptions, but By preserving the HTML 5 alternative Jobs in effect markets the app model by comparison. iCloud weakens the Android open argument by untethering downloading from the desktop machine, while simultaneously destabilizing the whole concept of desktop and eventually laptops as well. Floppy, disk, 3G, OS, file system, records, downloading — each lynchpin is deprecated in favor of a cloud-hosted advanced rich client platform. Most impressively, Jobs stuck to a premium pricing model until the rest of the market was forced to overtake and lose to Apple’s clout with volume suppliers. Recent events have underlined the strength of the innovate, release, stand pat model. HP’s surrender on hardware is as much about cloud computing as it is about the iPad, but Google’s Motorola acquisition is a clear signal that audiences will not abandon apps. The collapse of the television networks was already underway as the studios sought to avoid the record companies’ fate, but the iPad sent it over the edge. This week alone, you could watch the Libya coverage over Al Jazeera, CNN via authentication to one of the satellite or cable services, and the rest over Slingbox — all on the iPad and iPhone. Spotify delivers the music business, HBO Go its premium content, and the rest over Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Slingbox. AirPlay even pushes it back up to the big screen, putting pressure on Sony and the other TV manufactures to align with Apple or risk missing the last stage out of Dodge. Underpinning all of these pivots is the separation of technology from strategy. Google has shown it can produce fantastic synergies with the accumulation and application of big data. But what it has so far shown no aptitude for is aligning the creative industries with the network effects of realtime. Google TV remains a question mark because it’s clear the networks will have none of it. By contrast, Apple TV continues to build a head of steam because it disappears into the woodwork of the content and workflow strategy of the iOS platform. More than anything, Apple TV is a WiFi hub for iCloud. You don’t need to be convinced about Apple TV because you already have it. Jobs is in the middle of the TV takedown, not at the beginning. Today I have to make a conscious decision about switching from HDMI 2 to 3 to get into the Apple TV world. But if the news networks flip to the iPad, if Slingbox turns cable into an iPad switcher, if AirPlay works across all those apps, if iOS 5 delivers push notification routing, oh wait a minute, it really is Apple TV. Jobs was right, all along. |
OMG/JK: Hey, Remember When August Was A Slow Month? | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 28 | It’s been a couple of weeks since our last show — and those weeks have been packed with news. Google announced that it’s in the process of acquiring Motorola, which will have major implications for the future of Android. Facebook made some changes to its Places product and privacy settings. And, in sad news, Steve Jobs announced that he’s stepping down as CEO of Apple. Don’t worry, the episode isn’t long — it clocks in around half an hour, and we think it’s a good one. Here are some stories relevant to this week’s episode: |
Spotify Hires An Ex-Zynga, Ex-Google Exec For Biz Dev | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | Streaming music service is amping up its hiring efforts in the US, wanting to hire another 100 employees according to a source. The total team is currently around 380 people. One month after its US launch, Spotify has hired Zynga executive as “Chief Acquisition & [Ad Business] Retention Officer.” From what I’m hearing Farman-Farmain will be in a business development-type role, scaling the streaming music product through partnerships as well as running business and support operations. According to the same source he will be reporting directly to Spotify CEO . Prior to Spotify, Farman-Farmaian was General Manager of Strategic Partnerships at Zynga, where he led some of the gaming company’s early relationship work with Facebook. [Note: If anyone knows about scale it’s someone from Zynga.] Before Zynga, Farman-Farmain was at Google, where he directed sales for Latin America and Asia Pacific. On the day of US-launch, Spotify stating that it had 10 million registered users and 1.6 million paying subscribers in Europe, boasting a ratio of over 15% subscribers to active users. Peter Kafka g that as of August 8th, Spotify had 1.4 million registered US users, with 175K paying (a 12.5% ratio). According to one source, the actual total Spotify registered user numbers are over 15 million (“closer to 20 million”) and Kafka’s 1.4 million number is “slightly” low but the 175K paying number is right, which would make the US ratio of paying to non-paying users even lower than 12.5%. The company also recently hired San Francisco tech scene fixture (from ) as a developer evangelist of some sort working out of its NY office. Now if only it would build a feature that would let you reply to songs that people send to your inbox. http://twitter.com/#!/hunterwalk/status/102924012975423488 http://twitter.com/#!/teymourff/status/103071343460876289 |
Bookmarklet Reveals The People You’re Most Active With On Facebook | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | Developer and contributor Jeremy Keeshin has the scariest thing I’ve seen all day (I live in San Francisco, okay). In searching for ways to make his search auto-complete superfast, like Facebook’s, Keesh came across a file titled first_degree.php, which revealed that Facebook has a ranking for the people who you’re probably searching for on Facebook. Keeshin guesses that the ranking algorithm is likely based on stuff like whose profile you look at, who you chat with and who’ve you’ve recently friended. Yeah, I’ve tried it out and yeah it works (Names boxed out to protect the innocent, above). And while it doesn’t seem to be malicious, in general it’s not smart to run this kind of stuff on your Facebook profile — See the comments if you want further elaboration on why from Facebook engineer The bookmarklet, which you can add to your bookmarks bar , allows you to see a list of people you’ve been most active with basked on rank — Basically the more negative the number associated with a user the more you have the Facebook hots for the person. Adams to the HackerNews thread on the topic, “To clarify what a lot of people seem to be wondering, visiting someone’s profile does not affect the search results of anyone but yourself.” Nice try Adams, but I don’t think that hits on our exact fear. This has the potential to be used for something way more embarrassing than better search results; I mean imagine if knew how much I looked at his profile. Using the extension also throws you into the weirdest of dichotomies; You want to be able look at people’s profiles anonymously, but at the same time want to know if they’ve been looking at yours. You can’t help but wonder if your top person also looks at you that much. In Facebook we trust. |
Accel Leads $10.5M Round In Cosmetics Discovery Platform Birchbox | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | a startup that serves as a makeup discovery retail platform, has raised $10.5 million in Series A round of funding, led by Accel Partners with First Round Capital, Harrison Metal, Forerunner Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Sam Lessin, Consigliere, Gary Vaynerchuck, Dave Morin, Stanford University Endowment and Andy Dunn participating in the round. Similar to , and ; Birchbox has adopted a subscription, box of the month model where members receive curated makeup and beauty products. Each month, users receive at least four premium samples of cosmetics, shipped to their homes from over 80 high end beauty retailers like Kiehl’s, Laura Mercier, Smashbox, Nars and Cargo. The website supplements these monthly packages by providing pertinent tips and tutorials on its website for the featured samples. If a user wants to purchase the full-size version, they can buy it on Birchbox, which will earn them points for future discounts (inviting new members will also help you rack up points). The idea is help consumers discover new brands and products at an affordable price, while also driving sales. One of the unique aspects of Birchbox is that it offers a personalized suite of products each month that are customized to users’ preferences and profiles. Each users fills out a beauty survey, and creates a profile, which is then used to curate picks for each individual customer. Birchbox, which was founded by Harvard Business School grads Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, nearly a year ago and already has a subscriber base of 45,000 customers as of June (all of whom are paying up to $10 per month for a box or $110 for a year). And subscribers are up 50 percent month-over-month for the past eleven months. Accel partner Theresia Gouw Ranzetta says of the startup, “The team has forged partnerships with some of the world’s leading cosmetic brands to give consumers a fun, monthly beauty sampling experience. We believe Birchbox has many opportunities for continued growth, and we look forward to aiding their success.” Beauchamp tells us that the site aims to be a mix of both niche and more well-known products. In the end, she explains that Birchbox is trying to make the cosmetics shopping process easier for women and help brands get products in the hands of consumers. Beauchamp says the new funding will be used for further product development and for hiring. And the company is considering expanding to other verticals. While many retailers seemed to have jumped on the ‘box of the month’ bandwagon, the cosmetics industry is especially suited for the sampling experience. And Birchbox was one of the early adopters of the box of the month model. Many women (including myself) want to try beauty products (regardless of the price), whether it be makeup, shampoo, lotions, or face cream; first before investing in them. Birchbox not only accomplishes this, but also helps women discover new products and adds an editorial element. |
