|
|
|
|
PlayStation Network Corrupted, Prevents Offline Play Worldwide - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Mar 2010 | 3:02 am TI introduces highly-integrated, cost-effective RF range extender for low-power wireless applications at 850- to 950-MHz frequency rangeSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 3:00 am Viral Video: "Heavy Rain" Bewitches, But Without Twitches–Is It the Future of Gaming? [BoomTown]
Reviewers are falling all over themselves to praise a new videogame called “Heavy Rain,” which was released last week Sony (SNE) for its PlayStation 3. Developed by the Paris-based Quantic Dream, using a 2,000-page script, it’s a murder mystery in the film noir genre, with a deep and complex plot. The New York Times’ Seth Schiesel, for example, wrote on Friday, in what was a typical rave review of the “Heavy Rain”: “In terms of eye-hand coordination or ‘gamer skills,’ Heavy Rain is negligible, even trivial, in its challenge, which will offend twitch fiends. Yet this is no simplistic Choose Your Own Adventure for children. This is a wrenching, often disturbing, almost entirely gripping experience for grown-ups.” In other words, it goes without saying: Something with soul and creativity, unlike most of the shoot-em-up videogames now available. But it is not without wrenching violence, concerning itself with catching the Origami Killer, a serial killer who drowns young boys in rain water. There are four characters to play in the game that can last up to a dozen hours, with the outcome changing depending on your actions. While a few think the game feels too much like a straight-to-DVD movie, it might also be just the kind of change that the weak games market needs to reinvigorate itself. Decide for yourself–here’s videos of two of the many trailers of the innovative game, which seems deeply creepy: Source: All Things Digital | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:57 am It's Not Just Microsoft Against Google - New York Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:48 am Add A Real Controller To Your Jailbroken iPhoneBy Chris Scott Barr One thing that Apple has touted from the beginning with the iPhone is that it is great for gaming. I agree with that on some level, but the lack of a d-pad and physical buttons will...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:43 am Internet 'third-most popular news platform in US' (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:37 am Sony Plaza owners face fine of up to $25G after atrium smashup at Chris Noth ... - New York Daily News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:31 am AUO to Showcase Its Competitive Edge in the Solar Industry Value Chain at Japan's PV EXPOSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:24 am Calendar Bug Disables Older PlayStation 3 ModelsJohnWilliams writes "The Sony PlayStation Network appears to be inaccessible to older ('phat') PS3 units. Players cannot play games that require a connection, even in single-player, offline mode, e.g. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Also, the system date resets to January 1, 2000. Sony is 'looking into it.' Speculation abounds that it is a bug related to 2010 being incorrectly flagged as a leap year. The newer PS3 Slim models seem to be working properly."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:08 am Sohu.com Announces Launch of 'Da Hua Shui Hu' by Changyou.com on March 18, 2010Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:01 am T-Venture Makes Strategic Investment in LantiqSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:00 am Changyou.com to Launch 'Da Hua Shui Hu' on March 18, 2010Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:00 am Action Streams: A New Idea for Social NetworksWalled gardens are already under attack because of the ease of sending content like messages and photos from one website to another. Sites that don't let content flow in and out freely, when that's what...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:59 am Tweets of the Week: From Russia With Tweets [Voices]By Lauren Goode, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal Some of this week’s biggest tech-industry tweets came not from Silicon Valley but from Russia. “Rustechdel”–for Russian Tech Delegation–was hash-tagged by people like Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey, start-up investor Esther Dyson and actor Ashton Kutcher, who joined the U.S. State Department technology delegation in Moscow for a week of extolling the benefits of social media to Russians. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:58 am CHILE QUAKE: World Vision Begins Relief Efforts; Transport, Communications Remain Key ChallengesSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:53 am Pi2 Solutions Releases the Latest Version of its Product Literature Database System for the Biopharmaceutical IndustrySource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:30 am Internet changes news consumption landscape - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:06 am Will E-Commerce Help Facebook's Ad Sales? [Voices]By Kunur Patel, Contributor, Ad Age There’s been a lot of talk about whether social media can drive sales, but one thing is clear: Sales are starting to happen in social media–specifically, with Facebook. As it builds out its own store internally, strikes a deal with online payment platform PayPal and allows marketers to test e-commerce apps, the 400-million-member social networking site is starting to look more and more like a giant, global shopping mall. