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The New “Handmade”
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Sarah Perez
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
Amid of a “ ” when it comes to software-based startups, a potentially transformative technology called 3D printing is poised to reach critical mass and mainstream awareness. Today’s news headlines about the technology tend to focus on the extreme possibilities in being able to print objects on demand – from the terrors of things like to heartwarming tales of . But the innovation is also powering a revolution of a different kind. An emerging class of creatives are using 3D printing techniques, not to either save or destroy the world and the people in it, but simply to create a little beauty along the way. These creatives, makers of the new “handmade” goods, are selling their art in online storefronts like Etsy and Shapeways, as well as within brick-and-mortar stores, and even museums. They range from technically adept programmers who never dabbled in hands-on art involving paint or clay or other materials, to formally trained artists and even do-it-yourselfers who taught themselves 3D modeling by watching tutorials on YouTube. Regardless of how they got there, the end result is an output of affordably priced, print-on-demand goods that reflect their own unique vision and inspirations, whether that’s a new kind of jewelry that couldn’t exist before the capabilities introduced by 3D printing, one-of-a-kind items used to decorate your home, or objects which buyers help craft themselves, using simple online tools. Here are some of their stories. ~~~ has always been an artist. She has both undergrad and graduate degrees in graphic design, and has worked on a number of products involving mixed media, vacuum forming, and lenticular technology, while exploring the intersection of art and technology in years past. Along with a collaborator, she once produced a clock which used high-resolution animations to tell the time, for example. Powell says she first heard about 3D printing around 10 years ago and had been watching the space ever since waiting for it to become viable for use in her art. “I had industrial designer friends in New York, and I’d go see their prototyping 3D printing machines,” she says. “They were making prototypes of consumer electronics and some furniture.” But it wasn’t until a few years ago before Powell had the opportunity to begin playing around with 3D printing techniques herself. She decided to pay a visit to Silicon Valley-based , one of the earlier “maker spaces,” as these tool-filled workspaces are called. TechShop, which has since to several cities in California, with plans for New York, D.C., and elsewhere, offers a wide range of professional equipment which members can train on and use for just about any kind of project. It was where Square co-founder once for the Square card reader, and where a datacenter technology startup called Clustered Systems designed a prototype of a fanless liquid-cooling system which IBM in a “chill-off” contest. But Powell didn’t want to build gadgets or technological components; she wanted to produce art. “I created a prototype of this idea I had – which I still want to produce – of salt and pepper shakers,” she says. The object is designed to look like a wall socket, if laid flat on a table. The actual shakers then extrude upward from that. “It’s sort of a funny, visual pun,” says Powell. Coming from a background in graphic design, Powell was used to doing a lot of what she describes as “virtual” work. But 3D printing was different. “It was really wonderful to envision an object or a form, and be able to hold it in two weeks time, and actually have a tactile object,” she explains. Today, she thinks of the art of 3D printing as falling somewhere in between the world of graphic design and metal working, another artistic medium she’s practiced in the past, noting the “hands on” nature of the latter tends to be a bit more satisfying of the two. ~~~ It was about two years ago when Powell begin working on 3D printed jewelry. Her items were first sold to consumers on , an online marketplace known best for handmade items from DIY crafters, who sell everything from homemade and to and . It’s not, perhaps, the first place you would think to go for items outputted by machines. But Powell’s jewelry fits right in. Still, despite the nature of those early designs, her first clients were often men who were drawn to the jewelry because of its technical underpinnings and geometric patterns, buying them as gifts for girlfriends, wives, and other women they knew. Today, that client base is now starting to shift – around half of the shop’s customers know what 3D printing is, and those who don’t are just interested in buying because of . Powell declined to discuss her sales saying that her business is still in its “growth stages,” but notes that one of her more popular items is her “Andromeda Necklace” (pictured above). This item is especially interesting because it comes out of the 3D printer with its interlinking, moving parts already hinged together, no assembly required. The necklace, like many of her pieces, is made of a nylon-based material – a material she prefers because of what it can allow for. “There are possibilities beyond what you can achieve in metals sometimes – thinnesses or having one object inside another – there are just all these great possibilities with form with the resin,” she explains. After sending her designs off to a 3D printer following a customer’s order, the turn around time is about two weeks before she gets the items back so she can finish them by adding coatings, clasps or chains. Meanwhile, when inspiration strikes, Powell sometimes still turns to pen and paper to sketch, and other times, she skips straight ahead to the 3D modeling software she uses: Rhino 3D, a CAD program she taught herself to use. Most of the time, Powell designs out of a desk she’s had at a local co-working space, for several years, but is planning to expand to a larger space where she can be more physical with the work – not only in assembling the jewelry, but also sculpting objects and then scanning them with a 3D scanner. One that recently caught her eye was the Matterform, which just wrapped up a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help build an initial batch of scanners. The company was seeking $81,000 but . It was the largest non-U.S. fundraise the site had seen to date. Today, Powell sells her designs on her own , as well in San Francisco Bay area retail stores. Her rep is also bringing her work to showrooms in New York and L.A., as she prepares to expand her business nationwide. “I’d almost become a metal sculptor, and chose graphic design instead because of my love of pattern and symbol,” Powell says, looking back on how she came to 3D printing. “Now I can realize my vision and unite those loves in a 3D medium.”
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BrandYourself Upgrades Its Online Reputation Tools With A Full-Service Concierge Feature
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
is expanding its efforts to take on the big names in the online reputation market (particularly Reputation.com) with the launch of a new version of its service. The company as a fairly simple self-service tool for trying to improve your presence online, for example by creating a website and other content to push down undesirable results when someone Googles your name. (It has .) The basic service is free, but BrandYourself charges $10 a month for additional features and usage. With BrandYourself’s freemium, self-service product, it seemed to be serving a difference audience than Reputation.com, but now the newer startup is challenging its more-established competitor in a direct way. With a recently launched concierge service, users aren’t just presented with a list of to-do items for improving their Google results — they can also pay BrandYourself team members to work with them on a strategy and actually do the work for them. So if, say, you don’t have the time to create and maintain your own personal website, BrandYourself will create and maintain one for you. And co-founder and CEO Patrick Ambron said that where Reputation.com can cost thousands of dollars per month, BrandYourself’s concierge services can cost as little as $200 or $300. Why the dramatic price difference? Ambron insisted that it’s not because BrandYourself delivers lower-quality, cheaper work — he showed me one of the websites created for a BrandYourself customer and it did look like a real personal page. In contrast, he showed me content that he said had been created through his account with Reputation.com, and it was basically just an empty template. (I emailed Reputation.com to discuss how the company saw itself stacking up against BrandYourself, but I did not receive a response.) The big difference, Ambron said, is that existing online reputation services are built around a model of high acquisition costs and low retention rates — they pay for a lot of advertising to attract customers, and those customers don’t stick around for very long, so the companies have to charge high rates. BrandYourself, on the other hand, can treat its free tools as the marketing funnel for its paid version and concierge service. Plus, Ambron said that with lower prices, customers can use BrandYourself on an ongoing basis. “We’re really trying to fix the online reputation space, ” he said. “Until it was only meant for rich people and it was notoriously ineffective.” In addition to the concierge service, BrandYourself is launching a new interface that makes it easier, among other things, to submit links that you want to promote in your Google results. And there’s a new report card showing users BrandYourself’s score of their current search results, the progress that they’ve made with the service, and details about who is actually visiting your BrandYourself website. The company says it has been used by more than 200,000 people. It has also raised more than $1.5 million in funding and is now based in New York City.
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Ziff Davis Is Buying NetShelter/InPowered’s Display Ad Business
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
Digital media company and ad sales platform is expanding its network of properties even further with the purchase of display advertising business, a well-placed source has informed us. The source couldn’t share exact terms of the deal, but did reveal that InPowered, the product that NetShelter has increasingly focused on (to the point that it largely rebranded itself under that name last November), will be split into two teams, with half heading to Ziff Davis as part of the arrangement. NetShelter/inPowered is a digital advertising network that focuses solely on tech publications, including SlashGear, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Crackberry, IntoMobile and many more. It claims over 150 million global readers reached, which adds a not-insignificant audience to the existing Ziff Davis portfolio. Ziff Davis counts a number of top tech sites among its own list of clients, including PCMag and Geek.com. The deal makes sense for both companies, as NetShelter has been focused squarely on more of a content marketing play, which culminated in its launch of the InPowered product and later rebranding as the same. When Anthony covered that identity shift back in November, he noted that NetShelter CEO and co-founder Peyman Nilforoush believed that direct banner advertising was ultimately not the way forward for online ads, and that a means of surfacing so-called “earned” media, or positive reviews collected from independent sources, was much better for brands in the long run. NetShelter/InPowered’s display ad business gave it ample reach from which to sell its next-generation vision of online advertising, but if the company is serious about focusing its efforts in that area, a sale to someone like Ziff Davis makes perfect sense, in terms of generating some capital for reinvesting in the new direction. Our source says that Ziff Davis will take over both publisher relationships as well as the display side of the business, with InPowered’s “expert word of mouth” model remaining with the original company. We contacted NetShelter’s founders and the PR team for further information or confirmation on the news, but had not heard back as of press time.
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Google Glass Year In Review
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
It’s been a little over a year since Google started teasing something it called “Project Glass.” The futuristic, wearable computer that would change the way that you interact with the world was nothing more than a before it was . Not known for hardware and not having a current bonafide physical device that was popular among consumers, many opined that this was Google’s way of begging for attention. It might have been, and it definitely worked. In 13 months, Glass has gone from Star Trek fantasy to reality. It’s been quite the whirlwind of activity. The “wearable computing” age is upon us, and it’s been widely reported that , therefore many assumed that Google was working on a similar device to keep up. This was not the case and Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin took special interest in the Glass project and has been leading the charge going back to when the prototype weighed about eight pounds in August 2011. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, because a lot has happened over the past year in Glassland. The video from Google itself got sent people’s imaginations into overdrive. It was called “One day…” and gave us a glimpse into the life of a daily user of what Google had up its sleeve. We now know that the “One day…” reference had more to do with what the product become, not what it would be in its first iteration: The user experience in this video is aspirational at best, as the current iteration of Glass is more of a complement and utility to your day, rather than the augmented reality “enhancer” as this video demonstrates. Still, the elements that make Glass handy are all there, taking calls, getting directions and taking pictures from a new point of view. Immediately after the video, and public admonishment that the project was real, the press wondered out loud if . We also now know that the , Google Eye, isn’t likely. Good thing, because it sounds way creepier than Glass. We’ll get to more “creepiness” later. It was clear that Glass was getting a lot of attention, both positive and negative, from the start. Even . Before Google’s I/O developer conference in 2012, to folks like Gavin Newsom. This is the first time that we found out that Glass had a trackpad that would let you scroll through its UI, even though we didn’t know what that UI looked like yet. Even Google CEO Larry Page got into the act, . Was Page making important company decisions without us knowing, using his futuristic eyewear? Probably not, but it was cool to think about. At Google I/O 2012, developers sat in the Moscone Center not knowing what to expect from the company that has been using its advertising business to fund all types of cool projects. After all, who would have thought that a search and advertising company could actually pull off something like Gmail? Or a web browser? And now a driving car? A pair of glasses? Crazy talk. Well, on June 27, 2012, Google fed into that crazy talk with…a crazy stunt. The man at the helm of Google X and Project Glass, Sergey Brin, pulled off a stunt so memorable, that many of us in attendance still don’t fully understand what we saw. Brin , and participated in a : After that, a bunch of people hopped onto bikes and drove into the keynote auditorium. The audience looked at one another, as if to say, “Did this just really happen?” It was indeed After Brin took the stage, we were left to wonder if he would then go into full Oprah mode and tell us all to check under our seats for a pair of Glass that would be our very own. Nope. At I/O 2012, the “Glass Explorer Program” was announced, and for the opportunity to develop apps for the Glass platform could. There was no date given for when the device would be shipped, but nobody cared. These things were real(er). Think about it, developers signed up to pay $1,500 for a device that they had never even touched. I was one of them, and even I felt silly. There was something about the cadence that Google had been marching to up to I/O that year that felt right. , but didn’t get to do anything with them. The hypefest was on. Our founder, Michael Arrington, had a fun, and grounded, thought after the announcement: “I can imagine in a couple of years we’ll all be wearing these at events. Then a couple of years after that maybe we’ll look back and think we all looked like idiots.” Perhaps. After I/O, Google started communicating with its Glass “Explorers” about all of the device happenings, introducing its skunkworks team along the way. Those who joined the program at the conference . In retrospect, Google set itself up for people to start making fun of those clamoring for the device, whom are You see, whenever something is only available to a select group of people, those not inside of that group tend to lash out a bit. Sure, there are those who think that Glass , but those on the fence had no choice but to attack. . As the months went on , as more and more Googlers starting wearing them on campus. Stories about and a reminder of , too. In late 2012 and early 2013, , wearing Glass and , was introduced at SXSW. In April, a group of heavyweights in Silicon Valley announced a partnership called “ .” Developers who wanted to build things for Glass, without ads or any means to make actual money, could visit either Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz or Kleiner Perkins, and if their project was interesting enough, they could get funding from all three. It was at that event that Google Glass team member, Steve Lee, to pick their pair of Glass up from Mountain View, Los Angeles or New York City. They could have them shipped, but that’s no fun. Glass was officially real. In just a few days after that Collective event, the first pairs of Glass for developers , the , its and . This “moonshot” that Google had been cooking up in its super-secret X Labs were going to see the light of day, outside of Google’s campus’. People started to realize that certain folks would be meandering around town with cameras on their face, and focused solely on …the ones not wearing the device. The ones in the “club.” A quick search for the term “ ” shows the same story written by hundreds of reporters, most of them never having worn the device. I was able to on April 17th, and it’s interesting to see what the device really is in its current state, as opposed to what we saw in the video released last year. We did a , showing what I was seeing on the display: While it’s not as “pretty” as Google’s first teaser video, the elements are all there. In its current state, Glass is a utility that allows you to do some of the things that your smartphone does now. The difference with Glass is that you can do these things hands-free, quicker than before and in a less socially disruptive way. For a period of time, we’ll see the same types of stories about how creepy Glass is. At this year’s I/O, none of Google’s executives wore the device on stage or while walking around the Moscone Center. It was its way of turning the “lens” onto developers and saying “It’s time to make this yours.” Still, we heard about people , as if to remind us that not everyone is ready to feed into the hype of the device. It’s hard to argue with the point that the Glass platform is the most interesting one for developers to iterate upon since Apple’s introduction of the App Store. For the first time in years, these developers are getting a chance to re-imagine their existing services, or build new ones, for a new device. Glass isn’t perfect and will only be as good as the apps that are developed for it. During this year’s I/O, Twitter, Facebook and a slew of others . The Facebook app is great, while the Twitter app will need more work. As I’ve continued to wear the device while I’m not at the computer, I’m finding myself trying to get away from all of the crazy and unnecessary notifications that I get on my phone and desktop. The Twitter app, for example, sends me mobile updates that I’ve subscribed to, @ replies and direct messages. This simply won’t fly, and Glass users are going to need more granular controls for what pops up on their displays. It’s early though, and these are good learning experiences. No matter what you think about Glass, you have to admit that the past year has been a good one for Google and its fancy, futuristic device. From a secret pet project to developer-only playground, it will be fascinating to see what happens next in Glassland. There’s no telling when the device will be available for everyday consumers, but I can guarantee that it won’t be until developers have had ample time to explore the possibilities. I do know one thing: If you’re really worried about being spied on by someone wearing Glass, don’t be. You’re not that interesting.
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Hey, Hardware Hackers! There’s A WiFi-Enabled Arduino Now
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
Lets say you’ve come up with a brilliant idea for some shiny new piece of hardware. You brush up your coding chops, scratch out a design, and set out to build a prototype. First, you’ll need a programmable chip to act as the brain. Because of the relatively gentle learning curve and friendly community, you go with the Arduino. The problem: your hardware idea requires WiFi. Until now, that’s actually been a pretty complicated issue. It’s not that Arduinos do WiFi before — it’s just always been a bit of a pain. You had two main options, neither of them perfect: At this weekend’s Maker Faire, the company announced the Arduino Yún (with Yún being Chinese for “cloud” and English for “Yeah, most people are probably just going to type Yun without the fancy ú.”), the first official Arduino to come with WiFi functionality built-in out of the box. At its core, the Yún is actually part traditional Arduino and part Linux system. The Arduino handles all of the functionality it traditionally would — running your code, reading from sensors, etc — while an itty-bitty Linux-powered chip acts as both a WiFi receiver and transmitter, handling all of the HTTP gruntwork needed to get your hardware project online. Plus: you can reprogram the Arduino Yún over WiFi, no USB cable required. Lost in geek-speak here? Wondering what all of this means to you? Basically, one of the most popular platforms for DIY hardware projects has just made it a whole lot easier to get said projects connected to the Internet. Want a coffee maker that starts brewing 30 minutes before Google Calendar says you’ve got guests coming over? Sure, why not. Want an alarm that automatically donates money from your PayPal when you hit the snooze button? Totally doable. Just this week, focused on building a high-quality, WiFi-enabled, Arduino-compatible board raised over $300,000 on Kickstarter. That’s over 30x their initial goal of $10,000, and they’ve still got nearly 2 weeks left. There’s definitely a lot of interest in such a thing. The Yún should start shipping at the end of June, and will cost about $69. That’s about twice the cost of the WiFi-less Arduinos available today, but still significantly cheaper (and more compact) than buying both an Arduino and an add-on WiFi-shield.
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Google Believes Web Components Are The Future Of Web Development
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
While it was missing the skydiving antics of last year’s event, Google’s I/O keynote last week wasn’t short on product launches. In between the splashy updates to Google Maps, Search, Android and everything else Google announced, the company also briefly talked about Web Components for a few minutes. While Google’s Sundar Pichai noted that it’s still early days for this technology, he also said he believes that “the vision for it is clear” and that it will allow developers to build “elegant user interfaces that work across all form factors.” Web Components are clearly a topic that’s close to the heart of a number of Chrome developers. Many of them, for example, cited it as one of the Chrome features they are most excited about at a fireside chat later in the week. A number of Google engineers are also working on , which aims to write a web application framework that’s built upon the idea of Web Components and will allow developers to use the ideas behind Web Components on browsers that don’t even feature all of the necessary technologies yet. The fact that it made an appearance during the keynote, right next to WebGL and other more established web development techniques, makes it pretty obvious that this is a technology that Google believes has the potential to change how developers write web apps going forward. So what is this all about? Essentially, Web Components give developers an easier way to create web sites and recyclable widgets on these sites with the help of the HTML, CSS and JavaScript they already know. The ideas behind Web Components have been around for a while (and a few years back, Microsoft backed a similar initiative that never got any traction), but even today, this is still a topic that’s pretty foreign to most. Building large, single-page web apps with a smart component models isn’t easy today. Web Components help developer encapsulate they HTML, CSS and JavaScript so it doesn’t interfere with the rest of the page and the page doesn’t interfere with it. It’s worth noting that, for the time being, developers can’t rely on this to work in all browsers. Chrome Canary includes support for Web Components, but it’s hidden behind . Mozilla will likely start adding support for it in Firefox soon, too. Most importantly, though, the Polymer project aims to bring the concept to all browsers with the help of a . Web Components relies on four pieces – the , decorators (which apply templates to CSS), custom elements (which allow developers to create their own elements) and the Shadow DOM (which sounds ominous, but which really how all of the other pieces play together and shield the other three pieces from the regular DOM if necessary). Putting all of this together, including , developers can suddenly create their own HTML tags like after creating them using the tag. they can also extend existing elements. In addition, Web Components also allow developers to more easily separate content from presentation and the Shadow DOM ensures that the styles you create for the rest of your site with the widgets you build using Web Components. All of this sounds pretty dry, but if it catches on – and there is no reason to think it won’t – this will (Google’s Eric Bidelman calls it a “tectonic shift for web development”) and there are some inherent advantages to Web Components that will also help it speed up the web browsing experience for users. In the end, though, this represents a completely new way for writing web applications and it will probably take a bit before the repercussions of this evolutions fully sink in. If you want to take a deeper dive into this topic, take a look at this presentation . [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g0oOOT86NY?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360]
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An Interview With Dr. Joshua Pearce Of Printers For Peace
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
, is a researcher at who rearches open source and low-impact solutions to engineering problems. He is also the founder of the , an effort to bring together clever 3D-printed ideas that have loftier aims. You can if you submit a winning project. We asked Pearce a few questions about his goals for the project and about the future of 3D printing.
Joshua Pearce: I think it is clear that low-cost open-source 3D printing has enormous potential to do real good for the world – particularly for the poor as it radically reduces the cost of high-value products like scientific tools and consumer goods. This threatens a lot of entrenched interests because the average Joe can fabricate extremely complex products at home for pennies, which is disruptive to say the least. I have noticed a clear bias in 3D printing news coverage – any advances on the low-end of the spectrum are generally ignored or vilified. The media frenzy about 3D printed guns is actually having terrifying consequences – and I don’t mean the guns. A California senator has already proposed registration, background checks, and licensing for 3D printers! Michigan Tech and Type A Machines sponsored the contest to get the more positive truth about 3D printers into the conversation. There are over 90,000 open-source 3D printable designs available and only one low-quality gun. We do not want to lose the baby with the bathwater. Our aim is to raise awareness of the power of 3D printing to change the world for the better.
JP: The 3D printed gun is a red herring. Anyone who wants a gun can make a much better one using more traditional tools found in any machine shop and many garages — or just buy one. I am, however, very concerned that the debate about 3D printed guns will be used to squash the incredible technological development we are seeing in the open-source 3D printing community.
JP: The contest just opened, but there are some really cool designs already developed that I think would make good starting points for derivatives. I really like some of the small-scale 3D printed windmill designs – and there is a graduate student working on what looks to be a printable recyclebot. I would love to see a reliable 3D printed treadle pump as this is one of the most successful appropriate technologies for lifting rural farmers out of poverty in the developing world.
JP: I think it is clear that existing manufacturers will continue to move from using high-end 3D printing for rapid prototyping into actual manufacturing creating entirely new classes of jobs (e.g. automobile parts, human body parts, etc.). This is exciting, but not nearly as exciting as what is happening on the low-end of the spectrum. As open-source 3D printable designs continue to grow exponentially the value of owning a 3D printer is climbing as their quality improves and actual costs continue to decline. Thus, low-cost open-source 3D printers will become ubiquitous household items, which people use to make a wide array of consumer goods, replacement parts, and highly customized products. Following shortly after I hope to see recyclebots become similarly widespread – with people recycling their waste plastic inhome to make their own products. The implications for improving human well-being are staggering.
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Leaked Memo Shows Barnes & Noble Bringing Web Browser And Email To Simple Touch eReaders In June
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
An upcoming update will bring a web browser, email and update store app to Barnes & Noble’s super affordable Nook Simple Touch line of e-readers, which will begin rolling out June 1 according to a source close to the matter who wishes to remain anonymous. The 1.5.0 update was created in response to the positive critical and customer response to the recent . The Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with Glowlight will be receiving the over-the-air update starting next month, marking the first time that Nook’s entry-level readers get official access to web browsing capabilities. Amazon’s competing Kindle devices have shipped with an “experimental” web browser since the Kindle 2, but have not offered an email client on anything except for the Kindle Fire tablets. Making Nook hardware a little more flexible for users is a good way for Barnes & Noble to help counter flagging sales of dedicated Nook hardware, which were . Nook weakness probably ended up prompting the . When B&N announced that Google Play would be coming to Nook tablets, I praised the decision as a key step in helping the company position them as affordable, fully featured Android tablets, as opposed to just glorified e-readers that could do a bit more than most. The Nook Simple Touch is still pretty focused on e-books, but as an email triage device and basic browser, especially for text heavy content, it probably becomes a lot more attractive to an audience that mostly wants books but would like a little more general-use value as well. Especially for older buyers, I imagine a simplified device with a cheap price tag has the potential to carry appeal over a much more expensive full-fledged tablet. Will a browser and email client be enough to right the Nook ship? Probably not on their own, but B&N is at least expending effort in the right direction to combat flagging consumer interest in dedicated e-reader devices.
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Acrobotics Wants To Kickstart Smarter Cities With Its Smart Citizen Environment Sensors
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
There’s plenty of buzz about the concept of making our cities “smarter” — that is, loading them up with sensors and data-driven services to improve efficiency and quality of life. Hell, even Google has taken to loading up its event venues . Most of the discussion out there deals with how local governments are working toward this lofty, nebulous goal, but a team called Acrobotics Industries is trying to put the onus on the citizens. To that end the team has kicked off a $50,000 Kickstarter campaign for a small sensor array called the in hopes that people will start collecting and sharing their environmental data with the world. “There’s a problem with the way current cities were built,” Acrobotic’s COO Francisco Zabala told me. “Beijing’s air quality is insanely bad — we think we have it bad in L.A. — and it’s not getting any better. The heart (or brain, I guess) of the Smart Citizen project is an Arduino-powered kit that gets tucked away inside (or outside, if you’ve got the right kind of enclosure) of a user’s home to track local environmental variables — think temperature, humidity, air composition, ambient brightness, and sound levels. It’s arguably neat enough to keep tabs on the environmental conditions at your home while you’re not there, but the real value here is when a host of users set up their Smart Citizen sensors and fire up them up en masse. It’s the team’s hope that Smart Citizen kits will sell widely enough that regular people will be able to get an accurate glance at environmental conditions with a finer sort of granularity than you’d get by firing up, say, the Weather Channel app. For what it’s worth, Zabala concedes that the Smart Citizen project is largely geared toward making people aware of climate change and global warming without getting too political or divisive about it. “I believe that climate is changing for the worse, but our approach is more personal,” Zabala said. “By raising awareness we’re working toward a solution without banging on people’s heads.” As it happens, a few of those Smart Citizen kits have already been fired up. A quick look at a demo version of the sensor-tracking website reveals that a handful of the little things are live in Zabala’s native Barcelona — the Smart Citizen team ran an earlier, more local crowdfunding campaign (Zabala called it a “proof of concept run”) that saw a number of users in Spain install and fire up their sensor arrays all around the city. Hovering over a bright blue spot displays the latest environmental data (users can define how often they want those updates to occur), while greyed out units haven’t been fired up lately. Thanks to how the Smart Citizen kit is constructed, users will eventually be able to monitor more than just the environmental criteria this early kit supports. Zabala said that the Acrobotics team is currently working on swappable daughterboards that will allow the Smart Citizen kit to be used for soil and water testing, too — perfect for you city-dwelling gardeners. If you’re suddenly itching to monitor your surroundings more acutely, you’ll be able to lay claim to a fully constructed Smart Citizen for $155 — the more handy among you can save a little money by springing for the $105 unassembled kit instead.
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How Cheap Genetic Testing Complicates Cancer Screening For Us All
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
Sometimes, more medical information is a bad thing. The influential United States Preventive Services Task Force for their susceptibility to breast cancer. Why? Because the tests are imperfect: for every woman who gets tested for genes associated with onset breast cancer, even more will falsely test positive, leading spooked patients into needless surgery or psychological trauma. Super cheap genetic testing from enterprising health startups, such as 23andMe, have complicated cancer detection for us all by increasing the accessibility of imperfect medical information. After discovering a mutated BRCA1 gene, known to increase the likelihood of breast cancer 60 to 80 percent, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a radical preventive double mastectomy. Her in the brought much needed attention to breast cancer awareness, but it’s dangerous in the hands of a statistically illiterate population. For instance, as statistical guru, Nate Silver, , while breast cancer mammograms are 75 percent accurate, a woman who tests positive only has about a 10 percent chance of actually getting cancer. Since the vast majority of women don’t have cancer, there are far more women who will falsely test positive ( is a helpful blog post with the numbers worked out). Most importantly, reveal that many people don’t understand the math behind false positives in cancer testing, and may make uninformed decisions as a result. The same math holds true for the mutated BRCA1/2 gene of Jolie’s confession: researchers that a tiny 0.11 to 0.12 of women have the faulty gene. “I believe in doing genetic testing for BRCA1/2 with appropriate counseling,” writes University of Southern California’s David Agus, one of Steve Jobs’ cancer doctors. The answers are not simple in this case and require experienced professionals to discuss with the patient.” Traditionally hundreds of thousands of dollars to test, a cottage industry of cheap genetic testing has sprung up. 23andMe, one of the most popular, offers the service for as little at $99, and has even dared to weigh in on the BRCA controversy on the company blog. Citing a new study that found no negative emotional consequences from patients after learning about their BRCA1 mutation, , “The findings are important given that a frequent criticism of direct-to-consumer testing is based on the assumption that it causes either serious emotional distress or triggers deleterious actions on the part of consumers.” Given the absence of evidence for serious emotional distress or inappropriate actions in this subset of mutation-positive customers who agreed to be interviewed for this study, “broader screening of Ashkenazi Jewish women for these three BRCA mutations should be considered.” Sometimes, however, voluntary surveys don’t tell the whole story. In its cover story on Jolie’s decision, TIME magazine recounts the tale of one woman who likely had unnecessary preventative surgery after learning about a genetic defect. “She freaked out and had a bilateral mastectomy,” said Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, who worried that this patient’s particular mutation was not as troubling as she worried it was. Interestingly, TIME’s author, Kate Pickart, argues the financial costs of genetic testing has stalled a mass run on genetic tests. Even a new provision under the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) only mandates 100 percent insurance coverage for patients with a family history of genetic flaws. But, at just $99 (and probably far less in the future), financial barriers are crumbling. This isn’t to say that genetic screening is bad, it just complicates things for the rest of us, especially those who don’t understand statistics. The more women get tested, the more false positives exist, the less confident patients and physicians become in a course of action. Maybe our only hope out of this cheaper testing spiral is technology that makes detection more accurate and more predictive. One promising solution that constantly monitors deep tissue for cancerous signs (below). [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtDUwWf7DVg] So, perhaps, before long, we will innovate our way out of this dilemma.
