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Mexico’s Square Clone Clip Pulls In New $1.7M Funding, Adds Payment Features
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Mike Butcher
| 2,013 | 11 | 16 |
It seems every country needs its own Square clone these days. iZettle has been busy populating Europe, alongside Payleven, to name just two. Indeed, Mexico has its own version, . Today it announced a new $1.7 million funding round in the form of a convertible note with , one of Mexico’s leading VCs, and an undisclosed existing investor. In addition, Clip has a new product called Mensualidades. This allows any Clip merchant in Mexico to offer payments in up to 12 instalments. This obviously makes it easier to make impulse purchases in a market like Mexico – something the Clip will benefit from. According to the company, payments in instalments allows merchants to close more sales and sell more high ticket products. Currently, only large retailers can offer this service. Adolfo Babatz, co-founder and CEO of Clip says the move will “level the playing field” for smaller retailers. The company has also signed an alliance with American Express Mexico for which the American Express Card is now Clip’s official card.
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From Its Beginnings In A Denmark Loft, Zendesk’s Steady Rise To The Top Of The Helpdesk Heap
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 11 | 16 |
startups, origins began at a table with a few laptops, three co-founders and lots of coffee. But the founding of the customer service software company has an unorthodox twist: Zendesk started out of a loft in Copenhagen, Denmark, and not in Silicon Valley. and co-worker and engineer , were implementing old-school customer service solutions in companies in 2006. As Svane explains, the customer tracking and incident reporting software they were advising companies to adopt was from a previous generation and extremely complicated to set up and use. So hard, that companies had to call in consultants to execute the implementations. Svane and Primdahl realized there was a problem to be solved in providing the antithesis to this technology, and started thinking through a new idea. At the same time, the web was seeing the rise of Salesforce.com and the SaaS model. They called up one of Svane’s old designer friends and explained to him their idea for a new online software. Pitching the idea of reinventing customer service and the helpdesk is the most unsexy thing, recalled Svane, when you compare it to working at a hot consumer startup. “Help desk software didn’t sound that exciting and I had no domain knowledge. I was a canary in a coal mine, but I was obsessive about clean design, and as I saw what existed I realized that companies were being underserved,” says Aghassipour. But like Svane and Primdahl, Aghassipour saw the opportunity to create something beautiful in a world where design was an afterthought, and be an entrepreneur. Primdahl had worked with Svane previously, and knew the engineering challenges that could be solved online through the SaaS model. Aghassipour told Svane that he would help keep the software “beautifully simple.” In late 2006, they all left their full-time jobs and set up shop in a tiny loft in Copenhagen. The loft had a single large table and a couch, and Svane, Aghassipour and Primdahl spent long hours figuring out what their software would look like, and how it would be a business. They all decided that Zendesk would be the simple alternative to the complicated mess that customer service can be. From the start, Zendesk offered a web-based, SaaS-delivered help desk/support ticketing application that gives companies an easy way to manage incoming support requests from end customers. To make money (Svane had a family to support), each of them took individual consulting gigs on the side. Svane says there were periods of time where they would work intensively, but there wasn’t easy access to capital in Europe, so they had to be bootsrtapped and make money in other ways. The trio began developing and creating the product but there were moments of doubt. By early 2007, no one else had really tackled the problem of recreating the online help desk for companies, and the team started to get paranoid. “I thought if this is really an opportunity, how come no one is doing anything in this space and validating my idea,” Svane says. In fact, he even applied for Zendesk to launch at TechCrunch 40 in September of 2007, but was denied. Despite the challenges of no funding, and moments of asking themselves “why are we doing this?” the founders decided to double down on Zendesk and only focus on building and launching the product. By the fall of 2007, they had soft-launched the help desk software as a service on the web. Svane and his co-founders were just dying to get people to try the product and emailed all of their friends and network to get anyone with customer service needs to try it. “We didn’t know what it would look like, and we were nervous when we flipped the switch on the server,” says Primdahl. Within a few months, customers started to flock to Zendesk to try it out. The startup quickly acquired around 1,000 trial customers. “A lot of our early customers were websites that needed a simple way to manage inbound customer service and communications,” Svane says. “We realized by configuring a product for an audience that is web savvy, we were able to reach an audience that traditional type of software couldn’t reach, and this was our first validation.” Unlike the traditional consumer successful startup story, Zendesk’s path didn’t start with explosive growth. The company’s usage was mainly coming through word-of-mouth recommendations. By early 2008, Svane decided they could no longer bootstrap the company, and he started to reach out to European investors. But they received a bunch of polite no’s. “I was told that there was no money for us,” he says. But Svane and his team caught the eye of one angel, German investor , who asked Svane what it would take for the company to go to the next level. Janz put around $500,000 into the company, marking its first outside funding, nearly two years after the founder began developing the product. The voice of the customer got louder, and this change made 2008 a turning point in the market. Customer interactions online became more important to companies. With the rise of the social web, it was easier for customers to share good and bad experiences through comments, forums, Facebook and even Twitter. Now that Janz joined as an advocate, he started helping Zendesk expand its reach in the investor world. He set up a number of meetings for Svane and the team in the summer of 2008 on Sand Hill Road, and the company began thinking through raising a Series A round. Svane even had a marquee new customer to tout to investors: MSNBC. While Svane was in Silicon Valley, he was invited to the TechCrunch/August Capital annual party. As he walked through the party with his name and Zendesk written on his sticker badge, a number of people in the startup world approached him to tell him they were using his software. “It was an eye opener for us,” he says. “We were just a group of three guys in Copenhagen, and I had no idea that people in Silicon Valley had heard of us.” Visiting Silicon Valley that summer and attending the TechCrunch event was a reminder of what he was working towards. “I had the TechCrunch bug of wanting to build a tech startup, just like the founders I read about on the blog. I wanted to join this club,” he added. While the team was in San Francisco, he did catch the eye of some Sand Hill Road investors. In fact, Zendesk got extremely close to taking funding from a well-known, undisclosed firm. The partner told them the deal was nearly done, and just had to be approved during the partner meeting. The investor said he would call Svane right after the meeting. But the call never came, and Svane, who waited in his hotel room for the investor to call, realized he would have to start his investor search over again. With a heavy heart, he left San Francisco for Copenhagen. Not long after Svane returned to Denmark to join Aghassipour and Primdahl at the loft, Charles River Ventures partner came across Zendesk as he was researching new investments in the SaaS industry. Yellurkar had a brief conversation with Svane over the phone, and while doing diligence, he realized that a number of the firm’s portfolio companies were already using Zendesk and loved using the product. “I had never seen that kind of love for an enterprise software,” he recalls. One of these early users was Twitter (which was CRV-backed), who started using Zendesk for customer support. Primdahl recalls that when Twitter first started using Zendesk, traffic to Zendesk quadrupled. He says the company spent the next three months attempting to rid the software of the bottlenecks Twitter usage caused. “No other customer challenged our software like this,” he says. After hearing the customers’ experiences, Yellurkar was determined to back Svane and his team, and promptly flew to Copenhagen in late 2008. Primdahl (at table) and Svane working from the Copenhagen loft where Zendesk was founded in 2007. The strength of the founder team also drew the firm to Zendesk, Yellurkar explains. “It was a trifecta — Mikkel understood the customer support domain, Alex has fabulous design aesthetic, and Morten was an extremely talented engineer.” By early 2009, a few million dollars from CRV was in the three-year-old SaaS company. With this new cash, Svane started to hire additional developers. To be closer to Yellurkar, the trio started talking about possibly moving the company to the U.S. For Svane, he had always wanted to live in the U.S. at some point. Plus, they would be closer to investors, and their customers, which at the time, were mostly based in California. But the challenge of moving families away from home was daunting. As Zendesk was contemplating the move, a bunch of VCs started calling. Many, including, Yelp, Twitter and OpenTable-investor , caught wind of Zendesk through portfolio companies using the customer service software. In a period of 10 days, three different Sand Hill road VCs flew in. For Svane, Yellurkar had always felt like a member of the team since he joined, so the barrier to accepting another VC was high. It’s not that he didn’t trust institutional investors, but after being burned, he was wary of VCs who didn’t want to get their hands dirty. He knew Zendesk still had a long road ahead and he wanted a partner, not just an investor. One of the VCs who flew was Benchmark’s newest partner . Svane says at the time he had no idea who Cohler, who helped grow LinkedIn and Facebook early on as an employee, was. Similar to Yellurkar, Cohler has actually heard about Zendesk from the firm’s portfolio companies that were using the software. “That is the most meaningful signal that we should invest,” he says. Also like Yellurkar, he had never seen people talk about enterprise software with such love. “Customers were talking about Zendesk the way consumers talked about Facebook when it first launched,” he adds. Cohler ended up flying into Copenhagen to meet Svane and the team, and Svane took a liking to him, so he invested Cohler to come to his home for a dinner with his kids. According to Svane, what made Cohler and Benchmark distinctive is that they felt like family from the beginning. Cohler had dinner at Svane’s home with his family and friends in Copenhagen, and Svane says it felt natural and easy to have Cohler around. At one point during the dinner, Cohler joined the kids in the family room of Svane’s home and watched the movie Pippi Longstocking with them (which was in Danish, Cohler says, so he didn’t understand anything). A few months later, Svane raised the Series B round of around $6 million from Benchmark and . Benchmark partner Peter Fenton joined Zendesk’s board. It was also around this time that Svane, Aghassipour and Primdahl committed to making the move to the U.S. Initially they decided to base themselves out of Boston to be closer to Yellurkar, but they quickly realized that they needed to be in Silicon Valley. Aghassipour adds that moving was a really tough decision, but it felt right to be closer to the heart of where everything was happening. By late 2009, customers were flocking to Zendesk. Revenue was steady, and having large customers like Twitter early in the product lifecycle, had helped iron out some of the growth kinks. This was also when acquisition interest started coming in from incumbents in the space. Primdahl, Svane, and Aghassipour (l-r) when they first moved to the U.S. in 2009. Svane declined to name which incumbents gave Zendesk offers but we heard from sources Salesforce made a very lucrative acquisition offer to Zendesk around this time. “It’s really hard to say no to a lot of money, especially money that can be life-changing to you and your employees. And because you can’t talk to anyone about acquisition talks, it’s an incredibly isolating experience,” he said. “But creating Zendesk was never just about the money.” He adds that it was a tough decision to turn down high acquisition offers, but he and his co-founders felt strongly that the company wouldn’t be the right fit within another company. They feared joining a large enterprise giant and being unhappy or, worse, that their product — which they had spent so much time working on — would be shelved. So they passed on Salesforce and others that came their way. In that moment, they knew that the path for Zendesk was to be independent. Salesforce did end up buying a customer-service SaaS — in 2011 — and rebranded it Desk.com. In the meantime, Zendesk doubled down on hiring engineers and a strong in-house design team. And because Aghassipour had his own agency in a past life, design of the product and ease of use has always remained paramount to the product. As the founders all explained, if the product aimed to add simplicity to an otherwise complicated industry like customer service management, the product couldn’t be complicated and cluttered. The company has steadily added bells and whistles to its product, but each move was methodical, and with an eye for design and integration. Primdahl says that Zendesk didn’t start establishing an actual product team in 2010. But over the past two years, it has added a VoIP system, an iPad app, Twitter integration and more. Last year, Zendesk debuted an application framework, known as Zendesk Apps, designed to extend the company’s functionality with internal and third-party systems. “Innovation is a tricky thing to balance,” Primdahl says. “It’s easy to get caught up in the next product roadmap, but we need to keep driving efforts outside the roadmap as well.” Sales was also something to come late to the company when you compare traditional enterprise sales models. Primdahl says that the company didn’t add a sales team until 2010, and the first 10,000 customers came completely through word of mouth and light advertising via AdWords. The company now has 30,000 customers and 450 employees worldwide, including 100 engineers. With an eye on staying independent, last year Zendesk raised another $60 million led by Redpoint Ventures with Index Ventures, GGV Capital, Goldman Sachs, Silicon Valley Bank, Charles River Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners all participating, bringing the total funding to $86 million. While Svane and the company declined to give a timeline, right now it looks like the company will file its paperwork around mid-year in 2014. “We want to go public but it’s a tough challenge,” Svane explains. “But you can’t live in your parent’s basement forever. At some point you need to go out and get your own house.” Right now, it looks like the company will file its paperwork around mid-year in 2014. And because of the JOBS Act, Zendesk will likely file confidentially. When the company announced its funding last September, it also revealed that monthly recurring revenue had increased 500 percent since the previous financing. The company wants to double its business in the coming year. But without revealing numbers, it’s tough to measure the its potential financial success on the markets. Right now, Zendesk is not profitable, but we hear that’s something the company could accomplish in the not-too-distant future. Profitability will be one metric investors will be eyeing when evaluating Zendesk for a potential IPO. International is a huge opportunity for the company, and Zendesk has been steadily expanding its presence in both engineering and sales with offices in Dublin, Copenhagen and Melbourne. In fact, half of Zendesk’s customers are outside the U.S. And having engineering hubs abroad is also a good way to attract talent that is outside the U.S., says Primdahl. Svane, Primdahl and Aghassipour don’t see a strong competitor in the market, though there are smaller ones like Salesforce’s Desk.com, and Freshbooks who are attempting to tackle the market. As Svane says, the focus has always been on the customer and not the competition. Cohler reinforced this point–“Most great companies focus on their own mission, not the competition,” he adds. While an IPO is near, early investor Yellurkar sees Zendesk’s path as more of a marathon as opposed to a sprint to being a public company. Zendesk still needs to continue to execute on the product and create demand and love from both new and old customers. In a world where we see tech startup founders battle over power and strategy ( the Twitter story), it’s unique to see a group of founders stick together from the start of a company to its eventual IPO. The trio admits that they fight (and fought hard in the early days), but they have been able to separate work from personal. Primdahl says that all three have strong opinions and “sparks fly,” but having big disagreements as three founders was helpful because there was also someone to settle the tiebreakers. But there were occasions when the battles got so heated that they would stay away from the loft for a few days and things would blow over, he recalls. Svane adds that the strength of the founding team and staying together has been partly buoyed by the fact that they have been able to hire the right people around them. There have been , but most of the company’s early lead engineers are still with Zendesk. Though it sounds odd when talking about founders of an enterprise company, Svane, Primdahl and Aghassipour are mission-based entrepreneurs. It’s clear that they are working at Zendesk out of the deep belief and conviction in the problem they were trying to solve back in that small loft in Copenhagen in 2007.
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Gillmor Gang: Daft Monopolists
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Steve Gillmor
| 2,013 | 11 | 16 |
The Gillmor Gang — John Taschek, Keith Teare, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — act their age in the style of Steve Ballmer, who thinks he’s of an older time where the world’s not going. I’m not so sure he’s right about that, what with SnapChat taking a pass on $3 billion ephemeral oh-so-direct messages. Surely the snark social leader fits like a glove with the younger set, but at its core the underlying motives are straight out of Game of Thrones. At least that’s what I’ve been told, not having caught up yet on TV To Go’s latest offerings. James Spader’s Breaking Badder act on NBC and Scandal’s cliffhanger a week may be symptoms of the New Hollywood as rendered in BYOB(inge) terms, but surely the table stakes are being set anew with Broadcast + 7 the new normal. Plenty going on for a slow week, yet even time for incomprehensible soccer and JSON threads. See you at Dreamforce. @stevegillmor, @jtaschek, @kevinmarks, @kteare Produced and directed by Tina CHase Gillmor @tinagillmor
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The PS4 Is Sony’s First Shot In The Next-Gen Console Wars
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 16 |
closely, you can hear it: the eye of the console storm. We are between technologies and the big hardware makers know it. It’s a move from an optical-disk-based, high-heat standalone device. To paraphrase William Gibson: the future is here, it’s just unevenly distributed and its on that uneasy plane the new $399 PS4 firmly sits. This new console is, arguably, the last console to be released before a number of massive shifts in the industry will force sweeping changes to hardware and software. Onlive, though a failure, offered the promise of a cloud-based graphics system that could entertain without heavy hardware. Steam has convinced gamers they don’t need disks. 4K, while still a whimsical feature, is the future, and toys like the and Oculus Rift point to a leaner gaming business model and new interfaces. In short, the PS4 is the best of last generation’s consoles and, as such, deserves to be looked at as Sony’s last stand and the doorway to an amazing future. At first glance you can see a certain PC pedigree in the angular lines and large case. There are two hidden buttons – touch-sensitive shards of plastic, really – that turn the console on and eject the well-hidden Blu-ray disk drive. [gallery ids="915923,915924,915925"] It has 8GB of GDDR5 RAM and a 500GB hard drive that will store games and video content. There is no external storage – presumably 500GB will be enough and if it isn’t you’re going to be juggling the 30+GB games that you download. There is a single HDMI port on the back next to an optical audio port as well as an “AUX” port for the optional $60 PS4 camera. The controller is rounder and I’d say a bit more comfortable than the PS3 controller and puts it more in line with the soft edges of the 360/Xbox One controller. There is no power brick and you can, if you wish, simply swap out the HDMI and power cable from the PS3 and plug it into the PS4. The controller itself includes a number of interesting features. First there is a built-in gyroscope and Eye-compatible light that allows for some very Wii-like interaction features. It also includes dual rumble motors and a small speaker that can transmit audio as necessary. Battery life has been strong although I haven’t fully tested the controllers in the short time I’ve had the console. The PS4 itself includes a wired headset for in-game chat and cables to charge the controllers.
You will notice a Share button on the controller which represents Sony’s move to grab a more social gamer. The console records the last fifteen minutes of gameplay and clicking share lets you post screenshots to Facebook or Twitter or edit and upload video to Facebook. This active social interaction comes into play on the dashboard where you find shared snippets by your friends. This is an amazing discovery engine and will probably drive the further adoption of downloaded content. If you have a PS Vita you can use it as a remote screen, playing games right on the small screen while you use the TV for other purposes. It worked fine but I’d worry that relegating a Vita to a second screen isn’t a good use of the PS4’s resources. The PS4 iOS and Android apps, designed to allow you to control various aspects of gameplay as well as social networking – were also barely baked. [gallery ids="915827,915828,915829"]
Sadly my initial experience was marred by some problems. Long load and install times were common. Major parts of the interface – the store, for example, are actually – and sometimes slows down in graphically rich environments. Application switching, especially out of games and into the dashboard, is far quicker than the previous generation but you still sometimes need to quit games to perform other actions. This is a brand new device and, for the most part, I’m very optimistic. The games are gorgeous (if a bit trite) and everything is surprisingly smooth. One of the best features, especially for parents like myself, is an option to play any game without a lengthy update. The PS4 disables online play if you don’t update, but you can at least get a few licks in before you wait 45 minutes for the server to respond. PlayStation Plus is another improvement to the experience. For $49 a year this feature enables many of the online-gaming features including multiplayer gaming and special game discounts. It’s an obvious play to create an Xbox Live-like feature but it definitely improves on the catch-as-catch-can attitude towards online gaming of the previous generation. Does the PS4 need a video store, music service (called Music Unlimited), and a web browser? Not really, but they don’t hurt. I suspect there are so many places people go to get video and music now that the PS4 is not a dedicated source anymore. However, the PS4 does not support DLNA streaming which should give folks with large audio and video collections pause. Sony could improve this in the future but as it stands it’s an inconvenience. [gallery ids="915825,915824"] The launch titles available for PS4, including , , and the unique platformer called , all look amazing on the PS4’s hardware. Previous gen consoles, while smooth and detail rich, are no match for the amazingly life-like lighting effects, motion, and environment details. Make no mistake: this is really next-gen stuff. The included title, Playroom, shows off many of the PS4’s capabilities but is more a demo than a full game. To play it you waggle the controller around, flicking little augmented-reality characters in an on-screen representation of your living room. It’s very cute, but not a serious contender for game of the year. [gallery ids="915826,915821,915820"] This isn’t a game review so I’ll reserve passing detailed judgment on the titles. Sadly the introductory titles are interesting at best and poor at worst. Knack is a cute game featuring a Rayman-esque robot that grows as he battles trolls. The story is odd and not particularly compelling but the gameplay is smooth and the graphics are whimsical yet surprisingly detailed. All of these games are proofs of concept, titles that offer promise of things ahead. Are they the enough to amuse the casual fan? No, and there is no reason to update unless you’re looking for console-agnostic titles like . These titles look great on the PS4 but they also look fine on the PS3 (and Xbox 360 and PC). My list of PS4 negatives is very short. The fact that DNLA is now missing is a big deal. The launch titles are poor. The store is bogged down and installation isn’t nearly as fast as it needs to be. These can and will be remedied and if they’re not then Sony will have to decide how to react to the backlash. You also can’t play PS3 games on the PS4, a sad state of affairs for many who don’t want to spend $60 updating their collections. There is some hope, however, for owners of very recent PS3 games. For $10 you can download “updates” to these titles on the PS4 that require the PS3 disk to run. So far few major games – most notably are compatible with this service. There is also some talk of live streaming of PS3 games but there is no promise that ownership of a PS3 disk will get you access to the stream. In short, this console slams an iron curtain on the past. You’re also going to be disappointed in the pricing. The $60 PS4 camera adds quite a bit to the $399 price tag as will another controller and a few games. While the console is $100 less than the Xbox One, the price is deceiving especially given the previous problem of backwards compatibility. In short, you can’t open the box and play without dropping at least another $60 for a launch title. None of these bad points are particularly egregious but they add up to one clear thing – the PS4 isn’t quite ready and won’t be until some of the standout titles like and reach stores. That’s no reason to avoid this console, just a reason to wait a few weeks (or months) for the platform to mature. [gallery ids="915819,915818"] In the same way that the PS3 massively improved on the PS2 so does the PS4 improve upon the last generation. The graphics are stellar, the media offerings quite complete thanks to Sony’s partnerships, and the controls and hardware are quite usable. PC gamers will definitely see plenty to love on this powerful platform. Sony knows how to make a nice console. The design is understated and lacks the glossy bulbosity of the PS3. It is almost completely quiet and dissipates heat nicely, even in a confined space. It is the closest you’re going to get to a powerful PC in your living room and until devices like the Steambox hit the shelves I dare say this is about as good as it gets. My prediction is that the PS4 (and the Xbox One) will go strong for about five years and peter out – and be replaced by the turn of the decade. This console has to tide over the console gamer for years and it will be a tough slog. 4K TV will become commercially popular and, because the console doesn’t support 60fps 4K playback, there will be another console after this one. The PS4 will also be the last console with an optical drive (much to the chagrin of GameStop execs, I’m sure). The console will sell well once the titles match its capabilities. As it stands, today, however, it’s inherently difficult to recommend that you rush out and purchase a PS4 this season – but that shouldn’t stop you. It’s a solid platform that is dedicated primarily to gaming. There are few distractions – no TV interaction, few voice controls – and the entire device shows a dedication to gaming that isn’t present in competing consoles. The graphics, thanks to a powerful graphics processor, are stunning and everything looks better. The potential for greatness is right there in that angular black box. Sony and its partners just have to fulfill it. Who is the PS4 for? It’s for die-hard Sony gamers. It’s for fans of major franchises who want PC-quality graphics in the living room. It’s for first-time PlayStation users who are looking for the state of the art. It’s not for the casual gamer – yet – and it’s not for the title-specific gamer who is, say, looking for something massively engrossing not available elsewhere. In that respect even a well-stocked iPad or Android tablet beats the PS4, at least in terms of game selection and playability. Sony has polished the PlayStation experience to a high shine and it’s clear that they knew exactly where to tweak the PS3 to make a true next-gen console. Now they have to figure out how to make it a compelling game platform in a world where most gaming is done on a 4-inch screen and not a 4-foot TV. We are at the eye of a storm. It took a decade for the console to reach this quiet place and I suspect the next generation will bring us back into a storm of wild change. Until then, the release of the PS4 is a breather on the road to the next-next-gen and it’s a welcome one.
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Money Dashboard Gets $4.4M To Tell UK Bank Users What They Spend On
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Mike Butcher
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
One thing the UK, a huge finance market, has been lacking in recent years is something equivalent to Mint.com. Now hopes to fulfil at least part of that role. It’s a ‘smart’ account aggregation service that automatically analyses online banking statements. It’s now secured a £2.7 million ($4.4 million) investment round, led by Calculus Capital, a fund which manages private equity funds for individuals. Money Dashboard aims to now develop new services, including launching mobile apps. In addition, ZAG, a venture-led branding agency under BBH, it to become a shareholder now that it will handle the launch and marketing of the new products. Money Dashboard – going since 2010 – tells UK consumers how much they spend each month on food, leisure and many other categories, for free. It aggregates current, savings and credit cards accounts together in one place, with the same security levels as online banking. The result are some pretty cool charts showing you spot areas where you could make savings. It also provides spending forecasts and can make consumer aware of their ‘Clear Cash’ figure that is available to spend before pay day. Alerts can also be set, including notifications when balances fall to the point where they risk triggering annoying bank charges. The technology is ‘read-only’ therefore no money can be moved or transactions processed through the site. The business model is generating the majority of revenues by harnessing data to offer ‘switching services’ , whereby Money Dashboard gets paid for funnelling users towards energy, broadband, fixed line and satellite TV packages, loans and other services. Not unlike Uswitch. Susan McDonald, chairman of Calculus Capital, says: “This is a genuinely exciting business with huge potential.” Founder Gavin Littlejohn says: Money Dashboard’s rich vein of data and insights will also be further developed.”
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Android vs. iOS Development: Fight!
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Jon Evans
| 2,013 | 11 | 16 |
The eternal startup question “Android or iOS first?” grows ever thornier, with that Android’s market share exceeds 80%. But never mind the managers and non-technical founders: what do think of that divide? Whoever makes life easier for them gains a sizable edge. And by “them” I mean “us.” When not writing (and ) I’m a software engineer for , a consultancy with the best name (and web site–go on, click through) ever. To keep my hand in, as I find myself doing ever more management, I recently wrote and open-sourced a pair of more-or-less identical Android and iOS apps for a pet personal project. So let me use them to walk you through the state of the art. Background: I’ve written numerous Android and iOS apps previously, both personally and professionally. These apps are native clients for my pet news aggregator, , which identifies stories being shared unusually widely across social media. Their complete source code is available on Github: ( | ) and the actual apps are available for download: ( | .) Before we begin, I would be remiss not to mention . If I was fluent in C#, especially if I didn’t already know Java and Objective-C, that would be my first choice for native app development. Also, a disclaimer: this is more “fun code” than “production quality.” You’ll notice a stark lack of test code; I still need to track down an iOS heisenbug; I should be using git submodules rather than copy-pasted files for the third-party libraries; etc. ( ugh, and a rogue layout file slipped into the Android build which caused it to crash on tablets. Now fixed.) Now, with no further ado, You can still write code with text files and command lines, and many do, but it’s much more productive to use an integrated development environment, or IDE. Apple’s is , which is, by and large, a joy to work with. It’s slick, fast, powerful, helpful without being intrusive, and it keeps getting better at papering over both the unheimlich compilation machinery beneath its glossy exterior, and the complex and paranoid certificate/profile machinery which Apple imposes on developers to retain its titanium-fisted control over iOS apps and devices. The debugger works seamlessly, and the simulator is fast and responsive. But Android? Oh, Android. The current state-of-the-art IDE is , and it is bad. Slow, clunky, counterintuitive when not outright baffling, poorly laid out, needlessly complex, it’s just a mess. Its debugger is so clumsy that I find myself doing log-file debugging most of the time, whereas the XCode debugger is my iOS go-to bug-hunt tool. And the less said about the Android emulator, which takes to launch and then half the time fails to connect to the Android Debug Bridge, the better. Do people really use the android virtual device thing for development? Why does it take like ten minutes to boot? — midendian (@midendian) Now, to be fair, Google knows this is a problem, and they are working on a new IDE. Alas: Android Studio is currently available as an early access preview. Several features are either incomplete or not yet implemented and you may encounter bugs. If you are not comfortable using an unfinished product, you may want to instead download (or continue to use) the ADT Bundle (Eclipse with the ADT Plugin). It’s nice to see they’re working on it, but it’s amazing–in a bad way–that 4.5 years after I purchased my first Android phone, this mess is still the state of the art. iOS, by a country mile. As I mentioned, beneath the sleek, seamless exterior of Xcode and Objective-C lurk the Lovecraftian horrors of 1970s programming. I kid, I kid…but still. Macros and header files; projects, targets, schemes, and build configurations; an appallingly-intimidating list of build settings; the grim despair of encountering a baffling linker error; and like “oh, your third-party code doesn’t support ARC? Just add the -fno-objc-arc flag! Simple, no?” Android has a single manifest file and Eclipse builds your app in its entirety (usually) every time you save any file. I’d prefer more clarity in the error messages you get when your app isn’t working because you haven’t configured its permissions correctly, but that’s a minor cavil. By and large, Android app configuration is simple and elegant. Android. You would expect Apple to walk off with this trophy. Its Interface Builder is a very sleek way to put simple good-looking user interfaces together quickly. The trouble is, the more I’ve actually used Interface Builder, the less I’ve liked it. It’s another layer of configuration complexity; it’s excellent for simple things, but as time goes by and apps evolve, those simple things tend to get complex and messy; and I don’t like the multi-screen Storyboards Apple added about a year ago. While Android theoretically has a comparable visual tool, the less said about it the better. In practice you wind up writing which provide layout guidelines, as opposed to rules, so that apps are rendered (hopefully) well on the entire vast panoply of devices and screen sizes out there. (Apple’s moves in the same direction, with an eye towards a larger variety of iOS screens in the future, no doubt.) Meanwhile, Android provides an for developers to use, whereas iOS developers have to go with third parties like , or roll their own. Overall it’s a closer contest than you’d think, although I concede that this is pretty idiosyncratic. In the end two things give iOS the edge. First, it’s still much simpler: three screen sizes (including iPad) and two screen densities, as opposed to the mass of complexity which is Android. Second, the default iOS visual elements — eg popup menus and messages – are so much more visually attractive than Android’s. iOS. Android apps are written in Java; iOS apps in Objective-C. There are exceptions – there’s Xamarin, again; there are various other native-app fringe cases; and there are native/web hybrids like PhoneGap — but in general, native Android apps are written in Java and native iOS apps in Objective-C. I cut my programming teeth on Java, and didn’t think much of Objective-C at first, in large part because of its excessive verbosity: a line like becomes but I’ve grown very fond of Objective-C. It’s just better and cleaner than Java. It has : Java does not. It has ; Java does not. It does not require you to wrap much of your code with vast swathes of boilerplate try/catch exception-handling whitespace: Java does. Java has its advantages. Better stack traces, for one thing, which means tracking down sporadic bugs tends to be a lot easier. And until a couple of years ago Android had the huge advantage of garbage collection. But now that iOS has , that advantage has mostly vanished (although old third-party tools often don’t work with ARC, which means you have to do some XCode configuration voodoo to switch it off on a file-by-file basis.) With that distinction gone, the winner here is clear. iOS. Both Android and iOS make an enormous library of software available to their developers, and, broadly speaking, those libraries are fairly similar: there are APIs for phone functions and features, network access functions, a panoply of View objects including a powerful WebView which essentially functions as a full-fledged browser. Most of the work, meanwhile, is done in controllers: very roughly, an iOS ViewController is equivalent to an Android Activity. What iOS has which Android doesn’t is an extra set of frameworks and features — there’s no real Android equivalent to iOS’s powerful Core Data framework, for instance — and a generally cleaner, better designed system. Compare relatively simple iOS classes, for instance, which really do the bulk of all the work in the app, with Android classes, which between them include a half-dozen more inner or anonymous classes. At the end of the day I’d just much rather work with an iOS than an Android . Another metric, albeit a flawed one: lines of code. These apps are very nearly functional identical, but the iOS one has 1596 lines of custom code, including header files, compared to 2109 lines of Java code and XML for Android. That’s a full 32% more. iOS. These days many-to-most apps are conduits to Internet APIs more than they’re standalone programs; this is important enough that it’s worth looking at separately. Both iOS and Android provide a panoply of tools and APIs for this. They also both provide very similar WebViews, which are basically full-fledged browser windows that you can plug into your app anywhere. Network connections basically have to run in the background, so as not to block the main thread of the app, and multithreading is hard. Android provides an class for things like this, which is verbose but works well, and a to determine whether you’re currently online. iOS provides equivalent facilities, but they’re all pretty low-level and unsatisfying. However, there are a host of open-source libraries that make life much easier. I used AFNetworking, which is as delightful as advertised. You simply pass it blocks of code to run when web requests are complete — which isn’t possible in Android, because Java doesn’t do blocks. Android natively, but iOS when third-party libraries are considered. How easy is it to share something from your app to Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, etc? I had thought this would be a first-round knockout for Android, which has long had a powerful inter-app communications system called Intents. And in general Android is still much better at letting apps call and share data with one another. In the (perhaps unfortunately) much more common case of sharing, though, Apple has caught up considerably. Don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself. The Android code to share a Scanvine story is , and the iOS code . The only reason the iOS code is longer is because I do a little more Google Analytics tracking there than on the Android side (which I should fix.) Neither. No need to spend much time on this one. . . QED. Though it’s worth noting that Google is implementing an , so this may be worth revisiting soon enough. iOS. Publishing an Android app is easy as a dream. Just sign your app via a handy Eclipse wizard, and poof, you have an APK file that can run on any device. Email it, put it up on a web site, or upload it to Google Play and make it available worldwide (probably) within the hour. Could hardly be simpler. Check install statistics and crash reports, including stack traces which (usually) identify the individual line of code that went wrong, at your leisure, and you can upload a bug-fix version immediately. Publishing an Apple app is a nightmare. A brilliant friend of mine always advises people to add at least a day to their iOS development schedule to wrestle with certificates and distribution profiles. No matter how many times I do it, or how easy the latest version of XCode tries to make it, it’s a giant hassle. And testing would be even if not for TestFlight. And Apple’s “iTunes Connect” web site is to Google Play Developer Console as a Ford Pinto is to a Tesla. Good luck getting any crash reports at all, much less useful information from them; have fun jumping through their arbitrary hoops; and marvel at just how bad mighty Apple’s UX can be. Android, by a long shot. iOS, and by some distance. Android has its advantages, but overall, it remains significantly easier to write good iOS apps than good Android apps. Combine that with the fact that iOS users tend to be wealthier–and arguably more influential–and it still makes sense for most startups who want to make a splash to go iOS-first, Android-later. The new Android Studio IDE could conceivably close some of that gap…but not all of it. (For the record, my own primary phone is a Nexus 4, and I’m very happy with it.) Jennifer Stolzer, .