The Land Rush: Why Google Won’t Bless Motorola As Its Favorite Android | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | The basics: Google is buying Motorola, pending government approval. Everyone and their editor-at-large has written about it. Now I’ll take my shot at the soapbox. I don’t know why Google acquired Motorola as opposed to simply licensing its trove of patents. My hunch is that it had more to do with fending off a from Microsoft than it had to do with Google’s hitherto unforeseen hardware ambitions. But while I don’t know the , I have some guesses as to what’s next. And I think that one of the prevailing theories — that Google is going to turn Motorola into its chosen , blessed with the latest and greatest releases before its competitors as it attempts to — is completely wrong. Google CEO Larry Page, they say, has been inspired by Steve Jobs. He wants to completely own the Android experience, controlling both the hardware and the software from the ground up. Apple has reaped huge benefits with this strategy, and Google wants in on the action. From where I’m sitting, the aforementioned scenario doesn’t make a lick of sense. The way I see it, Android — and the smartphone industry in general — is still very much in a land grab mode. There are billions of people who are going to buy smartphones in the next five to ten years. . Take every Android phone sold thus far, then multiply it by a factor of 10. Or 30. These phones will combine computing power and affordability in a way that has never been seen before. An $80 handset is selling in Kenya with no contract. Give it a few years and they’ll be selling for a fraction of that. And that’s just the phones. Google allotted plenty of time at its recent I/O conference to discuss the future of Android — a future that includes Android-powered speakers, hardware accessories, and home appliances. There’ll be Android-powered car consoles, refrigerators, dishwashers, and clock radios. If it has an LCD screen, there isn’t much reason why it can’t be powered by Android. But if Google wants to see this Android-powered future come to fruition, time is of the essence. All of the smartphone platforms have a strong lock-in effect. Those movies and apps you’ve purchased on your iPhone? They’re not going to work on Android or Windows Phone any time soon, and vice versa. Switching between one of these platforms is painful for your wallet, and it’s only going to get worse as your growing library of DRMed content weighs you down. And then there are the hardware ecosystems. Apple TV already runs on iOS; Google TV runs on Android. Xbox has Windows Phone integration. Each of these operating systems is going to get more promiscuous and spread to more devices. The mobile phones of today are hooks, luring you into the comfort of iOS or Android or Windows — and each of these devices is only friendly with other devices in the same ecosystem. The point being, all of the of the customers who get snatched up by iOS, Web OS, or Windows today are going to be much harder for Google to convert down the line. Which is why it needs to get as many of them as it can, right now. Which brings us back to the Motorola deal. HTC, Samsung, and the other OEMs have done an excellent job thus far at creating a diverse ecosystem of Android devices that have given Google’s OS a huge market share remarkably quickly. Yes, a few of the devices stink. But you know what? Most people don’t really care. Or, rather, they don’t know they should care, which is all the same to Google. And even the mediocre Android phones are still a huge leap over the ‘feature phones’ many people are transitioning away from. In short, the system is doing exactly what Google needs it to. Android is spreading like wildfire. If the premature launch of the Xoom proved nothing else, it’s that Google cares far more about getting a solid foothold in the market than it does about the user experience. Which is why it won’t be using Motorola to one-up the existing fleet of Android partners. There’s just no reason to release a suite of superior devices, because Android isn’t struggling. And besides, Google couldn’t pull it off even if they wanted to: being Apple is harder than it looks. But what, you say? Hasn’t Google already proven that it can produce superior phones when it designs both the hardware and the software, as it has with its Nexus line? Except, err, the Nexus phones aren’t that much better than their ‘normal’ counterparts. I’ve used both the Nexus One and the Nexus S extensively. From a hardware perspective, they’re good, but hardly revolutionary. The real reason people think these phones are superior has everything to do with their software. They have ‘vanilla’ Android installed and they receive system updates relatively quickly. Most people couldn’t care less about either of these things. And eventually the other OEMs may be able to make skins that are actually improvements over vanilla Android. Of course, Google could still get ambitious and try to make a completely integrated fleet of Motorola Android devices that blow everything else (including the iPhone) out of the water. But it would only get one shot at it — such a move would infuriate its partners to the point that they would abandon the platform, or at the very least, begin to seek alternatives. I don’t think Google is going to take that chance. Which is why, for the foreseeable future, Google is going to do everything it can to make Samsung, HTC, and other major OEMs happy. They will receive previews of upcoming releases of Android at the same time as Motorola. They will be chosen for Nexus releases when Motorola won’t be. And they will help ensure that Android permeates into every market and cranny it can. So what changes will Google make to Motorola, if any? My guess is that we’ll see it start pushing the boundaries on what can be done with Android. Motorola will start aggressively testing the waters with new form factors and entirely new devices. The hits will be quickly copied by the other OEMs, who will enjoy the benefits of expanding into new markets. And Android will spread even further. Of course, this land rush wouldn’t be possible if OEMs were concerned about Android’s future because of patent issues — and it could take years for these to be resolved. Which is why Google was willing to throw down $12.5 billion to make sure they’re no longer a problem. Finally, I want to address the argument — if you can even call it that — that’s irked me most about recent analysis in Android-land. Namely, the notion that Android needs to start making more money immediately in order to justify this huge investment on Google’s part. Any attempts by Google now to seriously monetize Android would be akin to Facebook doing a major ad push circa 2005. As I said earlier, this is still very much the land grab stage. Once it has billions of users on Android, Google will have plenty of opportunities to monetize them. They’ll know where their users are, who they’re friends with, and where they’re going — and plenty of other information that’s both a little creepy and very valuable. AdWords won’t be the answer here, but I’m guessing Google will be able to turn this information into some lucrative products. But just like Facebook, they can figure out the specifics later. At this point, it’s more important that they figure out how to boost their user base by an order of magnitude — before they miss their chance. |
Apple, It’s Time To Block iOS 5 Beta Users From Reviewing Apps | Greg Kumparak | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | “ ” — A developer who asked to not be named. Last night, our sister site (it’s still sort of weird to write that) wrote a PSA of sorts. The message was simple: if you’re not a developer, but you’ve ignored the warning signs and finagled your way into the pre-release iOS 5 betas, you need to stop. Why? Because people are crushing developers with horribly unfair reviews, sinking their oh-so-important ratings because of bugs they couldn’t possibly have prepared for. The overall message was fair enough, but their proposed solution — telling non-developers to stop downloading iOS 5 — could never work. But there is a solution (a rather simple one, in fact) that would: just don’t let people running iOS betas review things. You see, telling people not to download the iOS 5 beta is like putting the world’s tastiest cookies in a jar labeled “FOR AWESOME PEOPLE ONLY”, then telling a kid they can’t have one unless that they are, in fact, an awesome person. would put on their awesome shirt and their awesome hat, then walk on over to that cookie jar with hand extended. And why not? No one’s really checking just how awesome the self-proclaimed awesome people are — plus, the definition of “awesome” (read: the definition of “developer”) is somewhat loose. It’s just the way it works: we are, as a population, rather