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Android’s Design Principles And The Calculus Of The Human Pleasure Response
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
Android UX and interaction design leads Helena Roeber and Rachel Garb gave a talk at Google I/O this year about the they helped create and introduced back in 2012 with the launch of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The ADP foll three simple principles, essentially “enchat, simplify and amaze,” but there’s much more to those principles that that relatively slippery and non-scientific language might lead you to believe. In fact, Garb and Roeber have based the ADP on compelling recent research that suggests eliciting negative emotional responses have an outsized effect on user experience, and require lots more counterbalance in terms of positive experiences to achieve a net positive, or even net zero lasting impression. They cited a John Gottman study that found , whereas those with more like a 1:1 ration have a far greater chance of ending in divorce. Another study they cited offers insight into team productivity, which suggests that positive-to-negative interactions in a work group setting operating in at least a 3:1 ratio result in much more productive teams than those with more negative experiences. Finally, they suggested that humans need . A lot of that may sound obvious when simplified; it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that designers and app builders should strive to please their audiences. But the execution of enacting that pleasure is where things get interesting, and where Roeber and Garb’s insight really shone through. It’s one thing to say “okay, we won’t anger a user here, and we’ll make them happy instead,” and quite another to actually do it. Hearing them describe it, the ADP almost came about under a sort of moral obligation. Roeber described how the teams in charge of Android UX and interaction found that tech now has “a profound impact” on all of our lives, and as such, when things go wrong, we have a tendency to blame ourselves, and that can have a subtle but ultimately strong impact on people’s wellbeing. “All those non-ideal implementations eroded people’s confidence in their own abilities and caused frustration,” she said, describing how even small things that you might not think that much about ultimately leave you with a tick in the negative column if left unresolved. So if you can’t figure out what you’ve done wrong in setting up Gmail on your phone, for instance, that’s something you’ll carry, and something that requires that much more to negate in terms of the overall karmic balancing act. The example offered by the presenters of how exactly this works in action in Android right now is the visual signal given for when you’ve hit the last of your home screens. Android users will know that you’re greated with a blue glow animation and a visual representation of a page turning up to suggested nothing underneath. It’s clear in what it indicates, but it’s less accusatory or finger-pointing than a text alert, Roeber explained, which can still make users feel admonished and leave them internalizing some blame. Another example meant to explain how interface elements can not only minimize or eliminate bad feelings, but actually generate good ones was the Google Now art which occupies the search box when you call up Android’s digital personal assistant. It changes based on both location and time of day, and Roeber and Garb explained that in testing, the produced a reaction of wonder and enjoyment not just the first time it was encountered by users in testing, but every time after that as well, thanks to its dynamic nature. Experiences like this rack up positive emotions on the part of the user. Essentially, what Roeber and Garb described in their chat is a means of combining the best possible way of tiptoeing around a potentially negative interaction with positive ones that excite and delight. It’s a simple calculus designed to result in an overwhelmingly net positive experience, the ultimate aim of which isn’t just to minimize the negative impact of the tech we now use constantly, but also to add points in the wins column that can be used to offset negative interactions that happen anywhere in our lives. The ADP isn’t conceived as a way to make using apps not suck, in other words; it’s actually designed to turn Android into a means of spreading happiness. That’s an ambitious goal, but it’s impossible to deny that the experience of using Android on a daily basis has improved dramatically since the introduction of the ADP. And all of these improvements serve to illustrate how mobile software is perhaps at its best when it’s acting as the idealized customer service representative: friendly and informal, but not overly familiar; attentive to and anticipatory of your needs; gentle and kind when you’re barking up the wrong tree. A truly great customer service experience leaves you feeling lifted, capable, intelligent and happy. It’s more than fair to expect the same out of our device interactions.
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 5 | 10 | null |
Iterations: How Tech Hedge Funds And Investment Banks Make Sense Of Apple’s Share Buybacks
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Semil Shah
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
Apple has a good deal of cash. And, in the Valley, the startup ecosystem — for many reasons — wants to see Apple spend that cash. As their cash pile continued to grow as their stock price and market cap soared, Apple’s inability to provide robust software services combined with opportunities to expand their reach through acquisitions has become a which includes every stripe of public and private investor imaginable. On top of this, pumping even a small percentage of cash pile into acquisitions could provide another pool of much-needed liquidity for founders and investors alike. While it all makes sense on paper, part of what makes Apple “Apple” is that they operate how they want to — not how the market wants them to. Recently, in response to a variety of pressures to do something, to do anything, Apple a two-part share buyback. There are many explanations for this financial strategy, and while the Valley may have their own armchair financial analysts with a Twitter account, I reached out to some friends who actually work in technology banking or at techonology-focused hedge funds and asked them to send me a paragraph on their perception of the move. Because of the world these folks work in, I’ve reproduced their answers below anonymously, as they are not permitted to publicly share their opinions on such matters: With the amount of cash stock piled by Apple, and mainly overseas, it was only a matter of time until the water would break, especially with activist investor David Einhorn ruffling feathers. Apple did something very standard and not uncommon, but on a large scale the way Apple likes to do things. At the end of the day I feel Apple’s actions represent the following four points: (1) Increased Shareholder Value: There are many ways to value a profitable company but the most common measurement is Earnings Per Share (EPS). If earnings are flat but the number of outstanding shares decreases. . Voila! . . A magical increase in period-to-period EPS will result; (2) Higher Stock Prices: An increase in EPS will often alert investors that a stock is undervalued or has the potential for increasing in value. The most common result is an increase in demand and an upward movement in the price of a stock; (3) Increased Float – As the number of outstanding shares decreases, the shares remaining represent a larger percentage of the float. If demand increases and there is less supply, then fuel is added to a potential upward movement in the price of a stock; and (4) Excess Cash: Companies usually buy back their stock with excess cash. If a company has excess cash, then at a minimum you can bank that it doesn’t have a cash flow problem. More importantly, it signals that executives feel that cash re-invested in the corporation will get a better return than alternative investments. This is definitely a positive sign for the company going forward. Customers and investors should feel confident with these events transpiring that Apple will continue to deliver value to both parties respectively. Since Apple has around $150B cash on the books (70% of which is foreign), it’s clear they need to do something with this cash because it’s just wasted sitting on the balance sheet earning low interest rates. People have assumed the market would respond well to Apple making acquisitions, especially in software and services, particularly in cloud and mobile software. While they have reaped the benefits of profits in mobile hardware, the value going forward is at the application and services layer. Other hardware manufacturers are catching up, if they haven’t caught up already. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t seem to have an appetite for these types of acquisitions. Another option is to buy back shares, a proven way to deploy cash, though doing so sends a signal that they are a mature (read: not growth) company. Tactically, buybacks can decouple EPS growth from new product lines, and Apple could see 2x its buyback investment in earnings growth as a result. Ultimately, Apple has withstood significant pressure from the investment community to do something with the cash, especially as growth has slowed. (Venture arms, since you asked, are not an effective use of capital for a corporate player; I see the share repurchase as a much more responsible use of proceeds. Apple had four basic choices of what to do with their cash, remembering that apple has a duty to its shareholders: (1) Do nothing (status quo), which makes zero sense. given that they have ~$145Bn in cash and are adding ~ $40Bn in cash annually assuming zero growth earnings earning; (2) Strategic acquisition or expansion, though Apple will be hard pushed to effectively put either their cash hoard or future cash flows to use to do this; (3) a one-time special dividend and increased annual dividend; or (4) a share buyback (or various form of it). Only options #3 or #4 made any sense to me and I assumed it was only a matter of time before they did something. #1 is out as they are would not be meeting their shareholder responsibility and #2 is out simply because of scale. I see the share buyback as positive for three key reasons: (1) Apple stock is currently very cheap. My back of the envelope calculations conservatively value them at $500-$550/share, so they are effectively leveraging and creating additional shareholder value here until the multiple recovers to fair value. What’s more is that management knows a lot more than what we all do, so they should be able to calculate their own value in two to three years fairly well, and I assume they saw this as a positive. (2) Because Apple issued bonds to finance the deal rather than using cash, this way they will not need to repatriate taxable offshore cash to perform the buyback and they will likely get a bond rate the crazy low prices. Bottom line, they are saving shareholders cash, although at some point they will need to find a way to address the offshore cash, so perhaps they are waiting for another tax holiday. And (3), assuming the market reacts rationally, a buy back signals that managements believes in stock and the story and believes that this will generate returns that will outperform for long-term investors, something that a cash hoard did not address at any level and effectively generate returns far in excess of what could be achieved in any other safe manner. More often than not I do not like share buybacks. often management does this to boost their own salary bonuses (EPS biased etc) or simply follow bad advice and follow the investment banking herd, but this time I liked Apple’s share buyback at this share price and multiple and applaud the debt financing way of doing it, I would have applauded it more if they had also issued a $40 special dividend. The view is Apple has stopped being an innovator. While they were at the forefront of technology, people bugged them to use their cash for a dividend or buyback and they could say “no” because the stock price was going up on leading edge innovation. Once Jobs passed away, Tim Cook hasn’t been able to keep that going, and if anything they are now playing catch-up to Samsung or even Google. When you aren’t innovating and you have $150B in cash, a board has to find ways to keep investors happy and one tactic is to conduct a massive buyback. Showing they are returning money to shareholders, creating a new base if “capital return” investors rather than growth investors. It’s all a game to prop up the stock price, money is cheap because of Bernanke, so it’s an easy way for them to please shareholders without much cost to the business. In general, I think that Apple is falling behind and trying to figure out how to regain their lead, and I’m not sure if its possible any time soon. They’re doing the buyback because: 1) they have an unprecedented amount of cash ($140+ billion) that’s earning nearly nothing; 2) the stock is down nearly 40% from its high and shareholders are angry; 3) the stock is cheap on every financial metric, signaling that buying shares is a good use of cash if you believe in the long-term growth of the company. The company does not appear to want to do a large acquisition or massively increase its capital expenditures. They don’t “need” to hold that much cash. So the company had a very inefficient capital structure ($140+ billion of cash and no debt). Equity investors (who, in the end, own the company) sooner or later demand to get returns on their companies’ cash. Capital markets are competitive, and if management doesn’t give investors great reasons to own their stock, investors will go somewhere else. AAPL is facing slowing revenue growth, margin pressure, and uncertainty about their next major product line. A management team that is perceived as unfriendly to shareholders is another reason for investors to sell the stock. The buyback is a big gesture by management that they understand their shareholders’ concerns, in addition to likely being a good investment. /
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Yahoo Board Has Approved A $1.1 Billion Cash Deal For Tumblr, WSJ Reports
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
The that the rumored $1.1 billion cash acquisition deal for social blogging site Tumblr has been approved by Yahoo’s board of directors. The Tumblr acquisition was , with a price tag reportedly north of $1 billion, which appears to be accurate if the WSJ’s sources are correct. Tumblr would continue to be run as a separate business and independent property, the WSJ’s sources said, and we could see an official announcement as soon as Monday from one or both of the companies. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer become interested in the site only a couple months ago, but sees the Tumblr purchase as a way to big inroads into social media and boost revenue growth, according to one of the anonymous people who spoke to the WSJ. Yahoo already has an event scheduled for Monday in NYC, and the WSJ has learned it will deal with Flickr, something which we’ve also heard separately. The Tumblr deal might not have been on the docket initially, but if it’s all approved it’s highly likely we’ll see it mentioned tomorrow, too. Recently, we’ve seen suggestions that there’s a , and there have been rumors recently of key people departing from the mobile team. It’s interesting that a lot of these departures are fairly recent, and could go some way to explaining why Tumblr may have been willing to accept the $1.1 billion offer when sources have told TechCrunch that the amount . Our sources also suggested that Tumblr may be looking at a fast-depleting cash pile, which again gives it good reason to sell. Some users on Twitter are , as Ingrid reported on Saturday. Overall, as she noted, visitor growth to the site appears to be flat or declining slightly in 2013, so combined, those two facts might not bode well for Tumblr’s future user acquisition. But Instagram also faced an outcry of vocal users claiming they were going to shut down their accounts and depart the service for good when Facebook bought that company. In fact, have all gone up considerably since the acquisition. Yahoo has been snapping up companies at a rapid pace this year, with what seems like new acquisitions every week over the past few months. One of the more high-profile purchases was the , which brought the news summary startup into the Yahoo fold for a reported price of around $30 million. The company’s 17-year old founder arguably made more headlines than the company itself, and many debated the merits of the acquisition. More recently, the companies on Yahoo’s shopping list have been more under the radar, and in general the pattern looks like a strategic hiring spree, rather than a bunch of additions to Yahoo’s product portfolio. Tumblr would likely buck this trend, as it has a massive built-in audience, a full-featured, mature product and targets a relatively young demographic that so far isn’t all that well-represented at Yahoo. There’s a certain amount of and Yahoo is desperate for exactly that. The deal size is raising some eyebrows, since, as Fortune’s Dan Primack tweeted, Yahoo had only $1.2 billion cash on hand as of its most recent quarterly earnings, which makes an all-cash offer for Tumblr a lot more of a stretch than it would be for someone like Apple, or even Facebook, which acquired Instagram for $1 billion in a mix of both cash and stock. Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr, if the terms are correct, is a strong indicator of just how badly it wants to expand into media-based social networking. As of 3/31 Yahoo had just under $1.2b of actual cash on hand. And deal is $1.1b cash? Time to liquify that $1.8b of "short-term investments" — Dan Primack (@danprimack) We’ve contacted both Yahoo and Tumblr for comment, and so far have only received a boilerplate “We don’t comment on rumors or speculation” from Yahoo. If Tumblr gets back to us, we’ll update this piece.
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Illinois Library Embraces Crowdfunding To Bring Its Patrons A 3D Printer (And A Giant Hulk Statue)
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
Retooling the traditional public library for a more technically savvy populace is no small feat, especially when library budgets across the U.S. have been gutted these past few years. That sad state of events has forced some libraries to take matters into their own hands. Consider the case of the in Northlake, Illinois — it wants to give its community (and especially the town’s children) access to a slew of new digital creation tools to help inspire the next generation of makers and artists, and it’s decided to in hopes of making it happen. All told, Northlake trustee Tom Mukite is looking to raise $30,000 to outfit the library with an iMac, a drawing tablet, a Wacom Cintiq display, a fancy lightbox, and (perhaps most tantalizing) a 3D printer for youngsters and local makers to feed their projects to. In a bid to attract younger would-be readers, Mukite says the staff is also planning to use the funding to expand the library’s cache of graphic novels — there’s been plenty of debate about the value of these highly visual tomes as motivators for childhood and adolescent literacy, but the folks in Northlake firmly believe that they’ll help get reluctant readers devouring content as well as help improve language skills for non-native English speakers. Oh, and then there’s the pièce de résistance — a nine foot tall statue of Dr. Bruce Banner’s green alter-ego hulking out, again meant to attract the kiddies. I’ll admit I don’t really get that part, but then again I was the sort of kid who needed to be carefully coaxed out from among the stacks anyway. It’s not exactly the first time we’ve seen the crowdfunding model applied to spreading literacy — Cassandra Elton and a group of fellow University of Iowa students used Indiegogo to turn a wild-eyed idea into the roving earlier this year even though they missed their funding goal by some $7,000. Northlake’s creation-friendly angle is an intriguing one — I can’t think of any child who wouldn’t like to see their doodles converted into a real-life action figure, and hooking these kids on the joys of making things could help inspire a new generation of designers, entrepreneurs, and engineers. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_TVa9qqzFc&w=640&h=360] [Image via the ]
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Former Google Exec Turns Whistleblower On Company’s Tax Avoidance Machinations In The UK
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
Google is under fire in the UK for its tax practices in the country, and a new key witness (who spoke to ) might put them in deeper hot water when he hands over a reported 100,000 emails and documents to the British Revenue & Customs (HRMC) services. Barney Jones, a former Googler who was at the company between 2004 and 2006, says he has material proof that Google’s London sales staff which would negotiate and close sales for the UK market, despite claiming its Dublin HQ handled finalizing all deals. Jones was prompted to speak out by testimony given to the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week by Google VP Matt Brittin, who said that London-based Google staff were never closing any ad sales deals, though some selling efforts were made there. Brittin had previously gone on record in November 2012 with statements asserting that no one in the London office was doing any kind of ad selling. The matter of where the deals were finalized is especially important because if a sale closes in London, it’s likely they’d be taxable in Britain, rather than in the extremely low tax-rated Ireland. Jones told the Sunday Times that Google is fully aware of this, yet there are still records of Google staff closing major deals from companies like eBay and Lloyds TSB, but Google doesn’t seem at all certain that any of the documentation will absolutely prove that it has done anything strictly against UK tax law, according to a statement provided by Google Direct of External Relations Peter Barron to the Sunday Times. “As we said in front of the public accounts committee, it is difficult to respond fully to documents we have not seen,” the statement reads. “These questions relate to Google’s business in the UK going back a decade or more. None of the allegations put to us change the fact that Google pays the corporate tax due on its UK activities and complies fully with UK law.” Google reiterated this statement to TechCrunch when we contacted them for comment. Ireland uses its lower corporate taxation rate, which is 12.5 percent, or a little over half of Britain’s 23 percent, to attract big names who base their European corporate headquarters there, including Apple and Facebook in addition to Google. The search giant is , thanks to a Reuters investigation that revealed statements it made last November to the PAC about its London operations may not have been entirely accurate. Amazon is next in the PAC’s sights for its UK tax practices, as to suggest that it, too, is doing a lot of selling through an autonomous London-based unit, despite routing its sales on paper through a tax-exempt affiliate based in Luxembourg. In fact, for most on Google’s footing, avoiding taxes seems to be the exception, not the rule, and a recent piece by explains that even if this fresh round of hearings reveals that these schemes do run afoul of UK tax regulations, it’s unlikely we’ll see situations change all that dramatically. Governments are too dependent on the general economic benefits of hosting big corporations, and get too much out of awarding them contracts, she says, to risk doing long-term harm to those arrangements. Still, what Jones claims to have would be incredibly embarrassing for Google, especially if it spells out in no uncertain terms that closing deals was regularly handled by Google’s London staff, in direct contradiction to what Brittin has told the committee, but until we see the goods, there’s no telling how deep down the rabbit hole his information actually goes.
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Bio-Hackers, Get Ready
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Kim-Mai Cutler
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
When I speak to technical founders, they often look back with fondness to days of tinkering with a Commodore 64 or Hypercard. But perhaps tomorrow’s founders will experiment with a very different kind of code — the genetic code that underlies how everything from one-celled organisms to humans develop and behave. A pair of companies in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood and Tel Aviv are positioning themselves as the “Wintel” of the bio-hacking era. One company, called , builds software for designing synthetic life forms, while the other, Cambrian Genomics, is experimenting with ways to cheaply laser print DNA. Like the old Microsoft-Intel relationship of the PC era, they believe they have the symbiotic relationship necessary to usher in a new era where anybody can inexpensively create their own life forms. is backed with $3 million in funding, including $2 million from Autodesk. Cambrian is funded by Founders Fund, Felicis Ventures and Draper Associates. “We are democratizing creation,” said co-founder . “Cells are nothing more than a computer, running a program and the program is the genetic code. The code is DNA. The software are the chromosomes. The hardware is the wetware.” Using Drory’s software, a person can load up existing sequences for different life forms like plants and then manipulate them by inserting or taking out various genes. It corrects the code for basic errors like not having three codes for an amino acid or having a stop and a start code in the wrong place. “Wouldn’t it be nice in the future if someone could just load up a tree’s genetic code, drag another app from a file and make it glow in the dark?” said Amirav-Drory, who was a post-doc at Stanford University after completing a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Tel Aviv University in Israel. In theory they could eventually build an app store where a Genome Compiler user could buy access to genetic code that might make a plant cells like a banana. is already using the software to create a glow-in-the-dark plant. The seemingly far-fetched aspiration is to eventually replace street lights with the more renewable solution of glowing trees. Environmental considerations were what originally drew Amirav-Drory toward starting Genome Compiler. “We live in a civilization that is totally dependent on finite resources like oil and coal to produce everything around us…. It’s unsustainable and dangerous. What will our children have?” earlier this year. “We should had look at life — living things have been around for at least 4 billion years. They can produce everything we get from fossil fuels.” He hopes that people will use Genome Compiler to create bacteria or plants that could solve energy sustainability issues. Drory says the Genome Compiler software is free and that he has a little more than 3,000 users. He said a person would probably need at least a bachelor’s degree in a biology-related field to effectively used Genome Compiler. One you’ve designed and the compiled the genetic code, however, you’ve got to print it and insert it into existing cells. That’s where comes in. While Amirav-Drory is a bit more buttoned-down, Cambrian’s CEO Austen Heinz is the rebel. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yscphwaWNs&w=560&h=315] While his day-to-day considerations are about running his startup and perfecting techniques like laser pulse catapulting strands of DNA, he’ll make off-hand comments about a not-too-distant future where the technology’s he’s developing could help people design humans or help gay couples have their own genuine biological children by mixing and matching their DNA in software. “Our pricing is designed to change behavior,” Heinz said. “Every biology lab in the world will become more virtualized. They’ll design code on a computer and then print out DNA. A biologist on a small budget should be able to design 50,000 different constructs at a time.” Heinz didn’t offer more details on current pricing though, except to say that he has some early paying clients. While he does use genome sequencers that you can buy from companies like Illumina, he’s also built his own sequencer that allows you to recover the underlying DNA instead of destroying it in the sequencing process. Then he uses an older technique called laser-pulse catapulting to eject copies of DNA. A client can then use time-tested and (Polymerase chain reaction) to copy this new synthetic DNA and then insert it into cells. The advantage of using DNA laser printing over more conventional approaches is that the error rate should be a lot lower. “Cameras, lasers, computers and software are reliable,” he said. “Those things can all break. But if anything breaks, it’s easy for us to change the part or to just fix it and get it back up and running. Their failure modes are predictable.” Both Genome Compiler and Cambrian Genomics tie into a broader trend affecting the entire field around genetic data. Sequencing costs are falling faster than Moore’s Law, and so there are a host of companies and could lend itself to all sorts of new innovations around software meeting genetic code. “Sequencing a whole human genome cost $3 billion and took 15 years to complete just 10 years ago,” said Amirav-Drory. “Today you can do it in an afternoon for a few thousand dollars. More and more, we’re digitizing biology. We’re reading the genome and putting it in a computer.” When he started his post-doctoral fellowship, it was $2 per base pair to print DNA. But by the time he left four years later, it had fallen by about 75 percent to 25 cents a pair. Amirav-Drory is hoping that these lower costs will lead to all sorts of new kinds of bacteria or plants to could be used to solve the world’s ecological problems. “The best thing about living things is that they can scale to meet the magnitude of our challenges,” he said in a recent talk. But what about the regulatory concerns around unleashing a whole new host of synthetic bacteria and life forms into the environment? As of now, projects like the Kickstarter glowing plant are covered by one or more of three U.S. regulatory agencies. The FDA would oversee anything digestible while the USDA and the EPA would look for organisms that would have properties of pests and could potentially crowd out more natural, beneficial plants or animals. Cambrian and other DNA printing companies already screen out incoming orders for ones that contain harmful sequences from the known library of viruses and bacteria. It is a brave new world, though. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8qcDQaY8Mw&w=560&h=315] [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/59777214 w=400&h=300]
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YouTube Turns Eight As Platform Surpasses More Than 100 Hours Of Video Uploaded Per Minute
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 5 | 19 |
turns eight years old today, reminding each of us in some odd way how young or old we really are. Remember, the company , the same year that Michael Jackson was found not guilty of child molestation, and Lance Armstrong was winning his seventh Tours De France, and Arrested Development was still on the air. A lot has changed since then, but YouTube’s growth remains strong as ever. YouTube announced that its community now uploads more than 100 hours of video to the platform every minute. . That’s the equivalent of four days worth of video every sixty seconds. But of course, the supply makes sense when you consider the demand. YouTube claims that more than one billion people across the world come to YouTube for content each month, which comes out to nearly one in every two people who have access to the internet. Here’s a little on growth: Two years ago, YouTube revealed that users were uploading 48 hours of video each minute, and last year it had grown to 72 hours. Eight years in, YouTube is still a growing platform, while Facebook may be slipping amongst younger and fresher social niche applications. Meanwhile, YouTube opens up new possibilities for startups who want to leverage its massive, active user base and content library. , in particular, comes to mind, as the betaworks company helps makes all those billions of videos discoverable and curated on mobile devices. Here’s what YouTube had to say about it, in the official blog post: And so, on our eighth birthday, we’d like to thank you for making YouTube the special place that it is. For showing us how video can create connections, transcend borders and make a difference. For clicking these links even if you aren’t sure what they’ll be, but you trust us. In short, thanks for making us better in big ways and small ones, too. We can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
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Samsung Briefly Posts Galaxy S4 Mini On Its Apps Site, Adding New Credence To A Summer Release
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
Samsung has yet to officially confirm the Galaxy S4 mini, but the smartphone’s earlier today backs up rumors of a summer launch. The listing was (link via Google Translate) before it was removed. The Galaxy S4 mini appeared with the model number GT-I9195 as part of a line-up of Samsung smartphones on the company’s app store site. The handset is a smaller, cheaper version of Samsung’s fastest selling phone ever, which less than a month after its international launch on April 26. Samsung has positioned the Galaxy S4 as its iPhone challenger and a smaller version may help attract new customers who were previously but off by the ‘s 5-inch screen. Though Samsung has yet to announce a release date for the Galaxy S4 mini, a summer date would give it a head start over , potentially including the iPhone 5S. The appearance of the smartphone on Samsung’s apps site is the latest leak backing up rumors of the phone’s imminent release. Two weeks ago, photos purportedly showing the Galaxy S4 mini were , who has leaked authentic photos of unreleased Samsung devices in the past. The photos , including a 4.3 inch gHD display and a 8-megapixel rear camera.
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Fitocracy Users Come For The Gamification, But Stay For The Community
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
It’s no surprise that fitness gamification network is thriving — the company recently announced that it had surpassed and has signed deals with personalities like the . But the company recently received its latest honor as one of Time Inc’s 10 NYC Startups to Watch. We took the opportunity to speak to co-founders Brian Wang and Dick Talens about why gamification seems to be working in the fitness world. At first glance, gamification seems to make sense based on the fact that fitness goes with athletics, sports or “games,” if you will. But devices like the Nike FuelBand and its various counterparts have shown that users grow discouraged when they can’t maintain steady progress, as measured by the quantified activity. But Fitocracy uses gamification as a way to get users interested in and hooked on the app, which lets you track your fitness and receive props from friends and the community for advancing. According to the founders, users come for the gamification but stay for the community, which becomes the source of inspiration as opposed to getting encouragement from your own progress. Talens and Wang, who are gamers at heart and came up with the idea for Fitocracy as they tried to get in shape, also chatted with me about the and the different ways Fitocracy (and companies like it) can leverage the .
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Paul Graham: 37 Y Combinator Companies Have Valuations Of Or Sold For At Least $40M
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham about the valuations of YC startups. As of now, Graham says that 37 Y Combinator companies, out of 511 startups, have valuations of or sold for at least $40 million. Currently the total valuation for the 511 startups is $11.5 billion, as Graham writes My first thought when reading Graham’s tweet was which companies are included in this group. Graham that Rap Genius is on the list. And there are a number of obvious ones because of acquisition numbers and valuations from past funding rounds of some YC alums. Facebook just bought Parse for . In its last round, Dropbox was at $4 billion. Heroku was bought by Salesforce . Airbnb is reportedly . Loopt was acquired for . Zynga bought OMGPOP for over . Cloudkick was reportedly sold for $50 million, and SocialCam sold to AutoDesk for . Other startups that could be in the $40 million-plus valuation club include Stripe, Weebly, Optimizely, Justin.TV, Xobni, Scribd, Hipmunk and Disqus among others. In 2011, Graham that the incubator has had 25 companies acquired, five of them for over $10 million, but the total value of the remaining companies at that time was higher than the total value of the five acquisitions at the time. As of , YC had launched 380 companies, which had raised just over $1 billion in total, with each company averaging about $2.7 million. The amount raised has since been . And The New York Times recently that the average value of a Y Combinator startup is $22.4 million. Today’s data point is interesting food for thought. Beyond just valuations, it’s likely that Y Combinator may see an IPO or two in the coming years from alums. If you think (or know) of any other Y Combinator companies that are valued at or have been sold for more than $40 million, tell us in the comments.
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Any.DO Integrates Kiip’s Reward System To Make Completing To-Do Lists A Daily, And Fun, Habit
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
If your’e a to-do list junkie, then you’ve probably already heard about . The leader in the space to dive deeper into the personal productivity space. One of the things that Any.DO has done to keep its approach fresh is integrate Kiip’s reward platform, which will give you stuff when you complete a to-do list. It’s an interesting approach for both companies, specifically Kiip, since most advertisers are used to having game-only opportunities for giving their wares away to app users. For Any.DO, it’s just another way to turn task management into a daily habit, its founder and CEO, Omer Perchik, told us. While Perchik isn’t turning task management into a game, per se, he is leveraging Kiip’s strengths, which is tracking important “moments” that happen within an app, whether it’s a game, fitness or to-do list app. If a developer can extract those moments within an app where users accomplish something, then they can easily use Kiip’s platform to monetize those moments, and use it as a way to keep users engaged. “One of the most important parts in habit formation is having a positive reinforcement loop and Kiip is a great partner for that,” Perchik said. He tells us that since implementing Kiip, Any.DO users have generated more than 2.5 million rewarding moments so far. For just about any brand, that’s a great opportunity to get awareness and affinity for whatever it is they’re trying to promote. When you capture a user in a moment where they’ve accomplished something, then your brand becomes a part of that moment. Users of Any.DO are pretty happy about it, even tweeting about what they’ve just earned. Think about that for a second…an app user tweeting an advertisement. That’s what has made Kiip an interesting solution for developers looking to monetize, without giving up real estate and user experience for ugly banner ads. I just got a coupon for completing tasks on my to-do list, cool! — Joshua Hammer (@joshhammz) Kiip has raised $15.3 million to date to shift advertisers away from thinking about old, and increasingly unreliable, metrics like impressions, in favor of key points in a mobile app that bring stronger intent with it. The intent portion of what happens in an application can be the difference between an ad being interacted with and being ignored. It’s an obvious shift, but Kiip has nailed it for all sides involved: users, developers and advertisers. By giving people things that are useful, like Uber credits, when they’ve achieved a task, Any.DO can learn more about their habits and what will keep them coming back for more. If there was ever an answer to “when is an ad not an ad?” this would be it.
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Comic XKCD Nails Google Glass Critics (Especially Congress)
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
. Some fears are justified since, as a culture, we don’t have a pristine history of social etiquette always catching up to technology (see: ). But, , this doesn’t absolve us of the right to say something intelligent and offer a reasonable path forward as we inevitably march towards heads-up display technology in some form. By far the worst offender of question-only criticism has come from the U.S. Congress Privacy Caucus, which sent a passive-aggressive list of queries directly to CEO, Larry Page [ ]. “Because Google Glass has not yet been released and we are uncertain of Google’s plans to incorporate privacy protections into the device, there are still a number of unanswered questions that we share,” wrote eight congressmen, along with the email of an assistant that Mr. Page could conveniently submit his answers to. Some of the questions were already publically answered (which, ironically, could have been found out with a simple Google search). Google has no short-term intention of using facial recognition technology. They have it, but adding it as a feature for Glass. Other questions like “has Google considered making any additions or refinements to its privacy policy?” have an obvious answer: yes, of course they considered it. As ‘s Jon Stewart points out (below), the problem with exploiting insinuation, rather than specific analysis, is that it permits anyone to criticize anything without evidence. “If what you’re saying is true, if the president let Americans die for political reasons, then, by God, bring us the evidence and we will grab the pitchforks and torches along with you.” [hulu id=ivxlupclc42lmr2nmf9u1a width=512] had its own gem poking fun of question-hyped criticism, slamming the Obama administration for not vocally : “Perhaps our president hopes to escape the moral implications of having allowed the Basilisk Project to operate under his nose, believing that his hands are clean. Or perhaps Mr. Obama is hoping that the American people might actually believe he was somehow unaware of the Basilisk Project altogether. Then again, perhaps you, “President” Obama, are, indeed, the puppet here. Which begs the question: Just who is pulling your strings?” In most instances, Google can’t answer for things that haven’t happened yet. Glass is an evolving technology. been hacked to secretly record bystanders, so there’s legitimate concerns. But, critics can’t pound their chest in public with a lazy list of questions. As Jeff Jarvis points out, on technology, at least since the Kodak camera. Teddy Roosevelt briefly banned cameras in Washington parks. Yet, Kodak, like cellphone cameras, haven’t caused the privacy apocalypse fear-mongerers imagined. Congress has an ability to create national headlines, whether they say anything insightful or not. With this great power comes great responsibility. Congress should hold themselves to a higher standard and not be permitted to insinuate wrongdoing without any actual evidence.