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Journaling App LifeCrumbs Turns Your Favorite Photos Into A Visual Calendar Of Happy Memories
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
The holidays are often less than merry if you have to deal with things like balancing work with travel, financial stress or seasonal affective disorder. I usually cope by listening to Merle Haggard’s over and over and over again. This year, however, I also plan to make visual journaling app part of my daily routine. Made by a startup called Tomofun, LifeCrumbs was created around the idea that even on the gloomiest of days, there is always at least one good moment to salvage. The , which will launch its Android version soon, lets you turn those moments into a visual calendar filled with photos of good memories. Founded by Victor Chang and based in Taipei, Tomofun’s mission is to build products that “find joy in the ordinary.” LifeCrumbs is actually the startup’s second product; the first app they built never left the prototype stage because it did not receive enough positive feedback to justify a launch. After that disappointment, Tomofun’s team decided to regroup by going to the Philippines and spending summer 2012 volunteering with a homebuilding program. “I met a five-year-old girl who had just lost her dad in a typhoon. When I gave her a cookie, she took that cookie, ran back to her family and split it six ways with them. Then she ran back to me, split it in half again, smiled and said thank you,” said Chang. “That changed my life because it made me realize you don’t need a lot in life to be happy. That notion was so inspiring that I wanted to share it with other people.”
Inspired by that moment, Tomofun began working on a journaling app to let people record meaningful moments from each day after returning to Taiwan. LifeCrumbs launched in closed beta in October 2012 before opening to the public last August. Since then, the team has continued to incorporate feedback from users and redesigned the app to make it even more visually oriented. LifeCrumbs is integrated with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, so you can select updates from each network to import. Tomofun is currently self-funded and exploring several revenue models for LifeCrumbs, including selling sticker sets and letting users order their photo calendars as prints and other products. There are a lot of other great apps that are designed to make journaling easy and pleasurable for busy smartphone users. Some standouts include (which ), , and . LifeCrumbs seeks to differentiate by creating a positive and upbeat community within the app. The official LifeCrumbs account uploads inspirational quotes and photos each day and users gain points for uploading status updates and photos (though they can also choose to make their journals private). The team plans to launch more engagement features and activities like hashtag prompts to encourage people to upload and comment on photos around the same theme. The idea of keeping a gratitude journal or participating in a community filled with people intent on finding a memorable moment during even the cruddiest of days might seem cloying or (for the more curmudgeonly among us) even downright horrifying. But it can pay off. Researchers encourages healthier habits, better sleep and can even improve emotional and physical resilience. I also like the idea of having a safe place to indulge my inner Pollyanna without being accused of being an “ ” or irritating my wider group of Facebook friends. LifeCrumb users have dedicated their visual calendars to daily updates about their children, pets, weight loss progress or best meals. Some have even turned the calendar into a budgeting tool by taking photos of what they bought (or didn’t buy). If you update your LifeCrumbs journal regularly (or at least go back and fill in the days that you missed), then by the end of a few weeks you’ll have a collection of about 30 good moments to enjoy at a glance (even if the month was otherwise lackluster). “People kept coming back and letting us know that it is great to be able to see your memories laid out in a calendar format,” says Maggie Cheung, LifeCrumbs’ community manager and Tomofun’s director of social marketing. “Each visual acts like a mnemonic to bring back the memory.”
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As Nadella And Mulally Lead In Microsoft’s CEO Hunt, The Internal/External Debate Continues
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Alex Wilhelm
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
According , the potential pool of candidates being considered for the role of next CEO of Microsoft has narrowed, at least for the moment. Ford CEO Alan Mulally and current Microsoft executive vice president Satya Nadella are said to be the two front-runners. If true, it’s hardly a surprising shortlist. Mulally is a longtime ally of current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer; had a hand in designing its reorganization; and has secured a spot in business case studies for the next few decades due to his role in doing the same, successfully, at the Ford Motor Company. Nadella, meanwhile, is a . He’s a respected technologist; and long-term Microsoft executive who has held a number of roles from developer relations through to building Microsoft’s cloud business. The bond between Ballmer and Mulally runs deep. When Mulally was named to the 2009 Time 100 list, : “It is extremely rare for one leader to play a major role in two of America’s top industries,” noted Ballmer. “Alan Mulally is that rare case. […] “Changing industries can upset even the most seasoned executive. Not Alan. He understands the fundamentals of business success as well as any business leader I know.” It’s almost humorous how well Ballmer’s accolade from four years ago suits Mulally and Microsoft today. Two top industries? Why not three. If Alan understands the core tenets of business so strongly, perhaps he could manage a software company as well as he’s managed more industrial enterprises. Nadella, on the other hand, is a technologist’s technologist. I , around a year ago, digging into how Microsoft’s Azure was born, and how the cloud was set to change both Microsoft and the larger software market. Nadella’s explanation sounds very prescient in hindsight, too: [W]hat we’re doing across the company between devices and the cloud and services is the front and center priority for us, and we are well on our way with that, given what we have done with Windows 8 and what we are doing with Windows Phone and Windows Azure. I think that represents the core of the reinvention and the re-imagination of the Windows franchise What Nadella outlined a year ago has come to bear out in a number of ways. Cloud-based businesses and services at Microsoft have had a strong last year, with several cresting the $1 billion revenue mark. Lync, Office 365, and Azure are for Microsoft. As the company’s OEM revenue from Windows slows and slips, the fresh top line is more than welcome. One catch in all this: Nadella may end up being considered too internal, or perhaps too important in his current role to move up to the CEO spot. Remove Nadella from his current rank atop Azure and the rest of his reports, and you have to find someone to replace him. That’s not simple. In that regard, one reason that Mulally could make a compelling chief executive is that if you like the way that Microsoft has set up its current roster of executive vice presidents (the folks one step below the CEO), under his tenure, that makeup could be maintained — assuming people stay on board with the new exec, and he decides not to shake things up. AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher that Microsoft might hire Mulally to step in and manage the company, as it trains up an internal candidate to take over: “[T]he idea [of Mulally is] that he will be more a “caretaker” type CEO, whose deep experience and inspirational charisma will get the company on the right path, while also training up a number of internal candidates to eventually take over from him.” Under that rubric, Microsoft could end up first with Mulally, and second with Nadella. Perhaps. However, as journalist Simon Bisson , “[t]he one point to remember is that Ballmer said they were looking for a CEO for the next decade.” That cuts at the idea that the board will pick someone to simply come over, holding things in place while an internal candidate is made ready. Mulally had a hand in the rebuilding of Microsoft’s internal structure. The has the scene in detail: Mr. Ballmer brought a messenger bag, pulling out onto a table an array of phones and tablets from Microsoft and competitors. He asked Mr. Mulally how he turned around Ford. For four hours, he says, Mr. Mulally detailed how teamwork and simplifying the Ford brand helped him reposition it. Reading that, it almost feels that Mulally may have already offered Microsoft his best advice, such that it led to the shape of the reorganization that may be key to Microsoft bettering its internal harmony so that its teams edify one another, and not harm one another as in the past. Nadella’s contribution to Microsoft is, by simplistic comparison, hardly complete. What he brings to the table is technical knowledge at a time in which the company is rebuilding itself. A from Microsoft’s recent FAM day, when Nadella and other executive vice president’s were interviewed: “So one thing I would add is when we think about the platform as Terry and team are working on even bringing all our client platforms together and the tooling around it is, in fact, going to facilitate a lot of the sharing of the assets for the developers, which is very, very important for us. “But there’s no application that gets built today in the enterprise or in the consumer space that doesn’t have a huge cloud element. In fact, even Office 365 is a programming surface area. “So we’re really building out our tooling across all of our assets and enabling these developers to exploit our broadest platform, and I think that’s another source of innovation around our platforms that I think will translate into sort of unique app experiences for our platforms.” The above is the simple gist of how Microsoft’s platforms (which are increasingly harmonized) will sit atop the cloud. Would Mulally be able to understand the above concepts deeply enough to ensure that resource allocation remains appropriate, and even aggressive? His history indicates that even if he may not have the tech experience, he might yet have that exact moxie.
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Let’s Sit Out Black Friday, Shall We?
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
It’s Thanksgiving in the States and tomorrow is the biggest shopping day of the year. In fact stores will be open tonight so you can elbow your way into a scrum of bargain hunters and frotteurists. I’m here to tell you it’s a sucker’s game, at least when it comes to consumer electronics and computer hardware. This is not to say you shouldn’t go out tomorrow. Are you looking for toys, scarves, and underwear for the family? By all means hit the malls. Those “soft goods” are so cheap wholesale that stores can afford to discount them drastically in hopes that you’ll make up for loss in profit with sheer volume. See a Lego door buster you’ve got to have? You better get in there. But computer hardware is a far different matter. Consumer electronics margins are so low right now that manufacturers make pennies per device. Deep discounts usually happen to items that are on their way out anyway. I checked out Best Buy’s Black Friday page. The iPad 2 is on sale there for $299 – it’s normally $399 – but it’s the Wi-Fi only 16GB model, pretty much the entriest of the entry level. You can grab a 64GB model refurbished for $469 on Apple’s website. “But this is for mom,” you say. “She wants to read and maybe Skype us.” Get her the Fire HDX for fifty less, no mall visit needed. What about those $300 laptops (BB has a Toshiba model)? Well, the laptops on sale aren’t going to be on the market for much longer and Black Friday is a great way to clear out old stock. CES is right around the corner and we can expect Intel’s Broadwell chip to launch in a quarter or so. Therefore you’re buying obsolescence on sale. Don’t expect to get a deal on an Xbox One or PS4, either. You won’t even see one in stores, let alone get a discount on one. Going for the TVs? BB is selling their Insignia brand 39-inched for $169. This is an in-store deal which means you probably won’t get one. Do you want one? without many frills. Is it worth stabbing a grandmother over in order to score the last box? No. In the end Black Friday is an exercise in pure commerce. Stores want you to come in because it means they can clear out all their stock in a few short hours. It gives them a cushion for the slow post-holiday season and it makes shopping look like an event. While I’m all for expansion of the commercial spirit, I think Black Friday is such a cynical and scammy experience that it’s hardly worth rolling off the couch to partake in. Make some real nerds happy – hit the small guys online, pick up some ThinkGeek stuff or some cool board games or Estes rockets from a smaller hobby shop and let somebody else fight over a $12 Blu-Ray player.
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Mt.Gox Launches Bitcoins.com To Explain What The Heck A Bitcoin Is
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
It’s Thanksgiving! And, judging by the fact that you read tech blogs, you’re probably at least a bit of a geek. Know what that means? Today’s the day you get to answer all of your extended family’s tech questions! Hurrah! For the last few years, that’s probably meant explaining the difference between iPhone and Android. This year, you’ll probably get to explain what the heck this “Bitcoin” thing is at twice. Fortunately, one of the top Bitcoin exchanges has just launched an informational site that ought to make things a bit easier to understand. Putting their domain to a pleasingly non-spammy use, Mt.Gox has just relaunched the domain as an introductory repository of information focused on all things Bitcoin. While they could’ve just put up a big static page that says “WANT BITCOIN? GO TO MT.GOX” and called it a day, it seems like they’re actually trying to stay relatively neutral; while Mt.Gox is mentioned a few times on the page, it’s generally alongside mentions of other exchanges. While the site doesn’t explain (they only briefly touch on how Bitcoin mining works, for example, presumably to avoid getting too technical), it’s a pretty solid primer and they cram a lot of information into a rather tight package. If nothing else, it’s a good way to brush up on the higher level details before your friends and family start askin’ about it. Oh: and if the recent hype has you thinkin’ that Bitcoin is a brand new thing, check out the timeline on the bottom of . Bitcoin’s been coming together . [Fun fact: Mt.Gox is an acronym for Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange. Mt.Gox was originally a place for people to trade cards. They switched to focusing on Bitcoins in 2010. Best pivot ever?]
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Dutch Authorities Find Google Violates Its Private Data Protection Act
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
Google’s decision to share user data across Google services, revealed in an update to its policy back in March 2012, isn’t strictly kosher with Dutch privacy law, the Dutch Data Protection Authority said Thursday. Google doesn’t “properly inform users which personal data the company collects and combines, and for what purposes,” according to a statement by the DPA issued via . While the DPA says that Google is definitely in the wrong in this case, there aren’t any immediate measures being taken to punish Google or prescribe any corrective action. It does however state that Google’s current means for securing user permission to collect their data is insufficient. That means simply offering up a single general privacy policy and terms of service document isn’t enough, especially when combined with the fact that it is “almost impossible not to use Google services on the Internet,” according to the DPA. Google is definitely in violation of the law according to the body, but Google itself denies the validity of that claim, according to an emailed statement received by . Google also says it’s in constant communication with the Dutch DPA and will continue to work with the organization going forward to resolve the issue. The next step is a hearing at which Google will face the DPA’s decision about how to proceed in terms of corrective or disciplinary measures. Google’s privacy policy switch definitely irked users, and clearly some government organizations have taken issue with it as well. There are more changes planned for implementation soon, like Google displaying Google+ images in ads unless users opt out. Hopefully this corrective action has some kind of effect on the Internet giant’s ability to unilaterally change the way it uses the user data it collects, but I’m not holding my breath.
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From 1BN To 2BN Users: Mobile Messaging Apps To Get “Mass Adoption” In 2014, Says Ovum
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Natasha Lomas
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
If you thought the hype around mobile messaging apps had reached some already — what with SnapChat apparently snubbing cash acquisition offers of $3bn and even $4bn, from Facebook and Google respectively — expect even more craziness next year. A lot more, as usage of over-the-top messaging services reaches an “inflection point”, as analyst Ovum puts it in a . Ovum says it expects the number of messages to be “transacted” on social messaging apps like WhatsApp and Line to grow from 27.5 trillion in 2013 to 71.5 trillion by the end of 2014. So that’s more than 2.5x in messaging volumes. If one such service, SnapChat grows at a similar rate it could mean its users are receiving more than a billion Snaps daily by the end of next year, up from the they’re currently getting. Which (maybe) makes a $3 billion cash offer for an ephemeral messaging app seem a little less crazy. . The drivers for “social messaging”, as Ovum terms these mobile-first platforms, include the growth of affordable smartphones and access to mobile broadband (in emerging markets), plus large-scale marketing campaigns (Japan’s Line does high profile TV advertising campaigns in its priority markets, for instance). All of which will lead to the “mass adoption” of social messaging services next year, it predicts. So if you thought the user numbers being bandied around by the likes of WhatsApp (which now has monthly active users); WeChat (more than MAUs); and Line ( ) were already pretty impressive, think again. There’s still apparently room for growth — a lot of room for a lot more growth, according to Ovum. The analyst notes that the “cumulative strength of the social messaging industry” has long since crossed the billion-user mark — and it’s predicting that, given the current speed of adoption, “we can expect it to cross the 2-billion mark by the end of 2014”. “Even though social messaging players have been around since 2011, only in 2014 will they become a force to be reckoned with,” the report adds. Ovum said it expects to see a new wave of over-the-top messaging players next year devising mobile-first services and building out lasting businesses from this small screen foundation. Albeit, many social messaging startups won’t go the distance of course — Ovum says a two-year “waiting period” is required to establish whether a social service is going to last, or whether it’s just a passing fad. But looking generally at the social messaging space it’s passed the point of passing fancy — to establish itself as a mobile fixture. “The strong and steady ascension of social messaging in the past few years means it has established itself as not just a fad, but a mobile-first service that is going to be around in the long term,” says the report. “It will evolve along with consumers and their digital appetites into a mobile social media platform.” Ovum also expects to see social messaging players trialling services that take them beyond comms next year — citing examples such as games, payments, information services, and utilities. (A fitting expansion, if photo-sharing behemoths like Instagram are .) Some current gen messaging platforms are already doing this, of course, including Line and KakaoTalk (games) and WeChat (payments), to name a few. But expect to see more services being added by more players as they vie to build out fully-featured media platforms and compete to create contextual services that tickle the fancy of their respective massive mobile user-bases. Ovum argues that mobile-first social messaging players have a natural advantage over legacy social networking players which have had to port services from PC to mobile, being as they are developed for the mobile-first era. Which again may explain why such large amounts of cash are being waved in front of SnapChat by longer-toothed tech veterans who cut their own teeth on the desktop. On the question of monetisation, the analyst points to larger social messaging players which have successfully started generating revenues off of their large user-bases, including Line via in-game purchases and sticker sales, which contributed to it generating revenues of more than $132 million in Q2; and KakaoTalk building up game revenues of $300 million in the first half of the year. And says it expects those two services’ revenues in particular to grow in 2014. However it also notes that games and stickers won’t work for social messaging’s smaller fish — arguing that this monetisation method demands large user-bases to generate the required revenues. Which in turn explains why Line, as one example, is pursuing an aggressive international expansion strategy, and shouting about rising numbers of registered users. It needs large numbers of users to funnel into its games and stickers shop business model “There are questions over the longevity of social messaging without a sound revenue stream, and some expect these players to be fattened up through VC funding and then to be sold. That might be true for some of the smaller players in the industry, but the bigger players have moved beyond the stage of accumulating a large user base and are now focusing on growing their revenues,” the report notes. “The key to monetization is having a large and loyal user base, which is becoming a reality for the top four players,” it adds. Ovum said it expects other social messaging giants to speed up their monetisation efforts in 2014 to achieve sustainable revenues — with other strategies being pursued including WhatsApp’s subscription-model, coupled with carrier partnerships; and WeChat doing celebrity-based chat channels, sponsored stickers, and mobile payments. Despite stickers only being a ticket to riches for the largest social messaging players, Ovum said it expects expressive, pictorial pixels to be even more popular next year — becoming a “universal means of expression over social messaging apps”. One reasons for stickers’/emoji’s enduring power among users is that visual imagery can be understood even when words cannot — crossing language barriers, and (along with voice messaging features) allowing for communication between people who can’t read. And from the messaging app maker’s perspective, adding non-linguistic comms features to apps — such as stickers and voice messages — allows them to tap audiences who may not be literate but absolutely want to communicate. With the growth of OTT messaging, carriers might well fear being left out in the cold, as their customers ditch SMS for messaging apps with fancier features like stickers in increasing numbers. But some carriers are already looking to partner with social messaging players, to attract new customers or increase engagement. And that’s an opportunity for some of the players, large and small, in this space. Ovum specifically notes that carriers may seek to “compensate” for the dampening of SMS revenues by, for instance, offering SMS APIs to mobile messaging app players — to allow their services to reach into a wider 2G pool. If carriers become a little more comfortable about working with messaging startups, rather than trying to choke off their services, there is potentially something in it for both sides. And, indeed, research put out by UK analyst mobilesquared suggested carriers are increasingly open to working with social messaging players — partly on account of the “exponential” growth of OTT services, as well as also the corresponding decline in their own traditional SMS messaging revenues — and the need for them to seek replacement revenues.
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IBM Thanksgiving Day U.S. Sales Data Shows 22% Of Online Transactions Made On Mobile, With Average Order $132
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Ingrid Lunden
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
It’s Thanksgiving, and , is once again tracking how U.S. consumers are taking to the web to kick off holiday season shopping. Early indications are that this year once again shows growth, but less than in 2012. Overall, Thanksgiving online sales are up 9% over last year. On the same day in 2012, they were . The average value of an online order is down slightly, too. IBM tells me it is $132.13 so far for today; in 2012, it was $132.57. IBM says its numbers come from tracking millions of transactions from 800 retailers online in real time. IBM’s results indicate that newer platforms like mobile are getting ever more popular: mobile accounted for over 35% of all online traffic, up almost 30% compared to 2012. Mobile sales were over 22% of all online sales. It’s no surprise that mobile continues to grow: apart from the bigger trends that are seeing ever more people adopting smartphones and tablets, on Thanksgiving specifically, many people are together with friends and family, and often converging in living rooms and maybe in front of TVs or at parades or other events. That means less time at computers and more time turning to smaller and more portable screens to catch the latest deals showering down from cyberspace. IBM’s data is bearing out a that tablets, rather than smartphones, are driving more actual conversions to purchases. Smartphones today have so far driven 22% of all online traffic, IBM says, versus just 12.5% for tablets. But tablets have driven 13% of all sales online, 1.5 times the rate for handsets at 9%. The bigger screens of tablets are also driving more valuable orders — $125 versus $114.21 when items are purchased on smartphones. In terms of platforms, iOS is trumping Android yet again when it comes to engagement. It may be losing to Android in overall marketshare globally, but when it comes to the U.S. market, iOS wins out for the most voracious consumers. IBM says iOS has seen more than three times the amount of sales that Android has — or 17% versus 5% of all online sales. iOS users spent $120.03 per order, IBM says, with Android at $114.19 (very close to the smartphone average basket value, in fact). iOS devices have accounted for 24% of all online shopping traffic so far; Android 10.5%. Last year, IBM stirred up a bit of controversy when it noted that social networks were driving only 0.2% of online sales. This year, the numbers are a bit better: social networks so far are driving about 1% of sales, IBM tells me — “which is not to say social is not important, it has more of an indirect influence on sales — i.e. consumer perceptions of products, brands, customer experience,
which influences purchasing,” a spokesperson tells me. So far, Facebook is winning out over Pinterest in terms of driving more valuable purchases, at $108.41 per order compared to $102.61 per order for Pinterest. Facebook referrals converted sales at a 43% higher rate than Pinterest referrals, “perhaps indicating stronger confidence in network recommendations,” IBM notes. IBM says that it will update again with fresh numbers in a few hours. Last year, sales crept up the whole day, and by midnight, they were up 17.4% over 2011, with an especially strong push for mobile commerce. Some 25.3% of consumers used mobile devices to visit retailers’ sites in 2012, up 66% over 2011. And 18.3% of consumers used a mobile device to buy goods, up 65% over 2011. As for the bigger picture beyond Thanksgiving, Forrester Research has more optimistic predictions compared to the numbers coming from IBM today. It estimates that U.S. online holiday sales will reach $78.7 billion this year, up 15% over 2012’s $68.4 billion. Forrester predicts that 167 million shoppers will do their holiday shopping online, spending an average of $472 for the season. “Strong economic growth and low unemployment rates project a healthy playing field for online holiday sales and outweigh any lingering dampening effect of the government shutdown,” writes Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru. : IBM’s next number instalment from a 3pm Eastern reading indicates a slight rise in online sales, which are now up 9.4% on 2012. Mobile is also up slightly to 36%, as are mobile-based sales, now at 23% of all online sales. Smartphones are driving 23% of traffic, with tablets at 13%. Tablets rose slightly to 14% of all online sales; mobile handsets declined to 8.5%. Tablets average sales are also climbing up: $126.26 spent per order on average vs. smartphones at $113.19. The gap between iOS and Android in sales is also widening, 18% versus 5%. Same with sales, with iOS up to $121.46 per average order and Android down to $111.12. One-quarter of all e-commerce traffic is coming from iOS devices. In social, Pinterest is now outpacing Facebook in terms of the value of referral traffic — I guess pinners just needed a little longer to wake up? Facebook referrals now average $108.19 per order, while Pinterest is averaging $110.38. Update 2: More of the same, with sales now up 10% over last year and incremental increases across the rest of the metrics. The one notable change is back in “social influence” Facebook referrals are bringing in more shopping than Pinterest referrals, with Facebook driving $106.86 per order and Pinterest driving $102.79 per order. Facebook referrals are converting sales at a whopping 84% higher rate than Pinterest referrals (twice the rate from the original post). Image:
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The Worst Thing About Being A VC Is Other VCs
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
So you think you want to be a VC. It sounds like a pretty cool job, after all. You have good pay and benefits, get to meet with lots of interesting entrepreneurs, play with cool technology, can hang out in khakis all day… But what about the dark side of venture capital? What’s the worst part about having an office on Sand Hill Road and investing other people’s money? (Hint: It’s not eating breakfast at Madera, getting coffee at The Creamery, or having drinks at the Battery every day.) A seeks to find an answer to just this topic, and it’s one of the more interesting reads you might run across on the QA site. While there are lots of great answers from folks like , , and ,* the runaway favorite is a who claims 10 years of experience as a general partner at one of the bigger venture funds out there. While noting that being a VC “is really the greatest job on earth” and that “saying no” wasn’t a hard part of the job, just part of the job, Anonymous goes on to describe the things that really do suck about being a VC… Which can pretty much be boiled down to “dealing with other VCs.” That includes both VCs within your own firm, as well as those you co-invest with. Let’s start with those you work with directly: At a large fund, there are lots of partners. And what it takes to become a partner at a big fund and stay there for years is often a high asshole factor, ability and desire to deal with firm politics and internal jockeying for power. Don’t get me wrong. There are some great great partners. But I think 2/3rds of the people in the GP ranks at big firms have massive egos (as one LP put it “VCs have more ego per dollar of return than any asset class we know of”) Not surprisingly, Anonymous goes on to break out the “crazy back room politics” general partners deal with, as well as senior partners who don’t add a lot of value and JUST. WON’T. RETIRE. So maybe you’re able to navigate the assholes you choose to work with. What about those you end up on boards with? Anonymous paints an even bleaker picture there: When it comes to companies that have multiple VCs as board members, each has “their own agendas and egos”… And, big surprise, those agendas aren’t always focused on what’s best for the company, but external stuff like “fund reserves, fund life, etc.” which impact their decisions and advice. If you can get through all of that, then you’re faced with dealing with the clueless limited partners who invest in your fund. As Anonymous describes, “LPs are the lagging-most indicators in the entire economy.” And, well, don’t really understand (or care to) what they’re actually investing in. Anonymous also describes all the loneliness associated with being a VC, as well as the emotional ups and downs that they go through when portfolio companies aren’t really working out the way they’d hoped. But let’s face it, it’s tough to feel sorry for anyone making “$500k to $2M per year” whose job it is to pick winners and losers in the game of tech. Anyway, now here’s the fun part: We know enough about Anonymous to make a reasonable guess as to who he or she is, or at least which firm he or she works for. Being a general partner for 10 years at a “big fund” with “multiple tiers of partners,” “crazy back room politics” and “senior partners who are well past medicare age” kind of narrows things down a little. (Or, well, maybe not.) Anyone care to take a guess which firm we’re talking about? ==
* My actually comes from Kristine Lauria, who is married to a VC and says the worst part of being one is “High risk of divorce because you never see your wife.” OOOOH BURN.
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Palette’s Modular Harware Controls Give You Sliders, Buttons And Knobs For Creative Software
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
[kickstarter url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cchu/palette-a-freeform-interface-that-controls-any-sof width=640] Waterloo-based startup is building a moddable hardware controller for your computer that can turn into a complete mixing board, should you need one. It’s a hand accessory that fits the description of something I’ve actually been looking around for based on the fact that editing video without some sliders for fine-tune scrubbing is a pain, and it’s on Kickstarter now. Co-founders Calvin Chu and Ashish Bidadi are seeking $100,000 in funding to make it a reality, and he already has over $60,000 pledged. Each starter kit unit includes one power module, one dial, one slider and one button, but you can add on more after the fact if you find you need more. They start at $99 for a basic kit, and should ship by June according to Chu if the project meets its schedule. Modules simply snap together, requiring no advanced hardware hacking on the user’s part, and making for a completely customizable hardware interface. The usefulness for sound/video/photo editors is huge, as you could potentially assign commonly used keyboard commands to specific palette modules via the companion desktop app that ships free with any kit. It’s also handy for gamers, who want a number of commands within easy reach, and perfectly suitable for DJ work, as well as a handy accessory just for making things like using Skype easy, as in the example controller Chu built for his grandmother. Some issues include the fact that support has to be created specifically for each application that wants to use the Palette controls, but Chu and his team are looking to offer Adobe Creative Suite support out of the box, as well as plug-ins and scripts for DJ software like Traktor and Ableton. They anticipate a community will emerge to help support the full range of available software. Chu is a mechatronics alumni from Waterloo, the same program that brought us the MYO armband and Thalmic labs, and he’s worked for Apple, Toyota and others in the past, so he definitely seems to have the skills to back up this grand vision. One thing’s for sure: I want these, and I want them now, before I have to edit my next video the old-fashioned way.
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Wishlist Startup, Addwish, Nabs $1.8M Seed From Sunstone Capital To Grow Its Presence In The U.S.
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Natasha Lomas
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
Tis the season for wish-lists. , a Danish startup offering online wish-list services for consumers and online businesses has closed $1.8 million in seed funding from Nordic-based early stage VC firm . It’s the first outside investment for the startup which has been bootstrapping since 2008, with co-founders Brian Peterson and Kasper Refskou Jensen remaining in their respective day jobs — until now. Now, with Sunstone’s cash behind it, they intend to focus full-time on growing the business — with a goal of signing up 3,000 online shops across the U.S. next year. The U.S. is a core focus for the startup so the funding will be used to hire staff to support this international push. More than 500 online shops are currently including Addwish’s “add to wishlist” plugin on their product listings, while it says it’s signing up 1,000 new users per day — and expects that to grow to 5,000 per day before the end of the month. It’s also expecting its plugin to be offered on the websites of more than 2,000 shops across Europe and North American by the end of this year, and is projecting consumers will have used the service to create 250,000 wish-lists in time for Christmas. (It’s not saying specifically how many users it has, as it says that changes all the time.) The startup launched new iOS and Android apps last week, which let users create and manage wish-lists on the go, and co-ordinate who gives what to whom with their friends and family. Addwish’s wishlist service is free for consumers to use, and allows them to add items directly from a retailer’s website (if they are using its plugin) or to add products as a “manual wish” if they are not listed within the app, or aren’t something that can be purchased online (such as a trip to the seaside, say). Shops can also use Addwish’s plugin for free. The startup’s business model relies on taking payments from online retailers for products to be suggested when a gift-hungry user searches for a particular item. It claims this promotional tool Addwish’s wish search feature works by suggesting items as a user types — then either categorising it as a “manual wish” — for items not in its databases — or providing specific product matches that tally with some component of the search, giving plenty of scope to push promoted products up the list of suggestions as users browse for gift ideas. Commenting on the funding in a statement, Sunstone Capital partner Christian Jepsen said: “At Sunstone we believe in the way Addwish ties the users and the web shops together through its website and mobile apps. This team has shown that they can assemble a world-class service and roll it out across multiple international territories.”
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Over 400 Retailers Are Offering Deals On New “Bitcoin Black Friday” Website
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Sarah Perez
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
Bitcoin burning a hole in your pocket? . If so, a new site has popped up to help you spend your digital currency during this hectic holiday shopping week: “ .” Starting on Friday, November 29th, a growing number of online retailers will be offering special deals just for Bitcoin users. Frankly, a good many of the offers are fairly gimmicky – you can use bitcoins to buy a bacon-flavored lollipop or a ticket to space on Virgin Atlantic, for example. That’s not really going to help you with your holiday shopping list, though. However, there are some decent choices on the site, too, but for obvious reasons, they tend to be a little more geeky in nature. Adafruit, for instance, is offering 10% off of everything in stock, including Raspberry Pi. Reddit is selling Reddit Gold. The Humble Bundle has deals up for grabs. There are also software, electronics, domain name and hosting deals, and so on. Mobile gift card app Gyft is one of the better deals available, giving Bitcoin shoppers 4 percentage points back when you buy gift cards from its supported retailer partners, like Target, Gamestop, Gap, Zappos, Nike, Old Navy, and hundreds of others. If you were stocking up on gift cards anyway, that’s worth taking advantage of. (For what it’s worth, PayPal users will get 3% back, while credit card users get 2% back, the company says.) Overall, though, the deal quality on “Bitcoin Black Friday” is a good indicator of where Bitcoin is in terms of mainstream adoption. That is, There really aren’t big-name retailers on board with the digital currency at this time. And for obvious reasons, big-name tech companies like Google, Amazon and eBay aren’t going to play along either, as they all have their own payment mechanisms to push (Google Wallet, PayPal and Amazon’s one-click checkout experience, respectively). But the site has the backing of large number of Bitcoin supporters, including digital wallet Coinbase, which is waving all fees on Friday so Bitcoin users can buy, sell, send and receive bitcoins all day. The site lists logos of other Bitcoin backers who have either contributed funds or assisted significantly in outreach to the Bitcoin community, including SV Angel, Bitcoin Investment Trust, Ribbit Capital, Bitypay, Coinbase, Gyft, PrivateInternetAccess, BitGive, and BitDazzle. Internet activists are also involved about the Bitcoin Black Friday efforts, somewhat radicalizing the event by pointing to Bitcoin’s potential to be disruptive to the status quo. “Bitcoin is an amazing new technology, but because it challenges established industries, it will face serious political opposition–especially in the U.S. where those industries are strongest,” the message reads on the project’s . “Bitcoin will only be safe once millions of people rely on it every day.” Of course, Bitcoin won’t reach those mainstream “millions” while speculators drive the price of the crytocurrency to new heights. That doesn’t discount its long-term potential though as a money transfer platform, though. But as a payment mechanism for online shopping? While it’s great that there are over 441 retailers on board with Bitcoin Black Friday, it would be better if there were more deals mainstream users would actually want to buy. Instead of say, Bitcoin t-shirts, stickers, glasses, mining equipment….and, oh yeah, more Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Black Friday movement is still growing, however. Earlier this week, it was touting that 250 retailers had signed up, and today there are nearly 200 more. Evan Greer of Fight the Future also tells us the site has seen over 30,000 unique visitors to date, almost half of which arrived yesterday. Meanwhile, over 4,000 people have signed up to get an email when the deals go live.
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MusiXmatch Aims For Bigger Slice Of Karaoke Market With Launch Of MusiXmatch Mic
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Steve O'Hear
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
In a bid to get a slice of the lucrative karaoke market, , the song lyrics database and maker of accompanying mobile apps that let you view lyrics of songs you’re listening to, is getting into the hardware game. Partnering with , the UK/Italian company is releasing a “custom-designed” microphone accessory and updated app targeting karaoke enthusiasts, a use-case that musiXmatch’s apps for iOS, Android, WP8, desktop Mac, W8, Spotify, and most recently , were already seeing. The musiXmatch Mic, which costs $79.95 (or £79.95 in the UK, and €79.95 elsewhere in Europe), plugs in to a user’s smartphone or tablet — initially iOS devices, but with Android to follow — while the updated musiXmatch app enables users to sing along to tracks in their existing music library, powered by the startup’s 7 million-strong song lyrics database. Key to the update and integration with the company’s first hardware offering is that the app’s “Live Pass” feature removes the song’s vocal in real-time so that you can sing over the top. That should provide a far greater karaoke experience than apps and systems powered by cheesy MIDI files. It’s also how musiXmatch plans to make money, by charging a daily, weekly or monthly subscription to the feature ($1.99, $3.99 and $14.99 respectively), thus providing a new revenue stream for the company in addition to charging for use of its API, and for premium app features, such as removing ads. Those who purchase the musiXmatch Mic get two month’s free access to Live Pass, as well as a one-year ad-free Premium subscription to the main app. Max Ciociola, CEO and co-founder of musiXmatch, says the company’s new hardware/software offering is designed to compete with “expensive and poor quality hardware that only offers access to limited song catalogues”. Specifically, he tells me that, although the primary use for musiXmatch’s app is to sing along rather than karaoke per se — “that’s singing not karaoke, quite different,” he says — the startup discovered that the experience offered by existing karaoke app makers and systems was “pretty crappy”. “So we think the combination of our service plus Mic is a winning one,” says Ciociola. Ciociola also cites games console offerings like SingStar, which he notes sold millions of units but then “disappeared” with the rise of smartphones and tablets. “MusiXmatch has surpassed 20 million downloads. That’s a great way for us to distribute this hardware too. We don’t want to be simply an app,” he says. Those 20 million downloads translate to 4 million active users on mobile, with over 150 million users per-month accessing musiXmatch’s catalogue through its API. (Of course, there are a ton of karaoke apps in the various app stores. Just yesterday, well-known UK karaoke brand Lucky Voice, co-owned by internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox, threw it’s own iOS offering into the ring.) Meanwhile, in January this year, musiXmatch announced a further $3.7 million in funding, bringing the raised by the UK/Italian company to $8.1 million since it was founded in 2010. In what was effectively a follow-on round, the new capital came from Micheli Associati, and Paolo Barberis.