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:05 am The Hunt for the Big Dope [Voices]By Faza, Contributor, Cynical Musician “New business models” is a term that has come to be used as a universal get-out-of-jail-card in discussions about the future of music and content in general (now that it’s apparent that no one is safe). There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the suggestion that the digital technology underlying the Internet has opened a number of new options for the content industries, but we should tread carefully when debating just what such new models will consist in. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:04 am Why the Internet Will Fail (Originally Published in 1995) [Voices]By Three Word Chant, Contributor, Three Word Chant Just came across this article from Newsweek in 1995. It lists all the reasons the Internet will fail. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:03 am I Don't Like the iPad Because… [Voices]By John Battelle, Blogger, Searchblog It’s driven by the same old media love affair with distribution lock in. I’ve been on about this ever since I studied Google in 2001: Media traditionally has gained its profits by owning distribution. Cable carriage, network airwaves, newsstand distribution and printing presses: All very expensive, so once you employ enough capital to gain them, it’s damn hard to get knocked out. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:02 am Is Google Now a Monopoly? [Voices]By Christopher Caldwell, Columnist, FT.com Google (GOOG) is to the 21st century what certain railroads were to the late 19th. It creates conditions for economic activity unthinkable before its advent. There had been no market in Paris for North Dakotan wheat until suddenly there was. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:01 am CrunchGear Week in Review: Furnishings Edition
An interview with famed comic artists Drew and Natalie Dee
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:00 am GBP350K Investment for Social Recruitment Service BraveNewTalent.comSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:00 am Microsoft offers browser choices - BBC News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:47 am Perfect World Announces Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2009 Unaudited Financial ResultsSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:41 am MMO/Virtual World Expert Raph Koster: "Virtual Worlds Are Dead, Long Live the World, Virtual"Virtual world and MMO pioneer Raph Koster has a long and important post on the future of the medium, reflecting on its place within current trends. In the near future, he writes, [I] would be betting against...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:40 am Australian residents urged to flee 18-metre flamesA wildfire towering up to 18 metres (60 feet) high bore down on homes in Australia's western Outback on Monday, officials said, urging residents to flee. An emergency warning released atSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:37 am New HP EliteBook tablet adds capacitive touch, new Intel processors - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:33 am Glitch Hits PlayStation Network Users Worldwide
|
 PC World | Apple Urged to Be More Open About Suppliers After Worker Report BusinessWeek March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. should disclose more details about its suppliers, workers' rights groups said after the maker of iPhones and iPods revealed some of its contractors had hired underage employees. ... Apple: Underage Workers May Have Built Your iPhone Apple finds 17 labor violations by suppliers Apple Enforces "Supplier Code of Conduct" After Child Labor Discovery |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
America's Worst French Fries (and What You Should Eat Instead!) (via Consumerist)The only thing that comes close to redeeming this cheesy mound of lard and grease is the fact that it's ostensibly meant to be shared with a few friends. Even so, you'll collectively be taking in an entire day's worth of calories, three days' allotment of saturated fat, and a day and a half's allotment of sodium. What's even scarier, if you can imagine, is that even if you try to order more sensibly and ask for the "half" order of Texas Cheese Fries, you'll still receive a disastrous dish that packs in 1,400 calories. There's one French fries side dish at Chili's that's acceptable, although even in its much-reduced form, you'd be better off splitting it.
The 12.1-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) LED display includes anti-glare and optional outdoor view, and can be operated with a pen, your finger, the keyboard, or some combination thereof. Under the hood, you've got your choice of Core i7 or Core i5 processors, but there's sadly no discrete graphics option.
You'll get up to five hours out of the standard six-cell battery, but can add on an HP 2700 ultra-slim battery for an additional six hours (listed). And the standard set-up weighs under four pounds—not bad for a tough guy convertible tablet. The HP EliteBook 2740p will be available in the US in April, starting at $1600.
