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Pebble Watchface SDK Now Available, Let’s See What This Smart Watch Can Do
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 4 | 12 |
Pebble has officially , after promising to deliver it during the second week of April. This qualifies, if only just, and arrives alongside firmware update version 1.1 for PebbleOS. The new software update for the hardware brings support for custom watch faces built using the SDK, as well as new options for disabling backlighting and vibrations, as well as fixes for iOS bugs. The SDK itself is currently just for creating watch faces, not for building apps with other functionality, although we could see some creative software made even with those restrictions. Pebble says its Sports app SDK is coming soon, which should help developers mirror the sorts of functions . This is the first time third-party developers have had public access to developer tools for the Pebble platform, so it should give us a hint of what’s to come. And the firmware update fixes for iOS include one that makes the “Allow Pebble to communicate…” dialog appear far less often, which is great news since that’s a majorly annoying bug for people using iPhones with the device.
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Instructure Launches App Center To Let Teachers, Students Install Third-Party Apps Across Learning Platforms
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 4 | 12 |
Props are owed to companies like and for being early movers in the educational software space, particularly in helping catalyze innovation in learning management systems (LMS). The problem is, of course, they got their start over a decade ago, and haven’t always elicited raving reviews from students and schools. Blackboard has continued to expand its suite of tools, and the ever-growing-features of LMSes like , , and are finding bigger and bigger audiences. The Salt Lake City-based launched Canvas in 2011, hoping to one-up a crowded field of competitors and give colleges and universities a more “modern,” cloud-centric alternative. Taking cues from Moodle, Instructure designed Canvas to be open source to let third-parties contribute to create more rapid development and bug fixes, while going one step further by avoiding Flash, offering a mobile product, APIs and scalable hosting. But, traditionally, the problem has been that EdTech has yet to become an ecosystem, CEO Josh Coates says, and integrations and APIs are few and far between. Meanwhile, schools want to know what learning tools are out there, but they don’t want to do the work themselves. In response, Instructure is today announcing Canvas App Center — an app library built around its LMS that will allow teachers, administrators and students to install third-party apps in Canvas with one click that will be widely released in June. But what seems to have broader application is its independent , which is available now, offers over 100 apps, including WordPress, Khan Academy, Dropbox and Evernote, and allows users to install them on a slew of learning platforms and tools. The apps are free to install, though some may require a subscription with the publisher or vendor, but Instructure won’t be brokering that relationship or taking a commission, Coates says. The App Center, in the familiar way of app stores, gives students and teachers a quick way to find, install, rate and review apps. For example, the App Center includes a recommendation algorithm that suggests apps based on user preference, the institution and their previous activity. Today, more than five million teachers and students at over 350 institutions use Canvas as their LMS, which immediately provides scale to the App Center and gives those third-parties a new distribution system and potential audience. Instructure hopes to further incentivize customers by not taking commissions on App Center installs; the idea being that the less teachers and schools have to worry about pricing and cost, the less friction there is, the more installs. Business-wise, it may not seem like the best strategy, but Coates says that Instructure is focused on building an educational platform — not a one-dimensional product, but a service that includes integrations, APIs, a community and an ecosystem. That’s why the company has made its open library LTI extensions — now any third-party can add apps to the open resource which should work in most learning management systems. How many other educational software providers can say that? Not too many. Early on, Blackboard started developing Building Blocks to let third-parties customize Blackboard Learn and create extensions for its LMS. However, , while Blackboard has had a long history with open source technology (to its credit), at the same time, its relationship with open source technology and competitors themselves — has been a tortured one. For — a now fast-growing competitor to both Instructure and Blackboard — about Blackboard and they’ll bristle at the mention. Back in 2006, Blackboard filed patent lawsuits against Desire2Learn, which threatened to hamstring the company before it got off its feet. Three years later, the patent claims were dismissed, , “following several months of intense criticism,” Blackboard was forced to issue a , “promising not to sue Open Source projects for patent infringement.” So there’s that. In terms of creating valuable open-source educational initiatives, , but they’re a non-profit, almost a consortium of public/private/startup interests. Not only is it unusual to see a for-profit company take the high road like this (a wink to Google), I think most would agree that it’s the right move for education — in that it helps the sytem take steps toward becoming an ecosystem. That is, if all parties involved in education could ever make a decision collectively, beyond “we need more money and teachers and maybe technology” or “you need to help child.” A great example: Here’s open educational . Here’s a description of people/parents not even . Yes, startups, someone in education will fight you and the medicine you’re trying to put down its throat. Smile and do it anyway. “We want to tear down the walled garden that has plagued the LMS market,” Instructure co-founder and CPO Brian Whitmer said. “Third party integrations have existed, but they’ve required the IT
department to make them work. With Canvas App Center, we want to let anyone install an app with one click and begin personalizing their learning experience with these tools.” I’m sure someone will find a reason to object, though. Because, hey, no good deed goes unpunished. Especially in education. [ This post has been updated to give more backstory on Blackboard, particularly as it relates to open source.]
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 4 | 15 | null |
Backed Or Whacked: Get Together With The Band
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Ross Rubin
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
Last week, Backed or Whacked look at a trio of wristbands that can hold a buck, make a bun and prevent a burn all without any assistance from a successful mobile app platform. But as a host of digital fitness products has shown, the usually limited interfaces of fashion accessories can be boosted by pairing them with smartphones. The Embrace+ could be described as a smartwatch for people who would rather rave all night than know what time it is. The transparent band, to be available in three shapes, has embedded LEDs that illuminate in different colors depending on the kind of notification being received. With 13 different services and alerts intended to be supported out of the gate, there’s a good chance that those with an active social (networking) life will find their wrists becoming a rainbow of a light show throughout the day. And if the unlimited colors aren’t enough for you, the band also offers options for the number and duration of blinks, light brightness and speed interval and whether to include a subtle vibration. The Embrace+ campaign attracted interest, with nearly 1,500 backers ponying up nearly $84,000, but that represented less than half of its ambitious $220,000 goal. Almost immediately after it ended, the team vowed a relaunch at a new web address, but so far clicking it turns up a generic web-hosting admin page. Those who have pursued the quantified self only to discover there is too much of their self to quantify for their liking have access to a whole battle of the bands to help them with calorie expenditure. These include offerings from Jawbone and Nike with more on the way from Fitbit and Samsung. But at CES, much attention was lauded on a connected utensil called the HAPIfork that keeps track of how often you shovel food into your mouth, coaching you to eat more slowly. That’s the basic idea of the WeLoxx, which moves the sensor from the fork to the wrist and thus enables it to work with spoons, chopsticks or your grubby bare hands. The project, originating in Bern, Switzerland, proposed two different models for the WeLoxx — a more watch-like design, the WeLoxx 300, and band-like design, the WeLoxx 900. Both featured an array of traffic lights to signal how fast you’re eating. For the near term, though, we won’t be loxxing, as the campaign collected only $584 from six backers en route to missing its $80,000 goal. The LinkMe is a paradox. On one hand, or perhaps wrist, notification bands are supposed to be unobtrusive. The Embrace+’s light show may even be pushing it, but at least only you know how to decode its glowing rainbow. In contrast, the LineMe wraps an LED billboard around that hand-joining joint. The advantage is that the band can display specific messages instead of just notification lights, possibly saving you more trips back to the 5″ LTE-packing behemoth weighing down your pocket. On the other hand, it could enable anyone close enough to your resting arm to read the digital sweet nothing intended just for snookums. The creators, New Yorkers Matt and Colin, would counter that you can set up a system of abstract characters to get back to the Embrace+ level of abstraction. The LinkMe would last about two weeks on a charge and, like the Nike FuelBand, the LinkMe can default to a time readout when nothing private is being broadcasted to it. One month in, the campaign has raised only about $13,000 of its $100,000 goal.
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Now That We Have All These Devices, It’s Time For Them To Truly Work Together
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
Cross-platform is the buzzword of all the big tech companies now. During every , like clockwork, CEO Larry Page dedicates considerable time discussing the company’s focus on making sure users have a seamless experience and equal access to services as they switch between devices. In general, that’s already a reality if you know where to look. But there’s so much more potential. No matter how much apps talk to one another and sync information back and forth, our devices are still essentially distinct from one another, tied together by cloud services that transfer the information to services and then back and forth between each other. But they’re still ultimately separate, and that means a lot of missed opportunity. What I’d love to see, and what some are already exploring with projects like the , is a way for all these devices to pool not only the information and media we store on them, but also their resources and raw computing power. Don’t get me wrong; I love that my iPad operates as a completely standalone computer, as opposed to something that needs to be continually tethered to a central tower, like some of the earliest interactive tablet screens. But the fact that I’m now carrying a fairly powerful computer in my pocket in the form of my iPhone, and that both it and my iPad can’t pool their cumulative resources when necessary to accomplish tasks better and faster is starting to seem like an unnecessary failing. It’s much more likely that we’ll see more and more processing duties handed off to server farms with the growth of cloud services, especially since there’s greater financial incentive to make that happen in terms of being able to charge for the bandwidth needed to make it happen. But when your television, appliances, phone, router, tablet, notebooks and PCs all have powerful processors on board and plenty of computing power, much of which they aren’t even using most of the time, it seems absurd that we have turn to a remote facility miles away to handle our computing demands. Every tech company today talks about the age of cross-platform computing, where it doesn’t matter what kind of device you use, you get access to the same content. Facebook’s recent News Feed redesign is all about unifying the experience; Microsoft made a big bet on a shared UI with Windows 8 and Windows Phone; Google is moving in that direction with ChromeOS and Android; and Apple is continually adding more features pioneered on iOS back into OS X and tightening the links between the two with services like iCloud. Now, however, the time has come for someone to take the next step, and bring our devices together in ways that maximize the truly amazing potential they have as a collective, which dwarfs even the impressive things they can now all do on their own.
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Bitcoin Miners Are Racking Up $150,000 A Day In Power Consumption Alone
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
There’s a gold rush going on these days, or a Bitcoin rush, at least. Driven by the , more and more people are learning about and becoming interested in the currency. While they could just buy Bitcoins at the current market rate, others are looking to try their luck at mining Bitcoins. And like prospectors who traveled west during the Gold Rush of the 19th century, many Bitcoin miners will find that they spend more on chasing the Bitcoin dream than they’ll ever hope to win back. As , Bitcoins are “mined” by unlocking blocks of data that “produce a particular pattern when the Bitcoin ‘hash’ algorithm is applied to the data.” It seems simple enough, but the cost of Bitcoin mining is greater than one might expect. The more Bitcoins are mined, the more difficult it becomes to find the next block. Unless the miner is using the latest specially-designed mining rigs, the computers used often sport high-end graphics cards (since the GPUs are more efficient than CPUs for mining application). And running those computers requires a lot of power. , which tracks Bitcoin-related data, estimates that miners are each day in their pursuit of new blocks of Bitcoins. That ends up costing about $150,000 in power costs each day to mine the currency. [Hat tip to for reporting on the data.] That may sound like a lot, but miners on average are making money. According to Blockchain, miners are generating $470,000 in Bitcoin-related revenue per day. In fact, due to the recent interest in the virtual currency and its popularity, are close to record highs. While it might be easy to look at those numbers and think it’s NBD to just like, extract value out of thin air, Bitcoin mining isn’t as lucrative as it seems. Regular users hoping to use their regular computers to mine shouldn’t expect to just start making money by setting aside a few compute cycles to dig up Bitcoins. That’s generally reserved for special mining computers that do nothing BUT mine for Bitcoins using custom encryption processors. As Biggs , “While you could simply set a machine aside and have it run the algorithms endlessly, the energy cost and equipment deprecation will eventually cost more than the actual Bitcoins are worth.” That’s been confirmed by my colleague Matt Burns, who wrote in our internal message board that “after mining for a few days, the energy required to run my computer at full tilt was far greater than the Bitcoins I mined.” Even if you do choose to pool your resources to mine, it’s a fairly complicated process, even for tech-savvy users. Check out the aforementioned article by Biggs for how he connected his . The alternative is to just designed to do nothing but mine for Bitcoins. Like any other investment, the return isn’t assured, and likely will be based on how Bitcoin market takes shape as time goes on. But right now, as with most gold rushes throughout history, it’s those who are supplying the miners that are finding the real riches.
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What Games Are: The Shady Side Of Games
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Tadhg Kelly
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
There’s a reason why games and organized crime have often gone hand in hand. The thrill of the win, of achieving – often with money attached – has long proved a lure that society felt the need to control, like a drug. Games of chance, Poker, horse racing, sports betting and many others brought quixotic pleasures to many and bankruptcy (or worse) to some. There was always money to be made in the shadows for those happy to work in them. That shady aspect still exists in the games industry today. While there are some highly ethical game makers out there who conduct their business in a manner befitting their ideals, there are also plenty who dupe and deceive to profit from an audience. Some are merely morally gray, maintaining that since games are a tough market and , they have to be scrappy. Even if they don’t personally like it, it’s just how life is. But beyond that typical red-ocean thinking, you can always rely on some developer or publisher to eventually take things too far. Like water flowing into every nook and cranny of a given platform, some will use their powers for good while others will figure out how to use a game as a form of arbitrage to extract as much value as possible. And you may say “well that’s business”, which it sometimes is. Yet shady actions can have far wider impact across the industry than is generally realized. Take, for example, the practice of selling virtual goods in children’s games. Free-to-play games are very popular across all segments of the market, but the ability to sell items from within a game has the potential to deceive. While the notion of permitting players to financially participate as much as they want to is neat, many don’t fully realize what that means. Parents in particular are often unaware that their children know their iTunes passwords until big bills caused by their little angels buying surface. And good luck getting a refund. Because of course there are shady game makers out there who think it’s okay to put a $99 item in a game aimed at nine year olds. Of course they have an entirely self-reinforcing rationale for why this is permissible. Of course they use words like “choice” and “parental responsibility” to justify their actions. And yet they come across as weasels. In fact they ARE weasels. When this sort of nonsense goes on long enough, outsiders start to step in. Government agencies like the UK’s Office of Fair Trading are in free-to-play games. The OFT is an official consumer advocate group whose judgements can be far-reaching, and their recommendations often form the basis of legislation designed to clean up particularly egregious industries. This may serve as a wake-up call for the industry to self-regulate before regulation comes a-calling, or it may just be the tip of the iceberg. If, for example, the United States’ Department of Justice decides to do likewise, who knows how far that could go. The problem for most of us who make games is that shady tactics tend to poison the well. The difference between the ideal of Facebook games (play together) and the practice (notify and spam repeatedly) is why social games stalled, for example. What could have been the most amazing platform change in gaming in a generation instead became a haven for sleazy lowball tactics designed to make a quick buck or an exit sale. Facebook’s early (and continuing) mistake lay in not taking an active-enough hand in managing their platform, preferring to let evolution sort it out. The sale of crappy gamification “solutions” is another example. Through the work of writers like , gamification has developed into a very interesting idea (with a variety of caveats, which I have written about before). Yet, regardless of where you stand on it, gamification has started to invert in large part because of the revelation that it mostly doesn’t work. There are many shady companies out there offering solutions that are little more than packs of GIFs and experience point tables, and of course that sours companies on trying gamification more than once. It’s for reasons like these that I tend to strongly support Apple’s firm stance in governing the App Store. To some writers ( ), Apple’s control is only about maintaining profits and an iron-like grip on its customers, but I think there’s more to it than that. Apple takes an active hand in surfacing interesting apps because that’s important for the life of its platform, for the perception among users that iOS is where you go to find all the good stuff. The good stuff often needs a helping hand in the face of legions of developers hawking identical software with large advertising budgets. Apple also bans or forbids certain apps on the basis of not wanting to dilute that conversation. Apps are not permitted to look like app stores, for example, or to use push notifications to advertise. Apps are not permitted to use incentivized installs. Apps are not permitted to deceive, in other words, or at the very least this is strong discouraged. And Apple seems as though it’s about to crack down on a number of apps that have been treading softly in these areas without directly violating them. Apple seemed to realize early that shadiness would be problem that had to be curtailed or else the platform itself would be under threat. The risk to iOS of allowing it to be gamed or balkanized – as Facebook had – may not have been plainly apparent at the time, but in retrospect very much so. This is why the AppGratis-es of this world are heavily monitored. AppGratis appears to be just a typical example of needing to reign in wayward practices that would otherwise lead to bad places. Strong rules and enforcement is why iOS remains a vital development platform, and the one that users trust most. But of course, there are side effects. Chief among them is censorship. As a medium, gaming is trying to come out of its teenage years and stop being regarded as mere entertainment. Some game makers want to feel that they stand shoulder to shoulder with writers, moviemakers and musicians in being regarded as artists, but regulation gets in the way. In the old days it used to much worse. If you wanted to make games on a non-PC platform, such as a console, you had to factor in the risk that the platform might say no. The platform’s owners might not have even allowed you to have a dev kit to try unless your proposed game fit with their content strategy and guidelines. These days platforms rarely exercise that kind of power and game making has become much more democratic, but there’s still a ways to go. are banned according to content guidelines that would be considered unthinkable in book or music markets. The burgeoning zinester movement (artists who create games and related interactive art to explore a variety of issues) feels unwelcome and unlikely to become an Editor’s Choice because their work is not exactly PG13. Unfortunately, like the Mob, shady game makers always be with us. There will always be someone who regards platforms like iOS as an opportunity to scavenge. There will always be someone who looks for the breaks, the wedges and the opportunity to behave like sharks. And they will always have a mealy mouthed rationale to justify their actions. None of us wants more censorship, or for games to be regulated to death. Most of us want the medium to thrive and grow and become as fully expressive. So as an industry it behoves us to establish codes of practice and police ourselves. Otherwise someone else will eventually do it for us.
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CrunchWeek: Bitcoin Mania, Foursquare Gets A Cash Infusion, And VCs Rally Around Google Glass
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Colleen Taylor
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
This time, , and I talked about the relentless (and tumultuous) rise of , Foursquare finally closing on the funding round we’d been with its , and three superpower VCs teaming up to launch the (and that that came along with it.)
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Revel Body Is A Crowdfunded Personal Massager
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
Do you suffer from “sore elbows, wrists and hands from having to hold small and awkward shapes?” Have you found that “products are confusing to impossible to control?” Do you know what a phthalates is and are you embarrassed by the packaging of your favorite personal massager products? Has got a product for you. This crowdfunded project aims to make your alone time (or time spent with friends) more rewarding. The product, essentially a sonic vibrator, is designed for ladies and, presumably, men. The team, led by Robin Elenga, has created a high-frequency system for offering a better “buzz” during those moments when you’re visiting the Palms Hotel. The product offers “50 percent more power” and “400 percent vibration range” and reduces the vibrations felt in the hand and focuses those vibrations on sore muscles and/or your vagina. The product uses a resonating motor to offer a larger range of vibration speeds and sensations and it’s shaped like a tennis ball to reduce the strain on wrists and other body parts. It’s run on a rechargeable battery that connects to any USB port and offers nearly silent operation, unlike similar linear-motor-powered vibrators. Because it doesn’t exactly look like a traditional vibrator you could even put it in a place of honor on your bedside table or office desk. [vimeo http://vimeo.com/61058337] The vibrator comes (to your house) for a pledge of $140. You can get two for $220. They are hoping to raise $50,000 and are nearly there so they just need that extra push to get them over the edge. I suppose, given the circumstances, we should probably help them out.
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Warby Parker Opens Retail Store In NYC, With Boston Up Next, Beats Google & Amazon To The Offline Punch
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
Hip online eyewear startup Warby Parker has, over the last two years, been partnering with boutiques to open “stores-within-stores,” or small Warby Parker showrooms, where customers could try on their eyeglasses in 3-D. These showrooms popped up in L.A., Nashville, San Francisco and many others. Today Warby Parker in SoHo in New York City. As e-commerce has matured, some of its younger companies have to more traditional forms of advertising. One Kings Lane, Gilt Groupe, Beachmint, Fab and Wayfair are just a few of the boutique online brands to launch ad campaigns on TV in the last six months in an effort to drive viewers to mobile apps and sites. Now, if Warby Parker is any indication, e-commerce companies may continue to expand their businesses by moving offline and building their own brick-and-mortar retail outlets. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has , while 9to5Google reports that Google is looking to . Warby Parker doesn’t quite have that kind of market cap, but clearly it wants to go head-to-head with the biggest offline retailers. Interestingly, Warby Parker was founded in part because (at the time) less than 1 percent of eyewear was sold online, so the startup hoped to take on the bigs like — which owns the seemingly ubiquitous LensCrafters, Ray-Ban, Sunglass Hut and Oakley, among others — by creating a strong, fashion-conscious brand and selling online at a lower price and better margins. It worked, and the startup made a name for itself, and started to catch the attention of consumers and investors. Warby closed a $41.5 million investment at the end of February, led in part by J. Crew CEO Millard S. Drexler (who was formerly CEO of Gap and currently has an awesome name) and American Express, along with a host of VCs. With heavy backing from the retail world, and a growing number of showrooms, the company is now experimenting more aggressively with its offline push. But it’s trying to transfer the same academic aesthetic/brand offline while keeping a little bit of the tech, thanks to teaming up . Its new flagship store in NYC is designed to look like a classic, old library — the New York Public Library, really — with brass library lamps, rolling ladders and musty books. The whole deal. In a way, it feels a little pretentious, but it’s also awesome and makes sense given the product; you use your glasses to read, nerd — sometimes even things besides the Internet. And in fact, it’s almost the opposite. Rather than keep its eyewear behind glass, the startup’s new store leaves its glasses out in the open to be taken for a test drive. The store also includes an in-house optometrist for on-hand, $50 eye exams offered seven days a week. Non-prescription glasses will be sold for take-away, and customers can choose to receive products by mail or to pick them up at the store. That might seem like superfluous information for those not living in the five boroughs, but it appears that the startup is already taking its brick-and-mortar retail strategy beyond NYC. , Warby has listed a job posting for a , seeking someone with “sales management experience with a customer-focused, operationally excellent retailer … to build a team of exceptional team members.” And they’re also hiring an in-store . You don’t have to live at 221B Baker Street to put those pieces together, amirite? But the other key to Warby Parker’s new offline strategy, as Om describes , is that the company wants to bring more tech into the offline world by wiring its stores to collect data. Using Wi-Fi, sensors, etc., it wants to get a better understanding of how people shop, what the trends are both in terms of in-store flow and customer design and product preferences, for example. The more they can bring smart data collection methods offline, the more business intelligence they can glean — especially when, as Om points out, it’s combined with insight from online shopping data. It may be too early to say that the eyewear startup is at the tip of an online-to-offline retail wave about to sweep through e-commerce — not really sure I see that happening yet — but it is also far from being counterintuitive. Create a strong, hip brand online, generate brand recognition and revenue, get a foothold on the market, and move offline. It seems like a familiar playbook, even if it isn’t. [Photo credits: ]
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Gillmor Gang: Speculation, Music, Death
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Steve Gillmor
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
The Gillmor Gang — Kevin Marks, John Taschek, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor — spared no expense to bring you the finest in up-to-date tech commentary. In other words, we tore into Twitter Music, ignored Facebook Home, dissected the internals of AirPlay, and cashed our Bitcoin checks. Our attention is a zero sum game, and whether it’s West Wing or Twitter pointers into the musicsphere, how we make our streaming choices will determine who the big winners are. What we’re really waiting for is the tipping point when the streamer artists crossover and recapture the idea that the creators are the real coin of the realm. @stevegillmor, @kteare, @kevinmarks, @jtaschek Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor
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Hailo, SideCar, And The New York Taxi And Limousine Commission To Discuss The Future Of Transportation At Disrupt NY 2013
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
In the coming weeks, the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission is expected to enter into its first trial of taxi e-hail apps. That’ll allow startups like that help users find nearby cabs through their mobile phones, without having to hail them from the street. At the same time, competition is coming from services like , which enables passengers to find rides from community drivers. All these changes will have a significant impact not just on consumers — who will soon have more choices than ever — but on the entire urban transportation industry. There’s the question of how regulators view the safety of mobile, on-demand transportation services, particularly those which provide rides from drivers without commercial licenses. There’s also the difficult balance between regulation and innovation, particularly as the taxi industry seeks to compete with the convenience provided by technology startups like Uber? At , I’ll be talking about some of the companies involved in this transition, as well as the local regulatory agency which oversees them, to discuss how these apps will reshape the way we think about getting around cities like New York. I’ll be joined by NY TLC Deputy Commissioner Ashwini Chhabra, who will present the side of the regulators in this debate. Over the last year, he’s been working with local taxi companies, tech startups, and technology providers, to make supporting e-hail applications a reality in the city. We’ll also have , CEO of taxi e-hail startup Hailo. Already operating a wildly popular service in the U.K., Hailo will be one of the first apps to take advantage of the TLC’s new e-hail rules. Prior to founding Hailo, Bregman was the founder and CTO of eCourier.co.uk, a company which used GPS for an intelligent dispatch system. And rounding out our panel will be , CEO of ride-sharing startup SideCar. After a successful run in San Francisco, SideCar is aggressively expanding into other markets, including Brooklyn, N.Y. Prior to founding SideCar, this tech veteran had co-founded companies like FreeLoader and anti-spam leader Brightmail, and has also been an investor in a number of cleanweb technologies and startups.
Founder & CEO, Jay Bregman is the Founder / CEO of Hailo – a network that matches passengers and licensed taxi drivers using a tool which helps to make cabbies’ days more sociable – and profitable. Hailo has raised $50M in investment from an all-star cast of investors including Union Square Ventures, Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, Atomico Ventures, Richard Branson and KDDI. Together they’ve funded Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and Tumblr, founded Skype, and brought loads of other fanatistic companies to life all over the world. Previously Jay founded eCourier.co.uk which was voted London’s most inspirational business by the Evening Standard in 2007. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an MSc from the London School of Economics. Jay was named on the Times’ 100 People to Watch in 2012. He now lives in New York City managing Hailo’s North American expansion.
CEO, Sunil Paul is co-founder and CEO of rideshare community SideCar. SideCar has operations in San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Austin, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Brooklyn, NY. Sunil coined the term “cleanweb” to describe the aggressive application of social, mobile, and Internet media to accelerate cleantech deployment and restructure sectors as diverse as hotels, automobiles, agriculture and food, clothing, buildings, lighting and renewable finance. SideCar is a realization of Sunil’s cleanweb vision.