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Google’s Rumored YouTube Streaming Music Service Shows Up In Android App Code
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
Google has been rumored to be building a streaming music service into its YouTube property, which is a little confusing because it also has its catalogue-spanning Google Play Music All Access service. But there’s even more evidence it’s going forward with that plan in the latest YouTube app for Android, which contains code (via ) indicating that a service called “Music Pass” is in the works for the online video site. Details from the code included suggest the name “Music Pass,” which comes complete with offline playback, background listening so that you can listen while using other apps, and uninterrupted music, which means no ads played while you’re listening, unlike on standard YouTube offerings. And of course, unlike the Google Play Music All Access streaming offering, you’d get videos in the mix, too. Later code suggests that videos will be able to be saved for up to 48 hours, and saved in either standard (360p) or HD (720p) resolution. There’s still a lot up in the air, like how much subscriptions will cost and what exactly subscribers will get vs. free users. Still, it looks pretty clear that Google is working on this in earnest, with a launch intended for the not so distant future. As with most products that involve giant media companies, the delay is probably down to figuring out licensing arrangements with all parties involved. Google having two separate music-streaming services under one roof could get confusing, but they’re clearly hoping that they can get some users to double-dip thanks to the added value of getting videos with the YouTube service, although from this vantage point, there looks to be little benefit to going for the music-only version, unless there’s a significant price difference.
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The Lean Hardware Startup: Financing
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Contributor
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
We can differentiate several steps in the life of a hardware startup: concept, minimum functional prototype (MFP), complete functional prototype (CFP), design for manufacture (DFM), first factory run (FFR) and retail. Note that the Complete Functional Prototype is different from just a mockup: it actually does the full job the final product is supposed to do, rather than showcasing the essential functionality/purpose of the proposed product. Capital needs vary according to the stage you’re in and might come from different sources. In hardware, venture capital is essentially about growth. As Daniel Cowen, one of the co-founders of the 3D printing pen (which raised ), told us that “working capital is one of the most important and least talked about things for hardware startups. And the more successful you are the more important it becomes.” At this stage, you are exploring the idea feasibility and market demand. The usual lean startup methodology applies: customer development interviews, surveys, and all kinds of research. It is all too easy to believe that your solution is “needed” when there was never really a problem to be solved in the first place. The concept phase generally requires no external funding. At this stage, venture funding is almost impossible without a track record (like Jack Dorsey at Square). 3D-printed mockups are unlikely to suffice: most investors won’t believe you have what it takes to do hardware until you show them something they can touch and that does the job. Your best bet might be your own pocket, pitch contests and grants. Some countries like Singapore are very generous with grants – just make sure filling out the paperwork does not take you more time than developing the product! A cousin of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), this device made from off-the-shelf components and 3D-printed or handmade custom parts does the job in a half-broken way. Little attention might yet be paid to design and ergonomics. The benefit is that it shows you might be able to solve the problem. The downside is that it might look bad, break often, confuse people, and give the impression you don’t care about details or can’t build something stable. At this stage, your bill-of-material (BOM) for one unit could range from a few tens of dollars to thousands, depending on your product. Most likely you will need to fund this one from your own pocket, too. This is the moment when you might start looking into some form of financing. Despite your warnings, most people will look at your prototype as if it is a finished product so you might consider holding off before trying to raise funding. As you now have a product, advice will pour in. Listen and filter carefully. As Daniel at 3Doodler puts it: “Keep a strong filter on and don’t get swayed in 12 directions by someone wanting to add silicone grips (for example) when there are larger problems to solve than cosmetic flourishes!” How the Leap Motion controller evolved over time (Source: Leap Motion) Now you have a prototype that looks attractive enough and you think might be close to what will come out of the factory. Looks and ergonomics have a surprisingly powerful effect (“pretty pixels” do wonders) and reassure people about your capabilities of making mass-market consumer products. At a recent IOT Meetup in San Francisco, Rob Coneybeer, Managing Director at Shasta Ventures, pointed out a key difference between hardware and software: When you ship a hardware product, it has to be perfect. And if you can’t make product perfect, how could you be trusted to make a hundred? If your product looks nice, people will be more forgiving if it breaks during trials, but, still, don’t rely on looks alone. Remember that there is a lot of work to be done before it is actually possible to mass-produce (see Lean Hardware Part 1 ). Most important is that within 3 months you will know whether your product has a future. Hardware cycles are longer than software and you can’t pivot endlessly. Don’t waste the next two years of your life prototyping. Though it might require some expertise that you don’t have (product design, materials, etc.), reaching this stage might not cost much. Things are now looking real, and it is a good time to raise some funding. The minimal target should be to get ready for manufacturing (including securing a supplier). There are various sources of financing at this stage: friends and family, angel investors, accelerators, crowdfunding, grants. You need cash, but you also need to learn lots and fast if you are not familiar with manufacturing, distribution, branding, etc. Unless you get a very hands-on angel who is seasoned with manufacturing, few structures provide both capital and support in that direction. Among them are and corporate incubators. Even Foxconn is said to be . Crowdfunding requires a serious warning: we advise you to crowdfund before you have sorted out the design-for-manufacture part. You might validate a market but you expose yourself to and competition due to the time gap between the campaign and delivery (see also ’s founder Zach Supalla’s take on delays ). According to CNNMoney, of Kickstarter’s top 50 projects shipped late (click for an interactive table of the projects). The 5 rules of Lean Hardware that the late projects break. This is one the key steps to overcome to grow from hardware hacker, tinkerer or inventor to become a hardware entrepreneur. We’ll repeat Cyril Ebersweiler’s first Law of Lean Hardware: “No hardware plan survives contact with a factory”. The learning curve might be steep but seeing people touching and using something you built is a feeling that can’t be beat. You could subcontract some of it but adding extra people between your vision and your factory will also frustrate you and slow down this necessary learning. : variable, but likely < $50k How much do you need to complete this stage? Most of the 30 startups that went through HAXLR8R got there for less than $50,000. This will be spent on components, 3d printing, design, certifications, legal costs and a few trips to select a factory and understand tooling, molds and more before you commit to production. What if you don’t? Reality will kick in and you might join the numerous hardware projects that get delayed. Once you complete this stage, and assuming you have done your market research in step 1, you are in great shape to crowdfund: your product is pretty much reach and you know your costs and margins. HAXLR8R startups ace their crowdfunding campaigns AND deliver (Source: Kickstarter) It might be worth considering getting some legal protection here: Daniel at 3Doodler advises: “At the very least patent a design or two in relevant key markets and file Utility Models. The cost, which is relatively low for these, is worth it, will appeal to investors and could save your butt later.” The first factory run turns your DFM prototype into many identical products. What you need here is the money to pay for tooling and first run. Maybe you got it from crowdfunding, angel investors, an accelerator or venture capitalists. We won’t go into details on how running a successful crowdfunding campaign is much more than setting up a Kickstarter or Indiegogo page – crowdfunding can help you get enough cash to pay for the tooling and first run, making both you and your supplier happy. It is also demonstrating demand. Charles Huang, co-founder of Red Octane (makers of the hit game Guitar Hero) says: “Crowdfunding the first run has the benefit of validating the market. If you can’t crowdfund it, maybe you don’t have the right product-market fit?” The startups at HAXLR8R who went the all got funded successfully, with an average backing of $300,000 — way enough for a first run. At that stage you can still sell direct to enthusiasts. You made your calculations including your profit, shipping and returns and anticipated the cost of retail. Crowdfunders and regular customers have very different expectations. Only offering “pre-order” on your website rather than selling will lose you lots of sales (typically 1/20 ). This damages your hard-earner momentum and translates into a shorter runway. This is a “valley of death” and another strong argument in favor of having production ready to go when you launch you campaign. This situation can extend even as you close retail deals: you are stretched between delivery, lack of sales momentum and possibly working on the v2 of your product. Yet, this stage is also a golden age for margins: as companies like Apple and GoPro know very well, selling direct allows for much higher margins than if you go through wholesalers. So if things went well, you funded your first batch successfully with pre-orders. You received good media coverage and approached retailers, or they approached you. How will you work with them? This phase is quite far down the road for most hardware startups. To give it the space it deserves, we will cover it in a future post. When is a good time to get investors on board? As mentioned above, it depends on your capital requirements, but it is also useful to understand an investor’s point of view. First, there is likely only one venture-backed winner in a hardware category. While it does not mean the one who raises the most money wins, investors are wary of this situation. Second, many products can be legitimate multi-million-dollar businesses. Unfortunately “multi-million” is often not enough of a motivator for venture capitalists. If it is your situation, go ahead and build a business, just not venture-backed – VC money is the most expensive money there is anyway. Third, VCs are still learning about hardware and trying to figure out when is best to invest. As we mentioned in the intro, VCs in general are about growth. Demonstrating strong demand is thus paramount in getting their interest. Again, Rob Coneybeer from Shasta Ventures, said that a minimum to get VC attention with a crowdfunding campaign is likely over $1-$2 million dollars. Not everyone is the . [slideshare id=28555283&style=border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px&sc=no] Top image credit:
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PowerUp 3.0 Is A Bluetooth Module That Turns A Paper Plane Into A Lean, Mean App-Controlled Flying Machine
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Natasha Lomas
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
There’s something intrinsically appealing about a choreographed blend of low and high tech. To wit, meet : a device that turns a bog-standard paper airplane into, well, a smartphone-controlled lean, mean flying machine. Or so its makers claim. And if those claims stack up pranking your teachers is about to get a whole lot more sophisticated. What exactly is Power Up 3.0? It’s a Bluetooth module that connects to a paper plane to act as both frame, propulsion/steering device, and Bluetooth communications hub — meaning the user can control the plane via their smartphone. The Micro-USB charged module is apparently good for 10 minutes of flying per charge, and has an 180 feet/55 metre comms range (i.e. between it and you, piloting it via Bluetooth link to your smartphone). Max speed is 10mph. So far PowerUp 3.0’s aviation enthusiast makers have a working prototype and an iOS app but they’ve taken to to get the project off the ground (ho-ho). The campaign launched on Saturday and blasted past its $50,000 target in just eight hours, according to inventor Shai Goitein, so there’s clearly considerable appetite for disruptions to paper-plane throwing mechanisms. Or for a lower cost way of bagging yourself a remote-controlled airplane, which is basically what this is — albeit, not an ‘all weathers’ aircraft. Soggy paper planes aren’t going to go anywhere, app or no app. At the time of writing PowerUp’s Kickstarter funding total is soaring north of $135,000 (and climbing steadily) — if they reach $150,000 an Android app will also be baked. The basic PowerUp 3.0 package costs $30 but all those pledge levels have been bagged by early backers, so the kit now costs from $40 — or more if you want extras like rechargeable power packs. The current iOS app, which has been in the works for more than a year, includes a throttle lever for ascending/descending, and a tilt to steer function — which manipulates a small fin on the rear of the module to shift the plane’s in-air trajectory. There can’t be a paper-plane folding kid in the world that hasn’t wished for such trajectory bending magic. The module’s frame is made of carbon fibre, so it can survive the inevitable crash landings — as well as be light enough for flight. Backers of the PowerUp 3.0 can expect to be disrupting their lessons come May next year, when the kit is due to ship. After the Kickstarter campaign, Goitein says the plan is to sell the module via retail outlets from June next year, with an RRP of $50.
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Google Ejects Android ROM-Maker Cyanogen’s Installer App From Play — Citing Developer T&C Violations
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Natasha Lomas
| 2,013 | 11 | 28 |
Well that didn’t take long. Google has asked to remove its alternative Android ROM installer app from the Play store. Cyanogen raised from Benchmark Capital back in September to turn its geek-beloved aftermarket version of Android into a mainstream flavour of the platform — with the ultimate aim of using an Android variant to compete with standard Android (and iOS) for consumers’ attention. To kick off its mainstream market targeting effort, for its CyanogenMod earlier this month — to make it easier for less tech savvy Android users to flash the ROM on their devices. But, writing in a yesterday, Cyanogen said Google’s Play support team had contacted it to ask it to remove the app, citing violations of Play’s developer terms — warning that if the app wasn’t voluntarily removed it would be forcibly ejected. So Cyanogen’s attempt to boost the popularity of its Android-based alternative to Android apparently got Google’s attention too. At the time of writing Google had not responded to requests for comment on why it asked Cyanogen to remove its installer app. But here’s what Cyanogen said Google told it: Today, we were contacted by the Google Play Support team to say that our CyanogenMod Installer application is in violation of Google Play’s developer terms. They advised us to voluntarily remove the application, or they would be forced to remove it administratively. We have complied with their wishes while we wait for a more favorable resolution. To those unfamiliar with the application, it has a single function – to guide users to enable “ADB”, a built in development and debugging tool, and then navigates the user to the desktop installer. The desktop application then performs the installation of the CyanogenMod on their Android device. After reaching out to the Play team, their feedback was that though application itself is harmless, since it ‘encourages users to void their warranty’, it would not be allowed to remain in the store. Android being an open platform means users can still download and install Cyanogen Mod via a number of routes, including from . However, if you’re on a mission to lower the barrier of entry to your alternative Android firmware, requiring people to seek out and sideload your software rather than stumble across an installer app sitting on the shelves of Google’s mainstream store does make that mission a lot harder — as Cyanogen’s blog post goes on to note: Fortunately, Android is open enough that devices allow for installing applications via ‘Unknown Sources’ (ie sideload). Though it’s a hassle and adds steps to the process, this does allow us a path forward, outside of the Play Store itself. According to Cyanogen, the installer app was downloaded “hundreds of thousands” of times in the two weeks+ it was available on Google Play, which it argues proves “the demand for more choice” — another reason Google may have started feeling uncomfortable about the installer’s presence on its store. Android may be an open platform but Google Play is very much ‘made and maintained in Mountain View’. Cyanogen is clearly hoping to resolve the Play blip if it can. “As we work through this new hurdle, we will continue to make available and support the installation process via our own hosting services,” it added in its blog. Why might the average Android user want to install Cyanogen Mod? It’s a way to ditch the bloatware and crapware loaded onto many Android devices by carriers, for instance, or to remove a custom Android skin — such as HTC’s Sense UI — that’s irritating or slows down the Android experience. Custom skins also typically delay the process of getting Android updates, and can also force Android users to be stuck on older version of the platform even if their device hardware could technically handle an upgrade. Cyanogen Mod also includes features not offered in standard Android — including native theming, an OpenVPN client, support for Wi-Fi- Bluetooth- and USB-tethering, CPU overclocking and FLAC audio codec support. In addition, Cyanogen argues that its ROM can Why might Google be nervous about Cyanogen? If an alternative Android platform was able to gain significant traction it could undermine Google’s monetisation of Android — via the services it preloads onto Android (such as Play, Maps, YouTube) — by providing an opportunity for other services to be preloaded instead (as is often the case in the Chinese market). It could also weaken Google’s control of Android, and it could erode the attractiveness of the platform in carriers’ eyes, making them less keen to promote Android devices to their customers and in their retail stores if they can’t be sure their users won’t be saddled with their branded bloatware.
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Fly Or Die: Tylt Energi Backpack
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
The holiday season is nearly upon us, and we’re all scrambling to find each other the best possible gifts. Well, if you’re close with someone who carries the world on their shoulders and always seems to be low on battery, the Tylt Energi backpack may be a good option. The backpack is unusual in that it comes with a 10,000 mAh portable battery and an accompanying sleeve. This battery has two 1Amp USB ports to charge your iPod or smartphone, and a 2.1Amp USB port for charging a tablet. But it goes even further than that, as the backpack has a built-in wiring system to feed the cables through the bag to the devices and stay organized. It’s pretty clever. The bag itself is slightly bulky for my tastes, but it comes with plenty of its own technology built right in, including an NFC tag on the shoulder. It’s even fly-through friendly. Of course, for all that awesome, it’s not so cheap. The Tylt Energi backpack will cost you .
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Watch Airbnb’s Chef Rap About Food At A Hackathon
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Alex Wilhelm
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
Earlier tonight at the Food Hackathon in San Francisco, a chef took to the presentation area to pitch the audience on a whimsical new line of clothing designed to help make the folks who make the food gorgeous. Then he started to play the backing music to Biggie Smalls’ “Juicy.” It turns out that is Airbnb’s chef, and likes to rap. He started to kick through a rewritten version of the Notorious B.I.G.’s classic track “ .” It was, frankly, awesome. A raw food chef for a growing startup rapping at a hackathon in the offices of a social network taken on an iPhone. At least we can know that we are cliché. I shot the video myself, so it’s not the prettiest thing. I’ve told YouTube to flip its rotation so that nearly all of it is at an appropriate layout. Let’s hope that works. Enjoy: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNQLHldgTcw&w=640&h=480]
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Apple Reportedly Close To Buying 3D Sensor Maker PrimeSense For $345M, But No Deal Yet
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
It looks like another Israeli startup is getting to another sizable exit. This time it’s 3D sensor manufacturer, , which is perhaps best known for producing (and licensing) the gesture-based technology Microsoft uses in Kinect. Well, back in July Apple had become interested and was reportedly in acquisition talks with the Israeli startup. Israeli publication The Calcalist reported at the time that the price tag was $280 million and, while our sources called “BS” on those reports, the rumors that the two companies are in advanced talks came to a boiling point today. This began with further reports today that the company had indeed been acquired. those reports today, but said the talks are still ongoing. The news swirled today, as scores of publications reported that the news was a done deal. PrimeSense CEO Inon Beracha, however, told us that the reports of its death, er, acquisition at the hands of Apple was a “recycled rumor.” The full, “official” denial being distributed by the Israeli company at this point, also reported : PrimeSense is the leading 3D technology in the market. We are focused on building a prosperous company while bringing 3D sensing and Natural Interaction to the mass market in a variety of markets such as interactive living room and mobile devices. We do not comment on what any of our partners, customers or potential customers are doing and we do not relate to rumors or re-cycled rumors. While Apple and PrimeSense would have you believe that the deal is not in fact done, and there is plenty of conflicting information out there, the consensus from our sources is that these talks do seem to be real and in advanced stages. In addition, the price tag on the deal seems to have lifted from the initial reports of $280 by almost $70 million, to around $345 million. There’s reason to believe that talks have stalled at least in part over the valuation and the price tag, but that remains to be seen. Either way, PrimeSense would be a big score for Apple. It has raised from a range of investors, including Gemini Israel Funds, Canaan Partners, Genesis Partners and Silver Lake Partners. The company bills itself as the maker of technology that gives “digital devices the gift of sight,” and its intellectual property that makes this happen has big appeal to Apple and would provide a nice complement to its existing portfolio. PrimeSense’s technology could become a key piece of Apple’s “bigger ambitions to develop products that take it further into the living room, specifically with Apple TV.” Gesture-based technology is working its way to the fore, and it will be interesting to see how quickly Apple can get this deal done. Surely if it can’t pull the strings, some other company will be more than happy to take its place. Find a PrimeSense and stay tuned for more.
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Twitter Expands Its Alerts Service To The UK And Ireland To Push Out Critical Info From The Met Police And 56 Others
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Ingrid Lunden
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
Twitter Alerts — a service that Twitter launched in for emergency, relief and charity organizations from the U.S., Japan and Korea to send out critical messages to opted-in users — is getting more international. Today, the newly public company is . Some across the two countries have signed on so far, mostly in the UK. They include all 47 UK police forces, An Garda Síochána in Ireland, the London Fire Brigade, the Mayor of London’s office, the Foreign Office, and the Environment Agency — who will now send alerts on their latest critical news, with the information appearing as highlighted tweets, SMS notifications, and push notifications if you use Twitter’s iOS or Android apps. For all of these, users have to opt-in, and the idea here is that the organizations doing the alerting will be limiting their messages to important ones. “While participating organisations choose what information merits a Twitter Alerts designation, this feature is intended for crisis, disaster and emergency communications,” Twitter notes. “Getting fast and accurate information to the public in a major incident or terrorist attack really could make a life-saving difference,” noted Commander David Martin, who oversees emergency planning for the Metropolitan Police Service, in a statement. “Using social networking sites, including Twitter, gives us additional ways to talk directly to the public. Twitter Alerts means that our messages will stand out when it most matters.” For now it seems like the only way to sign up for alerts for particular organizations is to visit Twitter’s Alerts pages to browse and add accounts — there are no “alert” buttons on the accounts themselves. As we pointed out in September, Twitter Alerts was borne out of “Lifeline,” a service that Twitter created to help with the relief effort after the 2012 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. For a platform that has been building up its credibility as the go-to place for people to get real-time information about what’s on TV, Twitter Alerts is a way to show that you can use the same framework for potentially more urgent purposes. Same means, different ends, and in the end, all controlled by Twitter — which cannot be said for some of the other “alerts” services that have run over Twitter in the UK in the past. Last year, for example, around the London 2012 Olympics ticket sell-out furore, offering users alerts for when tickets would get released for different, previously sold-out events, but Twitter took many of them down. Since last year, Twitter has been trying out a lot of different features as part of a philosophy of , from new features in its Timeline to new looks on its apps. Some of these , and some . The fact that Twitter Alerts is now expanding beyond its original footprint, and playing to Twitter’s intent to continue to grow internationally, is a sign that it might be one of those that is here to stay. Although a spokesperson declined to comment to me about where Twitter Alerts might go next, I noticed that when you signed up for Alerts to come to your phone, you were given a specific lists of countries from which you could register your phone. This could be a list of where Twitter may be looking to launch this service next. Alerts complements some of the other products Twitter has launched in recent months that use notifications to flag information to its users — a way to help shape the service and promote people to interact more on the platform. and use direct messages sent to those who follow the accounts with details respectively of big events, and users and tweets seeing surges of momentum. Twitter labels both accounts “experiments” for now. While both MagicRecs and EventParrot are personalized to your own profile as it exists on Twitter (it essentially alerts you to what’s going on in your own defined Twitter sphere of influence), Alerts is positioned a bit differently. The service is more like a dedicated one-to-many broadcast channel for those who have opted in to receive it, providing the organizations with a way to highlight certain public tweets for those who want to see them. Given that many people follow hundreds or thousands of accounts, and unless you are a power user who combs the site for all the latest news, there are changes that you will miss things; this is one way of you making sure you do not. For now, Alerts are free both for consumers and NGOs and emergency organizations to activate and use — a reminder of how Twitter has positioned itself as the town square for the connected world. But as Twitter builds these out, and measures what kind of response people have to the different features, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same basic concept applied to paid and sponsored pushed alerts, too.
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What Games Are: The Wacky World Of Convergent Divergence
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Tadhg Kelly
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
Another difference is how great games drive platform sales. Few people go out and buy a Blu-ray player just for but they do buy systems just to get at one game. The market has long associated games with systems in that way, and that’s why platform holders battle over exclusivity of key third party titles and spend big on their own games. The right game can persuade a player to part with $500 if the mood takes him, and once he does then their platform is the springboard for everything else. That’s why Nintendo keeps making for its own systems and nobody else’s. This has been the way of things since the earliest cartridge games. Thinking in terms of specific platforms also often works for game designers. The old Nintendo 64 joypad provided a font of interesting innovation for some studios, like and . With the right sensibilities a really brilliant game sometimes emerges. The forthcoming PS Vita game , for example, only works in a Vita context because it uses interface elements (like back-facing touch) that only that platform has. While there is considerable value in bringing games and platforms together, the problem for most development studios and their publishers has long been knowing which bets to make. Considering making a game like It comes down to revenue and longevity. on next generation consoles Yet there are serious long term downsides to one-platform hegemony. We see it a little these days in stories of Apple approvals and whatnot, but Apple’s touch is comparatively light compared to how winning gaming platforms have tended to behave. They often become insensitive, even bullying, involving themselves very directly in the making and publishing process for other companies in a way that does not exist in other media. Ask anyone what it was like trying to obtain approval from Sony Europe, Sony America and Sony Japan in the PS2 days and you’ll see grown men cry. Sure, but the PC’s future has got bigger problems in the long term. It’s also expensive, which means that the games it supports tend more toward culturally engaged gamers to the exclusion of others. What’s missing is some way for the industry to support several platforms at all levels, leveraging the unique qualities of many of them and yet at the same time not get swallowed up by the lock-in economics of one winner. A kind of convergence mixed with divergence. And it’s happening, in large part due to changes in hardware. t’s much more affordable to launch a game system that it ever used to be. To solve the problem of putting games on television doesn’t necessarily need a grand custom solution like it used to, and that’s a great boon both for hardware prices but also for developers. It also enables the kind of fan loyalty that technology brands drive while bridging enough for studios to consider taking some risks, making a previous either/or platform choice into more of an either/and. The micro-hardware movement also enables a whole new class of game to emerge. At GDC Next last week I talked about how games could be a very big thing (especially in the context of multiplayer gaming, but also more generally). The reason why has a lot to do with the assumption that users own several pieces of micro-hardware that talk to each other, a sort of lean and distributed vision of computing rather than all-powerful single boxes. That kind of boundary-pushing is, to me at least, what next generation gaming really means. And then to take it one step further, consider how some micro-hardware might evolve into nano-hardware. I don’t mean miniaturized, but rather this: The next as an HDMI-stick object that works with all of your other micro hardware (your joypads and whatnot) but is essentially like an old cartridge game without the need for a platform to interpret it. The moment when a game no longer needs a platform because it has become a platform. We’re long past the phase of single platform dominance or indeed for an appetite for it. Big publishers might yearn for some stability in that way but they’re the only ones who do. Customers don’t. They want all of the games available to them but also a choice of platform. Developers don’t. They want to be able to nimbly move from platform to platform but also to deep-dive on unique features of individual platforms if they choose. While those desires used to seem contradictory, I don’t think they are any more.
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Sponsify Aims To Become The Platform For Product Placement And Other Native Ads On YouTube
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
A just-launched startup called is looking to bring native ads to YouTube in a big way. I doubt anyone who visits YouTube is complaining about a shortage of ads, but those ads mostly take the form of pre-roll videos and promoted content off to the side. Sponsify, meanwhile, will focus on ads that are integrated with content in more meaningful ways, for example through product placement in the videos. Those kinds of campaigns could be valuable to advertisers and lucrative for creators. The challenge until now, according Sponsify co-founder and CEO Muhammad Huzaifa, is that the only way for those creators to run native-style campaigns is to connect with multi-channel networks like Maker Studios and Machinima. However, that can be a bigger commitment than creators want — Hufaiza said 60 percent of MCN contracts include . “[Creators] don’t have an independent platform where they can actually source advertisers for their content,” he said. So Sponsify is supposed to fill that gap, allowing brands to find creators who reach a desirable audience. They can then propose campaigns such as product reviews or endorsements, YouTube channel promotions, the creation of viral videos, and sponsored Facebook or Twitter messages. The company is still very early — Huzaifa said he and his brother Muhammad Jehanzaib only started working on the platform “six or seven weeks ago.” The two-person team is currently based in Karachi, Pakistan, with plans to relocate to London. And it hasn’t run any campaigns yet. Nonetheless, Hufaiza said there’s already been significant interest from creators, with 100 channels signed up, collectively reaching more than 10 million subscribers. When asked if there are any issues with transparency and disclosure, Hufaiza pointed out that similar campaigns exist on YouTube already — but again, there’s no efficient way for advertisers to find and directly contact independent creators. And yes, the text description of a video should include some type of disclosure, but he added, “It doesn’t really matter for the average viewer of the video.” As for tracking the effectiveness of these campaigns, Hufaiza said there’s “a huge amount of data” that the company can make available by using YouTube’s API. Sponsify is just the latest startup looking to bring these kinds of campaigns into new online formats. Earlier this month, to bring product placement into mobile and social games.
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Amazon’s Alpha House Reveals The Silly Everyday Life Of A U.S. Senator
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
Political life is more like an episode of than . The deviously calculating minds of Aaron Sorkin political thrillers belie that sheer absurdity of elected life. into original programming, , reveals the silly everyday happenings of Senators as they struggle with their DC apartment housemates, obligatory partisan stunts, and social media gaffes (yes, ). [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iXYgtIYCTg&w=560&h=315] In the opening pilot, the camera pans to a sleepy Senator Gil John Biggs (played by John Goodman) as he prepares to take his unlucky 4 A.M. speaking slot during a Republican 24-hour filibuster. His housemate, “Senator Bettencourt” offers the barely-awake Biggs his speech, which is loaded with references to their biggest funders. Bettencourt: Biggs: The show’s Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Garry Trudeau, took a sabbatical from penning the comic when Amazon offered him the opportunity. The online retail giant joins Netflix in a full-frontal assault on broadcasters’ domination of sitcom creation. This year, Netflix for its own politics original, . Now, with an all-star cast, including an opening cameo from comedy legend Bill Murray, Amazon wants its own video streaming service to fill the space being vacated by declining broadcasters, which are hemorrhaging viewers to the Internet. Trudeau does a delightful job of putting the full DC circus on display. Goodman’s character, who plays an archetypal sports-celebrity-turned-congressman, is forced to attend a photo-op tour of Afghanistan, after a more popular football coach decides to run against him in an upcoming election. Goodman’s housemate, an obviously closeted Republican gay critic, decides to join his colleagues on the trip to repair his effeminate public image. The truth is that elected life is consumed by endless formalities and media stunts. Those in the middle-rung of the congressional ladder fill their days with non-stop fundraisers, talk-show hits, and ribbon-cutting ceremonies. At best, they can hope to author a barely-salient bill. And, for the celebrities who decided to leap into politics after their entertainment career peaked, the wonky committee hearings in between grand public statements can seem like high school homework. does an admirable job of displaying DC silliness, although the endless black, gay, and conservative jokes may turn off an audience that doesn’t get the insider humor. is a very clever comedy that resoundingly trumps the current crop of run-of-mill broadcast sitcoms. And, it proves that the new generation of video streaming giants can play in the big leagues.
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Ephemerality Aside, Snapchat Sends Its First Permanent Message
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Semil Shah
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
TechCrunch In many parts of Silicon Valley and the consumer technology world, the zeitgeist surrounding is undeniably the talk of the town. In a way, it has been for most of 2013. A seemingly small, unassuming outfit which builds a social, mobile application from the shores of Venice Beach, the company has grown into one of the world’s most dominant photo-sharing services, has reportedly turned down billions in acquisition offers from some of the world’s most powerful technology companies, and in a complex yet simple manner, continues to extend its brand as the hyper-growth symbol for the anti-web, anti-Facebook, anti-permanent network. While few deny Snapchat’s growth and engagement, plenty are skeptical regarding the number of zeros tacked on to the company’s valuation as this year unfolded. Common refrains include “ ” and “ ” and “ ” and “ ” Yet, it wasn’t too long ago that another hyper-growth photo-sharing service was acquired for a handsome sum by one of the largest technology companies. At that time, a small chorus did want Instagram to remain independent to see if it could unseat Facebook. The majority of the crowd, however, realized that a team of under 15 could build a billion dollars worth of value in a few short years — “ ” In 18 months from Instagram to Snapchat, we find ourselves with a bit of hypocrisy. Scores of Internet-famous startup “gurus” constantly peddle their theories, bemoaning founders and investors who help create more social media properties, more photo-sharing services, and more new companies which don’t start out with lofty ambitions. The implication in this line of criticism is to suggest that there are too many companies getting funded going after the same, small problems, a cycle which stifles innovation. Then, when valuations creep up, especially in the absence of a clear revenue model and/or for services the chattering class in technology doesn’t often use themselves, we hear more criticism about the frothiness of the market, how Snapchat will never be able to sell a proper ad unit, and how the company is overvalued on paper given all the hype surrounding the technology sector worldwide today. The Instagram team is applauded for taking the quick exit over playing the long game. They could have potentially turned their little toy into something potentially bigger than Facebook. I tip my hat to them, no doubt. The Snapchat team is, on the other hand, often the subject of public scorn and perhaps a bit of jealousy as they brashly play a high-stakes game of courting acquisition or investment and turning up the heat. “ ” All the chatter and pontification in the world does not change some hard facts. Snapchat and other big, growing mobile messaging platforms such as, but not limited to, Line, WeChat, Whatsapp, Kik, and others are all in the middle of a high-stakes, lucrative mobile land grab. Regardless of “how” these new networks grew to such large scale, the fact remains mobile growth only continues to march on, unbundling and fracturing the concentrated graph Facebook has collected on the web. It’s not hard to imagine a future where mobile messaging apps become the predominant platform for new mobile products and services, distribution and commerce. In the eye of the storm, it’s nearly impossible to model what these apps are worth on paper — that can only be determined by the market, and in the case of Snapchat, if the reports are true, it is worth somewhere between $3-4Bn. It is more precise to say that Snapchat is worth $3-4Bn to Facebook, or to Google, or to Tencent. Each potential acquiring company is playing a slightly different game, but their strategies all converge at the same place — in the palm of our hands. Tencent, which owns WeChat, may view Snapchat as a key piece on its chessboard; Facebook may see Snapchat as a potential runaway freight train that needs to be bought and killed; and Google may either want to bolster its mobile portfolio, or simply just get under the skin of its social network rival. Dollars and sense aside, the larger question for me revolves around the emotions and confusions a company as seemingly simple as Snapchat can arouse among so many. The crowd wants more big ideas, more founders attacking real problems, and more investors and entrepreneurs who align incentives to build for the long-term. Yet, when a certain amount of cold-hard cash is put on the table and rejected, the crowd reaches its reserve price and calls into question the rationality of such a decision. And, herein lies the rub. Entrepreneurs often play a series of complex, concurrent, nuanced games. Entrepreneurs often don’t have a reserve price when momentum is at their back and probably aren’t economically “rational” in the way most of us believe to be sane. In dramatic instances such as these, I go back to the silver screen — in this case, to Heath Ledger’s immortal performance as The Joker, who in one scene lectures a greedy criminal while setting his own cash bounty on fire: “All you care about is money…It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message.” Unlike its photos which expire, Snapchat’s recent message has an aura of permanence around it, reverberating through startup technology circles and trickling into the mainstream consciousness. By publicly rejecting the latest eye-popping Facebook’s offer, Snapchat reinforces its anti-Facebook message and simultaneously taps into our collective imagination and disbelief, exposing a hypocrisy in the charlatan mantras, the greed in the crowd’s thirst to make sense of valuations, and the insecurity in the harsh reality that a little app which appears to be a simple toy “could” potentially grow so large by , it could render the giants before it obsolete.