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Google Glass: What’s With All The Hate?
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
isn’t even on sale yet and there is already a noticeable backlash against Google’s first experiment in wearable computing. It’s odd to see a product that was greeted with so much hype a year ago endure the love-hate cycle so quickly – even though there are only a few thousand units in the wild. Sure, we’ve to popularize “glasshole” as a way to describe its users, but the backlash seems to go beyond the usual insidery tech circles. The Glass backlash, of course, first hit the mainstream with the Saturday Night Live sketch I’ve embedded below, but last week, I also came across on CNN.com about Glass etiquette. With Glass being as new as it is, that’s a topic worth discussing, just like it was when cellphones first arrived. What struck me more than the story itself, though, were the comments on it. Mind you – these are mainstream CNN readers, not techies. Some are simply misinformed (“I was at a local conference of small to medium businesses last week and most of the businesses have already banned the product entirely. It’s not even permitted to be brought in the businesses. Most of the bans came from employee requests, and I don’t blame them. I’ve banned it from my own business too.”), some are outright hostile (“This crap makes me happy to know that I’ll die someday… where is society heading?” – but that’s not wonder on the Internet, after all) and many worry that somebody will use Glass to take pictures of their private parts in the men’s bathroom (“Now I’ve got more to worry about when they guy at the urinal next to me decided he wants to be chatty instead of keeping his sight forward…”).
Indeed, it seems privacy is the main issue people have with Glass, besides the fact that it does take some getting used to. The fact that the camera is front and center on the device makes people uneasy. Google’s mistake, I think, was not to put an LED next to the camera that indicates when it’s taking pictures and videos. Walking through New York with Glass a few weeks ago, I had a few random people come up to me to ask me about Glass. None of them were techies, but they were quite aware of what I was wearing. Three out of four, however, assumed that I was recording them while I was talking to them. That’s definitely an issue Google will have to fix. Earlier this month, Michael Chertoff, the former secretary of Homeland Security during the Bush administration, linked Glass to surveillance drones . “Imagine that millions of Americans walk around each day wearing the equivalent of a drone on their head: a device capable of capturing video and audio recordings of everything that happens around them,” he wrote. The fact that Chertoff advocated for more full-body scanners in U.S. airports is the kind of irony and cognitive dissonance that has recently been a hallmark of American politics. It’s these kinds of comments, however, that are stoking the privacy fears around Glass, no matter how unfounded they are. All of this, of course, comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of Glass’s capabilities and the fact that few who write about it have even tried it definitely adds to this. Glass can’t record everything around you. The video feature, by default, takes 10-second videos when you activate it and you have to actually press a button on the device if you want to extend this time. The battery, however, would die pretty quickly if you just let it record everything as you walk down the street. Glass, in its current iteration, is essentially a wearable web browser with Google Now that can also take videos and images. Nothing you photograph is immediately uploaded anywhere. You have to explicitly share photos or videos with a friend or an app. Processing, for the most part, happens in the cloud, not on the device. Glass is more about getting news stories, email, social network updates and other information pushed to you than it is about you sharing photos and videos. Earlier this week, we also heard about . It can’t work in real time yet, so you’d have to snap a picture, send it to the developers’ servers and get a response back, but it’s that kind of technology that Glass can enable that is definitely creating a bit of unease. The fact that few people have tried Glass also means that there are plenty of these myths around that, over time, become unquestioned by those who haven’t tried it. Google didn’t help itself here, given that some of its showed a device that was far more capable than what’s actually available right now. Its later videos were more realistic, but it’s the first one that people will remember. So while some of this early – and somewhat sudden – hate for Glass sure stems from the fact that it’s new, only available to a few people and looks a bit odd – the real issue is simply that people believe it’s a little privacy-invasion machine that sits above your right eye. It really isn’t, but until Google puts a little LED at the front that indicates when it records a message, people won’t back down from this idea.
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New ‘Arrested Development’ Pulls Off The Geekiest Gag Ever, Confuses Much Of The Internet
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
New Arrested Development is here! Have you heard? I could probably fall back on an “Unless you’ve been living under a rock..” joke here, but I’m pretty sure they’ve got WiFi under rocks now. Rock people are quite well informed these days. Anyway — if you’re just catching the first few episodes of the new season: Yeah, you saw what you think you saw. Yeah, it’s a gag. No, you’re not the only one that it confused. Arrested Development is all the inside jokes. It’s part of what makes it great, and so fun to rewatch. It’s meta jokes all the way down. This time, though, the writers went a lil’ too deep down the rabbit hole for some of the folks back at home. About 10 minutes after midnight (when the new season went live on Netflix), the Intertrons started buzzing with mentions of a faint watermark that had seemingly snuck its way into a bunch of scenes in the new season. “SHOW STEALER PRO TRIAL VERSION”, it read, sprawled across the screen in a way that almost certainly couldn’t be missed in editing. Right? I mean… could it? No, it couldn’t. You see, that watermark only shows up in very specific scenes: the flashbacks. Whenever they needed to use clips from the first 3 seasons, up pops the watermark. Get it? ? Still not gettin’ it? Fine, fine, I’ll be that guy: they’re joking that they couldn’t get the raw footage from the original seasons, so they had to use a screen-capture/video downloader program to rip it. Many of these apps will let you capture video for free, but will embed a big ol’ watermark on everything you rip until you cough up a few bucks. Add in the fact that Arrested Development wasn’t originally Netflix’s show to produce, and the joke starts to take on all sorts of clever little layers. Pretty much immediately, two camps formed: those who didn’t get the joke, and those who were making fun of everyone who didn’t get the joke. Why are the new arrested development episodes flashbacks clearly ripped with a watermark? “Show stealer pro trial version” :/— @arresteddev what is with this stupid show stealer pro trial version crap during flashback scenes of old episodes? @netflix Show stealer pro “trial” version on fucking Arrested Development’s past clips? You were that cheap? Excellently played, Arrested Development writers. Confused tweets about the gag are still rearing up every minute or two. Oh, and for the curious: Yeah, Show Stealer Pro is a real application. You can get the trial version
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Facebook Home And Windows Phone Are Making The Same Apps-Related Misstep
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Natasha Lomas
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
. Or it would be, if it had ever actually lived. I’m not going to pronounce it dead quite yet – there is a chance Zuck & Co. can revive it, with the right kind of updates and by dialling back the experience so it’s not such an absolute mobile takeover. As just a lockscreen widget, say, it might actually be pretty popular. But a reduced version of Home will mean Home is dead anyway. It won’t be the mobile dominator it was conceived to be. It will be just another app/widget, competing alongside all the others that are taking mobile users’ eyeballs away from Facebook. Home will be failing to do the job Facebook intended it to. The problem for Home is that Facebook has underestimated how important apps — and, crucially, the — are to the smartphone experience. And when you step back and consider it, that’s a breathtakingly massive oversight. Apps aren’t declining in popularity. On the contrary. mobile users are downloading and using more and more apps. Attention spans are being fragmented. Which is of course Facebook’s big fear. It has built a business by being the catch-all social container for our digital interactions, from messages and conversations to idle pastimes, preferences and predilections. The more those conversations and signposts move elsewhere, the more stale Facebook’s data becomes. It’s death by a thousand other services. Little wonder the Facebook phone — aka . Who wants to buy an app-less smartphone? To my mind Facebook is not the only one guilty of underestimating apps, either. Third-party apps are exactly how iPhone owners and, to a lesser extent, Android users customise their phones. Android users have more flexibility – since they can add widgets, too, and even change the entire look and feel of their device by choosing a new launcher, but apps are still the engine powering Android’s momentum. (Indeed, a key tipping point will come when the majority of developers start going Android first, rather than iOS.) So when Nokia markets its Windows Phone powered Lumia flagship as “the most innovative smartphone in the world” it’s hammering home exactly how much it has missed the point. Focusing on the device in that way is like a football manager talking up how great the ball is. It’s just totally not the point. The smartphone is not what’s interesting here. It’s what you do with it that counts. Once you’ve reached flagship hardware level, a good device is a given. That’s not what really excites people about the smartphone in their pockets – it’s the sweet shop of apps they pick and mix to make it their own. The iPhone is a Twitter machine, it’s a Vine creator, it’s a Rando generator, it’s an Instagram facilitator. It’s not merely a great smartphone. It’s all the other neat things it enables you to do. That’s where the innovation is, not in its hardware components. Solid, reliable, powerful hardware is just the foundation for everything else. No surprise that so – i.e. on other people’s software. Because that’s what gives Apple’s own hardware and software its halo. Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform feels like it’s made some of the same mistakes as Nokia and Facebook Home, in that regard. When the OS was first unveiled, it stood out because it looked so different, relative to iOS and Android. But at the same time, there was something about it that didn’t quite sit right. As time has gone on, that feeling has only increased for me. It has always felt like it’s trying to do too much. That it wants the spotlight to be on itself, more than on add-ons that could extend and animate the platform to make it really live and breathe. Some of that was probably inevitable, since Microsoft has had to play catch-up when it comes to getting apps built for its late-to-the-party ‘third ecosystem’. Is . But it also seems to go deeper than that. The design templates Microsoft offers to developers so their apps can fit in with the Windows Phone look and feel are symptomatic of its attitude here. It’s putting the platform first and treating apps as slaves for its own central software. Once again, that spectacularly misses the point. How ironic that Microsoft’s sales pitch for Windows Phone has involved criticising rival platforms for their surface look of a “grid of apps”. As with Nokia, Microsoft is showing how flawed its thinking is. Apps are exactly what’s interesting about smartphones. Returning to the football metaphor, it’s as if Microsoft is fixated on telling everyone how amazingly smooth and green it has made the pitch. Frankly, who cares? Windows Phone apps that opt to retain the Metro/Windows Phone UI look and feel are often a bizarre experience for the user. They feel like an OS extension, not something new, original and different in their own right. They don’t help to give the platform a stronger sense of identity because they don’t feel like they’re administering a vital injection of external creativity. Rather their identity and innovation is absorbed back into the platform, making the overall experience feel dull, diluted and lacking – lacking in vibrancy, agency and originality. That’s a pretty drastic misstep when you’re competing with a company like Apple, which absolutely gets that the true value of smart mobile devices is what lies outside them, in the ecosystem where users find the things that matter to them, made by thousands and thousands of insanely creative outsiders. That process is real personalisation, not a Live Tile that flashes a few of your Facebook photos every few seconds. That’s just a dumbshow of personalisation. Facebook Home, like Windows Phone, is making the mistake of trying to be everything. Which means it’s setting itself up to fail, because it’s lining up against an army of global developers with no shortage of ideas. Those developers are coming up with far more interesting creations than any one entity ever can. It’s a war no one company can win. Nor should it — or mobile users would be the ones missing out. [Image by via ]
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Fans Create A 3D-Printable Version Of Cyvasse, The Game Of Thrones Boardgame
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
Take off your silken cloak and get your dragon eggs ready because Cyvasse, the game that characters play in George R. R. Martin’s series is now 3D-printable. Created by Arian Croft of and his friend Nate Stephens, the game uses most of Martin’s rules mentioned in the books as well as interpolations taken from period-specific game rules. He writes: The pieces are nicely detailed but should print well on even simpler 3D printers. I’ve printed one of Arian’s previous games, and he’s an excellent model-maker with a good eye for detail and an understanding of the limitations of the medium. Best of all, this game is free to print and play, a potential disruption that should should be giving Parker Brother’s nightmares. and print it out yourself in black or white ABS. Just don’t tell those nasty Warlocks in Qarth. They’ll probably steal all your pieces.
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Electric Car Tech Company Better Place Hits The Deadpool, As The Greentech Shakeout Continues
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Colleen Taylor
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
, the Tel Aviv- and based electric car battery technology company that’s raised more than funding since its 2007 inception, that it has filed a court motion to dissolve and liquidate the company after attempts to raise more funds fizzled. The impending bankruptcy was first reported by . The official announcement from Better Place came just after its majority shareholder, Israeli conglomerate , “not to participate in the investment round offered by Better Place to its investors” adding that a liquidation application would soon be filed “since there were no investors who were willing to participate in a substantial amount in an additional investment round in Better Place.” It’s a hugely disappointing end for the company, which was for some time perceived as a big player in the global green technology movement as well as a darling of its local Israeli startup scene. But ultimately, Better Place’s vision with reality. Better Place’s struggles started to become clear in particular, notably in October 2012, when its charismatic founder . At that time, TechCrunch’s John Biggs wrote a of Better Place’s early hype and ensuing struggles:
“The company came to prominence first as a unique solution for electric vehicles then as a darling of the Israeli tech scene. The company planned to offer switchable batteries at stations across various countries. When drivers ran out of juice they’d simply swap out the battery and keep driving. However, the technology and infrastructure have taken years to map out and, while Agassi was hailed as a forefather of Israel’s ‘ ‘, the company has done little in the way of actual implementation and delivery.” Better Place is just the latest casualty in the ongoing shakeout of greentech startups that emerged to much enthusiasm — and often huge funding rounds — in the mid- to late- aughts but are now hitting hard times or closing altogether. Venture capital firms such as that had in the greentech wave just a few years back are now . But the good news of shakeouts is that along with the many losers, there are winners too — where has , has . Energy efficiency and battery technology is as important as ever, but it seems that Better Place just didn’t have what it takes to win in the end.
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Iterations: How ESPN Thinks About The Future Of Its Product And Technologies
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Semil Shah
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
Ryan Spoon (left), SVP of Product; and Aaron LaBerge, SVP of Technology, ESPN. After spending time in the comforts of the Valley as a founder, operator, and venture capitalist, my friend Ryan Spoon headed east — to Bristol, Conn., of all places — to follow the intersection of his passion: technology and sports. And he’s not just at another sports company — he’s at ESPN, a sports network that over 100 million homes with annual revenues approaching $8 billion. As one of the most valuable media networks out there, ESPN is also at an point with respect to the shift happening in broadband, their subscriber fees, and the opportunities and challenges presented with mobile technology. Now as the SVP of Product for ESPN, the massive sports media and entertainment company, I invited Ryan and his colleague, Aaron LaBerge, who runs technology, to share some insights of how they left the technology world and ended up at ESPN and what ESPN thinks about the intersection of mobile and social in delivering content, developers and their APIs, the emerging hardware ecosystem for sports and fitness, and much more. : and I are both new to ESPN, in different ways. I joined in August, as you know, as a move from Palo Alto and Polaris Ventures (previously eBay, founder of beRecruited). Aaron was previously at ESPN and Starwave (1997-2007) and left to found and run Fanzter, a consumer Internet startup. Aaron was at Starwave, which worked on the very first version of ESPN.com. I oversee product and Aaron oversees technology (SVP Technology & Product Development). There are three primary factors that motivated each of us at ESPN and that drive our digital strategies: (1) Scale. We have the privilege of working at an amazing company that carries a meaningful brand and touches tens of millions of fans, each day. That is inspiring. Sometimes it’s daunting. It’s certainly fun. And it is also clarifying: it makes us focus on building experiences and products that touch massive numbers of fans. (2) Passion. The back of all of our business cards carry the ESPN mission: “To serve sports fans. Anytime. Anywhere.” It’s a simple statement that embodies that passion of fans (which we all are), the emotional connection with our properties (products, content, shows, etc), and the focus on live, personal and always-connected experiences. (3) Technology. First and foremost, ESPN is a media company. But we are also a technology company and culture. The blending of those two (media and technology) – particularly at our scale – is the special part. : From smartphone to the 60″ television in your family room, ESPN products need to both satisfy the fan’s need in that situation AND take full advantage of the device itself. For example, consider WatchESPN — on your mobile device, we want to get fans into live games as quickly as possible. Speed, simplicity and navigation are most important. On the iPad, fan’s have a different behavior and we have more real estate to play with; consequently, we can introduce more functionality and you’ll see new versions coming shortly. Using Airplay, we can transport either of those experiences onto your television and then turn the handset / tablet into an additional screen (ScoreCenter, Gamecast, etc). This necessitates an understanding of a product’s experiences on different screens and in different moments, and then building to those environments. : From a content perspective (audio, images, video) we’re spending a significant amount of time experimenting and improving our media encoding and image compositing systems, so that no matter what the size of the screen, we’re delivering the absolute best version we can. This includes everything from the visual quality to the compression algorithms we use to help us get around network limitations when distributing our content. : We currently have a which is being used by over 100 partners. The APIs are pretty comprehensive. Our main focus internally, however, is on centralizing all of the data at the company and making sure it’s available programmatically through our APIs. This includes everything from scores and statistics to the infographics that appear on our shows and live events. This is going to allow us to build the products we want much faster and on many more platforms. : We are working to simplify ESPN.com around a few core themes. First and foremost, our content is the true product. The quality and diversity of content across ESPN.com is unparalleled and we need to make it the focal point. We also need to make it simpler to find, navigate, share, and so forth. Secondly, we are focused on building more personalized experiences across all of our products. My ESPN.com should – and it will – feel different than your ESPN.com. Lastly, we are unifying our mobile applications and products with ESPN.com. Those experiences should be consistent from a visual, interactive, and content perspective – and they should be seamlessly integrated and connected. : From a technical perspective, we’re ready for both. Our new Digital Center (goes online in 2014) is a completely IP-based, format independent facility. We’re constantly reinventing our workflow so that every person who touches a piece of content is adding meta data to help drive our APIs. We create highlights with multiple edits and multiple encoding formats — to support all of our content platforms. Our goal is to make the best use of our extensive rights portfolio. The investments we’re making in our infrastructure, tools, and workflows are going to allow us to build products that just aren’t possible today. : We have really focused our application strategy and offering to center around the core pillar experiences: scores & news (ScoreCenter), live games and video (WatchESPN), streaming audio (ESPN Radio), and games (Fantasy sports). These experiences and products are sufficiently different. I believe they should exist as individual applications. However, they cannot be independent applications — they need to speak to one another and, where it makes sense, be integrated. For instance, you can access live Gamecasts via ScoreCenter – and when the game is available, we provide one-click access to open the live stream within WatchESPN. ScoreCenter, WatchESPN, ESPN Radio, and Fantasy each have millions of loyal fans. ScoreCenter for instance is approaching 50 million downloads. These apps should feel like one another, speak to one another, and get users directly into the desired action. : Over the coming years, sensor-based analytics are going to have an effect on everything from youth and participatory sports all the way up through the pros. We are actively involved in finding ways to measure, interpret and share athlete, ball, and sport performance. Our main goal with all of this experimentation is data. We look at this data to help tell better stories and to enhance our products. : It’s more than a trend: it’s an evolution of technology and personal curiosity. Jawbone, Nike, Fitbit, etc. are the devices… but I also use Nike’s Running application several times a week. To me they represent the desire to visualize, understand and share data. Nike is cataloging my physical activity in beautiful, compelling, fun and social ways. Moving beyond personal activity, ESPN sits atop a world of data: plays, players, games, seasons, records, and so on. Those too can be rendered in beautiful and compelling ways. : ESPN is a special place if you love technology and sports. We’re always looking for passionate people to help us build new products and platforms that will be used by millions of fans. When you think of scalability and large-scale applications, we have some of the greatest technical challenges in the world to solve. For sports fans and technology enthusiasts – there really is no place like ESPN. We’re building a New England tech hub and are always looking for great people within product, design, and technology. Contact either Ryan or myself if interested.
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What Is Hulu Really Worth?
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
Hulu is on the block again, as its corporate parents (and content partners) are taking bids for the streaming video site. According to , there are now , including pay TV operators DirecTV and Time Warner Cable; private equity firms KKR, Guggenheim Digital, The Chernin Group, and Silverlake Partners (along with talent agency William Morris Endeavor); and, coming in at the . This, of course, isn’t the first time that Hulu’s owners have looked for a new owner. A couple of years ago, Hulu parents News Corp and Disney — along with then-investor Providence Equity Partners — took bids for the streaming video site. (NBC Universal, which also owns a stake in Hulu, doesn’t have a say due to regulatory concessions Comcast agreed to back when it took a majority stake in NBCU.) Back in 2011, Hulu attracted interest from companies like Dish, Amazon, Google, and, of course, Yahoo — with most bids reportedly in the range of around $1.5 billion to $2 billion. Google , but it was looking for major assurances in terms of Hulu’s content licenses, something that News Corp and Disney were unwilling to give. Back then, there were around what Hulu’s bidders were actually getting for all that cash. That’s one of the reasons that they couldn’t find a satisfactory fit, and why ultimately they decided to . But many of those same questions remain, and are even more problematic as another round of bids go forward. One of the biggest questions that any bidder will face as it considers buying Hulu is what content rights the company will have and for how long. Since its founding, Hulu has famously had exclusive access to content from three of the four major broadcast networks. But it’s become increasingly clear that exclusivity is probably not in the best interests of Fox, ABC, or NBC. At the end of the day, Hulu generates a fairly small amount of incremental revenue for the networks, compared to the amount that they make from advertising on TV. And making Hulu the exclusive home of broadcast TV online is likely costing the networks additional incremental money that they could be making if those rights were freed up for bids from competing services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, or even YouTube. Buying is like buying a house lease in London. You can live there, but it ain't yours. — Jason Hirschhorn (@JasonHirschhorn) The new owners, of course, will likely want as much exclusive content for as long as possible. But the content owners themselves will want maximum flexibility in being able to license that same content to other services. This will be the biggest sticking point as the two sides sit down to discuss bids. At the same time that Hulu is going up for sale, many of the people who made Hulu what it is are looking to check out. , along with CTO Richard Tom. Lately we’ve heard other high-ranking personnel have left as well — such as , who recently joined SideCar. Those departures are partly a result of the triggered by Providence Equity Partners . As a result, all employees with shares in the company also received payouts… Meaning that they’re just employees now, no longer shareholders. And, just as there are departures at any company that’s acquired or has an IPO once shares are no longer locked up, you’re going to see even more Hulu employees thinking about what comes next and joining new companies. That process is likely to be accelerated by the burgeoning L.A. startup scene, where seemingly everyone is looking for talented engineers. The recent sale of Providence’s stake valued the company at around $2 billion — about double what it was when the company was formed several years ago. The company did , and now has paying to watch its content online and on a wide range of devices. But as noted above, Hulu’s real value all comes down to what rights the new owners will have. A good portion of its viewers pay to watch because Hulu is the only place where they can stream broadcast content online or on a mobile device or connected TV. And they might not pay if they can find their favorite shows elsewhere. It’s telling that former News Corp President for the site earlier this year. That might seem like a lowball offer, especially in light of the bids put forth just two years ago, and considering Hulu’s implied valuation after Providence’s stake was bought out. It’s also telling that the majority of those in the running for Hulu this time around are private equity firms, which typically make investments in undervalued assets, rather than media or technology companies that see major strategic value in owning the online rights to broadcast shows. It might look like the bidding for Hulu is “heating up,” just based on the number of possible acquirers. At the same time, it seems unlikely that whomever Hulu’s parents sell to will do better than the $2 billion it was offered two years ago. With ever more uncertainty around Hulu’s talent and content, any buyer will face a number of challenges in making that money back.
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Anatomy Of An Undisclosed Investment Or Exit
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Steve O'Hear
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
Spend time with a VC and they’ll inevitably tell you about a startup they’ve invested in that has a “great story.” In fact, this line is repeated so often I’ve occasionally posited that VCs invest in and sell stories not companies. Likewise, read any number of articles offering entrepreneurs free and usually unsolicited advice, and the ability to tell a great story — to investors, partners, customers, employees and the media — is commonly cited as an important factor in determining a startup’s chances of success. But, as any journalist knows, the most important part of the story is very often the part that’s been omitted. In the startup world, this is no more true than in the case of the “undisclosed” investment or exit. When publications report that company A has announced a new funding round but isn’t saying how much, or that company B has been acquired but neither party is revealing the price, have you ever wondered what is really going on? In this post, I’ll attempt to scratch beneath the surface a little and explore the story behind the undisclosed investment or exit. This will largely be based on knowledge garnered as a journalist covering startups over a number of years but also as a fleeting entrepreneur who has raised funding and saw an first hand. It will also draw on conversations with investors and founders who have been directly involved in multiple funding rounds, acquisitions and exits, all of whom agreed to be as candid as possible for the purpose of this article and on the strict condition of anonymity. Any founder will tell you that raising money is usually hard, really hard. And yet doing so not only provides a startup the capital it needs to grow, but for early-stage companies especially, it also acts as some sort of market validation where few other signals exist. But what if the size of the raise pales into insignificance when compared to a startup’s competitors? That doesn’t make for such a good story. The single most common reason for an investment amount remaining undisclosed is that the size of the round would be viewed by the market as derisory in comparison to competitors. This is particularly common at the seed stage, and even more so outside of Silicon Valley where funding is usually a lot lower on a like-for-like basis. Being dwarfed by the Valley is commonly cited as a reason to omit this part of the story. “When we’re at a disadvantage with a smaller war chest it’s not in our benefit to announce that and make it plainly known,” said one European VC. “Where these dynamics do not exist, we’ll announce the size.” One VC cited the rudimentary and recent example of Groupon. During the group buying site’s heyday, which saw it raise north of 1 billion dollars on the road to an IPO, any company wishing to compete would have needed a large amount of capital to be taken seriously. The later they went to market, the bigger that balance sheet would have needed to be. Despite this reality, however, low barriers to entry on the tech side resulted in an attack of the Groupon-clones, meaning that if you raised money for your group buying site after 2009, you were probably a very good candidate for an undisclosed investment. When a figure is missing from the story, there’s also a tendency for people to fill in the gaps for themselves. “Our thinking and experience is that if you don’t say, people drift toward the $1 million mark,” said the VC. “So unless you’ve raised more, there’s no reason to shatter their illusions”. This thinking has also given rise to the ghastly practice of describing funding in such terms as a “six-figure investment”, to imply an amount just shy of a million. (Admittedly, it’s a practice I employed as an entrepreneur with .) Or something even more ambiguous as a “multi-million dollar investment”. This technique is mostly used at the seed or A round and seems to have become a particularly European phenomenon where, again, funding rounds are smaller. Another factor can be the desire by a previously successful founder to protect their personal brand. If they fail to raise a significant round of funding for their new venture they may opt to keep the amount undisclosed so as to not burst their own bubble. “You’d be surprised how tough raising anything above seed can be, even for serial folks,” said one serial entrepreneur. “Sometimes they don’t want to be perceived as small in the market relative to their profile and track record”. With that said, an undisclosed investment is not always the result of playing a game of “my raise is bigger than your raise”. Further market dynamics are often at play, such as the perception amongst customers and potential partners who would balk at the prospect of doing business with what could be perceived as an underfunded startup. “Big retailers don’t typically make time to talk to or partner with startups,” said a VC who has been involved in a number of B2B investments. “They want well-capitalised concerns that are not going to shut down next year.” One way to balance the need for publicity surrounding a startup’s funding with being taken seriously by potential customers and partners is to ensure that the investment amount remains undisclosed but the name of the company’s backers is touted at every available opportunity. The key takeaway from the story then becomes that the startup is VC funded, along with any noteworthy names attached to the fund, rather than how short the company’s runway is in reality. Politics (with a small “p”) can also play a part. If a startup’s proposition and brand is pitched as non-corporate or idealistic, attracting a user base that would take umbrage if it knew the company was underpinned by Venture Capital, then it may seek minimal publicity related to funding. “It may not be well received to highlight any VC money at all even if it’s a nice chunky amount,” said a VC. Lastly, a reason for keeping an investment amount undisclosed can be purely personal, such as where a full disclosure might inadvertently reveal too much detail about a high net-worth individual’s own finances. “Angels generally don’t want the amounts they invest to be known as most are private individuals and don’t want their wealth in terms of amount made public,” said an early-stage investor. This can also extend to an individual choosing to hide their name from an investment entirely, or agreeing to disclose their involvement only in aggregate as part of a consortium of investors. If an undisclosed funding round makes for a dull opening chapter, an undisclosed exit is often an unsatisfactory end to the story not only for those on the outside looking in but also the company being bought or the company doing the acquiring. Once again, the reason for an undisclosed exit largely comes down to price and how this will be perceived by the market. An undisclosed exit amount is more often the result of stalemate between the three main parties involved: the company exiting, its backers, and the company making the acquisition. As one VC put it, “ironically, the motivations for the acquirer and the investors of the acquired company are at direct odds”. If the price is high, both the founders and the company’s investors will want to make it public. “We want people to think the sale price was as high as possible because we want people thinking we made a killing,” said one VC. In contrast, the acquirer might not want to divulge how much they paid, “lest they are laughed at for over-paying”. Conversely, if the exit price is on the low side, the company being sold, and certainly its backers, will insist on non disclosure so as to maintain the perception of a success. As one VC said: “Unless the investors have made money off the deal, they’re not going to advertise the amount of the exit”. The exception here is a fire sale where it’s usually in the interest of all parties to keep the financial details undisclosed. The acquirer doesn’t want it to be known how much they paid for the assets of a failed company, which may include its user base and/or technology, information that is market sensitive. Likewise, the company being bought and its investors would rather not highlight how poor an investment it turned out to be. However, this lack of transparency doesn’t always chime well with the wider community. “If I am going to invest in a fund then I want to know the performance of that fund,” said an investor. “Of course managers of a fund who are taking a percentage may not want others to know if they are not doing as well as they wish to make out”. Sometimes, of course, the startup’s founders and their investors are at odds over what actually constitutes a successful or unsuccessful exit. For a first time founder, any kind of exit could be deemed a success, including an , but in these situations the VCs usually have the deciding vote if they wish to keep the sale price undisclosed. It’s also worth remembering that even when an exit is disclosed, the price made public is invariably inflated, including earnouts and/or simply being rounded up (or out and out made up). “Maybe I’ve just seen too much but at this stage unless it’s by a public company which actually discloses the number in a filing, I’m inclined to be rather sceptical of what’s reported,” cautioned an entrepreneur who has been privy to multiple exits and acquisitions. In conclusion, to fully understand the motivation for an undisclosed investment or exit and the conundrum it presents, I’ll leave you with the words of one seasoned entrepreneur-turned-investor who perhaps summed it up best: “The people helped by disclosure and a general understanding of the market are not those doing the disclosing. Ultimately all of us in the market for funding startups or receiving funding would benefit from open disclosure by everyone, but individuals and companies often prefer privacy over the group benefit.”