self-entitled. If something new is made available to one small group and others outside of that group are made aware of it, they’re going to try to find a way to get it (in this case, that usually means buying a developer seat from someone selling their extra spots for profit.) Apple could theoretically kill off this grey market entirely by opening iOS Beta access to anyone willing to jump through some hoops and void some rights — but that’s a post for another day. It seems there are at least two ways to fix this, one a bit easier than the other: They’d have to account for applications that were installed from sync’d backups — but that, while not trivial, seems feasible. Apple already detects installed apps for other reasons (for example, changing the “download” button to be grayed out and read “Installed”) This route is a bit clunkier — but it’s also a bit simpler to implement and easier on Apples servers, as it doesn’t require an additional database call for each and every user for each and every app. This is also somewhat less complicated from a privacy standpoint, as there’s less communication back to the mothership. Sound harsh? It is, perhaps. But it comes with the territory: pre-release Betas are meant for day-to-day use (even for developers, Apple recommends only putting Betas on devices dedicated to testing.) If you’re a non-developer and you want to tinker, hell, I wouldn’t try to stop you: you’d just have to hold your rants until it’s reasonable to do otherwise. There would probably be some maligned outcries that Apple is somehow blocking freedom of speech — which, of course, doesn’t really apply here. These Beta-hungry reviewers are hopping on their soap boxes without any understanding of things aren’t working, and are maliciously affecting the livelihoods of developers — many of whom, like most of us, are just some dudes looking to ditch the cubicle and do something cool for a living. |
Google Launches A Music Blog To Remind People That Google Music Beta Still Exists | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | , remember it? It’s the online music locker service that Google unveiled at I/O in May. But the keyword in the title very much remains “Beta” — as in, not in any way ready for prime time. Okay, maybe that’s a bit unfair, the service does work — it just doesn’t offer much. A new feature today hopes to keep people interested while they work on making it better. is a new music discovery site that Google has today as a compliment to Music Beta. But let’s be clear, this is a blog (it even runs on Google’s Blogger platform). Each day, the blog will be updated with a “song of the day” that can be added to your Music Beta account with one click. That’s great, you can’t knock free music. But Magnifier still doesn’t address one of Music Beta’s core incompetencies: there is no way to purchase music. In order to get music into Music Beta, you have to upload your own MP3s. Now Magnifier offers a second way, but again, it’s only for a few songs that Google has acquired the rights to give away for free. Presumably, they’re still negotiating with the labels and rights holders to be able to incorporate either a music store or a streaming service into the Music product, but that’s clearly not ready to go yet. And until it is ready to go, Music Beta won’t be close to resembling an “iTunes killer” or even an Amazon MP3 competitor. Both of those service offer easy ways to browse and buy new music. Meanwhile, other service like Pandora, Rdio, MOG, and the just-launched-in-the-U.S. Spotify attack from the other end with music streaming. Google says that Magnifier is a way to “reignite your passion for music”, but it seems more about reminding people that Music Beta exists. Those deals can’t come soon enough for the service. |
The Seven Most Interesting Startups At The Second 500 Startups Demo Day | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | It’s that time again! With Dave McClure’s , sometimes hanging out at its headquarters in Mountain View leaves one a little inundated with promising startups. Especially since motherhen McClure insists that he loves all his little monsters the same. While each of the 30 startups that presented yesterday at Demo Day is clearly a unique little snowflake, I culled seven of the most interesting (read, that doesn’t mean “will actually be successful”) and interviewed them just like . Key highlights: Learn how the Storytree dudes convinced a retiree to perform in their sappy demo video, watch the heated brogramming vs. proglamming debate between gender-focused startups and and listen to “Startup Jesus” gospel on scaling. Companies that I’m still interested in despite not interviewing here: (who doesn’t need a service that highlights where your company is vulnerable to hacks?), (what blogger doesn’t need free and fast online editing?) and (like a Birchbox for coffee). Here they are in no particular order. And you can watch everyone’s The most “real life” facing startup of the cohort, Culture Kitchen tries to hook up ethnic cooks with people who want to learn ethnic cooking in their homes. Co-founder by Stanford d.school students Abby Sturges and Jennifer Lopez, the startup already has partnerships with Whole Foods and seven traditional cuisines represented. A or events tickets, WillCall lets people pick up same day tickets for at around 50% (Hotel Tonight CEO Sam Shank is an investor.). Bro-founder Donnie Dinch very notably used Billy Elliot as an example of an event he’d like to go to during his demo, and I’ll never forget that slide with the text “Billy Elliott, bitches.” #Googlebait & Snapette and Manpacks are double interviewed here because their products were so complementary. Manpacks focuses on simplifying the shopping experience for guys, buy automating purchases for man staples like underwear, socks and condoms. Snapette, the “Foodspotting for fashion” does exactly the opposite, giving women even more choices by giving them the option to scan for high end goods available around them. I personally think the two should merge, or at least offer discounts for couples. Touted by founder Ray Chan as “YouTube meets Karaoke” Singboard is interesting not so much from a product level as for the fact that the team also runs the incredibly successful image forum and . From Hong Kong, the team got an introduction to 500 Startups by “quoting” one of the 500 Startups mentors. Storytree is an online memoir for families (and groups) with just about the most ever. And as it turns out that the whole “guy dies at the end” part is fake! Co-founders Matt Sullivan and Zach Weiner convinced a local nursing home resident to take part in the video, as part of an improv class that incorporated Storytree. Console.fm is no-fuss a web app that streams electronic music. Garnering crazy buzz and some loyal fans (like the three people sent this to me before Demo Fay) the app grabs charting data for songs across the Internet and determines what songs should be included for each genre. The trio was working on a developer recruiting tool called Hello World before this and pivoted to Console.fm because they found other music discovery services like Turntable.fm too distracting. LaunchRock is a startup that helps other startups um, launch. Having just signed up a million people for its network of startups, one isn’t exactly sure if this is a sign of a bubble or a stroke of genius. In any case, founder Jameson “Startup Jesus” Detweiler is interesting. Also: Surprisingly not from LA. |
GM Announces The Next Volt, The Cadillac ELR | Matt Burns | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | GM makes money from platforms, not just cars. With that thought, Cadillac just announced the ELR Coupe, a sleek sportster built on the Voltec platform that also powers the . The dual-powertrain Caddy has been rumored ever since a concept (pictured here) was shown off at the 2009 North American International Auto Show. Well, friends, it’s on. The ELR will use the same version of the Voltec that powers the Volt including the same four-cylinder 1.4L generator. This makes the ELR sound nothing more than a reskinned Volt instead of the tuned electric roadster worth of that sexy sheet metal. Nothing says American sports coupe like a 0-to-60 time in eight and half seconds. Cadillac has yet to announce any real details about the upcoming coupe. “Development of the ELR is just underway, so details on performance, price and timing will be announced later,” says . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ67EgRIXFw The extended coupe design actually makes a lot of sense for the Volt’s 2+2 configuration. The rear seats are not all that usable anyway. This modified design likely allows it to slip through the air with even less resistance. The photos shown here are of the 2009 Converj concept. The brand is pretty loyal to its sharp lines and massive grill design so the production version will probably follow the same styling cues if not be exactly the same thing. The Chevy Volt hasn’t exactly been a huge hit for GM. The auto maker reportedly sold just 125 last month and less than 3,000 so far this year. The model will soon be available nationwide, which might help move a few more off dealer lots. This Cadillac model will be the second production car, outside of the Volt’s European and Australian cousins, to utilize the series and hybrid powertrain. Since it wears the crest and wreath logo, it might even have a well-appointed cabin rather than the plastic toy that is the Chevy Volt.