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We Need You To Design The Hardware Battlefield Trophy
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
We are about to embark on amazing adventure and we need your help. In January we are holding our first in Las Vegas, Nevada to coincide with CES. We will bring 15 great hardware startups, a gaggle of amazing judges, and a 3D-printed trophy of your design. We need 3D designers to build us an amazing, open source trophy that Shapeways will print for us. If your model is chosen you will receive a and our unending appreciation as well as a link to your work. How do you enter? Create a 3D model taller than six inches and submit it to with the tag “Techcrunch.” Email me, , when you’ve uploaded your model and we will pick a winner at the end of November. You will receive a print and we will use another copy as our Hardware Battlefield trophy. What are we looking for? Anything as long as it looks great as a trophy, is sufficiently regal-looking, and is amazing. We want robots, planetoids, and 3D printer nozzles blown up to maximum resolution. We want something that epitomizes the spirit of adventure, fun, and hard work that it takes to make a cool hardware startup. So enter today. We need you and we want our Hardware Battlefield winner to go home with an amazing trophy of your design.
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Let’s Meet In Hong Kong And Shenzhen
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 17 |
Back in the days before worldwide Disrupts and 1,300-person meetups, I used to travel to various countries and hold ad hoc meetups. Well I’m doing it again in Hong Kong and Shenzhen this week and I’d love to see you there. Tentatively I’d like to meet in Hong Kong on November 21st, 7-9pm, at the , 45-53 Graham Street, Central. Talk to if you’d like to sponsor or have any questions. If you’re in Shenzhen we’ll meet at Coco park, Futian from 7pm to 9pm on November 22nd. It’s where I met folks if you need more info or want to sponsor a round of drinks. It will be great to catch up with you all in China and if you’d like to meet during the day please email me at . I’m also on Weibo. See you soon!
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Vox Buys Curbed Network For A Reported Stock-Cash Blend Worth $20-30 Million
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Alex Wilhelm
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
, an online publisher of websites such as The Verge, has purchased the smaller of websites for a reported $20 to $30 million . The Vox logo now graces the Curbed.com homepage. The deal was a combination of stock and cash, which is unsurprising given that the total deal size is almost commensurate with the recent that Vox Media raised; when equity can be used to conserve short-term capital, companies such as Vox that are quickly growing can prefer to hold onto their cash. According to CrunchBase, Curbed has raised a in its life, making the deal a likely win for both its investors and its founding team. As the Times rightly points out, the Curbed network (Curbed, Racked, and Eater) is smaller than the Vox network. Curbed commands around 35 million monthly pageviews from around the world each month, from just under 5.1 million unique visitors, according to . The Vox Network by comparison attracts 177 million pageviews each month derived from 41 million unique visitors, also according to . Given the audience size discrepancy, it doesn’t seem likely that Vox is in the mix strictly for the pageviews. Instead, Curbed brings it deep into verticals where it has been light on both content, and staff. Vox has done well in its chief verticals (technology, sports, etc.), but to grow more quickly it could need new content silos already seeded, something that Curbed provides. Vox now has publications that cover food, fashion, and local markets. This is a play for Vox to begin to spread its wings into content areas of national breadth. I don’t want to resort to the slightly tired analogy of The Huffington Post (Disclaimer: AOL, which owns TechCrunch, and so forth), but it seems that Vox has no intention of reducing the aggressive pace of its growth. To date, the company has . It isn’t clear how much cash the company deployed in the deal, but Vox should retain a capital position sufficient to grant it latitude for both cash flow flexibility and space for more purchases.
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Meet Sense, 3D Systems’ Cheap, Dead-Simple 3D Scanner For The Masses
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
We’ve seen more than a few startups cook up their own impressive 3D scanners — there’s and its , and dark horse with its just to name a few — but one of the oldest and biggest names in 3D printers is clearly itching to get in the game too. South Carolina-based just recently outed a cheapish, consumer-friendly scanner called the Sense, and I swung by Engadget’s Expand show in New York this weekend to see the thing in action. Here’s the TL;DR if you’re on a tight schedule: at $399 price is right and I came away awfully impressed with the little thing. And I do mean little, as 3D Systems concocted a portable affair that’s about the size of a small hardback or staple gun. Thanks to a plastic chassis it’s not much heavier either, which only makes sense given how you’re actually supposed to use it. You see, while more buzzy players in the space like Makerbot have opted to run with a restrictive turntable design, the Sense is meant to be clutched firmly in your hand as opposed to be passively propped up on a desk. Once the companion software is installed on a connected computer, all that’s left is to just stand around your subject and slowly wave the Sense around until you’ve captured everything you wanted to. And thanks to that persistent tether to a PC, users can monitor a real-time visual representation of the scan in progress. So yes, it’s handy. Naturally that wouldn’t make a lick of difference if the Sense didn’t deliver on its promise, but it certainly seems to get the job done with aplomb. If you’ve seen a 3D scanner in action, then you’ve probably got a pretty firm grasp on how these things work: a camera and an infrared sensor capture an object’s visual and geometric features and converts them to a 3D model. Thanks to a sensor array sourced from the folks at Primesense, the Sense is capable of scanning objects that measure up to 10ft by 10ft — at long last you can craft a digital representation of that lovingly battered couch in your basement. And how do the resulting scans look? That all really comes down to you. The scanning process rewards slow, methodical motions over swish-and-flick Wingardium Leviosa antics; being a little too hasty with your hands only heightens the risk of introducing faults and aberrations to the mix. Thankfully, the software that ships with the Sense is smart enough to smooth over some of those minor issues as they crop up, and it only takes a few clicks to take that model and solidify it into a structure suitable for printing. But here’s the most curious thing about the Sense: everything from the price point to its no-nonsense design to CEO Avi Reichental’s address laden with social media friendly instances of “Sense speak” make it clear that 3D Systems is still intent on trying to crack the consumer market. That’s not exactly unfamiliar territory for the company — it started rolling out a line of consumer-centric 3D printers two years ago, but the cheapest of them still costs a whopping $1,299. That stands in stark contrast to the hefty price tag of Makerbot’s flagship Replicator 2, but even that lowered price barrier is enough to ensure that mass-market adoption of 3D printers (and the devices that support them) is still a ways off. As whiz-bang neat the notion of printing out replacement everythings in the comfort of your own home is, I’d argue that no one has yet made the Model T of 3D printers — a product that represents just the perfect confluence of price and performance that gets people really thinking about how their lives could be improved (if at all) by throwing on-demand object production into the mix. The prevailing notion among 3D printing buffs, though, is that it’s only a matter of time before someone cracks the printer code and the rest of the world begins to open its collective eyes to the wonders of extruded plastic and laser sintering. And once that happens, the value of devices like the Sense will become staggeringly clear — they aim to address the 3D printing content gap. After all, if all of this is really going to become the domain of the average user, those users are going to need the digital schematics of things to print without having to bother with complex software suites. By making it strikingly simple and pricing it to move, 3D Systems is trying to coax people into filling that content gap right now so everyone can catch up just a little bit sooner. Is the Sense by itself going to single-handedly change how actual normal people (as opposed to, unrepentant nerds, optimistic near-futurists, and John Biggs) think about 3D printing? Probably not. But it’s a step in the right direction, and with any luck the Sense and its low-cost ilk will be a harbinger of better 3D printed days to come.
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Flite Launches A Free Online ‘Design Studio’ For Building HTML5 Ads
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
Hey, remember when people were still arguing about HTML5 versus Flash? The battle seems long over at this point, with , but Will Price, CEO of ad tech company , said the transition has taken longer than you might think — it won’t be until 2014, he said, that advertisers and publishers “get off Flash completely.” (As one indicator of how mobile and tablet have exploded this year, Price said Flite saw 80 percent growth in mobile traffic in October compared to the same period last year.) So Flite this week that’s built for HTML5, rather than Flash. The goal, Price said, is to “put a shot across the bow to Google and Adobe as major brands and publishers move to HTML5 and to multiscreen advertising.” He suggested that the most comparable product is probably , but he noted that Google’s product requires users to download software to build their HTML5 websites and ads, while Flite’s Design Studio is completely based in the web browser. That means Flite has “all the web-based collaboration of a Google Doc versus a Microsoft Word doc.” Other differentiators, Price said, include the Design Studio’s user interface, which doesn’t require any coding. It also doesn’t require designers to switch from the tools that they already use, since they can import files from Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. It’s also easy to preview exactly how an ad will look on smartphones and tablets. Plus the content of an ad can be updated in love without requiring users to continually export new files. And like Google’s Web Designer, the Flite Design Studio is free. Users can build the ads for free with Flite, then the company hopes to make money by serving those ads. You can .
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Rather Scrubs Facebook And Twitter, Replaces Things You Dislike With Things You Like
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
Remember Unbaby.me? The browser extension that uploaded to Facebook by your proud procreating pals, replacing those posts with pictures of dogs, or cats, or whatever? Take that concept. Expand its focus, from “babies” to “anything you’re tired of hearing about”. That’s the idea behind Rather. Like Unbaby.me, Rather scans Facebook and Twitter for mentions of things you don’t care to hear about, and replaces it with something else of your choosing. Tired of hearing about Kanye’s latest antics? Set up a filter for “kanye, kanye west, yeezus, yeezy, louis vuitton don” etc. and set them to be replaced with pictures of, say, baby pandas. Next time your friend tweets about yeezy, you’ll get pandas instead. If you’re curious as to what lays behind the self-imposed censor panda, an “undo” button above the image returns the tweet to its original form. (You can also swap out any tweets that link to websites you don’t like, if you want to get fancy with the filters.) Now, before anyone declares this thing a ripoff of the aforementioned Unbaby.me concept: it’s actually built by the same folks. After Unbaby.me proved to be a bit of a viral smash, co-creator Chris Baker left his gig as Creative Director at Buzzfeed, and he and his two co-founders, Pete Marquis and Yvonne Cheng, expanded the concept beyond blockin’ all things baby.
Alas, there’s a challenge or two inherent to the concept, and neither of them are very easy to overcome: Alternatively, you can mute posts, hiding them outright instead of replacing them with images. That’s probably a better option, really; if the people you follow are posting about things that annoy you so often that you’ll go out of your way to filter it, a page full of pandas (or whatever) will probably be just as annoying as the alternative you’re avoiding, if not more. Then again: if the people you follow are posting about things that annoy you so often, you… might just want to follow different people. You can find Rather for Chrome
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Fly Or Die: iPad Air
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
With the new , the question isn’t whether or not the new tablet will fly or die. The question, rather, is whether or not you should upgrade from an older-gen iPad to the iPad air or to the iPad mini? In truth, it all comes down to use cases. There’s no doubt that the new iPad air is the most powerful, speedy, and beautiful iPad to date. It’s almost half a pound lighter than previous generations, with a 64-bit A7 processor and a brand new iPad mini-esque design. The bezels are 43 percent thinner than earlier generations making the full size iPad a one-handed device for the first time ever. That said, the iPad air won’t always fit in your purse or pocket the way an iPad mini will, which is why (again) it comes down to use cases. For John, an iPad is a must-have gadget at all times. He takes an iPad mini everywhere, with an LTE connection, and uses it the same way most people use their smartphone. Not only is he reading, watching movies, and playing with apps, but he’s doing on-the-go email and web searches with his tablet. If this sounds like you, the iPad Air might still be a bit big for your tastes. However, I use my iPad as more of an at-home or travel device. It comes on the plane, and I watch movies and read. I surf the web or read in bed, and play games from time to time. Because of this, the iPad Air is light and easy to carry around but still offers quite a bit of screen real estate.
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What Games Are: Squeaky Bum Time
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Tadhg Kelly
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
You can get a little bit sick of interesting times. Just when you think the rules have changed and your industry now works in a new way, the new way is subverted. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the new way to get rich, it turns out that the market gets stuck. That stuckness is a feeling in the mobile games industry at the moment. Previously verdant platforms are perceived to have turned into dense jungles full of predators. Once-easily acquired users have vanished, replaced with networks looking to charge a premium for access to quality users. Investors seem to be backing the hell off. All in all it seems that 2014 could be – to paraphrase how Alex Ferguson famously characterized the experience of managing a football team – . The time when there’s nothing to do but watch the market play out and pray. Is it really? Big crunches are nothing new in the games industry. Probably the most famous crunch was the in 1983 that was largely attributed to the meltdown of Atari, but there have been many others. They typically occur 3/4 years after a new platform or innovation has had the chance to bed in and stop being seen as a startling innovation. Crunches typically come on slowly rather than all at once. They start with the news of As they say in Battlestar Galactica, all of this has happened before and will happen again. It happened in the world of web portal gaming when it became smarter for Flash sites to focus on game-a-day business models rather than promoting deeper content. It happened on Wii when so many studios rushed to make gesture-driven games for a market that had decided that gestural gaming was really just a novelty. It happened on Facebook when many of the viral channels that had driven previously enormous successes were turned off. It may be happening right now in the world of Steam indie games as the new Greenlight channel becomes clogged with hopefuls. And so it goes. All signs suggest that it’s now happening in mobile games. Investors have largely cooled on mobile games, offering bad terms or preferring to wait and see. This is perhaps of no great surprise as angels and venture caps alike are generally only interested in games from a platform perspective. When they see no real platform opportunity they tend to say “games are a content business and we don’t invest in content”. Even very solid gaming businesses with platform potential are currently struggling. What often happens during a big crunch is that studios start Not only are these scary numbers, they are indicative. The cost of developing games in mobile and tablet may well double every year for the next few years, and by 2017 we may see an average tablet game budget of $7m-$10m. At in Los Angeles I heard more than a few people say that the problem with mobile games is over-supply. There are tens, hundreds even, of thousands of studios around the world trying to make games, and of course a big shakeout is inevitable. Even for the big companies saturating user acquisition channels times seem to be growing unsteady and the vulnerability of their performance marketing model ( ) is high. I’m idly wondering, for example, whether advertising economics are the real reason for . Perhaps the numbers suggested that it needed a war chest to weather a coming storm. We’re seeing far less – and style success stories than we were, and it’s been quite a while since the last “ ” tale. But of course that isn’t the whole of the story. While there’s no denying that the landscape has changed there’s still an immense appetite for content out there. Arguably mobile gaming is experiencing volatility by way of transition rather than implosion. It’s not the next Atari crash. Take, for example, the change in mobile publishing. A couple of years ago mobile publishing was essentially a lean promotional sort of business, but some companies (like ) are trying to turn it into a smarter business. Rather than behave like an aggregator the new thinking is to find a role for quality-label content and establish specific funding relationships with key developers. Not unlike the original PlayStation market, the model is that with the right number of bets in place, one successful game will pay for nine failures. At current budget levels that sounds pretty smart. As another example, consider that suggests a “middle class” development model is taking hold. Far from being depressed about the state of the app industry (and I presume games as they tend to be the most successful kinds of app) Flurry is noting the appearance of mature niches within the space, just as happened on PC and PC online. They’re noticing how what I’ve called are now a key driver for success in those niches, and this is excellent news. It means there is a whole wealth of opportunity for studios who want to focus on specific sub-sectors of the market, and also that users of mobile platforms are staying for the long haul rather than walking away. As a third example consider the rise of the . Teenagers are bored of Facebook and want to use their mobiles to socialize. They want to swap pictures and stamps and so on. And they want to play games. Messenger apps like LINE and KakaoTalk and are quickly promoting a game-distribution aspect to their business in exchange for a 20% cut (on top of Apple or Google’s 30%). That’s pretty good if they prove to be a reliable point of access to millions of users. Messenger gaming probably represents the biggest low-hanging-fruit opportunity in mobile, especially for light casual and social-style games because they have the users. My overall point is that mobile gaming’s crunch is more in the vein of maturation rather than apocalypse. The low-hanging fruit days are long gone, and with them the easy money of cheap user acquisition. But it’s not like, say, the days of the Wii when the market stopped playing entirely. The customers are still there, in droves,
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How Mobile Alters Traditional Network Effects In Marketplaces
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Semil Shah
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
TechCrunch On the web, marketplaces are the stuff of legend. With properties like eBay and Amazon, among many other, an online marketplace harnesses the openness of the web, more efficiently matches supply with demand without too many intermediaries, and leverages network effects to capture economic value during each transaction. A key component for a marketplace to work, however, is liquidity — the comfort in knowing that for each item or request posted, there is a willing buyer at a certain price. Liquidity is what drives the engine of a marketplace, what keeps sellers coming back to list items and what keeps buyers coming back to fulfill their needs, and in order to have it, it requires scale — that lots of people be able to access the marketplace. Investors love marketplaces for reasons: the power and elegance of network effects. I’ve personally had the opportunity to invest in so far, and am for . Yet, even though I’m focused on mobile for work, mobile presents would-be marketplace startups with some thorny issues out of the gate, largely because of fragmentation of users across two dominant mobile platforms (iOS and Android). Early-stage startups often the luxury of time or money to build across mobile platforms at the outset, so any mobile marketplace offering would theoretically be reducing its overall size by about 50%, and this affects liquidity of the marketplace. (There are some startups, such as and , as examples, which began their marketplaces on the web with an eye to to mobile. This can be a approach — using the web to hack mobile distribution — though some, like Rothman, suggest it’s a sound path in order to get mobile marketplaces going given general app store distribution woes and the liquidity issue facing mobile marketplaces.) Of course, a few mobile-first startups have cleared the liquidity hurdle presented by the fragmentation of users across iOS and Android. For example, companies like , which helps people buy and sell clothes directly from users, companies like and , which use mobile to aggregate demand and efficiently yet indirectly route that demand to providers who can fulfill the requests. Here, we begin to see a pattern and delineation. One, very few companies are both purely mobile and a marketplace where buyers and sellers are directly interacting with each other prior to a transaction. Two, as a result, newer mobile marketplaces have followed the path carved out by Uber, which collects demand via mobile and then routes those requests to a fleet of willing drivers who are free to take or reject rides. Here, Uber gets around the market liquidity issue presented by mobile by doing the hard work of organizing assets and labor offline and then connecting them to a central hub of demand. This is the new type of marketplace-driven network effect specific to mobile, where demand is generated online (through mobile) and fulfilled offline (driven by services). Therefore, there’s good reason why we all hear so many “Uber for X” analogies. Startups like , , and many others generally take this approach, putting mobile apps in consumers’ hands and offering a promise — tap this button, and with some magic, on the other end someone will present an offer to satisfy your demand. For startups, today’s reality raises specific tactical concerns. Assuming the startup will land on iOS first, the company either needs enough capital or revenue to be able to get to some equilibrium in the marketplace’s first incarnation so that the product can be improved to a point where an Android team can build for that platform. Second, direct marketplaces present sellers with friction points around packaging and shipping or service delivery, while indirect marketplaces, which usually offer some form of an offline service, require liquidity within a location-specific density to work. It only makes sense to make Lyft available to me as a consumer if I live in an area where Lyft operates. Moving forward, we are already seeing whole new categories of businesses on the “Uber for X” path, and I don’t see that trend stopping any time soon. But, what about pure mobile marketplaces directly connecting buyers and sellers, on a more peer-to-peer level? Sure, offerings like Airbnb and others which began on the web have built a large enough brand to play on mobile, but what about companies like , which tried to get into the local listings game through apps, or newer apps like , and many others I’m sure are out there — and I’d love to hear about them, so please get in touch. In economies which are all and facing many uncertainties, the elegance, efficiency, and dispassion of a marketplaces presents systems which can be incredibly resistant to external stresses. Mobile fragmentation presents a thorny challenge to startups, and some have responded by overcoming the liquidity hurdle or by creating a new business model to subvert the problem. All of this matters as mobile phones continue to proliferate, as economics remain under duress, as many people look for new sources of income, and as phones present a new way to segment consumers by willingness to pay and location. It’s unclear if a startup can create a mobile application that puts buyers directly in contact with sellers at true scale, and while some do exist, my belief is for the next few years most of them in the marketplace category will indirectly match consumers with providers, and that’s just fine. It’s more efficient this way, for now. And, hey, I could be wrong. Maybe there’s a new startup launching today with a direct marketplace vision…and I can’t wait to see it in the wild. /
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The LA Times Trolls Innocent Teachers
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
The once-respectable Los Angeles Times is leveraging its to attack individual teachers under the guise of data transparency. The Times allowing them to use a highly contentious, self-designed algorithm to rank the best and worst teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Neither the , nor the widespread criticism of the statistical methods have aroused the editors’ better judgment. Many school districts, such as the LAUSD, estimate teacher performance based off of their students’ standardized test results. So-called “ ” attempts to estimate a teacher’s relative abilities based on how they expect students to do given their past performances. The school district will be forced to release the data on teacher evaluations to for publication. While I’m all for transparency of government data, there are a few glaring problems with value-added scores that the public might not be aware of. . Teacher ratings often swing wildly from year to year and are sensitive to tiny changes in the statistical methods. The University of Colorado at Boulder’s National Education Policy Center found that only about half (46.4 percent) of LAUSD teachers retained their same effectiveness rating under slight tweaks to the model [ ]. Specifically, the NEPC added measures of school ranking and early elementary grades into their own value-added model to see how it might disrupt the rankings (and it did). There’s many reasons why such variables might not have been originally included: adding in past performance and school transfers make it difficult to know what in the history of a student ultimately led to their current abilities. Statistical geeks can debate the best models, but if a series of very reasonable decisions leads to radically different rankings, it’s way too unstable to shame a teacher in a national newspaper. . “Test scores largely reflect whom a teacher teaches, not how well they teach,” Stanford Professor of Education, Linda Darling-Hammond. “In particular, teachers show lower gains when they have large numbers of new English-learners and students with disabilities than when they teach other students.” The LA Times appears oblivious to this well-known fact. In an email, a representative tells me, “Research has repeatedly found that teachers are the single most important school-related factor in a child’s education.” . Parenting, motivation, and IQ are at least as important, if not vastly more important, to the success of a student than a teacher. Teachers can bring out the best in a student, but a child from a broken home and with an abusive parent just isn’t going to do as well. . Assume for a moment that the LA Times pulled off a statistical miracle and overcame of the of value-added methodology, it’s still awful to shame people. Here is the Times’ explanation to me: “The Times is committed to reporting on the issues and events that are important to Southern Californians and education is of primary concern to our community. We published the “Grading the Teachers” series and value-added data analysis because parents and the public have a right to some form of objective evaluation of LAUSD teacher effectiveness. The Times value-added rating, which was based entirely on public-record information, should be considered as only one component in overall teacher assessment. It’s also important to note that all teachers listed in The Times database were given an opportunity to view and comment on their value-added ratings in advance of their publication, and hundreds did so.” That’s a beautiful theory, but in practice the list paints targets on teachers’ backs for tiger-moms and paparazzi press. When the New York Post publicized the name of the “worst teacher,” . If we lived in a perfect marketplace of ideas where nuance was currency and readers spent more than 30 seconds on a post, The Times might have a better case. But we don’t, and their sloppy editorial decisions are going to hurt innocent teachers. [ ]
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Apple Reportedly Developing Large Curved Screen iPhones For Late 2014, Better Touchscreen Sensors
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
Apple is said to be working on two curved display iPhone models for the “second half of next year,” according to a source speaking to , with a likely release planned for the third quarter, as well as better touchscreen sensors that introduce fine pressure sensitivity for later devices to be introduced after that. These new iPhones for 2014 would come in 4.7 and 5.5-inch flavors, according to the report, meaning that Apple would be introducing not one, but two different models at the same time, in theory. We’ve seen reports of Apple working on different models of large-screen devices in the past, including one from the that suggests it’s been working on different tests of devices with screen sizes between 4.8 and 6 inches. This is the first time we’ve really heard firm information about a possible release date for said devices, from a source as generally reliable as Bloomberg. A Japanese iOS rumor site claimed a late in October, however, and bound for stores in late 2014. Apple also introduced precedent for doing two models of new iPhone at once this year with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, so the idea that it could do so again in the future makes some sense. But two new larger-screened devices at once does seem like a stretch – though if Apple retained an iPhone 5c as its third, budget device and added two more to the mid-tier and high-end range, that might allow it to do so without adding crazy complexity to its product lineup. The sensor developments are potentially more interesting to those who find the current screen size of the iPhone adequate; true pressure sensitivity (currently, some crude extent of that is possible via the iPhone’s accelerometer) would make drawing and handwriting applications on the iPhone and iPad much, much better. Apple could sell the devices as professional-level artistic devices if it introduces those kinds of features, in addition to just making things better for everyday users who want to jot notes and doodle, for example, or perform minor photo touch-ups. It’s very early days to make any kind of judgement about the likely accuracy of these claims, but the source gives it some weight. Apple’s iPhone joining the ranks of bigger-screened devices definitely makes sense as a next move for the lineup, but curved glass manufacturing also seems quite expensive at this point for Apple to be considering launching two new devices with that feature at once.
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Review: Microsoft Xbox One
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
in the next-gen console battle has entered the arena. The Xbox One will launch this Friday, 8 years after the 2005 debut of the Xbox 360. As someone who has happily played three Xbox 360s to their red-ringed graves, I couldn’t have been more excited. I spent the past few days living with an Xbox One, watching on as Microsoft shipped its final few last-minute patches and the third-party apps lit up across the store. So how is it? Beauty is a subjective topic, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that would say the Xbox One is particularly . That’s not to say that it’s ugly, mind you — it’s not. It’s just… there. It’s a big, black box. Its materials are a mix of matte and gloss. It has lots of vents. To describe it more richly would be to use needless words. Many a commenter has suggested that the Xbox One resembles a VCR, and those comparisons aren’t wrong. It look like a VCR, or the box your cable guy might install. Perhaps that was the intent. Microsoft has been pitching this as an all-in-one entertainment box from day one. For better or worse, it seems they’ve designed this box with the intent of it blending in with the aforementioned appliances, rather than having it scream “I AM A GAME CONSOLE!”. Regardless, it’s not very pretty. Looks aside, there’s one thing about the design that I do really love: it’s . Perhaps that’ll change as the days go on and the dust bunnies settle — but for now, this thing runs stealth. With that said, people tend to only really care about the way a console leading up to its launch, when pictures of the hardware are one of the few things they can really weigh in on. Far more important, however, is… The Xbox One controller is absolutely superb. It is, perhaps, the best console controller I’ve ever held. The Xbox 360 controller was already very, very good, but it had a glaring fault or two. Its directional pad was, for lack of a better word, “mushy”, and it only got worse with age and use. The analog sticks lacked any real texture for your thumbs to grip on to, especially when the gaming got tense and the ol’ mitts got sweaty. The Xbox One controller is essentially a 360 controller refined, scrubbed of its flaws. The names of some buttons have changed, sure — but functionally, it’s a finely polished version of its predecessor. The D-pad now lets out a resounding click in every direction, and the analog sticks cling to your thumbs. One particularly neat bit I noticed after a few days: the L and R triggers are tapered in such a way that you can pull them while resting your knuckle just over the shoulder buttons. This allows you to tap the shoulder buttons with a twitch of your knuckle while still keeping your finger on the trigger. That’s great for twitch-heavy first person shooters, where that millisecond finger shift can mean not tossing a grenade in time. The one big bummer with the controller: no rechargeable batteries, unless you bring your own rechargeable AAs or spring for a $25 Play-And-Charge kit for each controller. Microsoft has pitched the new Kinect (their motion-sensing, speech-recognizing accessory) in such a way so as to essentially suggest it puts the old one to shame, claiming greatly improved accuracy in both speech recognition and gesture sensing. The speech recognition seem better, but not to some insane, mind-blowing degree. Yes, the new Kinect will still mishear you. Yes, you’ll still feel totally stupid when you shout a command at your TV and it ignores you. Meanwhile, it feels like each game and app has you remembering a different set of voice commands, adding to the frustration of the still-not-great failure rate. , Microsoft — do you speak it? When it does work, though, I’m still not entirely convinced that using voice recognition outside of a few particular use cases is really all that great. Pausing a video without finding the remote as I run over to my kitchen? Hell yeah. Slowly commanding my Xbox through the App Store, screen by screen? Meh. The same can be said for using gestures to navigate through the menus; while the Kinect’s improved gesture tracking gives it a few new tricks (for example: you now “tap” at an item to select it, rather than having to hover over it. That can actually prove pretty challenging some times, but I have a feeling I’ll get better in time), it still feels like a neat tech demo rather than something that actually makes the experience . With gaming, however, the Kinect’s improved gesture tracking starts to shine. Take , for example. It’s essentially a demo for Rare’s Kinect Sports Rivals, but even with just a few minutes of gameplay to offer up, it shows off just how capable the new Kinect is. In the demo, each player gets a jetski. To steer, you hold your arms up in front of you and move them forward and back as if controlling an actual jetski — all somewhat standard, if you’re used to the past generation Kinect (because we live in the future and get to critique things like how good something is at gesture tracking). But the new Kinect has a new trick that its predecessor didn’t: it’s tracking your skeleton all the way down to your fingers. You squeeze your right hand closed — as if squeezing the accelerator — and your jetski takes off. If Harmonix ever commits to making Dance Central for the Xbox One, expect it to be a lot more sensitive. The new Kinect can log you in to your Xbox profile as soon as it recognizes you, something which seemed to work for me about 90% of the time. Between the improved skeletal tracking and the fact that Xbox One comes with a Kinect (where as it only came with certain 360s, or could be purchased separately, late into the console’s life), I’m actually quite excited to see what developers do with the Kinect this time around. For navigation? In most cases, meh. But in games? This could be fun. [gallery ids="917423,917424,917425"] While it may seem strange to sort of breeze past the ‘games’ section of a gaming console review, Microsoft only made a handful of games available to reviewers leading up to the launch. Of course, launch titles are hardly indicative of how a console might even a few months later. You probably don’t judge the Xbox 360 based on or , right? Of those I’ve played and can write about, here are my early impressions: Often visually stunning, but remarkably repetitive. Go down hallway. Punch dudes, then stab one in slow-motion. Go down another hallway. Punch another dude. Repeat for 6 or 7 hours, till you reach the end of the confusing-ass plot. Sadly, the dude-punching part isn’t even very fun. Absolutely beautiful, though most of the processing time seems to be going towards making the cars insanely shiny and throwin’ down that sweet, sweet lens flare. Once you start looking at the buildings and bushes you’re blasting by, it’s not as pretty. A surprisingly complex fighter for being a freemium title (you get one character for free, but can pay to unlock the rest.) based off a game of the same name from 1994. After 6 or 7 hours of practice, the computer still whooped my ass on a medium difficulty. Loading screens were a bit longer than I’d hope. Not good. Gameplay felt disappointingly disconnected, and it got boring really, quick. I love the team that made this (Twisted Pixel, same folks who made and ), but this one isn’t my favorite game of theirs. The graphics seemed rather dated, and the gameplay got repetitive within a few levels. It’s.. Zoo Tycoon. It was cute as heck, but not quite my thing. Loading screens were long. While it seemed like Microsoft was going to hold most of the third-party apps until launch day, some of them went live just yesterday morning. Here are the ones I’ve spent the most time with: Curiously, the Netflix interface on the One is the universal TV interface the company . Instead, they’ve built one that looks quite similar to the Xbox One homescreen. It works well, as Netflix’s apps tend to. Even more curious, the Xbox One Hulu app looks more like Netflix’s new universal interface than the Netflix app currently does. The Hulu app on the One works better than its 360 counterpart — but that’s kind of a given, as the 360 Hulu app is super buggy and slow. Quite solid, if video chatting from your living room sounds like something you’ll do regularly. It pans/zooms to focus on whoever in the room is speaking, and does it surprisingly well. The build I’m using says you can call someone by saying “Xbox, Skype [contact name]”, but it doesn’t work. ( Got it to work! Looks like it only works with your ‘favorite’ contacts) Super wonky. Definitely not something I can see myself using regularly, unless every other browser-enabled device in my house suddenly explodes. A mostly-broken “Browse to [website]” voice command claims to let you dictate your destination, but gets it wrong most of the time. “Browse to TechCrunch”, for example, took me to Telegraph, TurboTax, Webkinz.com, and pretty much every other website on the Internet. It never once took me to TechCrunch, even after dozens of attempts. Internet Explorer let you do this really cool Kinect gesture where you “grab” the screen (by closing your fist) and pull it toward you to zoom, but it’s otherwise not great. The Xbox One’s new, always-ready homescreen is one of the features that Microsoft has pitched quite hard. Just press the controller’s Xbox button, and you’re at your system’s homescreen. Tap the on-screen resume button, and you’re back in your game right where you left off. (This, compared to the 360, where going to the homescreen meant leaving your game entirely.) Alas, it still feels like it could use a bit of work. The One’s interface is noticeably quicker than that of the 360, but it’s not faster. You’ll still see that signature spiral loading screen in between apps — even when you just want to pop in to check the details of an achievement you just unlocked. I never felt like I was waiting painfully long, but with this generation of consoles, it feels strange to wait while clicking through something like an interface. One of the One’s flagship and oft demonstrated features is the ability to quickly switch between things like games, Skype, and Netflix. You can even say “Xbox, switch to Skype!” and it’ll do so. Neat! It works well, though I noticed that the apps were being fully reloaded (as in, from the splash screen) more than I’d expected. You can also “snap” some apps to the side of the screen and run them alongside your game (so you can, say, watch a video while you play your game) but this doesn’t seem to be fully fleshed out just yet. Netflix, for example, can be snapped.. but once it’s there, it just offers you a button that takes the app back to full screen. Skype can’t be snapped yet, though it was one of the first apps Microsoft used to demo the app snapping concept. Internet Explorer, when snapped, feels even wonkier than it does fullscreen. While it may seem like I have as many nitpicks with the Xbox One as I do highlights, that is perhaps because my bar was set so high. The Xbox 360 has its fair share of faults, but they’re ones that have come with its evolution. They were little blemishes chipped into something that otherwise only got better. They were easy to ignore. With the Xbox One, though, it’s back to level one. It’s being presented as an entirely new package, and one that comes with a $500 price tag. Faults, even small ones, are a bit harder to look past. It’s also, to some extent, a problem of diminishing returns. Even with 8 years having passed, the leap from the last generation to this one isn’t quite the same leap in technology we’ve made so many times before. It’s not the leap from the NES to the SNES (7 years), or the leap from the SNES to the PlayStation (4 years), or from the Xbox to the Xbox 360 (4 years). With each generation, that leap gets a smaller, and a harder to notice. After 8 years, you might hope that the Xbox One would just everything you’ve seen with the Xbox 360; on Day One, at least, it does not. With that said, it’s important to stress that one key term: “Day One”. The current state of the Xbox One — and the PS4, for that matter — is quite likely different from what the same consoles will look like when we all move on to the next generation. Compare the Xbox 360 on Day One to the 360 today; from the games to the interface, it’s almost unrecognizable. Both Microsoft and Sony are laying the runway for the next few years, so make your decisions as progress unfolds. Would I recommend buying the Xbox One? If you already have a 360 and aren’t absolutely dying for any of the launch titles, I would say hold off for now. Give developers a bit of time to figure out the console’s inner workings. Let the must-have titles get made. If your 360 is on its last leg or you skipped the last generation, however, it’s a solid buy as is.