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Beyond The Bitcoin Bubble
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Jon Evans
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
A few months ago, while visiting a hacker friend’s magnificent new San Francisco loft, he gestured to a little alcove stuffed with server racks and said: “And over there are the Bitcoin mines.” I smiled and nodded, thinking, Andy, if you’re reading this, I apologize. Is it ever, and how. Over the last few weeks the hype around everyone’s favorite distributed cryptographic currency has gone . It’s ; no, it’s the first instance of the ; no, it will ; no, it’s ; no, it’s an . No, possibly, conceivably, maybe, and no. But: I realized this week that Bitcoin actually a really big deal — in a way that’s been almost entirely obscured by all the hype. A rare voice of reason this month came from Felix Salmon, who (in a post marred by some remarkable ignorance; for instance, Facebook Credits ceased to be a $1 billion market when Facebook them ): A peer-to-peer payments system, allowing anybody on the internet to pay anybody else on the internet without having to sign up with some financial-services behemoth first, could revolutionize global commerce … Bitcoin isn’t the future. But it has helped to light the way ahead. I mostly concur. Of course, I would, since I concluded exactly the same thing , when Bitcoin was at its previous hype peak. I went on then to speculate that its real future might be as a national currency in a nation like Zimbabwe previously scarred by hyperinflation. …And I don’t know what I was thinking. Bitcoin’s true long-term value was staring me in the face, and I missed it. It wasn’t until I read this on the subject that it hit me. Almost everyone else writing about Bitcoin is doing so from the perspective of a First World citizen living in a nation with thriving electronic payment networks and a strong, easily traded currency. But that’s not the context where it really matters. Where Bitcoin matters, where it’s , is the developing world. Ever tried to exchange Colombian pesos in Guatemala, or Tanzanian shillings in Zambia? , and believe me, it’s a Kafkaesque nightmare. Now imagine in the developing world and trying to sell goods or services internationally. Talk about a . Until Bitcoin. To quote that Nyaruka post: Someone in Rwanda that builds a compelling service can instantly start taking payments from the rest of the world, without asking for permission, without filling out any paperwork and with the same fee structure as the biggest retailers … So Bitcoin is exciting to me not so much because it is a new currency, but because it has the potential to be a globally recognized, yet completely decentralized, form of digital payment. Of course unofficial distributed international payment networks are as old as the hills. Our own John Biggs that Bitcoin is in essence much like a modern day network; but it is to as PayPal is to money orders sent by Pony Express. No ID required, no setup costs, no nothing: just send and receive. Bitcoin is no threat to the modern nation-state…but it is conceivably an existential threat to PayPal. However, it’s not without its flaws. For one thing, Bitcoin’s “ ” — the record that verifies all transactions — could conceivably be forked, as due to a back in March. That wasn’t a significant problem, but now that Bitcoin’s collective value has briefly hit 10 figures (although it might be back down to eight figures by tomorrow…) you have to wonder if someone might try a brute-force attack on it. “If a user controls the majority of computational power in the mining network, they can manipulate this to their advantage by creating two diverging chains,” to quote a . In other words, if a true computing megapower (say, Amazon, Apple, Google, or one of a handful of national governments) really wanted to break Bitcoin, they could. In fact I’ve seen speculation that anyone willing to splash out a few million dollars on custom hardware would probably be able to hijack the block chain. Furthermore, it’s not really all that anonymous, which is a highly desirable feature in a digital currency; and worst of all, if the last few weeks have proved anything at all about Bitcoin, it’s that it’s volatile… which is exactly what you want in a payments mechanism. So I believe it’s Bitcoin’s successors — whether that be / , or the anonymous Bitcoin bolt-on , or something else still being dreamed up — that will truly change the world. But not the First World. We don’t much need Bitcoin and its descendants, at least not yet. In the developing world, though, crippled by weak currencies and byzantine payment infrastructures, a simple, seamless, frictionless, reliable international peer-to-peer payments system could be a huge deal. But not until the volatility diminishes…which is to say, not until the hype here fades away. Here’s hoping that’s soon. Len Radin, .
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Facebook’s Latest Home Commercial Is Just The Right Amount Of Weird
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 4 | 13 |
During the Facebook Home launch event, Zuck premiered the company’s first commercial for the product. Complete with half-naked dudes stuffed into luggage compartments, surprise drag queens, and an unintentionally spooky child, it was… pretty bad. One guy in the audience behind me whispered “ “, faces were palmed, and the room was pretty quiet as the lights came back up. They aimed for weird-funny, but ended up with mostly just weird. Fortunately, their second attempt is about a thousand times better, if only because it has a goat that screams in Zuck’s face. Plus, unlike the first commercial, this one actually mentions Facebook Home before the last half second of the 60 second spot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArFy91n1FR0 (For the curious, that’s totally Facebook’s real Menlo Park HQ) And for those who missed it, the original, super weird commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx_GzNlQOxI If only a funny commercial could save them from .
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Alipay Launches Sound Wave Mobile Payments System In Beijing Subway
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
Alipay has launched a new payment system in the Beijing subway that uses sound waves to connect smartphones with vending machines. The sound wave payment system was and (link via Google Translate) generated by a smartphone to carry digital information to another device. Initially used for smartphone-to-smartphone transactions, the Beijing Subway launch marks the first time the system has been used with a payment kiosk for consumer transactions, according to (link via Google Translate). The sound wave technology are being applied to vending machines at two subway stations run by Beijing MTR Corporation (BJMTR) which sell soft drinks. The new system was launched in two stations on Line 4 of the Beijing subway last week and will expand to the rest of the line soon. To use the sound wave payment system, customers open the Alipay Wallet app on their handset while holding it close to a sensor on the vending machine, and wait for it to make a “shoo-shoo-shoo” noise. Wang Yu-ming, Alipay’s business development director, told Xinhua that each sound transmission is unique to the transaction and is only valid for five minutes because of security reasons (each transaction takes less than a minute). If the sound payment’s Beijing subway launch proves successful, the system could potentially be implemented in convenience stores, supermarkets, and department stores. Though Alipay’s system is a novelty for consumers, it is not the first company that has used sound waves to transmit information. First launched in 2011, startup over ultrasonic sound waves.
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Microsoft Reportedly Preparing To Jump On The Smartwatch Bandwagon
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
, , , and are all reportedly working on wrist-worn computing devices behind closed doors, and it seems like that little club of big companies may soon get another member. If a new report from the is to be believed, Microsoft has been in touch with an undisclosed number of suppliers who have apparently been tasked with delivering components for a smartwatch-like device that supports touch input. Now that’s not to say that such a Microsoft smartwatch is a done deal just yet. The Journal’s sources couldn’t confirm that it would ever actually see the light of day, and I’d wager that’s because the folks in Redmond aren’t exactly sure themselves. After all, some of the company’s most intriguing potential products died ignominious deaths after being stuck in the research and production pipeline. Remember the ? The curious dual-screen tablet was apparently very far along (according to , an employee who worked on Courier said it could’ve been completed in “months”) before Microsoft announced its demise in 2010. It doesn’t help that the nascent smartwatch market has proven to be a tough one to crack. After all, the prospect of delivering a compelling user experience on a wrist-worn gadget isn’t a new one, and only a few of those devices (like the Pebble) could be considered anything close to successful. Microsoft knows this all too well — the Redmond-based company debuted its SPOT (“Smart Personal Objects Technology”) data delivery service back at CES 2003, and it wasn’t long before watchmakers like Fossil, Suunto, and Tissot began folding SPOT into their own timepieces. Microsoft toyed around with at least of its own, but as a company that was devoted largely to its software endeavors, it seemed more than happy to leave the finicky business of building watches to others before ultimately killing SPOT in 2008. That’s not exactly the Microsoft we know today though. Early, fruitful hardware projects like the XBox and its successful successor have paved the way for a Microsoft that’s much more willing to take calculated chances on hardware. One could argue that devices like the Zune and Surface/Surface Pro tablets are more reactions to shifts in the consumer tech industry rather than game-changing innovations in their own right, but that’s not necessarily a problem when it comes to mass market gadgetry. The winner isn’t usually the company that does things first, it’s the company that does things best. For all we know, Microsoft could be the company best equipped to take the smartwatch concept and bring it to the masses, but we’ll have to wait and see if Redmond actually rises to that particular challenge first.
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Baidu, Hillhouse & GGV Reportedly Invest $57M In Qunar As The Chinese Travel Site Weathers A Boycott
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
Baidu, Hillhouse Capital, and GGV Capital have invested a total of $57 million in Chinese travel site Qunar, according to a report by (link via Google Translate). The news comes as Qunar weathers a boycott by third-party service providers triggered by a change in its operational and pricing policies. that Qunar might have hiked its prices in a bid to increase revenue and profits before making its first public filing for an offering. A spokesman for Baidu said that the company is not currently commenting on the First Financial Daily report. The $57 million round was reportedly closed in March, but the current valuation of Qunar is not clear yet. Both Baidu and GGV Capital are already investors in Qunar. Back in November 2009, GGV Capital led an investment round of $15 million that included Mayfield Ventures, GSR Ventures and Tenaya Capital. In July 2011, Baidu in Qunar when it invested $306 million. The round valued Qunar at about $483 million, according to First Financial Daily. For Baidu, investing in Qunar allows it to expand its offerings beyond its core search business and better compete with rivals Alibaba Group and Tencent (which made an investment in online travel company eLong before the Baidu-Qunar tie-up). After its July 2011 investment, Baidu also integrated Qunar’s search results into Baidu’s travel vertical. The not just for the two companies, but because it also marked a turning point for Chinese startups, which had previously focused more on IPOs instead of acquisitions. At that time, Qunar CEO Zhuang Chenchao said that the cash would be spent developing new services like a hotel search and mobile apps. The newest reported investment–and current boycott–means that investors will probably have to wait for Qunar’s initial public offering. First Financial Daily reports that rumors had previously placed the timing of the IPO at the end of next year, but other factors contributing to a delay could include and an by Chinese regulators for companies seeking to list on the country’s two stock exchanges.
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 4 | 12 | null |
Savvy SoCal Students Bring Their Take On Laser Tag To Kickstarter
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
I was fortunate enough to spend a solid chunk of my adolescence strapped into an ill-fitting vest and shooting lasers at friends of mine, but a group of technically minded youngsters and their mentors in southern California didn’t just want to laser tag. No, the crew at San Diego-based wanted to whip up a (slightly) more subtle laser tag system of their own, and they’re just about there — now they’ve kicked off a to help bring it to market. The wearable sensor the team has cobbled together is rather neat if only because of how unobtrusive it’s meant to be. Rather than go with a traditional (and bulky) vest, ThoughtSTEM has instead put together a small PCB that’s meant to be worn under a layer of clothing so all that’s visible are the six LEDs that change colors to display your remaining hit points. For better or worse, you won’t have to lug around any plastic guns either. The sensors on the wearable unit can be triggered by any gadget that can emit infrared pulses at 38kHz, which means most of the remote controls currently cluttering up your living room will probably do the trick. That also means that with a little hackery, you could probably rig up a more traditional IR gun without too much trouble (there seems to be more than a few people who’ve already tried ). Alright fine, it may lack the panache that come with some more expensive, elaborate setups, but it’s a very neat first project for a crew of savvy young students and their college-age mentors. All told, the ThoughtSTEM team is looking for $10,000 in funding to improve the design of the wearable PCBs and produce them on a larger scale, as well as put together an online storefront to sell them from. $75 will net you a fully assembled target unit, but if you’re willing to apply some of your own elbow grease you can pick up the schematics and a pre-programmed processor for $25, or a bag full of parts for $49. While the proceeds of the Kickstarter campaign will help lock down the particulars of production, ThoughtSTEM aims to funnel whatever future money they make into the program’s coffers so those SoCal mentors continue to run workshops and summer camp programs for tech-savvy middle school and high school kids.
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Napster.fm Is An Open Source Social Music Player That Can Be Hosted By Anyone In Case Of Shutdown
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
Anyone who has had a computer and a connection to the Internet in 1999 quickly knew what it felt like to find any song that you wanted, and then listen to it almost immediately. Well, the immediate part wasn’t true, since you had to download the MP3s, which usually took quite a bit of time on a dialup connection. Since Napster, and it getting sued into oblivion (and then ), streaming music has become the technology du-jour. Napster co-founder Sean Parker is now heavily involved with Spotify, which realized the “any song, any time” dream that Napster introduced us to. Today, a service called popped up, and it’s a web-based music player that has some interesting social features. The best part about it is that it’s open source and can be set up by anyone, in case it ever gets shut down. Its creator, , is a student at Carnegie Mellon who is “taking a few years off to work at SpaceX and do other stuff.” A part of the “other stuff” is clearly Napster.fm. How does it work? Well, after going through the quite (Lester obviously has a sense of humor), he explains that the service is dependent on “minor inefficiencies in YouTube’s piracy-detection system.” Regardless of where the tracks are coming from, the service actually works. As soon as you visit the site, the song that’s queued up for you is “Never Gonna Give You Up,” which is long-forgotten-once-hated “RickRoll.” The search interface is pretty basic, but once you start adding songs to your playlist, you can share them with friends who have also signed up for the service. Once you’ve done that, you can sync up and listen to exactly what they’re listening to. The “Discovery” tab shows you what everyone has listened to, if you’re in the mood to find something new. You can even create a group of friends that are using the service and someone can play DJ and decide on which tracks will come up next. Sure, these are some of the things that you can do on other services, like Turntable.fm, but the interface is stripped down and basic, not sucking up a lot of resources. The other nice part is that there isn’t a desktop client to worry about, as is the case with Spotify. What you’re listening to will be synced over all of your browsers: It’s nice to see that Lester has brought back some of the old Napster features like “Hot List,” which lets you browse your friends’ libraries, as well as the chat and transferring songs to friends. It doesn’t hurt that it’s free and has no playback limit. Will it stay around? It’s hard to say, especially if it completely relies on a YouTube hole, but if the site itself were to get shut down, Lester has put all of his work on GitHub so that anyone can get another version going immediately. If there’s any doubt as to whether Lester is having fun with the project, all you have to do is read this FAQ entry: Absolutely. No.
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CodeNow Brings Its Programming Class For Underrepresented Teens To NYC
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
, a nonprofit program that teaches coding basics to high schoolers, with an emphasis on reaching girls, ethnic minorities, and other underrepresented groups, is in the middle of a significant expansion. After launching in Washington, D.C., in 2011, the program has now launched in New York City and is currently holding training sessions with its first NYC group. In a few months, it’s going to select participants in its first fellowship program, which will take place over the summer. And later this year it plans to launch in San Francisco. CodeNow’s curriculum uses tools like (for programming basics) and (for robotics). It involves a combination of weekend sessions and online coursework, as well as a boot camp (held over the longer school breaks or on consecutive weekends) with “intensive training” in Ruby. One goal of the program is to turn students into programmers. Founder and executive director Ryan Seashore said that of the 10 alumni who have now graduated from high school, three have gone on to study computer science. At the same time, he said that the program has benefits “even if a kid never writes a line of code after our program.” That’s because they’ll have training in how to “think logically” and are “no longer fearful of technology.” Even though the program started (and will continue) in D.C., Seashore has moved to New York, and it sounds like he can be more ambitious with the NYC program, admitting more students, holding more classes, and launching the fellowship program. “There was a real need and desire for a program in D.C. — the financial support was just harder to come by,” Seashore said. Speaking of CodeNow’s fellowships, they will be awarded to the best students in the first two NYC cohorts, and they’ll include a full-time stipend for six weeks of software development training and work. Between their initial CodeNow training and the fellowship, Seashore said participants will receive “300 hours of in-person training,” and CodeNow will also try to connect them with internships at “awesome tech companies.” I haven’t attended any of the sessions, but Seashore sent me a few of testimonials, just to give me a taste of the students’ enthusiasm. An 11th grader named Tahara said her “favorite part of the weekend was waking up for CodeNow.” Mamadou, a ninth grader, said, “My favorite part was attempting and writing codes to get the lights to turn on and off for the .” When launching in NYC, Seashore said CodeNow received more than 250 applications, from which the team selected 13 girls and 12 boys. Seashore said CodeNow accepts applicants from all five boroughs of New York, and it provides subway cards to help the kids get to the training sessions in downtown Manhattan. Interested NYC students can . The deadline is Wednesday, April 17. Adults, meanwhile, can .
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The VC World Returns to Its Operating Roots
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
“You can’t go into Compton to rehabilitate gang members if you haven’t been a Crip.” — Ben Horowitz, co-founder of fast-rising venture outfit Andreessen Horowitz. Twenty years ago, the typical VC looked like a traditional banker, complete with an MBA and a background in finance. But a Wall Street background is becoming increasingly rare on Sand Hill Rd. The most coveted VCs are people who have built and scaled businesses, and who are deep in a particular domain. Why the shift? Gang references aside, Horowitz explains that you can’t give founders great advice unless you’ve actually been down that path yourself — a path that is often filled with hardship and struggle. Horowitz speaks from both sides of the coin. He advises his portfolio with the same teeth that were cut through co-founding enterprise company Opsware, and later selling the business to HP for $1.6 billion. One of his board members, Bill Campbell, brought the same level of operational experience from Intuit, Kodak, and Apple that Horowitz now brings to his companies. Horowitz describes Campbell’s experience-backed advice as “incredibly powerful”. The advisors and investors you surround yourself with will be the people you rely on when times get tough, he says. When Horowitz had to do his first round of layoffs at Opsware, he turned to Bill for advice. “Being able to talk to him and understand how to do these layoffs in the right way, I didn’t kill my company and people felt like they were treated fairly.” In fact, some of the staffers Horowitz laid off at Opsware now work with him at Andreessen Horowitz. “Having that kind of advice and support system built into the agreement when being funded is a great opportunity for any entrepreneur,” says Horowitz, whose co-founder at the firm is Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and Opsware. The firm’s other partners include John O’Farrell (exec at Opsware and Silver Spring Networks), Scott Weiss (co-founder of IronPort), Jeff Jordan (CEO of OpenTable, eBay/PayPal exec), Peter Levine (CEO at XenSource) and Chris Dixon (co-founder of Hunch and SiteAdvisor). Other firms are also shoring up their operational talent. Peter Barris, managing director of venture firm New Enterprise Associates, entered the VC space in 1992 after leading two companies to massive acquisitions. “I came out of the operating world, and I was the exception not the rule. Now I’m the rule not the exception.” Barris adds that in the 1990s the typical VC was a generalist in the largest sense, and now VCs are more focused on certain areas of technology. He attributes the current oversupply of VC dollars as one of the reasons why operating expertise is so much in demand right now. “In 1992, dollars were scarce and VCs were distributing to a big demand set. Now there is an oversupply of investment money, and the way VCs are competing is based on value. The operators and VCs who have domain expertise can help startups grow much more than generalists,” he explains. Foundational Capital’s Paul Holland says that in this era of the discriminating entrepreneur, the founder “doesn’t just want to get money from an investor; he or she wants the investor to be a successful entrepreneur, who’s seen the movie, and will help guide them down that path.” And it’s not just presence of experience, but the content of that experience. Steve Herrod, the former CTO of enterprise and virtualization giant VMware who says that in his limited experience in the VC world, he’s observed that entrepreneurs are judging investors based on what specific domain expertise they can provide. Greylock’s John Lilly is a strong example of an operator with domain expertise. Prior to joining the firm in 2011, Lilly served as CEO of Mozilla, founded and ran Reactivity, and was a senior scientist at Apple. “We’re a big believer in operators at VCs, and because we are all product folks by nature, we obsess about how you build big companies,” Lilly tells me. He also predicts that there will be certain VCs you go to for design, certain VCs who attract cloud-based enterprise investments, and specific VCs who are known for products dealing with networking. Every investor I spoke to believes that we’re headed towards a world where nearly all VCs will have built companies. If that’s true, then can we expect the entire ecosystem to reach a higher level of empathy? Reflecting on his own days as an operator, Horowitz tells me that when entrepreneurs “get one out of five things right in a given day”, it’s hard to talk to an investor who simply doesn’t empathize with the complexities of the role. In a way, Horowitz explains, the VC world is going back to its roots in the seventies. Sequoia Capital founder Don Valentine previously founded National Semiconductor, and was an executive at Fairchild Semiconductor. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ founder Eugene Kleiner was a founder of Fairchild, while Tom Perkins was an early HP executive. They drew on their operating experience to cultivate and invest in a new generation of entrepreneurs, and now Horowitz, Lilly and others are paying that expertise forward. In a noisy and highly competitive ecosystem, there’s something pure about operators helping operators.
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Report: To Settle With EU Regulators, Google Proposes To Link To 3 Competitors Every Time It Links To Itself
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
Google’s search results in Europe could soon look a bit different if a number of new reports about the company’s settlement with the European Union’s competition commission are correct. After a three-year investigation into its potentially anti-competitive practices, Google submitted its proposal for an agreement with the EU last week, but the details remained under wraps. According to reports from the and , however, Google’s proposal includes a number of changes to how it will do business (at least in the EU). According to these reports, Google has offered to “ ” when it is linking to its own specialized services and vertical search engines. Every time Google promotes one of its own links, it will also show “at least three links to rival, non-Google sites that have information relevant to a user’s query,” the Wall Street Journal’s Amir Efrati . So whenever a search on Google would naturally highlight a result from Google+ Local, Google would also add links to sites like Yelp, UrbanSpoon, TripAdvisor or other relevant sites. This part of the agreement would at least cover Google’s search services for restaurants, finance and shopping. Results from Google News, , would “merely need to be labelled and separated.” Under this proposed settlement, Google will also offer sites the ability to easily remove 10 percent of their content from its vertical search engines (though it’s not clear how this would actually work) and make it easier for advertisers to move their campaigns to other search engines (similar to what Google is doing in the U.S. after its earlier this year). Google’s search algorithm itself would remain untouched in this agreement. If the EU agrees to these terms, Google will avoid the large financial penalties that the EU could have levied against the search company. The proposal, if the reports are correct, would be binding for five years, and a neutral third party would ensure that Google doesn’t stray from the agreement. Google competitors, whose official complaint started this investigation, were probably hoping for larger changes, and fines will probably not be in favor of these relatively small changes Google is offering to make. Last week, already filed against Google in the EU. This time, the organization, which is backed by Microsoft, Expedia, Oracle, TripAdvisor and 13 other search and technology companies, argues that Google is abusing its power “to dominate the mobile marketplace and cement its control over consumer Internet data for online advertising as usage shifts to mobile.” Even if Google does settle this latest investigation with the EU then, chances are we haven’t heard the last of this.
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Jomi’s Smart Water Bottle Sleeve-Plus-App Wants To Track & Chart Your Liquid Intake To Make You Drink More
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Natasha Lomas
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
Move over . Estonian startup is cooking up a pair of smart devices that will remind people to drink water. Or at least whatever liquid/poison of choice you put in your water bottle. The aim, says the startup, is to encourage healthy behaviour and counteract the mild dehydration we are all apparently afflicted with. No, not just hungover folk; everyone who fails to glug down the requisite 2.5-3 litres of water per day. Jomi is prototyping a device — or rather two devices — that aim to fix the problem of having plentiful water on tap but never remembering to drink enough of it (perhaps the ultimate #firstworldproblem). So far, Jomi has created design prototypes and 10 milled PCBs for developers to play around with but no final product. It’s bootstrapping development but will be launching a crowdfunding campaign to fund a production run once it has finalised hardware design and testing. The two devices it’s planning are the Jomi Band, which will be the more basic of the pair (pictured above in an early design concept render, and below right in prototype form). This will attach around a water bottle and remind the user at pre-set intervals to take a sip (presumably by flashing/beeping). The second more pro product — the Jomi Sleeve — will attach to the bottom of the bottle and, in addition to reminders, will periodically weigh the bottle, to figure out how much water is being consumed. The data will then be sent via Bluetooth to a mobile/tablet app so that pro users can geek out over graphs and charts showing their beverage consumption data (and share their relative ‘liquidity’ with friends). What specifically does the device hardware consist of? “PCB is custom built, it features an accelerometer, MCU, LEDs, and a few other bits and pieces,” Jomi founder and CEO Andre Eistre tells TechCrunch. Although he stresses they are still at an early stage, with the hardware set to shrink — and the design to be reworked. The software will be open to other developers to hack around with it — so perhaps another app could be made to warn alcoholic beverage drinkers when they have reached a daily safe unit intake level. (Or track soft drink guzzlers’ sugar intake and chart their rising risk of Type 2 diabetes.) “Designers (from Estonian Arts Academy) are working on the next version of the design model and the design is expected to change drastically over the next few weeks,” he says. “Right now we are focusing on hardware (revision 3) and embedded software of the device… The hardware isn’t final either — it will be a lot smaller than that. Software will be open source — we want people to have fun with the device.” Eistre says Jomi will new silicone molds for the first test batch — due to be handed out to a test group by the end of this month. After that it will be turning to Kickstarter to get the funding ball rolling for a first production run, as it continues product development. It will be aiming to raise $50,000 to start production. The target market for the devices are 20- to 40-year-old health conscious U.S. consumers who have a penchant for gadgets — the sort of folk who likely own a Fitbit or Fuelband. Jomi is partnering for testing the market in Europe with bottle maker , and is hoping to get similar companies in the U.S. interested. “Our intended target market is the U.S., where we would like to secure deals with a few larger water vessel producers, like Sigg, Gobble, CleanKanteen, CamelBak, etc,” Eistre says. It’s also making the most of , securing help and small bits of funding (totalling around €8,000/$10,500 to date) from a variety of domestic companies to keep development costs down. For instance, Eistre says the hardware development costs have been completely funded by local electronic design firm . Other Estonian companies and organisations that have kicked in free services/grants include , , and — quelle surprise — local water company Tallinna Vesi. Jomi is also down to the last eight (out of a starter pool of 100 original “best business ideas”) in Estonia’s “largest entrepreneurial competition” — (aka “brain hunt”) — which has a €50,000 prize for the winner. Jomi’s water-measuring gizmos can be put into a category (connected objects/the Internet of things) that looks set to explode over the coming years, as more everyday objects are augmented with data-generating sensors, and that data is in turn funnelled into the Internet’s matrix via smartphones and home routers.