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iPad Video Ad Volumes Explode 10x in A Year, Due To Surpass PC Usage Inside 2 Years
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Mike Butcher
| 2,013 | 5 | 26 |
If there’s one thing we know about the explosion in the use of tablets like the iPad, it’s that people have been increasingly using them to consume video content. However, hard data on this has come in only dribs and drabs. Now a video platform that works with major publishers has released data that shows just how big tablet consumption of video is. has looked at the data emerging from Karbon, its sell-side ad management platform, which is used to monetise video across PCs, mobile devices, tablets, game consoles, IPTV and Smart TVs. They’ve released exclusive information to TechCrunch which shows a big growth in iPad video monetization: with 150 percent growth of iPad traffic in the last six months. The company claims to be able to reach around 10 percent of the Internet’s population with its platform every month, hitting more than 300M uniques, delivering ads on over 50 platforms, consisting of over 7,000 devices. It claims to have the largest reach of premium video inventory in EU and Asia outside of Google’s DoubleClick for Publishers. It has found that iPad traffic accounts for 10 percent of all the traffic across its video ads platform, having grown by over 10x in the last 12 months. Overall, non-PC traffic is around 30 percent of all the ads delivered, meaning that iPad use comprises a third of all its non-PC traffic. And finally, iPhone traffic is stable at around 5 percent of total ads. The growth in iPad traffic has been tracked across clients in 25 markets in Europe and Asia and touches over 50 device environments, through native SDKs, its Brightcove integrations and others. Crucially, Videoplaza found mobile phone growth stabilises as access to tablets increases. This is not a huge surprise. Apple recently reported reported a rise of 65 percent in iPad sales from 11.8 million units a year ago, compared to 19.5 million units in Q1 2013. Industry analysts IDC say 49.2 million tablets were shipped in Q1 of 2013, a 142 percent increase on sales in the same period last year. It looks like the great user experience on tablets is helping, not to mention features such as AirPlay which can send video to Apple TV. So if the tablet is the new PC, it’s also turning into the new TV, complementing or replacing the existing big screen. Videoplaza isn’t the only company in this space. Video advertising company .
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All I’ve Heard From My Family Since The Acquisition News Began
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Ingrid Lunden
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
Tumblr’s Rachel Fershleiser who read TechCrunch. And Tumblr founder thinks it’s the So do we. We originally thought this email was a missive from Karp’s family to Karp. Thank you for setting us straight. How silly is ? They confuse emails to with emails to — Scott Kidder (@skidder) via , Image
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Qihoo 360 Partners With Alibaba To Grab Market Share Away From Chinese Search Giant Baidu
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
China’s e-commerce giant and have teamed up to launch , an online shopping search engine that rivals similar products by , China’s biggest search engine. Qihoo’s new relationship with Alibaba is noteworthy because Alibaba dominates China’s $190 billion e-commerce market through two of its portals, Taobao and Tmall, and is on its way to becoming the first online retail company in the world to . The launch of 360.etao.com, which currently points to Alibaba’s vertical shopping search engine Etao, is part of aggressive efforts by Qihoo 360 to chip away at Baidu’s dominance in China’s search market. Baidu has 67.2% market share and Qihoo 360 holds 14.9%, according to data from . Qihoo 360, which launched its search engine just nine months ago, (link via Google Translate) that it intends to double its current market share to 20% this year. Other competing products Qihoo 360 has produced include vertical search engines focused on music, software, doctors and mapping services. Qihoo has sought allies among China’s most important Internet companies. One of its current partners is Sina, which runs Sina Weibo, the country’s largest and most influential microblogging platform. The two companies in January. Baidu has not been sitting idle. It recently (before entering the search business, Qihoo was best known for its antivirus software) and is reportedly trying to increase its share of the search market by , Internet company Sohu’s search engine. Baidu also that accused Qihoo 360 of engaging in unfair business strategies.
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Echelon 2013 Will Bring Together Asia-Pacific’s Top Startups In June
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
Now in its fourth year, will spotlight 52 of the Asia Pacific region’s most promising startups from June 4 to 5 in Singapore. The event will also feature more than 50 speakers and judges, including 500 Startups’ Dave McClure and Sahil Lavingia, who raised $8.1 million for his startup when he was just 20 years old, and was an early employee at . “It is our vision at e27 and in organizing Echelon 2013, that this region is given the platform it deserves to find global success in Asia’s emerging knowledge-based economy,” said Mohan Belani, CEO and co-founder of , the tech media and events platform that hosts Echelon. Echelon 2013 will take place at Singapore Expo MAX Atria. Startups participating in the event were picked at the conference’s satellite events, which took in nine countries this spring. The ten startups that will compete for the title of Echelon’s Most Promising Startup are: (Taiwan): an app that allows developers to turn paper sketches into app prototypes. (Malaysia): a marketplace for institutions to sell their excess CPU capacity and monetize a depreciating asset while allowing buyers to source capacity for much less than primary market public cloud costs. (Australia): a cloud-based math learning software. (Philippines): a mobile-optimized database that simplifies the tedious task of legal research for lawyers and paralegals (Thailand): a dating app that introduces users to other singles who are friends of their friends. (Thailand): a cardless mobile loyalty program that generates a unique code with each transaction instead of relying on QR codes or GPS check-in functions. (Indonesia): a health consultation platform for people seeking quick answers to medical questions (Singapore): a finance app that allows users to practice trading with virtual money using real-time stock market data. (Taiwan): an online college application editing company (Taiwan): a mobile app targeted to travelers that uses optical character recognition to translate Chinese phrases into English For more information about the event, visit .
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Snow Fail: The New York Times And Its Misunderstanding Of Copyright
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
You remember , don’t you? It was that awesome interactive reporting piece by The New York Times that everyone talked about for a week. It was called “ .” It was praised as a way for The New York Times to and their . Or to . It even ! (Oh yeah, .) The New York Times spent months and had an entire team working on the creation of Snow Fall, and it shows. But what if I told you that you could recreate the same interactive experience in just about an hour? You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Well, The New York Times wouldn’t. , co-founder of interactive web design tool , did just that. He recreated the Snow Fall piece using Scroll Kit to show that you didn’t need an army of developers or designers to create the same type of interactive storytelling. In fact, the that take advantage of the combination of text, and video, and images. To show how easy it was, Brown recorded a video of the process, showing how a user could create the same type of experience in under an hour. And he uploaded it to YouTube, and posted it to the Scroll Kit website. There, he introduced it this way: “The NYT spent hundreads of hours hand-coding ‘Snow Fall.’ We made a replica in an hour.” The video lived there for about a month, Brown tells me, before , demanding that the video be taken down. After consulting with Scroll Kit’s legal counsel, the team complied with the takedown request, kind of. They actually set the video to private on YouTube so that no one could see it. But they kept the line about making a replica of Snow Fall on the website. Because, well, . It wasn’t long before another C&D nastygram from The New York Times arrived, demanding that they not only delete the video from YouTube — which they eventually did — but that they remove any reference to The New York Times from their website. From Scroll Kit’s perspective, the video was only meant as a way to instruct others about how easy it can be to build a compelling interactive experience, not as a way to aid and abet copyright infringement. Brown said the Scroll Kit team was “super excited” to see Snow Fall released and the amazing reception to it. They had been been working on their tools for longer than the NY Times had been working on Snow Fall, and saw it as a validation of their startup. But at the same time, it also represented the inequality between publications that can afford to create interactive stories and those that can’t. “It’s become a symbol of the potential of journalism, but also the barrier to how something like that could be made,” Brown told me. If the knock against Snow Fall was that only someplace like The New York Times can afford to create something like that, Brown believes Scroll Kit is the tool that would get costs down enough for smaller organizations and independents to enable a whole new set of unique web experiences. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the legal resources to fight The New York Times — Brown admits that much. But for now, the tiny startup is holding fast and keeping The New York Times reference on its website, and have told the Grey Lady as much. Unfortunately, she is not amused. She is offended! Peep her legal team’s most recent response, from Senior Counsel Richard Samson: Dear Mr. Brown: We are offended by the fact that you are promoting your tool, as a way to quickly replicate copyright-protected content owned by The New York Times Company. It also seems strange to me that you would defend your right to boast about how quickly you were able to commit copyright infringement: If you wouldn’t mind using another publication to advertise your infringement tool, we’d appreciate it. Sincerely, Richard Samson
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Cultural Learnings Of Silicon Valley For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Ukraine
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Alexia Tsotsis
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
Like you and a lot of other people in the Valley, I read on the Valley, because nothing is funnier than , technology elite who download all day and all night — all on our separate phones reserved for daytime and nighttime. It makes you feel like you’re part of a community instead of a tiny speck of dust in the vast cosmos with no reason for existing beyond randomness. The best one lately is a Tumblr called (note the double meaning), and its is this relatively mild one about how silly and vain people’s avatar profile pictures are. Yesterday’s piece on was also pretty good. You’ve probably heard the news. No, you’ve definitely heard the news, because it’s Monday and you’ve been reading tech blogs all day, slowly burning your investors’ money. “Keeping tabs on the industry,” of course. It’s funny because it’s true. Because I am curious and because I like the writing when it’s not too ragey, I dug around a little for the blog’s author. Not too hard obviously (this is TechCrunch after all) — just on Twitter and Quora. The Quora , which is followed by , postulates that Jesus is . Just a slob like one of us. “The secret lies within the pages of the blog itself. Someone so pathologically clever with hints of self-deprecation would hide where least expected: among the very targets referenced.” Hmm … Perhaps he or she is one of the people post? That must be it! Who though? ? ? Sheryl Sandberg? And today, I got a response to my for an email: An email sent “To the Direction of Alexia Tsotsis” from “[email protected].” Jesus Christ <[email protected]> May 21, 2013 9:30:28 PM PDT [email protected] I am Ivan Moltobov, student in Ukraine. I am big admiring fan of Tech Valley, and writing about love for Tech Valley on the Jesus Christ Silicon Valley tumblr blogspot by wordpress. You like? What is meaning of word “cock?” Sound funny, Americans seem to enjoy. I write much cock words, get many pageviews, exchange for Bitcoin, buy yak. American dream to own many yaks. (I searched and TechCrunch has yet to ‘print’ the phrase “cunty little cumdrops.” What’s with that?!) Well, now we have “printed” that phrase, Ivan. is unGoogleable, in case anyone was about to. [Image ]
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The Saturday Evening Post Finally Comes To iOS, With Help From Yudu
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
has a prominent spot in the history of American magazines. It’s where artist Norman Rockwell made a name for himself, and it has published classic American authors like Edgar Allan Poe and F. Scott Fitzgerald. But if you had no idea that it was still around, you’re not alone — the magazine’s technology director Steve Harman said that many people “are surprised we’re still publishing.” Yes, it is still putting out a magazine every two months, with a circulation of about 350,000. Subscribers are mostly in their 50s, but The Post is trying to reach younger readers and adapt to the digital world, as recounted in earlier this year. Now it’s taking the next step in that direction with the release of which was built by digital publishing company . “Lately, there’s been a lot of commitment convert the post into a 21st century media company,” Harman said. He added that this isn’t The Post’s first move onto tablets and e-readers. It’s already available on the Nook and in Google Play — he said that wasn’t a conscious strategy, but rather a response to overtures from Barnes & Noble and Google. The Post knew it was important to get onto Apple devices too, but it needed to find the right partner to make it happen. The app itself includes digitized versions of The Post’s issues going back to November/December 2012 — you can enter your existing subscription information, buy a subscription, or purchase individual issues for $3.99 each. The issues themselves are a pretty straightforward PDFs of The Post’s print publication, without additional interactivity or media. Harman said that if Wired represents the cutting edge of what a magazine can do on the iPad, “we’re at the opposite end of the spectrum.” He doesn’t want to stay that way for long, however — he said The Post chose to work with Yudu because of the promise of adding videos and interactivity. One unique opportunity: The Post already tries to highlight aspects of its long history in the magazine, but the digital versions (which don’t have limited space) provide an opportunity to do that much more of that. The Post’s broader challenge is trying to court a younger audience without making it seem like it doesn’t value its existing, older readers. I could see that in the May/June table of contents — putting actor ‘s face on the cover probably won’t persuade many folks younger than 40 to buy the issue, but there are also stories on Star Trek, Mad Men, and the speed of WiFi in America. And Harman said the magazine’s digital strategy is particularly important for reaching a broader audience. That strategy covers tablet, smartphone, and e-reader editions, and it also includes , which is supposed to be overhauled next month.
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OK Go’s Damian Kulash Explains Why His Band Built Its Own Mobile Game
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
OK Go (the band behind hit music videos like “ ” and “ ) for iOS and Android earlier this month. You can play the game, titled , with one of your friends or with a randomly chosen player. (If you sign up now, you can also participate in a temporary promotion where people are randomly selected to play with a band member.) Each player types in a word, then you see what the other player said, and you use that as prompt for another word. As the game’s title implies, you win when each of you enters the same word. It helps if you understand the other player’s interests. For example, I was playing with ‘s Micah Baldwin — after several rounds, I entered “Perry White,” he entered “Smallville,” and we won by both entering “ .” I also got a chance to play the game with OK Go’s lead singer and guitarist Damian Kulash. (Like how I just dropped that in casually?) I don’t want to give away exactly what happens in the video, but I will say that we . This isn’t just an app that OK Go stuck its name on, either — Kulash said it was programmed by the band’s guitarist Andy Ross. Apparently band members play a live version of the game together, so eventually they decided to turn it into an app: At some point we realized, hey, there’s no reason why we need to just put out songs. We can put out everything we want — we make videos, we make shows, why not make apps. … We’ve always been interested in tech as a sort of canvas. We try to make art for the world we live in, and this is where we live now. We live on Skype, we live on our laptops and on our phones. Traditional recordings of music live in this space really well. Like, we’re making an album right now that will be finished sometime this summer, and we’ll probably put it out in the fall or maybe in the winter, and it’s great to listen to on your phone, it’s great to listen to on your laptop, but there’s all these other things that your laptop and your phone can do that musicians 30 years ago couldn’t imagine and artists 30 years ago couldn’t imagine. I think working in these spaces has always been exciting to us, and we’re just lucky that we have a programmer in our band, because it means that we can test things out like this.
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Producteev’s Social Task Manager Now Free And Enterprise-Ready As It Preps For Full Jive Integration Later This Year
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
In November, Bay Area cloud-based, collaborative task manager, , to boost its social business platform. Going forward, as Alex wrote at the time, Salesforce.com and Jive will increasingly butt heads as they compete for mindshare in the enterprise. With Producteev’s multi-platform task-management system, which allows users to create tasks from emails and collaborate around projects in teams, Jive acquired a service that was already beginning to compete with Asana and Salesforce.com’s Do.com. has been quiet since the acquisition, but that changed today, with the announcement that the startup is launching a revamped version of its social task management platform. The biggest change, founder Ilan Abehassera tells us, is that the new Producteev targets larger companies (naturally, given its acquirer) and is entirely free. Yes, this means that companies of any size will be able to use Producteev for free — no strings attached. The founder tells us that, in spite of the “By Jive” addendum to the company name, Producteev continues to operate as a startup and remains a standalone offering inside Jive’s product ecosystem. The team is still working on integrating the task management platform into Jive’s products, which it hopes to have completed by the end of the year. It’s not clear yet how pricing will change (if at all) once the integration is complete. When asked “why free?” the founder said that he believes “tasks are the most basic, fundamental part of getting work done” and, as such, are “the way into the enterprise.” For that reason, and for ease-of-adoption sake, Abehassera takes the “fewer barriers, the better” approach, as going free offers Producteev users (and beyond) a more frictionless pipe into Jive. The platform has been free to individuals up to this point, but this move is clearly something that the company has wanted to do for some time, and now that it’s under the Jive umbrella, it has the latitude to do so, especially with integration coming this year. As of now, there are no Jive products that I’m aware of that are available for free (forever), so the likelihood that its social collaboration module comes without a price? Not high. The changes evident in the “revamped” Producteev are notable, and the team has been working on the new version of the platform for the last 11+ months. The result, the founder says, is that Producteev has pretty much been rebuilt from scratch. Firstly, that means Producteev added a lot of scalable tech on the backend to allow for new users coming over from Jive’s other products — with more to come once the products are integrated. The new backend is also relevant considering that, since its inception, Producteev has really been focused on startups and small teams. But its newest iteration sees it re-tooled for larger companies and allows them to more effectively break up teams into smaller groups (and collaborate within those groups). Jive is currently working on a new task-management module/dashboard to integrate into its enterprise social networking platform, and as of now, its collaboration and task-management capabilities leave plenty to be desired. Producteev’s new features help shore up that gap and fit into the new social (and social collaboration) image it’s trying to sell to its clients and compete with the likes of bigs like IBM (and Salesforce.com). In addition, the new design, which includes its apps for the web, iPhone, Android and Mac, introduces the notion of “Networks,” allowing users to collaborate with their entire company — something that wasn’t possible in previous versions. Producteev has also added Dropbox integration so that users can quickly attach Dropbox files to tasks and activity feeds on projects, which enable users to see updates on projects in real time. Users can also now assign tasks to multiple teammates, tag tasks for easier filtering later on, follow individual tasks and take advantage of one-click filtering. All in all, Producteev is starting to look more like a quality, enterprise-grade social task-management system. Granted, it’s still not all the way there, as the platform isn’t something you’d use if you’re working on heavy-duty industrial design projects — , for example. But for most other uses, this is a welcome upgrade for Producteev. And now that it’s free, it wouldn’t be that surprising to see this take off in the same way Yammer did before Microsoft got a hold of it — at least until those integrations hit the pavement.
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TC Cribs: Inside Fab’s NYC Headquarters, Where High Fashion And Hot Design Become Fun
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Colleen Taylor
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi_kdJqBDy0 Welcome to a brand new episode of , the TechCrunch TV series that goes straight into the heart of the action at the tech industry’s hottest companies to see what it’s really like for the people who work there. For this edition we headed out on the road to the New York City headquarters of , the super-popular that has quickly grown over the past couple years to be one of the web’s key (and one of the industry’s hottest companies .) Fab is known for selling all types of products ranging from art to jewelry to furniture, with the key commonality being great design, so our hopes were pretty high when entering into the company’s Manhattan headquarters. As you’ll see in the video above, our tour did not disappoint, and Fab co-founder and chief creative officer was the perfect person to show us how gorgeous design and high fashion doesn’t have to be intimidating — it can actually be really fun.
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Ditto Turns To Indiegogo For Help Battling Patent Lawsuits (Including One From 1-800-Contacts)
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
, a startup that helps users virtually try on different pairs of eyeglasses, has launched to help fight a big threat — the company says it’s being sued by 1-800-CONTACTS and another company called Lennon Imaging Technology. Ditto’s technology allows users to create webcam recordings of their faces, which they then use to see how different designer glasses will look with their facial shape and size. Both Lennon Imaging and 1-800-CONTACTS are claiming that this technology infringes their own patents. But Ditto’s campaign describes them as “patent troll” lawsuits — Lennon is a non-practicing company, meaning that it doesn’t have a product or service of its own, and Ditto co-founder and CEO Kate Endress said 1-800-CONTACTS (which is owned by WellPoint) didn’t purchase the patent in question until after the company’s CEO visited the Ditto website. 1-800-CONTACTS did not respond when I emailed for comment. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published in support of Ditto saying that 1-800-CONTACTS has “a long record of using the courts to bully its competitors.” That prompted a complaint from the company’s lawyer saying that 1-800-CONTACTS is not a patent troll. The EFF writes: Sure, the company is not a classic patent troll — a shell company that does nothing but buy patents and sue—but it’s little better. Patent trolls generally want to use the club of litigation to extort licensing fees. But all indications are that 1-800-CONTACTS isn’t interested in a license from Ditto. Rather, it wants to destroy the competition. Indeed, Endress said she’s in a tough spot, where “we cannot afford to win” — in other words, the company doesn’t have enough money to defend itself in court, and even though , the threat of litigation scares off any additional investment. The company has already had to lay off three engineers, Endress said. That’s why the company has turned to Indiegogo to fund its legal efforts. (Endress said the money will only go towards legal costs.) So far, it has raised about $5,700 of its $30,000 goal. However, the campaign page states that Ditto is looking at $30,000 to $100,000 in legal fees over the next three to six months (and potentially much more afterwards), so I’m guessing Ditto could use a lot more help if possible. A 1-800-CONTACTS spokesperson just sent me the following statement: 1-800 CONTACTS has a history putting the consumer first by promoting competition. In fact, 1-800 CONTACTS spent years working in concert with consumer advocacy groups to support the passage of the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act. This legislation was passed by Congress and gives all Americans the right to their contact lens prescription so they can choose where to purchase contact lenses. 1-800 CONTACTS also compelled the largest contact lens manufacturers to sell to Internet retailers. Both efforts were successful and led to a more open and competitive market that has benefitted numerous online competitors and ultimately, millions of consumers. As a leading vision retailer, 1-800 CONTACTS recognized the need to improve the online purchasing options for eyeglasses and began developing an enhanced virtual try on system that would vastly improve the consumer experience. As part of our due diligence when developing our virtual try on technology, we investigated the existing rights in this space, as is standard practice. The granted patent that 1-800 CONTACTS purchased in 2012 entitled “Interactive try-on platform for eyeglasses” was filed in 2001 and granted in 2006. Like most other companies operating a business that depends on technology, 1-800 CONTACTS purchased this patent for a reason – the patent covered what the business was doing so the patent either needed to be licensed or purchased. Ditto could have licensed or purchased the same patent, but chose to ignore it and launched their website with an infringing virtual try on feature anyway. 1-800 CONTACTS began working on our virtual try on system for Glasses.com long before Ditto was formed as a company. Glasses.com had a working demonstration of its more robust 3D virtual try on system running in 2011 – before Ditto launched its website in April 2012. Members of the 1-800 CONTACTS team visited Ditto’s website to try the virtual try on technology when it launched. Viewing competing products that are on the market is not unusual, and is in fact a responsible business practice. 1-800 CONTACTS has offered to discuss an amicable resolution to the lawsuit through licensing or other options, but instead of responding to our offer, Ditto has spent time and energy engaging in online discussions and issuing an inaccurate and misleading press release. Ditto has found its strongest supporter in the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who has been quoted multiple times in blog articles and in Ditto’s press release. What Ditto and the EFF failed to disclose is that three members of the advisory board at the Electronic Frontier Foundation all work for Durie Tangri – the same law firm representing Ditto in this case. It is disappointing that the EFF concealed this inherent bias from the public, instead holding itself out as an impartial observer. 1-800 CONTACTS will launch our virtual try on technology next month, providing an enhanced consumer shopping experience. Our approach has taken longer to bring to market, as we developed a revolutionary virtual try on system customized for the iPad. We were honored to present our ground-breaking technology at TED in February, where we also demonstrated the app 1,650 times on 100 iPads. by
by
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New Xbox Fails To Excite Investors As Microsoft, AMD Stocks Stays Flat While Sony Shoots Up 9%
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
Wall Street apparently wanted something more revolutionary out of the that launched today, as is down 0.66 percent. In turn, investors on news of a potential spin off, pushed shares up 9 percent, coincidentally just after Microsoft announced its answer to the Sony Playstation. today touted features including live TV, Skype group video chat, split-screen multi-tasking, voice command, , a more sensitive Kinect, and stronger hardware for next-generation graphics. A deep partnership with Electronic Arts, Steven Spielberg’s involvement in a Halo TV series for Xbox, and exclusive early access to downloadable content for the new Call Of Duty game were all announced as well. Still, there wasn’t one thing that left people saying “PlayStation is screwed.” The complexities of integrating with live TV and the lack of an obvious killer feature contributed to $MSFT staying flat on the day, closing down 0.66 percent, or $0.23, to $34.85. AMD, maker of the bits inside the Xbox One, also ended slightly down today, closing at 4.02, down 1.95% on the day. Both Microsoft and AMD are on an upward swing, most notable since the beginning of May when the invite for today’s announcement went out. At the same time, Sony’s stock rose 9.25 percent, or $1.94, to reach $22.91. According to Nikkei, Sony is considering spinning off its entertainment division — a part of the company oddly left out of CEO Kazuo Hirai initiative. But Sony wasn’t quiet on the eve of the new Xbox reveal, either. The company tried to hijack gamers’ attention to updates on Twitter and Facebook this morning with ads touting the June 10th reveal of its new PlayStation console at E3. PS4 ads told viewers they could “See It First” by RSVPing to watch Sony’s event, and offered a teaser video hosted on both and YouTube. Some of what Sony has in store for the was debuted at an event in February, but details were scarce. The corporation will need a hit, though, as Sony has been hemorrhaging money with a $5.74 billion loss in its 2012 fiscal year. The real duel will go down at E3 where both Sony and Microsoft will spill more of the beans on their new consoles. Xbox One’s incremental updates could certainly be outshined if Sony can unveil some significant advancements, not just lifeless game demos and endless specs.
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PopExpert Online Video Education Marketplace Raises $2M In Seed Funding From Learn Capital And Others
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
As edtech startups continue to challenge the current state of higher education, and various niche startups focus on educating people through digital means, yet another company is getting a boost when it comes to helping people learn. , a learning marketplace that lets students connect with experts in one-on-one video chats, has just raised a $2 million seed round led by , with participation by Jeff Skoll, Ken Howery, Michael Chasen, and . The site’s premise is simple: users can sign in and search for what they want to learn. Right now there are experts in multiple fields across the spectrum of “life, work, and play,” including meditation, nutrition, relationships, productivity, career mentoring, language and music. Once you log in, you can search for something like “yoga” and see a list of experts, validated with credentials and tagged with a price per session. From there, just choose your expert, schedule the session, and get ready to learn. PopExpert even facilitates payments, so the entire process can be completed in one place. According to the company, one-to-one learning is “vastly superior” to any other method. “We are focused on areas that relate more to EQ development than IQ development, for example meditation vs. Excel training and personalized style vs. photography techniques,” explained founder Ingrid Sanders. “These areas of EQ development are particularly suited to personalized interaction with an expert, and a one-to-one interaction is by far the most efficient way to experience them.” For now, the service is only available by invitation, but there are already more than 1,000 experts using the service to teach and make some money. PopExpert recruits these experts after doing their own mini head-hunt, looking through reviews, online sources, and books to find the best possible teachers for the platform. PopExpert generates revenue by taking a small service fee from every transaction.
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Xbox One Makes The Console Gaming Experience Less Lonely
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
Gaming has evolved from single-player to head-to-head to massively multiplayer, but it’s also retreated from public arcades to isolated homes. Today’s launch of the makes the whole console experience social, not just the gaming itself. You’ll still be battling other humans, but how you communicate with them and choose what to play is about to change. Think back 20 years ago, before home gaming devices became the powerhouses they are today. You’d go to an arcade, and the way you’d discover what was fun and popular was looking for which game cabinet drew the rowdiest crowds. I remember discovering Street Fighter 2 in a hotel arcade while on vacation. I couldn’t even see the machine, as it was surrounded by older boys swearing like sailors at every Haduken and thousand-hand-slap. I knew I wanted to play that game. And when I finally got my turn to get beaten mercilessly as the mob swelled around me, it didn’t feel like I was doing anything nerdy. I was partaking in a new culture, a new community. That’s the promise of the new . It surfaces games, apps, video on demand, and other media popular with your friends and the whole Xbox user base. Gamers won’t have to go searching for reviews to see what’s the hot new first-person shooter. The wisdom of the crowd will clue you into what game has captured the zeitgeist, even if you’re playing alone in your basement. Microsoft also hopes to turn word-of-mouth recommendations into an algorithm that shows you what to play next. Because the suggestions come from friends, you might trust them enough to buy a new sports game like NBA Live ’14, listen to a classic album, watch Firefly, or try out a fresh app like Hulu. Microsoft is also bringing these custom recommendations somewhere that was never really social: television. Live TV can be piped into your living room through the Xbox One; its TV guide features a trending section too. While we’ve gotten used to intelligent suggestions for video-on-demand thanks to data crunchers like Netflix, Xbox one could show you what sports match or awards show your friends and the whole world are watching right now. Microsoft will have to figure out who your real friends are, possibly through social network integrations, and how to use other factors like geography to massage the trending picks. There will also be privacy design challenges to face, as not everyone wants to share what they do with their controller. But if Xbox One Trending succeeds, it could make games and television viral in a whole new way. Snap back to the arcade, and 10-year old me is learning all the naughty four-letter words. Each time someone sees their health bar go red, they let out a stream of angry obscenities while onlookers let loose cuss-modified cheers for the victor. But it wasn’t just the sounds. You can hear kids swear at each other all day on Xbox 360 Live. It was the look of anguish in a defeated combatant’s face, the relieved body language of the winner whose reward was one more game and “a new challenger!” e group video chat feature means you can play face to face with friends around the world. It’s infinitely more vivid than the audio and text chat capabilities of the Xbox 360. Smile at each other after a successful dungeon raid, or dance around as you brag about your touchdown in Madden. Skype for Xbox goes beyond games so you can watch TV, use apps, and more while having a conversation. Social doesn’t even need to be banished to a second screen. Xbox One “Snap Mode” lets you use voice commands to open video chat in a slide-out, overlaid window on the edge of your TV. Skype for Xbox takes video chat and puts it in your comfiest chair. Rather than hunching over your laptop, leaning back on your couch could inspire long conversations over your console. You might — — even pause your game to chat full screen with your little brother back home. Or it could usher in a new era of simultaneously consumed content, where you having distributed viewing parties for sports and movies rather than cramming your friends in the same room. Xbox One also comes equipped with automatic, background matchmaking that lets you watch TV or play another game while you wait for a new opponent with a gaming DVR so you can record and share videos of your greatest triumphs or most gruesome game-overs. More people posting those videos to Facebook and Twitter could push serious console gaming ever further into the mainstream. Of course, some gamers might not want social invading their safe space. Some may use it as a safe space to turn off their good graces, be a bit more primal, and just relax. Pings from friends wanting to Skype chat might be an interruption. Fighting alongside or against other people is all the social interaction they want. But the occasional eye-to-eye encounter could make gaming more fulfilling. If you’ve ever stayed up late playing only to feel a bit empty afterwards, you see the hole a more social Xbox could fill. Gaming has become a bigger industry than movies. Mobile phones and social networks are bringing games to a wider audience than ever. Yet there’s still a stigma that it’s the realm of unwashed shut-ins and anti-social misfits. The Xbox One and the next generation of social consoles could change that, so even if you play games alone, you’re not a loner anymore.