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The Digi-Care ERI Wearable Tracks Your Activity Without GPS
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
A unique, nicely designed fitness wearable just hit . Called the Digi-Care ERI, this Shenzhen-made wearable can track your steps and, most interestingly, trace your activity route using a magnetic sensor rather than GPS, allowing you to see where you’ve been without reducing battery life. The device comes in multiple candy colors and the company is looking for $50,000 in funding. They’re selling early-bird models for $39 and expect to sell the final product for $99. I saw the device at the TechCrunch/Technode event in Shanghai and was duly impressed. While I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the location tracking, the company claims they can get one month of battery life out of one charge and that it can sense different activities including cycling, walking, and running. The company is also offering an open SDK to allow programmers to access various data points including temperature as well as build notifications and NFC interaction into the system. Will they ship? The company said they product was ready and working and they demoed it live. It looks like a more angular Fitbit Force and has a bright OLED screen. In a world full of wristlets, it’s nice to see someone going a slightly different direction.
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With $4M From Khosla & More, ALOHA Launches A Wellness Platform That Helps You Drink Your Greens
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
Startups have begun to take on the food market with gusto of late, and a slew of new companies are now looking to connect consumers with high-quality meals, especially on-demand. Many of these startups also happen to be taking a healthy approach, not only joining the movement to revolutionize the way food gets sourced and delivered, but, by improving access to products, drinks and supplements, help everyday people make healthier choices when it comes to their diet. Whether it’s businesses that help , improve access to better foods or by offering for healthy , investors have taken notice of the growing trend. Soylent, the nutritional drink and food substitute, for example, saw a flurry of headlines recently after raising more than $1 million via crowdfunding and after attracting an additional among others. And, if Soylent’s experimental food replacement formula doesn’t quite do it for you, not to worry, as the startup is just one of a growing list of names hustling to disrupt the industrial food system. With the launch of today, we can add another name to the fray. Founded by former nutritionists, health coaches and members of Google and Gilt, ALOHA has similar ambitions: The new health platform is on a mission to redefine the way consumers purchase nutritional supplements and bring a higher level of transparency to the health and wellness industry. ALOHA also stands as yet another example of the increasing interest in food and healthy lifestyle businesses not only among startups but from investors as well, as the company launches today backed by over $4 million in venture capital. Contributing to the startup’s first investment were venture firms including First Round Capital, Highland Capital Partners, FF Angel, Khosla Ventures and Forerunner Ventures, as well as several angel investors, including Warby Parker co-founder, David Gilboa. Like Soylent, ALOHA offers a nutritional supplement that can be consumed in drink form to help you get all those vitamins a body needs, but unlike the experimental project-turned-business, ALOHA offers a handful of products, which are meant to complement real food (and an actual diet) — rather than to replace your square meals. The startup also aims to provide a combination diet, offering nutrition supplements as well as readable health and nutrition content curated by industry experts. So, the other side of ALOHA is this “online magazine,” as the startup calls it, which essentially intends to provide a roadmap for people to learn how to forge a healthier lifestyle. The startup is also taking cues from startups like Birchbox, Warby Parker and Quarterly in how it designs and packages its products. The company isn’t just trying to bring consumers a source for better supplements, it wants to appeal to consumers by trying to create products that show “elevated design aesthetic” — in other words, it isn’t just sending you supplement powder in the mail, it wants you to like the way it looks, too. ALOHA is trying to be sleek and simple, a la Apple and Google’s web products and looks to be targeting the type of people who have money to spend on these types of products, not just your average slob like yours truly. Plus, the design or, really, the packaging is meant to emulate the brand itself — in that it’s relatively healthy for the environment. The box is 100 percent recyclable, made with recycled paper, is FSC-certified and manufactured using wind power, while the ink is water, carbon and vegetable-based. The other key to ALOHA’s potential appeal lies in the fact that the bar has been pretty low for nutritional supplements as far as taste goes. Some may give you that daily dose of kale, mixed with some strange concoction of fruits and green vegetables, but all in all, supplements usually taste horrible and make you regret drinking them. Then there are those muscle or exercise supplements that give you the vague sense that you’d fail a performance-enhancing drug test were you asked to take one. At launch, ALOHA is offering , the “Foundation,” a five-pill supplement pack that is vegan, gluten-free and aims to be an effective complement to your healthy eating. A 30-day supply costs $95 and gives you the daily dose of vitamins that one should probably be consuming every day, like Vitamic C, D, E and your Omega 3s. The startup also offers what it calls “The Daily Good,” which is instead a whole-food power containing 14 ingredients in one pouch and costs $75 for a 30-day supply. Created with help from herbalists, dieticians and a physician, the Daily Good’s supplement offers a mixture of greens like peas, spinach and wheatgrass, fruits and a bunch of other stuff (like mushrooms and yellow ginger) that is good for your bodyparts but isn’t offensive to your tastebuds — and doesn’t have sweeteners or other pesky additives. The creators also developed a patented drying process to reduce all of these healthy ingredients down to powder, sans the sweeteners, and spent most of their time ensuring that users can add the powders to (or mix them with) any drink. The idea is that you can add it to water to get a kind of herbal tea taste, or to smoothies, energy drinks or whatever you please. It may not be capacity and speed-increasing hardware or software, but the ALOHA founders believe they’ve applied an appealing blend of science and nutritional voodoo with good-looking design, ease-of-use and online/offline commerce that will appeal to young, tech-savvy types. The founders want ALOHA to act as an all-in-one solution for wellness that inspires people to find a balance between work and life, healthy living and the alternative. Of course, on that front there’s still a long way to go, and ultimately, the proof will be in the pudding — er pudding supplements. For more, find
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Clypd Raises $7.2M In Series A-1 To Help Sell Short TV Commercials
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
, founded by the creators of Paypal-acquired WHERE, has raised $7.2 million in series A-1 funding, gathering cash from Atlas Ventures, Freestyle Captial, and Boston Seed Capital. John Battelle was an angel in the round. The company wants to make it easier for advertisers to buy small chunks of TV air time as small as 15 seconds long. By partnering with channels, Clypd will be able to allow TV channels to sell “open” airtime to smaller customers. “This empowers the supplier to preserve and control the value of that inventory while taking advantage of more advanced technologies,” said co-founder Joshua Summers. The team has gathered engineers and execs from the TV industry over the past year.
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Minecraft, The Book
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
If you read one book this year about green pixelated monsters that were originally supposed to be malformed pigs, make it . This slim volume by two Swedish tech journalists tracks the creation of Minecraft from the bedroom of a quiet, driven programmer named Markus Persson to the ballroom of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas where thousands of dedicated fans rushed the stage to meet their hero in a fit of pure, reckless abandon. It’s the story of a nerd made good and of how creativity and hard work meet to make something great. It is also a surprisingly human story about a boy who suffered and the man born of that sometimes sad crucible known as childhood. Books about programmers are traditionally a slog. The loneliness of the long-distance coder makes for some dry copy and except for a few rare exceptions – the and being two – because the story of a programmer is far less interesting than the program itself. Luckily Goldberg and Larsson know how to tell a story. While not structurally perfect, the book’s cornerstone are very detailed interviews with Persson, his wife Elin, and the entire Mojang team as well as real love for the game and the story of its making. The tale begins in 1979 when Persson AKA Notch is born in Stockholm and spent seven years in Edsbyn where he was an avid LEGO builder and, once his family acquired a Commodore 128, programmer. Young Notch spent his childhood coding, first on his father’s lap and then alone, in his room, falling into a fugue state that is familiar to many tech obsessives. He would rarely come up for air and his childhood friends were the cursor and tape storage drive. His mother worried. His sister, Anna, meanwhile, fell into drinking and drugs and rebelled in her own way. An armchair psychologist would see a connection in her predicament to their father, Birger’s, own drug abuse. An armchair psychologist would also say that Notch’s escape into coding was the flip-side of his sister’s coin, a way of removing himself from the hard, strange world outside. Obsessive coding, like a drug, is pleasure with a price. The tale continues apace with stops at dead end jobs and angry bosses. Notch was a gifted programmer but clearly there was something in him that rebelled against idiocy. Stockholm in the 2000s was a hotbed of game design and Notch was ensconced firmly at the bottom, wasting his time writing janky Flash games for Midasplayer (aka King.com, creators of, obviously, Candy Crush Saga) and then fiddling with a company called Jalbum. But notch was a child of the Internet and he knew he wanted more. After playing , the baffling text-based adventure game that became a surprise hit, Notch had an idea: he wanted to create an open world that you could completely control. There was no difference between the player and the scenery, no beautifully-rendered cutscenes. Instead, players were presented with the world and, like blocky Adams and Eves, they were given dominion. Fans of the game will understand the pull Notch’s title had on the human player. It is M&Ms for the brain, an experience of creation and survival that brushes our hedonistic buttons like a lover. The gameplay was amazingly simple yet could produce environments as complex as the world itself. In this world people built model Taj Mahals, model starships, and model Earths. They could turn off the monsters – the aforementioned pig-monster, called the Creeper, is one scary mofo – and they could simply create. He released a beta in 2009 and offered it for half price. It sold thousands. He finished the game and sold it for $26. He sold hundreds of thousands. In the end Notch made millions on Minecraft. He met his gamer heroes, built a true indie games company, and saw his sister Anna come out of the dark maw of addiction and back into his life. He married his pixie-sized girlfriend, became a force to be reckoned with online, and now lives comfortably in a world where he was once so uncomfortable. He in 2012 to drink and depression but the boy who once typed BASIC in the dark was now a man whose voice was heard around the world. He wrote about it: “When I said I wanted to quit my day job and work on my own games, he was the only person who told me they supported my decision. When I made Minecraft, he was incredibly proud. He saw me win awards, and he saw the fans embrace the games, and he saw me start my own company.” Then he said goodbye. This book is about a figure familiar to many of us – ourselves – in that we, as lovers of technology often find it hard to see the patterns in the madness of the real world. It takes a little time to discern the connections but they are there and Notch, to his credit, found them just in time. Minecraft is a beautifully human story that is translated well by writer Jennifer Hawkins. It’s well worth a read and offers, at the very least, inspiration, and at the very most, hope.
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Reverse Engineering Snapchat’s Size Is Impossible…But Here Goes
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
Acquirers and investors fear (missing out on) what they don’t understand. That’s one reason might not be revealing its user count. But everyone wants to know. The problem is that ephemeral messaging isn’t like posting to Facebook or texting. It’s a new medium with a unique behavior pattern, so you can’t estimate Snapchat’s size by it to anything else. But you don’t have to. With some science and anecdotal reports of how many snaps people send a day, you can get a range that illuminates how many daily users Snapchat might have. [Update: Earlier today a smart piece questioning how little we know about Snapchat’s metrics. However, it used stats about WhatsApp and text usage to estimate Snapchat’s user count. We don’t see as accurate since Snapchat’s ephemeral messaging is so different and takes much longer than texting or instant messaging, so we wrote this breakdown using no comparisons to other communication mediums.] We start with two : To calculate user count, we have to make a few assumptions that we can’t verify as accurate, which we’ll mark with a *. We’ll then note that all our final user counts are based on these assumptions by marking them **. Seriously, these are clever but speculated projections that aren’t necessarily right. Let’s make our first assumption that the average snap that is sent to more than one person is sent to four people*, based on our anecdotal usage. If 12% of snaps are sent to more than one person, and each is sent to an average of four people, 35.3% of received snaps each day are multi-user-received snaps. [Correction: we originally had 48% instead of 35.3% here, so we’ve corrected it and all the subsequent numbers.] We can use that to derive the total number of snaps. 64.7% of received snaps are sent to only one person. So, 141.2 million received snaps each day are multi-user-received snaps, and 258.8 million are sent to one user directly. We can get the number of snaps to multiple users simply by dividing the total received count for that type of snap (141 million) by the average number of recipients (4), yielding 35.25 million multi-user-received snaps. Summing the two numbers grants us the total snap count per day: 294 million. Alright! Using that figure, we can derive estimated daily active user (DAU) counts for Snapchat by laying out different ranges of user activity. In short, on a day that a user is logged in, how many snaps do they send? Using the above daily snap count, we can derive the following ranges. Snapchat’s user base is surely distributed across this range (with some crazy snap-happy outliers), but using these averages gives us a range of estimated user counts. [Update: a Snapchat insider says the average user receives 20 to 50 snaps per day. While our numbers are for snaps sent not received, we’ve added estimates for if the average user sent 30 or 50 snaps per day. At 30 snaps sent per day Snapchat would have 9.8 million daily users, and for 50 snaps per day Snapchat would have 5.9 million daily users.] A caveat. It is very unlikely that the average Snapchat DAU sends one snap per day, or 20 snaps per day. Those numbers are included for reference, and are not endorsed by TechCrunch as probable. Snapchat won’t share its user count. Why not? Reasons. Many of them. It could want to maintain an air of mystery as it courts acquisition offers in the billions of dollars. It could hope to avoid direct comparisons to longer-standing social networks like Instagram or more traditional messaging apps like WeChat that may have higher user counts. Internally, it may focus on engagement — getting people deeply addicted/in love with Snapchat rather than courting a larger, less passionate user base. But why does knowing Snapchat’s user count matter? Because it explains whether ephemeral messaging is a niche activity frequently done by a small audience — or — a widespread phenomenon a large audience is dabbling in. If a few million people love it, the question will be whether Snapchat is appealing beyond hyper-chatty mobile-first young people, and can gain exposure to more people. It would mean with the right distribution, it could grow very large, as each additional user brings a ton of engagement. This might mean Snapchat would benefit a lot from being acquired by a massive service like Google or Facebook that could promote it. If many millions kind of enjoy it, the question is whether the world is still getting used to disappearing communication. If it’s a medium humans naturally take to, Snapchat might not require much help, but would just need to bide its time and let people grow into self-destruct sharing. This could support an argument for Snapchat to stay independent. But whether 147 million** people send 2 snaps per day or 9.8 million** people send 30 snaps per day, we know Snapchat is pretty damn popular. And as much as some want to write it off as a fad, ephemeral messaging translates a core aspect of offline human interaction into the online world. The silly jokes, funny faces, and intimate encounters you share with the people you love disappear when the moment ends. It’d make sense that we’d want the same freedom from the permanent record when communicating digitally.
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Instead Of Crashing, Bitcoin’s Price Is Slowly Deflating
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Alex Wilhelm
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
Bitcoin! You almost have to shout it. The much ballyhooed currency has had a simply amazing last few weeks. It put on the finance nerd equivalent of a fireworks show, blasting from less than $400 per coin a week ago to a high of around $900 (Mt.Gox data). The shot to the top was almost ludicrous in its intensity. When Bitcoin finally licked the $900 mark, it dropped in the same hour to under $600 before recovering, and dropping, and recovering, and dropping, and on and on and on. But now, some time later, a trend is developing: Instead of Bitcoin suffering from a rapid collapse in its overheated price, the currency is experiencing a slower, if still very material decline. Currently trading just under $600, Bitcoin has shed one-third of its value in around a single day. Here’s the last week’s chart, in one hour format, unmarked by myself: And the same chart, after I got my hands on it: I honestly expected a sharper descent to lower prices, but what can I say, the hallmark rise and fall pattern is there: A sharp decline, fueled by panic or something close to it, the following dead cat bounce, and then the slide as diminished speculative demand can’t hold back profit taking from tired parties. Don’t fret, we’ve . Still, the slower decline is to Bitcoin’s credit as it either demonstrates that demand for the currency outside of a speculative boom is higher than anticipated, or that Bitcoin fans are simply harder core than we expected. I still think that : The current rally is being fueled by the usual combination of presumed scarcity, an overzealous investor class, and truckloads of optimism. So, things will calm down in a bit, with a decent price correction. History teaches us that much. Also, can I sell you this tulip bulb. Which is response to : Of course this is a bubble. It’s a far too rapid increase in the price of a financial instrument that is unmoored from any inherent value that is being bid up by aggressive individual speculation. What else is that? So, expect more easing in Bitcoin’s price.
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Cody Adds Personal Training To Its Social Fitness Community With Hundreds Of New Workouts
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Rip Empson
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
When it comes to exercise, both motivation and enjoyment tend to be a lot higher when friends are involved. They cheer us on, challenge us and make exercise more social. The App Store is stuffed with exercise, fitness and wellness apps of all kinds, and by this point, eyes roll every time a new fitness app launches. Two former Microsoft product managers beg to differ. They launched earlier this year because they believe that a key part of the fitness puzzle is still missing: Social. with their friends — be they pictures, images or tips. Basically, an Instagram/Facebook for exercise. Of course, with Endomondo, GAIN Fitness, Fitocracy and others already trying to build their own permutations of “The Facebook for Fitness,” Cody has tried to set itself apart by reducing the friction. In other words, by become a mobile fitness coach that people aren’t frustrated or intimidated by. Rather than cater to hardcore fitness enthusiasts like so many other fitness apps, Cody avoids going to deep into the fitness-tracking world and is far less reliant on graphs and metrics. When it started out, the app focused on increasing the success and enjoyment level of workouts by using its own friendly robot (named Cody) to provide users with access to their own workouts and curated content (like articles) which Cody aimed to personalize to the individual. (To varying degrees of success.) With its most recent update, however, Cody has moved in the direction of GAIN Fitness and now allows trainers to post their favorite workouts and fitness programs into the community and your feed (if you’re following those trainers). The idea is allow trainers who already have their own followings to leverage that audience and bring it to Cody, which is both a bonus for Cody (its user base grows) and the trainer’s audience as it gets access to a new mobile and social fitness community. Or at least that’s the idea. The new version of Cody allows trainers to share multimedia content within Cody as well, bringing video to the app’s community, and allowing users to watch these short videos and try 10-day cardio challenges, upper body workouts and so on. The trainers can then add to those videos as they go, providing feedback, pointers or striking up a conversation with their audience via Cody. At the outset, most of this content was free and curated by Cody’s editorial team itself, but as it goes forward, the Cody community will see trainers begin charging for their expert routines, along with more content. By helping its best trainers to start making money, Cody hopes that it can begin generating some revenue as well. Furthermore, by slowly relinquishing editorial control and allowing trainers to post more of their own content, the founders hope that more multimedia content will start to flow through the network, increasing engagement and enjoyment as a result. As another way to encourage that, Cody has made its “Training Programs” available on the Web, in addition to mobile. For more, find the .
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Nonplussed
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Devin Coldewey
| 2,013 | 11 | 10 |
I sat down to write up the new YouTube comment system earlier this week, and before I finished the article, I had deleted my Google+ account — my real one, not the joke one that you acquire during the YouTube signup process. The labyrinth of settings and accounts involved struck me as so absurd, and the process so hostile to comprehension, that they needed to be described as they might have been experienced by an ordinary user, and not from the more meta perspective of a tech writer or web designer. Here’s how it felt like it would go for your average YouTube visitor. Ah, yes. was a quality YouTube video. I’ve never felt the need to comment before, but this bathing rabbit deserves my approbation like none other! Wait, my name is up there in the bar, and my face is next to the comment field. Ah, it would be a comment with my real name… curses. For reasons I do not care to explain (you can imagine compelling circumstances on your own) I would rather not use my real name or associate this particular video with my official identity or Gmail address. But I heard there’s a new system. I’ll sign up for an account! Probably I can just click the comment field to — Oh. It wouldn’t have let me comment on the field even though my face was next to it, huh? Weird. Instead, it wants to know whether I want to use my Google+ account with my real name or “create a new channel.” Are those really my only options if I just want to comment? Very well, YouTube, I’ll create a new “channel.” Ah, now you tell me. This new channel “comes with a Google+ page.” Why do I need another one? I already have one, and it’s because I didn’t want to use it that I clicked this button in the first place! Okay, well, I guess it can’t be helped. I can always delete it later. Great, now I have a channel. I’ll just check the options just in case — I see I’ve been opted into a number of ads and newsletters! And even though this is a separate account with its own Google+ account, those will go to my Gmail address, I’m sure. Would have been nice to hear about this up front, but no use crying over spilt permissions. Uncheck, uncheck. On, then, to Google+. Pretty sure this new one is redundant so we’ll just do away with it. Oh, it’s a “page”? How is that different from my profile “page,” or a photo “page”? And why is it associated with my real name account? Never mind, it won’t live long enough to matter. Dashboard, settings… scroll past a dozen or so notifications and other things I’ve been opted into without my knowledge… here we are: the tiniest option. “Delete this page.” Goodbye, page! What, I delete it? I have to delete the YouTube channel first? Why would I do that? Why wasn’t this mentioned before? I don’t want some random accounts I don’t use or care about! Wouldn’t it have been more accurate to say I was making a Google+ page that “comes with” the ability to comment on YouTube? But the YouTube channel has inbox and notification settings and stuff. I don’t need both, do I? Oh, it says I just have to disconnect it first, that’s fine. Just one more step, and there’s even a link. Clicking that should… nope. This is just the basic settings page. Well, it has to be here . Ah, “Connected accounts.” Not for long, poor things! Damn, not there either. Where would I disconnect except in “Connected accounts?” Advanced settings? I see “delete” but not disconnect. More features? If I search exhaustively through these, it will surely appear. No… no…. You know what? Forget it, I don’t even to comment any more. It was a dumb video anyway. I’ll just post it on Facebook and put my comment there, where my friends will actually see it. Delete… yes, I’m sure. You may have just been a baby, but you had it coming, YouTube channel. Now for that pesky G+ page, since its lifeline is gone. There’s no link to it anywhere on YouTube that I can see, but luckily, I know that I can go to plus.google.com to manage this stuff, something that wouldn’t be obvious if you weren’t already a Google+ user. Manage, settings, and delete, and yes, damn it, I’m sure — boom. Back to square one. What was that other video I wanted to watch anonymously? Oh yeah, the dog. Okay, so now it says “Log in” up there, so I’m definitely logged out. That’s fine, I’ll just watch stuff, that’s what YouTube is for anyway. And I can back out even if I were to accidentally click the comment button or something, like so… “Use YouTube as…” And the only option is my email address? Not likely, kemosabe! Not even going to click! No x to close this thing, thanks a lot… but I can sure close the tab! Nice knowing you, login box! Let’s try this again. I desperately need to see that ex-military dog nuzzle its first kitten. What?! Why is my face next to the comment box! I’m logged in with my email address? I never did that! Sign out. Hey — why did my Gmail and chat sign out? Get back in there. All right, one more time. Video URL pasted, and… I can hear the video but can’t see it? It’s just a login screen with one option! Is that a bug? Reload… and I’m logged in again? So wait, signing in and out of Gmail signs me in and out of YouTube and vice versa? In what world does that make sense? For god’s sake! It turns out you can view YouTube privately and without logging in only from an “incognito” or “private” browsing window, or if you are not logged into any other services. You can also block cookies on YouTube, though that’s not something most users would think of. But fiddling around with Google+ and finding how often things I thought were disabled were not, how many settings I thought I’d changed had reverted, and how many accounts were being linked into the service for reasons I found pointless… I just decided to end it. I don’t mean to rag on Google+, as some people find it useful as a social network, and it’s not as if signing up for an extra account and ignoring it is some huge chore. But its growing position as a sort of hub to be conflated with unrelated services like YouTube is distasteful to me. It’s not that I find Google or even Google+ itself bad. But the connections between the channel, the pages, the Google+ profile, the Google account, the various websites and contact lists, to say nothing of interdependencies with Android — it’s becoming stifling. This little fracas around YouTube comments, and my inability to use the website as I please except by using Google’s own identity-hiding techniques against it reminded me of that. When I imagine my parents or less wary friends undertaking the process, I shudder to think how little they would bother diverging from Google’s ideal plan for a good data-producing consumer, because they would not have the patience to dig through settings, search after orphan accounts, and so on. Google has chosen the method and degree to which these things are connected, and few will have the wherewithal to resist. Sure, it’s their prerogative, but we don’t have to like it, and we don’t have to dislike it in silence. Simplify, simplify. My online life is already cluttered enough, and I never did like Google+, so I deleted it, and perhaps you should, too. Now there’s one less egg in my Google basket, and I never have to pay attention to anything that has the word “Google+” in it again — just like I did with LinkedIn (stop inviting me, everyone in the world), Pinterest, and a number of other things I had no use for. My worry is that I’m going to have to double back on my tracks in a year or so when the next few services coalesce under the Google+ umbrella. Hopes that it will be done well no longer seem realistic, so anyone who shares a similar low-key dread about the impending changes would do best to take matters into their own hands.
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Twitter’s New App Refines DM Experience With Suggested Users, Introduces New Interface Experiments
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Matthew Panzarino
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
Twitter is in full on experimentation mode with its latest app update. We’ve talked before about to push out big changes to small amounts of people and then make judgment calls about whether to implement those updates on a larger scale. Its latest update adds several features to everyone’s version of Twitter, but depending on which experimental bucket you’re in you might see any number of ‘versions’ of Twitter once you update your app today. First, the changes to the app that we’ll all get to take advantage of. The release notes cover a few tweaks, including the fact that your search results can now be filtered using a variety of media types including photos, video, news and people. The filtering can also allow you to see ‘all’ tweets rather than just ‘top’ tweets. This is great for people that use Twitter for research, not just trend hunting. Top tweets are often older, and ‘all’ tweets will give you a much more current set of results right off the bat. You can now search for local content as well, rather than stuff from ‘everywhere’. The local content being surfaced is a good touch, as that’s part of what could get people outside of the ‘technorati’ to see value in Twitter. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard a neighborhood commotion and tried to search Twitter to see what happened. Locally trending tweets could make the power of Twitter’s ‘global’ news hounding work for you on a local level. It’s great to see this come to the app. You can also now see trending TV stuff and local content in the Discover tab.The TV trends are kind of buried, and will show up after you’ve scrolled through the list of other content under the ‘Trending’ section. That makes it three levels down. This is a far cry from the aggressive TV experiments we had heard about before, and indicate some trimming back was done for this release. Which is fine, I guess, as that’s why you run experiments like Twitter does. TV shows are in Trending — Matthew Cassinelli (@mattcassinelli) The new compose view will ask you if you are near a location, likely to encourage you to attach location metadata to your tweet. Otherwise you’d have to tap on the location button proactively. Swipe gestures on a ‘per cel’ basis appear to be gone as well. This means that you can’t swipe from left to right on a tweet to bring up actions any more. This could be due to the fact that every tweet has a full suite of permanent action buttons in the timeline now — or Twitter could be planning on using those swipes for other experiments in the future. Some users, for instance, are saying that swipe gestures are now allowing them to jump left-to-right between the timeline, Discover and Connect tabs. There is also a great new addition to the direct messages section: suggested users. Based on what appears to be a variety of factors including DM frequency, interaction frequency and other relevant stuff, Twitter gives you a quick list of possible conversation starters. So instead of searching for people by user name, you get a ‘recents’ list. This is quicker and another sign that Twitter is paying more attention to DMs. The icons on the DM screen have also been redesigned and look much nicer in my opinion. Actually, most of the icons in the app have been redesigned. They’re a bit smaller and the profile images are slightly more detailed ‘people’ now. Twitter also appears to have implemented iOS 7’s dynamic type to set the font size within the app using the system-wide setting found in your Settings app. Then, there are the experiments that Twitter is using to play with the app. I threw out a quick query on Twitter about the possibility that people could be seeing ‘new things’ and got back a bunch of responses. These new variations of Twitter are going to be visible to about 1% of users, depending on which ‘test bucket’ they’re in at the moment. Most of these won’t be implemented, depending on what the data says about them after testing, but some of them could become permanent additions to Twitter. One of the experiments I’m seeing personally is this pretty sweet in-app popup when a tweet is favd or retweeted: This provides context and a feeling of ‘life’ when you’re in the app sitting on the timeline view. It encourages you to to take a look at your connections tab too, which could lead to follows or more interactions. Tapping on the bar pops up a list of people who have favd your tweet in ‘avatar’ form. There are some new transitions between areas of the app like the main timeline and individual tweets as well. Another experiment is this one seen by Justin Williams, which provides a completely different type of compose experience. Not sure how to feel about this one myself: I should be for this. — Justin Williams (@justin) Here’s a light tab bar from user : One very interesting permutation, especially given the rumors about Twitter’s experiments with improving direct messages, is this one via that places a ‘Messages’ tab right into the bar. It also plays with the naming conventions a bit too (Explore vs. Discover, etc): And it isn’t likely that the experiments will end here. A list of graphics assets inside the latest app, , point to more trending topic attention given to arenas like sports too. And curious behavior exhibited by pulling down on a profile page intimates more to come. Image Credit:
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FinanceIt Raises $13 Million To Bring Simple Purchase Financing Options To Small And Medium Businesses
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Alex Wilhelm
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
Today FinanceIt, a company that brings financing options for consumer purchases to small and medium-sized businesses, announced that it has raised a $13 million Series A. The company declined to list its lead investor, but among the funding sources that were disclosed, TTV Capital was the largest participant. FinanceIt is currently a Canada-only play. The outsized Series A is directly lined up to help the company expand to the United States, starting in 2014. That specific progression will wait until the conclusion of this calendar year. As a company, FinanceIt offers a very interesting service: If you sell stuff, it will finance your customer’s purchase of said stuff, charging you nothing for the help. Naturally, FinanceIt charges a firm, but not eye-popping interest rate on the loans, making its coin from the consumer, and not the business. For the small or medium-sized company that can’t afford, or simply doesn’t know how to set up its own financing programs, it could be a neat fit. Consumers have their credit score checked inside your store, plans are displayed on a mobile device (No payments 6 months, etc), and are executed. The consumer goes further into debt, and the business is paid within a day. In, out, done. It’s slick, if almost dangerous in how it allows consumers to borrow up to $50,000 in a flash. Interest rates for the consumer begin at 6.99%, and can run as high as 12.99% if your credit is suck. You can’t borrow less than $500. And yes, you can use the service to cover medical bills, provided that your medical installation is a FinanceIt customer. Cheap credit fast for small businesses using a neat, if not terribly complex technology stack. Coming soon to the United States.
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Here Are The Hottest Companies In Tech Right Now, According To Goldman Sachs
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Colleen Taylor
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
I think we’ve established by now that what happens in Vegas actually stays in Vegas. And, as you can see by the agenda obtained by TechCrunch that’s embedded below this post, the Goldman Sachs Private Internet Company Conference scheduled to take place in Sin City over the next two days is no exception. The Goldman Sachs conference for private web firms is one of the most high-end and hush-hush events in the tech world. It’s essentially like or or , except for tech executives who are likely to soon go through an IPO or big M&A deal. If you’re on the invite list, you’re in pretty good company — and the first rule is that you don’t talk about it to others. This year, according to sources, it’s happening this week, on November 20th and 21st in Las Vegas. You can see the whole lineup in the image embedded below this post. It bears mention that companies attending this conference have not necessarily engaged in an exclusive relationship with Goldman to manage their potential upcoming IPOs or M&A deals. In fact, most of them are free agents, fielding offers from any number of firms. Other investment banks such as Allen & Co. hold to court potential clients, too. I’m told that the competition amongst financial advisors to secure relationships with hot web companies is tougher than ever these days. But with Goldman Sachs coming off the high of having headlined , this year’s event is sure to be a buzzy one. It’s also interesting to note the the names missing from the agenda. People from Square, Dropbox, and Box are nowhere to be found, just to name a few. Are they staying at home to focus on work, will they be in attendance but just not presenting, or have they already selected their investment banking teams? We’ll see. But either way, it’s already a star-studded lineup. With and and and and and many more, who will be the belle of the ball? I’m told by attendees that it will probably be Uber’s . Nothing like to get some attention.
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Dianping, China’s Largest Restaurant Review Site, Turned Down An Acquisition Offer From Google China
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Catherine Shu
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
, the restaurant review platform that is sometimes referred to as the “Yelp of China,” turned down an acquisition offer from Google China in early 2007, co-founder Edward Long revealed at the TechCrunch/Technode event in Shanghai. Google China valued the company, which was then four years old, at less than $100 million. After Dianping refused its buyout offer, Google China made a Series B investment in the site of a few million dollars. Dianping’s other investors include Trust Bridge Partners, Sequoia Capital, QiMing Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners and it has raised almost $180 million in funding. Long said Google China licensed its content for local search products. But then in 2010, Google pulled its search engine out of China, which Long says was a loss for Chinese consumers. “If Google had stayed, Baidu wouldn’t have become so strong and it wouldn’t be able to charge so much for online advertising,” Long says, referring to China’s largest online search company, which now holds a 63% share of the market according to analytics firm CNZZ. He added that large international companies like Google and Yahoo have had a hard time gaining a foothold in China because their massive size prevents them from localizing quickly enough. Rumors that Dianping is gearing up for an exit in the near future are untrue, Long says. The ten-year-old restaurant review platform, which has more than 75 million monthly active users and 6 million merchants in 2,300 cities throughout Asia, recently denied reports that it is being courted by Baidu with an acquisition offer of $2 billion. Dianping CEO has said that the company wants to go public in five years with an estimated valuation of more than $10 billion, but Long refused to confirm that amount at the event. In an interview after his panel, Long explained that he feels Internet companies shouldn’t go public until their market becomes more stable, because if a company issues too many quarterly forecasts that don’t pan out, it will quickly lose the faith of investors. Dianping monetizes through a combination review and e-commerce model, selling membership cards and e-coupons, and analytics and data for restaurant owners. It plans to open a marketplace for offline services soon. Image source: Dianping.com
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Never Forget That Wireless Carriers Are Evil
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Matt Burns
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
In today’s edition of “U.S. wireless carriers are dicks”, we’re going to look at the latest in how carriers and the CTIA are protecting valuable revenue streams by blocking features that would curb smartphone theft. Over had a smartphone stolen in 2012. One in three thefts within the U.S. involved a mobile gadget. Speaking to , San Francisco’s Attorney General stated that 50% of their robberies and thefts involved a smartphone. It’s an epidemic and wireless carriers are dismissing the solution. According to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, officials from in New York, San Francisco, London and Philadelphia called on the wireless industry to present a solution. Samsung did just that earlier this year for its own devices, but the five largest U.S. wireless carriers denied it their customers. According to emails , AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular, all decided to not include the feature in the Samsung handsets sold by each carrier. Meanwhile, the CTIA, the trade association for wireless carriers, helped the FCC and certain police departments create online databases for stolen phones. In theory, this list — compiled for, managed by, and unique to each wireless carrier — would prevent stolen smartphones from being reactivated. But it doesn’t protect against data theft, and is largely useless if the phone is shipped out of the country. A kill switch is needed and placed in the hands of smartphone owners. Samsung and Apple both moved to implement a kill switch within their devices earlier this year. Apple had more luck than Samsung. Since a staggering majority of Samsung smartphones sold in the U.S. run Android, wireless carriers are able to modify the software before selling the device to consumers. U.S. carriers simply removed the kill switch. Apple’s solution is not perfect but is a big step forward. The Find My iPhone application allows consumers to locate and remotely wipe phones. Then, new with iOS 7, the original owner’s credentials have to be entered before the phone can be reactivated — even after the phone was completely reset. Meanwhile, Google offers a similar feature baked into Android, including the ability to remotely locate and wipe a stolen phone. But once the device is remotely erased, it can be reactivated under a new account. It’s unclear exactly why wireless carriers denied thoughtful security features to their customers, but preserving profit is main theory. Each carrier offers insurance for stolen phones. And what’s a person supposed to do when their phone is stolen? Walk around unfettered like it’s 1995? No, they go get a new phone at either the full price, sign a new contact to get the phone at a discount, or pay the deductible on that insurance plan. It’s too early to tell if the CTIA’s national database will curb smartphone thefts. Logic seems to dictate that it won’t, though. The thieves will just sell them overseas, out of reach of the CTIA’s databases and the wireless carriers they represent. Think selling internationally is hard? Replace Craigslist with eBay in that illicit workflow and voilà — thieves are good to go once more. The wireless industry as a whole needs to let go and put more power in the hands of the owners. Give owners a native kill switch, a software solution baked into the core of the phone, which upon activation, would completely brick the phone if it gets stolen. The auto industry was once plagued by stolen radios. The problem was solved when car manufacturers took a hard stance and made it so a stolen radio would not work outside of the original car. But don’t expect the wireless industry to take such a hard-line. An car owner with a broken window missing radio does not go out and buy an expensive new car. They buy a new window and radio.