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Iterations: How Five Real Economists Think About Bitcoin’s Future
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Semil Shah
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
TechCrunch There isn’t just a bubble in the Bitcoin economy, there’s a bubble in the number of posts about Bitcoin. I’ll pile on, even after this week’s mini-crash, but with a twist. A few weeks ago, I on what I thought about Bitcoin, but the over-arching feeling I had was that I couldn’t put my finger on what could become of this currency in the future. Perhaps that’s part of the reason this phenomenon is so fascinating to us all. So, instead of trying to determine future scenarios in a world I don’t and because Twitter has turned everyone into armchair professors, I reached out to a number of practicing economists who were either former professors or classmates, or had friends make introductions, and asked them to chime in briefly on a future with Bitcoin. Please note I requested a rather informal, fun submission from them — nothing too serious. Interestingly, most of my former professors hadn’t yet heard of Bitcoin and subsequently elected to pass on this opportunity — perhaps I’ll follow up with them later in the year. Luckily, I was able to corral a few economists to participate, and I’ve reposted their thoughts below: currently an in Public Policy at Harvard: It would really be something if intelligent people chose to invest more trust in a currency system built and managed, in large part, by anonymous computer hackers than they did in currency systems built and managed by governments of the people, by the people. Fortunately, we are not there yet. Today, Bitcoin is mostly just a matter of media speculation arising from the continuing financial turmoil and growing distrust in the global financial system. This media speculation may well lead to a protracted period of financial speculation, however, during which techies are joined by increasing numbers of financial sophisticates seeking a new bubble to exploit. Compared with corporate securities, futures, or even derivatives, Bitcoin is even less inhibited by any underlying sense of value. The bubble can just grow and grow, so long as demand increases faster than supply — and so long as the network doesn’t crash, a new cryptographic exploit doesn’t unravel everything, the fundamental lack of anonymity doesn’t bother anyone, those who lose private keys and thus potentially small fortunes don’t complain too loudly, improvements (or hacks) to “mining” don’t lead to sudden shocks to supply, etc. Profiting from a bubble of any sort can be a risky business, but our global economy is not at all lacking in people willing to give it a go. Thus, as a potentially exciting new vehicle for financial speculation, Bitcoin may be with us for some time. a former economist with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Stanford economist, Head of Portfolio Management and Director of Quantitative Research at HNC Advisors AG: Bitcoin is dead. Long live Bitcoin. The value of having an easy-to-store, hard-to-steal, and hard-to-counterfeit medium of exchange is substantial. Especially one which doesn’t lead to the extermination of species (e.g. cowry shells, ivory) or direct environmental degradation (e.g. gold). Unfortunately, as those familiar with Paul Krugman’s writings on liquidity traps know, Bitcoin’s known and finite supply dooms it as a workable replacement currency. Furthermore, as it has no apparent use-value (unlike, say, Platinum), this kills it entirely. Nevertheless, the flaw lies with the implementation, rather than the idea itself. I expect Bitcoin (“BC”) will soon see competition in this space from “Currency 3.0” entrants that fix the flaws in Bitcoin and thus have a better (i.e. nonzero) chance of achieving the “gold standard” of currency acceptance, namely a liquid market in Forex forwards with another major currency. At any rate, be on the lookout for Awesome Drachmas (“AD”) using newly-discovered prime numbers as units of exchange. They’re costly to “mine”, in infinite supply, and even have use-value (e.g. cryptography). Coming soon to a money-changer near you! the U.S. Editor for where he’s been for 22 years: As I wrote in my on the future of money, “ “, the resurrection of gold and the emergence of Bitcoin are two sides of the same, er, coin. Both are a response to falling confidence in the soundness of government-backed ‘fiat’ money in an era of quantitative easing. I think the algorithmic approach to controlling the money supply used by Bitcoin and other digital currencies being developed in Silicon Valley could go a long way to creating a sound store of value. The biggest risk to these currencies may turn out to be government action to destroy an alternative to fiat money. But what if a sovereign state was to issue an algorithm-based currency? Would that drive fiat money out of business? a Professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Business: There are two scopes for discussion about the future of bitcoin. First, the short-term: if this is a bubble, when will it burst? It’s notoriously difficult to predict the end of a speculative . Those lucky enough to time it correctly can make a lot of money, but that won’t be true for the rest of us mere mortals. The price chart for reminds me of the from 1995 to early 2000. Clearly, these are vastly different, but I think the Nasdaq plot is representative of many yet-to-burst bubble prices. The Google Trends for bitcoins is similarly shaped, which suggests that when the media frenzy over the digital currency subsides, so too may much of investors’ interest. Second, the long-term: what will the bitcoin market look like in 5-10 years? That’s even harder than calling the peak of a bubble. I think a significant contribution of the bitcoin market is that it serves as a proof-of-concept for a decentralized crypto-currency. Two benefits are that bitcoins are inherently deflationary and transactions are anonymous. Given the recent slew of fiscal crises and increasing concerns about online privacy, these are two strong points in bitcoin’s favor—or whatever future crypto-currency arises. a Professor at Virginia’s Darden School of Business: At first blush Bitcoin is nothing special. Virtually anything can be used as a pseudo-currency. And, there is nothing new about a profound fear of fiat currencies and all manner of efforts to avoid the risk of relying on central bankers. Indeed, the prevalence of fiat (paper) currencies in a post gold-standard world is flat-out amazing. But, when the confidence underlying fiat currencies falters folks resort to recognizable and reliable stores of value and it’s not that hard to manage in such a world. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russians and others in FSU states resorted to a highly functional trinity of currency substitutes: cigarettes for the small stuff, Vodka for the medium and Cognac for big ticket items. In some ways, Bitcoin is just a virtual pack of smokes. But in other ways, it’s revolutionary. Cigarettes have inherent value and alternative uses, like cotton and even gold. Bitcoins are valued in and of themselves. They have even less alternative uses than paper currency or baseball cards. So, if they can establish their worth and hold the confidence of investors long enough, the institutions that can eventually convert Bitcoins from a fad-like store of value to a real currency might just begin to develop. And then, Bitcoins could become a reliable medium of exchange and index value that has some real place in the world. Even it they just serve to measure the value of goods ultimately transacted in ‘real’ currencies, Bitcoins will have become something entirely new: a true, stateless, virtual currency rooted in nothing other than confidence in the set of rules that surround them. It could all implode, of course, and that’s not unlikely. But, currencies are always tested and all of them have gone through existential crises. The real question isn’t whether Bitcoin will falter, plummet or take us all on a crazy ride, it’s whether it will actually survive its inevitable test. If it does, even at very low values, it will change the way we think about stores of value, finance and the independence of the virtual economy. /
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Facebook Home And The Promise Of Android
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Sarah Perez
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
If you’re an iPhone user, you might be feeling a little left behind, because Facebook , by CEO Mark Zuckerberg as the “next version of Facebook.” In fact, you might be feeling this way if you’re an Android user, too. For now, can even run Home ( ) — notably missing from the lineup is Google’s Nexus 4, the latest in the lineup of Nexus-branded flagship Android phones — devices that users adopt in particular to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to new app releases. But Facebook promised that more handsets will be supported in time, as will tablets. Well, only Android ones, that is. It’s too soon to say whether Facebook Home will live up to the company’s claims and expectations of becoming the new way people interact with the social network, or whether it will go down only as a notable experiment on the social network’s part. If the latter, it won’t be a major loss to the company, as Facebook will continue to have access to data from a core group of heavy Facebook enthusiasts. It will learn what keeps users engaged, what posts and images catch their eye and their clicks, and, eventually, which advertisements do, too. But to those who can’t download Facebook Home today because they’re using the “wrong” smartphone, it’s of small comfort to think that perhaps the product won’t ever really be as successful as Facebook promises. Because for users, what matters is not whether this grand roll of the dice pays off for Facebook itself – it’s whether you have the ability to participate in the game in the first place. This is the challenge of the new mobile landscape. Unlike the web, where the worst thing developers encountered was IE compatibility – – it was only a matter of time (and hair pulling and screaming) and energy to bring a new idea to everyone who had Internet access and a web browser. Because the web is built on open standards, this sort of thing is possible. Facebook wouldn’t even be Facebook had this not been the case. But mobile is a different story, and a potentially dangerous one in terms of progress and innovation, as Facebook Home today proves. On the one side, you have an Android ecosystem that’s by operating system version. In fact, the way it discloses that fragmentation. Now, instead of telling the developer community how many phones run Jelly Bean or Gingerbread, for instance, it tells them how many of those devices are used by people who download apps. It’s an attempt to paint a rosier picture of OS distribution patterns by focusing on the app-haves instead of the app have-nots. (Spoiler: there are a lot of people running old versions of Android out there.) Then on the other side, there’s Apple. Because of its restrictions, Facebook Home will never be able to run as intended on iOS operating systems. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, to be clear. It’s just a statement. Apple deserves plenty of credit for helping technology become an interest of the mainstream – a group that felt its former interfaces, configurations, and command lines too complicated and confusing. Or worse, simply not fun. The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone, but it radically altered the way that people interact with – and learned to love and care about – technology. But if we’re giving Apple credit for sparking this trend, lets give them credit for potentially stalling progress here, too. It’s only a few years into this new paradigm of computing, and things are already starting to feel a little dated. We’ve become accustomed to, , and finally . So the shift ahead of us is enabling new experiences – possibly those that put an app-centric interface secondary. Android is well on its way to enabling this, with its potential for customizations and widgets, as well as the deep hooks that apps can sink into the underlying operating system. Apps like Facebook Home. Facebook Home, however, is but the first high-profile example. on their own with third-party widgets, launchers, and replacements for core applications. Android is not an ideal landscape overall. (See: fragmentation issues above. See also: app quality, developer revenue potential, etc.) In other words, this is a not a statement about who wins the larger war, it’s about who wins on this particular battlefront. That said, , Android is now more promising than iOS. Of course, you may think that Facebook Home itself is a terrible, horrible thing that you would never consider installing on your own phone, and that’s just fine. The point is, it’s a different idea. It’s not , it’s only inspired by them. And even if you have no particular affinity for Facebook itself, you might for the next company that follows it. Because someone will. In fact, one already has: Korean messaging giant plans for a Facebook Home competitor of its own. More will come. And later, it won’t be just about direct copycats like KakaoTalk, or the third-party developers promising DIY “Home-like” experiences, either. Facebook Home’s existence speaks to a world where developers will be prompted to think beyond applications and the isolated experiences they deliver. With the layering, and ,” we’ve been shown the potential to build entirely different ways of interacting with our devices. Period. This is the path of innovation. Someone takes a bold step forward with a new idea. Eyebrows are raised, pundits opine, testers review, but ultimately a thing dies or lives in the hands of the everyday users. You. Facebook Home itself might not make it. It challenges the status quo by making other applications less important than Facebook. That’s a radical enough idea that it could fail. But the damage – whether Facebook Home succeeds or not – is already done. Facebook Home is something else. . That’s perfect. It exists somewhere between apps and phones. It dug out a whole new space, now begging to be exploited, experimented upon, and filled with new ideas. And it did this on Android. Asked if Facebook Home could ever come to iOS, Zuckerberg , “anything that happens with Apple is going to happen with partnership. Google’s Android is open so we don’t have to work with them.” No one had to “work with” the web, either.
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As Berlin Awaits Its Big Tech Exit, Satirical Tumblr Blogs Spawn About The Hype
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Mike Butcher
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
The about the Berlin tech startup scene has this , but as 2013 ebbs into spring, many are asking the same question: When will the hype turn into real results? As many of my contacts said to me on a recent visit: what we need in Berlin for all this hype to be real is a big exit. The most recent evidence that Berlin is capable of producing a decent startup exit is the sale of streaming music tech company , although the financial terms remain a mystery. And German media giant Axel Springer recently Berlin social TV startup TunedIn, originally founded in New York. No price was released. Similarly, , the Miami-based streaming music startup offering an alternative to Pandora, acquired the tiny Berlin-based startup wahwah.fm. Again the terms . By contrast, London and the UK, where the tech hype has been in full flow for a while, has been coming out with some daily impressive results of late. London-based went to Yahoo! for $30 million while has for as much as $100 million. Then there is Cisco Ubiquisys for $310 million. But of course we are forgetting the Berlin-based Samwer Brother phenomenon, where waves of MBAs are sent into battle to clone the latest thing out of the Valley for a simple exit, as . Can we really say that e-commerce deals, such as Fab.com its German competitor Casacanda last year, count in real tech startup terms? They certainly do if you are thinking about sheer value creation. But purists would argue that e-commerce-oriented companies and technology platform companies are quite different beasts. Whatever the philosophical arguments, what Berliners are really looking for are exits from some home-grown innovators and some bigs ones. And while some of the biggest Berlin tech companies, such as Soundcloud and Wooga, appear to be shooting for a major home run, here doesn’t appear to be an exit or IPO on the cards this year for either. What is to be done? Sit and wait? Many would say, let’s just cut the hype and get back to work. No one likes the boy who cried wolf one too many times… Meanwhile, to keep you occupied, we present for you a selection from the hottest startup we found in Berlin lately: a Tumblr blog called , (for those of you who have tired of ). At least we’ll have something to keep us occupied while we wait for Berlin to have its .
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Exit Q&A — Demotix Founder Turi Munthe Gives His Advice On How To Build A Startup
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Mike Butcher
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
Demotix to Bill Gates’ Corbis, the second biggest picture library in the world, in November 2012. On the way, since their in January 2009, they built a community of about 40,000 people in every corner of the globe, providing them with a platform to tell stories that nobody else could – or often would – cover. They broke over 1 million news images, reported 100,000+ news stories, published scoops from to and sold their community’s work all over the world, shipping hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to a network of freelancers from Haiti to Zimbabwe. Not bad for a start-up in news industry which is haemorrhageing money daily. I caught up with Turi Munthe the week after he finally stepped down as CEO to ask what advise he would give to other entrepreneurs. : What did you get right? : Our advisors: we (Jonathan Tepper and I) built a team of exceptional people who, despite our thick-skulledness, helped us avoid some of the biggest potholes. The ones we hit were ALL because we didn’t know how to listen to them. In terms of office culture neither Jonathan nor I have ever had as much fun professionally as starting Demotix. Everyone we hired and kept had the same vision of, commitment to and passion for what we wanted to achieve, and everyone had options (including many of the early interns). We had problems, but we also had a ball and made some great friends in the process. We were cheap because we never raised the squillions of our competitors in the US, so we had to be. Short, cheap leases; no marketing spend (as Founder, you the marketing); no headhunters, no consultants, and as few hires as possible. Don’t try to outsource your risk: do it yourself. Oh, and conferences? Only go to the ones you’re speaking at… We also set out to win prizes. Before you make sales, raise big bucks, and become insufferable, start by winning prizes. When there’s nothing else out there, they validate your story. Plus they dazzle investors and boost the team. : What did you get wrong? We weren’t geeks, and didn’t bring one in as co-founder. I still can’t quite believe some of the crap we wasted time and money on as a result. . Hiring: I’m sentimental, and Jonathan is even worse. When everyone fits, the team fizzes. It takes just one person to skew the dynamic, and I let that happen too often. Spending equity. When you start, equity is your only currency. You will regret how you spent it whatever happens. So try to spend it measurably (ie. options not shares). : What have you learnt? The defining feature of a company’s success is the market it’s entering: a rising tide raises all ships and all that… A free-speech news platform? Are you kidding? Understand your market, even if you’re planning on inventing a new one. Do everything you can to speak to future clients, and then when you’re up and running, to talk to existing clients. If you don’t believe they’re your number one mentor, you’re in trouble. Moats matter: the news photo business is really an oligopoly (AP, Getty, and Reuters). Oligopolies exist because there are high barriers to entry: your business is figuring out quite how much it’s going to take you to breach those. Have fun: start-ups are risky as hell and, in almost all certainty, a terrible investment of your time. So really care about what you’re doing and really enjoy doing it: the experience, most likely, will be what’s of most value.
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Songza Raised $3.8M According To SEC Filing, Amazon Still In The Frame As An Investor
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Mike Butcher
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
, a free streaming music service that has expert-made playlists and runs on the web and various touch screen platforms, raised $3.8 million, . While Amazon has long been an “unconfirmed” investor listed on AngelList, it its investment in the earlier Aime St vehicle into Songza. In late 2011 the startup closed what was round of financing led by investors, including Deep Fork Capital, as well as an “undisclosed strategic investor.” Also participating in the round was Geoff Judge, co-founder of 24/7 Real Media. Falling between Spotify and Pandora, Songza has for allowing users to set up playlists based on day and time (so, work days and weekends), with filters for whatever mood you might be in, such as going to a party, and lets you impress you friends with your music choices in a way that having to curate your Spotify or Pandora choices just can’t. Headquartered in Long Island City, NY, Songza was built by the team that founded crowd-priced MP3 download store AmieStreet.com in 2006 while at university.
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Knights Of Glory Claims To Be The First Arabic MMO To Launch On The iPhone
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Mike Butcher
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
While world of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games has ballooned in the last few years, the content available to people who’d rather not play a character from Western-inspired troops beating the crap out of some vague Eastern enemy has been somewhat limited. Culture is important, right? Which is why ‘ ‘ – a sort of ‘Arabian Knights’ inspired MMO where warring Sultans of old wage war against each other with their Medieval-era armies – has been gathering pace as the only fully Arabic browser-based MMO. Think in terms of a sort of World of Warcraft for the Arab-speaking world. Today sees the release of the iPhone version of Knights of Glory, after its approval on Apple’s App Store, and the company claims this is the first Arabic MMO on the App Store. “We didn’t believe in the potential of MMO games on mobile phones until we found many of our players asking for a mobile version,” says Radwan Kasmiya, chief producer for Falafel Games, which produces Knights of Glory. He points out that while the content and production is in the Middle East, the game development is actually done in Hangzhou, China. Yes folks, welcome to globalisation. The story-driven RPG allows the player to take the role of a leader during a historically accurate era when Arabic kingdoms fought against each other. The game is very social, with players all over the Middle East socializing, competing and collaborating. Last year Knights of Glory won the Readers’ Award for the Best Arabic Browser Game for 2012 by ArabMMO, a news portal for MMOs in the Middle East. Falafel Games was founded in 2008 by Kasmiya and Vince Ghossoub, with a mission to produce games from an Arab’s perspective in light of the dominance of Western narratives in the gaming industry. The company is venture-backed by the MBC Group and Middle East Venture Partners. Knights of Glory will be released as a paid app, but you can sign up to try out the game for free in an early bird promotion by and redeeming a code to dowload the game from the App Store. Check out the video below for instructions on how to sign up and a bit of a review. It’s in Arabic. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H6H_krQIe8#!]
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Programmer Creates An AI To (Not Quite) Beat NES Games
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 4 | 14 |
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xOCurBYI_gY] Programmer and CMU PhD created a function to “beat” NES games by watching the score. When the computer did things that raised the score it would learn how to reproduce them again and again, resulting, ultimately, in what amounts to a Super Mario Brothers-playing robot. The program, called a “technique for automating NES games,” can take on nearly every NES game, but it doesn’t always win. You can read but, as you can see from the above video (fast-forward to about six minutes to see Mario in action), the game does most of the things normal humans would do but consistently uses very difficult tricks to, say, attack two Goombas in rapid succession. Murphy writes: By giving the program a little bit of training – how to jump, what to grab – the program becomes a coin-hungry juggernaut, stomping turtles and taking no mushroom prisoners. Murphy ran a few other games through it, including Tetris, and found that the program would eventually just pause itself rather than continue playing and lose, a tactic shared by annoying, over-competitive cousins around the world since 1985.
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Fab Is Raising A Mondo Round At A $1 Billion Valuation
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
We’re hearing from multiple sources that design-focused retail site is raising a new round of funding at a $1 billion valuation. The company has previously raised $171 million in funding and we’re hearing it seeks to raise more than $100 million in this round. At Fab’s last round of financing, the company was worth around . Twelve million users strong, Fab is continuing to grow at a fast clip after its initial pivot. Last year, the company saw $150 million in revenue, and in February that sales were up by nearly 300% in January 2013 over January 2012. In fact, January was Fab’s 3rd highest sales month ever. International is also a huge potential growth area for the company. Fab has 1 million members in the UK, which is generating nearly 40% of its sales in Europe and is its fastest growing market outside the U.S. We’re hearing that the company is seeing a lot of investor interest from Asia. Past investors include Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, SoftTech VC, Menlo Ventures, Baroda Ventures, Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, Thrive Capital, Kevin Rose, SV Angel, The Washington Post and others, including, oddly enough, the . New funding for the company could mean more acquisitions, new products and new areas of business development in the post-Amazon e-commerce world. Apparently the company has some big news that will be announced next week, including a . Stay tuned. In the meantime, watch Fab founder tell the story of Fab’s founding at last year’s , below.
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Education Giant Pearson Continues Digital Push, Acquires Flipped Classroom Managers, Learning Catalytics
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
Educational publishing giant, , has lately been making a push to snatch up (and incubate) promising young EdTech startups and concepts to help it compete in an increasingly tech-influenced educational landscape. Last May, , the maker and marketer of IT and digital literacy products, for $140 million, followed by the for $650 million, its and , along with launching its . Today, Pearson continued this march with the acquisition of , a cloud-based learning analytics and assessment system developed by Harvard University professors Eric Mazur and Gary King, along with software engineer and current post-doctoral fellow at Harvard, Brian Lukoff. Founded in late 2011, Learning Catalytics is a platform that allows teachers to ask their students open-ended critical thinking questions and receive feedback in realtime. But beyond simply being a student response system and allowing teachers to get a better sense of what areas students are struggling with, the startup’s platform allows teachers to split their class into groups of similar ability. The idea is that peer-to-peer engagement can help improve student understanding of core concepts, so the startup’s platform aims to make it easy for teachers to break class down into groups for based on their response patterns. This allows teachers to let students with a more advanced understanding of the topics at hand help get their peers up to speed, while allowing the teacher to supervise and curate those groups more effectively. As students proceed through the class, they can respond to questions in class or for homework via text, numerical, algebraic or graphical responses. Meanwhile, faculty can get a better understanding of student performance through advanced analytics, which allow them to drill down into individual student data, as well as get a better understanding of student comprehension within the particular course and as compared to the class. Fundamentally, by allowing faculty to ask questions and view feedback in realtime in a graphical representation of their students’ comprehension of the material, Pearson is adding an important new service layer for in-class feedback and communication. Pearson’s mission at this point is to become a service provider of customized tools and learning packages for teachers and for the changing profile of today’s student in higher education. That means an increased focus on flexible, blended learning services — at both ends of the classroom. Pearson already has an LMS system, language learning, customizable online courses, and a host of other educational services, including the content-based services that its strong foothold in textbooks allow it to offer. Furthermore, the company knows that flipped classrooms and digital learning analytics aren’t going anywhere, and that’s why it’s made an effort to adjust: For example, today, over half of its revenue Traditionally, of course, Pearson hasn’t exactly been known as a pioneer in digital technology, so like its competitors McGraw Hill and Macmillan et al, it’s had to “go digital or go home,” so to speak. And with McGraw and Cengage both selling to private equity firms in the last month, well, it’s not exactly high-times for educational publishers. As Pearson digitizes, like every other large company, it has to decide whether to try to build products internally or become an acquirer. In Pearson’s case, acquisitions make sense in a number of scenarios, but money is tight. I suspect that’s why the company issued its “efficacy framework” — to make sure its acquisitions and investments were meeting educational standards and, well, worth the investment. This is relevant because, in Learning Catalytics, Pearson is essentially acquiring a student response system. And there are a number of more developed, well-established SRS players on the market, including the likes of , and — to name a few. But these companies would have cost Pearson a pretty penny, and although neither company is revealing the terms of the deal, we hear it’s a cash deal with “well north” of $10 million. [Update: The acquisition price estimate has been changed as we’ve learned more. Initially sources said “under $5 million.”] Pearson has already partnered with Top Hat to offer as part of their bundled textbook, content and software services they provide to professors, which could ostensibly make for an awkward overlap. But we’ve heard from sources that Learning Catalytics was looking for exit opportunities and had been in talks with Pearson for several months. In part this was due to the fact that the startup hadn’t quite gotten the traction it had hoped for, but also because taking the next step to grow the business would require raising money or finding a solid strategic partner to help them expand more quickly than it would have been able to otherwise. On the other hand, in the 20 months from launch to sale, Learning Catalytics built a solid product without raising venture capital, hiring any full-time employees or investing in physical assets (like office space). So, it looks to be a positive outcome for the three founders, especially considering that we’ve now learned that that the deal involved no earn-outs, required employee contracts or lock-ins — it was an all cash deal. Furthermore, co-founder Brian Lukoff accepted a new position at Pearson, while Gary King and Eric Mazur (both currently professors at Harvard), were offered consulting agreements. In turn, for Pearson, the acquisition enables them to integrate a solid student response layer into their interactive learning and teaching products, without having to pay handsomely for it. And they get to keep Mazur, one of their top authors, happy in the process. A win-win. Learning Catalytics itself has been working with about 50 institutions in K12 and higher ed, and offers free accounts to instructors, with student accounts running $12/semester and $20/year. For more, find the Learning Catalytics founders’ letter to its users copied below: We are thrilled to announce that Learning Catalytics has been acquired by Pearson. The new educational tools and novel data analytics in Learning Catalytics can now grow bigger, spread faster, and integrate better with other products and content, including Pearson’s widely used educational products. Learning Catalytics will continue to be available for current and new customers, and it will also have the ability to innovate further by leveraging Pearson’s considerable learning resources. Expect very big things to come. We developed the technology behind Learning Catalytics in our research groups and classrooms at Harvard University but soon outgrew what fit there. To continue to innovate for our students and others around the world, we formed Learning Catalytics in July 2011. We could never have imagined how rapidly this technology would take off. More recently, it became clear to us that Learning Catalytics innovations have outgrown what can be accomplished in a startup, and so joining Pearson will help implement our ideas further and faster. For help leading to this spectacular outcome, we are grateful to Pearson’s terrific team, Harvard’s Office of Technology Development, and especially our students — and other instructors and their students all over the world — who learned from Learning Catalytics and helped us learn from them. Gary King, Brian Lukoff, Eric Mazur
Co-founders, Learning Catalytics Pearson press .
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Singaporean Tech Media Platform e27 Expands Offerings With Resource ‘Bundles’ Aimed At Startups
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
Singapore-based is moving beyond its roots as a tech media and events platform with its latest offering , or product and service packages geared at founding teams in Southeast Asia. Companies with services featured in Bundles include Facebook, Airbnb, Freelancer, WP Engine, 99designs, Zendesk, Google Apps, and Shutterstock, as well as nine co-working spaces throughout the region. There are currently six Bundles at prices ranging from US$9.90 to US$39.90, including packages tailored for marketing, travel, customer service, work collaboration, creative projects, and Web hosting. All six Bundles are available for US$99.90. Founded in 2006, e27’s offerings include a that focuses on startups in Southeast Asia and networking events like Ignite, Founders Drinks and Echelon. Bundles is the company’s first step toward becoming a provider of business solutions for emerging tech companies. “We see the incorporation of Bundles as a way to give tremendous value to startups and small businesses in the region by offering packages of services that will jumpstart any business in terms of marketing, travel, customer service, collaborative tools, creative projects and hosting,” says Thaddeus Koh, e27’s co-founder and chief operating officer. Bundles is designed to address challenges faced by founding teams in Southeast Asia, which has a growing but still nascent startup ecosystem. “Most startups are made up of small teams, with limited manpower and resources,” says Koh. The services packaged into each Bundle are offered at a much lower rate than they would be if purchased separately. “For example, if you are constantly traveling, our Travel Bundle takes care of all your travel and co-working needs in the region. If your business has a need for customer relations, our Customer Bundle offers great savings for premium accounts on popular CRM services.” In February, through a funding round with regional investors, and planned to expand further from the company’s base in Singapore into the rest of Southeast Asia. Participants in that round included B Dash Ventures from Japan, Pinehurst Advisors in Taiwan, Ardent Capital in Thailand, and Dan Neary in Singapore. The company said at the time that it planned to hire editorial staff in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as continue to work on Echelon, its flagship event. e27 is currently in its fourth year of organizing Echelon, which takes place in Singapore and had over 3,000 attendees in 2012. will be held from June 4 to 5.