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Laptop Week Review: The 13-Inch MacBook Pro With Retina Display
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
If I could only have one MacBook (which is usually the case for your average laptop-buyer), this is the one I’d pick without hesitation. Fewer issues than its 15-inch cousin, which pioneered the Retina line, combined with a much lighter design with a smaller desktop footprint for a display that can still give you crazy amounts of screen real estate all add up to a sure-fire winner. I’ve owned a lot of Macs. To find myself so ready to claim any single one a clear “winner” seems crazy, but the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display is it. The smaller Retina notebook has proven itself through trial by fire and continues to be the Mac I pick for nearly every situation. For example it’s my constant companion at every travel event I ever go to. The 15-inch is just a hair too heavy and unwieldy, but the 13-inch Retina hits the sweet spot. It slides easily into any bag, takes up an amount of desk space that’s better for your peripherals and for those seated around you, and yet can stil provide you with one of the best screens in the business. True Retina-quality graphics isn’t the reason to own this notebook. Apple’s “Best for Retina display” radial button in the Displays settings menu is something you can go ahead and forget about right now; instead, select “scaled” and crank that sucker up to the “More Space” maximum. But if that’s not enough, go grab DisplayMode from the Mac App Store and enjoy up to 2560 x 1280 resolution, which is beyond that supported by Apple’s official settings. My eyes suffer after 2048 x 1280, so that’s where I keep it, but even there you get so much screen real estate it feels positively sinful. If you’re used to a Cinema display or two at home, there’s nothing else that compares. The hardware is up to Apple expectations, and while I’ve experienced case creak on the 15-inch version (a widely reported issue), I’ve never had a problem with the 13 inch’s fit and finish. It feels as sturdy as a laptop can (with the possible exception of Google’s leaden Chromebook Pixel) and it withstands rough treatment with gusto, as a busy blogger can attest. In terms of Geekbench, the base Core i5 13-inch, which is the version I’m reviewing here, consistently scores between 6,000 and 7,000. That’s not a chart-topping number, but the machine hardly stutters, even under fairly demanding conditions. I thought I’d miss the dedicated graphics card or upgraded RAM from my 15-inch model, but I don’t, at least not for anything short of using Final Cut Pro X. Another nice win for the 13-inch is battery life. The Pro can stretch itself to around seven and a half hours if I need it to, but even with my incredibly sloppy, multi-app setup with tons of things going on in the background and about a thousand Chrome tabs open, it seems to average around five. The one complaint that designers might have with the Retina MacBook Pro is that its screen is still glossy and that the color rendering and contrast are a little exaggerated to make photos pop. But if you need a device for running Photoshop or Illustrator, the Retina scratches that itch, even with the minimum specs at the $1,499 level. Plus, you can always power up to three external displays via Thunderbolt and HDMI out, but I’d only recommend doing this if you’re very cold and also enjoy the sound of a fan operating at maximum power. Still, in a pinch the Retina Pro becomes a solid companion for a 27-inch Cinema Display, giving designers even more flexibility. John pointed out that entrepreneurs love MacBook Airs in his , but that’s actually outmoded. If you’re a modern entrepreneur, and keeping a close watch on your company’s design and suitability for the future of HiDPI devices and displays, you’ll want the 13-inch Retina. It’s still light enough to carry with you everywhere, plus you can pile on the open applications thanks to the screen real estate benefits I mentioned above. The 13-inch Retina is pretty much exactly like the successful entrepreneur: flexible where it needs to be, rigid when it doesn’t; equally comfortable doing their thing in the boardroom or working out of the small local coffee shop; equipped with enough endurance to keep producing through the day. Programmers love Macs, and this is a Mac that’s easy to fall in love with. You want to run Xcode next to the iOS Simulator and still have room to keep a team chat window open? You can do that with the 13-inch Retina Pro, so long as you’re okay with squinting. You can build websites and watch them output and tweak on the fly without squishing anything inordinately. If there’s a development flaw on the Pro, it’s not an apparent one. at launch, and it’s pretty hard to disagree. There are support threads filled with growing pains and other issues experienced by the inaugural 15-inch Retina Pro, but Apple seems to have worked out any kinks with this one, and the added portability is a big benefit besides. It’s still a pricey beast, but the use value to cost ratio is through the roof regardless.
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Sen. Rand Paul Is Mostly Right In Defending Apple’s Obligation To Minimize Taxes
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
“It’s absurd for Congress to vilify businesses like Apple for wanting to minimize their tax code just like every other American rightly does,” uber-Libertarian Senator Rand Paul, lashing out at his Senate colleagues for ‘dragging’ Apple CEO Tim Cook in to defend his company’s tax policies. On the eve of Cook’s much-hyped testimony, a Senate investigation released a scathing report, accusing Apple of cooking the books and in shady tax-dodging practices, to avoid repatriating $102 billion in offshore cash to avoid a 35 percent U.S. tax rate. “Instead of doing the right thing we drag businessmen and women in here to berate them for trying to maximize their profits for shareholders,” Rand continued in another . “The ability to pay taxes of less than 2 percent on all of Apple’s offshore income gives the company a powerful financial incentive to engage in convoluted tax planning to avoid paying U.S. taxes,” notes the report from Senators Carl Levin and John McCain of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (for a more detailed explanation for , see our previous post) Paul was rightly furious for the tone of the accusations, which blamed Apple for skirting its obligation to the U.S. government. “This is a vendetta against American companies for trying to maximize profit,” he said. “I want to see one company come before here and tell us that they’re goal is different from Apple’s, that their goal is to maximize their tax burden.” Noting that thousands (if not millions) of U.S. citizens hold Apple stock directly or through pensions, Paul argued, “When we want to punish Mr. Apple. who are we punishing, we’re punishing ourselves.” Indeed, Apple would be hosing the everyday shareholders if it didn’t maximize its profit through some very convoluted offshore tax strategies. However, Paul’s transparent theatrics fell short on his solutions, which included a passing mention to a “repatriation holiday.” Back in 2004, the U.S. government gave a juicy tax repatriation holiday to incentivize bringing foreign holdings back to the homeland. Yet, to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, that money didn’t go into research and development. Indeed, many of the companies cut jobs, instead funneling their new domestic coffers into providing dividends to its shareholders. Now, Paul and others could argue that lower taxes, overall, would stimulate investment in innovation, but he shouldn’t be so glib to the very real implications to a tax repatriation holiday. The actual testimony has been far more diplomatic than the report, which lavished Apple with kudos. “I. Love. Apple…I harassed my husband until he converted to a MacBook,” gushed Senator Claire McCaskill. Former presidential candidate and Senator John McCain, for his part, joked, “What I really wanted to ask was why the hell I have to keep updating the apps on my phone.” Cook, himself, briefly lobbied for two solutions: a simpler, reduced U.S. tax code and a “single digit” repatriation tax. While such a tax solution is up for debate, the most compelling statement was made by Senator Rob Portman to Tim Cook, “you don’t need more tax lawyers, you need more innovators.”
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Microsoft Confirms That The Xbox One Will Come With An Incredibly Sensitive New Kinect
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
The was just unveiled at Microsoft’s Redmond campus and, true to multiple reports that circulated before the official reveal, the new console will indeed come with a Kinect. And what a Kinect it is! The rumors of a vastly improved Kinect sensor array were right on the money — this next-generation model is capable of tracking motions as minute as wrist rotations, and Microsoft’s Marc Whitten said the new Kinect would even be able to read users’ heartbeats when they’re exercising or when players shift their weight. The new Kinect’s main camera is capable of recording 1080P RGB video at 30 frames per second (for a bit of perspective, the original model could only capture VGA video). Perhaps most importantly, the Xbox One will be capable of chewing on all the data the newfangled Kinect (no one has dropped an official name for the thing yet) captures at a rate of about 2GB of per second, which is probably partially why the onstage demos looked so brisk. We got a brief glimpse of the new Kinect in action when Microsoft SVP Yusuf Mehdi called out commands and used minute hand gestures to manipulate content on the Xbox One — commands like “Xbox on” and “go to video” allow for near-instantaneous switching between running applications, and the Kinect is apparently also able to differentiate between users based on their voices. In short, it’s a massive, upgrade compared to the venerable original model, which often exhibited issues with basic limb and motion tracking. Granted, demos we saw today were carefully staged, but the Kinect reacted to Mehdi’s commands and inputs without a hint of technical hesitation — if the new Kinect works in the living room as well as it did onstage, Microsoft may really have something here. And frankly, that’s saying something considering Microsoft managed to move between November 2010 and March 2011.
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The New Xbox One Live Features Add Advanced Social Gaming Features That Could Lead To True MMORPG Experiences
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
While we don’t have all of the details on the new Xbox Live features announced at today’s Xbox One launch, it’s clear that Microsoft is going all-in when it comes to social and multiplayer gaming. First, they are upping the number of dedicated servers for online play from 15,000 to 300,000 and nearly all of your content and game data will be store in the cloud. The service will also allow you to take in-game video and photos and share them over social media services. This is similar to Sony’s PS4 solution and is definitely a method allow users to create valuable and viral homemade content while still maintaining control of distribution. As games become more social and more cinematic, this will be an important differentiator and is essentially free advertising for game makers. Finally, the new service adds asynchronous matchmaking, which means you can be searching for potential teammates (or enemies) while watching TV or playing another game. This increases the stickiness of multiplayer titles by nudging you back into the game when a worth opponent appears. Microsoft has also added “bigger matches with more players” and, most important, “living and persistent worlds.” This sounds to me like a direct attack on MMORPGs like World Of Warcraft and could make the Xbox a formidable force in the popular professional gaming subculture, a niche no console maker has yet cracked. We should see further information about the Xbox One at E3 this summer.
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Xbox One Instant Switching Turns The Console Into A Voice-Powered Set Top Box With Live TV Integration
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 |
Now leading the pack in gaming consoles, Microsoft’s future growth lies outside the gaming sphere. We’ll surely see tons of games at E3 in a few weeks, but at the big reveal of the Xbox One, the company chose to focus on non-gaming features, such as media streaming and Skype conversations. But what makes streaming and entertainment a true upgrade on the Xbox One, which already has access to almost all streaming platforms? Instant Switching. It allows you to switch between inputs, games, menus, Internet Explorer, and almost anything else almost instantly. And what’s more, it lets you layer the power of Microsoft partnerships and information across live TV. The Xbox responds to the voice; saying “Xbox On” turns on the console to the homescreen. The UI is familiar, and lets you see what you were doing last, along with trending content from friends, and other panels like games, TV, etc. But then you say “Xbox watch TV,” and live TV pops on. “Xbox show Guide,” and the guide pops up letting you see what’s available on Live TV. “Xbox watch ESPN,” and bloop, ESPN is on. Instant Switching at its best. And here’s where it gets interesting: “Xbox show Fantasy,” and instantly, along the right side of the screen showing a Knicks vs. Celtics game you’ll see a run-down on your fantasy league, letting you access further information and even make alterations in real time, right alongside the game itself. The company also announced a new partnership with NFL that will offer exclusive content and access to Fantasy leagues in Snapmode in real-time. This is thanks to a feature called Snapmode, which will offer new interactive experiences for Live TV. This includes social, applications, and more. Because Xbox is now tapping into your live TV, it offers a more targeted and complete entertainment UI, with favorites showing all of your favorite content in a single destination. And it’s all powered by your voice, should you like. What’s that? Is that the voice of Microsoft telling the hundreds of thousands of Xbox 360 owners out there, who proudly revel in their ownership of what’s considered the most popular gaming console out there, that they should maybe think about upgrading? Of course, Microsoft wouldn’t upgrade software without hardware (which you can read more about ), and that includes the addition of a Blu-ray player. Alongside announcing the Xbox One, Microsoft also announced a partnership with 343 Industries and Steven Spielberg to develop a live action TV show about Halo. They didn’t go into much detail, but how much you want to bet there’s some awesome Snapmode features and Xbox SmartGlass features? [gallery ids="820625,820612,820613,820614,820626"]
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Google Maps Said To Be Getting A Facelift That Could Appear At Google I/O
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Google’s bound to pull back the curtain on some goodies at its annual I/O conference next week (though it’s being characteristically quiet about the whole thing), but could a redesigned version of Google Maps be one of them? That’s what the folks at the (completely unofficial) blog hint at — they’ve come into possession of a pair of screenshots that supposedly depict Google’s new approach to mapping, and if true they point to some serious modifications. If true, then Google is ditching he traditional sidebar altogether. Instead, the company may be putting greater emphasis on the map itself and shifting pertinent information — think location data, photos, and Zagat reviews — to a series of cards that hover in the top left corner of the screen. Oh, and the yellow streets are gone too. I’m just as bummed as you are. As always, I’d recommend firmly grasping a grain of salt as you pore over the images, but they the visual advances seen in them seem just measured enough to give them some credence. The images depict a version of Google Maps that falls in line with some of the other design choices the folks at Mountain View have been running with lately. Google’s been pushing those cards quite a bit lately — Google Now was the first service to run with the card metaphor, and the search giant recently revamped its to put individual app and song listings into cards as well. We haven’t really seen those cards invade the desktop yet (unless you count those right-aligned boxes that Google’s Knowledge Graph results live in), but persistent rumors and leaks point to a that could go live any day now. Hell, even Google Glass uses what the company refers to as to encapsulate and display information from Glass apps. All that said, it would hardly be a shock to see Google turning to Maps as the next service to get a card-centric facelift. And hey, it’s not like Google has been all that great at keeping its secrets behind closed doors lately. Who could forget the completely unexpected that had journos and pundits scratching their heads back in February, not to mention the early Google Play Store redesign leak and the prematurely released video that touted Google Now for iOS that appeared just weeks later. This latest batch of screenshots may leave you with more questions than answers, but I suspect that all will be revealed before long.
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LinkedIn, On The Lookout For More Stickiness, Adds Channels With Curated Content On LinkedIn Today
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Ingrid Lunden
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
, now at 225 million users, continues to introduce more features to its site to keep people returning to it and staying there for longer. Today it’s the turn of , its social news page, which is getting a new feature called . Channels is rolling out starting today to English-speaking users. LinkedIn says that it plans to announce the service formally on Wednesday. : the formal announcement. Channels bring together curated content around general subjects like technology, marketing strategies, retail and healthcare — 20 in all, with more getting added soon — with each one combining popular posts from news sources with those from selected people deemed influential (LinkedIn’s list of “influencers”) in the given topic. Channels will be replacing “industries,” a feature that has been around since . Industries were both more specific in terms of what they covered (eg, internet instead of technology), and also geared at news that was trending on LinkedIn, and specifically among your contacts. Channels, on the other hand, attempts to be more interdisciplinary and less newsy. It makes use of the idea that there will be people interested in “social media” who are not social media professionals, and who are using LinkedIn as a learning resource rather than just a news source. “We believe Channels better represents the content and topical conversations professionals are discussing and sharing on LinkedIn, which go beyond specific industries,” said spokesperson Julie Inouye. “Topics like Entrepreneurship and Your Career are applicable to more than just one industry.” It also gives some more mileage to the hand-picked that LinkedIn introduced in , with their posts also getting rolled into the channels mix. It looks like over time, this could also include added multimedia such as presentations using SlideShare and more. And that could also potentially leave the door open for other kinds of additions, too. Although LinkedIn has not said yet where it will be using the technology/services that it picked up when it , you can see that the channels section on LinkedIn Today is one place that could become a natural home. (Another, which I’ve , is in a revamped LinkedIn iPad and other native tablets app, which did not get upgraded at the same time as the iPhone and Android apps did the other week.) Product manager Kevin Gu notes that among the other new features that will come along with the new channels will be the ability to see the updates from channels on your own homepage stream; the ability to sort content either by most recent news or most popular features; and a look at the top influencer posts on a given day. On top of this, users will also see channels making their way to their LinkedIn email digests, which will now include influencer posts, trending professional news as well as Slideshare content. All of this, of course, comes back to how LinkedIn is shaping itself up for its longer-term growth strategy. Last week’s showed LinkedIn still beating sales targets and earnings estimates, but the company’s stock still took a hit on evidence that revenue growth is slowing down. In that sense, the move to enhance LinkedIn Today is more about improving the time its audience spends on the site. More time spent on the site could have a subsequent positive effect on advertising, a key revenue source for the company going forward — a model followed by companies like Facebook and Twitter, which have also made moves to introduce features that get users to linger on their pages for longer. Conversely, LinkedIn has confirmed that channels and influencers are not direct routes to revenue in themselves for now. “Our influencers are not compensated to share their unique insights on LinkedIn and we do not have plans at this time to monetize our Channels pages or our Influencer platform,” Inouye said. In the last several months, LinkedIn has introduced a number of changes. They’ve included upgraded, more media-enhanced ; a to add in more “personal assistant” life organizing features; new ; an expanded ; ; ; and a redesign for the site’s most dedicated user vertical. As with many of these other enhancements, LinkedIn Today, and its new channels feature, offer a more slick look and more functionality.
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Backed By Rapper Nas, Urban Culture-Focused Media Company Mass Appeal Raises $1.2M
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
, a joint venture that’s both reviving the Brooklyn-based, graffiti-focused magazine of the same name and also moving into online content, is announcing that it has raised $1.2 million in funding. It’s backed by a mix of traditional firms and figures from the hip hop world. The rapper, ( ) Nas that he had invested a “six-figure sum” in the company, and he’s also serving as Mass Appeal’s associate publisher. Publisher Peter Bittenbender told me via email that the other investors include record label/creative agency (where Bittenbender is co-founder and CEO), rapper Pusha T, and international firm . In its original incarnation, the magazine was founded in 1996 and , before being revived by the current team earlier this year. Bittenbender said that the goal is to create an “an integrated media property” that includes web video, photography, social, print and live experiences. You see that content on , as well as , which features peeks behind the scenes of the magazine, the “Time Pieces” series of short videos from Jason Goldwatch, and more. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9of5IkpByc&w=560&h=315] When the company first reached out to me, a spokesperson said the content would be “embracing the core ethics of hip-hop culture and using that to push great content with a unique voice to a global audience.” However, Bittenbender emphasized that Mass Appeal goes beyond hip hop. “While we embrace all things hip-hop (as it is part of our heart and soul), we stand for (and have always stood for) creative instigation,” he said. “Music and its influence is such a massive part of our creative equity along with street art and fashion.” By the way, Nas himself has been featured on Mass Appeal’s cover. So is there a potential conflict of interest here? When he announced his investment and involvement, he won’t get involved if the magazine writes about him, and that they can say anything negative or positive, as long as it’s their “honest opinion.”
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Yahoo Wants To Touch People’s Lives “Every Day”, And Is Developing For Google Glass
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
What is Yahoo? Marissa Mayer just laid out the company’s identity and future at . The key words she repeated over and over was “Every Day”. That’s when Yahoo wants you to use it, and it’s why it’s now developing for Google Glass, , and relaunching products like Yahoo Weather she’s sees as part of your “daily dozen” activities on mobile. Mayer explained to Wired’s Steven Levy on stage in New York City that the company wants to help you do all the core mobile activities you do each day, including checking news, email, sports, finance, and weather. While other companies are more focused, she said “it’s okay for us to have an overall offering”.
It hasn’t worked too badly. Yahoo now has 300 million mobile users per month, and 700 million on desktop. “Yahoo has an amazing brand. I’m Midwestern and the brand is really strong there.” The only problem with having so many apps is the switching costs. It takes time to do each of your “daily dozen” activities, but they shouldn’t interrupt your life. That’s why Mayer says Yahoo is developing for Google Glass, which could make its offering a seamless part of your day. Special apps may have to wait, though, as first and foremost she wants to make sure Yahoo’s homepage and other existing products work flawlessly on the tiny Glass screen. That’s also one reason Yahoo was so excited to in March. “Summarization will be a core technology in mobile. Short summaries add value”, especially when you’re trying to keep moving, or are imbibing information through a wearable computing device like Glass. The renewed focus on the user experience is what ties together Yahoo’s strategy. Rather than just throwing content at people, it wants to make that content enjoyable to consume. It’s not abandoning content by any means, and is planning original programming plus more licensing deals like buy Saturday Night Live clips. But it’s UX that will bring Yahoo back into the spotlight. For example, Mayer says Yahoo hopes to innovate in search by returning results pages in more creative and helpful formats than just lists of links. Mayer took a moment to tout her new policy against working from home as critical to building enjoyable apps, and despite industry hubbub, she says it was well received internally. She mentioned that the that integrates Flickr photos couldn’t have been built so fast without the team in the same room. The result was a hit app, that she says got all the downloads they expected for the quarter in the first four days after launch. Close collaboration is what will let Yahoo move fast and make products for all of us. “The moonshot for Yahoo is being on every smartphone, every tablet, every PC for every Internet user. For me the word portal is somewhat limiting.” Yahoo doesn’t want to just lead you to utility, it wants to be that utility.
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Dots, Betaworks’ New Super Addictive iOS Game, Nabs 1 Million Downloads In One Week
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Dots, a game week out of betaworks, has reached over 1 million downloads in just one week of availability. According to a blog post, the app hit number 1 in eight countries, and went into the top five in another fifteen countries. Right now, in fact, you’ll find Dots as the number three free app behind Hardest Game Ever 2 and Falldown2, two worthy opponents. Of course, backing from betaworks is always a smart way to get off to a good start, but dots stands on its own as a quality piece of mobile gaming software. It’s a simple, digital take on the classic connect-the-dots game. You connect as many of the same-colored dots at once, and ultimately aim to make a square, which erases that entire color from the board. In true mobile game fashion, users can earn power-ups and advanced tools by scoring “dots,” which are also available as in-app purchases. betaworks’ Paul Murphy relayed to TechCrunch that people are both earning and buying dots in a way the team is pleased with. But the magic isn’t just in the gameplay, which is highly addictive to say the least. Hacker-in-residence and co-founder Patrick Moberg brought his experience with design, illustrations, and developing to create a truly beautiful game, with all the right aesthetic nuances and animations. Plus, the social component of the app has made it quickly viral. “The app is heavily, heavily supported by the social mechanics in the game,” said Murphy. “So that’s working, and we suspect it will continue to work well.” The question now is whether or not dots can keep up the momentum like a true classic or become the next Draw Something. For now, however, the team is focused on incremental improvements like expansion from iPhone to iPad, and support for colorblind users.
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TC Cribs: A Trek Through DotCloud, An Urban Jungle For Plotting World Domination
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Colleen Taylor
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
DotCloud’s office is smack in the middle of the financial district of San Francisco, but when you step inside it feels like you’re in the middle of a jungle — albeit a very well-connected jungle with desks, computers, and intensely-focused programmers. That’s because DotCloud has decorated its office with dozens of plants in every space possible, on the floor, on desks, and even hanging from the ceilings. The greenery provides a very cool juxtaposition with the cityscape outside DotCloud’s 16th floor windows — a blend of and that somehow works really well. And it’s not just people who enjoy DotCloud’s leafy oasis. The company’s staff also includes an adorable baby tortoise named Gordon who I may or may not have tried to adopt. What can I say, we bonded. Check it all out in the video above.
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Adobe’s David Wadhwani On Subscriptions, Behance, Hardware And Piracy
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Earlier today, I had a chance to sit down with Adobe’s , the senior vice president and general manager for Digital Media and public face of Creative Cloud at the company’s MAX conference in Los Angeles this week. Adobe announced a number of product updates this week, but the most important and wide-reaching announcement was obviously the and the fact that the company will stop developing its Creative Suite. While there has been some pushback against this move, Wadhwani believes that most of the community is ready for this move and that it will help Adobe innovate faster and serve its users better. As Wadhwani stressed when I talked to him, the company currently plans to sell Creative Suite 6 “indefinitely.” For him, it’s important to look at where the company sees the creative evolution going. Adobe, he believes, has to look at “where do we see the creative world going and the evolution that we think is going to take place.” Adobe’s strategy, he said.” To effect and lead some of these changes, he believes, Creative Cloud is the way to go for the company. What’s often missing in the creative workflows today, he said, “is that element of connectedness. Creativity today is too often done in isolation.” Connecting you to your co-workers and a larger community on, for example, Behance, “is a very empowering thing for a lot of creators.” If that’s where creation is going, he said, “it’s become very obvious for us that the best way for doing that is to create a truly integrated experience for creatives from their tools to all of these services and communities.” Adobe, he said, wants to put its resources into where the company can add the most value. In this context, the focus on creative cloud becomes a natural step in the company’s evolution. The fact that the early reaction to Creative Cloud has been positive and that the company is seeing “good strong accelerating growth” has given Adobe the confidence “that as a whole, the creative community is open and obviously interested in moving in this direction.” He did, however, also acknowledge that not everybody will be ready to go this way and that it’s a big change that will take a bit to sink in. Adobe wants to have an open dialog with its users about this change and will also take its message on the road in the next few weeks. So far, he’s been very happy with the response from the creative community at MAX. One aspect of Creative Cloud that Adobe hasn’t really talked about publicly is also that this change could prevent quite a bit of piracy. Making Photoshop and its other creative tools more affordable means that it’s now often easier for users to just pay a monthly subscription fee than to pirate the software. He also believes that all the extra services, including Behance, storage, syncing and many of the new tools the company has in store will get people to see that the value in subscribing to Creative Cloud goes beyond the tools. The transition to Creative Cloud, to him, is not just about the business model, but also a cultural change. “The culture of Adobe has always been to appreciate the work that’s created by our customers,” he said. Going forward, Adobe wants to help amplify its users reach and it’s clear that Behance will play a central role in this. The tool wasn’t just showcased extensively during both MAX keynotes, but Wadhwani also talked about its role at great length during our conversation. To him, this is clearly an exciting and new aspect of what Adobe can do. In return, however, the focus at MAX this week was clearly on designers and creatives and far less on developers than in previous years. That’s something Wadhwani also acknowledged in our chat. Going forward, Adobe isn’t taking its focus away from developers, “but refining where we focus in the stack.” Going forward, Adobe will put an emphasis on tools for user interface designers and user interface developers, especially as Adobe will continue to work with browser vendors. For enterprise developers and with regard to backend tools, he said, there are lots of other options out there and going forward, it seems, Adobe won’t devote all that many resources to them. The other major announcement at MAX was obviously that Adobe is . As much as I tried, though, I couldn’t get Wadhwani to say whether Adobe plans to turn these prototypes into actual products (my feeling, however, is that the company is definitely leaning in that direction). What Adobe wants to do with its hardware, he said, is to fill some of the gaps that it sees in the toolset right now. He’d be very happy, he said, if other hardware manufacturers made similar products or wanted to participate in the process, too, but in a way, it seems like Adobe is taking a similar approach as Google is with its Nexus devices by creating reference points for others. The tools the company showed today, he believes, will complete the profile that can turn touch devices like the iPad into full-blown tools for creative professionals. It also sounds as if Adobe is working on other hardware ideas, too, as Wadhwani described project Mighty, its stylus, as “the tip of the spear” of what Adobe is doing in terms of forward-leaning innovation. Tonight, at the MAX closing event, Adobe plans to show some sneak peeks at other projects in its labs, so it’ll be interesting to see if there will be more hardware announcements at that event, too.
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BitTorrent Steps Up Monetization Efforts By Taking Its (Potentially Paywalled) Content Bundles Into Alpha
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
is taking a new step today in its efforts to help creators make money (and make money itself) — it’s releasing a new content packaging format called the BitTorrent Bundle in alpha mode. The company has already been working with different creators to launch promotional bundles. For example, author packaged chapters of his book with other supplementary media material as a way to promote sales of his newest work, while musicians like have used BitTorrent to promote new tracks and albums. However, spokesperson Christian Averill told me that today’s announcement signals the company’s intention to move beyond one-off experiments and actually “productize” these efforts. Averill also said that today is the first time BitTorrent has actually “gated” one of these bundles. Specifically, it’s partnering with music label to promote the behind-the-scenes documentary of Kaskade’s 2012 Freaks of Nature tour. Users can access half the content (a remix and a tour trailer) for free, but to get the rest (a digital tour booklet and unreleased footage of Kaskade’s Staples Center show), they need to enter their email address. In , BitTorrent’s vice president of marketing Matt Mason described the package as a “functional record store.” “This is a completely new way to look at monetizing content,” Mason said. “Instead of putting the content in the store, what if you put the store in the content? What if the interaction happened in the unit of content in itself?” [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fk78WR8ElY&w=560&h=315] Mason said that the first bundle focuses on collecting email addresses, because for most musicians, email is “the most important way to connect with fans.” At the same time, he said BitTorrent will be experimenting with other ways to structure the bundle, including ones where users actually pay money to. ( , Mason said that the music business has become more relationship-based, meaning that musicians usually have to build a relationship with their fans before they can start asking them to pay.) The ultimate goal is to release a publishing tool that will allow any artist to create their own bundles, and to structure those bundles however they like — that’s probably coming in the fourth quarter of this year. “BitTorrent users are clearly fans,” Mason added. “It’s now up to us to build the right sort of publishing tools so that that relationship between artists and fans can just be completely optimized.”
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Facebook Must Make Home A Layer Atop Your Widgets And Homescreen, Not A Replacement
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
“Where did my Android go?” is the common refrain of . We want the widgets and old homescreen we’ve meticulously curated. That’s why Facebook needs to preserve and offer quick access to the phone we’re used to if it’s going to make Home a hit. Facebook’s reading the reviews too, so bet on the early Home updates to make it more of a bonus than a trade-off. Facebook “Home is a completely new experience that lets you see the world through people, not apps.” But that completely new experience disrespects the work we’ve done to personalize our phones — arranging apps and putting them into folders, choosing what goes in the coveted first screen spots, and building widgets of real-time information we care about. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice so much to get Home’s added benefits. Luckily, Facebook has committed to releasing monthly updates for Home, with the first one expected on May 12th. There are plenty of “nice” features it could add, but before Facebook decorates Home, it needs to get the foundation cemented. I spent some time poring through hundreds of Home reviews to get a sense of the public’s perspective. Journalists and techies, , focused on features like Cover Feed and Chat Heads. The somewhat complicated install process didn’t faze them much. But the average Joe got quite confused when he downloaded Home only to find his familiar Android experience had been evicted. Plenty of people like it, and say they get used to it after a while. But many of the 1-star reviews dragging down Home read like this [sic]: Judging from these reviews and hundreds more I read, the first change Home needs is to do a better job of walking us through the transformation our phones are undergoing. Many people won’t be sure they’re supposed to select Home when asked which app to “Complete Action Using”. That should be explained up front. Then once Home is fully installed, Facebook should do a deeper tour not only of its own features, but of explaining what happened to the other parts of our phone and how to get back to them. Home has no widgets and no app folders, and users hate that. It won’t stay that way for long, though. Facebook Director Of Product Adam Mosseri told me when Home debuted that “There’s a lot of stuff we wanted to do in the launcher like folders and widgets. But that’s the beauty of the update cycle. We’re already working on stuff that will come out [in later versions of Home.]”‘ So is Facebook going to build its own foldering and widget-building system? Perhaps, but that doesn’t actually solve the problem prevalent in Home’s negative reviews. Users don’t want to do redundant work to re-personalize their phone. That’s why I suspect Facebook will look for a way to integrate our existing folders and widgets within Home. This is a pretty fundamental shift for Home from a replacement launcher to a layer that rides on top of what we’ve already done to our phones. Ideally we’d be able to temporarily push Home aside to reveal our old homescreen and all our customization. Importing the folders and widgets we’ve already made into Home’s own app drawer would work, too. Right now from Cover Feed you can swipe left for Facebook Messenger, right for the last app you used, and up to open your app favorites screen. I’d imagine Facebook would either add a down swipe to surface our former homescreens lying in wait underneath, or swap in this action for the app favorites up swipe. With these fixes made, Facebook would get most of the prominence and immersive experience it wants from Home without forcing us to ditch our old system. That erases a huge barrier to installing and enjoying its “apperating system” and could help it grow beyond the 500,000 to 1,000,000 downloads it currently has. There’s a lot of people out there who want people to come before apps, just not instead of them.
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Security Firm: “Syria Has Largely Disappeared From The Internet”
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
[tweet https://twitter.com/eastdakota/status/331874800748359681] War-torn Syria is reportedly experiencing massive Internet outages. Both and security firm Cloudflare are reporting near zero levels of traffic out of the area. This isn’t the first time the beleaguered nation has experienced Internet issues. Back in 2012, the Syrian government, in attempt to paralyze opposition rebels, .