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The Startup Accelerator Trend Is Finally Slowing Down
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Mark Lennon
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
Starting a company has never been easy. Not having to worry about market research and resources can be the difference between getting off the ground and moving back in with your parents. This might explain the record number of startup accelerators and incubators in 2013. According to our projections, there will be at least 170 worldwide by the end of the year. But despite the increase, overall seed stage investment in startups has decreased from a year ago, mainly in North America. As the top few accelerators continue to dominate, new programs are struggling to attract the best founders and make seed investments in promising companies. In an environment where only one-third of startups find follow-on investors, most young accelerators and incubators seem destined to fail because of the overcrowded market for early stage funding. Definitions vary between what constitutes an accelerator versus an incubator and the contrasting strategies therein, but the overall goal is generally the same. Both aim to increase the odds of building a successful business in exchange for a small chunk of equity. Rather than trying to force ‘accelobator’ or ‘incuberator’ into the lexicon, the terms are used interchangeably for all programs that are included in the analysis. We’ll leave further analysis of success by the many types of accelerators out there for separate articles. The first modern accelerator was , a self-described seed stage venture fund, that its first batch of eight startups in 2005. , and followed shortly thereafter. Each year, the trend has continued to spread both domestically and internationally. One of the positive effects of tech accelerators has been their role in rapidly globalizing the startup community by removing the barriers to entry and providing access to capital for young companies that do not have the benefit of being headquartered in Silicon Valley. In the past two years, 388 international startups (from 49 different countries) were funded by 80 international accelerators or incubators (representing 36 countries). That is twice the international presence of accelerators as in 2009, and nearly three times the diversity of companies. Small, community-based programs supporting the growth of local businesses has played a huge role in the spread of startup fever across much of the world. Not surprisingly, Silicon Valley-based firms are racing to get on the ground in Europe and elsewhere to take advantage of new opportunities and talent. Just recently, on stage at Disrupt that they will open their first European office in Berlin as early as next year. This trend is so pronounced, that 2013 is the first year in which accelerator investments in North America actually decreased. We’ll keep in mind that there are plenty of ‘stealth’ companies partnering with accelerators now that could likely emerge in the coming months. The accelerator and incubator craze is such a new trend in venture investing, that it’s difficult to compare the success of these programs to that of later stage venture capital firms. While the first few accelerators have already recorded acquisitions and even a few IPOs, the large majority of accelerated startups are still in relative infancy. For every high profile exit from accelerator graduates like , , , and , there are many more young startups continuing to perfect their products and services and seeking additional venture funds. One great indicator of a successful program is how much funding graduates can continue to attract in their first year or two. Overall, only a fraction of companies in CrunchBase that were funded by an incubator or accelerator program were able to find follow-on venture funding. The chart below illustrates the difficulty of reaching that goal. Just 27% of companies were able to secure outside funding within one year. Ultimately, just 36% of accelerated companies since 2005 added to their seed and angel rounds. Startups that launched with the assistance of an accelerator and failed to quickly find traction were mainly ignored by investors after just a year or two. Despite the overall trend, graduates from the top accelerators have seemed to enjoy their pick of VC partners. Y Combinator companies like , , and have raised massive Series A rounds just a few years removed from the program. According to the , 72% of Y Combinator companies through 2012 raised money after their , and the majority of these companies have raised increasingly larger rounds. The growth of accelerators and incubators is clearly one reason for the record number of angel and seed investments in 2012 which we earlier. Just as the number of angel deals in 2013 likely will not reach the 2012 peak of 1,520, it looks equally unlikely the number of companies funded by accelerators will surpass 2012 levels. Although there are now more accelerators and incubators than ever, the total size of their portfolios appears to have leveled off in 2013. We can speculate that the proliferation of accelerators has reached a tipping point where there are now not enough quality founders and startups to justify continuing to expand their portfolios. There is little doubt that accelerators give opportunities to companies that may not otherwise have access to the expertise needed to grow a business from an idea to a product or service. However, most startups are destined to fail. Only a few prestigious programs have established enough of a sterling track record to consistently lure the most promising founders and companies. In a on TechCrunch last year the founder of incubator, Peter Relan, posited that 90% of incubators would fail due to the fact that much like the rest of the startup ecosystem, there can really only be a handful of winners. While accelerator programs continue to form, there is still a limited number of venture funds able to finance the next level of growth. The one-size-fits-all accelerator model of making lots of small bets seems more appealing than ever for investors looking for the next record IPO, but savvy startups can learn from the data and see that there is still no guarantee for more funding. To follow the trends with accelerators and startups, use the latest CrunchBase data set to take a look for yourself. Download the and let us know what you find. [Image: ]
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Tyra Banks Invests In Locket, The App That Brings Ads And Other Content To Android Lockscreens
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Sarah Perez
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
, the Android application that puts ads and other content on your lockscreen, letting users earn small amounts of money every time they unlock their smartphone, has received an additional investment from Fierce Capital, LLC, the investment arm of The Tyra Banks Company. , you guys, Tyra’s into Ad Tech now! The size of the investment is not being disclosed, but the company is in the process of raising a round of funding in the millions, due to close next year. When that takes place, Banks won’t be the lead in that forthcoming round, for what it’s worth. For those unfamiliar, is a mobile application for Android smartphones launched this summer that places ads on the lockscreen, which users can choose to engage with by swiping. If you swipe one way, you can interact with the ad – for example, visiting a website, a Facebook page, getting a coupon, watching a movie trailer, and more – whatever the advertiser has in mind. If you’re not interested, just swipe the other way to unlock your phone as usual. The company has already worked with dozens of well-known brands, including Hershey’s, HotelTonight, Sunny D, Sears, ZipCar, eBay, Spotify, and others, and advertisers report CTR’s on their campaigns ranging from 3 to 5 percent. Users earn only pennies per hour for their swipes, so don’t expect to make a lot of money here. However, to encourage further user adoption, the company has been recently adding other content to the Locket experience, too, including things like weather, quotes, news, photos from 500px, and more. They’ve also just scored a content deal with another top app maker, which is also undisclosed for now. According to Locket co-founder and CEO Yunha Kim, she was introduced to Tyra after StartupAgency co-founder , whose firm helps startups with strategic investments, spotted Kim running across Times Square holding a laptop with the Locket sticker on its front. He introduced himself, said he was interested in Locket, and soon made the introduction that found Kim pitching directly to Banks herself. “[Banks] loved the story around how we’re a Ramen noodle startup, and how I’m the only female on the team,” says Kim. “She liked that she was able to back a female entrepreneur.” She adds that Banks was well-prepared for the meeting, with several pages of questions that were in line with what other investors had her asked, too. (Oh, and after investing, Banks sent Kim a t-shirt reading “ pictured at right This, of course, is not Banks’ first startup investment – she has also others like The Hunt, and , which Banks has promoted heavily on her “Top Models” TV show. With Locket, there may be room for more cross-promotion too – Banks has a cosmetics line which could become a Locket advertiser in the future, Kim says.
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Keen On… The Future Starts Here: Why AOL Might Be The New Hollywood Studio
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Andrew Keen
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
At last count, ‘s massively successful new AOL short film series, , has already racked up 8.5 million views. An eight part series about life in our digital age, Shlain’s new series includes such off-beat subjects as and the hilarious , which she told me was inspired by “everyone becoming total jerks with their cellphones”. The purpose of the series, she told me, was to create 3-6 minute videos designed to encourage her viewers to wrestle with big ideas about technology. AOL’s commitment to Shlain’s work is encouraging. They are, she told me, the new studio. And Shlain – with her ability to squeeze big ideas into short form video – represents the future of documentary filmmaking. As the founder of the , Shlain imported Hollywood to Silicon Valley. But in her current role as a video chronicler of digital culture, Shlain is exporting both Silicon Valley’s message and its medium back to the Hollywood studios.
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LoveRoom Lets You Share Your Home, And Bed, With Strangers
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
Sometimes the thrill of letting a perfect stranger stay your home just isn’t enough. That’s why an Airbnb with benefits has emerged called LoveRoom, which marries the idea of room/house-sharing with online dating. that the startup began as a half-baked joke of sorts, and after getting plenty of media attention, founder Josh Bocanegra has decided to stick it out with a live beta. reports that he should have a live version of the site ready by Valentine’s Day, provided he finds the right developers to help build the service. But what is the service? According to a , LoveRoom helps you find attractive people to share your home with you, or your bed. Whatever. Though coverage abounds, actual user figures remain low. Fast Company notes that less than 50 people signed up for the beta on launch day, and a quick glance at the member profiles show that around 90 percent of the user base is male (without a profile picture, no less). Talk about Stranger Danger. Bocanegra has reached out to clarify sign-up stats, saying that around 1,100 people have signed up in the four days since the beta went live. Fortunately, LoveRoom suggests to use caution by researching potential guests on Facebook or having a friend join the sleepover. All I have to say is that I can’t wait for the “Law & Order: SVU” episode that will eventually be based around this new “service”. Let us know what you think of LoveRoom below.
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Yahoo’s Flickr Resurgence Continues With Handsome Photo Books, But Reliance On Sets Could Stumble
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Matthew Panzarino
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
Today, Flickr is to order photo books directly from inside the photo sharing site. This continues a series of announcements and acquisitions which started late last year, and mark continued investment by Yahoo in rebuilding the once-dominant platform. As one of the first sites to make photo uploading and sharing extremely easy, Flickr enjoyed an incredibly fruitful early period. But a lack of attention and resources led to stagnation as other sites and services swept in and began fighting to be the ‘one true repository’ of users’ online photos. Those competitors include products from a variety of spaces including Facebook, Google+ and Dropbox. Since the revamp of its iPhone app late last year Flickr has seen a series of updates including a complete redesign of its web presence, the launch of an Android app and the ‘gift’ of 1 terabyte of free storage space to every user. It’s also acquired several companies in the space including , and . Whatever commentary one has on new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, it seems clear that she’s renewed investment in ‘Flickr as platform’. And that’s essentially what these new photo books are about. Flickr has previously allowed external sites to provide ‘Flickr enabled’ book creation, but today’s announcement is of an in-house tool. “We’re working hard to make Flickr great again,” Flickr Vice President Tom Hughes tells me. This included working on easy to make photo books easy to use, with a quick clean experience. Usability lab testing was relied upon to make sure that the end result was smooth and simple. To that end, the photo book process is extremely simple. You simply hover over a Flickr set and click create to generate a photo book. The layout is centered on ‘full bleed’ images as, Flickr Director of Product Management Rajiv Vaidyanathan tells me, they felt that ‘Flickr is all about photos’ and full-page images were the best way to show them off. If you’ve ever built a photo book then you’ll know one of the biggest irritants is the ‘gutter’ or portion of the book that goes down into the binding. It often obscures points of focus or faces in the images. To prevent this, Vaidyanathan says, Flickr is using focus and entropy algorithms, along with face detection, to figure out what the ‘important’ bits of the images are, and cropping accordingly. This should ensure that faces aren’t too close to the gutter or edges of the book’s pages. If important stuff is close to both sides, the images automatically snap in from full bleed with borders that preserve those elements. Vertical images are presented with simple borders. The books themselves are hard-cover with a printed image on the cover and a choice of black, white or color backs. The back colors are automatically sniffed out from the image you pick on the cover, allowing you to create a complementary back cover. The storyboard mode will allow you to pick out individual images from your entire Flickr library and drop them into your book. You can also shuffle images around or ‘delete’ them from the book here. The 8.5″ x 11″ books are $34.95 for 20 pages and 50c a page for additional sheets, which compares fairly well with Apple’s $29 price for iPhoto books. They’re printed on ‘photo electric’ paper, not true emulsion, but Flickr Head of Product Markus Spiering tells me that they’re ‘as close to photo quality’ as you can get without using photographic paper. They’ll all come with a printed dust jacket. For now you can order them from anywhere in the world, but Yahoo is only shipping them to the US. The one hiccup that could hit this whole process is that it’s only really easy if you already have your photos organized into sets. The one-click nature of the books makes the process incredibly low-friction for ‘set users’, but it appears to be much less so with those who either automatically upload images with the Flickr apps or use the service as a repository for ‘all’ of their photos online. The automatic image grouping of Apple’s Photos.app or iPhoto apps, or Google’s Google+ Photos system seem like a natural mate to this kind of feature. There has been very little improvement in Flickr’s overall image sorting and grouping tools, even since Yahoo started paying attention again. There is a lot of manual dragging and dropping and tons of clicking around involved. The simple ability to craft automatic sets based on dates, locations, algorithmically detected subject matter or other factors could go a long way towards making ‘set based’ activities like photo books more widely adopted. We asked for metrics related to the number of Flickr users that currently take advantage of sets but had not received a response at press time. Maybe it’s a ton of people? Spiering says that the goal is to make Flickr the ‘home for all of the images you have’ again. Adding books to the product seems like a good step towards that goal, but the team might be well served to improve its automatic image handling and sorting as well. Still, the simple ‘one-click’ full-bleed books do look pretty nice.
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TokBox Brings Its WebRTC Platform To Native Android Apps, Launches WebRTC Archiving
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 |
TokBox today announced that it is extending its OpenTok WebRTC platform to include support for building native Android apps. This marks the first time developers using OpenTok can add real-time video and audio chat to their native Android apps. The company also announced that developers can now use the platform to archive video and play back these videos in their applications. These features, the company says, are among the tools its developer community has been most actively asking for. It’s worth noting that TokBox an early version of its Android SDK . This earlier version, however, didn’t actually use WebRTC. The archiving feature, the company told me, will save conversations in a single H.264/AAC MP4 file and then allow developers to download it and stream it through whichever player they choose. In addition to these two features, TokBox is also adding two new quality-enhancing features to its platform. With this release, OpenTok now allows developers to allocate frame rates to video streams in real-time to allow them to better manage bandwidth resources, something WebRTC itself doesn’t allow. In addition, TokBox is adding TURN over TCP support, which will allow WebRTC apps to run in environments that were previously restricted due to corporate firewalls. With the WebRTC Expo and Conference happening this week, chances are we will hear a bit more about this new technology in the coming days. Weemo, for example, support for native iOS and Android apps earlier today, and while the technologies are similar, that company’s business model is a bit different from TokBox in that the company is mostly going after software vendors and not developers.
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Priceonomics Dumps Price Guides To Marry Its True Love, Blogging (And Data Crawling)
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Stop what you’re doing and read “ ” or “ “. This is content marketing, and Priceonomics is very good at it. So good that today the Y Combinator startup it’s pivoting from price guides to blogging, or more accurately, the web scraping and research it does to inform its blogging. If only we could all quit our* crummy jobs and do what we love. That’s what Priceonomics co-founder Rohin Dhar has done. He in December 2011 with a mission to bring new information into the world. It offered price guides for over 70 types of used goods. How much should I pay for an old iPhone 4S now? How much should I sell my Bianchi Pista fixie bike for? The idea was that if it was where people went to research big purchases, it could coin off of sponsored search results, traditional display ads, or affiliate links. But in trying to gain traffic for its price guides, Priceonomics found its true calling: . The startup would investigate a topic like , , , and the . Then it would write a data-driven blog post about it hoping virality would kick in and bring new users to its guides. The problem was that at the end of the day, it was Google that determined the fate of Priceonomics. It needed to appear at the top of search results for queries about used good pricing. Dhar tells me “The only way the price guide would work is if we dominated SEO. We decided that a business model where we control our own destiny opposed to relying on Google to send us traffic was something we felt better about.” As Dhar wrote in a today, “Since we crawled such varied sources of data, we started building generalizable tools for data extraction from the web so that our lives would be easier. We got pretty good at crawling data.” So, “Today, we’re launching , our new data arm that helps companies crawl and structure data from the web. If you’re a company that needs to get data from the web, we can help.” Priceonomics still had a good chunk of the it raised from Andreessen Horowitz and SV Angel in the bank. And it’s already making more than it ever did in price guides. Thanks to clients including its Y Combinator brethren and contracts that typically run from $1,000 to $5,000 dollars a month, Dhar writes “Within a month, we booked over six-figures in (annualized) revenue.” Dhar lays out the future of his company in certain terms: “So what does all this mean for this blog? Good things! We just need to write smart things and hopefully a small fraction of our audience will hire us for data-related services. Making great content matters to us and we’re going to . What does this mean for our original consumer price guide for used products? Bad things! We got rid of it . Its traffic and engagement was small relative to this blog and its revenue was negligible relative to our data crawling service.” But can the web crawling business be a home run for investors if it has to work individually with each client? Dhar claims its can. “Typically the way companies get data is starting from scratch every time. They used to have an engineer or two full-time working on this. That’s what we were doing, but then we started building the tools to make it more scalable.” Priceonomics Data Services will be going up against competitors like and . It sees plenty of use cases for its services, though, such as investors tracking all the little moves made by big public companies. Dhar tells me “People are using [Priceonomics Data Services] the way they use Bloomberg — to make better investment decisions.” Structured data crawling tools might not be as glamorous as helping people buy their next iPhone or sell their last one. And perhaps the best-case scenario for its new B2B model isn’t quite as financially lucrative for the startup and its investors. But at some point you have to know when Plan A is failing and go with your gut. Dhar concludes “This is a manifestation of bringing new information into the world, but for businesses.”
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Machinima Names Stephen Semprevivo President And GM Amidst Management Turnover
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Machinima has had a rough year, as plans to and the company has gone through a . But as it faces that and a shakeup of its senior management team, the YouTube gaming network has hired an executive to help manage operations and get things back on track. That person is who will serve as the company’s new president and general manager. Semprevivo has been consulting for Machinima over the last several months but officially took over the role in October. He had previously held CEO, president, COO, and GM roles at companies that include Experian Interactive Media, Lowermybills.com, Korn Ferry Futurestep, and Cendant. As Machinima’s new president and GM, Semprevivo will be taking a bit of an operational role within the company. According to Machinima, he’ll be in charge of global ad sales, marketing, network operations, channel partner management, international operations, administrative functions, and programming operations. The appointment comes as Machinima has been going through a bit of a management shakeup, with much of the founding team — or founding family, as it were — leaving the company. Machinima CEO Allen DeBevoise, along with President Philip DeBevoise and EVP of Network Programming Aaron DeBevoise (Allen’s brother and nephew, respectively), have all indicated that they will be ceding their roles within the company. Philip and Aaron have already stepped down from most day-to-day activities and are expected to leave Machinima by the end of the year, as . At that point, they will continue to remain active shareholders, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Allen, meanwhile, is expected to remain in his role until the company , as . While the hunt is on, I’ve been told that the company isn’t yet close to finding a new chief executive. when it does, Allen is expected to assume the role of Chairman. Machinima has raised about $50 million to date, with investors including Google, Redpoint, and MK Capital.
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Senators Want Tech Companies To Serve As Healthcare.gov Alternative
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Gregory Ferenstein
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Eight Democratic senators the Obama Administration to let startups act as an alternative to the malfunctioning healthcare website, Healthcare.gov. “There are long-term advantages to providing Americans multiple ways to find and sign up for the health coverage that best meets their needs,” reads the letter to the Department of Health And Human Services [ ]. I’ve been writing about this since I discovered that had the feds legally allowed startups to enroll new consumers. From the beginning, Obamacare made government-run websites the hub of all new enrollments. Startups and tech companies, such as Fuse Insurance, which are building Orbitz-like price-comparison health insurance alternatives, still have to route all traffic through government websites. Some states, including California and New York, have just completely denied tech companies access for a few years. As the approaches without a working Healthcare.gov, HHS began to let big insurance companies enroll new consumers, but tech companies are still left waiting. Even worse, the insurance companies still have to route traffic through the malfunctioning federal website, so the pilot is still a theoretical hope. According to sources familiar with matter, the federal government can’t let tech companies directly access the database like the state e-commerce sites (“exchanges”), because the IRS forbids private access to their data. Technically speaking, tech companies could build a fully functioning alternative, but they couldn’t determine income-based discounts, which would defeat the purpose of the new law. It’s not clear what the senators’ push could accomplish. When we find out, we’ll let you know. [ ]
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TC Cribs: Inside SoundCloud, The Berlin-Based Startup Fueled By Music (And Club-Mate)
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Colleen Taylor
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Berlin is buzzing with entrepreneurial energy at the moment, and is one of the companies that has emerged as an anchor to the city’s growing tech startup scene. So when TechCrunch TV was in Berlin recently to cover the , we made sure to stop by SoundCloud’s office to check it out for ourselves. SoundCloud has grown significantly since its debut in 2007, and now its service boasts active listeners around the world. Its staff has grown quite a bit too, as you’ll see by the density at its current headquarters (the company, which has in San Francisco, New York, London, and Bulgaria, is set to move to a new larger Berlin office next year.) For now, though, the close quarters make for an exciting collaborative vibe — and being that most SoundCloud staffers are music buffs or musicians themselves, there’s a lot of creativity in the air in addition to the tech. Check out the video embedded above to see the artwork, musical instruments, and bottles of that keep SoundCloud HQ buzzing every day. You’ll also get a look at what it’s like to get a German lesson from the full-time language teacher on SoundCloud’s staff — in all, I’d say it was a sehr gut visit.
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Google Makes Talking To Your Computer Slightly Less Crazy With Speech Search Chrome Extension
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Google has a new released today that brings a recently introduced mobile feature to the desktop. The feature is automatic voice search, which is triggered whenever you utter the phrase “Okay, Google.” The company announced the new feature on , (via ), and it’s live now and available for users in U.S. English. Previously, Google had made it possible to search the web from the desktop by speaking, but you had to actually click a button to get the website to listen. Now, so long as you have the extension installed, whenever you navigate to Google.com, you’ll be able to just say “Okay, Google” and instantly speak what you’re looking for to receive results. The service has some useful limitations, meaning that a Google search page has to be the active tab in order for it to work. You’ll know if it’s primed to listen because the little microphone icon will be filled in, as you can see in the side-by-side example below. But it works on any results page, too, so that once you’ve done a search, you can continue just using your voice so long as you don’t navigate away or click on another open window. It shows you the words as you speak them, and seems pretty accurate based on my brief testing. The use cases are actually pretty extensive: You can use it for cooking, as Google suggests, for instance, to ask your computer for measurements and more while your hands are dirty. Or just ask Google some questions from the sofa if you’re running a media center PC. It’ll even speak back to you some of the results, like when you ask for measurement or currency conversions. It’s fun, and at least marginally handy, and free, so check it out. We’re inching ever nearer to the day when your computer hears everything, and anticipates your needs based on all that data. Scary/awesome.
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Twitter Continues Tweet Recommendation Experiments With Fav Happy @Magicstats
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Matthew Panzarino
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Twitter continues to pull the string on personalization and recommendation with a new account called @ . The account, whose description reads ‘I favorite the best tweets I see in real-time’ appears to be doing just that. Though the account is protected and its activity closed down, we’ve been tracking it for several weeks now and have gained a bit of insight into how it works. Several of my personal tweets and some TechCrunch tweets have been favorited by the account, which appears to be working on several metrics including velocity of activity (like favs and retweets from other accounts). We investigated the account and it’s followed by many members of Twitter’s search and relevance team, just like Twitter’s other and . The account, from what we understand, was originally dedicated to monitoring the Magicrecs experiment, but was repurposed to its new role once that was rolled into the product proper. Previously, the account’s profile said it was recording data related to Magicrecs. Twitter declined to comment about the status of the account. The account’s tweets were not originally protected, and we were able to browse its favs for a while. The account often awarded a fav to a tweet very quickly after it was posted, but we never saw it fav a tweet ‘first’. It always followed other favs and RTs very quickly. Judging by this, it’s likely that the account is looking for tweets that are getting rapid attention in its network or on the Twitter network as a whole. Twitter has noticed the rise of products like the third-party fav-and-RT-tracking Favstar, which a source with knowledge of its user base told us was ‘surprisingly popular’. The service offers a visual dashboard of re-tweets and favorites that are tied to user profiles and presented very well. It’s fun, visual and addictive. Twitter also has a statistics package, but accessing it is a bit obscure as you have to go to the page and sign in with your account there. The page is interesting and information packed, but it’s not nearly as fun as the Favstar profiles are. I check Favstar several times a day at least, just to see how recent tweets faired, and it can be an interesting long-term indicator of what the best tweets on your account are. And that, in the end, could be the bit that interests Twitter the most, which tweets are the most popular, how fast to they become popular and how far they reach. Some of Twitter’s most popular vanity metrics are centered around the ‘most re-tweeted’ tweets, like the famous Obama ‘four more years’ tweet that was called out in its S-1 filing. This focus on finding the tweets most likely to ‘go viral’ or simply those that are garnering the most attention appears to be continuing on the back of the success of Magicrecs. As I stated when we broke the news of Twitter’s ‘breaking news’ experiment @eventparrot, Twitter’s best bet to keep existing users engaged and happy — and to demonstrate the utility of the service to new users — is to focus on personalization. Making everyone’s Twitter feel helpful in a unique way could be a powerful motivator for people to keep using the service. It could also contribute to Twitter becoming what I like to think of as an ‘Internet pillar’, like Google’s search product or cloud services like Amazon’s AWS. Yes, it will definitely keep iterating on consumer products in order to bring in ad money, but the potential as a personalized tool for communication is what’s most exciting. Image Credit:
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Fantasy Sports Startup DraftKings Raises $24 Million From RedPoint And Others
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Fantasy sports startup has just raised $24 million in Series B funding led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation by GGV Capital, Atlas Venture, and BDS Ventures. The funding comes as the company has announced some pretty impressive growth stats. Just 18 months old, DraftKings facilitates fantasy baseball, fantasy football, fantasy basketball, and fantasy hockey matchups online and through a series of mobile apps. Since August, the company has tripled its customer base — most likely due to the start of fantasy football, basketball, and hockey seasons — and has seen revenue grow 10x year-over-year. About three-quarters of all users who signed up in 2012 came back to use its products again this year, which is pretty impressive, and they’re also pretty well engaged. Users on average spend more than five hours per week using its website and mobile apps. The new funding was closed just six months after DraftKings raised a $7 million Series A round.
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Wire, A Would-Be Snapchat Competitor From Ex-Amazon Engineers, Raises $1.8 Million
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Sarah Perez
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Wire Labs, a company founded by ex-Amazon engineers Piragash Velummylum and Jordan Timmermann, has raised $1.8 million in seed funding for their new – what else? – mobile messaging application called “ .” The app, currently in a private beta release, is targeting the teen audience with photo and video messaging features and promise of real-time feedback. Investors in the round include Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff, former Expedia CEO Erik Blachford, former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta, former Facebook general counsel Rudy Gadre, Mike Slade from Second Avenue Partners, Microsoft M&A veterans Bruce Jaffe, Hank Vigil & Fritz Lanman, Decide.com founder Brian Ma, Origin Venture’s Brent Hill, Senator LP executives, and 16 current and former Amazon executives, including former CIO Rick Dalzell. The company had reported $150,000 in funding . Wire Labs participated in TechStars Seattle this year, and first showed off Wire last month at the . There, the company compared Wire side-by-side with Snapchat. Wire’s advantage? Its messages don’t expire for 24 hours, giving users more time to actually view and respond to the content before the message disappears. The messages can also be optionally saved, making the app less about fully “ephemeral” communication and more about just providing private chat. In addition to the disappearing messages, at the time of the demo, Wire’s feature set also included comments, a feed and support for stickers, the latter which could hint at Wire’s potential business model if things go well. Pirgash and Team Wire. — Alan Balabingbong (@balls187) However, the company isn’t yet offering the public a look at the Wire app, and given that it’s only a beta release, its features could change between now and its official launch. The app is only described vaguely in the company’s funding announcement, out today, as being “designed from the ground-up for the next-generation of mobile users” and offering a Velummylum, Wire Labs CEO, was at Amazon for nearly six years, and had prototyped and pitched Cloud Drive and Cloud Player to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos before founding the Cloud Drive team. Meanwhile co-founder and CTO Jordan Timmermann was the lead engineer for Amazon Instant Video on the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, and helped designed the X-Ray for Movies feature. There aren’t as many ex-Amazon engineers who leave to create their own startups when compared with other large companies like Apple, Google or Microsoft. That alone should make the progress of Wire interesting to watch.
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Moto G Review: Motorola Bridges The Gap Between Cheap And Good In Smartphones
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Darrell Etherington
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
its best to deliver a premium experience with an affordable price tag with the Moto G, the little sibling to the higher priced Moto X. Both phones have Google’s stamp all over them, and share a surprising amount in common besides that, too. Best of all, the Moto G is a phone that mostly delivers on its marketing premise, offering an experience that’ll have many doing a double take at that price tag. Motorola’s Moto G is a little on the pudgy side, but it feels at once comfortable and familiar. The matte finish back cases are great for grip, (though terrible for showing wear, as you can see from the photos), and it almost reminds me of the design of the iPhone 3G and 3GS. It also feels heavier than most modern superphones, but only just, and the weight isn’t necessarily a problem, as it adds a feeling of resilience to the Moto G. In many ways, the Moto G’s design harkens back to an era where phones were phones and meant business, and I found myself enjoying that impression. [gallery ids="920229,920231,920230,920228,920227,920226"] The one big problem with the design is the mechanism for removing the “removable” back case. You essentially dig in at the spot where the case breaks for the micro USB port, and then pull. Hard. Too hard. My fingers are tender from switching the device between case types, and I really felt I had to go beyond the point of what you could reasonably expect an average consumer to be comfortable with. Still, I honestly don’t think most people will care about switching the backplates beyond maybe doing it once. The Moto G has a number of unique features, though most of the development of the phone was based on stripping out the inessential and making a phone that just performs well despite a lower cost to build. There’s Moto Care, for instance, which offers instant access to tech support from Motorola staff via instant message or phone; Assist, which offers special modes for Driving, Meeting and Sleeping that change your phone’s behavior with one tap to suit different contexts; and Motorola Migrate, for bringing your old settings, text messages, call history, media and more with you when switching devices. These features are excellent compared to most glommed on by Android OEMs, if only for the fact that you wouldn’t even know they were there unless you were actively seeking them out. The service app is a genius move considering the audience is likely to be people new to smartphones or advanced mobile devices, and the Assist function is a very handy shortcut for what’s often an arduous series of steps. Migrate isn’t something I got the chance to try out, but it definitely sounds like a value-add for people jumping on the Android bandwagon for the first time. The Moto G isn’t a $600 superphone, but the times you’re aware of that while using it are surprisingly rare. It moves around the OS smoothly and quickly, for instance. Likewise, it quickly calls up Google Now and delivers speech recognition with the same accuracy and speed as its more expensive cousins. The only place I noticed some lag and slowdown was in the browser, where image-heavy content can cause some stuttering, but only in extreme cases: even photo heavy tumblrs, which are otherwise pretty sleek, behaved well. The camera on the Moto G isn’t wonderful, but it’s fine for general use, and much better than you’ll find on most other budget smartphones. In a device like this, what I’m expecting from a camera is a workmanlike charm, and that’s what Motorola delivers. It’s a phone where you have to continually call to mind that absurdly low price tag – and when you do that, the photos the Moto G takes look plenty good. Motorola has done a terrific job with the Moto G’s screen, which is saying a lot coming from me. I’ve never liked how Moto tunes their screens – too contrasty, too saturated for my eye. But this time they haven’t gone overboard in that regard, and they’ve even managed to achieve the same high bar for pixel density that Apple does with its iPhone 5s (326ppi for those paying attention). It’s not full HD, the clarion call of the current crop of Android superphones, but it’s a far sight better than anything even in the same ballpark pricewise, and at any rate, text and images are still going to appear stunningly crisp on that screen. Again, it still goes a little too hard on the color saturation and the excessive contrast, but it’s a big improvement for Motorola devices in general, and a true feat on a device at this price. The Moto G earns its stripes with the battery, leaving aside its other nice attributes. It’s got “all day” life, according to Motorola, and that can translate to a lot depending on your usage patterns. I found that with light usage, I was getting around three days out of a single charge on average, which, in the age of smartphones, is just crazy. The battery life on the Moto G makes it a great candidate for a “throw it in a bag, forget about it until you travel” phone, since in low power mode it can stretch its standby life to around a week. Under heavier use it returns to the realm of results achieved by other devices (but still beats most of them) and will definitely get you through the day. But again, in a budget phone, to have this kind of battery power is amazing. The Moto G is remarkable device. It’s arguably the less talented sibling of the flash-bang Moto X released by the Google-owned smartphone maker earlier this year, but it’s more noteworthy because it offers so much at such a stunning price point. Make no mistake: I’ll still be going back to a top tier device as my everyday phone of choice, but if I didn’t prioritize tech in my personal budget, or if I didn’t have the means, I’d be more than happy to use the Moto G day in and day out as my daily driver.