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The Federal Government Wants You! (And Your App Ideas) | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | The U.S. government is no stranger the to app game: they’ve developed over for everyday use, ranging from apps that find local alternative fueling stations to ones that can identify leaves you’ve photographed. The federal app arsenal runs the gamut for sure, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. The USA.gov blog has announced that until September 15, regular citizens like you and I can . This gesture of openness is now taking submissions on , and a few people have already thrown their hats into the ring. My favorite so far? LarryM from Baltimore has a good one: “Collect and publish the latitude and longitude coordinates of all government office that are open to the general public (e.g., Social Security District Offices) so that mapping programs such as Bing/Google maps can display locations accurately.” Personally, I’d like to see an app that uses a device’s location services to figure out what state and district it’s in, and display recent activity from the pertinent Congressman. Nothing like some local accountability in the palm of your hand, right? Since Google Moderator is being used to manage all these submissions, users are essentially able to upvote good suggestions, so the inevitable vague or trollish submissions won’t make it too far. There’s already a questionable suggestion or two (including one that isn’t a suggestion at all) in the mix, which understandably haven’t garned much love. The USA.gov blog doesn’t say that the most popular suggestions will definitely make it into the development stage, but if the “winning” choices are technically feasible and novel enough, it should stand a decent chance of becoming a reality. If the chance to have the government bring your app idea to life has you chomping at the bit, then — I’d love to see what a thoughtful audience like ours can come up with. |
Chatterfly Launches Mobile Digital Loyalty App | Sarah Perez | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | Digital loyalty startup today launched its new rewards program for businesses and consumers in the form of a for iPhone and Android. Like similar startups, including the now , Chatterfly aims to replace the paper loyalty card with a more modern, digital version. But Chatterfly isn’t only focused on making businesses’ punchcards mobile. It’s a complete loyalty system that offers business owners the opportunity to engage their customers in other ways, including through social media sites, via QR codes, in-store promotions and more. As with any traditional loyalty program, businesses on can reward customers for making purchases in the store, but they can also reward them for sharing their experiences on social sties like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Google+. With Chatterfly, customers earn points, which is a different model than the typical “buy 10 get 1 free” model that’s popular today. These points can either be redeemed at the local business or for Chatterfly’s own rewards – the choice is up to the consumer. And because it works as a mobile application, Chatterfly can take advantage of the smartphone’s camera to scan special QR codes tied to promotions. For example, the company suggests that a store could host an in-store scavenger hunt to entice new customers to drop by. Or, if the business wanted to do something simpler, it could just offer points to those who scan a QR code in the shop. On its own, the idea of rewarding loyalty customers is a good one, but the app itself needs quite a bit of polish, we think. Black-and-white pictures? Uneven layout? Yikes. Of course, there’s still the challenge of convincing business owners to actually use the service, too. But Chatterfly is a little bit ahead there. Prior to launching, the company ran beta tests in the San Francisco Bay area with over 100 businesses, and said it received many positive responses. The company itself is based in San Mateo, where it was founded in June 2010 by Charles Michael Yim, formerly in business development at Fortify Software. It is privately funded. Chatterfly says the iPhone and Android versions of the app are available now and more platforms are coming soon. |
null | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 8 | 16 | null |
Red Hat CEO At LinuxCon: I Have No Idea What’s Next | Scott Merrill | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, just delivered a terrific opening keynote presentation for LinuxCon. Whitehurst isn’t just a businessman, he’s also a geek. He used Linux and open source before joining Red Hat, and the opportunity to be CEO of the world’s most successful open source company was a dream come true for him. After a quick summary of some of the major milestones Linux has seen over the last twenty years, he jumped into the heart of his keynote: what’s next? Whitehurst wasted no time in answering this question: “I have no idea.” This is a somewhat uncommon response from a CEO, but it makes perfect sense for anyone even moderately familiar with Linux. Linux has seen so much growth in so many markets that it is almost a foolish exercise to try to make predictions about what’s next for Linux. (Indeed, the Linux Foundation’s Jim Zemlin has been saying “This is the year of the Linux desktop” for the last four years!) Nevertheless, he had some thoughts about what the OS and ecosystem might soon be enabling. Here’s a quick summary of some of the more salient points from Whitehurst’s presentation: Linux is a transformational technology. “The technology of Linux empowers advancements and innovations that have nothing to do with the technology of Linux.” That is to say, Linux supports the development of new , as well as new technologies. The freedom to use Linux for any purpose, for free, has spawned many of the things we now take for granted: Amazon, Facebook, Google. Could any of these have succeeded to the extent that they have if they were required to purchase expensive proprietary software before they rolled out their products? Moreover, Linux allows rapid and low-cost prototyping, making it easier to innovate and evaluate what works and what doesn’t. According to Whitehurst, “when you’re looking for innovation, you’re looking for what’s happening in open source.” Linux has gone from catching up to commoditizing existing innovation in flexible, open ways, and now is moving on to leading innovation. The leading innovations today are happening in open source first and then big companies are working to productize that innovation for themselves. Hadoop, Cassandra, etc. are all examples of open source innovations that are now being warmly embraced by big companies. Another leading example of this sort of innovation is everyone’s favorite term, ‘The Cloud’. Why is it that there is no single, solid definition of the cloud? It’s because no single company or vendor pitched it, so they didn’t get to contextualize it. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and other big, complex technologies didn’t have a small group of drivers. Rather, they emerged from a larger collection of technical experts working together. The open source development model used by Linux has seen some remarkable, and in some cases ironic, collaboration. The US Navy, for example, was in need of a real-time kernel with deterministic performance characteristics in order to develop anti-missile technologies for their fleet. Linux didn’t have such a kernel, so the Navy contributed it. This directly benefited Wall Street, where now 80% of all stock exchanges rely on Linux and the real-time kernel for trading. The National Security Agency wrote the Security Enhanced Linux extensions which are now a fundamental part of Red Hat and a few other distributions. The work the NSA did made it so secure that Linux is now the most secure operating system certified by the Russian government. The open source ethos runs deep. Whitehurst shared a recent conversation he had with Facebook’s CTO, in which he asked “Why do you guys release so much of your infrastructure work for free, when you know your competitors are going to use it, too?” The answer: it’s a moral issue. They feel that that have a responsibility to make the world a better place for everyone — contributors and competitors alike. If they can make someone else’s data center more efficient, or more reliable, then it’s incumbent upon them to do so. Whitehurst wrapped up with the observation that the principles of mass collaboration are changing the world. |
Razer’s Tiamat Headset Uses 10 Drivers To Produce 7.1 Sound | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | Very few headsets out there are “true” surround sound. Most are traditional stereo headphones with “virtual surround sound” — a process that adds depth and directionality, but delivers it through two speakers. Headphones like Tritton’s and Psyko’s actually use multiple drivers to simulate being in a room with, say, five speaker channels and a subwoofer. They’ve had mixed success, but maybe will have more luck. Their upcoming headset uses no less than 10 individual drivers (5 in each earpiece) to produce what they are saying is a world-first 7.1 sound experience. I’ll believe it when I hear it, though: the sounded great with the right inputs, but failed to “upscale” plain stereo well. Hopefully the Tiamat handles that better. The new headset has a front, rear, side, and center channel in each earpiece along with a subwoofer. You can adjust each channel separately on the handsome puck. There’s a retractable microphone, of course. The Tiamat 7.1 has a little sister, the Tiamat 2.2, a virtual-surround headset with a similar design. Looks like an updated version of the . They should be shipping later this year; the 7.1 costs $180 and the 2.2 will cost $100. More details can be found . |