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Psy’s “Gentleman” Hits New YouTube Record With 38M Views In One Day
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
“Gangnam Style” was the first video , a milestone it reached last December. Though arguably less catchy, Psy’s followup video “Gentleman,” a unique blend of pounding beats and fart jokes , is now also breaking records on YouTube. The that “Gentleman” has set the record for the most views ever in a single day with over 38 million hits on April 14 alone, making it one of the biggest online music video launches ever. To put the figures in perspective, “Gentleman” was seen 100 million times in less than 4 days worldwide, a milestone that took “Gangnam Style” nearly two months to achieve. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASO_zypdnsQ] “Gentleman” also breaks the previous single-day record set by the now infamous KONY 2012 video in March 2012. The documentary, produced by Invisible Children, . According to YouTube, “Gentleman” became April’s top rising search on the site almost immediately after it launched, with global results peaking on April 14. It also debuted at number one on YouTube’s music chart, bumping “Gangnam Style” down to second place. “Gangnam Style” made its YouTube debut on July 15 and knocked Justin Bieber’s “Baby” off of top place in November–a place “Baby” had held since its debut in February 2010. If “Gentleman” keeps going at its current pace, it represents another windfall for Psy. Google’s chief business officer Nikesh Arora on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call that “Gangnam Style” had generated $8 million in revenue on YouTube alone, or an average of 0.65 cents every time someone plays the video. Since the creator of a YouTube video keeps about half of the money, that means Psy and his record company probably earned about $4 million from “Gangnam Style” alone.
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Want To Raise A Million Bucks? Here’s What You’ll Need
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
So, you’ve built yourself a nice little product. Maybe you’ve raised a small friends-and-family round; maybe you’re still bootstrappin’ on your own. Either way, now you’re looking to raise at least a million dollars to help with the next steps. While there’s no perfect formula for stuff like this, these stats from AngelList’s are a pretty good indication of the metrics you should be aiming for. As part of the startup gathering in Santiago, Chile, this evening, Ash presented a slide outlining some ballpark metrics that startups should aim for before swoopin’ in for a big first round: As a Venture Hacker at AngelList, Ash’s job involves poring over of deals to try and work out exactly what makes a good deal go down. In a conversation I had with Ash earlier, he asked me to note that these numbers are just his rough estimates based on this insight; they’re not crunched directly from AngelList’s database. The bulk of the slide is pretty self-explanatory — just consider each bullet point a sort of theoretical entry bar for companies looking to raise a $1M+ round in a given category. If you’re a social company, you’d do well to have at least 100,000 downloads and/or signups before going after your million-dollar round. If you’re running a marketplace or e-commerce company, you should be aiming for around $50K in revenue each month. If you’re going after the enterprise, you’ll want at least 1,000 paid seats at $10 per seat per month (or the equivalent for your pricing model); if you’re focused on big enterprise, you should lock down at least two huge (pilot) contracts. You may note that “Product” and “Team” are crossed off at the top of the slide. This is from earlier in the presentation, when Ash reaffirmed just how important traction seems to be. Assuming that we’re talking about an average team with an average product (that is, unless your team has a very well-proven entrepreneur or two on its roster, or you’ve built some truly hardcore, one-of-a-kind tech), traction is everything. These numbers, of course, aren’t concrete. In fact, they’re very much ballpark figures. You shouldn’t expect to hit your 100,000th download and suddenly have every VC in the valley bangin’ on your door. If you’re able to get your stats up in these ranges and can score yourself some meetings, however, you probably won’t have too much trouble sealin’ the deal.
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Translation Platform Gengo Raises $12M Funding Round Led By Intel Capital
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
, an increasingly popular online translation service that uses a network of more than 7,500 pre-screened and rated translators to provide high-quality translations in 33 languages, announced that it has raised a $12 million funding round. The round was led by , with participation from , , and , as well as returning investor . The service previously raised a total of $6.8 million, including a led by Atomico and Dave McClure’s . McClure is also a Gengo board member. The fact that a number of telecom companies are part of this round, Gengo’s CEO and founder Robert Laing told me in an email earlier today, “shows how telecoms companies ‘get’ the global opportunity of Gengo.” “The Gengo team is excited about working with investors from Asia, the USA, Europe, and the Middle East, led by Intel Capital, because of their global experience and track record helping entrepreneurs,” Laing writes in today’s announcement. Added Matthew Romaine, CTO and co-founder of Gengo: “There’s a significant technology component to human translation at scale, so it’s great to work with a firm with the pedigree of Intel Capital.” Currently, Japan and the U.S. account for about 40 percent of Gengo’s revenue each. The company currently has a staff of 30 in its Tokyo office and nine employees in San Mateo. According to Laing, the company has been growing rapidly. Gengo’s translators have already translated more texts in 2013 than they did during 2012. Part of this growth, of course, is due to the recent , which has now made Gengo one of its two integrated paid translation services, as well as a . Besides video, Laing says, Gengo is also seeing a huge volume of translations from travel and e-commerce sites, including from a number of “leading e-commerce, online travel, and community portals” that are currently powered by its translation platform. The Gengo team plans to use this new round of funding to accelerate its global expansion and improve both its translation platform and increase the speed of the translation process.
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DailyWorth Raises Additional $1 Million For Series A
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Michael Seo
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
, an online community for financially minded women, is adding $1 million to their existing Series A round of funding. The money comes sixteen months after DailyWorth . This additional influx of investments was led by DFJ Gotham, while additional investors include Gabriel Investments, 500 Startups, Robinhood Ventures, Investors’ Circle, Bullet Time Ventures, Patient Capital Collaborative, Joanne Wilson, Rebecca Saeger, Carol Chow, Diego Canoso, and Mark Censits. The money raised will be used for “growth and key hires” as DailyWorth continues to expand their readership. was founded in 2009 as a daily email newsletter geared towards women, offering tips and advice on money management and investment. Their newsletter quickly amassed more than 55,000 subscribers within two years of launch, and in January last year that number ballooned to 250,000 subscribers. DailyWorth estimates that their site will hit two to three million monthly readers by the end of 2013. DailyWorth’s website is populated with editorial content from their writing staff, which is helmed by Jennifer Barrett, formerly Hearst’s general manager for Cosmo, Redbook, and Seventeen Magazine. In addition to their editorial content, DailyWorth has begun to offer an assortment of online courses called , which provides a four week program with YouTube videos and online workbooks that teach their registrants how to better manage their money. DailyWorth also recently scored partnerships with Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and Nestwise, in addition to their preexisting partnerships with ING and H&R Block.
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What Not To Do In Your Startup Promo Video
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLQ1V9OGwKc&w=560&h=315] Thanks to my job, I get to see a lot of stupid bullshit. Most gets filtered out, but every now and then something just rises up that is so ridiculously stupid, it’s just begging to be called out. That’s the case with this promotional video from the kind folks at , which is more or less a two-minute case study for how not to pitch your soon-to-be ultra-viral app to the general public, or to the press, or to potential employees or investors. So here’s a step-by-step for what not to do in your startup video: Oh yeah, if you’re not yet digusted enough by startup marketing, there’s also this: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I9PANOpFIw&w=560&h=315]
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Web App Tutorial Tool Kera Heads For The Deadpool
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
When launched out of Toronto last year, its goal was to “teach the world how to use software.” Alas, Kera has taught its last lesson. In a on its blog, the company has announced that they’ll be shuttering their products in one month. For the unfamiliar, Kera provided tools that allowed web app developers to quickly build interactive voice/text tutorials that directly integrate into their apps. With just a bit of clever JavaScript dropped in place, you could walk new users through your product step-by-step from within the product itself — this, as opposed to, say, a tutorial video. Here’s the thing: developers are, by and large, a proud bunch. If a dev recognizes that their product is so complicated that they need to hold the user’s hand through every step of the process, they (hopefully) rethink their design rather than search out a bandaid. Just three weeks ago, the company when they realized that “people didn’t like to be guided the way [Kera] wanted to guide them,” with over 50 percent of users immediately dismissing the tutorial overlay. In place of the tutorial overlay, they built a pre-packaged “Get Started Widget” that gave users “missions” to complete to properly learn a product. Though it only had a few weeks worth of runway, this widget didn’t seem to be gaining traction, and the company was quickly running out of money. While the team is if any interested parties come along, their current plan is to just shut it down. Though they’re announcing the shutdown now, they plan to leave the servers up until May 18th to give developers time to remove it from their applications. Meanwhile, the company’s original three founders say they’re “hard at work cooking something special.” Best of luck, guys!
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3 Awesome And Inspiring Inventions From The White House Science Fair
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
I love that POTUS has invited these scholars here and treating them like NCAA Champs!!! — LeVar Burton (@levarburton) Some of the nation’s young brainiacs were honored today at the White House Science Fair. Every spring, the White House invites children to show off life-changing innovations that have mostly been constructed in MacGyver-like fashion from commercially available materials. Even though I cover this story every year, it’s hard not to be inspired by brilliant young kids motivated to tackle the world’s problems. “Let me just say in my official capacity as president, this stuff is really cool,” said President Obama. We’ve rounded up three awesome and inspiring projects below: – 17-year-old Easton LaChappelle has created a mind-controlled prosthetic arm for the low price of $250, thanks to parts cheaply replicated from a 3D printer. In the Vine below, you can see the young lad using a commercial-grade, brain-wave-reading device, the Neurosky, to shake the robotic arm. LaChappelle explained to me that the prosthesis is controlled through a sophisticated system of blinks and thoughts. The Neurosky can measure different levels of concentration, as well as eye blinks. Two eye blinks, for instance, prime the arm for contraction, and the level of concentration controls the degree of contraction. The software is smart enough to learn a user’s daily patterns and make certain movements easier at specific times, such as eating lunch around noon.
– Google Global Science Fair Winner, 17-year-old Brittany Wenger, found a low-cost way to radically increase early cancer detection. Wenger’s project utilizes a computer process modeled after the human brain, a neural network, to boost the accuracy of detecting cancer in skin samples to 99 percent, which could help doctors save lives through early treatment. The software lives in the cloud, so the more doctors feed data into it, the more accurate it gets. “I came across artificial intelligence and was just enthralled. I went home the next day and bought a programming book and decided that was what I was going to teach myself to do,” she said. Since seventh-grade, this ambitious young scientist taught herself high-level artificial intelligence, mainly through the web and the help of available teachers. – Eighth-grade Californian Jonah Kohn a tactile-sound device to help the hearing impaired enjoy music. Sound can actually travel through vibrations in the skin, which Kohn discovered when he decided to bite down on his electric guitar (remember what is was like to be young and experimental?). The discovery inspired Kohn to see if the same experience could aid the hearing impaired. “They were able to hum the melody of a song, even if they can’t hear it,” he told Bill Nye at the White House. Kohn said his project is related to a study that found a 93 percent increase in self-rated music quality of his hearing-impaired participants. Many of the participants showed extraordinary fortitude and commitment to science. Sixteen-year-old Jack Andraka, who also developed a more accurate cancer-detection system, requested access to academic labs 99 times before he was granted permission. “I don’t know what you guys were doing in high school; that’s what Jack’s doing. Certainly better than I was doing in high school,” joked the president. Obama also a new technology industry mentoring initiative with AmeriCorps, the U.S. 2020, where companies, such as Cisco, pledge that 20 percent of the workforce will spend at least 20 hours mentoring or teaching by the year 2020. It’s been a crazy and disheartening week in the news. It’s good to be reminded that for as many setbacks as we face, the next generation is striving to make the world an even better place. [Image: White House]
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Twitter #Music Catches Emerging Artist Frances Cone By Surprise, Calls It A “Meet And Greet” For Bands And Fans
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
When , it wasn’t a surprise at all to those following tech stories, since for months. However, it was a surprise to the , which is popping up in the “emerging artists” section of the app. In a world where we focus so much on “big stars,” especially ones with millions of followers on Twitter, it’s important to remember that these platforms can make all the difference for those who are just getting started and are waiting and hoping to be discovered. I spoke with their lead singer, Christina Frances Cone, who didn’t get a chance to play with the app before it was launched. She wasn’t a big Twitter user before, but has been pleasantly surprised thus far: “I was a pretty light Twitter user before the music app because I felt like it should be reserved for jokes. Only the best jokes. Or original feelings, of which there are few.” She says that “Twitter and I are in love” when discussing the new experience, giving us some insight into what it’s like to start getting tweets, and more importantly new listeners, from a group of people that have never heard of you before: It’s been really, really great. I wasn’t sure how to engage potential followers/fans and they basically just perfectly did it for me… like they set up a meet and greet and I get to hug all of these music lovers. The “meet and greet” aspect is an interesting one, as we knew that Twitter could be a massive distribution platform if some order was brought to it. Twitter #Music pulls in all of the tweets that include links to music that people are listening to, and then drops them into pages in the app that show trending information in order to get people engaged. More than likely, you’re not going to catch every song that the people you follow are listening to, so this is a way to trap all of that to go back to at any time. The mix of new fans and the devastating news out of Boston gave Cone mixed emotions, but reminded her that people can rely on music to get through tough times: It’s been so nice to be able to engage with actual people all over the world. It started happening simultaneously to the Boston news coverage on Thursday night and my Twitter feed was ridiculous. These very, very heavy things were occurring and then someone on the other side of the world would post about “Rattles Your Heart” and it made me feel so many things. Until the Twitter #Music launch, Cone tells me that the band has been pretty active on Facebook and Instagram, but that Twitter has more of an advantage since the app now links to actual songs. It will be interesting to see what other experiences bands and artists have, as more people start discovering their music, following them and interacting with them over Twitter. It could help them make money, as well. Full songs are only available to Rdio or Spotify account holders, so those listens make their way back to the wallets of artists. For iTunes, a 30-second preview is given, and someone can pay for the full track if they like. This is distribution at its best, and Twitter was smart to jump on all of the data flowing through its network when it did. The next could actually be a “Twitter” star, skipping YouTube altogether. Will Twitter be able to provide actual data other than followers to these artists and labels, though? The total number of plays that a song gets is data that will be as important as the distribution that Twitter is providing, which could be a huge potential for revenue in the future. The music industry is a messy one, to say the least, so Twitter has a lot of work ahead of it.
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Meet The Greenest Home In America
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
In the surrounding hills of Silicon Valley stands the impressive the “Greenest house in America.” The home is also the brainchild and abode of Foundation Capital partner and longtime VC and his wife, Linda Yates. We were lucky enough to be invited into their home to hear about why and how they built the most sustainable home in the country. So what makes the “Greenest” house in America? First, every aspect of the house, whose name draws origins from the Native American Ohlone word for puma or mountain lion, has been built to have minimal environmental impact. Second, the house has the highest LEED certification, which is the defacto third-party verification of green buildings. Another interesting factoid from Holland and Yates — there are seven green energy and sustainable living startups represented in the project: CalStar Products (building materials), Control 4 (home automation and energy management), Serious Materials (building materials), Silver Spring Networks (energy), Sunrun (solar), Tigo (solar) and Xicato (lighting). And many of these startups are funded by Foundation Capital. Happy Earth Day and check out the video above for an in-depth tour of the house with Holland and Yates.
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Nest Labs Teams Up With Regional Power Providers For New Energy-Saving Services And Rebates
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
The has already gone through a hardware revision or two and found its way onto plenty of physical and virtual store shelves, but parent company Nest Labs is eager to get it into even more households in short order. The Palo Alto company has just announced that it has teamed up with energy providers from across the country that will see new climate-control services (not to mention some rebates) go live for customers in a handful of markets. So far, the list of partners includes National Grid, NRG Energy, NRG subsidiaries Reliant and Green Mountain Energy, Austin Energy and Southern California Edison. You can probably guess what markets those last two serve. These newly forged partnerships could see adoption of the household gadget surge — customers who ink deals with National Grid, for instance, can claim a $100 rebate to help defray the costs of a Nest thermostat. While the others don’t offer much in the way of actual cash back, Nest’s tie-ups emphasize the long-term value of having a Nest over a run-of-the-mill thermostat. The way the folks at Nest look at it, their gadget is only going to become more useful as the days get longer and warmer, and those new services I mentioned earlier should only help matters when it comes to the cost-conscious. First up is Nest’s so-called Rush Hour Rewards, which are meant to reduce the load on already-strained power stations once it starts getting really hot outside. Rather than cranking the temperature down low and leaving it there as a hapless human might, the Nest instead gets a feel for the sorts of climates its users prefer and will sporadically turn down the temperature to keep things within that preferred range. By occasionally introducing blasts of cold air instead of just leaving things to run at full blast, the Nest can keep your house at about the same temperature as before without much of a corresponding bump on the bill. Also part of the package is what Nest calls “seasonal savings,” which will see the smart thermostat measure user temperature preferences over the course of the year and make minor modifications over the course of a few weeks. The idea is to reduce a user’s heating bill by carefully acclimating them to a new, more cost-efficient temperature scheme without the residents even noticing. For now, only customers who select certain plans with those power companies can use these new services, but I very much doubt that team Nest is content to leave things as they are. These sorts of deals will only serve to raise the company’s profile, and buy-in from power partners is a big deal for Nest especially as the company’s rivals have moved to make their own wares smarter. Consider Honeywell: it already filed a lawsuit against Nest last year for supposed acts of copyright infringement, an allegation that Nest Labs vigorously disagrees with. Meanwhile, the conglomerate is gearing up to release a of its own, so deals like these could help Nest stay a step ahead of the pack.
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Netflix Says Fewer Than 8,000 People ‘Gamed’ Its Free Trials To Watch House Of Cards
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
Netflix , and the company saw another period of strong growth, adding more than 3 million streaming members, bringing its total to 36 million. Domestically, Netflix saw 2 million new streaming members, which was relatively equal compared to last quarter and up from 1.74 million in Q1 last year. Helping Netflix along in its rebound after the split of its business, which caused a big customer backlash, has been the company’s focus on original programming, beginning with its first “major” TV series, . Netflix just recently launched its second original series, Hemlock Grove, and on May 25th will feature the much-anticipated debut of Arrested Development. However, the question has been whether or not Netflix’s new shows would significantly add to its member total — or whether people would sign up for a month to get the shows for free and then cancel. In its letter to shareholders today, Netflix said that in spite of the fact that “some investors were worried that the House of Cards fans would take advantage of its free trial, watch the show and then cancel,” there was, in fact, very little “free-trial gaming” as the company calls it — fewer than 8,000 people signed up to watch it for free and then cancelled — out of what the company says were “millions of free trials in the quarter.” Herein, Netflix is just talking about the free trial portion of its service, whereas the other question has been whether or not the new members the company has been able to attract through House of Cards would actually stick around. And it seems that, from its 2 million new members, it was actually able to retain those new customers. “The launch of House of Cards provided a halo effect on our entire service and spoke to the quality of experience members can expect from Netflix,” the executives said in their letter to shareholders this afternoon. In fact, the good news for Netflix is that, so far, Hemlock Grove seems to be attracting the same amount of attention, if not more than House of Cards. “Hemlock Grove was viewed by more members globally in its first weekend than was House of Cards and has been a particular hit among young adults,” the company said in its letter. However, on the other hand, that goodwill may be short-lived. According to , people aren’t exactly loving Hemlock Grove — in fact most seem to think it’s awful. So there’s that. That could change, after all. The show hasn’t been out very long. Netflix just made all 13 episodes available three days ago. At the same time, it wouldn’t be surprising if Netflix were to go through a little bit of a hangover after House of Cards — or to learn that it has dedicated more capital, advertising, etc. to its first big splash (House of Cards) and its much-anticipated comedy (Arrested Development) than Hemlock. However, that’s just speculation at this point and only time will tell.
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Netflix Beats Analyst Estimates, With 29.2 Million US Subscribers And $1 Billion In Q1 Revenue
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
Netflix reported , including revenues of $1.02 billion during the first three months of the year. The company also announced that it added 2 million domestic in the quarter, bringing the total number of subscribers to 29.2 million. The results represent a positive response to Kevin Spacey-led political thriller House of Cards, which just happens to be the first major release in Netflix’s original programming slate this year. And they’re driving investors to jump on the stock in after-hours trading, driving shares up nearly 20 percent. Netflix announced net additions of 2.03 million subscribers in the U.S. compared to 2.05 million in the fourth quarter — which historically is its strongest period of subscriber growth — and 1.74 million in last year’s first quarter. As a result, it said that it’s growing its subscriber base and revenues faster than its content spend in the streaming business. It reported that its domestic streaming contribution margin increased to 20.6 percent in the quarter, which was up 140 basis points from the previous quarter. Analysts estimated that the company would report about $1 billion in revenue, as well as earnings of 18 cents a share. But the number everyone is looking at is Netflix’s subscriber number, which Wall Street forecast would be around 29 million streaming subscribers in the U.S. Netflix is betting big on the release of exclusive shows like as a way to differentiate its service from the syndicated content that it’s licensed from existing TV networks. It’s investing hundreds of millions of dollars in these series, and hoping that investment will be paid back with greater subscriber interest. While Netflix had released its first original show, the last year, this quarter marks the introduction of House of Cards. That series debuted to strong reviews and a huge marketing push by Netflix, which was hoping to capitalize on the acting of Kevin Spacey, producer David Fincher, and the popularity of the original British miniseries of the same name. So far, that strategy appears to be working, as . More importantly, more subscribers than expected signed up for the service since the launch of the new series. In its analyst comments, Netflix noted: “Some investors worried that the House of Cards fans would take advantage of our free trial, watch the show, and then cancel. However, there was very little free-trial gaming – less than 8,000 people did this – out of millions of free trials in the quarter.” That’s a great response to House of Cards — but Netflix has even more exclusive content in its pipeline. Netflix just , a 13-part horror series from Hostel director Eli Roth. Next month, there’s the return of offbeat comedy Arrested Development, which will be available only on Netflix. Later, Weeds creator Jenji Kohan’s new series Orange Is The New Black will also be released. In addition to its domestic streaming numbers, Netflix reported 1 million new subscribers in its international business, growing that number to 7.1 million total. That compares to 1.8 million international subscribers added during the holiday quarter, and 1.2 million a year previous. While those numbers might seem low compared to previous quarters, Netflix said it benefitted from launches in new markets in earlier quarters. The company plans to continue its expansion overseas, with a new international market to be added in the second half of the year. To no one’s surprise, Netflix DVD membership continued to decline, but just modestly. The total DVD subscriber base fell by about 250,000 users, to 8 million total. But contribution profit continued to hold strong at $113 million, despite higher usage in the quarter and a small USPS price increase. Netflix reported that its first-quarter net income was $3 million, or 5 cents a share, but that included a $16 million loss on the extinguishment of debt related to refinancing of a loan from February. Without that, the company would have reported net income of $19 million, or 31 cents per share, well above guidance. Going into the second quarter, Netflix is forecasting slower growth in streaming subscribers — most likely due to Q2 seasonality — to end the quarter with between 29.40 and 30.05 million subscribers. That will amount to about $665 million to $673 million in U.S. subscriber revenue and between $139 million and $149 million in contribution profit. All in all, it expects earnings between $14 million and $29 million during the second quarter, or 23 to 48 cents per share.
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Limor Fried AKA Ladyada Will Join Us To Talk Hardware On The Disrupt Stage
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
We often give short shrift to hardware at Disrupt mostly because investors are afraid to look at companies that can’t pivot without trashing 30 days of inventory. No longer. AKA will join me on stage to talk about what it takes to build a profitable, cool, and amazingly popular hardware company out of a dorm room. Fried, who runs Adafruit Industries, founded her DIY electronics company after friends began pestering her to build them cool electronics kits. The company now fills 600 orders a day and sells 1,302 items in a catalog that includes Arduino boards, Raspberry Pis, and DIY coolness for the geek set. They’re making $15 million per year in revenue with no VC backing. We’ll chat about what it takes to build a hardware startup, what it takes to run a successful manufacturing business in the heart of Manhattan, She joins of Disrupt NY speakers that currently includes Bill Gurley, Chamath Palihapitiya, John Donahoe, Roelof Botha, Ron Conway and David Lee, with more to be announced. .
Adafruit was founded in 2005 by MIT engineer, Limor “Ladyada” Fried. Her goal was to create the best place online for learning electronics and making the best designed products for makers of all ages and skill levels. Over the last 6 years Adafruit has grown to over 45 employees in the heart of NYC. Adafruit has expanded offerings to include tools, equipment and electronics that Limor personally selects, tests and approves before going in to the Adafruit store. Fried was the first female engineer on the cover of WIRED magazine and was recently awarded Entrepreneur magazine’s Entrepreneur of the year.