“Syria has largely disappeared from the Internet,” security firm, Umbrella, about the abrupt traffic stop today. Umbrella describes how such a cutoff is possible, “Routing on the Internet relies on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). BGP distributes routing information and makes sure all routers on the Internet know how to get to a certain IP address.” Continuing, ” Shutting down Internet access to and from Syria is achieved by withdrawing the BGP routes from Syrian prefixes.” Last December, we interviewed Cloudflare . Watch the interview below: This is a breaking story and we will update readers as more information comes in.
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Facebook Arrives On Google Glass Thanks To Unofficial Photo Sharing App
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
As the days go by and developers get their hands on Glass, the basic apps that we need to survive in the wild and share our photos are popping up. Today, is available for those who want to post the moments captured with Glass to the social network. It’s the first third-party app that allows you The setup is similar to that of other third-party apps like , but requires you to give Facebook permissions to post to your timeline. It only takes a few seconds to get going: After you’ve turned on the Glass To Facebook sharing contact within MyGlass and approve the permissions on Facebook, you’re ready to start posting: Just take a photo and choose the Glass To Facebook option: The nice thing about the app is that it creates a photo album for you that will start piling up your Glass-taken photos: Your photo shows up like any other one would in your friends’ News Feed, too. This means that all of those annoying baby pictures that you see on the daily will now come from the vantage point of the parent’s face. Exciting, I know. On a serious note, it’s nice to see photos from Glass being brought to networks other than Google+, which was the only out of the box option. While we haven’t heard anything recently about an official Facebook Glass app, we’ve heard that there’s a team of four working on something. What could Facebook look like for Glass? We know that there won’t be ads, since Google isn’t allowing them on the Glass platform as of right now. Aside from that, I wouldn’t mind seeing a Poke pop up on the device. [Photo credit: ]
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Nest Acquires MyEnergy To Boost Its Home Energy Management Tools
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Matt Burns
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Nest proved that energy monitoring can be tantalizing. And it’s about to get even better. The company just announced that it has acquired to further enhance its suite of monitoring tools. Terms of deal were not released. Originally called Earth Aid, the startup as one of the first energy monitoring solutions. Similar to , Google’s and , Earth Aid, and now MyEnergy, with information on how much electricity, water, and natural gas they use and how much they spend on these utilities. Simply connect your online utility accounts with the platform, and the system imports all the necessary bits and displays them on the beautiful web dashboard. Spend a few quick minutes on MyEnergy.com and it’s easy to see why Nest wanted MyEnergy in its corner. The system is wonderful. Just like the Nest Learning Thermostat. In 2011 the startup $4 million in Series A funding from Point Judith Capital, the Clean Energy Venture Group, and Capital-E. According to today’s announcement, MyEnergy has users in all 50 U.S. states and spans more than 1,500 utility territories. “Giving our customers more in-depth access and analysis of their energy usage has always been part of the Nest vision,” said Tony Fadell, Nest founder and CEO said in a released statement today. “We’ve made great strides in the past year and a half; by bringing MyEnergy into the Nest family, we can reach our goals even faster. The MyEnergy team is incredibly like-minded and we’ve already begun working with them to find ways to integrate their technology into Nest products.” The Nest Learning Thermostat is beautiful. But the web dashboard is lacking in depth. There is plenty of room for improvement. MyEnergy will likely not only make it look better, but dramatically enhance the tool set by giving the homeowner information from their neighborhood. Nest is charging forward, simultaneously building out consumer aspects and partnering with utility companies. This acquisition clearly fits within Nest’s vision. It’s unclear exactly what Nest plans to do with MyEnergy, but as a Nest user myself, I’m rather excited to see what Tony Fadell and team does with the beautiful MyEnergy platform.
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Microsoft’s Julie Larson-Green Says Windows RT’s Slow Start Is A Consumer Education Problem
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Microsoft’s Corporate VP for Windows Julie Larson-Green was at , and she was put on the spot when asked by interviewer and WIRED Senior Editor Michael V. Copeland about the apparently sluggish start for Windows RT. RT’s failure is a consumer education problem, according to Larson-Green, since it’s very different from what’s come before. Windows RT, for those unfamiliar or confused by the new familial breakdown of Windows following the introduction of version 8, is a lightweight version designed for ARM-powered devices (vs. x86, the architecture which full Windows OS runs on), which doesn’t offer access to the full suite of Windows software. According to our own Matt Burns, that has resulted in a big app gap, and , which sounds like something different from a simple matter of properly framing the product. “I think we have some work to do on explaining it to people because it’s different,” Larson-Green said. “They’re just so used to Windows meaning backward compatibility in all the programs that you use today. I use Surface RT as my main computing device, I connect to a corporate network using my virtual smart card and VPN when I need to, Office is already on there […] it’s just a simpler experience and then the Surface Pro has the flexibility if you want to work on the details.” “I love my Surface RT,” was a common refrain from Larson-Green even into the Q&A, who later characterized it as a device for casual consumption mostly, especially filling a niche for “weekend” use. Even the dual nature of her defense of the Microsoft tablet shows that it still needs work at Microsoft itself in terms of fleshing out its role in the consumer ecosystem, which probably isn’t helping the company properly explain its purpose to the buying public. The Surface RT is estimated to have sold only around since its launch late in 2012, far under its reported initial estimates of 3 million or so. Other OEMs have balked at the RT line in the meantime, with .
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Microsoft Confirms It Will Offer Users Their First Taste Of Windows Blue In Late June
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Windows 8 launched to mixed reviews just over half a year ago, and Microsoft has dutifully pushed out nearly 740 tweaks and updates over the intervening months. Even so, rumblings of a sizable update (codenamed “Windows Blue”) have been making the rounds for months now, and we’ve finally got a firm idea of when to expect the first public preview. Microsoft Windows chief Julie Larson-Green confirmed at the Wired Business Conference today that developers would be able to download and install the Windows Blue update preview in late June to coincide with the company’s BUILD developer conference. The update will be “available to everyone that has Windows 8 in the Windows 8 store,” she noted to Wired senior editor Michael Copeland. “Just click on it like you would any app and it’ll update your system.” It’s hardly a shock considering that a June preview release date has been rumored , but it’s likely welcome news for users who haven’t quite fallen with Windows 8 and its dramatic design changes. At this point, many of Blue’s juiciest details are still shrouded in mystery — we don’t even know what the update will even be called. People are already bandying about the name Windows 8.1 and Larson-Green wouldn’t refer to it as anything the “update to Windows 8,” though she may have just been dodging the question as the onstage conversation was just about to wrap up. Microsoft seems content to keep most of Blue’s changelog under wraps for the time being too — CFO Tami Reller pointed to a slew of necessary (if vague) changes in a Q&A that was recently posted to : It will deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem. It will provide more options for businesses, and give consumers more options for work and play. The Windows Blue update is also an opportunity for us to respond to the customer feedback that we’ve been closely listening to since the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT. That said, it seems very likely that at least two major Windows 8 sticking points will be addressed in the coming update. According to , the traditional Windows start button is expected to make its triumphant return, as is the ability to boot directly into the Desktop view rather than having to futz around with the UI-formerly-known-as-Metro. As it happens, June is going to be a pretty busy month for Microsoft and its hardware partners –Larson-Green noted that the era of smaller Windows 8 devices is nearly upon us, and that portability mavens will be able to get their hands on the first such device in June as well.
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Google+ Hangouts On Air Now Process Videos During Recording, Allowing For Live Rewind And Immediate Publishing
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Google+ Hangouts allow for groups of friends or colleagues have an intimate face-to-face conversation, but of the service allows you to broadcast to the masses. The President Of The United States Of America has , but anyone can set up their own. Today, the Hangouts team has introduced some new functionality that make participating in a live On Air a little bit easier. Up until now you haven’t been able to do anything other than watch the live broadcast as it happens, which is nice until you have to run to the kitchen to grab a drink or pause to take a phone call. Today, viewers can now rewind your broadcast no matter where they are during the live filming process. Additionally, On Air videos will immediately be published instead of carrying the normal waiting period where you’ll get the infamous “processing…” dialogue. The only negatives that I see to this is that it slows down the ramp up time it takes to start your broadcast, so you should buffer some time in to get started before your actual scheduled “live” time: Other tweaks in this push include higher quality versions of a Hangout On Air via your mobile device, which is nice since these can be kind of grainy, depending on your connection at the time. Additionally, live broadcasts will now start without having to refresh a page, which was a real pain in the ass. Now if you visit a page that has the embedded On Air player, it will just automagically start playing. The Hangouts product has made its way into many of Google’s services, including its mobile offerings on Android and even Glass. The usecase for Hangouts widely vary, but Google has been dogfooding it way before its release. The “On Air” option has the attention of both local and national broadcasters, giving them away to connect to audiences in a way more intimate way. [Photo credit: ]
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 5 | 21 | null |
Developing For Android Is Much Easier Now, Animoca Claims
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Victoria Ho
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Software quality assurance testing on Android devices is far easier than it was just a year ago, at least according to one of Asia’s largest mobile app developers, . The Hong Kong company has produced over 300 apps since it started two years ago, and just shot past 150 million downloads collectively. It produces mainly Android apps. Last year, Animoca’s testing process for its apps covered a whopping . Today, this number has been slashed to just a quarter of that, largely because of standardization in the Android handset industry. According to Yat Siu, CEO of Animoca’s parent company Outblaze, most phones have become standardized on Samsung’s base hardware, thanks to the Korean manufacturer’s cornering of the component market. Besides making its own branded devices, Samsung provides parts for a huge array of other devices. In 2012, Samsung was the of NAND Flash (31 percent), DRAM (38 percent), and display components (25 percent). The evolution of Android’s platform over the years has also made it a lot more flexible for app developers on the software side of things, with fewer variants of Jelly Bean than Gingerbread, he added. Together with hardware standardization, this has really eased the amount of testing that Animoca has to do today. “Japan is the outlier in all of this—they have the strangest phones, and each one is a little different from the other. The rest of the world is mainly quite similar, based on Samsung hardware,” said Yat. Phones are also getting better. He said that the 400 testing devices from 2012 were mainly made up of low-end handsets. “You have to cater to low-end devices because otherwise, you cancel out your biggest audience. But all the new hardware is pretty kickass, and more and more devices are getting very capable,” he said. Animoca employs about 100 people working just on its apps, and has operations in Korea, the Philippines, the US and China. Its strategy is to flood the market with apps hitting different niche markets, rather than try to create a “ -style or Angry Birds blockbuster” hit, said Yat. Some of its titles, and have pretty much reached hit status, but the company is focused on churning out a higher volume of app varieties, in the hopes of casting a wider net for loyal fans. “Those become paying audiences,” he said. While Star Girl is enjoying millions of downloads, it’s still a niche app. “It targets girls, you share clothes and virtually flirt with guys. It’s not a ,” said Yat. The company has grown about four times in the past 12 months, although he wouldn’t say how much revenue it brings in now. “Frankly, we grew because Android grew as well,” he said, referring to . “That’s why Korea and Japan are big markets for us, because they are strong Android bases,” he said. Animoca produces iOS versions of some of its games, but remains focused on Android, where ARPU is “very comparable” to iOS. Users in Japan and Korea tend to spend most on apps, said Yat.
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Google Forms Finally Become Useful Thanks To Properly Formatted Date And Time Fields
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Google Docs, now Drive, have always had an option to create forms that would drop data right into a spreadsheet. This is super handy until you tried to do something like…collect date and time information. For whatever reason, those structured fields were never an option with Forms, but the team has today. The product has always been “there,” but not heavily promoted by Google. Mostly because of these types of limitations. Asking a simple question like when someone’s birthday was a nightmare, as you couldn’t normalize and structure being dropped into the spreadsheet, making the form pretty useless. It’s good to see the option when creating a form now: For dates, people filling out your form will now get a proper calendar picker: The folks in your office who have to actually use the data that you collect with a survey can now breathe a sigh of release with properly formatted dates and times. It’s the little things that matter. Or in this case, the big things that made the product pretty useless until now. [Photo credit: ]
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Google Reminds iOS Developers That They Can Easily Integrate Chrome With Their Apps
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
Google just developers that they can use Chrome as the default browser for their apps and easily switch back and forth between app and browser. With , Google says, developers can open links in Chrome and once the page has loaded, Chrome will show a link back to the original app in the top left corner of the screen. This should make it much easier for developers to allow users to support Chrome in their apps. Currently, Google says, developers have two options when they want to access web content from their apps: they can create their own in-app web browser frame – using Apple’s own WebKit browser, of course – or by sending users away from their apps to a browser. Once users are in the browser, though, chances are, they won’t come back, so Google’s scheme will surely help to ensure that users remember what app they were coming from in the first place. To get started, developers have to download the OpenInChromeControllerClass and add it to their projects. The class will check if Chrome is installed and, if that’s the case, you can start sending links to Chrome with x-callback enabled. Given that Chrome is essentially just an app on iOS, it can’t be set as the default on Apple’s operating system. That’s obviously a problem for Google, because apps will always open links in Safari by default. Because of this, users have little incentive to switch to Chrome because they’ll always be forced back into Safari anyway.
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File Transfer And Sync Service Pi.pe Launches Pi.pe Prints, Offering Photo Printing Options For Over A Dozen Cloud Services
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Sarah Perez
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 |
, the file transfer and synchronization service which emerged from San Francisco-based , has previously served as one of the only serious utilities to move photos and other media files between all the various cloud services. Since its launch a little over a year ago, Pi.pe’s focus has been primarily on backup and sharing. But it was missing an option for ordering prints – something which most services focused on photo management today offer. Today, that changes. The company is now launching , which allows users to print photos hosted all over the cloud to locations like Walgreens, CVS, and soon Shutterfly, Tesco, and Fuji Film, too – the latter likely in about a month’s time. Pricing for Walgreens and CVS is the same as is listed on their own websites (e.g. 4×6 is $0.19), but through the integrations Pi.pe will earn 10 to 15 percent of the sale price from its printing partners. At launch, the new printing service includes support for images stored on Facebook and Facebook Pages, 500px, Flickr, Google Drive (soon), Instagram, Mixi (Japan), MySpace, Trovebox (OpenPhoto), Picasa, Shutterfly, SmugMug, and VK (Russia). And as before, photos and videos can also be exported to other cloud services including 500px, Amazon Glacier, Box, CX, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Facebook Pages, Flickr, Google Drive, Mixi, MySpace, Orkut, Photobucket, Picasa, Shutterfly, Smugmug, Sugarsync, Trovebox, VK, Walgreens, YouSendIt, and YouTube. This new printing option places Pi.pe into a different category of services. Before, the startup’s primary competitor was something like , as it too allows users to copy and automate the moving of photos from one service to the next. But unlike IFTTT, which offers ways to automate a wide variety of web-based tasks, Pi.pe has been singularly focused on moving and syncing files, generally photos. The company still has plans to merge its earlier photo-only uploader service Pixelpipe into Pi.pe, to reflect its growth beyond “just pixels,” but that hasn’t yet come to pass. Pixelpipe and its accompanying mobile application lineup still operate independently. But CEO Brett Butterfield tells us the new Pi.pe Android and iOS applications are now just about completed, and both will include printing support at launch. From the apps, users will be able to print from their phone’s photos, as well as the third-party services Pi.pe supports. That will make it one of the more robust options in terms of ordering prints from your mobile, as current competitors tend to limit themselves to bigger players like Facebook and Instagram. Pi.pe may not have been the kind of service that users would turn to regularly – you would either use it during a large migration between services, or to enable scheduled syncs between cloud locations as a way to back up files – a sort of “set it and forget it” kind of thing. By offering printing, the company may see more regular engagement among its users who have now transferred over 50 million files to date, . Between the two services, Pi.pe has just over 1.2 million users, and the average Pi.pe user imports around 700 files and exports over 850, often backing up from Flickr or Picasa to Dropbox or Google Drive, for example. Over 35 percent of users are return users, Butterfield also notes. That being said, though the service is powerful, it still suffers from a very utilitarian look-and-feel, and a user interface that’s lacking some polish. Scrolling through a large collection – like several years’ worth of Flickr photos, for instance – can be a little slow. Unless you have either a significant number of photos to print, or a fragmented library spanning a variety services, there are a slew of lightweight mobile app alternatives for prints, including things like Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kicksend, Printic, as well as Walgreens’ own app, plus photo book, card, or gift options available through apps like Mosaic, SimplePrints, Sincerely, Magic Moments, and many more. However, Butterfield says that the eventual plan is to expand Pi.pe’s lineup of print output partners and types, including adding support for options beyond photo printing for things like books, cards, documents, and even backup DVDs. If that’s the case, however “pretty” the app may be would be of a secondary concern, really, because it will be one of the few that can do this sort of heavy lifting. Interested users can try out the new print option from now.
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Confirmed: Alibaba Group Takes $294M, 28% Stake In China’s Navigation/Location Services Specialist AutoNavi, As It Gets Down To Business On Mobile
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
is now the largest single shareholder in , a Beijing-based maker of electronic navigation tools and location-based services. The Chinese Internet giant has formed a strategic alliance with AutoNavi, on the back of a $294 million investment. This gives it a 28% stake in the navigation company, which is China’s largest, with 116 million users of its free mobile app and 56 million monthly active users and providing mapping data for iOS, Google Maps and Baidu, among others. Before the news got by AutoNavi itself, the story was reported first by (link via Google Translate). An Alibaba spokesperson told us earlier, “as a matter of company policy we do not comment on rumors and speculation of this nature.” : It looks like this was just a holding tactic. John Spelich, a spokesperson for Alibaba, has also confirmed the deal to TechCrunch now that AutoNavi has released its news. AutoNavi notes that this deal will cover location-based e-commerce services but will also involve other navigation offerings that will be used to build out the Internet giant’s mobile ambitions. “The parties plan to share certain data, including AutoNavi’s map data and location-related information of the merchants on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms, including Taobao Marketplace and Tmall.com,” it writes in a statement announcing the news. “AutoNavi and Alibaba will also cooperate in the areas of map engine, location search, navigation and cloud computing services and will cross-promote their respective products and services, with a goal of developing new location-based business models.” Both Joseph C. Tsai, executive vice chairman of Alibaba, and Eddie Wu, president of Alibaba’s mobile products division, will join AutoNavi’s board of directors when the deal closes “in the near future.” Make no mistake that this is part of Alibaba’s bigger mobile play: “This new alliance reflects our vision for the future of the mobile Internet,” Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba and the company’s figurehead, said in a statement. “We’re pleased to work with partners such as AutoNavi to develop terrific applications and services that bring more convenience, fun, and joy to our users. We’ll continue to work toward this goal with tireless enthusiasm.” But it is also an important step for AutoNavi as it looks for more ways of commercialising its popular but only somewhat profitable technology. In released at the same time as the news of the Alibaba investment (not a coincidence, I suspect), AutoNavi noted that revenues declined 3.8% to $34.3 million, net income was down 38% to $9.3 million, and EPS declined by 2 cents to $0.03. “Our new alliance with Alibaba highlights the importance of map applications as a key entry point for mobile services in the age of smartphones,” said Congwu Cheng, AutoNavi’s chief executive officer, in a statement. “With Alibaba’s support, AutoNavi will be able to establish a massive platform of points of interest (“POIs”) related to the kinds of services our users seek every day. The alliance will also enable us to create an innovative monetization model by providing consumers with a one-stop service application that integrates merchant information with POIs search, data mining, payment, and other e-commerce activities.” [Original story continues below.] If the report is accurate, it would mean that Alibaba has displaced AutoNavi CEO Jun Hou as its largest shareholder. According to a , Hou held 16.7 percent stake of the company’s shares as of Dec. 31, 2012. AutoNavi is the most widely used mobile mapping service in China, . Its . The company for iOS 6 and Google users in China, as well as Baidu’s mapping services. The report of the Alibaba’s investment comes three months after AutoNavi vice president Qie Jian-jun said that his company wants to build a “map-based Taobao” by turning its maps service into an online-to-offline gateway for brick-and-mortar vendors. Taobao is Alibaba’s C2C e-commerce platform. If it’s true that Alibaba has taken a majority stake in AutoNavi, that means it has filled a hole in its product roster. Unlike competitors Baidu and Tencent, Alibaba does not have its own standalone map service (the company’s , which , relies on merchant information from other Alibaba properties).
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Carl Icahn and Southeastern Propose Alternative Offer To Michael Dell’s Buyout
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
Dell shareholders Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management have teamed up to propose an alternative offer to founder Michael Dell’s $24.4 billion leveraged buyout deal. According to correspondence , Icahn and Southeastern say they would give Dell shareholders the option to continue holding stock in the company and take an additional $12 a share in cash or stock. Southeastern is Dell’s largest shareholder with a 8.5 percent stake. Icahn and Southeastern currently hold a combined 13 percent of Dell’s stock, while Michael Dell and his partners hold about 16 percent. Carl Icahn has sought to overturn Michael Dell’s bid to take the company private since March. The activist investor, who owns a $1 billion stake in Dell, originally said he was open to a partnership with Blackstone Group after the private equity firm . Blackstone Group backed away from its offers last month, however, . Dell’s operating margins and sales have been hurt as demand for PCs drop. Michael Dell and Silver Lake agreed in February to buy out shareholders at $13.65 a share. Icahn and Southeastern are who say that Michael Dell and Silver Lake’s offer undervalues the company. In the letter seen by WSJ, Icahn and Southeastern also brought up the possibility of replacing Michael Dell and other members of Dell’s board and management. “You now have the opportunity to ameliorate the damage we believe you have caused to Dell and its shareholders by following the fair and reasonable path set forth in this letter,” wrote Icahn and Southeastern president G. Staley Cates.
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As Tech Giants Scramble For Talent, It’s Buy Or Die
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
The writing’s on the wall. Mobile is the future, and it requires different skills than the web. Entrepreneurship is more fetishized than ever, making standard hiring tough. The result is days like today where , , , and all bought startups, and and were reported to be in talks for major acquisitions. Big is a scary thing to be right now. The tech giant story goes something like this. You start as a visionary founder with a crazy dream. You recruit your friends to give it a shot. Suddenly there’s a breakthrough or some traction, and everyone wants to work for you. You’re small and nimble. Employees are trusted to make quick decisions, and the whole company can pivot on a dime to pursue a new opportunity. But to beat competitors to the punch with the muscle to accomplish your dreams, you have to get bigger. Bureaucracy sets in and decisions take longer. You have too much momentum to shift directions. Allocating resources to chase a hunch gets tougher. You’re no longer the startup; you’re the giant. Despite your perks and hefty paychecks, no one wants to work for the giant. They want an adventure. The adventure you already had. Then some punk kids come out of nowhere with the company you would have founded if you started five years later. You could try to build it now, but that’s too slow and they’re already winning. Or you could try to partner with them or someone else, but that’s messy and unreliable. You end up with a choice: They either eat your lunch or you buy their lunch. They disrupt you, or you acquire them. So you buy them. Then you either keep their product running and reap the benefits while knowing they’re not a real danger to you anymore like Facebook did with Instagram. Or you fold their team and technology in to keep your core products relevant and evolving, like Box did today buying Adobe Acrobat-killer Crocodoc. This same story has played out over and over again throughout the lifespan of Silicon Valley. But there are new factors putting even more pressure on the big guys to swallow up the little guys. On the web, you threw everything at the wall, and anything that stuck even a little got left in the product. With plenty of screen real estate and instant rollouts of changes, you could afford to do too much. But mobile is minimalist. People want one app to nail one use case. It has to work in bite-size sessions. Bloat is painfully apparent. You need not just mobile designers, or even mobile-first designers. You need mobile-best designers. The advent of the web happened slowly, and several generations of startups were built on it. A star product lead from a few years ago could work magic again. But mobile came on fast. Not necessarily in the advances in technology, but in adoption. Even just a year ago, mobile was thought of as an option. Now some giants like Facebook have more users on mobile than the web. You either “get” mobile, or you’re doomed. If you can’t build it, and you can’t hire it, you’re pretty much forced to buy it. Yahoo didn’t buy GoPollGo to concentrate on polling. It did it because the startup was mobile in its heart. Blame it on the finance sector’s collapse, the seed funding explosion, Y Combinator, Instagram, and tech blogs like us. Chalk it up to an entitled generation where everyone wants to be their own boss, not a loyal soldier. Or say it’s mobile and the cloud’s fault for making it so easy to get a business to market. But whatever the cause, great tech talent is fragmenting. People are willing to gamble on the chance of having a huge impact on the world and getting rich at the same time. The people you want to hire aren’t applying and interviewing, they’re running their own companies. Meanwhile for VCs, everyone wants to be the toast of the town by being the seed investor in a hot startup. That means anyone with a good idea, or some combination of an okay idea and a good track record/connections/academic pedigree can raise money and take a swing. And why not? Best-case scenario: You change the world, grow into one of the new power-players of Silicon Valley, and maybe sell or IPO for a boat-load of money. Worst-case scenario: You fail and lose (mostly) someone else’s money. You end up with a fundamental learning experience that will build character, maybe make you a better person, and quiet your professional wanderlust forever. Plus now, thanks to the old giants’ scrambling to stay young, there’s a mediocre-case scenario: You sell while you’re still small, take a cushy job at a big company, work on something making a difference, and learn skills while you bide your time for your “next adventure.” You could argue that all these acquisitions and acqui-hires are kneecapping innovation. That they’re preventing potential giants from ever hitting their stride. But few people are fighting for the abstract cause of “Innnovation” with a capital I. Thanks to disruption insurance through acquisitions, it could be hard to truly kill Yahoo — a company many thought was marked for death years ago. Mark Zuckerberg disrupted Myspace in a blink of the Internet’s eye. But if he keeps buying talented teams and phenonema like Instagram rather than letting them mature into real threats, it could take a lot longer to displace Facebook. Giants want to keep their dreams alive. Founders want to chase them. Acquisitions make both less likely to wake up to a nightmare.
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Desire2Learn’s New Learning Suite Aims To Predict Success, Change How Students Navigate Their Academic Career
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
is a 10-plus year old Canadian company that makes learning software — a learning management system to be precise — and here’s why, in spite of that description, it shouldn’t bore you to sleep. In a space that’s traditionally been controlled by bigs like Blackboard and Moodle, Desire2Learn has quietly managed to carve out its own growing share of the market. Last September, the Waterloo-based company round from NEA and others, and today has over 700 clients and more than 10 million people across higher education, K-12, healthcare and beyond are using its learning software. Although the company doesn’t disclose financial information, we’ve heard that its institutional contracts are now translating into millions in revenue, which along with its raise, has allowed it to expand its staff from 600 to over 750 over the last year. In turn, the company has been ramping up its focus on and is rumored to be planning an IPO in the U.S. at some point down the road. While Desire2Learn has established a solid base, it’s strategic M&A that can help lead the way forward, fighting off a flattening growth curve and leading to better products. The company has been acquiring with more frequency of late, including two back-to-back in January and March. Desire2Learn acquired course in March and is already putting its tech to use to continue expanding its learning platform. This week, the company announced what it called “the biggest update to its Learning Suite to date” — an update in which Degree Compass’ tech plays a central role, not only by expanding its toolset but by potentially changing the way students navigate their academic career. To do this, Desire2Learn wants to bring predictive analytics into play in education. But why? Well, first and foremost because, today, if students want to figure out whether a course is right for them — or how well they might perform in that course — they’re hard pressed to find a good answer. They can ask fellow students, check websites that rank faculty based on nebulous criteria or try to find surveys, but none of these options are ideal. With its new analytics engine, Desire2Learn aims to change that by giving students the ability to predict their success in a particular course based on what they’ve studied in the past and how they performed in those classes. The new, so-called “Student Success System,” was built (in part) from the technology it acquired from Degree Compass; however, while Degree Compass used predictive analytics to help students optimize their course selection, the new product aims to help both sides of the learning equation: Students teachers. On the teacher side, Desire2Learn’s new analytics engine allows them to view predictive data visualizations that compare student performance against their peers so that they can identify at-risk students, for example, and monitor a student’s progress over time. The idea is to give teachers access to important insight on stuff like class dynamics and learning trends, which they can then combine with assessment data, to improve their instruction or adapt to the way individual students learn. In theory, this leads not only to higher engagement, but also better outcomes. For students, they use Desire2Learn as they normally would, using it to view course materials, take quizzes, submit homework and chat with their peers. The platform then collects and analyzes each student’s personal data and, by drawing from a wider set of inputs, the engine can more accurately predict which classes students will perform best in and what their grades will be. The system is currently operating at about 90 percent accuracy when it comes to predicting performance by letter grades, CEO John Baker tells us — a number which should improve as the engine accumulates more data, he says. In addition to its predictive analytics, Desire2Learn is also making some significant updates to its mobile app, including new integrations with Dropbox and SkyDrive to allow students to engage with learning resources in the same way they do outside the classroom. What’s more, Desire2Learn is moving into Patbrite’s territory through ePortfolio and its new tool which allows students to build portfolios based on their in-school projects, grades and achievements in a way that’s applicable to life after school and finding a job. Essentially, the tool allows students to move their academic resume to the cloud so they can take it with them after they graduate, which the company is incentivizing by offering 2GB of free storage. Basically, what we’ve come to realize, the Desire2Learn CEO tells me, is that the company’s initial approach to business (or academic) intelligence was off track. “Students and teachers don’t necessarily want more data, they want more insight and they want that data broken out in a way that they can understand and helps them more quickly visualize the learning map,” he says. When I asked if building and adding more and more tools and features would dilute the experience and result in feature overload, Baker said that the company doesn’t want to build a million different tools. Instead, it wants to become a platform that supports a million tools and allows third-parties that specialize in particular areas of education to help develop better products. Through open-sourcing its APIs, Desire2Learn along with Edmodo and an increasing number of education startups are beginning to tap into the potential inherent to the creation of a real ecosystem. Adding predictive analytics tools gives Desire2Learn another carrot with which they hope to be able to draw both teachers, students and development partners into its ecosystem.
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Deal Management Startup CapLinked Adds New Investors (And $500K) To Its Series A
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
, a startup offering workspaces for managing business deals, announced today that it has closed a $2.1 million Series A. The company previously said that it from FF Angel (the seed-stage fund operated by Founders Fund), Siemer Ventures, 500 Startups, and others, so this is basically a $500,000 addition. The new investors include Conversion Capital, Inflection Ventures, The Artesian Group, Googler Chris Harris, and AccessDNA founder Lee Essener. CapLinked pitches itself as an easier-to-use, cheaper alternative to the big providers of virtual data rooms. It creates online workspaces for managing deals, such as merger and acquisitions and investor reporting, where the various parties can communicate and exchange files securely. Customers include Thomson Reuters, Sun Capital, and NextView Ventures. And yes, in the funding press release, co-founder and CEO Eric Jackson says he used CapLinked software to manage this very deal. The company has now raised a total of more than $3 million.