Sincerely Launching An iOS Photo App Monetization Platform: Picture Printing For All | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | You may recall that back in April, launched as a way to and deliver them for $0.99. A few month later, launched as a way to use your iPhone/iPad complete with the picture print outs. These apps, while great themselves, were tests for platform. A platform which today they’re opening to all iOS developers. The is built from the tools the company was using internally to build apps like Postagram and PopBooth. Once developers sign up, they can add print and ship capabilities to their photo apps in under an hour, Sincerely notes. Those developers will be able to utilize Sincerely’s printing network as well as user network (for connections already established through Postagram and/or PopBooth). The result is 4×6 300 dpi color postcards from any iOS app that can be sent anywhere. Okay, that’s nice, but why should developers sign up for this? Because it’s also a potential monetization platform. Sincerely asks that developers place a minimum $0.99 fee on the images. But for anything above $0.99, Sincerely pays 70 percent back to the app developer. Sincerely obviously keeps the other 30 percent — the same split Apple themselves do with developers. So if a developer decides to charge $1.99 for their in-app photos, they would keep $0.70 of that (again, the developer keeps 70 percent the initial $0.99 threshold). For this fee, Sincerely handles all the billing and address collection as well as the actual logistics of printing and delivering the photos. They also handle the customer support surrounding the entire process. And the platform allows developers to have a branded space on the actual photo printouts. Developers can the Sincerely Ship Library starting today, and the plan is for the platform to go fully live in September. The company is also sponsoring the in New York this weekend — the winner of which will get some nice iGear and a featured spot when the Ship Library launches. Given the huge amount of photo apps flooding the market ( ), this seems like a smart idea. My only question is whether or not the payout to developers will be enough? Many will be hard-pressed to charge more then $1.99 for the functionality, and some will probably want to use the $0.99 price that Postagram itself uses — but then they’d make no money. Even still, it’s not like it will cost developers anything to implement Sincerely’s solution. And they get to offer this functionality to users in a simple way. Below, find some pictures of what the implementation looks like for app developers. [slideshow] |
doubleTwist Now Has 1 Million Active Users — Every Day | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | , the slick media player for Android, is growing. A lot. Last February we reported that the application had passed a major milestone, drawing per month between its mobile and desktop applications. Today, the company is sharing a much bigger number: they’re getting 1 million users between doubleTwist on Android phones and tablets. Now, obviously this doesn’t mean the user base has increased by a factor of 30 (some people are going to use the app many times a month). But it’s a sign that the company is getting significant traction, and that its users keep coming back for more. This is a particularly big deal on mobile, where users are notorious for being fickle and giving up on an app after a day or two. doubleTwist President Monique Farantzos says that the growth stems from the increased brand recognition the company has received since it began building for Android. The first version of their Android app was released in June 2010, and they’ve since introduced numerous upgrades, like the nifty AirSync, which lets you wireless sync your photos, music, and movies between your Android device and your computer, without having to deal with any wires (you don’t even have to initiate the sync — it automatically initiates when you connect to the same wireless network). Farantzos says that the company’s partnership with T-Mobile also provided an early boost. Some other key stats: 84% of the app’s users come from English-speaking countries, and starting today the company is rolling out internationalized versions with support for Chinese, Korean, German, French, and other languages to help spur international growth. And she also had some other big news to share: while doubleTwist has been focused exclusively on Android for some time, it’s going to begin expanding to other platforms. Intel, she says, has already licensed their wirelessly syncing technology AirSync for its MeeGo platform, and it sounds like the app may be coming to Windows Phone and possibly Web OS down the line (she didn’t confirm those, but pointed out that Android alternatives may see increased traction following the ). |
Journalist Crowdsources An Article About A Crowdsourcing Company, Hilarity Ensues | John Biggs | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | decided to write about , a crowdsourcing content farm that allows publishers to request articles for quick publication. They call it “content engineering,” which does not bode well for my job since I have a MA and not an MSc. The resulting article, written with tongue firmly in cheek is an excellent example of the dangers of “content engineering.” Unlike, say, a banking program, content is difficult to engineer. If you’re thorough, writing about a company is a hard slog and if you’re not thorough you need to at least be vibrant. Penenberg’s to Servio was, in fact, neither. He notes: Basic facts were accurate; anything that required interpretation, however, was ripe for abuse. They simply avoided the questions I submitted that asked them to describe the company’s greatest weaknesses and to critique its competitors, and I never did find out what the company’s revenues were. Anything having to do with the company’s cofounders Jordan Ritter and Alex Edelstein was painfully fawning. They were described as “hip, young businessmen” with “boyish good looks,” so much so that “it is not difficult to imagine how they have become so successful in the hip world of Internet business.” Can ink-stained wretches like Penenberg (and, presumably, me) be replaced with content engineers? Absolutely. Most stories are press releases rehashed and, barring the occasional scoop/investigative piece, it has been that way since the broadsheets. There’s no money in shaking the crown of power from a lowly perch. There is money in feeding novel info to a ravenous, neophilic audience. Penenberg’s article was a goof, sure, but it points out that item we read online – even this one – could be outsourced or crowdsourced. Does it matter? Not particularly, but it is nice to know that there is a real person behind Oz’s curtain… at least some of the time. [Image: iQoncept/ ] |
Google Pushes for Greener Buildings, Leads by Example | Sarah Perez | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | Google has taken to its this morning to talk about the company’s focus on building greener, more sustainable workplaces for its employees. The company is involved in several green initiatives, including energy and water audits, the use of green building materials, and competitive programs that pit teams against each other to become the greener office. In addition, Google says that it has now added its first -certified building to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. LEED, which stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,” is an internationally recognized certification program for rating green buildings. Google says this is not its first LEED building, but it is the first at the Googleplex. The new LEED platinum achievement was awarded for an interior renovation which used healthy building materials and practices, says Google. The company now has 4.5 million square feet of building space worldwide which it hopes will soon earn the LEED certification. Other green building practices used by Google include: Google also runs an internal Sustainable Pursuit program that pits teams against each other to earn points based on their office’s green performance, by measuring its green cleaning programs, water use and waste management strategy. |
Ford to Sell Solar Panel System Alongside Electric Cars | Sarah Perez | 2,011 | 8 | 17 | is with San Jose-based solar panel maker to offer a rooftop solar system option which will be sold alongside the upcoming Ford Focus EV. The “Drive Green for Life” program, as it’s being called, involves mounting solar panels on a customer’s home. These panels wouldn’t be used just to charge the Focus itself, however. They actually help offset the cost that comes with charge the car, something which most electric car owners do every night. The 2.5 kilowatt solar panel system would offset the cost of about 1,000 miles per month, says Ford. After federal tax credits, the cost of the system would be around $10,000. Some local and state rebates may also be available, but it’s still a fairly pricey system. At least Ford and SunPower are targeting the appropriate demographic. The option should appeal to environmentalists who want to buy an electric car, but don’t want to feel guilty about consuming all the extra electricity needed to charge it. After all, it’s not really that “green” to drive electric when you’re charging your car using fossil fuels. The solar system itself consists of 147 square feet of rooftop panels. There are 11 panels, measuring 4 feet by 2 feet. Customers will be able to monitor the panels’ performance online and via a specially designed iPhone app. SunPower also provides a 25-year warranty for the system, which is installed at customers’ homes by Best Buy’s Geek Squad. Best Buy also has the contract with Ford to install the home chargers. Pricing and an exact launch date for the new 2012 Ford Focus isn’t available yet, but the car will go on sale first in California and New York in Q4 2011. Ford also plans to launch 5 other electric or hybrid-electric models in 2012 in North America, and in Europe by 2013. |