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Powerhouse Facebook Ad Platform Nanigans Raises $5.8M Series A.1 For Predictive Modeling R&D
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
Do you target kids with cheap ads or more expensive adults? has just raised a $5.85 million “Series A.1” from Avalon Ventures to build SaaS technology that predicts which audiences earn advertisers more money. With revenue up 6x in 18 months, Nanigans hopes to keep up with Facebook’s progress by pouring its funding into R&D. It’s already discovered a surprising trick to supercharging ROI. In advertising, there are three numbers that really matter. Cost per acquisition (CPA) – how much you pay for a customer; lifetime value (LTV) – how much you earn off that customer; and return on investment (ROI) – how much higher your LTV is than your CPA. Most advertisers don’t have the technology or data to accurately predict LTV, so they aim to get the lowest CPA so a smaller LTV will still produce ROI. But Nanigans has found that doesn’t actually work so well, and it’s building the technology to prove it. Founded in 2010, the company had previously in a mid-2011 Series A to build its in exchange for monthly or yearly fees, or a percentage of spend. The tool lets businesses buy, intelligently target, and A/B test huge Facebook ad campaigns much more efficiently than Facebook’s basic tools. Nanigans’ focus on technology and delivering lifetime value over smaller immediate returns has been a hit with social game and e-commerce game companies. Now it believes it’s No. 1 or at least in the top 3 Facebook adtech companies in terms of revenue, which grew 6X since its last funding round. It now boasts customers, including eBay, Fab.com, Rue La La, Zynga, GSN, Wooga, Kixeye and Kabam. It’s now running hundreds of millions of dollars of Facebook ad spend per year, and has grown from 15 employees to more than 100 in just a year with offices in San Francisco, New York, Boston and London. The Nanigans secret sauce is its predictive modeling engine, Nanigans CEO Ric Calvillo (caricatured above) tells me “Online performance advertising is broken for the most part, and ripe for disruption. Most campaigns for online conversion are not well-optimized. Most marketers optimize for the lowest cost something — cost per click, cost per thousand impressions, cost per action — but when you optimize for the cheapest cohorts you’re almost by definition not optimizing for ROI.” What Nanigans has found is that especially in gaming and e-commerce, “age is a huge factor. If you chart age and cost and revenue, younger age groups are cheaper on a CPA basis, but they generate far less revenue proportionally. About a year ago we realized this. The older, more expensive audiences always have higher ROI.” The theory for why is that everyone is in a mad rush to get young, hip users. The wave of the future, right? Wrong. These kids just don’t have disposable income to spend anytime soon. So why don’t other adtech companies and agencies know this? Because their clients are afraid to reveal their confidential revenue numbers. Calvillo tells me “software needs revenue on every user to be able to do the predictions. If you’re using a third-party service you probably don’t want to share your revenue details. That’s why our SaaS platform enables this optimization.” Since companies license Nanigans and use it privately in-house, they don’t have to share their revenue stats with anyone. “We can get customers to trust us and optimize for ROI,” Calvillo concludes. Making this predictive modeling tech even more powerful is the big plan for Nanigans’ new Series A.1 (bridge between A and B) funding from previous investor It will hire more PhD data scientists to aid with research and development of the predictive modeling algorithms. Facebook is also rapidly releasing new ad formats, targeting schemes, mobile, and Facebook Exchange retargeting. Nanigans needs a big R&D budget to build intuitive user interfaces on top of Facebook’s Ads APIs. Otherwise it risks getting beat by competitors like Salesforce’s Buddy Media, or clients going straight to Facebook’s native tools. Nanigans also plans to concentrate on more verticals, including retail, travel and other online conversion businesses, plus do some global expansion with a new office in Singapore. With Calvillo on the phone and Facebook’s earnings coming up next week, I figured I’d ask his opinion on the state of Facebook ads. Nanigans now sees over a third of ad spend on its platform targeting mobile users. Calvillo and I agree that mobile should account for about 30 percent of Facebook’s total ad revenue in Q1, up from 23 percent in Q4 2012. He says a lot of mobile ad spend is coming from Facebook’s new app install ads as well as from brands, but that there hasn’t been as much spend from e-commerce or direct response advertisers just yet. This leaves Facebook a lot of upside left to capture. Calvillo also notes that he thinks Facebook Exchange is going well, but the was a big loss for the social network. In the meantime, Nanigans will keep chugging away at making online ads earn their owners more money. I’ve been covering Nanigans for almost now, and its progress and revenue growth is impressive. By facilitating so much social ad spend, the company is pumping the lifeblood of innovation into Facebook. has strong growth, high-profile clients, gobs of business, and just a in the bank, so my question is whether an old ad giant would acquire Nanigans to get some fresh blood itself.
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The Ressence Type 3 Is The Liquid-Filled Watch Of The Future
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
Because I like sharing cool watches with you guys I decided to share this cool watch with you guys. It’s called the Ressence Type 3 and it’s actually a liquid-filled mechanical watch with a nearly featureless face. Each of those dials – registers in the parlance – look like they are seamlessly embedded in the face surface and the watch, being suspended in synthetic oil, has no crown and is wound automatically. Arguably the movement itself isn’t very special – it’s a standard timekeeper that displays the date and includes a rotating seconds wheel – but the way the entire package is put together is a feat of horology. The sapphire crystal surrounds the face almost completely and the back of the watch hides the manual winding mechanism and a switch that allows you to change the time. On the wrist, the watch looks like a blob of liquid with markings suspended in it. It’s as if you were wearing a slug of liquid metal or a dollop of crude oil. The entire face spins (you can ) and a pressure valve compensates for temperature-related changes in the liquid. You can see or . The watch, sadly, costs $34,000 and comes in a wildly limited edition but it may be worth it just to say that your watch is literally full of alien liquids.
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Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns Now Let Advertisers Highlight Their Google+ Follower Count, Get Improved In-App Targeting
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 |
Google+ is finding its way into every Google product, and AdWords is no exception. Starting , AdWords advertisers can easily in their . On average, Google says, ads with these follower counts have “a 5-10% higher click-through rate” than regular ads. The company, it seems, tested these new ads with the help of a number of major brands, including , and . Here is what these ads look like: To be to show these annotations, businesses need to have a Google+ page with a verified URL, and the Google+ page needs to have “recent, high-quality posts and a significant number of followers, meaning 100 for most businesses.” These new social annotations are automatic for all enhanced campaigns and won’t incur any additional cost. Showing follower counts in ads isn’t totally new, of course. Google launched its “ ” for AdWords last year. Those, however, have to be set up at the campaign level while this new integration into enhanced campaigns is automatic. Enhanced campaigns, it is worth stressing, are still a pretty new feature in AdWords, and the focus here is on creating ads that businesses can run on desktop and mobile without the need to set up multiple campaigns. With today’s release, Google is also making some general improvements to these enhanced campaigns. Specifically, it’s making it easier to target in-app ads “based on people’s context like location, time of day and device, with enhanced campaigns.”
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Hon Hai Looks Toward Indonesia’s Promising Economy As Apple’s Growth Slows
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Hon Hai is planning to diversify its business away from producing Apple devices by signing an agreement with Indonesia to make and sell handsets in that country, . A Hon Hai spokesman said that the company, which derives about 60 to 70 percent of its revenue from manufacturing work for Apple, hopes to sign the agreement next month. Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn, is one of Apple’s largest suppliers. The Taiwanese company joins other manufacturers looking to make their business less dependent on Apple contracts as the Cupertino company’s growth slows. Earlier this month, Hon Hai a decrease of 19 percent in 1Q sales, due in large part to falling demand for iPhones. Another heavily Apple-dependent manufacturer, Cirrus Logic, that it is trying to diversify its customer base and is now shipping to several mobile phone manufacturers. Fellow Apple chip maker SK Hynix , a deal that could help the Korean tech giant avoid supply disruptions for its Galaxy S4 smartphone, a key iPhone rival. Hon Hai spokesman Simon Hsing told Reuters that the company is currently in talks with several Indonesian phone companies and will finalize the details of its investment and partnership agreements after securing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government. Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan has previously stated that Hon Hai’s investment would be between $5 billion and $10 billion, and that it would build a factory near Jakarta to assemble 3 million handsets a year. Hon Hai won’t export phones from Indonesia or manufacture Apple products there. Instead, it will make devices for local brands and sell them domestically. Latching onto Indonesia is a savvy move for Hon Hai because the nation’s growing economy will be driven in large part by the tech industry. Hsing said that the phone market in Indonesia is worth $2.4 billion. According to a , IT spending in Indonesia is forecasted to reach $15.8 billion this year. Furthermore, up to 70 percent of Indonesia’s population is working age–in other words, they are the people who will drive spending on consumer tech.
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Baidu’s 1Q Earnings Of $328.9M Misses Analysts’ Estimates As Its R&D Costs Soar
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Baidu double-digit percentage revenue growth in 1Q2013–but its earnings still missed analysts’ expectations as the Chinese search giant’s costs soared. Baidu’s 1Q2013 net income increased 8.5 percent to $328.9 million (2.043 billion RMB), short of the $354.9 million (2.19 billion yuan) expected by analysts polled by Bloomberg. Total revenue rose 40 percent from $961 million (5.97 billion RMB), missing the 5.99 billion RMB analysts expected. Online marketing revenue grew 40 percent to $958.5 million (5.95 billion RMB), while Baidu’s active online marketing customers rose 28 percent to 410,000 from a year earlier. But revenue per online advertising customer slipped 6.5 percent from the previous quarter. Baidu faces tighter competition in the search market as it competes for advertising customers with upstarts like Qihoo 360. But Baidu’s selling, general and administrative costs increased 77 percent and its R&D jumped 83 percent. The company’s profit margins also narrowed after Baidu announced plans to buy a stake in online video site iQiyi last November. Baidu is gearing up to compete with streaming video giant Youku-Tudou, with . In its earnings release, Baidu’s CFO Jennifer Li said “we remain committed to investing aggressively, particularly in marketing and R&D. By deploying resources in the most strategically important areas of our business, we’re confident we can build exceptional long-term value for shareholders.” Baidu forecast second quarter revenue between $1.19 billion and $1.22 billion, in-line with analysts’ estimates.
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Parse Isn’t An OS, But It Is Facebook’s Answer To Android And iOS
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Facebook doesn’t own a mobile operating system, and that’s a problem. Developers don’t need Facebook to build apps, and it doesn’t get a 30 percent cut of payments. But today , and while it’s not an OS, it’s the next best thing. The mobile-backend-as-a-service could keep Facebook top-of-mind for developers when they pick an identity provider, integrate sharing, and buy ads. If you wanted to make a leap of faith, you could speculate that Parse ( ) could become the plug-and-play backend of a Facebook mobile OS focused on making things easy for developers. That’s not out of the question far down the road, and is bolstered by team who had built mobile app development and in-browser preview platform. But building its own formal OS would go against a core tenet of that rides on top of iOS and Android, rather than a direct competitor. Starting a completely new operating system would be a massive, risky bet for Facebook. It’d be expensive and draining for a relatively little company compared to Apple, Google and Amazon. Getting developers to build another version of their apps for a set of Facebook OS devices that doesn’t have traction could be a tough sell. Again, not impossible in a few years, but a serious gamble anytime soon. But for now Parse will help Facebook get closer to developers. Facebook is on a mission to get as much of the value of owning an OS as possible without actually building one. Mark Zuckerberg has explained that he only wants to build things that can benefit big chunks of its user base. That’s why it didn’t manufacture its own phone, and that’s why it hasn’t made apps that require a forked version of Android. When you have a billion users, building something with a potential to reach only 20 million of them just isn’t big enough. Facebook wants to make more open and connected, not just a chunk of it. We saw one prong of this strategy with the launch of Facebook Home. It wanted to be the first thing people saw and the most frequent thing people did on their phones, but without too much resource expenditure or having to start an app store from scratch. So it built a homescreen/launcher replacement app that could run on a standard version of Android. Another component is Open Graph. It makes it simple to add . It may not have the native sharing built in at the OS level, but it can still get that it can put ads next to. And it is at the OS level thanks to a partnership with Apple — also a part of the strategy. Facebook might not earn a 30 percent cut when you download an app from Google Play or the App Store, but it does make money when you discover which app to actually download through its . Those stores are now cluttered with hundreds of thousands of apps, and until a developer climbs on the charts it’s hard to get found. So Facebook is aggressively positioning itself as as an alternative to having its own app marketplace. So Facebook has all these parallel universe parts of a mobile OS. Now will tie them all together. Facebook’s Director Of Product Management Doug Purdy called it the third pillar of the Facebook Platform, but to me it also feels like a doorway to the first two pillars of identity and ads. Facebook will continue operating the backend solution, which currently serves over 60,000 apps. Now they’ll be paying their monthly subscription fees straight to Facebook. So base-level, Facebook is making more money from developers, while also helping to get more great apps built. Then, just by the nature of using a Facebook-branded product, developers may be more likely to use the rest of the Not-FbOS stack, such as relying on it as an identity provider which strengthens the need for a Facebook account among users. They might build in more sharing hooks that deliver ad-monetizable content to the news feed. And it might encourage them to consider buying Facebook install ads to get their app downloaded. The strategy of getting tighter with developers is a popular one right now, considering While many developers immediately fretted that Facebook would meddle with the service, Purdy tells me its plan isn’t to mess with what works. You might be skeptical, but Facebook surprised the world this last year by not screwing around with Instagram. That won’t necessarily stop some developers from because they don’t want Facebook’s eyes on its data. Still, Parse creates a powerful synergistic vector from which to promote the rest of Facebook’s platform services. Eventually, I suspect Facebook will feature its own services a bit more within Parse. Perhaps that means even easier integration of identity and sharing for Parse-backed apps. Or Parse developers could get free credits for app install ads that could get them hooked on the traction booster. The concept of a more complete and unified suite of platform services should excite investors, and having such a stable of great mobile talent around clearly enticed Parse’s founders. Being too dependent on the desktop was a huge mistake for Facebook. It had to spend a billion dollars to kill the threat of Instagram and turn it into an asset. Now we’ll see if throwing everything but the kitchen operating system at mobile is enough, or whether Facebook will remain a second-class citizen on the small screen.
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Twitter Settles With PeopleBrowsr, Gives The Company Firehose Access Until The End Of The Year
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
The saga of PeopleBrowsr vs. Twitter appears to have come to a close, . Last November, PeopleBrowsr took Twitter to court after the company had informed them that they’d be This was a move happening with nearly all third-party developers, but PeopleBrowsr contested that its four-year long relationship with Twitter could not be cut off that easily. After a public between the two companies, it sounds like the terms of the out of court settlement will be that PeopleBrowsr keeps firehose data until the end of the year, at which time it will shift over to one of Twitter’s approved data partners, Gnip, Topsy or DataSift. A Twitter spokesperson issued the following statement to us: We’re pleased to have this matter dismissed with prejudice, and look forward to PeopleBrowsr’s transition by the end of the year off of the Firehose to join the ecosystem of developers utilizing Twitter data via our reseller partnerships. While it’s not a win, it is the close of a case that kicked up dust from developers, some seeing PeopleBrowsr as fighting for the “little guys” who were slowly losing the access to Twitter’s data that they once enjoyed. This was not the case though, as PeopleBrowsr’s products, namely Kred, rely on this data to function. Basically, it had been paying Twitter $1 million a year to keep their business going. That’s not little. There’s no word on what it will have to eventually pay someone like Gnip for the same access. A spokesperson from PeopleBrowsr says that it’s “business as usual” now. Good, because it got there for a while. [Photo credit: ]
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Classic Note For iOS Is Bringing Blocky Back
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
In case you can’t wait for Jony Ive to give iOS a complete revamp, there’s , an app that will bring back a bit of the Woz-Jobs magic in fully 128K glory. The app includes a note taker and calculator stuffed into a package that harkens back to the days of the original Macintosh. Created by , the app costs $3.99 an is available now. “My main inspiration came when I was playing around with System 6 in Mini VMac a few months ago and noted that the flat colors and shapes of the older OS had a lot in common with the design of modern mobile apps such as LetterPress, and Microsofts Metro style apps. From there I just felt it would be incredibly fun to have some simple little apps that reproduced the feel of the old desk accessories,” said Green. While it’s lean on features, it definitely puts the iPhone screen to good use with large, chunky Chicago-style fonts and enough pixellated buttons to choke a Wild Eep. “There is no support for bit mapped fonts in iOS so I had to hand make a custom font that matches the font used on the original Mac pixel for pixel,” he said. “Sometimes it’s fun to work within such limited visual constraints.” [ ]
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Backed By Travel Veterans, Superfly Launches A “Mailbox For Travel” As It Shifts From Metasearch Into Big Data
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Superfly in 2010 with plans to become the Mint.com of travel, or more specifically, for your rewards and frequent flier miles and travel spending. Following Kayak’s lead, over time, the startup added metasearch capabilities, integrating rewards and points into the flight booking process. Its approach attracted ex-Kayak CFO Bill Smith, . Under his guidance, and backed by seed funding from travel veterans like Smith and Travelport Chairman Jeff Clarke, is today launching a product that clearly shows the travel startup is headed in a new direction. Whether you call it a pivot or not, Superfly founder Jonathan Meiri tells us that the team eventually became frustrated by the limitations of metasearch and simply trying to “build a better Kayak,” and has instead decided to move in a new direction, focusing on the areas where it can actually provide more value. Meiri tells us. They quickly realized that this “share-of-wallet” data was its most valuable data, so, over the last nine months, Superfly has shifted its focus exclusively to that data. During that time, Superfly developed Superbox, which, like LinkedIn, looks at a user’s email contacts to suggest new connections, and like TripIt organizes your itineraries, the service allows users to view and organizes their travel history. Thousands of users are now our using Superbox to find lost miles buried in their email, the founder says. Beyond finding those lost accounts and emails, the startup’s patent-pending tech extracts data from key data points within emails, like receipts, itineraries, offers and boarding passes, for example, to build a deeper personal travel wallet. Today, Superfly is adding an important piece on top of Superbox in an effort to expose these emails to users to help them better manage their travel. The product, called Travel Emails, is also part of the startup’s move to collect more nuanced data on your travel behaviors so that it can target flights, awards and promotions more effectively. Essentially, the new tool collects users’ travel emails in a searchable timeline-type interface, which makes this data easier to parse. In a way, it’s not unlike the capabilities offered by TripIt, while focusing more on aggregating user travel data in a single interface, giving your travel info its own dedicated hub, rather than having it be drowned out in the noise of your inbox. Superfly has been keen to streamline travelers’ ability to find promotions for their trips, along with loyalty updates for frequent fliers, reservations and so on. However, it’s been tough for the startup to offer any kind of real personalization from the limited publicly available travel profile data out there. Getting access to this data is important, Meiri says, because it helps increase the opportunities for value (and revenue) generation. Of course, there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with access to this personal data, so the founder was quick to assure us that Superfly with never sell that data to third-parties, instead allowing travel suppliers to target offers to users based on the more robust travel profiles it can create from this data. the former Kayak CFO says, The last 10 years in travel have been dominated by the rise of meta search and OTAs. These companies have generated a tremendous amount of the value for shareholders by creating mass market tools, arbitraging web traffic and making affiliate revenue. While this game will continue to work for a while, Meiri says, the next ten years are going to be all about personalization. And personalization, of course, is all about consumer data. For more, find
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Here’s EA’s Internal Memo On The Layoffs Today
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Kim-Mai Cutler
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
EA, the game maker in the midst of a big transition from the console era of gaming to the free-to-play world, . The company did not disclose the size of the layoffs, but several other outlets are reporting either hundreds of layoffs or figures that are as high as 10 percent. The downsizing, which comes on the earlier this year, is happening as EA is expected to have a weak earnings report on May 7. EA CEO John Riccitiello recently for the most recent quarter after a six-year stint at the helm of the company. We have an internal memo from executive chairman Larry Probst, which sheds light on some of the changes. Core marketing functions, which were spread out between EA’s five different labels, are getting consolidated under COO Peter Moore. Origin, EA’s online distribution platform, is moving under EA’s President of Labels, Frank Gibeau, who is considered one of the few plausible internal candidates for taking EA’s helm once the CEO search is over. Here’s Probst: As we begin the new fiscal year, I want to provide you with a brief update on some important changes to our organization. As Executive Chairman, my focus is to ensure EA is delivering high quality games and services to our consumers, while helping the executive team develop a FY14 operating plan that drives growth, rationalizes headcount and controls costs. In recent weeks, the executive team has been tasked with evaluating every area of our business to establish a clear set of priorities, and a more efficient organizational structure. This process has led to some difficult decisions about the number of people and locations needed to achieve our goals. The workforce reductions which we communicated in the last two weeks represent the majority of our planned personnel actions. We are extremely grateful for the contributions made by each of these individuals – they will be missed by their colleagues and friends at EA. We are also taking action to streamline our organization, including changes in two key areas: · Core marketing functions have been consolidated under our COO, Peter Moore. The combined group will bring together our Label marketing teams, Global Acquisition Marketing and Marketing Analytics into one multi-talented team under Todd Sitrin’s leadership. The development and marketing teams will continue to work as cohesive units, driving clear and consistent messaging and consumer engagement for each of our franchises. · Origin will move into Frank Gibeau’s Labels organization. Andrew Wilson will take on the leadership of Origin, working with CJ Prober and the team to create more value and an enhanced entertainment experience for our consumers. Change is sometimes difficult, but essential. The adjustments we are making will put us in the best position to build great games and services, deliver them more efficiently to consumers, and demonstrate to players around the world why they should spend their time with us. EA is a great company, with talented and hard-working teams, a strong portfolio of products and an extremely bright future. Thank you all for your dedication and commitment to our long term success!
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The New York Times Releases Its Headline-Reading Google Glass App
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Google’s ambitious Glass display is still a ways off from its public release, but it looks like those newly minted Glass Explorers now have something else to do besides taking first-person photos. The New York Times just pulled back the curtain on its own , which makes it the first installable third-party app available for the ambitious headset (Path was technically the first third-party app, but it’s preloaded on early versions of the device). It’s no surprise to see the Grey Lady embrace Glass so enthusiastically — Google developer advocate Timothy Jordan first showed off an early version of the New York Times Glass app at in Austin (you can see his ), which pipes new news and headlines to the head-mounted display at regular intervals. Navigating through that stream of news seemed easy enough: a quick tilt of the head would allow the user to sift through photos and full articles, as well. Setting up the app is a simple process — clicking on the link above asks for access to your Google account: Once that’s all done, Glass can occasionally chime in by reading headlines in your ear, but the app is also capable of reading off brief article summaries too. All told it seems like a very neat, (if strangely intrusive way) to consume your daily dose of news, and other companies have already pledged to craft their own Glass experiences — Path and the New York Times are a given, but Evernote and are working on apps for Google’s daring device.
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Pinterest Tweaks Its New Look, Improves Search And Brings Features Like Pinned From And Mentions Back
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
While Pinterest is , it decided to listen to some feedback along the way and . Since the site relies heavily, or completely, on its users pinning things to boards like crazy, some features that were dropped from the new design were re-added due to popular demand. One of the features that caused the community to clammer the most was “Pinned By,” which let people see who pinned an item. This was a way to discover new people to follow and Pinterest has brought it back: Additionally, the mentioning friends feature using an @ symbol has returned, yet another way to discover new people to follow. Notice a trend here? It seems like the new design was limiting users on how they could find new friends and boards to interact with. The company says that finding friends from Twitter and Facebook that are on Pinterest is back, too. Other than the features that were reintroduced, Pinterest has improved its search functionality by adding auto-suggest, something that helps people out when looking for things. This has been a popular feature on Google’s search product, making the experience way less aggravating than looking at an empty white box for minutes: Along with search, Pinterest has moved your recent activity notifications, including older ones, to the top right corner, another move that could increase engagement. Things that the company are thinking on and might roll out soon are rearranging pins and creating a board within a board. Let’s call that feature “Boardception.” Still, it’s clear that remaining true to the original experience tops all new bells and whistles. Other social sites like Twitter and Facebook tend to roll out features slowly, getting instant feedback from people along the way before things are released to the masses. By letting users opt-in to trying out the new look, Pinterest gets beta testers who are ready, willing and able to voice their complaints, since that’s what people end up voicing anyways. If you’re still rocking the old design on Pinterest, just click “Get it now” after you log in:
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This Hublot LaFerrari Watch Looks Perfect For Cobra Commander
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
While I’m not a big fan of ostentatious watches that cost too much and are aimed at buyers with more money than sense (in short, most of the Hublot line) I will give this odd-looking watch a moment of reflection. It is the MP-05 LaFerrari, a tourbillon watch with a 50-day power reserve, a number almost unheard of in the watch world, and a unique styling that is reminiscent of a certain Arashikage ninja. The watch itself has a custom HUB9005.H1.6 movement and displays the time in a series of vertical registers. There is a visible tourbillon (essentially a rotating balance wheel AKA the little wheel that “spins” in your average mechanical watch) on the bottom of the watch as well as a winding port on the top. To wind it you use this little power drill. Seriously. A power reserve indicator tells you how long you have to go before you whip out your little drill gun and the entire thing is designed to look like the cowling on the $1.3 million LaFerrari or, more precisely, Cobra Commander’s codpiece. The watch is completely handmade and you can . It comes in a limited edition of 50 and you can expect to pay $300,000 for the privilege of strapping it to your wrist.
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Digg Owner Betaworks Buys Instapaper To Go Big On Social Reading And Discovery
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Last summer, New York-based hybrid investor / incubator / holding company thing Betaworks and , hoping to bring back some of its mojo in the process. Nine months later, Betaworks has , this time bringing Marco Arment’s popular story-saving app Instapaper into the fold. In an email, Betaworks founder and CEO John Borthwick remarked that the acquisition clarifies Betaworks’ role as a company that builds and operates multiple products, rather than just as an incubation space for new ideas which eventually got spun out. And, more importantly, with Instapaper’s purchase model, it makes Betaworks into a company that actually makes money. “Starting 14 months ago I began to move Betaworks into being an operating company,” Borthwick wrote. “In our first three years we were a factory for building companies, we built them and spun them out, hired CEO’s and got other people to fund them. 14 months ago I paid our investors all their money back and started making the shift to operating company.” As part of the transition, Betaworks has been building around the social reading and discovery space. With the acquisition of Instapaper, Betaworks is adding even more tools for saving — and sharing — news that is important to readers. Borthwick wrote that Instapaper will be a “perfect fit” with Digg and its , which is being positioned as a sort of Google Reader replacement. In a , meanwhile, Instapaper founder Marco Arment said that he was passing on responsibility to Betaworks so that he could “try other apps and creative projects.” In looking for a new home, he wanted Instapaper to find a place where it could be fully staffed and grown. With that in mind, the deal was structured to ensure the health and longevity of Instapaper, “with incentives to keep it going well into the future.” Arment said he will “continue advising the project indefinitely, while Betaworks will take over its operation, expand its staff, and develops it further.” Digg, for its part, seems to have benefitted from the change in ownership: It’s reportedly over the last 12 months since being relaunched under Betaworks management. Adding Instapaper to its existing roster of social reading and discovery products could help to advance its aim of capturing that market. Borthwick will be with us at next week, and will no doubt about the acquisition and the future direction of Betaworks. !