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Metaio CEO Thomas Alt Discusses Augmented Reality For Smartwatches, Google Glass And More
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Jay Donovan
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Augmented Reality pioneers hardly qualify as a startup these days (being incorporated since 2003 and funded by a stream of project work from the likes of and ), but they behave very much like a startup and are constantly inventing new systems for their considerable augmented reality SDK. Many of their yearly announcements come from an annual event called that they host in their hometown of Munich, Germany. This year there were many announcements. Everything from their new “Edge-Based Tracking” methodology to the new augmented reality browser they built for Google Glass called Junaio Mirage. The event took place in October, but I recently had a chance to speak with Metaio CEO Thomas Alt and discuss some of these announcements in greater detail along with his viewpoint on the general state of augmented reality today. You can read the interview below (or just skip to the bottom to see the highlight reel). “Always on, always augmented” means that you are essentially deploying augmented reality continuously. In our view this has three elements. One is hardware you are using (form factors). The second one is the underlying technology; the critical use cases to actually do augmented reality. And [thirdly] — coming back to the hardware — we’ve seen over the last 12 months everyone, all of the sudden, is looking into wearable computing as being a platform for augmented reality. In my view there is something true about it. If you think about Augmented reality, which is essentially the capability of picking up, arbitrary, real objects in the environment and then furnishing information about them…wearable computing makes complete sense. So at insideAR we announced that we are shipping our new Metaio SDK 5.0 which is optimized on and for wearable computing. This means you can now deploy augmented reality on Vuzix m100 and on Google Glass. Yes, definitely. There are many other companies considering wearable computing as the next big thing. Really, to have high fidelity in head-worn displays, you really need binocular, see-through displays — this is coming. But also Smartwatches are something that we are seeing as very vital to the curve of augmented reality. This is because most Smartwatches now have displays and cameras. You can use your arm to look around you and see things that push information to the user. So it’s not only head-worn displays. Yes, this is one of the reasons we think wearable computing (and Smartwatches in particular) are interesting. One inherent problem, obviously, is you are running on very small battery capacities. Yes this is also a trend we are seeing. At Metaio, we call it Continuous Visual Search, which is the capability of offloading certain parts of the computer vision tasks to the cloud. And we have also demoed that at insideAR a system that detects 70,000 DVD covers on the cloud…so you need your wearable device only to initially capture your environment and then the computer vision processing is done in the cloud. This is not only research; we are actually shipping this capability already as part of our uniform SDK offering. The need for edge-based tracking came from customer requirements. If you look around you, most computer vision systems are working on textured surfaces — we call it point cloud-based approach or feature-based approach — and the challenge with that is that if you have reflective surfaces, like the painted body of a car, you can hardly detect tracking on that. So the edge based tracking actually came from customer requirement on the VW Marta project we were working on where a service technician would stand in front of the car and need to track the outside of the car. Edge-based tracking is different in the sense that you are not using textured surfaces but rather edges of a 3D model. For anything with reflective surfaces, even things like glossy magazines, this approach is perfect. So SLAM (which is also part of the 5.0 SDK) is a feature-based approach. It works on points not on edges. It’s especially good for indoors location based systems. SLAM also works well when you don’t know your environment. For example, if you have a magazine, you know that environment — you know what magazine you are looking at and so an edge-based approach is best — but SLAM works in an unknown environment like in our . There we were using SLAM based tracking to learn the environment and put 3D objects in your living room. It’s the first adaptation of an augmented reality browser for Google Glass and other wearable devices. Why did we choose to do it? Well, in Junaio we have a great developer ecosystem, which are developing everything from navigational apps to pathfinders to games and so forth and we basically wanted to leverage that content [that is already out there] for wearable computing. So essentially with Junaio Mirage — which is really a prototype right now — when you put on Google Glass or other wearable devices you can see any of the content of Junaio in your real environment.
This will lead to this “always on, always augmented” theme again because content is the key. If you don’t have the content, what will the glass see? This year, in my keynote I tried to do an internal benchmark on the promises of insideAR 2011 and 2012 and as in any statistic you can’t really claim that you have 100% adoption of the technology. We’ve always said at Metaio that augmented reality is a new user interface — it’s not a self-standing technology. However, what we have seen, especially in the last twelve months, is a massive growth in adoption of augmented reality. IKEA, for example, is a good reference. They are extremely satisfied. They have growing download numbers for their application, but their augmented reality is an addition to a standard offering they have — the IKEA catalog [itself]. But we, at Metaio, have seen a huge growth in the number of developers [creating content]. There are increasing numbers of people developing on the Metaio platform. We’ve also seen on the Metaio cloud (which is what powers these applications) a growth of 300%. So making a claim that augmented reality will be on every smartphone by 2014 is obviously yet to be seen but we think we are on a good path to actually get there. I would fully agree. It’s a new way of picking up information about real-world objects. I would assume that actual users who are using the IKEA catalog to place furniture in their environment have never heard of augmented reality and probably will never care about augmented reality as a technical term but they are using it — it’s just a simple idea of putting furniture you would want to buy in your living room prior to buying. This makes complete sense to consumers. And this is how I feel. Will there be an app called augmented reality on every smartphone in 2014? I doubt it. But will there be an augmented reality piece ingrained in other apps on every smartphone by 2014? I’m much more positive. So Metaio as a company, fundamentally, have never changed. What has changed is that we are seeing a broad adoption of augmented reality in very distinctive use cases. We have said at insideAR that we are seriously looking into things like face and body detection and tracking — for your smart device to be able to track your face and put virtual assets on top of it. This is something that is definitely on our roadmap. We will also bring augmented reality to indoor locations — the whole SLAM approach. And then last but not least we will work more on what we call The Augmented City — using AR to detect arbitrary buildings around you and push information to that. For this specifically, we have done great advances in research and actually won best paper at ISMAR. We have shown how you can actually process and initialize huge point clouds to do this outdoor augmented reality. And we will continue to develop these hardcore computer key technologies to enable these clustered use cases — to make AR viable on objects, on humans for indoor locations and outdoor locations. Yes definitely. Beacons are a great way to initialize SLAM. Let me explain that quickly. With beacons you’re getting your last location within an indoor environment right? For example [the beacon is] saying “hey, there’s a guy standing in this spot [in the environment]. Now, what SLAM and computer vision can do on top of that is give you the exact position, location and orientation of the person. So you would initialize the person’s location from the beacon (or GPS or network location too for that matter) then use SLAM to navigate [more precisely] through the environment. We see this as a great trend coming out that can help us make the computer vision more stable. [youtube=http://youtu.be/-GpHbLdlJm0&feature=player_embedded]
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Microsoft Enlists Pawn Stars To Mock Google’s Chromebooks
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Microsoft’s anti-Google campaign is showing no signs of slowing down. Its latest target is . Microsoft has enlisted the stars of the successful reality TV series to lampoon what it wants you to perceive as the Chromebook’s limitations (“It’s not a real laptop!”). If you’re not familiar with Pawn Stars, it’s a Las Vegas-based reality show on the History Channel where people take their old stuff in the hopes to earn some cash. In Microsoft’s latest ad, a woman wants to sell her Chromebook so she can go to Hollywood. No luck there, of course, as the seller quickly informs her that it’s actually just a “brick.” “A traditional PC,” he informs her, “utilizes built-in applications like Office or iTunes that work even when you’re offline.” Neither Office nor iTunes aren’t exactly “built-in,” of course – and there are plenty of Chrome apps that – but it’s a Scroogled video we’re talking about, so the facts don’t always matter. As in all of its Scroogled videos, Microsoft argues that Google tracks your every move online to sell you ads. That’s nothing new. The Chromebook, which most people probably aren’t all that familiar with, is an odd target for one of these videos, given that they haven’t exactly made a huge dent in the market (except maybe in education). Still, as far as Scroogled videos go, this one is at least somewhat funny, even if it’s got a few too many factual errors to be taken seriously.
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Bib + Tuck Has An App Now, Begins More Stringent Filtering On What Brands Users Can Swap
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Eliza Brooke
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
The fashion swap site launched in November 2012 as a private, invite-only community and opened up to the public late this summer. The startup is now pushing its product with the release of its first app today, while sharpening its aesthetic perspective through a new rule, implemented today, that users can only sell items from a list of approved brands. Co-founders Sari Bibliowicz and Sari Azout said they were aiming for an Instagram-like app experience that also fulfills all the functionality of the website. Users can list items quickly and add filters to their images along with product info. They can also search by price, brand, condition, and category, and also follow other people’s closets. So, yes, it’s a bit like a shoppable Instagram. Swappers can also message each other within the app, a web feature that the Saris said had taken off in a bigger way than expected. The purpose of messaging is to build a community feel and also make transactions smoother. It also gives a greater degree of transparency to the entire experience. With the updated list of brands that users can trade — designers like Acne, Alexander Wang, and Opening Ceremony — Bib + Tuck is ramping up the curated nature of the site, despite the fact that products are crowdsourced. There is also a list of labels that Bib + Tuck will not accept (H&M, Forever21, Old Navy). Indie lines, mid-range brands (J.Crew, Free People), and vintage products that don’t fall on either list are approved or rejected manually by the team’s merchandiser. It’s a blurred line between being a peer-to-peer marketplace and a retailer with a buying team. Consignment startups play up their community angle and similarity to an ecommerce site to varying degrees. Tradesy, for instance, , while Poshmark clearly focuses on making connections between shoppers. Bib + Tuck has invested heavily in developing its brand, hiring a creative director right off the bat and supplementing their ecommerce with editorial content. The site features stories on influencers like designers, stylists, and photographers, which include photos of the items they have on Bib + Tuck along with an interview. Much as the founders are working to establish a particular tone, Bib + Tuck is at its core about community with editorial layered on top. Site members post their real names, professions, and Instagram and Twitter handles. “When you’re buying something you’re looking at who’s selling it. What does that person do? You’re getting insight into that person’s world… You know that this jacket is from a musician in LA, and she wore it on tour, and she’s letting it go and wants someone else to appreciate it,” Azout said. According to the founders, the typical Bib + Tuck shopper is in her mid-20s, very culturally aware, and a fan of mixing high and low brands; 70% of them have a personal URL. Their biggest markets are California (25% of users), New York (40%), and Miami (10%). Of their 30,000 members, about 15% are actively posting items for sale. 10% of those have bought upwards of 15 items on the site. The site monetizes on selling additional “Bucks” (the Bib + Tuck currency) to users who want to cash in on their credit, and about 20% of transactions involve Bucks purchases at this point.
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YouTube Addresses Massive Spam Problem Following Rollout Of Much-Maligned Google+ Commenting System
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Sarah Perez
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Google says it’s taking steps to address the increase in YouTube comment spam that arose from the recent shift to the powered by Google+. YouTube users have already been fairly with the new system for reasons related to privacy, confusion, and the ability to leave anonymous comments, having already left over 31,000 comments of their own on announcing the changes, many negative. In addition, the most popular begging Google to reconsider a move back to the old system has over 215,000 signatures today. Google+, which is both a destination website and social layer meant to stretch across all Google-owned properties, has been seeping into everything Google puts out, including Search, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Blogger, and more. It has also sucked up properties like Picasa and Places, which are now Google+ Photos and Google+ business pages, respectively, into the Google+ identity machine. But YouTube, Google’s already successful and profitable social networking site, is another matter. Here, users had long established identities of a sort – ones they don’t necessarily want linked to their real names, and ones where they’ve connected with and messaged other YouTube users over the years. On the YouTube video detailing the change to Google+ comments, there’s an overlay reading: That link has been directing viewers to a on the official YouTube Creators blog, which was updated mid-November with a further acknowledgement of the spam and abuse problems and a promise that fixes were in the works. It was close as Google got to an admission of failure in terms of its implementation of Google+ comments on YouTube. It’s clear the company didn’t think through the ramifications of a system which would allow Google+ users to include links or other random text in their YouTube comments. For instance, some commenters are now using ASCII text to leave picture comments, which isn’t abusive as much as it is disruptive – it’s probably not the “high quality” feedback Google had in mind when making this change. As security researcher Graham Cluley today, YouTube may have been home to “some of the most unpleasant, purile and single-braincelled comments in the universe” but it never before had a problem with link spam, because the older commenting system prevented users from leaving messages which included clickable links. But that changed when Google+ comments arrived. Google had positioned the change as one which would lead to better feedback for publishers since it was doing away with the negativity that inevitability arises when anonymous commenting is supported. (Google+ users have to set up accounts using their “real name,” which should have cut down on the abuse.) But better comments were not the result, as it turned out. Google quickly realized that the system was not as well-guarded against those who would leverage the link-posting capability for less than reputable purposes. Spammers, scammers and those posting malware in link format took advantage of the new system. In his post, Cluley notes that there was so much abuse that some YouTube publishers, including video games reviewer PewDiePie for example, disabled Google+ comments completely after the front pages of its comments sections on videos were filled with links to viruses and spam. Part of the problem with the abuse is that Google+ favors those whose comments get the most replies. Since many on the web don’t know the ol’ web adage “ ,” spamming and abusive comments would rise to the top as other angry commenters responded. “We know the spam issues made it hard to use the new system at first, and we’re excited to see more of you getting involved as we’ve fixed issues,” reads the post signed by the “YouTube Comments Team.” The company also promised other changes were in the works, too, such as threaded conversations, formatted comments, and the much-requested option of bulk moderation. And the comments team added also that it’s still working on “improving comment ranking,” which will continue to be necessary as scammers try to find workarounds to the new system and get their comments moved up to the top yet again.
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Target (Yes, That Target) Wants To Launch An Accelerator In India
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Pankaj Mishra
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
has long looked to India to fuel its software applications and back-office projects. Now, the Minneapolis-based retailer is doubling down on the country’s tech potential. Come January 2014, Target is planning to launch the Target Accelerator Program, a corporate incubator — complete with funding, and possibly equity stakes in the cohorts — that it hopes will help it tap into the country’s startup culture and engineering talent to better compete against other retail heavyweights Walmart and Amazon. The selected startups will receive up to $30,000 in funding as part of the program. The plans for setting up the accelerator in Bangalore have been underway for a year now. Over the past few weeks, Target officials have reached out to several startups, entrepreneurs apart from IT industry executives, some of whom have shared details about the accelerator with me. Beth Jacob, Target’s global CIO, has confirmed to TechCrunch its plans for an accelerator — although it is still fleshing out the details. “At Target, innovation is core to our culture and strategy and we are always looking for new ideas to enhance the shopping experience of our guests,” Jacob wrote in an email. “We are in discussions with a variety of partners and start-ups for a Target India Accelerator program. We have not yet settled on which start-ups will be included and continue to seek ideas which have the potential to help transform the retail industry. We are excited about this opportunity and look forward to sharing additional details once we launch the program.” India is no stranger to incubators and accelerators, but Target’s will be the first started by a corporate in Bangalore, India’s tech capital, making it a much-watched test case for other corporates looking to set up similar ventures in India. To pick up ideas for its new in-house accelerator , and to see more startups, Jacob also intends to plant herself in the front row of demo days across several startup boot camps in India next year, according to sources. It’s a leap of faith, but if it works, it could encourage more entrepreneurs in India to look beyond simple “me-too” e-commerce plays, and instead work on the latest technologies that could impact outcomes in the global retail war. This could just be the endorsement India’s $108 billion IT sector is looking for after years of being seen as a low cost, back office for Fortune 500 customers. And Indian engineers are beginning to play a role in the old world retailers versus Amazon battle. The Target Accelerator Program to be launched in January will work with Indian startups specialising in big data, content aggregation, mobility and search. The accelerator has already invited several Indian startups for a pitching session later this month. A website is in the works to formally open the application process for startups to apply, but Target wants to keep things quiet until the Black Friday and Cyber Monday are gone past, a person involved in the process tells me. The accelerator will be managed by Lalit Ahuja, an Indian technology industry veteran who also helped the retailer set up its technology captive centre in Bangalore few years ago. Ahuja runs an accelerator of his own called , which will run the program for Target. Ahuja did not want to comment. As part of the program, every year, Target will pick 1-2 product startups, give them up to $30,000 (includes cash and operational expenses) and hope that their ideas are able to help it compete better. Target has not yet made up its mind whether it should ask for equity stakes in return for monies invested in these startups. Startups selected for the Target accelerator will get to work with one of the world’s biggest retailers and thus have distribution from day one. So far, Target has invited , a Bangalore based startup focused on big data analytics and funded by Blume Ventures, TLabs (Times Internet) among others, and , which combines online behaviour and social media data to offer targeted ads. Tookitaki raised $200,000 in April this year from investors including Blume Ventures. The Bangalore-based accelerator will also help Target identify potential M&A targets at early, cheap valuations. There are at least a dozen big data, analytics startups launched in India over past two years that could be potential targets. Some of them include , launched by former Facebook engineers Ashish Thusoo and Joydeep Sen Sarma and , founded by IBM veteran Suresh Srinivasan. Dataweave was incubated at TLabs in 2011, and was founded by Karthik Ramesh and Vikranth Ramanolla. The company offers retail analytics solutions such as Priceweave that helps e-commerce firms sift through pricing offered by rivals and compete real time. Target is not the only firm planning to incubate the next big ideas in India. Coca Cola too plans to set up its corporate accelerator in Bangalore apart from Berlin and San Francisco, . An Indian technology industry executive chasing some of these deals tells me that some Japanese electronics companies too are scouting for startups to partner with in India, especially in the area of display technologies and multimedia. For Target, the accelerator is a big bet and also coming of age for the retailer’s software outsourcing from India. Target set up a captive technology center in Bangalore in 2005 to support several of its retail processes in the US and also develop custom applications. That centre has come a long way since then. It led the development of Target’s most ambitious IT project Target.com and even helped the retailer with its Canada launch. All this has led Jacob and her colleagues to believe that Bangalore now has required talent pool and startups that can help it compete with Amazon and even catch up with Walmart Labs faster. Until a few years ago, engineers in India mostly helped retailers including Walmart, BestBuy and Target run their software applications remotely and offered low-end voice and back-office support. Jeremy King, CTO of the Walmart Labs, which has dozens of engineering teams in Bangalore working on everything from e-commerce to big data, tells me that this is changing. “We’ve found the talent in India to be awesome, we run several key projects from WalmartLabs India that require deep engineering and data science talent – not to mention women and men who like to have a lot of fun and love a fast paced test and learn environment.” With homegrown e-commerce success stories such as Flipkart, from Tiger Global and Morgan Stanley Investment among a bunch of other investors, India now has a pool of engineers who are not just back office experts or coding lines of low end, commoditised software applications but also understand the pain points of modern retailing and software solutions that can solve them. Walmart’s — Mountain View-based but founded by two Indians, Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman — may have played a role in building deeper engineering capabilities beyond vanilla software services in Bangalore. Then in June this year, Walmart to build newer e-commerce capabilities.
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Alex Wilhelm
| 2,013 | 11 | 19 | null |
Global Mobile Android/iOS Messaging App Map Dominated By WhatsApp — But BBM Bags A Foothold
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Natasha Lomas
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
The mobile messaging app landscape , with different messaging services doing well in different global regions. Despite ongoing localised variety, messaging veteran remains dominant in multiple global regions, even as relative newcomer — — BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), gets a foothold on the social chit-chat map of these two platforms. According to a of 3,759 Android and iOS users in the U.S., Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and China, carried out by mobile market research firm , WhatsApp is the leading app for social messaging in South Africa, Brazil and Indonesia, and second most popular in the U.S., giving it a better geographical spread than Facebook’s Messenger app (which only leads in the U.S., and is ranked second in Brazil and South Africa). Add to that, in the U.S,. where Facebook Messenger does lead, WhatsApp usage isn’t far behind — especially among the 16-24 year-old age-group: The data also notes relatively little overlap between the two messaging apps in the U.S. market, with only a quarter of U.S. smartphone users using both Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, and the majority os users sticking with one or the other. Across On Device’s five polled markets, 44% of mobile users said they use WhatsApp at least once per week vs 35% who said the same for Facebook Messenger. China’s WeChat app was third, with more than a quarter (28%) of respondents using it at least once weekly. But the dynamism of the mobile messaging space is underlined by the presence of BlackBerry’s BBM app — which was only released for Android and iOS a few weeks ago, but has already become the fifth most used social messaging app across the polled markets. Across all five markets, On Device’s data shows that BBM is used at least once per week by 17% of survey respondents — putting it just behind Twitter (19%) and ahead of Skype (16%) for usage. Not bad for a platform newbie, especially after . Turning to market specific data, BBM is ranked South Africa and Indonesia are two of the markets that have historically been strong ones for BlackBerry so there are clearly still enough mobile users with friends on the BBM network to generate momentum for the company’s cross-platform BBM play. Let’s also not forget BBM has been around since 2005 — so it’s actually a grand old daddy of mobile messaging, albeit one that’s finally been unchained from BlackBerry’s own rails to run free. The company is evidently doing what it can to maximise the power of its brand in key legacy markets to generate BBM momentum. It’s just today that BBM will come preinstalled on a variety of Android devices starting next month, from OEMs in Africa, India, Indonesia, Latin America and the Middle East. Smartphones in these regions that will include BBM out of the box include devices from Be, Brightstar, Celkon, EVERCOSS, IMO, Micromax, Mito, Snexian, Spice, TECNO, TiPhone and Zen, it said today. The BBM app will also continue to be available as a free download on Google Play but being preloaded ups its visibility and lowers the barrier to usage so it’s a huge advantage. From the OEMs’ point of view, these guys get to associate their hardware with a brand that is still well known and popular in their respective markets to make their handsets stand out from other low cost ‘Droids. “BBM is incredibly popular in Indonesia and since it’s availability on Android, it’s become the must have messaging app for our customers. We are therefore thrilled to be working with the BBM team at BlackBerry to preinstall BBM on our devices, making it easier than ever for our customers to get connected to BBM contacts and start chatting,” said Janto Djojo, Chief Marketing Officer at EVERCOSS, in one of multiple supporting statements accompanying the BBM preload news. Returning to the On Device survey, the average number of messaging apps installed by users across the polled markets varies considerably, from a high of It’s perhaps no coincidence that BBM has managed to get most traction in the markets where users are more open to using multiple messaging apps since it doesn’t have to worry about trying to replace WhatsApp or Facebook. The survey shows China’s WeChat is also on the rise. On Device’s data shows the app — that’s known as Weixin in its home market but branded WeChat for international markets — is “spilling out of China”, with a fifth (20%) of Indonesian, and 18% of South African smartphone owners saying they now use it weekly. The survey also touches on SnapChat — the ephemeral photo-sharing app that’s attracted huge interest in recent weeks, following reports that it from Facebook. Questions over persist, as the startup isn’t saying. It prefers to talk in terms of Snaps shared ( — albeit some of those Snaps might be going to multiple people). Despite all this interest in SnapChat, On Device found no significant use of the app across the markets it polled — with the sole exception of the 16-24 age-group in the U.S. A fifth (20%) of polled users in this age group reported using it at least once per week vs just 3% of those aged 25+. So clearly American teens are a very lucrative demographic. The survey also touches on stickers — a popular monetisation method for mobile messaging apps. According to the data, almost 40% of polled smartphone users actively use stickers, with rates of usage varying by market from a high of 46% of Indonesians, who say they use stickers daily, to just under a quarter (24%) of Brazilians. When it comes to actually paying for pixels, more than a fifth of all the polled mobile users said they had paid for stickers/emoji in messaging apps at least once.
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Google Invites A New Round Of Explorers To Buy Glass
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Google has reportedly sent out more invitations for developers to purchase Google Glass, according to . The invites were only sent to developers who have previously inquired about how to purchase a Google Glass on Google’s website, as you can see in the image below. As far as we can tell, there’s no open website or public availability to purchase Glass at this time. It’s also not clear how many Glassware developers will be given access to the device itself, but we’ve reached out to Google and will update as soon as we know. The new round of invites makes sense given the timing. Just this week, Google opened up the and a , giving all developers the ability to build for Glass.
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Nickelodeon Partners With Ludei To Bring HTML5 Games To Its Upcoming Android App
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
, which offers an HTML5 platform for building games and other apps, is announcing today that it’s powering the games in Nickelodeon’s upcoming Android app. Ludei CEO Eneko Knorr said that by focusing “on HTML5 technology for its game development,” Nickelodeon is making “a big vote of confidence for HTML5 and its ecosystem.” The kids’ entertainment channel is treating the new app as a “container” that will include dozens of HTML5 games, and it’s scheduled to launch on December 15. “It’s clear that HTML5 is the right choice for cross platform game development, but development challenges require close attention in order to achieve optimal performance,” said Dhimiter Bozo, vice president of engineering for apps and games at Nickelodeon-owner Viacom, in the press release. “Ludei’s easy-to-use solution helps us address these challenges, and makes it easy for us to deliver excellent, native-like HTML5 game experiences.” As for iOS, where Nickelodeon already , a company spokesperson said that these games would be included initially, but they added, “obviously” the goal in embracing HTML5 is “to enable across platforms.” Ludei says there are now 20,000 developers, including three of the world’s top 20 game publishers, using its platform. It in funding earlier this year. The post has a new quote from Knorr about Nickelodeon — a company spokesperson emailed to say that it’s more accurate than Knorr’s earlier statement that Nickelodeon is “basing its entire game development strategy on HTML5.” Also, due to a mistake on my part, the initial version of this post included the wrong planned launch date and has since been corrected.
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Backed With $3.5M From Social+Capital, Athos Is Creating Connected Workout Clothing That Tracks Your Muscle Output And More
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Leena Rao
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
college students Dhananja Jayalath and Christopher Wiebe were frustrated by their workouts in the gym. They felt like there was no way to know whether they were actually working the right muscles when lifting weights. A personal trainer wasn’t an option for these cash-strapped students, and, as electrical engineers, both thought there could be a frictionless way that hardware technology could collect this data from your muscles. But this hadn’t been developed yet. Fast-forward three years, and Jayalath and Wiebe are debuting this connected, wearable workout gear to the public after spending that time developing the hardware and software side. Backed with $3.5 million in seed funding from Chamath Palihapitiya’s , offers a wearable technology that is fully integrated in workout clothing and can track your muscle groups, heart rate, breathing level and more. You can pre-order the Athos, which will be available in the spring of 2014, When Jayalath and Wiebe started delving into the actual problem (which has even been on ) of creating this connected workout gear, they realized that they could take shortcuts around trying to measure muscle productivity or actually translate the medical science into actionable data that people could use and wear every day. The duo, whose alma mater graduates some of the most talented hardware engineers in the world, unsurprisingly chose to take the latter approach. So while in school, they spent all their spare time researching and developing their hardware product. They soon discovered that the most effective way of tracking muscles is through electromyography, or EMG, which is the technique used to measure and evaluate electrical signals generated by muscles. With EMG, electrode adhesive sensors are put on the muscle to collect electricity and the raw signal. These sensors provide access to the physiological processes that allow muscles to produce movement, to stretch and to generate force. The traditional uses of EMG are putting on electrode sensors to conduct physiotherapy, rehab, and to treat muscular degenerative diseases. Jayalath and Wiebe spent a year-and-a-half while still at Waterloo developing a prototype of the wearable compression garment that harnessed EMG technology wirelessly, with sensors that track muscle groups, heart rate, breathing and more. Of course, at the same time, both were being pursued aggressively by technology companies to join after finishing college. Along the way, Jayalath accepted an offer to be a hardware engineer at Apple and Wiebe planned to join Analog Devices as a chip designer. But in the meantime, they were making progress with their prototype. And last spring, they actually presented their idea at a competition at Waterloo. Social+Capital founder and early Facebook growth exec Chamath Palihapitiya happened to be at the competition (he’s a Waterloo alum), and what Wiebe and Jayalath were working on caught his eye. The pair pitched him, and he quickly realized that there was something potentially game changing about what they could accomplish. “This was something I had been thinking about for a while – namely that sensors should be able to measure much more than just heart rate or using an accelerometer/gyroscope to impute the behavior of the body. So when I saw Athos’ original demo, it resonated immediately as a completely revolutionary way to use technology to measure one’s body and then act on that information in a useful way,” Palihapitiya tells me. So he seeded them with $3.5 million, and the pair declined their respective job offers in order to build Athos. After moving, they teamed up with Joel Seligstein — who was the Android manager at Facebook — neuroscientist Julie Desjardins, and the former VP of hardware at Leapfrog, Hamid Butt. Until a few months ago, the team was incubated and working out of Social+Capital’s space in Palo Alto. Over the past year, Wiebe, Jayalath, and Seligstein have built a way to use non-adhesive sensors in a compression garment (a long-sleeved exercise top and bike shorts/legging) that transmits the muscle data to a small module, which is called the core. This core then wirelessly syncs this data to Athos’ software app, which collects all information and actually gives users a way to track and understand their workouts. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbtc-unamZs&w=560&h=315] The credit-card-sized core module is seamlessly integrated into compression workout clothing and transmits muscle feedback to an app. The first version of the upper body apparel will have 14 muscle sensors and 1 pair for heart rate and breathing. These sensors are places throughout the garment (which looks and feels much like a lightweight Under Armour workout shirt or legging). In terms of design, the Athos’ core is extremely lightweight, and the clothing itself feels like high-quality exercise wear. We’re told Athos partnered with Branch for design. On the arm for the women’s shirt, or the chest for the men’s shirt (and at the hip for the lower body apparel), users can insert the core device, which is a small, orange oval-shaped module. This is inserted in the garment, and then the user essentially can transmit any data generated from muscular expenditure, heart rate, and breathing to the Athos mobile app. In terms of the hardware specs, the module and garments include a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis magnetometer to provide orientational awareness, e.g. lying down vs. sitting up; two multi-colored LEDs, which indicate status in the core and more; Bluetooth 4.0; and 10 hours of battery life (i.e. five days of two-hour workouts. The startup is not disclosing some of the chips and hardware in the core, as this is what they call their ‘secret sauce.’ All the hardware and garments are water-, sweat- and Gatorade-resistant, and you can clean the garments as you normally would in a washing machine and dryer. The simplest use of Athos involves how you are actually using your muscles when working out, whether that be cardio or strength training. On the Athos iOS app (the startup is developing for iOS first, we’re told), you’ll see a simulated body, and, via the sensors, you’ll be able to see whether you are overworking or under working a muscle group. So if you are doing curls, your biceps will be highlighted in green, and if your muscle reaches a red color, you are over exerting your muscle and should scale back. Alternatively, your muscle will read as a lighter green, or won’t show anything at all if you are under-exerting the muscle. The sensor will input data such as heart rate and oxygen levels. You’ll be able to measure heart rate without a chest strap, provide precise, real-time interpretation of complex movements, measure and recommend proper exercise form in any activity for the gym goer and the outdoor athlete, monitor muscle fatigue and recommend training levels, quantify and summarize the content of workouts (strength training vs. cardio vs. stretch), and track training levels over time to help avoid over or under training specific muscle groups. The app will also be able to give you more targeted feedback according to the type of exercise being done. So you’d be able to input your goal (i.e. weight loss) and your type of exercise (strength training), and the app would show you whether you are in the right heart zone, whether your muscles are being pushed enough (or too much) and more. The overall vision for Athos is to show you how to better balance bike pedaling, breathe better through meditation, push through a hard set of weights, bend into the perfect yoga posture or push the body for maximum efficiency. In terms of cost, Athos will be charging $99 for any piece of clothing, and $199 for a core. The startup already has two patents, and has applied for a few more. In the world of wearables; the Fitbit, Nike FuelBand, and the Jawbone UP use accelerometers to track your steps and overall physical activity. The Basis takes this one step further to track your heart rate, perspiration level, and skin temperature. But Athos is one of the only “wearables” that is actually tracking your muscle output, as well. Wiebe, Jayalath and Seligstein think that their product actually complements wearables, which track your motion all day. Athos, in their mind, can be the go-to wearable when you work out, or do any activity that uses your muscles beyond walking. Palihapitiya adds that over time, Athos can integrate with wearables so that the startup’s data can be shared and used. “We want to build the universal platform for a deeper, nuanced understanding of physiology,” he adds. Already, Athos is being tested out by a number of professional athletes and trainers. It would make sense that Nike and Under Armour would follow suit. But Athos says it isn’t just building their hardware and software for the power athlete. They believe that their product can help anyone with exercise or even rehabilitation. Palihapitiya explains, “I think we all want to be more physically capable – this means being a father who is able to play sports with his kids, a young woman who wants to use yoga as their primary workout or an NBA player who is training to excel and make another all-star team. The point is that a more optimal understanding of one’s physique is really useful information and can be used for a wide spectrum of things. Athos works in all of these cases because it is productized in the most universal way – in clothing you can just put on and go.” I saw an athlete lift weights, cycle and even run wearing the Athos garments and core, and witnessed the app display all the performance and measurement in real time. It’s impressive to see just how much data and insight the startup is able to get from the combination of measuring muscle activity, heart rate and oxygen levels. And the consumer experience could become even more compelling if the app could actually start personalizing the experience, becoming more intelligent with each workout. Unfortunately, we’re told that the Athos won’t be available until the spring. But I know for a fact that I will be purchasing the full set. In the ever-growing sea of smartwatches and wearables, I’ve also been looking for a device that can do more than just track calories burned, miles covered or heart rate when I am working out. I’m willing to wait with the hope that Athos will become that and more.
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TapCommerce Raises $10.5M To Compete In The Mobile Ad Retargeting “Land Grab”
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Mobile ad retargeting startup is announcing that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding. When earlier this year, he described the company’s approach to mobile retargeting (where ads are targeted based on user’s prior activity) as “very large amounts of data coupled with sophisticated statistical analysis.” This week he told me that TapCommerce is now being used by more than 50 customers, including more than 30 of the top 100 grossing apps. Retargeting can be particularly important for e-commerce companies (who want to lure customers back to spend more money), so it’s not too surprising that TapCommerce customers include Fab, eBay, and Jackthreads. Looking at the money that’s already spent on mobile advertising, Long continued, “Our major thesis is that at some point, all of these companies are going to say, ‘Okay we got the installs, we just spent $3 million, what’s happening now? How are we making money on these people?'” Competitors are starting to emerge, but he suggested that they’re still trying to develop their basic technology, while TapCommerce already has a solid platform (though it will continue to spend money on product development). He also acknowledged that to its mobile app ads, but he said that he’s not worried about the social platforms moving aggressively into retargeting — he sees them more as potential customers of TapCommerce’s technology than as competitors. Still, he said he was glad to have raised a large round (and almost exactly a year after TapCommerce raised its $1.2 million seed round), because “part of this is going to be a land grab, just as it was on the web.” The new funding was led by Bain Capital Ventures and RRE Ventures, with a strategic investment from Nielsen Ventures and participation from previous backers Metamorphic Ventures, Eniac Ventures, and Nextview Ventures. Bain’s Scott Friend and RRE’s Eric Wiessen have joined TapCommerce’s board of directors.
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Motorola’s Awfully Cheap, Unlocked Moto G Makes Its U.S. Debut
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 |
Motorola may have designed its with international markets in mind, but cost-conscious phone nerds in the United States now join in the fun too — the company has confirmed that it’ll sell both the GSM 8GB and 16GB versions of the device starting today. Sorry CDMA sticklers, your time hasn’t come just yet — Motorola says your version is still on-track for a January launch. If we’re being honest, the Moto G is far from the fastest phone out there with its 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 chip, 1GB of RAM, and lack of LTE. Still, early impressions of the thing are generally pretty positive and our own Darrell Etherington is with the thing because of its hefty battery life (and for a few other reasons I haven’t managed to discern just yet). No, it’s the price tag that’s most appealing. You may not know it, but Motorola has spent years courting developing markets and the company has high hopes that its cheap Moto G will be enough to tip the scales in its favor across the the globe. Frankly, I’m curious to see how this little experiment plays out. The 8GB model will set you back $179 while the 16GB model will costs $199, which (as Motorola likes to point out) is more than reasonable for a pair of unlocked, contract-free phones. But those figures may not sound all too enticing in a country that seems to love its carrier subsidies and the low, on-contract phone prices they lead to. Seriously, just wander into a phone store in a few weeks and behold all the cheap goodies that can be yours with a credit check, a signature, and two years of your life. That’s the model we Americans are used to, and we’re only now starting to see carriers realize there are other (arguably better) ways to go.