Intel Capital Launches $300M Ultrabook Fund To Invest In Tablet Technologies | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | the investment arm of chip giant Intel Corporation, has announced a $300 Million Ultrabook Fund to fund technologies that will help deliver new and enhanced user experiences, longer battery life and slim component and platform technologies in personal computing. Earlier this year, Intel a new category of laptops, Ultrabooks, which are supposed have three distinct features: they are thinner (less than 20mm/0.8 inches), lighter than most existing laptops, and priced below $1,000 in order to become mainstream. Basically Intel says these devices will marry the performance and capabilities of today’s laptops with tablet-like features. To help realize that vision, the Intel Capital Ultrabook Fund will invest in companies building hardware and software technologies focused on enhancing how people interact with this new form of device, Ultrabooks, such as through sensors and touch, achieving all-day usage through longer battery life, enabling innovative physical designs and improved storage capacity. The overall goal of the fund, which will be invested over the next 3-4 years, is to create a cycle of innovation and system capabilities for this new and growing category of mobile devices. This seems to be one part of Intel’s overall strategy to help make Ultrabooks a reality. Intel’s latest 2nd Generation Intel CoreTM processors will soon be released, which the company promises to enable thin, lightdesigns that are less than 21mm (0.8 inch) thick, and at mainstream prices. Systems based on these chips will be available for the 2011 winter holiday shopping season, says Intel. Another processor, dubbed “Ivy Bridge,” which is scheduled for availability in systems in the first half of 2012, will promise improved power efficiency, smart visual performance, increased responsiveness and enhanced security. And Haswell” is expected to reduce power consumption to half of the “thermal design point” for today’s microprocessors. This isn’t the first dedicated fund for Intel Capital. The investment firm also has country-specific funds such as the India Technology Fund, China Technology Fund II, Brazil Technology Fund and Middle East and Turkey Fund as well as past technology specific funds such as Intel Digital Home Fund and Intel Communications Fund. Intel says that its Intel Capital investment portfolio is currently valued at approximately $2.179 billion. |
HTC’s Big Announcement: HTC To Acquire Majority Stake In Beats By Dr. Dre | Greg Kumparak | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | Cat, meet the outside of the bag. You know that for tomorrow morning? The details have just made their way out a bit early. HTC just confirmed that they will be entering a strategic partnership with Beats Electronics, a company best known for its Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones. While they’re leaving details for tomorrow’s call, it’s expected that HTC will announce that they’ve acquired a majority stake (at 51%) of the company. The actual size of the investment varies a bit depending on who you’re talking to: says over $500 million, while pins it at $300 million. ( It’s now confirmed to be $300 million) As you’d probably expect, HTC will be utilizing this investment to squeeze Beats technology (along with the “Beats” brand, of course) into their phones, with the first Beats-ified handsets hitting the shelves sometime this fall. At the very least, this means that the music that some people insist on blasting out of their phone’s crappy speakerphone while riding on public transportation might sound a wee bit less crappy in the future. To celebrate, here’s a picture of a much younger version of me (and TechCrunch alum Peter Ha!) hanging out with a -excited-to-be-there Dr. Dre: We’re still planning on liveblogging tomorrow’s event just in case any interesting details get tossed in the ring. |
Video: Free-Moving Kinect Used To Map Room And Objects In Detailed 3D | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | We’ve seen hacks for the from the very start, and even some that suggested one like this might be possible: a Kinect being moved around like a camera, recording the depth of everything it sees and building up a full-3D map of the room and every object in it. They call it , and it’s really quite fascinating to watch. I’ve re-hosted the video here, since the original is a bit cramped and not everyone wants to download the whole thing. The position of the camera is constantly tracked by monitoring the depth of known objects in its view, and with that information known, the 3D data recorded can be given absolute measurements, producing a static map of the room. And it all happens in real time. Watch just the first demonstration and you can see the system “painting” a 3D model of the room as quickly as the researcher can move the Kinect around. It tolerates change, as well: move objects in the scene and it’ll update the model. It “knows” whether an object is moving or the camera itself is. And by combining this new model with the normal capabilities of the Kinect, the room or object can be interacted with, as they demonstrate in the video by “throwing” gobs of little paintballs at things in real time, and picking up a real-life teapot that is also being mapped in 3D. Absolutely extraordinary that this is being done with an off-the-shelf device, a common PC, and some clever programming. Among the applications for this suggested by the Microsoft Research team: “extending multi-touch interactions to arbitrary surfaces; advanced features for augmented reality; real-time physics simulations of the dynamic model; novel methods for segmentation and tracking of scanned objects” — and I’m sure you can think of a few yourself. Turning the Kinect into a user-controlled tool instead of a passive user-monitoring tool opens up a huge amount of possibilities, as other hacks have demonstrated as well. KinectFusion is a team effort between Microsoft Research Cambridge, Imperial College London, Newcastle University, Lancaster University, and the University of Toronto. The project was demonstrated at SIGGRAPH yesterday, but this video really shows it off much better. Hopefully we’ll see a code release soon and people can play around with this amazing tool. [via ] |
With Search And Big Publishers, Showyou Turns Your iPad Into A Visual, Social Remote Control | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | When Showyou first launched last April, we noted that it was . A new update out today kicks it up a notch by making things more visually appealing while adding more content and making it easier to find. Version 2.0 of features a redesigned iPad UI that is really fantastic looking. The grid-like look existed before, but now it’s smoother and easier to manipulate. It feels like the way video browsing should be done on a tablet. Most recent videos are in the upper left and you move over and down to move through time. The grid concept remains key. And the new version expands upon it adding content from new, large publishers such as The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, TED, BBC, and others. Each of these publishers now has their own grid that you can subscribe to with one click. And you can hop between grids to focus on specific content. You can also now search for videos on Showyou. And things you search for can be saved and made into their own grids. Search is also nice because it’s socially-infused. Showyou isn’t scanning all of YouTube, it’s just returning results upon what people are sharing on the big social networks. There are some 12 million videos available to search right now, Showyou . But my favorite aspect of the app has to be the integration with AirPlay, Apple’s over-the-air streaming video technology. If you have an Apple TV hooked up to you TV, you can browse for videos on Showyou and quickly push them to be watched on your big screen. It really turns your iPad into a big visual, social remote. It’s something Showyou had in mind when they started work on the app, CEO Mark Hall says. “This is an incredibly addictive environment to watch videos,” Hall says, noting that the reverse chronological way is not ideal for a tablet. “It’s a tragedy to present it this way,” he says. You can find Showyou 2.0 in the App Store . [vimeo 27501007 w=640] [vimeo 27500700 w=640] |