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Eyeing $4.5B In Sales This Year, Phone Maker Xiaomi Looks To Emulate A 340-Year-Old Chinese Medicine Company
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Kim-Mai Cutler
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
Whom do the idols idolize? Lei Jun, the CEO of Android handset and OS maker Xiaomi, is arguably the face of tech entrepreneurship in China as a long-time angel investor and serial entrepreneur behind companies like Amazon-acquired Joyo.cn and the recently IPO’d YY. He’s been called the “Steve Jobs of China” in the sense that Xiaomi is an integrated hardware and software maker that has altered Android for Chinese tastes. They sell high-end Android phones at or slightly above the cost of materials and profit through accessories and eventually, software and services. While the country has been known for lower-end hardware makers, Xiaomi is pushing the idea that . The company has its own fanboys to prove it. Just two years after launching their first device, Xiaomi , bringing the company $4.5 billion in revenue. Last year, they sold 7 million phones. Sales in batches of 200K to 300K phones on their website regularly sell out — sometimes in less than an hour. Lei Jun But Xiaomi also has incredibly high expectations to realize; the company’s valuation is not just predicated on raw hardware sales, but also on the idea that Xiaomi will eventually be able to monetize software services — something it has yet to prove against giants like Alibaba and Tencent in the ridiculously competitive Chinese market. While founding the company three years ago, Jun thought about the history of Chinese business and entrepreneurship to find role models. “What kind of company in China can last for a century?” he asked at the GMIC conference in Beijing this week. He said he ultimately looked up to two companies: a 340-year-old traditional Chinese medicine company called Tongrentang and hot pot chain Hai Di Lao. He said Tongrentang’s mission taught him two things — never produce lower-quality products for the sake of cost and never spare any effort in creating the best quality products. Hai Di Lao, which is indeed a delicious hot pot chain (yes, I’ve tried it), taught him about the value of customer service. In a separate interview, co-founder and president Lin Bin suggested that I order items not on the menu or even praise the dishware in the restaurant. “They take customer feedback very, very seriously and always leave you with a surprise,” Bin said. In a way, Jun is critical of the prevailing business culture in China. “There’s a big problem with integrity in China,” he said. “People sell pigs but you’re not eating pork,” he added on-stage, alluding to recent health scares where rat meat has been marked as lamb. Paired with this focus on high-quality parts is a marketing model that’s unusual for any handset maker globally. Xiaomi sold 72 percent of its phones directly through its online store last year, bypassing the costly logistical headache of dealing with brick-and-mortar retailers. Right now, they have two models: one that retails for 1999 renminbi ($326) and a more basic version that goes for 1499 renminbi ($245). They can do this because the company has cultivated a unique participatory model of designing phones. Every week, the company releases a new version of its customized Android experience: the miUI. Of their millions of customers, there are a few hundred thousand “hardcore” fans who do the teardowns, scrutinize every spec and offer suggestions on how to change the phone. “Chinese consumers are actually very critical in the sense that they compare not just the build and look and feel of phones, but also everything that goes inside — the CPU, memory, speed, the specs,” Bin said. “They are pretty savvy about the money they pay for these phones.” Jun uses Weibo, the public Chinese social networking platform that sometimes draws comparisons to Twitter, to solicit advice and communicate with Xiaomi fans. He’s offered different levels of hard drive storage based on user feedback. He said they even added a sound recording app at the behest of a reporter. “We co-develop the phone,” Jun said in another interview. “I’ve used more than 70 phones in the last couple years. I have lots of suggestions, but will they change their phone? Even Nokia? Most likely not. So I created a model where I’ve invited all of my fans to be involved in designing the phone. It’s one of the most exciting things for them.” He says this is a key part of why Xiaomi spends less than its peers on marketing. “If you invented a feature in the Xiaomi phone, will you tell your classmates and friends that you invented a feature? Most likely you will.” Their approach ties into a big trend that is fueling a hardware Renaissance globally: the ability to feel out product-market fit through social media before a capital-intensive manufacturing process — be it through Twitter, Weibo or a Kickstarter campaign. Through that feedback and Xiaomi’s own in-house engineers and designers, miUI includes improvements over the standard flavor of Android. Jun says that they’ve tweaked how applications run in the background so that a Xiaomi phone can go up to six or seven days without a recharge. (I’ve been carrying an older Xiaomi around and it has held up for a few days at a time, unlike my iPhone, which needs to be recharged every day.) There are also lots of UI flourishes that are, frankly, Apple-like.
While Xiaomi has done well at positioning itself as much more than a commodity hardware maker, one of its next challenges will be to prove that it can make money off software and services. Because it sells phones at or near the cost of the build of materials, Xiaomi will rely on accessories and services to boost its margins. Jun is reluctant to say whether Xiaomi is at heart more of a software or hardware company (a question that has also perplexed analysts of Apple). “We positioned ourselves as triathlon athletes,” Jun said. “We do software, hardware and Internet services, so if you would ask which part of the three is stronger, my answer is: would you ask a triathlon athlete whether they are best at running, swimming or cycling?” They’ve shared some vanity stats showing traction, although it’s hard to understand what they mean. Xiaomi’s app store sees 3.5 million app downloads a day, 3.5 million photos uploaded to its cloud service a day and has seen 2 billion messages uploaded cumulatively. Its messaging app MiTalk is way behind Tencent’s WeChat, which is the other big China tech story of the year with 190 million active users. There are some promising metrics, though. Bin says Xiaomi’s customers are twice as active on the mobile web as those of other manufacturers. That sort of engagement could lend itself to interesting revenue opportunities down the line in gaming and e-commerce, although the company declined to share specifics. Two other growth areas for Xiaomi are international markets and in other types of hardware. The company is expanding to greater China — or Taiwan and Hong Kong. Bin is reluctant to talk about even more international markets, saying that the company just wants to prove itself in these two areas first. There are unique challenges. For one, these markets rely on more of the subsidized model that’s common in the West where carriers lower the list price through post-paid plans. In China, many consumers pay for the full cost of the phone upfront. They also don’t know whether the marketing model where they heavily engage a core set of fans will work outside of mainland China. The other growth area is with Xiaomi’s new set-top boxes. It was a rocky start with the initial sales of the set-top boxes blocked by Chinese regulations around TV content. But they re-launched two months ago. Bin and Jun declined to share figures on sales so far, except to say that Jun has seen second-hand models show up on eBay and Taobao for $90 (which is about twice the list price of 299 renminbi). Bin is hesitant to share too many targets, because he claims that Xiaomi doesn’t really even have that many internally. Even the goal to get to 15 million handsets is to that many, not necessarily to sell that many (although they invariably sell out). “We don’t have any KPIs (key performance indicators) — not even internally,” Bin said. “Our KPI is to get handsets to everyone who can place an order online and make a full payment.”
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OpenTable For Android Gets Better Google Maps Integration, Booked Reservations To Calendar And Improved Navigation
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Drew Olanoff
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
If you’ve been using OpenTable to reserve tables at your favorite restaurants, the will help you discover new places to eat a little better and keep track of everything you have going on. It also got some of that lovin’. The company , noting a complete overhaul of its maps integration, fully leveraging Google Maps v2. The other major feature, that the company notes was a popular community request, is the ability to add a reservation directly to your Google Calendar. This feature is available for those using Android 4.0+. The plus here is that you can utilize Google Calendar to send out invites to your dinner, which is the best way to get those last reminders in. It’s pretty shocking that this hasn’t been available until now. The new maps integration cuts down on clutter, OpenTable says, and you can now use the feature to explore areas away from where you are currently, which was a bit of an odd restraint in the previous version of the app. Navigation is now much easier, allowing you to go back to the previous page or jump to your favorites, current reservations or a map view. The profile pages themselves got a facelift too, showing the overall rating for a restaurant immediately: Some other quick tweaks include speedier menu and review loading and the ability to edit your reservation’s date, time and party size right on the restaurant page, rather than having to jump around. The company promises more Android-specific updates moving forward, after updating last month to include a cool feature, Foodspotting dishes.
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YouTube Tiptoes Toward Paywalls With The Launch Of Channel Subscriptions, But The Ads Play On
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
While it would take you a million lifetimes to watch all the video on YouTube, the company relies on contributions from its amateur and professional partners to keep its content fresh. At the same time, its core business model revolves around providing advertisers with the ability to reach its billion-plus viewers. In turn, video creators rely (or want to rely) on a piece of that ad revenue to continue producing their content. The problem is, of course, that those ads are intrusive, annoying and, at the end of the day, its partners are finding that the revenue from those banners and clips isn’t growing nearly as fast as, say, the number of cat videos on YouTube. In an effort to provide its partners with an alternative revenue stream, that it is officially launching a pilot program that enables its video stars to charge subscription fees for access to their channels. Subscriptions will start at $0.99/month, and every channel will be able to offer a 14-day free trial, along with discounted yearly rates. In its announcement, YouTube cites Sesame Street, which will offer full episodes through its paid channel, and UFC offering fans the ability to watch classic fights as examples. For more, here’s the list of its 53-odd . As of today, users can subscribe to paid channels from their desktops and laptops and watch across devices, but going forward YouTube will look to add the ability to subscribe from any medium/device. On top of that, YouTube will begin a broader roll out of subscriptions in the next few weeks for “qualifying partners,” and from the looks of it, it will be adding a paid channel recommendation feed — just as it does now for free channels. If you don’t have a YouTube channel, why should you care? Well, YouTube has been telegraphing this for awhile, but it’s really the first (official) sign that YouTube is beginning to tiptoe into the paid video market. Granted, the subscription model isn’t a new idea for YouTube, considering the company that it will be launching a music subscription service later this year. The goal is much the same: Give musicians/artists/creators an opportunity to make some money, while improving the user experience for listeners by potentially removing some of those obnoxious ads that start every video. Of course, in the case of both video and music, it’s much more likely that YouTube is going to stick with both. Amateur content creators are going to be hesitant about erecting paywalls around their content. Most viewers are going to balk at the idea of buying a subscription to a YouTube channel, and there’s a question of whether or not they’d really be able to convert enough of their viewers to paid subscriptions to make it worth it. In the end, it’s the same issue newspapers and publishers have struggled with for years. There’s also the fact that every video producer is already offering their content for free, although behind ads. Now you’re going to tell viewers that they have to pay for the same content they’ve been getting for free? Sure, that will work for your superfans, but as is the way with the “freemium” model, if you’re going to charge, the content behind the paywall better be, well, premium. I want to see “Extras,” exclusive content/footage, and so on. Of course, as , amateur video producers likely don’t have the resources to produce that exclusive or premium content. Nonetheless, the company is going to use paid subscriptions in an attempt to attract new partners, new content creator and, we assume, more dollars — although YouTube doesn’t specify whether it will be taking a cut of subscriptions or not. YouTube is clearly aware of the success Hulu, Netflix, Vimeo and other video sites have been having with subscription and on-demand models, and it wants to become more attractive to film and TV networks, studios and producers. But for now, YouTube can’t make the jump exclusively to subscriptions, because it needs those ad dollars that are keeping the whole thing afloat. It’s a tricky line to walk, no doubt, but YouTube certainly isn’t helping its user experience by setting up the potential to have both a paywall and ads in and around videos for the foreseeable future. Just speaking for myself personally, I probably most frequently use YouTube for search (and a little discovery), particularly around music. In other words, I’ll have a song or an artist in mind, will do a YouTube search, which inevitably serves a couple or dozens of choices for the same song, artist or even subject. There’s a high likelihood that I have no idea which video I want or is best, which requires some perusing, so having a 10 second ad at the beginning of each video is really disruptive. Maybe that’s a niche use case, but I suspect not. YouTube ads, while tolerable because we consciously or subconsciously recognize their role in keeping millions of cat videos afloat and online, are frustrating. Sure, Hulu has ads, too, and they aren’t much better. But at least in Hulu’s case, the viewer knows they’re watching a 30-minute or hour-long episode of television online, and regular old offline TV has already conditioned us to expect ads every 5 seconds. Unfortunately. But for a 2-minute clip of questionable quality? Come on. So keeping ads, while slowly throwing up paywalls is just a bad idea. So the roll out of paid video will end up being incremental and almost just a show of good faith — to keep from ruffling feathers — while the ads just keep proliferating.
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State Department Demands 3-D Gun Blueprints Be Removed
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
Well that was quick: The State Department just a week after they were posted. The Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance is forcing outspoken Second Amendment crusader Cody Wilson to remove the downloadable 3-D printer files from Defcad.org under expert laws known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). “Until the Department provides Defense Distributed with final [commodity jurisdiction] determinations, Defense Distributed should treat the above technical data as ITAR-controlled,” reads a State Department order” (embedded at the bottom of this post). The defiant gun developer isn’t going to fight the government in a blaze of glory, however. “We have to comply,” he told Forbes. It’s not exactly an empty surrender. The blueprints have already been downloaded 100,000 times and are being held by fellow digital renegade Kim Dotcom in his offshore New Zealand servers. For further insurance, the files have also been uploaded to the popular file-sharing network, the Pirate Bay (we can feel our anarchist readers getting goosebumps right now). Just to make sure he’s an equal-opportunity offender, Wilson argues his activities are legit, because ITAR doesn’t apply to information sold in a library, and conveniently has his being sold in an undisclosed Austin, Texas, bookstore. According to Forbes’ Andy Greenberg, Wilson sees parallels between his strife and the governments abandoned attempts at censoring military-grade encryption software. In the 1990s inventor Phil Zimmermann released software, PGP, so difficult to crack that it could have permitted malicious actors from hiding information from law enforcement. Wilson believes public pressure ultimately convinced the government to back off of Zimmermann. It’ll be interesting to see whether the government has any actual power to prevent the propagation of 3-D gun blueprints.
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Actually, Snapchat Photos Are Just As Deleted As Any Other File You Trash
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
Though Snapchat has been in the media, the technical aspects of the service are still somewhat mysterious to the average user. A new research report from a company called is looking to shed a little light on how the service “deletes” photos you send through Snapchat. According to Decipher, Snapchat photos are renamed with a .jpgnomedia extension to hide that photo from your phone, under /data/data/com.snapchat.android. The computer forensics company claims that they can retrieve these photos both before and after they’ve expired within the app. The only catch is that you need to use their $9,000 forensic software, and you’re in luck! They’re only charging $300 to $600 to do so. This is what we, in the media industry, like to call . Or worse, FUD to drive sales. We did our own digging, with the help of AndroidCentral’s and , and discovered that Snapchat is actually doing exactly what it promises it’s doing. Here’s the scoop. Decipher’s findings only relate to rooted Android smartphones, and require the use of this special, expensive forensic software. When Phil and Jerry tried to break into a rooted HTC One to see all the dirty snaps hiding under the surface, they actually found that you can only retrieve Snapchat photos before they’ve expired. In fact, Snapchat rename the file when its sent to your phone. First, the sender takes the picture, which is sent to Snapchat servers, and then delivered to the phone. Once the photo is delivered to the recipient, Snapchat deletes that photo off of its servers, so the only alternative is that it’s stored locally on the phone. To keep it from showing up in your gallery or elsewhere, Snapchat hides the photo with the .jpgnomedia extension that Decipher mentioned. As Phil explained, “Snapchat has to see the photo to serve up to you, right?” Jerry and Phil confirmed that, on a rooted phone, while the photo is delivered but still unopened, users can absolutely delve into the file system and retrieve, rename, and view these photos. That’s what happens when you root your phone and open it up. However, once the photo is opened, and the timer goes off, Snapchat does in fact delete the photo. Phil and Jerry confirmed that they could no longer retrieve photos once they were expired. Decipher argues that those photos aren’t deleted, and remain renamed with the .jpgnomedia extension even after they expire. But, our own digging proved otherwise. Phil and Jerry said that once the photo expired on Snapchat, the “original file in the protected data folder was no longer available, and was deleted.” Of course, a company like Decipher can still retrieve photos once they’ve expired because they have the software to do so. The same software that retrieves deleted child porn from pedophiles computers, and the same software that digs through digital trash cans for incriminating bank statements, emails, etc. But your average Joe, or even AndroidCentral tinkering wizards, can’t actually dig into the phone and find all the embarrassing snaps you’ve sent them. This comes down to the nature of . When you delete something from your computer, it’s not actually gone. No, not even if you empty the trash can. Instead, the file is re-designated (much like Snapchat renames photos that haven’t been opened) to make it so that photo is non-viewable, and doesn’t surface in the Finder. It’s not until the bits that comprise the file, a series of 1’s and 0’s, are written over that the file is actually gone, and replaced with something new. So, if you delete a picture on your computer, and empty the trash can, I would have a tough time finding that picture. Decipher Forensics? It would take them no time at all. Here’s what Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel had to say in a snarky response to Decipher’s findings: There are many ways to save snaps that you receive. The easiest way is to take a screenshot or take a photo with another camera. Snaps are deleted from our servers after they have been viewed by the recipient. Long story short, don’t panic. And chew on this: Snapchat wasn’t built to be a super secure messaging platform. The whole reason for the self-destructing pictures isn’t to keep your titty shots safe; it’s to create a new type of sharing wherein you live in the moment, not in the digital footprint you leave behind.
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Backed With $1.4 Million, Plated Adds A Social Spin To Its Ready-To-Cook Meal Delivery Service
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Colleen Taylor
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
For the past several years, my New Year’s resolution has been some version of “cook more often” or “try a new recipe every week.” But it never really lasts. As much as I love the act of cooking, so much about it is a huge hassle — choosing a recipe, shopping for all the ingredients (and paying for a whole bottle of a spice I only need a tablespoon of), ending up with a bunch of leftovers. A New York City-based startup called feels my pain — and has raised a $1.4 million seed round led by along with angels including , Manischewitz Company CEO , Facebook vet , and LA-based “adrenaline-fueled” investor . Plated, which was founded last year by Harvard Business School alums and , compiles gourmet recipes from noted chefs such as and delivers all the ingredients necessary to make a home-cooked meal — from the cut meat and chopped produce, right down to details such as a teaspoon of tumeric or a quarter cup of coconut oil — directly to your door. Plated costs for non-members, and as little as $10 to $12 per plate for members. At the moment, Plated’s delivery area serves a swath of the United States’ Eastern seaboard from Virginia to New Hampshire, spanning a population of 52 million (since launching in late 2012 Plated has delivered “tens of thousands” of meals, Taranto and Hix said in a recent interview.) The funding means that Plated is working to expand that delivery area to other regions in the US in the coming months. Plated, which is currently working out of Manhattan’s TechStars incubator, is also actively growing its full-time staff, which now stands at 15 employees. Plated’s new social recipe site (click to enlarge) “With thousands of customers cooking the same meals on same night any given week, this will be a place for them to connect and engage with each other,” Taranto said. “They can talk about what they’re doing, share their personal takes on the recipes, talk to the chef who designed the meal, and ask questions.” While Plated’s competition on the meal delivery side are services such as which deliver already prepared food from restaurants to young professionals and older empty nesters (which are Plated’s strongest demographic groups), the Social Recipe Page launch puts it into competition with the of the world. It’s an interesting next step toward Plated’s long-term vision, which goes well beyond ingredient delivery — it’s a larger goal of using technology to help bring us as humans back to our roots when it comes to food. Taranto puts it like this: “As a working white collar professional, you spend the day at a computer. But there’s a visceral human desire to sink your knife into something. The creative process of making food, and sharing that with people you love most in life, is inherently human. The chopping, the boiling — people want to do that. The bigger picture is that we’re building the online food brand for 21st century.”
As a big idea startup with very unique business model, Plated will certainly be one to watch as it continues to scale. Watch the video embedded below to see a Plated box and hear Taranto talk more about the company’s history and plans for the future.
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Web Clipping Service Clipboard Acquired By Salesforce For $12M, Will Be Shuttered On June 30th
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
Today is just jam-packed full of acquisition-shutdowns. Just hours ago, word broke that Yahoo! had acquired both and , with plans to discontinue both. Next up on the happy-now-sad-users-later train: Clipboard, the bookmarklet-based web clipping service . According to a notice e-mailed to its users, Clipboard has been acquired by Salesforce and will be shutdown in a bit over a month. While terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, we’re hearing that the final figure was in the “double digit millions” — Leading up to today, the company had raised $2.5M from Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, CrunchFund, SV Angel, Betaworks, DFJ, First Round and others. Wondering what the heck Clipboard is — or, soon, was? Not unlike Pinterest, Snip.it, or the myriad other web clipping services that popped up around 2010/2011, Clipboard let you highlight things from around the web and “clip” them into a digital storage locker for later perusal. Once in their backend, clipped content could be annotated, shared, or just browsed at a later date. Given the similarities to existing services like Pinterest and Evernote, both with huge traction themselves, Clipboard had yet to find a substantially sized audience for its service. Prior to the acquisition, the company had grown to around 100,000 users, and was seeing growth rates of 40 percent month-over-month. In January, it reported having reached 1.7 million+ clips since it had opened its private beta, back in October 2011. The company had some interest in the education space, however. At the beginning of the year, it received a strategic investment from ed-tech company Scientia. But following the Salesforce buyout, the product itself will be shut down and discontinued on June 30th, 2013, so those earlier plans to further develop the product for use in the education space will be discontinued as well. While the notice itself makes no mention of what’s next for the team, an acquisition FAQ on their site lays it all out: Clipboard founder and CEO Gary Flake will be joining Salesforce as VP of Engineering, and much of the service’s design and engineering team will still be working under his guidance out of Salesforce’s Seattle office. Clipboard is giving users until the end of June to say goodbye to the service and get their data out Come June 30th, that data heads for a server farm in the sky (read: it’s getting destroyed). Hi [user], We have some bittersweet news. We are extremely happy to announce that salesforce.com has signed an agreement to acquire Clipboard, allowing us to pursue our mission of saving and sharing the Web on a much larger scale. But at the same time we’re also sad to see this stage of our adventure come to an end, especially since it means that our relationship with you, our users, will irreversibly change. The Clipboard service at clipboard.com will be discontinued on June 30, 2013. But we have your backs. If you want it, all of your data will be preserved into a personal archive from which you can view your clips and boards offline. And if you want your clips destroyed, we can handle that as well. All of the details for what comes next are in the FAQ and some more personal reflections are on our blog. In nearly two years, 140,000 of you created nearly 3 million clips while over a million of you interacted with them. Thank you for joining us on this journey. We will dearly miss seeing all of you on Clipboard, but we hope you’ll support us in the next leg of our journey. Best,
The Clipboard Team
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Matrix Partners Closes On Tenth Fund; Raises $450 Million For Early-Stage Investments
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
just the close of Matrix X, the venture firm’s tenth early-stage technology-focused fund. As Fortune’s Dan Primack , the firm raised $450 million for this fund. The fund will be used to make early-stage investments in consumer Internet, mobile, enterprise software and IT infrastructure. Matrix’s portfolio includes Gilt Groupe, HubSpot, JustFab, Zendesk and others. Generally Matrix’s initial investments are between $2 million and $10 million, and on occasion the firm will make seed-stage and later-stage investments. The firm’s past two funds also totaled $450 million, and Matrix says that they chose to keep this fund size, “despite significant over subscription.” While past reports indicated that Matrix raised a slightly lower amount than in previous funds, the firm said that this was the third consecutive fund that totalled $450 million. As explained in a release: “Unlike Matrix IX, this fund will be our only US investment vehicle. Due to the unusual market conditions in 2008, we coupled a $150M Special Opportunity Fund with Matrix IX to take advantage of some unique investment opportunities we thought might emerge, but we never called any capital in that fund.” In addition to the U.S., Matrix also makes investments in China and India.
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Say Media Lays Off 10 Percent Of Staff, Aims For Profitability In Second Half Of 2013
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
Matt Sanchez, co-founder and CEO of (which owns xoJane, ReadWrite, and Dogster), just told me that the company has laid off about 10 percent of . Sanchez described this as part of Say’s transformation from an ad network to “a digital media company.” The company isn’t getting out of the ad network business completely, but he said that part of Say is relatively mature and that the company’s focus should be on the content side. The layoffs, Sanchez said, were really about looking “at all parts of the business except for sales and our content organization” and bringing them in line with that vision. As for why the layoffs are happening now, he said there’s more pressure on digital media companies to become profitable. For example, he pointed to TechCrunch-owner (the company is still facing , and CEO Tim Armstrong tried to allay those concerns by saying that Patch will be profitable in the fourth quarter). Sanchez told me that with the layoffs, Say should be profitable in the second half of 2013. Looking ahead, he said he plans to stay focused on the content verticals that Say has already established (style, tech, and living), but that doesn’t preclude launching or acquiring new sites in the future — he just wants to do that using the company’s profits, rather than raising more venture capital. “Regardless of whether it’s an IPO, an acquisition, whatever you think about our long-term prospects from an exit perspective, nothing’s changed,” Sanchez said. “We want to build an enduring media company. … We just think the best way to get there is to get profitable and grow from strength.” Here’s the memo that Sanchez sent to Say staff: Sayers, This morning we had to say goodbye to some really talented Say Media employees and it was tough. It’s been a difficult day for all of us, and I know that many of you are feeling the absence of our colleagues and friends. We did not make these decisions lightly; each person that left today has contributed to our mission and will be missed. Two and a half years ago, we set out on a course to build the media company of the future. We knew it wouldn’t be easy, and along the way the media landscape has continued to shift. We’ve navigated from ad network to media company while the transactional display market has commoditized on exchanges as predicted. We’ve invested heavily in this transformation, and are coming out the other side with a solid foundation for the future. We have built out a world-class publishing platform, transformed our sales team, evolved our offering to content-led marketing programs and filled out our brand portfolio with talent and brands we are all very proud of. Our focus on Point-of-View content is working. Our brands are deeply engaging, growing communities of readers. The publishing platform on which these brands sit boasts a pipeline of new products that are poised to change the media landscape. And our advertising solutions are impressive and working hard for our marketing partners. That said, the time is right for us to transition aggressively to continued growth with profitability. To that end, we’ve made a set of hard decisions aimed at right-sizing our business with a greater focus on supporting our strong content brands, growing sales and building innovative publishing and advertising products — while at the same time achieving profitability in the second half of this year. Each and every one of you is incredibly important to what we are building at Say. Your passion, intelligence, energy and loyalty are what make this company and our culture so special. Today’s actions were painful but necessary for us to move forward, and I am confident we are on the right path to creating the media company of the future. We’ll get together tomorrow for an All Hands, and I’ll share more detail about this action and our plans for the year. As always, please reach out to me if you have any questions. Thanks,
Matt
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Twitter Acquires Palo Alto-Based Scalable Computing Startup Ubalo
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
It’s only been a few weeks since the folks behind music-charting app We Are Hunted confirmed that it was acquired by Twitter, and it seems that Twitter isn’t done snapping up startups just yet. Ubalo CEO Jacob Mattingly and CTO Ian Downes announced earlier today that the folks at Twitter have agreed to acquire the scalable computing technology they’ve been working on for the past two years, and that the four-person Ubalo team would officially join the Twitter flock. I can’t blame you if you haven’t heard of Ubalo — it first launched back in 2011 (complete with funding from ) and seemed to hide behind a very vague landing page that claimed that Ubalo was an “early-stage numerical computing startup.” That vision seemed to change somewhat over time, as the team was most recently working on a simplified way for users to run their code across large computing environments. As the team put it, the mission was to “hide the details of the computers, environments, and messaging, so our users can worry much less about integration and scaling and instead write just the code they need for their analysis or processing.” The Ubalo team is no stranger to fiddling with Twitter’s data either — one of their case studies dealt with based on their topics. The amount of time needed to complete the task? Just over 21 seconds. Yet another case study saw the team processing 25,000 tweets and analyzing them for sentiment, which took roughly 19 seconds. As you might guess, Twitter has declined to officially comment on the deal or where the Ubalo team would end up, but the team pointed to one particular meeting that set this whole thing into motion. When we met the infrastructure folks at Twitter, we realized that it’s a company with brilliant people, strong momentum, exciting challenges and a promising future. We quickly became enthusiastic about the possibility of collaborating with them and the impact we could have there. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see that Mattingley and Downes have joined Twitter’s engineering team to help refine the incredibly popular service’s infrastructure, but for now we’ll have to wait and see — neither founder would shed any additional light on the deal.
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BDC Venture Capital Partners With Government-Funded Accelerators To Inject More Canada Into The U.S. Startup Scene
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
BDC Venture Capital, the leading , announced today that it would add its financial and expert support to ongoing Canadian Technology Accelerator programs being run in the U.S. by the Canadian government. The programs, spread across various major tech hubs, including Boston, Philadelphia, New York and San Francisco, give Canadian startups the U.S. face time they need to make connections and product sales. BDC says that the goal is to get the Canadian startups with the most potential into a high-growth market as effectively as possible and says this is a natural extension of its work with Canadian-based accelerators and incubators, including , , and . BDC’s Montreal VP Senia Rapisarda explained that, while while some of the most “venture-ready” startups participating in the CTA program will be eligible for its convertible note options for financial support”, this is more about providing an experience for startups that they might not otherwise have. “We understand that we can bring companies up to a certain level [with our Canada-based accelerators],” she said. “But then, the U.S. clearly being the first port of entry in terms of customers, it really made a lot of sense to pair up with the CTAs in New York, San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia who were so close to customers that at that point a company could be seriously accelerated.” Rapisarda uses an example an enterprise software startup that gained access to Fortune 500 companies located in New York and the Bay area through the program, where they were better able to learn exactly what those companies needed and then tailor their offerings for them. Overall, the whole program is about treating companies not as specifically “American” or “Canadian,” but about going after opportunity where it’s biggest, in order to give them the best start possible. BDC is sending the “best of the crop” to these CTAs, she said, which is “producing results quite quickly.” The approach they’re taking is akin to how you run a startup, Rapisarda says. BDC is treating each case individually and tailoring its approaches to the vertical or industry of each startup they send in terms of how long they’ll stay in the U.S. and what kind of mentors they need and connections they’ll make. She says it’s about being flexible, and “evaluating” and “pivoting” the same way early stage startups do to properly meet the market’s needs. In other words, BDC Venture is very keen on eating its own dogfood when it comes to running these international accelerator efforts. One key area to watch in the future is how Canada’s Startup Visa program affects the international dynamics of early stage companies, and of accelerators. “What I think is interesting is to see the impact of the Startup Visa on Canadian companies, which are able now to attract even more talent from different countries,” she said. “And how that will impact the relationship with the United States in terms of markets, because clearly the most promising markets are then South America, India and China.” For now though, the U.S. remains the major gateway for Canadian businesses, and initiatives like this one hope to help them make sure that companies with the strength to succeed in that market get the chance to prove it.