Processor: Intel® CoreTM i7 Mobile Processor Family with Turbo Boost Technology; Intel® CoreTM i5 Mobile Processor Family with Turbo Boost Technology
Memory: DDR3 SDRAM, 1066/1333 MHz*, two slots supporting dual-channel memory, 1024/2048/4096 MB SODIMMs, up to 8192 MB total15 *Running at 1066 MHz
Removable Media: Optional HP External USB CD/DVD R/RW Drive Optional fixed 9.5-mm DVD+/—RW SuperMulti DL Drive available for HP 2740 Ultra-Slim Expansion Base9
Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics with dynamic frequency
Wireless Support: Optional HP un2420 EV-DO/HSPA Mobile Broadband Module (requires mobile network operator service)5 (GPS-enabled)6; Intel Centrino; Intel 802.11a/b/g/n;4 Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n, b/g;4 HP Integrated Module with Bluetooth ® v2.1 Wireless Technology; HP Wireless Assistant, Connection Manager 3.1
Expansion Slots: 1 ExpressCard/34 slot, Secure Digital slot (SD/MMC)
Chipset: Mobile Intel QM57 Chipset; Intel vPro Technology24 (optional)
Internal Storage: 1.8-inch bay: 160/250 GB25 5400 rpm SMART SATA II HD, 320 GB25 5400 rpm HDD or 80/160 GB25 SSD, HP 3D DriveGuard
Display: 12.1-inch diagonal LED-backlit WXGA ultra wide viewing angle anti-glare (1280 x 800) – digitizer only or digitizer & multi-touch Optional Outdoor View, (Outdoor view only available with digitizer and multi-touch)
Audio/Visual: High Definition Audio, stereo speakers, combo headphone/microphone jack, integrated dual-microphone array, integrated 2 MP Webcam
Communications: Integrated Intel Gigabit Ethernet PCI Controller (10/100/1000 NIC), 56K v.92 modem
Ports and Connectors: 3 USB 2.0 ports (one powered), VGA, combo headphone/microphone jack, 1394a, power connector, RJ-11/modem, RJ-45/Ethernet, docking connector for HP 2740 Ultra-Slim Expansion BaseSoftware: HP Recovery Manager (Windows 7 and Vista only), HP Support Assistant (Windows 7 and Vista only), Intervideo WinDVD (select models),
Security: Standard: HP ProtectTools, Integrated Smart Card Reader, HP Fingerprint Sensor, TPM Embedded Security Chip 1.2, Kensington Lock slot, Enhanced Pre-Boot Security, HP Spare Key (requires initial user setup), HP Disk Sanitizer19 Enhanced Drive Lock, Drive Encryption for HP ProtectTools, Credential Manager for HP ProtectTools, File Sanitizer for HP ProtectTools;19
Power: HP 6-cell (44 WHr) primary battery, HP Long Life 6-cell (39 WHr) primary battery, optional secondary HP 6-cell (46 WHr) 2700 Ultra-Slim
Warranty: Limited 3-year, 1-year and 90-day warranty options available, depending on country, 1-year limited warranty on primary battery; 3-year: limited warranty on HP Long Life Batteries10. Optional HP Care Pack Services are extended service contracts which go beyond your standard
warranties. For more details visit: http://www.hp.com/go/lookuptool.Input Device: Full-sized spill-resistant keyboard with drains, dual pointing devices (touchpad with scroll zone, pointstick), digital eraser pen, Jog dial, 2 MP Webcam16, touch-sensitive controls, HP DuraKeys22
HP QuickLook 3,7 HP QuickWeb,8 Roxio Creator Business 10 (select models), HP Power Assistant,18 Skype,16 WinZip 12Optional: LoJack for HP ProtectTools,2, 20 McAfee Security Solution26
Dimensions: 1.25in(atfront)x11.42inx8.35in /31.7mm(atfront)x290mmx212mm
Weight: Starting at 3.8 lb (1.72 kg) with no WWAN (weight will vary by configuration)
Battery, 65W Smart Combo Adapter,2 HP Fast ChargeExpansion Solutions:HP 2740 Ultra-Slim Expansion Base, HP USB 2.0 Docking Station, HP Essential USB 2.0 Port Replicator
[HP]
HP's rolling out four new ProBook models, ranging from the 13.3-inch 4320s to the heavy-duty 17.3-inch 4720s. In addition to those speedy Arrandale processors and "caviar" and "bordeaux" aluminum finishes, the new line-up also features optional ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4350 discrete graphics (compared with the previous generation's Radeon 4330, HD LED-backlit displays, and an optional 2MP camera.