MediaCore Raises Seed Funding, Launches Platform To Let SMBs Create Their Own YouTube | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | Launching officially to the public today is a new venture called , brought to you by Damien Tanner and Stuart Bowness, the former of whom was responsible for , a solution that adds realtime tech to apps that . Tanner and Bowness are launching MediaCore to provide any old small business with the ability to roll out their own YouTube, allowing the organizations to control that experience from end-to-end. In other words, MediaCore is a SaaS video publishing platform (complete with mobile apps) that provides any user or organization with the ability to create and control their own video site. And it’s all about good looks. As to how it works, customers upload content into the platform’s cloud-based infrastructure and let videos play through MediaCore’s player, which, among other things, automatically determines which browser the user is connecting with so that they don’t have to worry about differences between Flash and HTML5. The player sorts that out for you, using HTML5 whenever possible. Visitors can browse video collections through a cool visual guide, and the platform allows owners to easily organize their videos by category, or tag, and automatically sorts content by relevance and popularity. Users can add logos, backgrounds, and play with CSS to customize the appearance of the site. Plus, you can add your own domain, take advantage of podcasting, and quite a few other nifty tools. Considering the fact that creating a full-service video platform is no easy feat, MediaCore is offering a pretty cool white label solution that looks good and doesn’t require a lot technical know-how. MediaCore is currently offering a 15-day free trial, and after that, plans start at $99 a month. Those plans include custom domains, white label player, custom branding, automated encoding, social video embeds, etc. But the best part is that Android and iOS apps come with every account, while managing to look pretty damn good, too. Coming next? According to Tanner and Bowness, it’s private video, profiles, and paywalls. To get the platform off and running, the startup is in the process of closing a seed round of angel funding from Andrew Wilkinson, the founder and CEO of and Jesse Ma of Gawker Media. While the founders declined to give specifics, the round is likely in the hundreds of thousands. (Of dollars, that is.) When I asked them what the inspiration was for MediaCore, they told me that other video platforms out there are stacked with engineers and often pay little attention to design, resulting in crappy interfaces and a series of botched user experiences. So, after running an open source version of MediaCore for a year, they’re bringing their SaaS platform to market, in an attempt to lead with design first and make it easy to use. The beta version of the platform has already attracted over 1,100 companies, including London University, Mentor Graphics, TechVibes, Indiana University, and a variety of Fortune 500 companies. As one might guess from its early customers and the scalable cloud storage, the product is aimed at SMBs, but the founders told me that within the year they will be launching a series of personal plans that will be offered below the current $99-a-month pricing. MediaCore also plans to launch a Tumblr-like theme store in the near future, which will allow users to buy themes and customize their sites, all working via an API (a la Tumblr). All in all, when the paywalls roll out and a proper iPad interface drops, MediaCore is probably going to essentially be the video version of . Is that a good thing? You tell us. For more, check out MediaCore at home or a front-end demo, click . |
HTC To Make “Major Announcement” Tomorrow Morning | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | The word is out, folks: HTC CEO Peter Chou has something big on the books for tomorrow. A live teleconference is scheduled for at 8:30 PT/11:30 ET, and while the email making the rounds offers no insight, you can rest easy knowing that people will be speculating the night away. Given the email’s use of the word “major” and the fact that Chou himself is speaking, we expect the announcement will be more than, say, a new phone or tablet — perhaps something related to the ongoing patent dispute. Our own Mobile Editor Greg Kumparak will be covering the event as it happens tomorrow morning, so tune in for the full scoop then. |
Voxy Snags $2.8M To Help People Learn A Language Via Smartphone | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | TechCrunch Disrupt finalist is announcing new Series A investment today, $2.8 million dollars from investors , and . Relatively new investor Seavest recently had another education-related portfolio company, Schoolnet, to education publisher In addition to the financing, Voxy is launching its newest product, an iPhone app which teaches English to Portuguese speakers (thus far all its offerings have been English to Spanish speakers). In the same space as , Voxy differentiates itself through culling content from every day life materials like media and conversations and is mobile first. “We believe that in many developing markets people will be leapfrogging browser-based applications in favor of mobile devices” founder tells me. Voxy offers both free and premium services — the smartphone product starting at $2.99 a month for users who want added features. Gollash plans on using the new funding to hire more engineers, scale product and improve already existing technology. His future plans including offering English to Spanish versions of the service and expanding to other languages and markets. “We’re going to continue to leverage mobile in order to meet the needs of users who lack the time, money and access to use traditional browser-based and offline methodologies,” he says. Gollash also tells me that one day after launching in the Brazilian market , Voxy is already a top ten app in the category of education. The population of Brazil is 193 million. [vimeo 22392011 width=”620″] |
Facebook: We Aren’t Stealing Your Phone Numbers And Posting Them So Everyone Can See | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | Facebook has responded to a likely deriving from a recent HackerNews thread called both with an official post on and from a Facebook Messenger engineer Ben Gertzfield on HackerNews. In its efforts to dominate all modes of human communication (yay ), Facebook has chosen to match up and de-dupe numbers both on your Facebook Friends List and your mobile Contacts to form one Contacts coherent list, that only you can see. For those of you that didn’t realize that Facebook now has the contact information of sundry aunts, bosses, dry cleaners, etc this may come as a shock. Facebook’s official response: “Rumors claiming that your phone contacts are visible to everyone on Facebook are false. Our Contacts list, formerly called Phonebook, has existed for a long time. The phone numbers listed there were either added by your friends themselves and made visible to you, or you have previously synced your phone contacts with Facebook. Just like on your phone, only you can see these numbers.” Fair enough. So why ? Well it is pretty eye-opening to see friends’ numbers you didn’t even think you had (wow, I should really call that random person and catch up) just by clicking on . How did Facebook get those numbers in the first place? With your permission of course! As HackerNews user ‘extension’ points out, enabling contact synching on the Facebook mobile apps will result in something similar to the following message: “If you enable this feature, all contacts from your device (name, email address, phone number) will be sent to Facebook and be subject to Facebook’s Privacy Policy, and your friends’ profile photos and other info from Facebook will be added to your iPhone address book. Please make sure your friends are comfortable with any use you make of their information. [Cancel] [I Agree]” So by agreeing a) you basically chose to upload information you’ve inputted into your phone to Facebook and b) people have chosen to give you the numbers. But yeah, it’s your fault buddy — people will [Agree] to just about anything these days to avoid the monotony of reading something that remotely sounds like a TOS, even if it’s only two sentences. Still not assured? You can remove the phone numbers you’ve imported to Facebook Contacts by clicking on this link . Facebook still owns your immortal soul though. |
First Windows Phone Tango Device (Sort Of) Goes On Sale In Slovakia | Chris Velazco | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | Today’s tidbit of comes not from the far-flung Asian shores it is expected to storm, but rather the small, landlocked nation of Slovakia. As it turns out, the first Tango device has gone on sale, but probably not the one you were hoping for. A photo has gone up on computer forum Pretaktovanie.sk’s Facebook page advertising a HTC HD7 for sale with three choices of software: 7.0.7392, 7.10.7720 (Mango), 7.10.8200 (“Tango”). Awfully thoughtful of the salesman, yes? As it turns out, the rabbit hole runs a little deeper. The are where the world caught its first glimpse of Tango and its Content Search functionality, posted by a moderator named Snake. Judging by the size and placement of the Windows button in relation to the screen, the device used to show off Content Search is very likely an HTC handset, and may well be the same HD7 that’s gone on sale. Long story short, we may actually have a legitimate Tango device waiting for the first interested party willing to fork over €150. If all goes well and the buyer feels chatty, there could be much more Tango insight soon. I’m almost tempted to go for it myself, but I don’t think I could make it fly on . UPDATE: That was quick — the picture was just pulled from Facebook. |