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Facebook Buys Parse To Offer Mobile Development Tools As Its First Paid B2B Service
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Kim-Mai Cutler
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Facebook , marking its entry into a : paid tools and services for developing mobile apps. The company is buying the mobile-backend-as-a-service startup (yes, the industry acronym is mBaaS) in a deal that we’ve heard is worth $85 million. [Update: And we’re hearing that excludes retention.] Neither company is commenting on the size of the deal, except that Facebook said it’s not “material.” For more on the long-term impact of Parse on Facebook’s business, read our follow up, “ “. was founded about two years ago by a small group of seasoned Googlers and Y Combinator alums who got together to build a useful set of back-end tools for mobile developers. They originally called their back-end service, the “Heroku” of mobile in a homage to what was one of YC’s biggest exits to date — the $212 million sale of Heroku to Salesforce.com. They offer services that help mobile developers store data in the cloud, manage identity log-ins, handle push notifications and run custom code in the cloud. Facebook won the deal amid what we’ve heard was a competitive process with many of other Valley’s other biggest potential buyers. Parse CEO and co-founder Ilya Sukhar said that he chose Facebook over other suitors — without naming names — because the company was a better cultural fit. “I don’t think any of the other conversations created anywhere near the excitement level that we had for Facebook,” he said in an interview. Why Parse? Facebook is in a big push to become more relevant than ever to mobile developers. It doesn’t own its own mobile OS like Apple or Google. It doesn’t make its own devices. Instead, it’s a horizontal social and identity layer that runs through thousands of apps of iOS and Android, in deep custom integrations in devices made by hardware makers like HTC, and in its latest project, Facebook Home. In that sense, Facebook has to prove value to mobile developers in other ways. Facebook integrations can make apps stickier when users add friends, and the company’s mobile app install ads help developers acquire new users. Now through the Parse deal, the company will be able to offer back-end services for data storage, notifications and user management. , as the company is keeping Parse’s freemium revenue model. Parse currently has over 60,000 apps and roughly the same number of developers. They focus on monetizing the top 10 percent of their clientele. “This fills out one of the pillars of Facebook platform that we’ve been thinking about for awhile,” said Facebook’s Director of Product Management Doug Purdy. “Since 2007, the Facebook platform has been about being an identity mechanism with sharing. But over the course of the last six months, we’ve been thinking about how we can help applications get discovered and how they can be monetized.” He added, “In order to provide the best experience possible, developers also need to build a whole host of infrastructure. Parse is a natural fit. They’ve really just abstracted away a lot of the work necessary to get an app up and running.” The deal is a big exit for Parse, which had from investors including Ignition Partners, Start Fund, Google Ventures, Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, Data Collective, Yuri Milner, Aaron Iba, Garry Tan, Justin Kan, Chris Fanini, Sean Knapp, Don Dodge and David Rusenko. As for Parse users, the company says apps won’t be affected in any way, that developers won’t have to integrate Facebook and that existing contracts will be honored. Parse has a freemium model with a basic free version for up to 1 million requests or pushes per month and a limit of 20 bursts per second. A lowest paid version is $199 a month with 15 million requests a month, 5 million pushes per month and a burst limit of 40 per second. Then there’s an enterprise version where the rates are negotiable. In the long-run, by getting closer to the development process Facebook could increase the likelihood that third-party apps integrate with them and buy their ads. When added to the direct fees Facebook will collect from Parse subscribers, the acquisition could become a critical part of how Facebook earns money from the burgeoning app economy. To learn how the acquisition will change Facebook’s place in the mobile landscape, read our follow-up, “ ” : Parse has come a long way. In just under two years, we’ve gone from a rough prototype to powering tens of thousands of apps for a very broad spectrum of customers. Some of the world’s best brands trust us with their entire mobile presence, and a growing number of the world’s brightest independent developers trust us with their next big thing. We couldn’t be happier. As stewards of a good thing, we’re always thinking about the next step in growing Parse to become a leading platform in this age of mobile apps. These steps come in all sizes. Most are small and incremental. Some are larger. Today we’re excited to announce a pretty big one. Parse has agreed to be acquired by Facebook. We expect the transaction to close shortly. Rest assured, Parse is not going away. It’s going to get better. We’ve worked with Facebook for some time, and together we will continue offering our products and services. Check out Facebook’s blog post for more on this. Combining forces with a partner like Facebook makes a lot of sense. In a short amount of time, we’ve built up a core technology and a great community of developers. Bringing that to Facebook allows us to work with their incredible talent and resources to build the ideal platform for developers. We think this is the right way to accomplish what we set out to do. We’re excited about the future of Parse! Ilya, Kevin, and James And here’s from Director of Product Management Doug Purdy: Last week, we hosted our first , where we launched several new products to help mobile developers integrate Facebook: Open Graph for mobile, better Facebook Login, and new developer tools. Today, we’re making it even easier to build mobile apps with Facebook Platform by announcing that we have entered into an agreement to acquire Parse, a cloud-based platform that provides scalable cross-platform services and tools for developers. By making Parse a part of Facebook Platform, we want to enable developers to rapidly build apps that span mobile platforms and devices. Parse makes this possible by allowing developers to work with native objects that provide backend services for data storage, notifications, user management, and more. This removes the need to manage servers and a complex infrastructure, so you can simply focus on building great user experiences. We’ve worked closely with the Parse team and have seen first-hand how important their solutions and platform are to developers. We don’t intend to change this. We will continue offering their products and services, and we’re excited to expand what Facebook and Parse can provide together.
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Group Led By Google Wants More Speed On The Web, Releases Nginx PageSpeed Module In Beta
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Google really cares about the web being faster. In 2010 it led a group of contributors in releasing a module for Apache web servers called PageSpeed. Today, the same group has released a version for , an alternative to Apache, which is also open source and used by massively trafficked sites like Netflix, Hulu, Pinterest, Airbnb, WordPress.com, Zynga, Zappos and GitHub. In alpha testing, content-delivery network provider, MaxCDN, reported a 1.57 second decrease in average page load times, with bounce rates dropping by 1 percent. While those seconds might not seem like a big deal, they are, especially when you have multiple visitors on your site performing multiple tasks. Think about how it feels when you use Hulu at a Starbucks; that almost 2 seconds could ease some of your frustrations in waiting for a page and video to load. The module is , with open source participation coming from Google, Taobao, We-Amp and individual developers. In a , who is an engineer on Google’s , (have to love Google’s team names), he explains how PageSpeed works: Running as a module inside Nginx, ngx_pagespeed rewrites your webpages to make them faster for your users. This includes compressing images, minifying CSS and JavaScript, extending cache lifetimes, and many other web performance best practices. All of mod_pagespeed’s optimization filters are now available to Nginx users. With Google pushing to bring faster Internet to everyone in the world, , it makes sense that the company would participate in projects like this to help the rest of the web keep up. Naturally, Google is able to leverage the work of projects like this for its own sites, since speed is a for its existing and future products.
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Take An Early Look At Routehappy, The Travel Site That Highlights The Flights You’ll Actually Enjoy
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
is about to launch a new way for travelers to search for flights — and TechCrunch readers can actually take a look now. The idea, as explained to me by co-founder and CEO Robert Albert, is to move beyond the focus on price and schedule that you find on every other flight search site. Sure, those things are important, but as I noted , when you suddenly find yourself stuck in a cramped seat without Wi-Fi, you realize that other factors matter, too. So Routehappy has built a big database of information drawn from “hundreds of sources” — including commercial data providers (mostly for on-time data), reviews, and the airlines themselves. It then looks at the various factors that a traveler might consider and combines them into a “happiness score” between 1 and 10. So if a flight has lots of leg room, a great entertainment system, and Wi-Fi, it should get a high score. And actually, schedule does play a role in the score — for example, there’s a demerit if there’s a long layover or if it’s a red eye flight, because those things will probably make you unhappy. Albert gave me a tour of the site, where he showed me of different searches. His main point: There are plenty of improvements that Routehappy can help you identify that don’t make a big difference in the price. He pointed to flights where the difference between WiFi and no WiFi, or between a personal entertainment system and those crappy overhead TV screens, was only a small percentage of the overall price, or there was no difference at all. He also pointed out that choosing by airline isn’t enough — there are some airlines with a significant difference between the planes in their fleet. I was particularly impressed by Routehappy’s interface. Although searching by happiness is not something I’m used to (the closest thinge I’ve seen is ‘s “agony” ranking), it was easy to understand how to use the site. You can also filter your results based on specific factors (I’m guessing a lot of you would be most interested in Wi-Fi), or, yes, on price — I kind of like the idea of ranking flights by price and then choosing the cheapest one that doesn’t seem totally miserable. There are also nice little touches, like Routehappy’s ridicule of planes that still have overhead entertainment systems — “What is this, the ’80s?” [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/64804533 w=500&h=281] from on . As for how reliable this data is, well, there’s definitely some acknowledged uncertainty. On the Wi-Fi front, there are flights that are simply listed as “yes” or “no,” but also others that say “maybe” or “test.” Albert said some airlines are actually happy to work with Routehappy, because “they don’t want to be commoditized,” but he noted that even their data can be wrong, and that he’s tried to help them correct their own information at times. When I asked how he can be sure that Routehappy’s data is better than the airline’s, he declined to get specific, saying that this is part of the “secret sauce.” (Actually, he offered more details than that — see update below.) Still, he insisted that it’s the most accurate information out there. He also acknowledged that there’s a small chance that you could still get surprised, particularly if an airline switches planes, but he said that happens less than 5 percent of the time. “There’s never an absolute guarantee, but [if you use Routehappy] you will have done everything that a human being could do to optimize your experience,” he said. If you want to try out Routehappy for yourself, the site should go live at around midnight Eastern tonight. Until then, you can and use the password “flyhappier.” Actually, Albert was more forthcoming about the company’s data collection process than I suggested above — he did refer to the secret sauce, but he also offered some details, which he elaborated on via email: We’ve done three important things:
First, we’ve built a dedicated team of Flight Geniuses who know air travel inside and out and make sure we have the most reliable data by flight possible;
second, we’ve built a complex system of databases and algorithms called Flightpad (which stands for Flight Product Attribute Database) that allows us to store, score and match specific details on billions of flights (down to the class of service and sub version of the aircraft scheduled);
finally, because the data does not exist from any single source, we hand pick data from hundreds of disparate sources, thoroughly fact check it and only allow it on the site after it’s passed a comprehensive, peer-reviewed process for quality. The site is now live, no password required.
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The Hero Eco A2B Metro Electric Bike Is A City Commuter’s Dreamcycle
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
As a man who spends most of his time in his attic, it’s nice to hit the open roads, feel a little wind in your hair, and run over crack vials as you motor through downtown Manhattan. That’s exactly what I did yesterday as when I tried to ride a Hero Eco A2B Metro electric bike from Bay Ridge to our offices on Broadway, thereby cementing my love for electric bikes and this electric bike in particular. The Metro, made by German manufacturer (formerly Ultra Motor), is a brutalist electric bike with a built-in battery and maximum speed of 20 MPH. It has pedals and a 7-gear shifter so it is technically considered a moped and does not require a motorcycle license and a built-in limiter ensures you don’t go roaring down the streets on this 80 pound machine. The company has had these bikes in the US for a few years now but they are working on a complete rebranding – although the bikes will remain the same. You can see the on this absolutely awful webpage they’ve made. This particular model costs about $3,000 online but the build quality is excellent and the equipment – from the fat Kenda tires to the Shimano shifter – is acceptable enough. I noticed some bad reviews on Amazon complaining of damaged motors or tires and, although I didn’t experience these issues over the past week, I cannot speak for extensive use. In my 15 mile ride I saw solid performance and no skidding or fishtailing while accelerating. I did, however, experience a low battery and riding this thing home, even for a mile, on pedal power wasn’t great. The bike is a bit big but it’s still thin enough to ensure you don’t get entangled with other riders in tight paths. I found it worked great in tight quarters and, because it is in actuality just a bicycle with a hub motor, the other cyclists didn’t give me that much of a stink eye. I’ve avoided looking at electric bikes of late because most of them look like motors strapped to 10-speeds. This is far different and, if I were to describe it in any way, it is the exact opposite of those foldable city bikes folks are riding. My kids, in fact, have taken to calling it Super Bike. Hero Eco is finding its footing right now and also has sub-$2,000 models available, including their own version of the folding electric called the Kuo which retails for $1,599. The company is also now calling itself and was formerly called Ultra Motor, so you may see a bit of confusing until their full rebranding. What are you paying for? Well, you’re paying for a solid, welded frame, solid components, and excellent acceleration. The range isn’t too shabby and for a bit more you can add on a second battery for 20 miles of range. I could also imagine a user removing the governor – though I’m sure Ultra Motors doesn’t condone this. This isn’t a sport bike. I could really see it more as a bike for folks with a 10-15 mile commute who want to hit the open air a little and don’t want (that much) of a carbon footprint.
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Andrew Keen
| 2,013 | 4 | 22 | null |
Mailbox Is Working On An iPad App, With Desktop And Android Clients “On The Roadmap”
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Given the fairly nutballs hype surrounding the launch of Mailbox for iPhone (and its ), you could probably assume that they’d bring the app to other devices and platforms — and you’d be right if you did. The company recently started letting users know of their upcoming projects: an iPad app is in the works, with Android and desktop clients “on the agenda.” While Mailbox had mentioned to us that they were tinkering with an iPad app in previous briefings, they’ve only recently begun to mention it in public — and even then, seemingly only through relatively quiet Twitter responses. This is also the first we’re hearing of potential Android/Desktop clients. https://twitter.com/mailbox/status/323902098536284161 Though there’s seemingly no ETA for any of the above, it would seem that the iPad app is further along in its development than the other aforementioned platforms. While their mentions of the iPad app are frequently detailed as “in the works” or “coming soon,” mentions of the Android/Desktop app are always labeled with the considerably less committal “on the roadmap.” https://twitter.com/mailbox/status/327476894318600194 https://twitter.com/mailbox/status/327504655204614144 We’ve reached out to the company for clarification on where each project currently sits, and we’ll update if we hear back. It makes sense that an iPad app would come first. Mailbox is already written for iOS/Cocoa Touch —most of the work would be in adjusting the interface for the bigger screen, unless they add iPad-exclusive features. Porting it to Android, meanwhile, would involve quite a bit more new code. Even porting it to OS X would require a pretty drastic rethinking of the super touch-centric UI, at the very least. On a side note: I actually stopped using Mailbox a few weeks after installing it. As it strongly focuses on fast actions on individual emails (as opposed to en-masse actions on groups of emails), I found myself paying attention to preening my inbox than before. I still really dig the time-based reminder future, though. [Double disclosure, for good measure: see the above disclosure about CrunchFund.]
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Leap Motion Controller Ship Date Delayed Until July 22, Due To A Need For A Larger, Longer Beta Test
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Leap Motion has just announced that its 3D gesture controller hardware ship date will be delayed, from for general retail availability to July 27. The delay was caused by a need for more testing from the Leap Motion beta testing community, and an expansion of that group with additional members, according to Leap Motion CEO Michael Buckwald, who held a press conference today to discuss the missed dates. This is not good new for a company that has spent a lot of time promoting its product and securing high-level partnerships (with and ) up until now. The hype that Leap Motion has been able to build only means that users will be more disappointed by any delays in its launch window, and the effect on public perception is certainly one the hardware startup would like to have avoided. Still, some 12,000 developers have , so Leap Motion is hardly in danger of being branded ‘vaporware’ as of yet. Leap Motion says it wants to make sure that the product they deliver is the best they can offer, and says that there is “nothing catastrophically wrong” with the hardware as of yet. The company believes that it could have shipped by the original date if it had really pushed things, but wanted to make sure that things were ready for prime time. The new July 22 ship date is firmly set, according to Buckwald, and this is “the first and only delay there will be.” When asked if there was a specific cause, Buckwald said it’s more about beta testing everything in general, but that there will definitely be a focus on getting more input on how customers interact with the product. In general, it sounds like there’s some concern about making sure that user experience is pleasant among not only Leap Motion’s more technical users, but also the general public, too. Buckwald says it has addressed most of the technical issues around gesture tracking, and now the emphasis is squarely on usability testing, and those who are already seeded with early hardware will essentially act more as consumer testers. “If you’d asked me a year ago what was the biggest challenge, I’d have said it would be the hardware side,” Buckwald said, but went on to explain that the software aspect is now what’s holding things up, and the part that needs more refinement. 600,000 units are in inventory in warehouses ready to ship, he said, but those won’t be going out until the software issues are ironed out. When asked about how that affects their funding situation, he explained that the $45 million it has raised so far was designed to help it field unexpected hiccups in the process, and it continues to help with that. A small number of additional users will be invited to the beta test pool beginning in June, Buckwald explained, but Leap Motion will be reaching out to users specifically to choose those, based on their desire for a more varied beta pool. In other words, you probably can’t petition for early access. The full letter Leap Motion is sending out to pre-order customers follows: I wanted to reach out to update you on the status of our ship date. After a lot of consideration, we’ve decided to push back the date and will now be shipping units to pre-order customers on July 22nd. This is not a decision we take lightly. There are hundreds of thousands of people in over 150 countries who have pre-ordered Leap devices, some as long as a year ago. These people are part of our community and there is nothing more important to us than getting them devices as quickly as possible. We’ve made a lot of progress. When we first started taking orders back in May we were twelve (very tired) people in a basement. Now we are eighty (although still tired and possibly still in a basement). We’ve manufactured over six hundred thousand devices and delivered twelve thousand Leaps to amazing developers who are building applications that let people do things that just wouldn’t have been possible before. These developers have given us great feedback that we’ve used to make huge improvements to the stability and polish of the product. We’re really proud of Leap as both a company and a product. The reality is we very likely could have hit the original ship date. But it wouldn’t have left time for comprehensive testing. This will come in the form of a beta test that will start in June. We will give the 12k developers who currently have Leap devices access to the feature complete product including OS interaction (today developers only have access to the SDK). We will also invite some people who are not developers to join the beta test. Ultimately, the only way we felt 100% confident we could deliver a truly magical product that would do justice to this new form of interaction, was to push the date so we would have more time for a larger, more diverse beta test. I really appreciate your patience. I know it’s been a long wait. Everyone that works at Leap is working tirelessly to make sure that wait is worth it. Thanks so much for your help and support. David and I will be participating in an open video Q&A using Google Hangout tomorrow. We’ll send along more specific information on that shortly. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact our support team at or my personal email ( ). As always, we will not charge pre-order customer’s credit cards until the devices have actually shipped. Thanks again. Michael Buckwald
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Amazon Just Beats Estimates As Q1 Sales Rise 22 Percent To $16B, While Net Income Drops 37 Percent To $82M
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 |
Last quarter, Amazon, which has been a freight train and Wall Street darling over the last year, surprised analysts . Expectations were high considering the holiday shopping season, but Amazon saw net income drop 45 percent to $97 million in Q4, compared to $177 million in 2011, although on the bright side, net sales continued to increase (by 22 percent) to $21.2 billion. Today, Amazon continued the trend, still finding itself in a bit of a hangover after missing expectations in Q4. from Q1 after the market closed this afternoon, in which it saw cash flow increase 39 percent to $4.25 billion, compared to $3 billion for the prior year, while net sales increased 22 percent to $16.07 billion in Q1, compared to $13.18 billion in first quarter 2012. And by mixed results, we mean that Amazon blew away earnings-per-share expectations at $0.18 in Q1 on revenue of $16 billion. Leading up to today’s announcement, Wall Street expectations were much lower for EPS, with analysts expecting $0.08 EPS for the quarter. In turn, the Street expected Amazon to report sales of $16.2 billion, which the company just missed with $16.07 billion in sales. In spite of the mixed results, as the market has been wont to do over the last year, Amazon’s stock was trending up, closing at $274.70 per share, on rumors that the company could be launching its , bringing more of the company’s hardware into your living room. Tellingly, in today’s announcement, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos didn’t touch on the numbers or falling profits, instead plugging the company’s efforts to take on Netflix with of its own for Instant Video customers. Last week, the company launched 14 new comedy and kids pilots on Instant Video, which quickly became the “most watched TV shows on Instant Video,” the . Bezos said in today’s earnings release. Other points of interest: Amazon’s free cash flow fell 85 percent to $177 million year-over-year, compared to $1.15 billion in the year prior, due in part to dishing out $1.4 billion to purchase new office space in Seattle. Operating income decreased 6 percent to $181 million in Q1, compared to $192 million in the same quarter last year, while net income fell 37 percent to $82 million from $132 million in Q1 2012. The upside for Amazon continues to rise, thanks to its move into original programming and the expansion of its selection for Prime Instant Video, which is in part due to new licensing agreements with A+E, CBS, FX, PBS And Scripps. This means that shows like Downton Abbey, Justified and Under The Dome, as well as content from Food Network, the Cooking Channel, the Travel Channel and HGTV will all be headed to Amazon. The company said that Prime Instant Video now has 38,000 movies and TV episodes in its collecton. In addition, Amazon touted the launch of its new MP3 store for Safari, which allow iPhone and iPod touch users to discover and purchase digital music from the company’s catalog. This comes on the heels of of the company’s Appstore is growing and shows high revenue potential. Amazon also announced its Cloud Player for iPad and iPad Mini this quarter, extended AutoRip to vinyl records and announced the launch of Kindle Fire HD 8.9″. Good news also came for authors and readers, as Amazon announced that it will start paying its authors their royalties monthly, ahead of the twice-a-year industry standard, along with the acquisition of popular book recommendation hub, Goodreads. All in all, it was a busy quarter for Amazon, especially for AWS, which launched a slew of new products over the last few months and again lowered its prices. The company said in its announcement today that AWS “has lowered prices 31 times since it launched in 2006, including 7 price reductions so far in 2013.” Looking forward, Amazon is lowering expectations, however, as it said today that it expects sales to come in between $14.5 billion and $16.2 billion next quarter — equivalent to a 13 to 26 percent increase from Q2 2012. In turn, it expects operating income to be between -$340 million and +$10 million. In other words, a potential loss. For more, find Amazon’s Q1 .
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Silicon Valley And The Reinvention Of Food
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Klint Finley
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
Fake meats have been around for years, but a new crop of Bay Area startups backed by tech investors think they can make meat substitutes good enough to compete with the real deal. — backed by Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone via their company — created an eerily accurate chicken substitute, for example. But the most ambitious project is ‘s cheekily named “ ,” an attempt to replace food entirely with a liquid shake that has all the protein, fat, carbohydrates and micronutrients you need. The only ingredients recognizable as food are salt and olive oil. He claims to have lived exclusively on the stuff for a month. He says he has started eating real food again, but two months later he still gets 92 percent of his meals from Soylent. Rhinehart makes an unlikely food scientist. He’s an engineer fresh off a stint at a Y Combinator-backed networking startup called Level RF that never exited stealth mode. He says he doesn’t have a background in chemistry. “Formally no more than an undergraduate level, but I am a huge proponent of self-study, online courses, and textbooks,” he says. He decided to create Soylent because he was tired of spending so much time and money on food. “It takes me about five minutes to portion out all the ingredients at this point,” he says. “Without water it keeps for years so I could make it far in advance to save this time.” He’s still working out the kinks. For example, he recently that he had run into some trouble with sulfur deficiency. Next Rhinehart is looking to do controlled experiments with a much larger sample base. “I have spoken to no biologist that doubts the feasibility of this,” he says. But mainstream dietitians remain skeptical. “My short answer is that I don’t know any more about this product than the limited information provided on the product website,” says Diane Stadler, PhD, RD — a registered dietitian and assistant professor of medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. Stadler warns that although we know many of the essential nutrients in food, we don’t know everything and there’s a strong possibility that an elemental diet like this could miss something critically important. “I would not promote this type of diet to the general public, as there are many ways that it can go wrong, especially if consumed long-term,” she says. Rhinehart’s defense is that people who don’t eat well are probably already missing important nutrients. But he admits it needs more testing. He’s already selling the mix to several people, and is seeking funding. “I need funding to scale up production and conduct more controlled testing,” he says. “I have received orders of magnitude more requests than I can possibly fulfill, which is lost revenue.” There are already many meal replacement shakes on the market, but Rhinehart plans to offer cheaper, customizable products. “An athlete would need a lot of protein, an elderly woman doesn’t need many calories, and a coder or engineer type could elect to have nootropics included, if desired,” he says. “Meal replacement products can be even more expensive than traditional food. Soylent is already much cheaper, and due to the lack of real food sources, scales very well in manufacturing.” Given the Valley’s current penchant for food startups, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him land a round. Besides Obvious Corp, and PayPal founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel’s Breakout Labs are also in the game. Khosla is backing Hampton Creek Foods, which has a product called “Beyond Eggs.” It’s also backing a few other food and agricultural companies, including artificial salt company Nu-Tek Salt and fake meat company Sand Hill Foods. Last year at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco Khosla went so far as to say that the artificial beef, which is made from soy protein, is still “beef.” At any rate, Anthony was . Khosla also has investments in a company working on alternatives to salt and a beef substitute. Breakout Labs , a company that aims to “print” lab-grown meat and leather. All of these companies are challenging the common nutrition advice to eat whole foods and vary your diet. In fact all these projects fly in the face of current food trends that advocate whole, unprocessed foods. Both the Michael Pollan, “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” set and the Paleo set both agree that it’s best to avoid processed food and just eat what nature gave us. But the implications could be wide for the world. I try to eat natural whole foods, but I always feel a bit uncomfortable hearing from organic food zealots and the anti-GMO crowd. Fresh organic food is expensive, and cooking meals from scratch is time consuming. And there are, y’know, starving people out there who would love to get at some highly processed, genetically modified soy. “I think humanity has been running on the equivalent of crude oil for ages,” Rhinehart says. “Imagine creating an efficient source of fuel for every living human, alleviating global hunger and malnutrition, reducing the environmental impact of farming, performing research on poorly understood biological mechanisms and potentially bringing agricultural societies in to the global economy.”
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With Over 15M Sites Built, Weebly Launches New Planner And Mobile Editor, Brings Website Creation Service To Android
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
In this day and age, if you own a small business, you need a web (and mobile) presence. It’s just the way it is. Some might opt just to go for a social media approach, a Twitter account and a Facebook page, but the likelihood is that you want something a little more flexible, high-quality and something that gives you more control over the user experience. More and more, people are turning and . The two big “W’s” in the website creator world. For those unfamiliar, Weebly is a service that lets you, your mom, grandmother, four-year-old cousin and anyone you know create a quality website for free. Launched out of Y Combinator in 2007, Weebly has had over 15 million sites created using its service to date, which collectively attract more than 100 million unique visitors each month. This week, Weebly has kicked its service up a notch with an all-new overhaul to its website builder — one that’s been a year in the making — and the launch of an interactive “Site Planner.” This new site planner is designed to help give people ideas and a little lightbulb-style inspiration that will help them walk through the creative process and vision for the site. Plus, Weebly now offers an HTML5 site creator that offers new themes and pre-fab building blocks to customize their new site, and, most importantly, a new mobile new editor that helps them optimize their site for mobile devices, along with a now-globally available Android app. In the lead-up to the big launch, co-founder David Rusenko tells us, Weebly surveyed several million consumers and found that about 56 percent of them, understandably, don’t trust a business that doesn’t have a website. And, yet, 58 percent of businesses don’t have a website. Pretty eye-opening in today’s world, when over a billion people are on Facebook and hundreds of millions have so much computing power in their pockets. Ask the Weebly founders who their core audience is and they’ll tell you, proudly, that it’s entrepreneurs — people who are trying to build their own small businesses, across every industry, not just techies. And, regardless of technical proficiency, the problem that most small business owners struggle with is how daunting it can be to face that blinking cursor, the blank page. It’s the same issue we scribblers deal with in cases of “writer’s block.” When building websites, people want ways to test out their ideas, lay out their vision, and help bring it to life. So how does it all work? The new Weebly site planner offers people ideas and inspiration to help ’em plan and think through the vision for their site, which is pretty cool, as it offers a step-by-step, interactive guide to help them identify goals, organize and layout their pages. According to the founders, 55 percent of people who visit Weebly have never built a website before, so the HTML5 site creator is designed to help make that process easy on n00bs and experts alike, give their site a personalized, unique design, photos, text and so on. The new mobile site lets users customize how their site looks for their visitors on computers, phones and tablets, allowing them to create a separate design for mobile using a distinct theme, while editing their site in a mobile viewer. As they go, they can switch between different views to see how it will look on both Android and iOS. In turn, the company’s new Android app basically brings everything that was already native to the Weebly experience to Android, including the ability to create blog posts on the go with drag and drop mobile blogging, add photos and text to their blog, social sharing, push notifications, commenting and analytics. “For the first time, entrepreneurs around the world have a single place where they can easily
start a site that works across computers, phones and tablets,” said Roelof Botha, partner at Sequoia Capital who led Sequoia’s investments in YouTube, Square, Tumblr and more. “We believe demand for Weebly’s site creation tool is just beginning.” Users can sign up for Weebly in a minute, pick their site address, whether or not they want to use the free service or a premium plan which starts at $4/month, and jump in. The service now helps you plan the layout, create the site, drag-and-drop-style and publish to the address of your choice. Weebly takes care of the cross-platform optimization and SEO, leaving you to do the rest. Pretty cool.