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Box Acquires Crocodoc To Add HTML5 Document Converter And Sleek Content Viewing Experience To Cloud Storage Platform
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
Cloud storage company Box has acquired HTML5 document embedding service and Y Combinator alum , both companies announced in a press briefing today. Financial terms of the deal, which was a cash and stock transaction, were not disclosed; however, Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie said that it was a successful exit for investors. Crocodoc has raised a little over $1 million in funding from Y Combinator, SV Angel, Paul Buchheit, Joshua Schachter, Dave McClure, Steve Chen and XG Ventures. Crocodoc was founded in 2007 by four MIT engineers, but eventually pivoted in 2010 to kill off Acrobat. The startup’s initial Flash-based technology allowed you to upload a PDF, and receive a version of the same document in your browser, which you could then share with coworkers and annotate with notes, highlighting, text, and a pen tool, with changes that show up to other users in real time. In 2011, Crocodoc this technology in HTML5 for mobile embedding. Last year, Crocodoc a new version of HTML5 embedding technology specifically designed for the scale and demand of consumer and business web and mobile applications. Using Crocodoc, PDFs, PowerPoint or Word documents can be embedded into any web or mobile app using a simple iFrame or JavaScript library (no plug-ins, downloads, or desktop software required). The technology features fast, crystal-clear rendering and advanced security, including 256-bit document encryption, on-premise storage options, and multiple deployment options, including SaaS and private cloud. More than 100 companies, including Dropbox, LinkedIn, Yammer, Facebook and SAP, license (and pay for) the startup’s document-embedding technology, and Levie says the company has been able to build a “strong business model.” For example, Dropbox has used Crocodoc’s HTML5 document viewing solution to allow their users to view documents in their web browsers and mobile devices without having to download large files or use desktop software (you can see an example ). Via LinkedIn’s Recruiter product, Crocodoc enables recruiters to upload candidates’ resumes in Word and PDF formats without having to download files and open them using desktop software. Customers can also customize the appearance and behavior of Crocodoc’s viewer and access built-in commenting, annotations, highlighting and drawing tools. Crocodoc, which now has seven employees, says that it has powered 189 million document previews and 14 million document annotations. Also worth noting — earlier this year, Crocodoc a new version of its converter, which uses both HTML5 and scalable vector graphics (SVG). With the last version of the player, text was overlaid on top of the image using HTML web fonts. The newer version displays everything in the document as HTML5 and SVG, making for crisper lines and shapes in the converted documents. Documents also load significantly faster, as the browser won’t have to load a large image to display. As Levie explained today, Box acquired Crocodoc because the company wants to reimagine what documents look like in the cloud. “We’re focused on building the simplest way to let businesses store and manage documents anywhere, and were looking for ways to change how users interact with content,” he says. We’re told that Crocodoc will continue to be operated and licensed to existing and new users, but Box will integrate Crocodoc’s technology into its own cloud storage platform to allow customers to have a seamless use of the embedder and viewer. And there’s much more that Box and Crocodoc CEO Ryan Damico want to do with the product within the Box family. Damico, who will become Box’s director of platform, will be running content services for the company, and the entire Crocodoc team will be joining Box. Next up for the product? Damico explains that more secure documents viewing, mobile collaboration, real-time presentation, form-filing and document authoring will all be added in the coming year. Levie says there will also be a new version launching later this year with new viewers like a flip-book-like technology, as well as a carousel experience for documents. There will also be new branding around the Box Platform, he added. Sam Schillace, Box’s VP of engineering who was also one of the founders of Google Docs, explains that Crocodoc’s technology doesn’t look or feel like enterprise software. “It looks so beautiful and polished, and it is a standard all have to shoot for when viewing documents,” he says. With 15 million users, and 150,000 businesses across retail, health care, financial services and more, Box is growing fast as it eyes a in the next year. Part of growing further will be around adding compelling experiences to the user experience. Levie says that 2 billion content events happened in Q1 alone, so thinking about new ways to improve content experiences makes sense. And Crocodoc is an interesting move considering that its technology is used by one of Box’s main competitors, Dropbox. It’s no secret that Dropbox has its own ambitions around content, as earlier this year. But Box believes that they, along with Crocodoc’s technology, can be the leader in improving every experience you have with documents on the Internet. Similar to the way that YouTube remade the online video experience and Facebook and Flickr reimagined the photo experience, Box wants to make embedding documents less clunky. You can check out Crocodoc’s experience below:
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 5 | 7 | null |
The Google Glass Wink Feature Is Real
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
that Google Glass may have a feature that lets you wink to take a picture. Within the , developers have discovered that the feature , but for most users of Google Glass, this feature is not an option on the front-end. However, TechCrunch has confirmed with multiple sources, who wish to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, that the wink feature is indeed real and being used by a small number of engineers who were seeded with the original developer units of Google Glass. In other words, those who are developing for Glass as part of the second wave of units ( ) are privy to the feature, as far as we know. In fact, one source told us that Google actually came to a location to physically install an updated version of the software to unlock this feature, which appears in settings. Developers have that employ the wink feature, but Google can also offer the command on an OS level. Here’s how it works: At any time while Google Glass is on your head and turned on, the user may perform an extended wink (much like the one *) to snap a picture instantly. A second source explained to us that Glass actually trains itself to recognize your wink. In other words, you calibrate the tool so that Glass recognizes what your particular “wink” looks like. Without calibrating the length of a purposeful, command-giving wink, Glass would pick up each and every blink as a photo op. Obviously. Multiple sources confirmed that the wink feature is available as an option in settings, once Google has updated the unit with the proper version of the software. The also confirms this, as the code has options for “ENABLED” and “DISABLED,” as well as information on “CALIBRATION,” just like one of our sources mentioned. Google has not the exact number or names of the sensors within Google Glass, though that there is both an on the inner portion of the headset, as well as a proximity sensor baked inside. The proximity sensor is there to handle the “waking” and “sleeping” states of your device, according to . Just like a smartphone, Google Glass will go to sleep when you put it down, halting incoming calls and messages and turning off the display (though keeping the camera button alert in case there’s a Kodak moment afoot). When you pick it up and place it on your head, it instantly wakes back up and starts receiving notifications, etc. The infrared sensor, on the other hand, is far more mysterious. Google hasn’t really spoken about it much, though sources around the web tend to believe that the unidentified little sensor on the inner rim of the headset is indeed an infrared camera. This would allow Glass to to some degree. As our sources have clearly confirmed, the IR camera can at the very least detect a blink and a wink, and the possibilities beyond that are deep and wide. Just take a look at these Google patents. The first is a patent that names , Google Glass engineer, , a senior software engineer at Google, and , an interactions researcher on the Special Projects team at Google. The title? . The patent broadly describes a method by which a user could unlock a display (most often referenced as a Heads-up-display on a wearable computing device) through various forms of eye-tracking. Sure, unlocking a device and snapping a picture are different, and so is the method by which this patent describes unlocking and our information concerning the Google Glass wink command for pictures. However, be well aware that there are 26 mentions of the word “infrared,” and more than 100 mentions of the term “HMD” (head-mounted display). There also seems to be a passage within the patent that confirms the ability to decipher blinks (if only to disregard them, in this instance, but still). To unlock a screen coupled to the HMD after a period of inactivity that may have caused the screen to be locked, a processor coupled to the wearable computing system may generate a display of a moving object and detect through an eye tracking system if an eye of the wearer may be tracking the moving object. The processor may determine that a path associated with the movement of the eye of the wearer matches or substantially matches a path of the moving object and may unlock the display. The path of the moving object may be randomly generated and may be different every time the wearer attempts to unlock the screen. Tracking a slowly moving object may reduce a probability of eye blinks, or rapid eye movements (i.e., saccades) disrupting the eye tracking system. The processor may generate the display of the moving object such that a speed associated with motion of the moving object on the HMD may be less than a predetermined threshold speed. Onset of rapid eye pupil movements may occur if a speed of a moving object tracked by the eye of the wearer is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold speed. Alternatively, the speed associated with the moving object may be independent of correlation to eye blinks or rapid eye movements. The speed associated with the motion of the moving object may change, i.e., the moving object may accelerate or decelerate. The processor may track the eye movement of the eye of the wearer to detect if the eye movement may indicate that the eye movement may be correlated with changes in the speed associated with the motion of the moving object and may unlock the screen accordingly. Now, take a look at . Though it doesn’t go into any detail on eye-tracking, it does reaffirm Google’s intentions to use infrared sensors within their head-mounted, wearable computing devices. A year later, that device is called Google Glass. Whether Google intends to roll out this feature more broadly is still unknown. Since Google is allowing a small number of developers to use “wink,” the company is clearly staying true to its tradition of beta testing services thoroughly before a huge rollout. In fact, anyone wearing Glass right now is undoubtedly a beta tester of the whole operation. But wink will almost certainly raise questions of privacy. If you feel like a simple, spoken “Ok glass, take a picture” is already too much of an invasion of your privacy, imagine how you’ll feel when without you ever being the wiser. On the other hand, the wink also brings up all kinds of interesting use-cases, such as the ability to determine when someone is having a seizure, for instance. People were afraid of the geolocation, and CCTV, and online banking, too, at one point in the past. And look how that turned out. It’s too soon to tell whether Glass will fly or die, but it can sure as hell wink. *
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“In The Studio,” ScaleArc’s Varun Singh Builds Database Infrastructure From India And The Valley
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Semil Shah
| 2,013 | 5 | 9 |
TechCrunch This is the penultimate episode of “In The Studio.” The show, which features developers and entrepreneurs working on enterprise technology, will be ending. This week’s guest is , CEO and founder of , a young startup that began in India but registered as a U.S. company with designs to expand to this country once it got off the ground in Mumbai. ScaleArc operates in the space of database infrastructure and sits between apps and database services — what Singh calls as SQL/NoSQL hybrid. Whereas Amazon Web Services would require integration and does not allow for multiple masters across multiple zones, ScaleArc offers a more distributed approach, especially in an age when certain sites (such as gaming portals) cannot afford even the slightest cloud outage. In this short video, and I discuss a range of topics that would be of interest to technical founders, especially those living outside the U.S. First, Singh incorporated in Delaware but founded his company in India. Technical talent is cheaper in India, and this allows his team to have more iterative cycles, whereas in the Valley, his runway would have been cut from 2.5 years to maybe a year. Singh then started shuttling back and forth between India and the Valley, and found that as long as he could give potential customers the right to try before they bought, the customers didn’t care where the company was located or headquartered. This is a trend I’m seeing on the enterprise technology and SaaS space, where foreign companies are now to the Valley and actually disrupting what the Valley considers to be upstarts.
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Facebook Advertises That You Can Turn Off Home “If You Need Some Alone Time”
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
Desperate to make its homescreen replacement Home seem less invasive, Facebook is advertising that and use your HTC First or other Android phone as normal. The fact that Home replaces your widgets and app folders has been a . Facebook vows to fix that, but until then it’s reminding people they can leave Home for stock Android or their old launcher. The by the Facebook Mobile Page which was also being shown as an ad in some peoples mobile feeds, says “Cover feed on the HTC First keeps your friends close by. But if you need some alone time, simply turn off Home and use your phone as usual. “. When turned off, the HTC First reverts to stock Android 4.1, and the downloadable version of Home gives way to whatever launcher users had installed before. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg addressed the issue of users’ disappointment with how Home takes over their phone when asked if the product was a success: As Sheryl explained, a big issue with Home was the to use it. Android users gain some features, but have to give up much of the personalization they’ve worked to build into their phone in the form of widgets, folders, and app organization. I believe their omission from Home is related to some of the team that built Home being iPhone users who don’t have these options normally, so they didn’t miss them. Supporting these customization features could make Home more of a bonus than a trade. When Home launched, Facebook Product Director Adam Moserri told me there were a lot of features he wished had made it into the initial build, including app folders. Now Facebook is trying to get some of that functionality added through its monthly updates to Home. On May 9th at a small press conference at Facebook headquarters, , a tray of a user’s favorite apps that’s persistently visible at the bottom of homescreen app launcher. Facebook plans to let users import their Dock of most frequently used apps from their previous Android launcher into Home. Many are calling Home a flop already, and maybe it will be, but it’s early to make that judgement now. Facebook has a very long-term view for the software. Mark Zuckerberg’s belief is that we’re destined to share more and more with our friends, so some will want to prioritize them ahead of utility applications in their phones. Zuckerberg told , “Three years from now, people are going to be sharing eight to ten times as much stuff. We’d better be there, because if we’re not, some other service will be.” That’s the goal of Home. But for Facebook to get to that future, it needs Home to gain traction. It’s hasn’t yet, having only hit on May 10th. The active user count is suspected to be much smaller. As Sandberg said, it will be a long road to success…if Facebook’s even going in the right direction.
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Google Won’t Approve Glass Apps That Recognize People’s Faces… For Now
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
The potential creep factor of Google Glass is something that the search giant has to mitigate as best it can if it wants that kooky head-worn display to become a mass-market sensation (and even that may not be enough), but a recent announcement highlights the search giant’s commitment to, well, do no evil. Google confirmed on its official earlier this evening that it won’t allow developers to create applications for the head-worn display that are capable of recognizing the faces of people the wearer encounters. It’s no surprise that Google has been keen to downplay the idea of first-party face recognition features — Google Glass director Steve Lee gave the a earlier this month — but now the company has made it clear that developers are subject to that same code of conduct. That’s not to say that Google is throwing out the possibility of face-recognizing Glass apps in the future — the company just has to lock down a firm set of privacy protocols before letting developers run wild. As you’d expect, there’s no timetable in place yet so it’s still unclear when Glass will be able to chime in our ears with a long-forgotten acquaintance’s name. It may be a big win for privacy advocates, but the news doesn’t bode all that well for some of the early-stage startups that are angling to turn Glass into an ever-present recognition device. Consider the case of — earlier this week the San Francisco team talked up its forthcoming that would allow developers to create applications with commands like “remember that face.” At the time, Lambda co-founder Stephen Balaban sought refuge in the fact that the Glass API didn’t explicitly bar the creation of face-recognition apps, a shelter that no longer exists. To quote the updated Glass developer policies: Don’t use the camera or microphone to cross-reference and immediately present personal information identifying anyone other than the user, including use cases such as facial recognition and voice print. Applications that do this will not be approved at this time. For now, though, Google seems all right with the prospect of using Glass to recognize individual, people so long as their faces aren’t the things being kept track of. Back in March, news broke of a that saw researchers create a Glass app that let users identify people not by their faces but by a so-called “fashion fingerprint” that accounts for clothing and accessories. All things considered, it’s a neat way to keep tabs on individual people with a privacy mechanism baked into our behavior — all you need to do to be forgotten is change your clothes.
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Science- And Tech-Focused ‘STEAM Carnival’ Hits Its Kickstarter Goal
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
Looks like can add “reimagined” carnivals with “robots, fire, and lasers” to the list of things that its users have crowdfunded. Earlier today, an event called , put together by a company called , reached its $100,000 Kickstarter goal. The initials are a twist on , which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math — the A adds “art” to the equation. Here’s how the Kickstarter page outlines the vision: You’ve heard of STEM… but we agree with John Maeda of RISD and MIT that Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math aren’t complete without Art. Our culture isn’t doing enough to get kids interested in STEAM. As professional inventors, we rely on these disciplines every day, and want to share our excitement about them with kids young and old. Through years of building and demonstrating fun games we’ve learned no better way to get kids into STEAM than to show them an amazing time. When you say ‘engineering’ to most kids they zone out. But when you say ‘lasers, robots, and fire,’ you have their undivided attention. As planned, the event will include a number of high-tech, educational games that are currently being developed by Two Bit Circus, such as the “Motion Capture Spinning Bull” and “Laser Maze Limbo.” It will also showcase the kids’ work. Apparently something that combined a traditional hammer carnival game with lots of electricity was earlier this week. Two Bit Circus is led by Brent Bushnell and Eric Gradman. Bushnell is an engineer and an entrepreneur who was on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (he’s also of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who’s on the advisory board), and Gradman says his background includes experience as a circus performer, professional whistler, roboticist and inventor. The current plan is to hold events in San Francisco and Los Angeles next spring. And even though the STEAM Carnival has hit its funding target, the team is hoping to raise more money for a pretty straightforward stretch goal — bringing the event to more cities. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc6wGlZvoAc&w=560&h=315]
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Stilly Is A One-Button GIF Maker For iPhone That’s Even Easier Than Vine
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Sarah Perez
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
Like GIFs? Tumblr? Got an iPhone? $2.00? Okay, good, then you’ll probably like this new app called , which is either the most ridiculous thing ever or the most fun you’re going to have all weekend. The app, in a nutshell, turns anything you capture with your iPhone’s camera into a jiggling, wiggly, color-flashing GIF. Well, you know, kind of! Because it seems primarily designed for use with Tumblr for now, the company it on its official blog today, saying just “this is addictive.” And it is. The app is dead simple to use. It has only one button to create the GIF, and another toggle to turn “Colors” on. The end results aren’t exactly the same kind of professional GIFs (oh wow, I’m writing that?) that you might find elsewhere on Tumblr, however, but it will do in a pinch. Tumblr is already filling up with people posting using the pre-populated , which probably needs some sort of seizure warning. The app is kind of reminiscent of Vine, but Vine was getting too high-brow for us anyway, what with its , short films, and all. I mean really, ? C’mon. Can’t we just have a stupid toy every now and then? Stilly will do. The app was created by longtime Tumblr user Ian Broyles, who has been on the site since 2007 and loves GIFs and photography. “I have been making GIFs in some form since 1995 and got my first digital camera the same year. I love playing with images, and moving ones are even better,” he explains. “When I was 19, I made a with my brother, David Broyles, that got a blurb in Time Magazine and was mentioned on the Today Show during the Bush/Gore tie up. It was based on funny GIFs I made out of candidates’ heads on dancing bodies from TV/film. It was shared all over the web before social networking via send-a-friend forms. I made a decent chunk of money for a teenager and moved out to Los Angeles to work in film as I didn’t care for school. GIFs have been good to me.” Broyles says he starting working on Stilly in December 2012, before he had heard of Vine and before it was released. He doesn’t think the two apps are all that similar, not only because of the creations’ length, but also because Vines are harder to make and send to friends. Stillies, though, can be sent via iMessage, SMS or Tumblr for now, with more sharing options in the works along with a few other features. However, the core experience will remain very basic. And now that the app is launched and people seem to be enjoying it, Broyles says he will work on building an Android version, too. .
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Big Impact On A Small Budget: Ben’s Friends Wants To Build A Web & Mobile Support Network For Every Rare Disease
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
There’s a lot of exciting and head-turning technology out there today, and it’s changing our world in a multitude of ways, some more obvious than others — and at a fairly astounding rate. But many of these services, while making our lives more convenient or connected, aren’t necessarily helping people or having an impact at a more fundamental level. There are, of course, many exceptions, and is one of them — that for-profit, social enterprises can have a big impact even without venture capital, or big budgets. For those unfamiliar, today Ben’s Friends is one of the largest platforms and support networks for people with rare diseases. Software developer and startup veteran Ben Munoz conceived the idea in 2006, after suffering from a life-threatening and rare form of stroke (as a result of a condition called “arteriovenous malformation”), which led to several years of intensive treatment, radiotherapy and neurosurgery. Unable to find the information or support he was looking for on the Web, he launched a site to find others who suffered from the same (and similar) conditions. A community of people quickly formed around AVMSurvivors.org, and, joined by his friends Scott Orn, a partner at VC firm Lighthouse Capital, and Eric D. Kroll, the founders started Ben’s Friends to apply the concept to other diseases. In 2012 alone, the platform added seven new patient support communities to bring its total to 33 (which is now 35), allowing people to connect with others who share the same conditions or symptoms, whether it be in networks like “Living With Narcolepsy,” or . The concept is similar in practice to that of a network called CureTogether, . The difference between Ben’s Friends and other startups with similar ambitions, Orn told us recently, is that each disease has its own dedicated network and site. Everything on those pages, he says, revolves around that particular condition and the community of people who suffer from that condition. In turn, Ben’s Friends is volunteer-driven, with support communities adding content, resources and moderating each site themselves. The network of volunteer operators has grown to several hundred, Orn says. The technology behind these sites isn’t necessarily new or sexy, originally built using a combination of Ning and Basecamp to keep the costs of hosting, scaling and project management low. And the community isn’t enormous, either. Ben’s Friends today only has about 30,000 members, but the engagement is high and the information collected by its community on these rare diseases is extremely valuable. But it works, Orn says, because “the entire network is powered by volunteer moderators. We have 150+ people who keep the networks humming. They are also patients and understand what members are going through. They tell us that becoming a moderator changed their relationship with their disease. It took something negative and turned it into a positive.” Comparatively, CureTogether took arguably an even greater quantitative approach to its community (which is what 23andMe found appealing), while Ben’s Friends has focused more on providing this kind of support — on making it easy for people to find and make those critical emotional connections with others who’ve experienced the same conditions. Of course, the importance of that shared community is something that holds true far beyond the scope of rare diseases and is as old as the earliest Web forums and, well, offline communities well before that. Orn tells us that the look and feel of the site is owed to an approach the founders adopted early on: Capital efficiency. Monetizing rare diseases just isn’t an acceptable business model, Orn explained in , which is why the founders felt they couldn’t justify raising venture capital. For it to work, everything had to be free and scalable, while avoiding as many fixed costs as possible. Since 2010, they’ve raised about $65K in donations from foundations, members and friends, as well as by running a campaign on Indiegogo — bootstrapping the rest of the way. And, today, Ben’s Friends is launching its first native app (for the iPhone) to give patients around-the-clock, on-demand access to support groups while on-the-go. Reflecting macro trends, the founders say that mobile traffic to the site has increased significantly over the last year and now makes up over 25 percent of total traffic as patients turn to their mobile devices to access support groups and health info. People with rare diseases also tend to find themselves spending a lot of time in waiting rooms at doctor’s offices, hospitals and clinics, making an iPhone app a fairly natural extension of the platform. Accessing support groups and relevant information at the time of diagnosis or surgery helps reduce anxiety, fear and figure out the right questions to ask. The same is true of Cancer.net’s iOS app ( ), as well as more information-centric health resources like , , and more. To that end, Ben’s Friends has collected over 2,000 recommendations for doctors who specialize in rare diseases, which will be available in the app’s next update, coming soon. Recommendations like these are particularly critical for those with rate diseases, the founders explain, considering how frequently they are misdiagnosed. Naturally, being referred to a doctor who is aware of rare symptoms and conditions can potentially reduce the chance of being misdiagnosed. “We never wanted to become one of those nonprofits that have massive overhead and have to spend half of their time raising money,” Munoz says. “We thought of it as a little software startup … in a garage eating Ramen noodles and peanut butter. How do we do it cheaper? How do we automate?” And so far, it’s been working.
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Ask A VC: Freestyle’s Dave Samuel On The Secrets To A Great Co-Founder Partnership And More
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
In this week’s Ask A VC episode, Freestyle Capital’s joined us in the studio to discuss his investment philosophies and more. Samuel also talked about how and why his co-founder relationship with Josh Felser has been so successful. The duo co-founded Spinner (acquired by AOL for $320 million), and Grouper (acquired by Sony for $65 million). In 2011, Fesler and Samuel Freestyle Capital, which makes investments in early-stage startups. Check out the video above for more!
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With Over 12M Users, Wish.com Hopes Its AdWords For Shopping Will Stick
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Alexia Tsotsis
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
Hey kids, there’s a new personalized shopping platform in town. , ads recommendation system ContextLogic has put its ads optimization technology to good use in a wishlist-making app called . As its moniker belies, Wish allows you to view a feed of goods specifically tailored to you and add them to various lists on the platform — like my list about . Every time you add to a list or recommend an item, Wish’s natural language processing and machine-learning tech learns that that’s the type of thing you’re interested in and then shows you more of it. Like what happened to me and blingy iPhone cases (below). Yes, I did add such a silly thing to my On the merchant side, Wish treats Wishlists as intent data and allows shopkeepers to run highly targeted offers through the platform, because of the simple principle that customers are more likely to buy some things they’ve already expressed a desire to buy. I’ve already received an email coupon for $5 off that tacky Swarovski peacock case in addition to 40 percent off a pair of Galaxy shorts I had also expressed interest in. I’m very likely to buy those Galaxy shorts, is Wish’s value proposition. And Wish in return takes a 10 to 30 percent cut of those promoted sales, which it manages through an AdWords-like, self-serve ads platform. People are adding between 5-10 million items to their Wishlists every day, recommending 250K products and saving 19.3 items on average daily. The app now has over 12 million users and, with five-star ratings on iOS and Android, is modestly making its way up the App Store rankings. It is now at No. 28 on iOS Lifestyle. For comparison, competitors Wanelo and Amazon Mobile are at No. 17 and No. 4, respectively. “Engagement increased over 2013 as we increased the relevance of our recommendation system,” Wish co-founder says, referring to the startup’s promising growth. “We consider these huge wins and proof that our approach is working.” He believes that after improvements in the relevance of Wish’s recommendation system, the startup is growing faster than Pinterest, Twitter or Google. “The big change here is that, unlike on traditional e-commerce websites,” says, “Individuals are actually feeding very useful data back into the system in a fun way on a massive scale, which an algorithm can use to vastly increase the shopping experience.” “I think Wish’s core differentiator is that Wish has a core technology at its roots, which allows the flywheel of ‘intent capture -> commerce’ to be highly optimized by Wish’s algorithms,” investor tells me, “This approach will be particularly interesting when applied to mobile, where theres a premium for better context and relevance.” “Google won search via relevance, because it was able to match millions of different queries with billions of web pages better than anyone,” adds. “We are confident that Wish will win mobile commerce with a fun and relevant product, as well, because the problem isn’t all that different from Google’s challenge in search.” And with everyone and their mother trying to crack the personalized shopping nut, the e-commerce challenge is probably just as hard. Can Amazon ever be dethroned? Will Pinterest capitalize on its vast and intimidating e-commerce potential? Does Wanelo need to go beyond social cures? What about the material things I secretly desire that can’t be gleaned from an algorithm? Glittery peacock cases are nice and all, but clicks sometimes fail to capture what exactly the heart, well, wishes.
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Twitter Just Made It Easier To Obsessively Tweak Your Profile
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
I don’t know anyone who thought the process of editing their Twitter profile was just too complex — talk about first world problems — but they’re surely out there somewhere and working themselves into a tizzy over a recent announcement made by Twitter profile engineer Patrick Ewing. , Ewing made it known that Twitter users can now edit their profiles in-line without having to pop into a separate account settings tab. Frankly, it’s a wonder we made it made this far as a society without the ability to more easily tweak our Twitter profile blurbs. The changes aren’t perhaps as sweeping as one would hope though — while you can edit any of your personal info as well as swap your header or profile images at the drop of a hat, you’ll still have to venture into your profile settings page in order to revamp your account’s color scheme or background image. It’s a relatively minor change (especially when Twitter has been making headlines for snapping up startups left and right), but Twitter has been on a sort of housekeeping kick lately with additions like for accounts. In the event that you’re still not completely clear on what these new changes entail, take a peek at the spiffy YouTube video whipped up for the occasion: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkP8riJvau8&w=640&h=360]
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After Four Years At Twitter, Director Of Platform Ryan Sarver Will “Fly The Coop” With “No Plans But Rest”
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
Ryan Sarver, who joined Twitter four years ago and is currently its director of platform, announced today he’ll be leaving the company on June 28th, and has “no plans but rest.” Fittingly, he announced his departure in a series of tweets seen below. Sarver’s work over the last four years, when it comes to focusing on developers, can’t be ignored. During the times as to how Twitter would be dealing with third parties in the future, Sarver’s team marched through it. While not every developer has been happy with the changes that the company has made, specifically how it throttles its API, the messaging has been transparent and with complete warning, before things changed. One of the most important things during his time at Twitter was its . This key integration gave Twitter access to more users and more engagement than ever. At the time, Sarver told our own MG Siegler: “I think this integration has the potential to be the second biggest referral for app growth behind the App Store.” He was right. As with most high-profile Twitter departures, a tweet was the way to announce it: After four incredible, indelible years at Twitter the time has come for me to fly the coop. My last day will be June 28. No plans but rest. — Ryan Sarver (@rsarver) I am so grateful to , , , and for their mentorship and the opportunity to work alongside them. — Ryan Sarver (@rsarver) Twitter & the Platform have an incredible future. I can’t wait to watch the team thrive while cheering from the sidelines. — Ryan Sarver (@rsarver) Twitter's an extraordinary place. I feel fortunate to have worked with such thoughtful, talented people who share a mission and passion. — Ryan Sarver (@rsarver) To the amazing entrepreneurs I’ve worked with while here: thank you for your time & commitment. I’ve learned so much from you. — Ryan Sarver (@rsarver) — Ryan Sarver (@rsarver) The timing is a bit curious, since it’s well known that Twitter will be heading toward IPOville sometime next year. Perhaps, Sarver saw this as an opportunity to pass on his responsibilities to folks he’s hired and groomed over the years, and just take it easy like he says. Having said that, we would be surprised if Sarver didn’t come back with his own startup sometime soon. Twitter’s platform has branched out over the last few years, launching its own photo-sharing functionality, launching interactive Twitter cards and acquiring and integrating video app Vine.
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Despite Criticism, FWD.us Adds YouTube Co-Founder Steve Chen And Web Mogul Barry Diller As Funders
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 5 | 31 |
Amidst widespread , Mark Zuckerberg’s political advocacy group gained some momentum today as Steven Chen and Barry Diller have signed on as financial backers. Chen was a co-founder of YouTube, and Diller is the chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp which owns About, Match, Newsweek and Vimeo. Diller and Chen, an immigrant himself, will fund campaigns for immigration reform. FWD.us has been quietly enduring an for funding ads promoting oil drilling in the Alaskan wildlife refuge and the Keystone XL oil pipeline run in exchange for support from political candidates it hopes will vote for immigration and education reform initiatives the group campaigns for. These projects clash with the liberal viewpoints of many of FWD.us’s backers. The scandal led eco-champion Elon Musk and Yammer founder David Sacks to withdraw support from FWD.us. The fact that Chen and Diller joined the group is remarkable because some would expect no one would want to become affiliated with the and run by former Causes founder Joe Green in April. Critics believe FWD.us might fall apart entirely, especially if it can reverse public sentiment. It hasn’t helped that some see the , including Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, Google’s Eric Schmidt, and Zynga’s Mark Pincus, as interested in immigration and education reform because they would help their companies bring in better talent from abroad and at home. The group maintains that these reforms are stepping stones to a stronger U.S. economy. Green has stressed that FWD.us is fundamentally bi-partisan. He sees providing political coverage to conservative campaigns that could hurt the environment as the price of winning allies for the group’s campaigns. But the “this is how politics works” mantra has fallen on deaf ears among much of the press. A deep dive into the formation and current affairs of FWD.us by says the group is alienating many potential supporters. Still, Chen and Diller signed up. In a FWD.us blog post, Chen wrote, “As someone who immigrated from Taiwan to the United States at a very young age, I know firsthand how welcoming and supportive our country is to those of us coming here to make a better life… I’ve seen firsthand the impact both of those communities can have on our economy and our country’s ability to lead the world in innovation.” In the end, Green’s approach might not be popular, but it could get the job done. There were essentially two approaches he could have taken: Win the hearts and minds of America to immigration reform, which could have been hugely expensive and difficult if not impossible — or play the politics game, grease the wheels however necessary, and get immigration reform passed by the House and Senate even if the process angered the public. FWD.us may be deserving of the harsh words it receives. Politics (with a capital P) as usual is a dicey dark art, and one that many hoped Silicon Valley’s elite would rather than play into. Still, if its campaigns find success, there could be positive outcomes for many hoping to come to America or get a better education there. Time will tell if FWD.us’s bluntly pragmatic strategy works, or if the group disbands as its supporters buckle under the pressure to put their money where their liberals mouths are and retreat from FWD.us.
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