Twitter Comes Alive With Realtime Activity Streams | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | Since its inception, content on Twitter has largely been displayed in the same basic manner. That is a linear, reverse chronological stream of Tweets. Two new sections being added to the service are about to change that. Specifically, the “@Mentions” tab on twitter.com is being replaced by two new tabs: “@USERNAME” and “Activity”. These two streams will add an additional layer to Twitter and to Tweets themselves, a layer showing the social activity around them. The @USERNAME (obviously, USERNAME will be replaced by your Twitter name) stream will still show your @replies, but it will also show things like when someone follows you, when someone favorites one of your Tweets, when someone retweets one of your Tweets, or when someone adds you to a list. The Activity stream will show you all of those things, but related to all of the people you follow on Twitter. In other words, you can see if a connection has retweeted a Tweet, or if they followed someone new, etc. If you’re familiar with , this dual activity stream is similar to the concept they use to highlight happenings on the service beyond photos being shared in the main stream. All of this information flows into these two new Twitter streams in realtime. And the key is that you can do activities like reply, retweet, and most importantly for Twitter, follow, right from within these streams. That’s the key to this change: this is by Twitter to bulk up their social graph. And it’s a smart one because it will make Twitter feel more alive. At the same time, they’re keeping the main stream intact as the simple, standard reverse chronological stream. The mixing of @replies with other activity will probably piss some users off — most people hate change, after all — but overall it’s a smart move. This change could significantly alter Twitter usage in one other way as well. While Favoriting Tweets is just about as old as Twitter itself, it’s a feature that has always been under-represented and under-utilized. That’s because Twitter never gave it a defined purpose, and more importantly, never had a good way of showing how others were using it. Now they’re giving the feature the latter exposure. It seems that most people have used the Favorite button throughout the years to either bookmark something or to actually mark their favorite Tweets. This lead to the rise of services like . With the recent addition of Favorite email notifications, Favoriting finally gained some Twitter social juice. Now these new activity streams should jack up the usage of the Favorite as a way to show someone you appreciate their Tweet — a “like” button, if you will. Twitter will begin rolling out these changes to a very small set of users today. The rollout will continue over the next several weeks, assuming everything goes to plan. Again, this will only be on twitter.com for now — Twitter is thinking about how to surface this same information on their mobile applications, but notes that it could be different for different devices. |
Mark Cuban-Backed JungleCents Ushers AskMen Into The Daily Deals Space | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | During its grinding transition into the digital era, the publishing industry has been grasping at straws to find ways to evolve its revenue models. Even as time marches on, publishing companies by and large, continue to struggle with how to most effectively monetize their content and add supplementary (or even primary) revenue streams. , the -backed startup, is ushering men’s lifestyle magazine into the daily deals space in an attempt to help the publication take advantage of supplemental revenue streams — all thanks to vouchers. As TC’s Alexia Tsotsis , a la , JungleCents is aiming to attack customer acquisition by accepting vouchers from companies in place of cash and running those deals on its site as well as affiliate sites — in a limited quantity for a limited time. In the case of AskMen, JungleCents is offering a discount on men’s merchandise from , which is offered on JungleCents but also posted to AskMen.com. With the Bonobos deal, customers pay $48 for a $100 voucher to spend at Bonobos.com, with the deal essentially acting like a gift card, as the user doesn’t have to spend the $100 voucher all at once. Sure, AskMen isn’t exactly the New York Times, but daily deals can potentially allow content sites like AskMen to monetize in a more measurable approach, while adding more value to their readers, says JungleCents Co-founder and CEO Sameer Mehta. Sites like JungleCents can really be a boon for niche publishing sites, because they can serve more targeted deals that are relevant to a site’s readers. For example, if a reader is at AskMen, a men’s lifestyle publication and is served a deal for cheap jeans, the reader is more likely to click over than, say, someone perusing the news on the New York Times. Those deals at the bottom of the post may even go so far as to add value to the content (gasp!), and give publishers a trigger to monetize. JungleCents has been testing this theory out with , in which they offered readers 50 percent off Nooka watches. The deal netted Complex a 9 percent conversion rate, and the success gave JungleCents the motivation to begin pursuing other mid-sized niche publications. Mehta says that he thinks this model is not only a benefit to publishers, but offers an upside to brands as well, as they are getting access to their target demographic. It also brings their customer acquisition costs down, because these customers (based on how they’re finding the deals) are not bargain-hungry coupon clippers, they’re the people more likely to be brand ambassadors. So, for brands that aren’t interested in Gilt or Groupon, the AskMen-Bonobos model seems a better fit. As to how redeeming these vouchers works? After a consumer purchases a deal on JungleCents, they get an email with a unique redemption code, which they then use to check out and the brand’s web store. Mehta says that he thinks that this allows brands to own their new customer, unlike flash sales that run off last season’s product, where the consumer has no contact with the brand. It’s an interesting model. Check it out and let us know what you think. See the deal . |
Twitter Begins Testing t.co Shortened Links Today | Sarah Perez | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | Starting today, Twitter will begin testing its link-wrapping feature which will automatically shorten all URL’s 20 characters long or greater into t.co-wrapped links. This test will affect a certain percentage of tweets posted publicly through the service, or sent out via direct message. The tests are a “canary in the coal mine,” – meaning an attempt to work out any issues with the new URL-shortening system prior to . Specifically, Twitter is hoping to determine if there are any user-facing problems that will arise from the system, once operating at scale. This means you may start seeing links shortened to begin with “t.co” appearing on Twitter over the course of the week. And you may see a link you paste into a tweet automatically shortened for you to use the new URL-wrapping feature, if that link meets the required length. Twitter has been preparing to launch this system since . It that the system will help the company “understand how users engage with the tens of millions of links shared daily on Twitter.” It will also help protect users from malicious links and scams, as the links will be parsed before posting. Note that this is different than . That simply truncated links for you to end in “…”. This will actually wrap the links using the “t.co” prefix. More information on how this change affects developers is available and . |
No Charges For Chen In iPhone 4 Leak Case – Others Not So Lucky | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | After more than a year of uncertainty, the case of the stolen iPhone 4 has been brought to something like a conclusion. San Mateo County Assistant District Attorney Morley Pitt announced that against Gizmodo’s Jason Chen, whose liberty has been in question since the police shortly after the alleged theft. Pitt said that “it is a very gray area,” but that regarding journalist protection laws, “this was not the case with which we were going to push the envelope.” Not the most precise statement of exoneration, but very sensible. On the other hand, Brian Hogan and Sage Wallower, who found the next-generation phone incognito at a bar, be charged: misappropriation of lost property (i.e. selling something you found), and possession of stolen property (it becomes stolen once you decide to sell it) respectively. They face a maximum of a year in jail plus fines and probation; I don’t want to speculate too much on their fates, but hopefully the association with a freshly-deemed-legal journalistic endeavor will cause the judge to look more favorably on them. Now seems as good a time as any to link to my post, in which you can learn a few missteps to avoid if you should come across a top-secret piece of hardware. And don’t forget that is anonymous. Exercise discretion, friends. : here’s the official statement from the DA’s office. [scribd id=62019652 key=key-blbh1rvb06ml6s69gh2 mode=list] [ ] |
Cha-Ching: BankSimple Banks $10 Million In New Funds And Some Heavy-Hitting Partnerships | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 8 | 10 | Alternative banking service BankSimple has $10 million in funding led by and joined by existing investors and . This Series B round will join the in Series A and seed that the startup saw from investors including , , , and others. Along with the financing, the company also announced partnerships with Visa, CBW Bank, Allpoint, The Bancorp Bank, Andera as well as TxVia. BankSimple is still in stealth but plans on opening its doors by the end of the year, its white credit cards will be going into “Friends and Family” test mode shortly, according to its announcement post. Co-founded by CEO Joshua Reich, CFO and CTO (and former Twitter engineer) , BankSimple’s ultimate goal is to make banking less complicated by giving people a simplified way to save money and make and track purchases in real time, through a pared down no-nonsense web interface. While it wants to control the front end banking experience, the service needs partnerships with banks who actually hold the deposits — why the banking partnerships with CBW Bank and The Bankcorp Bank are important here. The alliance with Visa will aid the startup getting its white cards accepted at Visa’s millions strong network of merchants and its relationship with Andera will aid in the management of online bank accounts. The partnerships with , the US’s largest no-surcharge ATM network, and payments processing service are pretty self explanatory. Below is a video of the BankSimple white cards in action. [vimeo vimeo.com/27533155] |
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