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Roelof Botha On Why Sequoia Isn’t Giving Its Billion-Dollar Companies IPO Pressure [TCTV]
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Colleen Taylor
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
So when we had the opportunity to sit down with Sequoia’s backstage at this week, we asked him what his perspective is on this trend and why Sequoia is so patient regarding the IPO route. We also talked about where the PayPal Mafia for the current generation of techies might be forming, how “brain drains” can lead to the next wave of innovation, and more. Check it all out in the video above.
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Audience Development Startup LinkSmart Raises $5 Million From Foundry And Costanoa
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
A little less than a year ago, a little company called launched to help publishers use text links to get their readers reading more. Now it has raised $5 million in Series B funding to take its technology for growing audiences and make it more widely available. The financing was led by Foundry Group and Costanoa Venture Partners, which was . LinkSmart was founded by former DailyCandy CEO Pete Sheinbaum, to help publishers grow audiences through in-text links. While web content creators have spent the last several years shoe-horning in all sorts of banners and sidebars and widgets, the actual text of most web pages is where audiences are usually most engaged. With that in mind, LinkSmart wants to give publishers the tools to better take advantage of that engagement, by providing a smarter way to analyze and link between content that they’ve created. There are three main aspects to its technology: analytics, to show publishers which pages could use more links and which they should link to; management tools to redirect links; and even technology to automatically add links to stories if publishers choose to use it. As someone who just manually adds links to web content all day, I can see the appeal of a system which would not only reduce my need to do so, but would also make links that are put in , and would drive more clicks. Getting those clicks to go to is even more of a plus. With more money in its coffers, LinkSmart is plans to use the funding to expand headcount in places where publishers live. The company has 18 employees, with its tech team based Boulder, Colo., but it’s looking to hire sales and support people in places like New York, L.A., San Francisco, and Chicago.
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Ask A VC: Index Ventures’ Mike Volpi On What To Look For In A Board Member And More
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
In this week’s Ask A VC episode, we sat down with Index Ventures partner . Volpi, who makes investments in both enterprise software and consumer internet companies, serves on a number of boards, including Path, Sonos, Lookout, Hortonworks, Soundcloud, Big Switch Networks, Zuora, Foodily, and Storsimple. We asked Volpi what his biggest challenge is as the board member of a startup, and what entrepreneurs should be looking for in a board member. He also had some interesting perspective on the latest buzz word du jour, big data, and where we’ll see the most innovation taking place in the enterprise data space. Tune in above for more!
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With New Service, Any Device Could Run Almost Any Program From Anywhere
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
In the near future, the only difference between a smartphone, tablet, and a laptop will be the size of the screen. Hardcore gamers could play 3D intensive games in a smartphone, and Michael Bay could render “Transformers 4” from his iPad. Otoy, an LA-based software company, has discovered a way to stream any application to any device, completely through a web browser. It’s difficult to overestimate the potential disruptiveness of Otoy, as a breakthrough streaming service could, in the near future, end the need for app stores and computer upgrades (see a demo below). [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw3NKhfjKU0] Otoy has a habit of with its surprising ability to stream 3D intensive graphics to devices that shouldn’t be able to run them. Since Otoy’s 2009 demo, there’s been a rush of companies in the ever more crowded “cloud” services industry, . Up until now, video games were shackled to certain consoles, mobile apps to particular app stores, and software to particular operating systems. If we didn’t own an iPhone, Windows, and or an Xbox, we couldn’t use a lot of cool applications. But, every device runs Internet browsers, and specifically, the JavaScript which Otoy utilizes to render the software. Soon, the monopoly that iOS, Windows, and Xbox wields over users will end, and the freedom to use any piece of software on any device will become the norm. Even cooler, we may no longer need to shell out $3,000 on a high-end laptop to run games or graphics software. At Otoy’s media event with Mozilla and Autodesk at San Francisco headquarters, we saw the graphics-hungry first person shooter, Unreal, run seamlessly on an iPhone. In essence, Otoy brings a supercomputer to your phone or tablet. “That’s going to have huge implications in my business” said celebrity talent agent and Otoy investor, Ari Emanuel, who sees the ability of more filmmakers to make movies in less time and for less money. Currently, it takes an entire day to render movie-quality scenes. With Otoy, globally distributed teams could work in real time (some at the beach) without having to stagger their work for an entire day between revisions. So, how much will it cost if Otoy completely replaces my computer needs? About $300, Urbach, based on 8 hours of use per day for consumer applications (Otoy charges by computing power and is currently targeting artists). There is one more implications of note: Otoy could dramatically reduce Internet congestion. Cellular networks are overloaded, in part, because multimedia takes up a huge chunk of the available bandwidth. Netflix, alone, hogs an estimated 32% of total U.S. bandwidth during peak hours. Otoy and Mozilla estimate that the enhanced streaming technology could reduce the total bandwidth needs by a sizable 25%. In order for Otoy, or any cloud rendering service, to completely service all our computing needs, the Internet must get much more reliable. At the demo, a standard 4G cell network could stream a video game. But, spotty coverage around cities, on airplanes, and in rural areas will be a serious bottleneck for Otoy. Additionally, it’s unclear whether current U.S. bandwidth could actually handle everyone moving to the cloud. So, while we don’t know the implications in the short term, the implications a few years down the road are very exciting.
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Here’s What The Large Hadron Collider Looks Like Through Google Glass
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
If Google is worried about Google Glass , they probably wouldn’t be sending people rockin’ the Glass into the heart of the most gloriously nerdy thing in the world, the Large Hadron Collider. Fortunately, Google doesn’t seem to (nor should they) if their amazing little experiment gets a few knocks along the way. As a result, we get videos like this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRrdeFh5-io In a just released “Explorer Story” video, Google sends physics teacher/aspiring astronaut/really cool guy Andrew Vanden Heuvel some 500 feet below Switzerland for a Glass-ified tour of the world’s biggest particle accelerator. As if a bit of first-person footie of the LHC wouldn’t be enough, Andrew got to pipe-in his brother’s physics class through a Google Hangout, allowing students a few thousand miles away to join in on the adventure. Andrew dives a bit deeper into his experiences with Google Glass . While he mostly focuses on his personal experiences during the trip, he grazes an important topic: “It’s not about the technology, but what you can do with it.” Look. I’ve used Google Glass. Quite a bit, actually. Would I pay $1500 for it? Probably not. But do I think that Google is doing something worthwhile here? Absolutely. The criticisms that keep popping up as of late — that it’s a waste of Google’s time, that it’s too nerdy/dorky/whatever — are a depressing affront to a group that’s actually trying to . We demand innovation, then mock an attempt at something novel… even when that attempt has been clearly labeled as an experiment since day one. Blyeck. Hell, this is probably a post of its own worth writing. Lets just watch the video and enjoy our Friday.
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We’ve Heard A Similar Reaction To Google Glass Somewhere Before
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
Google Glass is finding its way to developers and and the reaction has been, well, predictable. So far, there are those who think that Glass will absolutely , that it’s our version of the flying car. Those people are full of shit. On the other side of the coin, there are those who say that Glass will never find a place in the hearts of consumers, and that Google is just trying to be cool. Those people are also full of shit. The problem is that when new things are introduced, people don’t know how to react, so they go to what they know. There’s either delirious glee or there’s immediate doom and gloom. The fact of the matter is that nobody knows what the future of Glass looks like. Not even Google. This is the very reason why the device was seeded with developers first: Their applications will be what makes the product interesting or not. If iPhone developers had been the only ones with an iPhone, then they would have been called names, too. It’s just the nature of the tech beast. I was around for the launch of the iPhone, the device that some, including Steve Jobs, said would revolutionize the way we do everything. For the most part, it has in many ways. When it launched, I remember handing my precious cellular device to people who couldn’t wait to take it for a spin. They spent about five minutes tapping around and then handed it back, saying things like “Oh, well I guess that’s cool.” It wasn’t until the App Store was introduced until the real power of the iPhone came into play. Surfing the web, checking stock and weather information and reading your email wasn’t all that amazing and magical. Here’s in 2007: Despite some important missing features, a slow data network, and call quality that doesn’t always deliver, the Apple iPhone sets a new benchmark for an integrated cell phone and MP3 player. Is that how you’d explain the iPhone now? Not really. Then, you had this wonderful moment… During that clip, Steve Ballmer showed himself to lack the vision to even think about creating a device that could unlock the potential of so many different people, be it developers or consumers. That’s exactly the reaction I’m seeing on the doom-and-gloom side of the coin for Glass. Just today, Business Insider wrote “ .” There were some fair points raised in that piece, but like most things that have been written about Glass, the broader points are being missed. What will Glass do for developers who are looking to stretch their brains, and talents, on a platform that could be on the face of consumers in the next year or so? It’s too early to tell, of course. There will be a killer app for Glass, mark my words. I have no idea what it will be. There was a killer app for the iPhone very early on, one called Urbanspoon. Get this, you could shake your phone and you’d get a random suggestion on where to eat. That action and experience could never be done on a phone until the iPhone. You’re going to see the same types of applications pop up for Glass, ones that we’ve never imagined. Until these apps start being built, we’re stuck with people trying to get attention by wearing the device in the shower and swearing to never take them off, or people trying to predict how it will completely bomb and never see store shelves at all. It’s a time that we went through once before, with the iPhone. Apple stayed the course, navigated its way through those bumpy times and came out on the other side. Will Google be able to do the same? There’s no reason to think they can’t, and there’s no reason to think they can. We’re just going to have to wait. If you haven’t noticed, waiting isn’t a strong suit of those in the tech space. However, Ballmer should have waited until he shared his opinion on the iPhone publicly, but then again…it was pretty predictable.
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Gentry Underwood On How The Overnight Success Of Mailbox Came From Years Of Working On Orchestra
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
After being earlier this year, appeared to be an overnight success, with hundreds of thousands of users signing up to be a part of its waiting list. But the quick adoption of the app only came after the team behind it spent years developing and iterating on a productivity app called Orchestra. In a conversation backstage at Disrupt NY 2013 earlier this week, co-founder Gentry Underwood walked me through how Mailbox came to be. “Mailbox is really version 2 of Orchestra, a shared to-do list that we put in the app store in the fall of 2011,” Underwood told me. “Inside the company we were in an endless cycle of prototyping and releases that eventually evolved into Mailbox.” The road to Mailbox, he said, came as the startup realized that the idea of the to-do list was fundamentally broken. Instead of helping users to organize tasks, they inevitably became a nagging reminder of things people hadn’t yet accomplished. “Everybody fills up to-do lists with things to do, and that’s a great moment because you’re getting your life organized,” he said. “The more people use them, the more they get full of stuff that never gets done.” The daunting nature of to-do lists ended up providing one of the key features that would eventually make its way into Mailbox — the snooze button. Instead of having an item just staring up at you constantly, snoozing it allows users to file it away to be tackled later. While working on orienting their productivity tool around that, the team realized that most people had a ton of their tasks trapped in their email inbox. All of that led to a “What if?” moment in March last year, where the team asked themselves, “What if all of your email was somehow all inside Orchestra?” Rather than building that feature into their existing product, they decided to create an entirely new product instead. That app eventually became Mailbox, which launched in January. Check out the full interview above, where Underwood talks about creating Mailbox, the app’s reservation system, and what’s coming next.
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Everyone! Look! Acer!
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Matt Burns
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
When was the last time you talked about Acer? Never? Me too. The company, which is the fourth largest PC maker in the world by the way, announced the this morning. It’s a mighty morphing Windows 8 portable. Like the Lenovo Yoga, it features versatile hinges that allow the computer to take different forms. The Aspire R7 is not the next big thing. No one is going to buy this thing. But that’s probably just fine. The Acer Aspire R7 is a halo device. It’s an attention grabber. It’s advertising in the form of product. It’s Acer’s proof to the other big players and startups alike that the company can still hang. It’s designed to sit pretty in the showroom window and entice buyers to come inside to the dealership. It is, in automotive terms, the Chevy Corvette of Acer’s lineup. Dealerships prominently position the Corvette outside their doors. It’s not around back with the Chevy Econoboxes. It’s right out front. It draws attention. It gets buyers near the door and talking about the brand. It will never outsell the Impala. In fact it’s designed to help sell the Impala. Expect to see the Acer Aspire R7 on electronic store retailers’ end-caps and nowhere else. Just maybe, with this hot portable occupying prime real estate in Best Buy, more buyers will view Acer as a serious computer company rather than a list of competitive specs available at good price. Every company produces these high-end products to get the blood moving again. Remember the ? That $2,200 netbook was once displayed at CES on a turntable protected by a bulletproof cube of glass. It was “technically” available for sale, but Dell didn’t expect it to sell en masse. Sony had the uber-high end Qualia line from 2003 to 2005. With prices ranging from $1,400 (MiniDisc player) to $25,000 (SXRD video projector), these products were more of a design exercise than legitimate push into the upper echelon of consumer electronics. Back to Acer. The company’s Wikipedia page says it best: Acer sells “inexpensively-targeted” computer electronics. The products are available from nearly every retailer. Acer is, in short, the Lee Jeans of computer: They’re perfectly acceptable, available at Walmart but not a brand that generates excitement. Now there’s the Acer Aspire R7. The Internet is excited about this computer. they’re not ready for its level of crazy. But crazy is good. Crazy gets attention. And crazy sells. Acer is losing marketshare. The company was the second most prolific computer maker in 2009, second to only HP in global sales. It ended 2012 in fourth place, after HP, Lenovo, and Dell. Worse yet, sales and shipments are still trending down. The consumer marketplace has changed a lot since Acer was near the top. Like Giz said, we’re not ready for the R7’s radical design. But I for one can’t wait to see what else the firm is capable of producing. I would be totally on board with a similar Windows 8 computer albeit one that’s a touch less crazy. And now I’m looking to Acer to provide that where I wouldn’t have even considered the company before. Oh, and Acer did announce new lower-end notebooks today. . They’re good, but nothing exciting — which is just about right for Acer.
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New VC Firm Happens Right Under Our Nose
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Alexia Tsotsis
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
My old boss used to say that a story is something you’d tell someone in a bar or at lunch, so I’m going to tell you guys the tale I’ve been telling people at bars and lunches. Yesterday, Aol Ventures head announced that he’d be leaving Aol to start his own VC firm, The most interesting part of this story is that Bowery Capital was actually hatched at 670 Broadway in New York, which has the distinction of ALSO BEING THE TECHCRUNCH NEW YORK OFFICES. I’m sitting here right now, and it’s pretty hard to miss the presence of the new firm. Seriously, the Bowery Capital swag and logo is everywhere, and there is literally a pamphlet for their CRO conference on my desk (see below). In fact, the snazzy on the new Bowery Capital website were actually taken by a TC videographer. As a favor! Brown told Aol he wanted to do this last April, and started raising his $33 million fund in October. So, it’s been in the works for a year. When asked why they never got curious as to what was going on beneath their noses and report the story — like what usually happens — one TechCrunch New York staffer said, “I don’t know.” Well I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Bowery Capital head Mike Brown literally 15 feet away from my desk. Bowery Capital swag. A mug with a logo that isn’t Aol Ventures’. Business cards with a logo that isn’t Aol Ventures’. A folder, also with a non-Aol Ventures logo. You left your pamphlet on our desk, somebody.
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Facebook’s Q1 Lobbying Spend Soars 277 Percent To $2.45M; Google Down 33 Percent
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
It’s no secret that the amount of time that tech companies are spending in Washington, D.C., is at a . And money spent on lobbying has also been reaching peaks for a number of well-known technology giants, including Facebook. In the first quarter of 2013, Facebook spent $2.45 million on lobbying efforts, a 277 percent increase from $650,000 a year earlier. In the fourth quarter of 2012, Facebook spent , so this is a big jump both on a quarterly and yearly basis. So what did Facebook spend on this quarter? International regulation of the Internet and freedom of expression; privacy and security policies and the education of these policies; education of online advertising; immigration reform; cyber security and data security; and discussions on tax issues and stock options. It’s also worth noting that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and a number of other tech all-stars recently a designed to promote policies that will keep the American workforce competitive. The first item on the agenda for the group is pushing comprehensive immigration reform, but it will also be focusing its efforts on education reform and scientific research. After hitting highs in lobbying spending in 2012, Google cut its first-quarter lobbying spending by 33 percent to $3.35 million year-over-year (Google spent $5.03 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2012). The search giant’s spending was flat from quarter to quarter, with Google spending the exact same amount on lobbying in Q4 of 2012. Google in February when the Federal Trade Commission closed its antitrust investigation, and many say that Google in D.C. This quarter, Google spent money lobbying on issues of regulation of online advertising, patent reform and intellectual property enforcement; privacy and data security issues; renewable energy policy; online freedom of expression; health information technology and privacy; cyber security; immigration and job creation; openness and competition in online services, math, science and technology education; international tax reform; the benefits of cloud computing for small businesses; broadband adoption and open Internet access; and freedom of expression and intellectual property in international trade agreements. And it looks like Facebook’s not the only company taking a page out of the Google lobbying playbook. According to , a number of other tech giants also increased spending on lobbying efforts. Microsoft spent $2.53 million in the quarter, which is a 41 percent increase from $1.79 million in 2012. Amazon spent $859,831, a 32 percent increase from $650,000 in 2012. Apple spent $720,000, a 44 percent increase from $500,000 in 2012. Oracle spent $1.37 million, a 25 percent increase from 1.1 million in 2012. Photo Credit:
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Here Is How Not To Decorate Your Office
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Colleen Taylor
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
Of course, the question is why anyone thought this kind of decoration would be a good idea in the first place (not surprisingly, the negative outcry was swift .) Reached via telephone today, a Lightbank spokesperson said that the initial decision to display the photos was to represent the “risk and journey of entrepreneurship” and out of a general appreciation of the art, as the firm’s office is filled with modern artwork and photography. “But once people started reacting to it, and we saw the other implications that were being taken from it, it was an immediate decision to take it down.” Edgy office design is fairly common in tech, as we see in our all the time. But it’s clear that this went too far, especially in light of recent . Some more details: The photos are from a 1980 exhibit by artist Sarah Charlesworth called ‘Stills’ that were displayed once again in 2012 in an art show commemorating . Art journalist Robin Cembalest explains the concept best :
“The artist had made the pictures, huge blow-ups of newspaper images of people falling mid-air, back in 1980. She reproduced the name of the person, if the journal had published it, in the caption, but without saying whether they were jumping or falling—or whether they had lived or died. Back then, Charlesworth saw the ‘Stills’ as a way to explore the power of photographs to elicit certain emotional reactions. ‘The people in midair became a metaphor between certain life and eventual death that we all live all the time,’ she explains.”
This kind of concept may be great in a gallery, but it was a bad move to bring it into a corporate setting, even in the more open-minded and casual tech world. It’s good to see that Lightbank recognizes that now, and isn’t digging in its heels or trying to justify the decision.
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 4 | 25 | null |
Defense Distributed Claims To Have Produced The First Fully 3D-Printable Pistol
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
While Defense Distributed, the for gun parts, has been working on a for some time now, they’ve finally announced that they’ve completed a real 3D-printed handgun called the Liberator. Made entirely out of 3D-printed ABS with the exclusion of a single nail used as the firing pin, it looks to be the fruition of mission to open source the gun-making process. and has said that the founder, Cody Wilson, will release the open source plans on his site. It fires handgun rounds and can be modified to shoot different calibers. They have also added a piece of steel so that the gun will be detectable by metal detectors, ensuring it complies with the . It’s hard to say how usable or how reliable this firearm will be, especially when ABS quality is iffy when it comes to various types of printers. However, with a good printer, good plastic, and a little luck this thing may not explode in your hand. We’ll have more information as it emerges, but until then, get ready for some interesting discussions about gun rights this weekend.
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This Week On The TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast: Disrupt, Acer, And Hydroponics
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
This week on the we talk about , Disrupt, and . This time we’re joined by Matt Burns, Darrell Etherington, Greg Kumparak, and Michael Seo as the Beaver. Enjoy!
We invite you to enjoy our every Friday at 3pm Eastern and noon Pacific.
You can subscribe to the .
Intro Music by .
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Acer Goes To A Whole New Level Of Crazy With The Aspire R7
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Michael Seo
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
Acer just announced the Aspire R7, a strange hybrid of a desktop all-in-one, laptop, a tablet that was previously teased in . It’s honestly really, really weird. We always expected that Windows 8 would lead to some really strange convertible touchscreen devices, but the Aspire R7 is a whole new kind of crazy. The first thing you’ll notice about the Aspire R7 is that Acer seems to have forgotten how laptops are made. The trackpad sits behind the keyboard, which is a bit perplexing until you realize that Acer doesn’t really want you to use the trackpad at all. That’s because the Aspire R7 has something called an Ezel hinge that gives the 15.6 touchscreen display an amazing degree of flexibility. You can lie the 15-inch, 1080p touchscreen display completely flat with the device, turning the Aspire R7 into an oversized tablet. You can also angle the display so that it sits flush with the keyboard and covers the trackpad completely. I’m honestly not sure why the trackpad is there in the first place. As a whole, the Aspire R7 seems to be incredibly well built. It’s made of some type of aluminum-like material, and there’s virtually no flex to the device. On the other hand, it’s very large and very heavy, which means that it won’t be very portable. It’s probably one of the nicest pieces of hardware Acer has ever built. But I don’t know who would use something as crazy as this. Other key specs for the R7 include: Acer also announced the Aspire P3, an ultra book convertible with a detachable display, and the Iconia A1, a 7.9 inch Android tablet. But it’s the Aspire R7 that stole the show here. It’ll be available for retail locations starting May 17th, and can be pre-ordered now at the Best Buy online store for $999. (and a friendly shout out to Stefan over at , who was kind enough to let me borrow his camera for these shots) [gallery columns="4" ids="811563,811569,811570,811571,811572,811573,811574"]
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Swatch Automates Movement Assembly, Pushing Watchmaking Into The Third Quarter Of The 20th Century
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
While I kid a bit in the headline, this is actually pretty cool: Swatch, the largest manufacturer of mechanical watch movements in the world, has created a movement that is assembled entirely using automated systems. Why is this important? The watch industry was originally gutted by the rise of cheap quartz watches, making this piece quite ironic, and this means that more people will be able to own higher quality mechanical watches from a trusted brand. The movement, called the Sistem51, is made of 51 simple parts and has a weight that winds the mainspring. It is made of a copper, nickel and zinc alloy called ARCAP and is anti-magnetic. It’s completely sealed inside the case (making it impossible to service) but a fact that ensures it can stay out of moisture and dust. Another cool thing? Quoth , “instead of a regulator the special escapement is set by a laser during production and never needs to be touched again.” Sure, the Sistem51 is basically a plastic watch that costs a little over $100 and will be sold at airports around the world. However, it is an impressive step forward for the company at a time when mechanical watches are making a resurgence. Swatch has been making mechanicals for a while, to be clear, but this is the first time they’ve reduced the price, manufacturing cost, and maintained quality in this way. While it’s easy to get much cheaper movements online ( ) it’s far harder to find a solid, high quality mechanical movement from a trusted brand. It’s great to see some affordable watches come out of and this is definitely step forward in terms of nanomechanics.
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Spotify Acquires Music Discovery App Tunigo, A Spotify-Powered Songza Competitor
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
Spotify has acquired , one of the many music apps that are powered by its API, today. The details of the deal aren’t being made public, but the startup will move its staff to either Spotify’s Stockholm or New York offices, as the talent is folded into Spotify’s larger team, Spotify confirmed via email. The Tunigo app will remain available separately for now. Discovery is the word of the day when it comes to social music apps, with Twitter recently launching its own . Tunigo’s service is similar, but probably has more in common with apps like Songza and 8tracks, which curate playlists and suggests them to users based on genre, theme and mood. Tunigo is based in Sweden, and has apparently raised around €2.4 million with a staff of 17, also split between Stockholm and New York. The ultimate goal of the company’s mission was to provide a single button that users could hit to get the perfect playlist based on real-time data. A Spotify spokesperson said that Tunigo has long been an important partner for the company, and points out that Tunigo has been a top ten app since Spotify first launched its app platform back in late November of 2011. “The acquisition fits into our overall strategy around music discovery,” according to the spokesperson, by “basically helping our users make sense of over 20 million tracks.” In a separate statement from Tunigo CEO and co-founder Nick Holmstén, he explained that the deal made sense for them because they’ve already been working side-by-side with Spotify. “Tunigo helps users find great music for every moment, and we’ve been working very closely with Spotify over the past few years,” he wrote. “This is the perfect match from a music discovery perspective. We’re passionate about music and technology, and looking forward to further innovating within the music discovery space.” The first challenge for any company hoping to compete with iTunes on the digital music front is building out a comparably sized library so that users have access to the tracks they want, but once that part is more or less in place, the differentiating factor becomes which service can best help users deal with the crippling problem of overwhelming choice. Music discovery has always been a challenge, long before the rise of digital media and streaming music, but now when your field of selection isn’t just the local record shop, but essentially the whole of history’s recorded music, the problem gets compounded. In other words, don’t expect this to be the last significant acquisition in this space, as streaming providers and other companies look to build the best discovery engine possible to convince consumers to choose their product over others.