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Automattic Will Finally Stand Up To Bogus DMCA Takedowns
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Automattic, the WordPress hosting company, has long followed the letter of the DMCA in respect to copyright. This means that the company will side with a complainant rather than a customer, essentially allowing anyone to cite copyright violations in order to have anything pulled from their servers. This led to some involving attacking journalists using the very tools designed to protect them. Now they’re fighting back. Two bogus claims, one against journalist and another against a blog have finally led the company to sic its lawyer Paul Sieminski on these fraudulent uses of the DMCA. Writes Sieminski: As : Bravo. This is an important move for Automattic and their paid WordPress platform and, while potentially expensive, I think it’s the only way forward for companies like Tumblr and Medium. Content players don’t get to have it both ways – they don’t get to bask in terabytes of free content and monetized traffic and then curl up when someone complains about said traffic. While it’s WordPress’ right to take down everything (hell, they can even shut down if it gets too tough for them), their tendency to cave at the first sign of trouble was craven and selfish. While blog hosts aren’t beholden to the public trust, they sure act like they’d like to be. This, hopefully, will right some of those wrongs.
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Microsoft Launches Node.js Tools For Visual Studio
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Frederic Lardinois
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
has quickly become one of the most popular platforms for writing server-side code. Windows, however, was never quite the right operating system to develop node.js applications on. That may be changing now, however. Microsoft today launched its in alpha, which now allows developers to edit, and debug node.js code right in Microsoft’s popular IDE. The tools also feature the ability to easily deploy applications to Windows Azure and remotely debug node.js instances running on other machines. Node.js allows developers to write their server-side applications in JavaScript and it looks like Microsoft has kept all the essentials in place. As Microsoft Web Platform Team member Scott Hanselman , the team decided not to “re-do things that already worked well.” The tools use the standard node.exe and the V8 debugger (node.js was built on top of Google’s V8 JavaScript engine), for example. Thanks to the integration into Visual Studio, developers get access to all the IDE’s tools, including Visual Studio’s intelligent code completion technology. The Node.js Tools for Visual Studio are available under the Apache open source license. Microsoft continues it to be an early alpha release, so it still has some rough edges, but the early reviews are . The tools were developed by the same team that also brought Python support to Visual Studio and will work in both the 2012 and 2013 editions of the IDE. If you want to give them a try, Hanselman’s blog post also features a brief walk-through of editing (and running) the Node.js-based Ghost blogging platform’s source code in Visual Studio.
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TC Makers: An Evening With iRobot
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Deep in the wilds outside of Boston a team of mad scientists created the ultimate in robotic life: the iRobot Roomba, the ubiquitous, world-famous automatic vacuum that, for many of us, is our first brush with autonomous robotics. The Roomba’s brains came from a military minesweeper, its parts came from kids’ toys, and its mission – to clean up after us puny humans – came from a robotic floor waxer. In short, the Roomba is the culmination of years of research and is one of the most complex and coolest robots we’ve seen. To mark the launch of the Roomba 800 series I took a walk down random access memory lane with Colin Angle, CEO and founder of iRobot. The affable, wry head of an international corporation lit up as he described the work that went into the Roomba and how the company solved the problem of hair tangling in the Roomba’s brushes. You have to see it to appreciate the dedication this guy has to sucking dirt off of your living room floor. In this episode of TechCrunch Makers we discuss what it takes to build a cool new consumer product from the ground up and how hard it was to solve the age-old problem of dog hair. Enjoy!
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Meet The Startups From China-Based Hardware Accelerator HAXLR8R’s Third Demo Day
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Ryan Lawler
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Hardware startups seem to gradually be taking over the world. Thanks to the lower costs of developing and prototyping new products, it’s easier (and cheaper) than ever before to build devices that can be used in the real world. That said, some startups could use help in the promise, which is what hardware accelerator seeks to do. Shenzhen-based HAXLR8R specializes in , and is focused on taking them all the way from idea to prototype to finished product. It does that by leaning heavily on its local surroundings — HAXLR8R is based in what some might call the electronics capital of the world. This is the accelerator’s third demo day, and HAXLR8R co-founder Cyril Ebersweiler says that each successive class has gotten better than the last. It’s got everything from a “bionic mattress” for premature babies to a gadget that lets you play with their pet from anywhere with a smartphone. Here are what the ten HAXLR8R startups presenting at today’s demo day each do: There are 15 million premature babies born every year, which spend about 21 days on average in an incubator. is a bionic mattress for premature babies that’s designed to replicate the haptic conditions of a mother’s chest. By doing so, the team believes it can stimulate growth within the babies and also improve brain development of children during their time in an incubator. There are two components to the system — there’s the bionic mattress which the baby lies on and it provides feedback from the mother’s body and let the baby feel like it’s near a loved on. Then there’s the “turtle,” which is a product that the mother can cradle and get feedback from the baby’s movement and heartbeat. With those tools, it believes it can reduce the time a child spends in an incubator and save parents and the healthcare system money as a result. is an interactive animatronic toy platform that are brought to life by connecting with a tablet or mobile phone. Curio characters are open source and hackable, so that anyone can build their own with a 3-D printer. The company is looking to build a new generation of toy that’s emotive, educational, and fun to play with. Curio characters clip onto a screen to instantly connect. Instead of using Bluetooth, the toy works by having light signals sent to it. For Curio, the goal was to build maximum expressiveness with cost-sensitive components. Introducing the smartphone or tablet enables that. The company sees the possibility for branded toys that can be built by others, with a mass-market toy. But in the meantime, it’s looking to target makers and character designers who could build their own 3D-printed toys. The app gives users a series of movements and sounds that the Curio characters can use, as well as a timeline for them to build their own stories. is a tech platform that can be used to augment fashionable products. Currently that means charging your phone on the go, but it could also be used for other things. The purse works by plugging the phone into the purse and it instantly charges the phone. Later at night, you lay the purse on a wireless charger and it then charges the purse. The team plans to extend beyond its first product, as it hopes to become tech company for fashion. They’ve created an app to enable customers to become content creators with the brand and interact with the company. It will allow customers to communicate with the company and also let users know where a purse or other accessory is located based on GSM, Bluetooth, and WiFi connectivity. The technology will also be available to anyone else who wants to build smart tech-enabled fashion products. is a wearable technology API to capture personal movement and provide immediate tactile feedback. That gives users the ability to understand how to improve their movement. The device can be used to store and track movement data and compare how people move. Notch was built by a team of four in building electronics. Notch costs just $49, compared to $120-$130 for the most recent generation of movement trackers. With Notch, users can also connect multiple pieces of the hardware together, taking data from different parts of the body all at once. The business model includes direct-to-consumer sales, the ability to license software to developers who can build apps that take advantage of the technology. is a modular hardware interface that allows users to design controllers for software, such as sliders, dials, and buttons. That takes away typical keyboard and mouse combinations to allow users to determine what how they want to control applications. Photographers, for instance, could use Palette to simplify photo editing. DJs could create their own interface for mixing music. With Palette, users can create their own sets of controls. Once you’ve arranged modules, you can then map controllers to various macros. The company is targeting photographers first to hit different industries and applications over time. Starter kits start at $99, with kits going up to $399 depending on how many different controllers users need. is a gaming platform to bring offline gaming online. It uses low-energy Bluetooth 4.0 modules to connect with mobile phones and allow users to fire “electronic bullets” at each other — kind of like a new version of Laser Tag. In China, gaming is becoming mobile and indoor gaming is moving outdoor. Urban gaming is growing, thanks in part to a platform called Encounter. The outdoor games are played with electronic bullets, but they have to be purchased. They have developed mobile app to connect users and make games and targets available to users. It’s a community game, so users can form teams, or alliances. is a gadget that allows pet owners to watch, talk, and play with their pets using their smartphone. With a video camera, moveable laser pointer, and WiFi connectivity, users can interact with pets remotely. The app will also allow users to record their play time with animals, and also will be able to play with available pets. Already, Petcube is available in some pet shelters, as a way to introduce potential pet owners to new pets. The app will come out before Petcubes are even on the shelves for that purpose. Petcubes will be sold for $200 retail, and in the future will offer an in-app store for pet fans to purchase real-world goods for their pets. Next May, they expect to make the box available to users and in stores. is a tuner that allows users to instantly tune their stringed instruments in a fast and accurate way. The Roadie tuner connects via Bluetooth LE, and can tune an instrument instantly without needing any help from the user. You can tune all strings within 30 seconds. The mobile app also opens up opportunities for musicians who like to use custom tuning. It also can keep track of the elasticity of a string and tell users when it’s time to restring their instruments. There are 25 million guitars shipped every year, and probably about 150 million guitars out there that need tuning, the founders believe. It’ll sell for $99, but Roadie hopes to build more tools for musicians. The bigger vision is to create a sort of “quantified self” for musicians. deals with unintentonal drowsiness by attaching to a pair of glasses and using infrared sensors to monitor user blinking patterns. The device is designed not only to figure out when you’re tired and can nudge you into alertness. It can give you feedback in how to change your routine. The device is for whenever you need to be alert. It tracks body signals and alerts you when you’re starting to snooze off — vibrations, audio signals, and a light signal. Vigo seeks to use physiolytics to track your energy and determine that you’re drowsy before you do. There’s also a mobile app to track when you’re not feeling up to snuff and to give you suggestions on when you’re most alert. offers Tact, a wearable interface that can augment Google Glass and other near-eye displays by allowing users to control them and keep their hands away from their face. The idea is to take the control away from Google Glass, and enable users to create their own swipe gestures and map feature sets to them. The cost? $60 to be able to swipe and press buttons to input data into their device to create a variety of ways to trigger feature sets. can be clipped onto a pocket, belt, keychain, and allow the device to fit into the life of the users, rather than the other way around. But it’s not just Google Glass — nearly anything could be controlled through the same Bluetooth LE swipeable control.
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Vine Focuses On Global Expansion With 19 New Languages
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Twitter’s six-second video sharing app, Vine, today launches in a number of new languages. Nineteen, to be exact. New languages include Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Thai and Turkish on both the iOS and Android apps, as well as Filipino and Polish on the Android app. In the future, the company is also focused on filtering the trending and popular videos based on country. That way, users in a certain country will have the option to see what’s popular with their fellow countrymen as opposed to global popularity. Here’s what about the release: Now, it’s even easier for people around the world to watch and share posts that make us laugh, teach us something new or help us find out what’s happening in the world.
We’re also beginning to explore ways to surface Vine videos that are popular in a particular country. Wherever you are in the world –– be it Japan, Brazil or somewhere in between –– we hope this update makes it easier for you to discover and create videos that bring us all closer together. Vine recently updated its app with , including the ability to remove earlier clips from the Vine and save drafts, two features that were made available on Instagram Video. But Vine continues to push from the Facebook-owned behemoth. Earlier this month, . In August, Vine topped 40 million users. The app’s growth rate certainly increased after launching on Android in June, when the company had 13 million users.
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Deezer Will Launch In The U.S. Next Year And Fight Head-To-Head With Music Streaming Giants
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Romain Dillet
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Already available in , French startup finally announced that the music streaming service will become available to American users in 2014. “The launch date is not final yet. But 2014 will be an American year for us,” co-founder and CTO Daniel Marhely the news agency AFP. Yet, the company has voluntarily avoided entering the U.S. market, stating that there is too much competition — other countries, such as Brazil or Germany, present bigger opportunities for Deezer. But it’s all about to change. The U.S. remains by far the largest music market in the world, and it’s an unavoidable step for most music startups. For example, one year after its American launch, Spotify one million paid subscribers in the country alone. Recently, Spotify and Deezer respectively announced 6 and 5 million paid subscribers. As the Rdio have told us, the music industry is a tough industry with razor-thin margins. It’s hard to make people pay — revenue opportunities are limited. That’s why Deezer is looking for a partner for its U.S. expansion. In order to become widely available and to make a dent in this new competitive market, the company could reproduce its existing strategy. For example, as Orange is a shareholder, the telecom company provides a premium subscription with many smartphone plans in France. It’s a great way to boost Deezer’s revenue. At the same time, Orange communicates on this competitive advantage to attract new subscribers. If AT&T, Verizon and others are not interested, Deezer is willing to partner with other companies outside of the telecom industry as well. Last year, the company a $130 million Series D round to fuel its international growth. It took Spotify multiple years to sign the content deals before launching in the U.S. in 2011. Initially, the company expected to have the deals in place in a much shorter time, often saying that the deals and the launch were just a few weeks away. Labels were particularly reluctant to allow free ad-supported accounts. Things have changed since then, and many companies now offer all-you-can-eat streaming services, including Google and Microsoft. Let’s hope that Deezer wasn’t too optimistic with its launch and will have a smoother ride with the music labels.
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For On-The-Go Clothes Stalking, The Hunt Releases An iOS App
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Eliza Brooke
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Catering to a smartphone-happy user base that skews young and female, the fashion site has released its first iPhone app. The startup closed a Series A round of $5.5 in early July led by Javelin Partners, having accumulated a roster of high profile seed round investors including Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks. Since its launch in January, the site has allowed users to post “hunts,” or pictures of unidentified clothing items from Tumblr, Pinterest, or the like that they want to track down. Community members then jump in to either identify the exact product or to provide suggestions for similar ones. Unlike sites that trade in inspirational photos — the Tumblrs, Pinterests, and Instagrams of the world — The Hunt’s aim is to serve those people who want to act on that inspiration. At this point, users are joining 200,000 hunts each week, twice the number they were seeing two months ago. With its iPhone app, The Hunt is focusing in on mobile, and will next be making their website mobile optimized. CEO Tim Weingarten said that at this point mobile accounts for 50% of traffic, with 85% of that coming from smartphones — largely iPhones — and 15% from tablets. The team noticed a significant jump in mobile usage last spring, and that percentage has been growing steadily since, a trend Weingarten chalks up to their young user base’s preference for mobile overall. “What happens is that you see someone on the street and take a picture of their jacket,” Weingarten said. “You’re browsing Instagram or Pinterest and take a screen cap. That’s really the key experience… You add products as you’re out and about.” So mobile makes sense. The bigger question is how The Hunt, which is essentially a log of the specific items that people want to drop money on, is planning to leverage commerce and the wealth of data it is accumulating on consumer intent. “We know what people are looking to buy. Not what people were buying two months ago, but what people want to buy in the future. That information is very helpful for brands,” Weingarten said. The site currently uses an affiliate model for purchasing products suggested by community members. Personalization is still minimal, meaning the site doesn’t employ a true feed that floats hunts to the top based on user relevance. According to Weingarten, that’s on the roadmap for the next six month, a good plan since it would almost certainly result in higher purchase rates; the conversion of outbound clicks to ecommerce sites to purchases now stands at 1.5-1.75%. That said, the new app does employ a tagging system that surfaces related tags for users, which the team is also building out in the next six months. “The personalization that we’re pursuing is challenging you to solve appropriate hunts as a stylist and also hunts that are most interesting to you as a shopper. That surfaces itself as a feed,” Weingarten said. Based on users’ intention to buy and a significant amount of traffic driven to other sites, The Hunt has been getting a lot of inquiries from ecommerce sites. As far as brand involvement goes, those that want to get involved with The Hunt typically do so by having their social media manager solve hunts with links to their most relevant products. The Hunt has also begun to offer brands relevant data on user activity. If the brand starts getting too overtly spammy — posting queries and then solving them with their own products — community vigilantes tend to call them out on it, Weingarten noted. The Hunt also has the potential to make use of user-generated product photos, which many ecommerce sites are picking up on as a tactic to increase conversion rates. If hunts concluded users posting photos of themselves in the items they finally tracked down, you can see how this could encourage further purchases. While this isn’t in the startup’s immediate plans, it’s one of many roads that they could go down, and we’ll be looking to see how that pans out in the coming months.
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Sarah Perez
| 2,013 | 11 | 26 | null |
Wine-As-A-Service Company Rewinery Has Shut Down
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Alex Wilhelm
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Today confirmed with TechCrunch that it has ended its San Francisco-area wine delivery service. As a company, Rewinery had a simple plan: Amazing wines delivered to you, now, at discounted price points. If that sounds appealing, you’ll understand the . No shame in that. Startups similar to Rewinery are very popular in San Francisco at the moment, with companies formed to deliver you groceries, or flowers, or a car, or a cleaner apartment have sprung up and are growing quickly. The faster you promise a delivery, however, the harder it is to execute on that promise. Rewinery made its job tougher by promising to bring you your wine “within the hour.” That coupled with its promise to find “amazing bottles of red, white and premium wines from all over the world” and free returns probably didn’t help the young company. It was a neat idea, and one that likely had more than a few fans, but ultimately that was not enough. So, to the deadpool with Rewinery. Happily, if you do need booze to your door, Instacart is delivering alcohol once again, and Munchery now does wine as well. So you still have options for Liver Damage As A Service.
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Technology Crossover Ventures Funds All Of Spotify’s $250M International Growth Round
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Josh Constine
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
is making its biggest bet (ever/in years) by backing the entirety of Spotify new $250 million round, a source tells TechCrunch. T of Spotify raising the round at a valuation above $4 billion is right, and it will fuel Spotify’s push to become the defacto streaming music service around the world, our source says. This is likely . It joined a crowd of VCs in Groupon’s $950 million round in 2011, and led a few other firms into Homeaway’s $250 mllion Series E in 2008. While it used to do more early stage deals, TCV has been focused around the Series C and D phase of startups’ lifecycles, with recent participation in $40 million rounds for Minted and JustFab. Our source says TCV stepped up with Spotify. It didn’t even just lead this Spotify financing as the . It put up all the money. The round could be called Spotify’s Series F and brings the company to . It follows the $100 million round in 2012 led by Goldman Sachs, and that sources say included Fidelity Ventures and Coca-Cola. That came after Spotify’s previous $100 million venture round in 2011 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Accel Partners, and Digital Sky Technologies. TCV is apparently willing to bet big on Spotify either getting acquired or having a successful IPO. At this point, Spotify is getting too expensive for most companies to buy. Unless perhaps Apple or Google acquire it to bolster their own music streaming offerings, Spotify will have to IPO. In the case it goes public, it will have to prove to investors that its upside isn’t shackled by the huge content licensing fees it pays to the record labels. Luckily, it will have help from TCV, who has $200 million in Netflix — a company also in the wheeling-and-dealing content distribution business. Spotify seems to be doing better than some competitors. Rdio just had a sizable round of layoffs, and I haven’t heard many people excited about Google’s All-Access music service. However, Spotify needs to be careful of Apple’s iTunes Radio which is free and comes bundled into the music app pre-installed on all iPhones, as well as European service Deezer. Spotify grew past €400 million in 2012, but still has significant losses due to the big fees it pays record labels for music and its international expansion efforts. The TCV money could pay for the latter. In the short term, Spotify has to fend off competition from both startups and deep-pocketed smartphone platform owners, and therefore needs marketing capital. Looking farther to the future, the logic seems to be that music is a critical part of the mobile user experience. As more people around the world upgrade to smartphones and gain access to faster networks, Spotify expects demand for streaming music to grow. It needs to have strong local mindshare as that transition happens to lock in new ad-supported users and lucrative paying subscribers. Spotify built a way to Now it’s a matter of trumpeting the magic of on-demand music around the globe.
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Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Computing System Hits Bumps, Taking Down Xbox Live And Other Services [Update: Back Up!]
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Alex Wilhelm
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Here’s Microsoft statement: “Microsoft is aware of issues involving cloud and online services and we are investigating the cause. We can confirm that these issues were not caused by Windows Azure. We will keep our customers updated as information becomes available. The service interruption that affected Windows Azure Storage was a separate issue and has been resolved. All Windows Azure services are running as normal.” Reports surfaced recently that Xbox Live had gone dark. Other Microsoft services have followed. The problems appear to stem from Microsoft’s cloud computing service Azure, which is the brains for many Microsoft services. According to the , there is at least a problem with some Azure storage services, which is marked as present at suffering from “Performance Degradation.” Azure is a growing product for Microsoft, with revenue over the billion dollar mark. It is also a core component of the New Microsoft, in which services replace traditional software. Those services more often than not run on Azure. If it goes down, it takes quite a bit with it. I have several calls into Microsoft asking what’s up, and the like. They are likely still figuring it out for themselves. I cannot confirm at this time the extent of what is down, but I’m hearing that TechNet is scuppered, some people can’t get email, and so forth. This could take a while, folks, so put on your Patience Hat. However, while Microsoft rights its ship and tells us what went down, at least there is time for jokes: Do you think Google will make t-shirts and cups about Azure went down? — Oguz Furkan Kaytanci (@fkaytanci)
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With Tinder 3.0, Tinder Enters The Friend Zone
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Alexia Tsotsis
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
/">Tinder, an app that allows you to swipe right on profile images in order to meet potential friends or dating prospects, has just launched its 3.0 version on Android and iOS. For those of you who want even more in common with the random people you meet through your mobile device, the new Tinder update will have a major revamp of its relevancy algorithm and add some key new features. Wanting Tinder to be perceived as more than , cofounder Sean Rad has made the first product iteration towards a “for all” use case, adding a Tinder “lists” feature to its latest update. As you could probably glean from its name, the “lists” feature allows popular users to sort their scads of matches into lists, like “New York friends,” “LA friends,””Friends who like the color blue,” etc. Emphasis on friends here. In addition to Tinder lists and a “pumped up” redesigned swipe animation, the new Tinder app will allow for six optimized-for-hotness profile pictures, all visible at the same time. Rad views the product update as Tinder’s first step towards creating a “graph of people you want to know,” referring to the opt-in feature as Tinder’s competitive advantage in the ambient location space. Apps like Highlight and Circle are attempting a similar feat, but without the double opt in advantage. Eventually, Rad tells me, Tinder will create automatic, dynamic lists for users, based on its relevancy algorithm and user preferences, location and interests. The “people you’d like to know” use case will leverage shared Facebook connections, interests and the straight up, superficial, “Hey, this looks like somebody I’d like to know” cues. The Tinder algorithm learns from your swiping behaviors and gets smarter about your preferences as you use it. Rad hopes Tinder lists will help you make sense of your matches and increase user engagement beyond people who want to date (and even marry) through the app, no pun intended. “You have certain co-workers, acquaintances, and whatnot, and it would be socially awkward if you added them on Facebook.” He brings up the example of a friend of his cofounder’s that he came across as he demo’d the app to me, Whitney. “It’d be weird to add her on Facebook, or follow on Instagram, but for the first time I can say ‘Hey Whitney, what’s up?” if we’ve both swiped right. ‘”That’s the breakthrough with Tinder,” he continues, “That signal has been gone until now.” One might think that as the mobile dating space gets more crowded, Tinder would plant its feet firmly in the middle of it as newer dating use cases . But Rad wants everyone, taken, single, to be able to capture the graph of people they’d like to know — not just want to hook up with — through Tinder. And then allow you to better connect with those people. It’s a risk to dilute what many view as Tinder’s core purpose, but Sean is not just paying lip-service to the vision. He has a significant other and still uses the app to meet and message with people, much like I do. Still, though I do use it, I’m not sure why people currently in relationships would want use the app every day. And when asked why he thought people would use it when they were already in relationships. Rad said, “I don’t know, but they are.” When asked what he thought of competitors or the pivot, he said he wasn’t fazed by the existing competition, “A lot of companies taking inspiration from the double opt-in model. But we’re magnitudes larger than them. Just because you have the option to recreate something that already exists, doesn’t mean that you’re a competitor. We have a vision that’s clearly defined: We want to overcome all the issues of meeting new people, and focused on our own roadmap.” Rad does, however, view as a net positive. “It’s interesting that there’s been a rise of these apps. If we have any part to do with that that’s humbling. But I’ll say we’re successful when we have the majority of the world’s population on Tinder. Every day there’s so many potential connections that are being lost.” Some of the criticism I’ve heard about Tinder, which leaves a hole in the market for others, is about the effectiveness of its relevancy score versus being able to single swaths of people out like Hinge does, the ability to add a height or weight designation and the location issue. When you travel, you’re left scrolling through tens of remnants from your time in Berlin when you’re back in San Francisco. “We’re well aware of that,” Rad responds, “And we’re fixing the experience for travelers. Lists and auto-lists are going to change a traveler’s life.” Heavy travelers will also appreciate the fact that new Tinder now supports 24 new languages, including Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, Russian, Japanese, Italian, German, Spanish, Swedish and (yes!) Greek. According to Rad, Tinder is currently seeing 400 million swipes a day and 4 million matches per-day, up from 350 million and 3.5 million in October. The iOS app has been hovering towards the #10 rank in Lifestyle and #100 overall for about a year, . And there is a strong network effect that leads to more swipes and matches the more users join, though he wouldn’t reveal DAUs, MAUs or total number of registered users, even after much cajoling. Tinder grew out of . It presently only has IAC as an investor, though we’ve heard rumors that many Valley firms want to swipe right hard. Tinder is not planning on focusing on monetization anytime soon, but in-app purchases like stickers sent to people you’ve matched with seems like an obvious choice. Rad also says he might charge people to back swipe, in case they accidentally swiped left instead of right, “We would never add a pay wall to the core value, we want that to always remain free.”
Image via
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FCC May Let Airplane Passengers Chat On The Phone In Flight
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Jordan Crook
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Look out, . The skies might get a bit more uncomfortable. The that airplane passengers may be allowed to use their cellphones, for both data and voice transmissions, based on a recent FCC proposal. But before you begin having nightmares of college kids on their Thanksgiving trips settling in for a long, petname-filled conversation with their sweeties, it’s not so bad. For one, the FCC decides what’s allowable for the airlines themselves, but each airline has the right to make their own rules within FCC regulation. In other words, specific airlines may ban the use of smartphones/cell phones during flight despite any FCC ruling. Secondly, it requires the installation of new technology aboard the airplanes that allow them to communicate with cell towers far below. This will take quite some time to implement, and that’s after the months it takes to approve a proposal like this, plus the time it would take for this new technology to be approved by the FCC. According to the WSJ, wireless communication aboard airplanes is already in existence and use internationally but not permissible in the United States. The question is no longer about safety, but social prerogative. since . An FAA study showed that 51 percent of adults aren’t so keen on in-flight phone calls with 47 percent reacting positively (out of 1,600 people, mind you). But airlines seem less divided, with many of them citing consumer feedback against the use of voice during flights.
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AdSemble Brings Its Digital Billboard Ad Marketplace To Chicago
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Anthony Ha
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
After five years in business, an ad-tech company called is making its first move beyond the San Francisco Bay Area. CEO Matthew Olivieri said the company, which offers online tools for businesses to search buy advertising on digital billboards, has reached 235.6 million impressions this year, up from 46.2 million last year (based on an estimate of the number of people who drive by each billboard). It’s also cash-flow positive. Here’s the problem that AdSemble is trying to solve: Olivieri told me that that placing an ad on a digital billboard is normally incredibly difficult, due to the fragmentation among all the different networks. “There are all these individually owned and operated networks,” he said. “If you were Joe the Plumber or anybody like that, you’d have to make like 50,000 phone calls to coordinate [placing an ad]. Every single one of these guys uses a different metric for how they ask for the screen size.” ( , but it’s less focused on digital billboards specifically.) Olivieri said the original concept was to offer a “self-service, AdWords-style marketplace” where advertisers and billboard operators could bid for ad space without any interference. However, he said the market wasn’t ready for that (at least not from a small startup), so the company developed a model that’s more hands-on. The site still partners with digital billboard networks to make their inventory searchable, but if you want to advertise, you have to actually work with AdSemble to make it happen. (Ultimately, Olivieri said he’s hoping to go back to that self-serve model.) Still, it seems to be something advertisers are looking for, which AdSemble’s clients including Samsung, Dice, Five Guys, and New Relic. The company says it also sells space on mall screens, sports jumbotrons, and fuel top screens — eventually, Olivieri said customers might use AdSemble to buy ads on any digital screen, though he’s starting with the ones that have the biggest audience. Olivieri argued that due to the decreasing cost of LED screens and the fact that they can bring in more revenue (by showing ads from multiple companies) than a static billboard. (I’ve asked him if he has any data to back that up and will update this post if I hear back.) And he suggested that Chicago, which is where AdSemble is expanding, is becoming the “mecca” for this type of advertising, not just because more billboards are going up, but because another contender, Los Angeles, .
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1Sheeld, A Super Clever All-Purpose Arduino Shield, Goes Up On Kickstarter And Immediately Breaks Its Goal
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Greg Kumparak
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Arduinos are a godsend for the DIY/Tinkerer community, but there’s all sorts of stuff they just can’t do out of the box. Sure, you can add tons of functionality via strap-on boards called “shields”.. but those can get expensive quick. Want your Arduino project to be able to play sounds? That’ll be $20. Internet connectivity? $50. GPS? Another $50. At Disrupt Europe back in October, a 8-man team out of Egypt showed up and amazed to the point that they were plucked out of the exhibition hall and put on stage as audience choice. Their product? The 1Sheeld, a single shield that lets you replace all of those other shields with your smartphone. Today, that project went up on Kickstarter and almost immediately destroyed its fundraising goal. The idea is deceptively simple: when you’re building things with Arduino, you want all sorts of sensors, inputs (like switches and sliders), and outputs (like screens and speakers.) Your smartphone already tons of sensors in it. Your smartphone’s touchscreen can act as a switch, or a slider, or a keypad. Your smartphone can display information, or playback sound. Why not let the smartphone the shield? Enter 1Sheeld. 1Sheeld connects your Arduino to your smartphone (Android only, for now) to hook into its display, accelerometer, magnetometer, Wi-Fi, cellular connectivity, GPS, gyroscope, etc. Meanwhile, pre-provided shield templates allow your smartphone’s display to emulate a switch, slider, keypad, or LCD display without you actually having to wire anything up. Running on your phone is a middle-man app, which passes the data back and forth (over Bluetooth) and lets you switch between the 1sheeld’s myriad behaviors.
And if it doesn’t do something you need it to do? The team is pledging to open up the platform to outside developers in time, allowing them to add new shields of their own. Hell, you’ll even be able to upload your custom shields to the app store and sell’em there. Of course, you probably won’t want to use 1sheeld in your project . Once you get it past the early prototype stage, you’d probably want to swap it out for a more permanent solution. They’ve designed the software side of things with that in mind; wherever they can, their library keeps things as simple as possible (and as close to the original Arduino libraries as possible) to make it easier to swap things out down the road. The team launched this morning, hoping to raise a modest $10,000. With very little fanfare, they blasted through that goal in less than 6 hours — and at the time of publishing, they’ve more than doubled that. Though it’s more expensive than what they were aiming for back at Disrupt, the board comes in with the surprisingly cheap price tag of 50 bucks (while they offered up a few early-bird deals, they’re sold out now). They’ve found a manufacturing partner in China, and hope to start delivering the first boards come May of next year.
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Gift Guide: Gadgets For Budding 3D Printing Fans
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John Biggs
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
the rage and it’s hard to know just where to start. If you have a budding manufacturing magnate on your Christmas list we’ve got a few fun things for them to check out. One word of advice? Don’t buy cheap 3D printers. I’ve tested a few so far and a number of the “cheap” open source models and some of the models you find at Office Depot are unusable at best. It hurts me to say this but there is really a race to the bottom when it comes to 3D printing right now. Things may be expensive, but like any early-adopter you should save your pennies and pick the right model for the job. First, I’d recommend the , an “experimental” Makerbot that can print using corn-starch-based PLA and plastic ABS. Being able to print in both materials is vitally important if you want to make high quality items and each material has its different qualities. For example, you can print translucent objects with PLA but not ABS and ABS objects are far more resilient than PLA objects. At $2,799 it’s not a cheap toy, but if you’ve been planning to jump into 3D printing there’s no time like the present. I actually make a little money using , a market for 3D printed objects. By printing things for other people you can actually pay for the ‘bot and the printing material in a few months. Want to spend a little less? Take a look at the , a $1,599 printer with a smaller build plate than the Makerbot but, in some ways, superior resolution. I tested the rugged little Afinia and came away impressed. You can order . One of my favorite products of 2013 was the . It’s a $1,400 3D scanner that can scan in almost any object. I calling it close to magic, which is the truth. Don’t want to spend too much? 3D Systems has released the Sense scanner, a $399 model that requires you to move the scanner around an object in 3D space. and we’ll have a full review shortly, but that’s the gist of it. Finally, you could probably use some filament. While sells their own excellent filament, I’ve had good luck with . You may have to mess around with the spool holder for your printer – Monoprice’s spools don’t fit the stock Makerbot spool holder – but you will save about $25 off of Makerbot’s prices. Be sure to leave plenty of room under the tree for your printers – these things aren’t tiny – and enjoy entering the amazing 21st century.
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Google Spanks Microsoft’s Recent Scroogled Antics
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Alex Wilhelm
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
Google today released a formal response to the most recent chapter of Microsoft’s ‘Scroogled’ campaign: “Microsoft’s latest venture comes as no surprise; competition in the wearables space really is heating up.” Yesterday, Microsoft released a raft of , continuing its war against Google with now usual sniping and griping and aw shucks what can we do attitude. Mugs and t-shirts and hoodies were up for sale, bearing Google logos and unkind sentiments such as the implication that Google’s browser, Chrome, steals your data. The mug sold out, though you have to wonder how many Microsoft really had made for its stunt, and how many of that total were purchased ironically. The ball is now back in Microsoft’s court, meaning that the Snark Wars will continue, even as the two companies .
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GameAnalytics Finds A Home In Unity’s Asset Store While It Works On Paid Products
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Chris Velazco
| 2,013 | 11 | 21 |
It’s hard to overstate just how finicky game design can be, and a Copenhagen-based startup called has been trying to help devs crack the design and monetization code going on two years now. Now the team has gotten a pretty nice kick in the pants thanks to the folks behind the Unity cross-platform game engine — the two have inked a deal that will see GameAnalytics offered in Unity’s Asset Store. Let’s back up a minute first — what is GameAnalytics? On the off-chance that the name didn’t already give it away, the startup offers game developers a set of tools that lets them easily dig into player actions in a really granular way to get a sense of what they’re actually experiencing in-game. After all, it’s not impossible to craft a game with a few scenarios that are just too hard, or a tutorial that’s too tedious, and each sticking point is yet another reason for a player to drop out and spend their valuable time elsewhere. According to Wulff the GameAnalytics team has been cozy with Unity since the very early days, but the specifics of the strategic partnership only really came together over the past few months. It’s a very big deal for the young company, if only because a perch in Unity’s asset store means more visibility in front of a crucial audience. You see, somewhere along the way, GameAnalytics decided to give up on the whole freemium pricing model thing — these days the analytics suite is free for any developer that wants to integrate it into their wares. At first blush it seems like a… questionable business decision, but Wulff seems confident that the move was for the best. From Wulff’s perch, the big goal for now is to demonstrate value to as many of those game developers as possible now to lay the groundwork for future monetization schemes that are currently in the works. And what exactly are those schemes? Wulff wouldn’t divulge too much on the matter aside from noting that he’d like to help developers “grow their audiences”, but he did confirm that the team was working on paid products that should debut some time next year. As if that wasn’t enough to keep everyone busy, the company’s other big priority has been inking the right partnerships with the right developers, a process that has seen Wulff and other members of the founding team crisscrossing the globe. In fairness, the team isn’t exactly new to playing the long game. GameAnalytics first poked its head above the water back in late in 2011 and announced its first major infusion of capital two years later . The slow and steady approach seems to be working reasonably well so far, as GameAnalytics’ tools have been baked into over 4,000 games. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington participated in that early seed round through CrunchFund, although that’s not how I found out about the article or why I think it’s cool.
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