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BootstrapAccelerator Asia Wants To Bring Promising Southeast Asia Startups To Silicon Valley
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
Though Southeast Asia is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and benefits from a youthful, tech-savvy population, the region’s startup ecosystem is still in its infancy and many founders lack resources. The freshly launched BootstrapAccelerator Asia seeks to address that gap. Founded by San Francisco-based seed and venture capital fund and Malaysia’s , BootstrapAccelerator Asia is currently seeking startups that have the potential for global expansion. The year-long program will focus on “early-stage capital efficient startups that leverage the speed of Internet distribution and the scalability of cloud infrastructure,” bringing promising candidates to Silicon Valley. Foreign startups that BootstrapLabs has previously relocated to Silicon Valley include , , and , which have raised a combined $25 million in funding. MAD (Make A Difference) Incubator is the largest private incubator in Malaysia, with the goal of helping 1,000 startups achieve a $1 million turnover by 2015. BootstrapAccelerator Asia is supported by Malaysia’s , the government group that directs and oversees the country’s National Information and Communication Technology Initiative. BootstrapAccelerator Asia’s startups will receive cash and other benefits valued at over $35,000. Instead of organizing startups into cohorts, the accelerator will evaluate candidates on a monthly basis and enroll new participants at the relative stage of their development. Though BootstrapAccelerator Asia will draw its startups from across sectors, Benjamin Levy, a partner at BoostrapLabs, says the firm has seen “a surge in mobile, Internet Web services, software as a service and gaming products” in the region. “We are equally excited in seeing innovations from the Internet of Things, big data and B2C that leverages on the Internet/mobile and cloud infrastructure, bringing tremendous amounts of scalability and market reach towards regional and global markets in Southeast Asia,” Levy adds. As BootstrapAccelerator Asia’s mentors work with startup teams, they will keep an eye out for companies that have the potential to reach a worldwide market. But Levy says there are plenty of exciting growth opportunities in Southeast Asia. The region’s startup ecosystem may still be in its infancy, but founders benefit from the close proximity of its countries, which reduces the cost of doing business across different markets. As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economy becomes more integrated with the ASEAN Economic Community, entrepreneurs will also enjoy the advantages of greater trade liberalization and open economies, Levy says. “Being accepted in this accelerator means that in our view they are good potentials for the SE Asian market, markets such as Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam,” he says. “Our goal over time is to build our network platform in these countries so that it will be easy leverage for our accelerator startups.” Startups can apply . The application deadline is May 30 and the first enrollment begins on July 2.
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Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock Is The Best Damn Thing In The World
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 |
Thunderbolt, you were a tech with near unlimited promise when first introduced, but what have you done with all that power? Since my first Thunderbolt-equipped Mac, I’ve essentially been using the ports as straight up Mini DisplayPort replacements, and using them exclusively for powering external screens. But now the has arrived, and Thunderbolt finally makes sense. Pricey, $300 sense, mind you. The Belkin Thunderbolt dock’s design is understated, and will fit with the rest of your black and aluminum standard Mac kit. It’s basically just a box with rounded edges, a cable management channel running through the middle underside of the device, and a row of ports at the back, but it works and it can tuck nicely under your MacBook if you’re using a desktop stand, or underneath the screen of your iMac. There’s even a pair of flashing indicators for network traffic on the Ethernet port, which makes me nostalgic for the days of desktop PC towers that told you everything you needed to know with just a series of blinking lights. [gallery columns="4" link="file" ids="811523,811524,811525,811526"] If anything it’s a little bulky, but considering everything it’s bringing to the table, that’s not really all that surprising. Note that this also requires an AC adapter to work, so you’ll have to clear up space on your office power bar. Computer makers don’t tend to be looking for more ways to fit extra ports in their hardware designs, and the Retina MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines are perfect examples of where things are headed. As a result, I find myself with only two USB ports on an $1,800 computer, no Ethernet port, a single input for both mic and headphones, and no Firewire 800 for my legacy devices, like portable hard drives. The Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock fixes all those things. The three USB 3.0 ports are possibly the best part of the arrangement, as they more than double to total load-out of USB ports on your average lightning-equipped MacBook Pro. Even with an iMac, you get 7 USB ports total instead of just three, turning it into a dream machine for someone like a video, design or audio professional who probably has tons of accessories they need to connect and/or switch out at any given time. The first time you don’t have to decide which crucial USB accessory to unplug in order to charge your iPhone, the Dock proves its worth. The Thunderbolt daisy-chaining also means I can still attach my 27-inch iMac as an external monitor, though that means the chain ends there. But if I had a Thunderbolt drive with two ports, I can easily slot that in between the two, and still use the display as the terminal end of the chain. Finally, the return of Firewire 800 and the Ethernet provide some much-needed tools for using more old-school, but still very effective technologies, including the various Firewire 800 external drives I have sitting around. All of these ports and additional bits worked flawlessly in my experience, and the headphone jack actually seems to operate as an external sound card to some degree, boosting volume levels and giving you more flexibility in terms of playback options. If you ever feel like your Mac doesn’t have enough hardware input/output options, then the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock is for you. It took long enough to get here, and it’s pretty expensive at $299 (plus the price of Thunderbolt cable, which ships separately). The is another option at $249, but it only has one Thunderbolt port and just one USB 3.0, though it adds both an HDMI and DVI-D output. For my money, the Belkin is the way to go, especially if you use your Mac as your main workstation.
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Sequoia’s Aaref Hilaly Says Messaging Apps Are A New Kind Of Social Network
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 4 |
Investor about the current wave of tech startups (comments that included a not-too-veiled dig at Snapchat), ended up fueling plenty of discussion at our Disrupt NY conference earlier this week. In fact, when I interviewed backstage, Palihapitiya’s remarks provided a springboard for Hilaly’s take on messaging apps, including Sequoia-backed : To us, they’re a pretty significant change. We see a company like WhatsApp as reimagining the social network. And the way I think about it is, What’s your real social graph? Is it the people you communicate with and spend time with, or is it the 100 people you barely know on Facebook? We think it’s pretty clearly the first of those, and that’s what mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp capture. Hilaly went on to praise WhatsApp’s growth (users are supposedly ) and its design, but he also said there are other companies doing well, especially if you look in other countries. I asked if there’s a bit of a generational divide in terms of usage (which is another way of asking if I’m too old), and Hilaly said “it’s generational and it’s geographic.” “A lot of these messaging apps get traction outside the US,” he said. “They’re popular in the US, but people on them outside of the US. I think both factors have made the world a little bit slower to wake up to them than to other big trends.” If you watch the video, you can also listen to us discuss Hilaly’s move from the startup world to venture capital, and Sequoia’s involvement in New York.
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Barley Aims To Be The Absolute Simplest Way To Create And Edit Websites
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 4 |
Sometimes the simplest product demos can be effective. Take a new web editor called . To show off the product, co-founder Colin Devroe opened me a regular old web page, then changed the wording of the page with just a few keystrokes. A small editing menu opened as he typed, but didn’t have to access an admin dashboard, open a separate editor, edit any HTML, or anything like that. To be clear, there was more to the demo — but that was the heart of it. The point is to offer a web page editor with absolutely no learning curve. When Devroe discussed the competitive landscape, he first mentioned WordPress, which can indeed be pretty complicated — and I say that as someone who’s writing and publishing this post through WordPress. There are simpler website building tools, , but Devroe pointed out that even in those cases, you still have to use a separate interface to lay out the page and edit the content. With Barley, on the other hand, you just edit everything directly, just as if you were working with a document. And by using one of Barley’s templates, you don’t have to deal with layout at all. “You should never have to learn HTML or CSS to be able to edit a website,” Devroe said. “We hope to eliminate the reason why anybody that owns a restaurant wouldn’t have their own site.” Devroe said that the team is definitely aiming for a small business audience, but since a small company — Barley is the first project from a startup called — he isn’t trying to sell directly to those businesses. Instead, he’s working with companies that might want to offer Barley as part of a larger package of small business services, and with developers and designers who can create custom websites for clients, then allow the business owner to edit the website on their own using Barley. In addition to offering easy editing, Devroe said the service is helps those designers and developers because they can distribute templates and update designs using Barley’s Dropbox syncing, and because it handles all the hosting. Pricing is based on traffic and starts at $18 per month. Devroe and his team started letting in 500 users at a time earlier this week — you can . [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH_nVFEU_n8&w=560&h=315]
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Facebook Blocks Path’s “Find Friends” Access Following Spam Controversy
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 4 |
Facebook’s social graph went missing from yesterday’s update to ‘s smartphone app, and Facebook now confirms it has restricted Path’s API access. Path can no longer look up your Facebook friends, which prevents it from sending them invitations or suggesting you follow them. The move may be in response to Path with invites last week. Facebook tells me Path can still use Facebook as a login option and share posts to Facebook. However, its “Find Friends” access has been shut off similar to how Facebook disabled the option , right after shutting off Voxer’s access to the social graph, even though Voxer connected to Facebook for well over a year. However, those apps were formally cited as competitors. Facebook didn’t say exactly why Path lost access, leading me to believe the may have been responsible. It was caught sending out text message invitations to users contacts at 6am last week, leading to significant backlash. Facebook hates being associated with spam, and its say it can remove API access from apps it thinks are being too aggressive. We’ve reached out to Path for its side of the story. Until now, Path has let users invite their Facebook friends to download the app, and easily follow friends who already use it. But while you can still invite people from your Contact Book or Gmail contacts in the new 3.0.4 version of Path, the options for Facebook vanished. Oddly, Path’s own customer portal of the old app, with Facebook plain to see. Suffice it to say that losing the ability to invite Facebook friends could hinder the growth of Path, which hit last week. The more networks the merrier, right? But people can invite their closest friends via text message or email. The bigger issue may be that it’s now harder to develop a micro-social graph on Path because you can’t just choose a subset of your Facebook friends. If you don’t follow or get followed by the right people, Path isn’t nearly as fun, and you won’t use it as much. Possibly in an attempt to fill the void, Path has added Twitter, which could be quite fruitful for bringing in new users. Currently, Twitter users have no ability to create a more private network for close friends – unless they choose to lock their account – which is hardly the point of Twitter, a network which thrives on the oxygen of the public sphere. Twitter’s userbase skews more toward early adopters who might be interested in Path than Facebook users. Despite the replacement, Facebook dropping the hammer is a serious blow to Path. Considering many believe it has a high churn rate and it refuses to provide active user counts, Path probably needs to be pulling in users however it can. Update: A different perspective on this situation is that Facebook felt threatened by Path’s growth and recent move into private messaging. By cutting off Path’s access to its social graph, Facebook could hamper its growth and prevent it from gaining more momentum. Some believe Facebook’s on-boarding flow can also lead people to accidentally send invites too. We’ll be looking closer at this issue.
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What Games Are: Ok Glass, Let’s Talk Games
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Tadhg Kelly
| 2,013 | 5 | 4 |
It’s very much in its infant phase, the time when the design looks a bit silly and people take photos of those who have one. Yet the project is now a real (at a whopping $1500) toy. The reasonably familiar faces of the Valley tech scene are abuzz with the possibilities. Robert Scoble’s even taken showering while wearing one, presumably as some demonstration of the awesomeness of waterproofing. There are many potentially useful applications. News headlines, tweets, your email on the go and location-aware maps are a good start. Contact recognition, ambient information about people and places and so on. And there’s even the creepy-cool stuff like video surveillance, possibilities for dating applications and so on. Even if you do walking around saying “Ok Glass, where’s the nearest sushi bar?”, it’s still pretty interesting. I suspect that pairing your Glass with your mobile device will be a more common way that users interact with it, because if Kinect and Siri have taught us anything, it’s that voice recognition is rarely perfect. But that too will be great. Imagine, for example, loading up a turn-by-turn map on your phone that then transfers to your Glass. Voila, turn-by-turn cycling and running navigation. But while these are the sorts of features that gives tech bloggers the , for most people they lose their delight factor quickly. It’s amazing how being able to have your calendar on-the-go became something taken for granted, or how mobile email went from being exotic to humdrum in just a couple of years. Remember when it was awesome that you could check Facebook on the bus? These days you expect to be able to do that, but it’s not that exciting. If wearable computers like Glass mostly boil down to yet another notification platform, the average user might think them more annoying than amazing. Unless they’ve got good games. Eugene Jarvis, the seminal game designer who gave the world Defender, once famously said “ ” And often I agree. For most of us, computing largely boils down to being productive in the office, browsing the web, storing data and playing games. Of all of the above, games are the most genuinely compelling. Games drive the adoption of platforms in ways that utility software rarely does. Games make computers exciting, and players then talk about their excitement. Few people ever tap you on the shoulder and ask “What app is that?” while you’re typing a document. But when you’ve got some crazy new iPad game, they do. They want to know what that cool thing you’re doing is, and where they can get one. When an Angry Birds moment happens, they do so in droves. Games market a platform as sexy and give the user an emotional reason to buy in. Look at, for instance, the impact of games on the smartphone and tablet. While the original iPhone was cool for tech fans, for many it only came to life when the App Store happened. And what really drove apps? Games. What drives kids to want to learn to program? Games. What made Facebook go stratospheric? Games. What’s the most interesting app that you’re likely to download on your iPad this week? It’s probably a game. So when I say that Google needs to be serious about the gaming applications of its Glass platform, I don’t mean it flippantly. Games are what will make wearable computing stick, whether in the form of smart watches, glasses or some other neat device. Fortunately Google seems to agree and has recently hired to be its chief game designer. The question then becomes: What kinds of game will fit Glass? Some folks will immediately jump toward ideas and start to talk about . Augmented reality, location gaming, gamification, digital and passive games (like Nintendo’s system) all seem more achievable when the user has the ambient awareness of a screen at all times. The idea of playing a large massive-multiplayer real world roleplaying game likewise. I can see half a hundred game executives using the line “What if The Matrix was real?” to pitch that very idea in the coming months. But meta-games are not going to get the job done. After the novelty of playing one or two wears off, the thinness of meta-games usually becomes apparent, and so they are only ever a fad. For wearable gaming to catch on, the games will have to be a bit more meat-and-potatoes than that. Simple games like puzzles, word searches, hangman, quizzes and original casual games are far more likely to be compelling over the long term. Figuring out novel ways to use the system’s interactions (such as the touch-sensitive bridge, or the voice system) are where the really interesting stuff might happen. Using your smartphone as a controller, or your Glass as a second screen, might also prove interesting. Ultimately the future may look a little bit like a particularly terrible episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Riker onto the Enterprise, and it turns out to be a brainwashing device. We may spend our days riding the bus while playing miniaturized versions of Snake, saying “Ok Glass, left. Ok Glass, right. Ok Glass, left. No I said left. LEFT!” And who knows, that may turn out to be quite a lot of fun.
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Napster For Pirated 3D Printing Templates?
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 4 |
Buy it in a store, laser-scan it at home, upload it to the web, print it anywhere. 3D printing is poised for the mainstream, but what happens when one person’s finely hand-crafted designs can be pirated and reproduced by anyone? Will 3D-printing-piracy social networks arise? And how will manufacturers lobby to stop them? The ideas came out of my conversation at with Alex Winter, director of the new called . While pondered these questions last year, and has coined the term “physibles” for 3D-printed objects, Winter takes the next step. He suggests a Napster for 3D printing models is inevitable. I believe it. The way the music industry was unprepared for the mp3 revolution, the . It might even be worse off. At least the record companies had the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to fall back on. As of now, physible designs could be interpreted as falling into a gray area between art and media protected by the DMCA, and what can be patented. 3D printing template marketplaces like could also get sideswiped by piracy. I imagine this situation will lead to the rise of a Napster for 3D printing models along with websites like The Pirate Bay’s physibles section. People will build up curated collections of designs, pass them back and forth, and you’ll be able to print cheap versions of expensive objects from tools to jewelry, furniture to toys, and . The idea of people being able to download an array of could be terrifying or liberating depending on your perspective. Eventually, the old manufacturing industry will wise up, and independent designers will band together to try to thwart physible piracy. They might aim for changes to the laws to make this kind of piracy more clearly illegal with stiff penalties. They might also aim for some sort of digital rights management standard. Imagine if pirated designs could be added to a blacklist and the most popular 3D printers like Makerbots, Printrbots, and Cubes wouldn’t allow you to print them. However it all plays out, it’s sure to be exciting. It’d be a shame to see piracy erode the livelihood of craftsmen and women the way some believe it does for musicians and game designers. As amateur 3D printing turns from science fiction to destiny to reality, a new set of challenges will emerge for meatspace artists whose work can be boiled down to ones and zeros.
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Salesforce Joins Datahug’s $4M Series-A, While Valley VCs Love Its ‘Who Knows Who’ Platform
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Mike Butcher
| 2,013 | 5 | 4 |
October, , a ‘business networking automation’ startup, which is also , secured a €2.5 million Series A financing led by European VC DFJ Esprit. But it’s now adding to that pot. We’ve confirmed Salesforce has decided to join that round in an “expansion” of its Series A, which includes original investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson (in the US), DFJ Esprit (UK), Oyster Capital and leading Valley investor Ron Conway. The full A-round is now $4m and brings the total raised to $5.5M over two rounds. Datahug was founded in 2010 in Ireland and is expanding sales aggressively into the US market. Current customers include European VCs Balderton Capital and DFJ Esprit as well as Grant Thornton, Plantronics, BDO and CPL. Commenting, T Paul Thomas, CEO and cofounder with Connor Murphy of Datahug, says he’s been “impressed with the extremely positive response from US investors and customers.” The startup estimates that it finds around 400 contacts per person that aren’t captured in any existing CRM system or database. The solution works by indexing existing communication logs – such as emails, contacts and calendar data – to create an enterprise-wide picture of “who knows who”. The platform then attributes a ‘HugRank’ score to show how well they know them. It requires no data entry to capture the relationships and connections that exist, making it pretty easy to use.
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 5 | 3 | null |
Celebrate Star Wars Day By Blinding General Grievous, Losing R2
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 5 | 4 |
Beep boop boop bee squeee! Happy May 4th aka Star Wars Day (say the date out loud and you’ll figure out why). In celebration, quite a few hardware vendors have released special gear for the day, thereby allowing you to celebrate the magic of George Lucas in proper Mandalorian fashion. First we have a charming facsimile of R2-A6, a green R2 unit that is a favorite of the Naboo security forces. Made by Mimobot, this comes with built-in content, including desktop backgrounds and icons. They also make a USB key if you’re so inclined. Next we have something from Wicked Lasers whose Arctic laser looks like everything a replica of a light saber. To celebrate May 4th, the company has released the $75 Phosforce that turns the into a white LED flashlight that can pump out an Ewok-blinding 500 lumens, allowing you to swing your thing around in the dark swamps of Dagoba or the back alleys of Coruscant. To be clear, the Phosforce attachment must be purchased in addition to the $299 laser body and the adapter turns the Arctic’s decidedly dangerous blue laser light into eye-safe white light. It is not exactly an LED flashlight in the traditional sense but instead uses white-emitting phosphor. Also, to be clear, , so be careful. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KCRydWl7TQ4] Happy fourth and remember: Han shot first. May you live long and prosper.
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How To Go From $0 To $1,000,000 In Two Years
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James Altucher
| 2,013 | 5 | 4 |
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about . I gave the reasons why. It wasn’t a gung-ho “you have to be an entrepreneur” article. It was more: bad shit is happening in the corporate world and bit by bit you’re going to feel the urge to quit. Correctly, many people asked, “Well, what’s next? What should I do?” I’ve begun asking people who did it. What did they do? Not everyone is Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page. Not everyone is going to drop out of college and create an iPhone or a time machine or a toilet that resizes itself automatically depending on who is sitting on it (although that would be pretty cool). Some people would simply like to quit their jobs and make a good living. Some people would simply like to quit their jobs and make a million dollars. In that movie (the Justin Timberlake vehicle), JT says, “A million’s not cool. A BILLION is cool.” Not everyone is going to be a VC-funded $100 million hotshot. Sometimes it’s nice to make a million dollars, be your own boss, and use that financial freedom to catapult to success. So I called Bryan Johnson, who started a company called Braintree. You might not have heard of Braintree but you’ve heard of their customers. They provide credit card transactions or payment services for companies like OpenTable, Uber, Airbnb, etc. Completely ripped from the OpenTable blog. Apparently they were using OpenTable. I’ve never spoken with Bryan before. I am not an investor in Braintree. As far as I know I’m not even an investor (unfortunately) in any of the clients of Braintree. I like to call people who I think have interesting stories and hear what they have to say. That’s the way I build my network of not only financial contacts but potential friends. I’m shy and ugly and don’t have many friends. But I knew Bryan had an interesting story of how he set up Braintree and I figured it would fit this category of “what do I do next?” In 2007, Bryan was a manager at Sears. He quit his job and within two years was making over a million a year. Eventually Braintree grew much bigger and raised $70 million from Accel and others, but that wasn’t what was interesting to me. “How did you do it?” I asked him. “What are the initial steps.” And he told me. So I will tell you. “I really disliked my job,” he said, “and I never believed in the idea of getting a fixed wage. I had been a salesman before in the credit card processing business where I would go out and get merchants like restaurants and retailers to switch their business to the company I was selling for. So I figured I could do this but work for myself instead of another company.” Instead of Bryan going back to the company he used to sell for, he cut out the middleman and went straight to a credit card processor, worked out his own reselling agreement with them, and did all of this BEFORE leaving his job at Sears. Many people ask me, “I”m at a job, should I raise VC money yet?” NO, of course not! First you have to hustle. VCs want to back someone who shows a little oomph! Everyone is always on the lookout for “the next big thing.” The next big thing is finding rare earth minerals on Mars. That’s HARD WORK. Don’t do it! Bryan picked a business that every merchant in the world needs and he also knew that it was an exploding business because of all the online stores that were opening up. You don’t have to come up with the new, new thing. Just do the old, old thing slightly better than everyone else. And when you are nimble and smaller than the behemoths that are stuck with bureaucracy, you can often offer better sales and better service, and higher touch to your customers. Customers will switch to you. This is probably the most important rule for any entrepreneur. I’ve written about this before (“ ). People want to go the “magical path” – i.e. get VC money, quit their jobs, build a product, and then suddenly have millions of customers. It NEVER works like that. Bryan found 10 customers (out of the first 12 he approached) who would switch their credit card processing to him. He figured he needed to make $2,100 a month to quit his job. With his first 10 customers he was making $6,200 a month, so he had margin of safety. He quit his job and suddenly he was in business. This rule is often “Make Money While You Sleep.” But Bryan already was making money while he slept. He was making money on every credit card purchase with his first 10 customers. “I didn’t want to be going up and down the street looking for customers,” Bryan said. “I needed to find a way to get online businesses as customers. Someone suggested that I needed to blog. And to blog well you need to be totally transparent or it won’t work. So I started blogging about what was really happening in the credit card industry, including all the unscrupulous practices and how merchants were being taken advantage of. Then I’d put my posts on the top social sites at the time: Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon, and sometimes the posts would get to the top of these sites and my website would get so much traffic that it would crash. “But I became a trusted source about credit card processing. So before long all these online sites that had previously had a hard time navigating this industry would start contacting me to switch their payment services.” So a couple of things there. Blogging is about trust. You don’t sell ads on your blog (rarely), you don’t get the big book deal (rarely), but you do build trust and this leads to opportunities. In Bryan’s case it led to more inflow, rather than him going door to door, and it also led to his biggest early opportunity. My own blog has made me a total of zero cents but has created millions in opportunities for me. “Basically, OpenTable called me and they wanted a software solution to handle storing credit cards, handing the data to restaurants, and being compliant from a regulatory standpoint. I signed a three year deal with them that allowed me to build a team of developers and we built them a solution. We now had more services to sell to customers.” He started out just connecting merchants with a credit card processor. Then OpenTable asked him to do software development when he’s never developed software before. He said YES! He got software developers, built a great product, and quadrupled his income or more. And then it put his business in a whole new stratosphere of services he offered customers. Suddenly, word of mouth was spreading and other online companies started using Braintree’s services: Airbnb, Uber, etc. And the VCs started calling because all of their clients were saying Braintree was providing all of their payment services. It’s not that easy for startup online companies to get payment services. “When I first started, for each new customer we’d put together an entire package for our credit card processor on why we thought the customer could be trusted and would be a legitimate merchant.” Which leads to… You can treat each customer, new and old, like a real human being. “We intuitively sort of knew what we didn’t like in customer service everywhere else: automated calling trees, slow response times, poor problem solving, etc., so we made sure there was as little friction as possible between the customer contacting us and actually getting their problem solved.” When you are a small business, there’s no excuse for having poor customer service. Your best new customers are your old customers, and the best way to touch your old customers is to provide quick help when they need it. Customer service is the most reliable touch point to keep selling your service to them. By year 2 two, was making over a million a year and was doubling every year. They couldn’t hire fast enough. In 2011, after four years in business, Braintree took in its first dime of money – $34 million in a Series A round. And right now, , they process over $8 billion worth of credit card transactions annually. Not bad for someone who quit his job and just wanted to figure out a way to get his bills paid. —
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JoyTunes Lands $1.5M, Releases New App To Help You Learn To Play Instruments Through Interactive Mobile Games
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 5 | 5 |
Founded in 2010, Israeli startup has been on a mission to become the Rosetta Stone of music — to help those looking to learn play an instrument do so by turning practice into a mobile game, activated by playing the instrument of their choice. The startup’s first app, a free iPad app called , enables wannabe rockstars to learn and play songs at their own pace, using a piano to play the game through their iPad’s microphone or by using the app’s 3-D virtual keyboard. To date, users have played 25 million songs using the app, with one million songs being played each week. Today, based on the success of Piano Dust Buster, JoyTunes announced that it has closed a $1.5 million round of Series A financing, led by Genesis Partners. Founder Collective, Kaedan Capital, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, angel investor Zohar Gilon, Head of Yahoo Creative Innovation Center Eran Shir and former Steinway CEO Dana Messina, among others, also contributed to the startup’s Series A raise. the startup raised early last year from a host of angel investors, bringing its total funding to $2 million. In conjunction with its raise, JoyTunes is also announcing the release of its second piano app, , which builds on the startup’s first app, while offering a deeper practice experience for those who’ve moved beyond entry level. The app aims to help users learn to read sheet music notation and symbols, play melodies in both treble and bass clefs, work on songs while focusing either on the left hand, right hand or both, while saving work to show to their piano teacher. Like its first app, Piano Mania allows users to collect skill points as they play, progressing through the ranks and leveling up. Users can purchase a subscription to access the app’s entire roster of songs and levels, or play around with the free offerings and pay-as-they go. While there are a bevy of apps out there that aim to help novices learn to play instruments, like Magic Piano by Smule, for example, JoyTunes co-founder Yuval Kaminka believes that the App Store still fundamentally lacks experiences that help people learn to play their actual instrument while incorporating game dynamics as a serious part of learning, rather than simply as a feature or superficial layer. Sure, apps like WildChords, Jammit and gTar all offer addicting musical experiences, but many of today’s apps focus on guitar. Piano, as many musicians know, is essential to learning the fundamentals of music and is an important foundation before moving on to other instruments. There are plenty of youngsters out there that want to learn how to play piano and other instruments — wind, or otherwise — that are often overlooked by mobile gaming companies. So, going forward, JoyTunes will be looking to build out the social elements of its gaming experience to more effectively create a community of aspiring musicians, while bringing its core piano learning experience to other instruments. It’s already begun adding new features, like the ability to record and share songs with music teachers, and Kaminka says that users can expect the startup to beef up this functionality with future releases and carry that experience over to new instruments. For more,
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