The ProBooks also feature DayStarter, a feature that lets you view your calendar to distract you while your computer loads, and ArcSoft TotalMedia Suite audio and video editing software. WIth an optional 9-cell battery, the battery life is listed at an impressive 10 hours.
You won't find any USB 3.0 here, and the price points—starting at $719 for the 13-inch base configuration—are good-not-great. But if you need a work notebook with a little flair, and a home notebook with a little kick, ProBook might be your answer for both. You'll have a chance to find out when they become available later this month. [HP]
When Google Buzz launched three weeks ago, the product wasn’t ready. There were basic privacy issues that still needed to be hammered out (and were quickly addressed by Google), but beyond that Google Buzz simply did not work smoothly enough to force feed it to 175 million Gmail users without any warning. (MG covered some of the usability issues last week).
So why was Google Buzz pushed out the door too soon? I have three interrelated theories:
Google needed to get into this game as fast as it could, even if there were bumps along the way. The question now is whether Buzz can keep building.
Photo credit: Flickr/ Chelseagirl
Just two years later, though, Schmidt had his act together, and looked significantly more like an exec than a nerd. That’s too bad – 1986 Eric was cool.
 The Hindu | Al Gore takes aim at climate change skeptics Reuters Former Vice President Al Gore participates in a panel discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative, in New York, September 23, 2009. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore on took aim at skeptics who doubt the reality of human-caused ... Climate Group Plans Review Al Gore wishes global warming weren't real Independent Board to Review Work of Top Climate Panel |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Thanks to Mark, David, Xeni, and Cory for the opportunity to place my posts on the world's best blog for the past two weeks. Having an online presence on such a lively and well-read space has been a thrill.As Marlowe says, nothing says goodbye like a bullet, but it's been great to write for a while about things besides stuff that goes boom, whoosh, or splat. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. If you're interested in that sort of thing, come by my site www.AbsintheAndFlamethrowers.com or check out a copy of my book Absinthe and Flamethrowers.)
I've placed links to a few of my favorite posts below for those who may have missed them the first time.
I haven't been keeping up on Facebook or Twitter, but check out my youtube videos if you get a chance. Cheers!
Who amongst the Gizmodo population can't access PSN right now to play MAG or any of the other online games at your disposal? And, if so, what the heck are you doing instead?
For more info, hit the links or visit Kotaku for more. [IGN Boards, PlayStation Boards - Thanks, Janesh]
AP - Early last year, a Chinese company placed an order with a Taiwanese agent for 108 nuclear-related pressure gauges. But something happened along the way. Paperwork was backdated. Plans were rerouted, orders reconfigured, shipping redirected.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
It seems that quite a few children were discovered working in the factories where they assemble Apple products and components. Why this would come as a surprise to anyone is beyond me. Did people think Apple had a special brushed-aluminum facility surrounded by parks and fountains, where volunteer workers happily put together iPads just for the chance to be part of something magical? No, Apple is a gargantuan electronics company just like any other. I keep telling you! Hold them to a higher standard than Acer or Samsung and you’re bound to be disappointed.
The truth, as John pointed out in his series of articles describing China’s manufacturing districts, is that they’re all sweatshops of varying quality. Even 75% of the workflow is overseen correctly and employs no minors or what have you, what about the subcontracting for this piece of memory or that hinge? Can you guarantee that a fair wage was paid for that, or that kids weren’t involved?
It’s a fact of our globalized and consumer-oriented culture that we need to have stuff created as quickly and cheaply as possible. I’m not taking a position on this, I’m just saying that’s the way it is right now, and stuff like kids getting a dollar a day in Chinese factories is a consequence of it.
The Wired iPad app Conde Nast showed off this month looks great. But the chances that the publisher will give its other magazines the same treatment don’t look promising.
Conde is still creating a digital version of its tech magazine for the device. But the influential publisher says it won’t create similar iPad apps for other titles unless Apple and Adobe figure out how to work together.
Conde does plan to sell iPad-friendly versions of some of its other magazines. But they will be similar to the iPhone app that the publisher has already created for its GQ title, and not the more ambitious stuff that Wired has been talking up since last fall.
In a memo that the company plans to distribute internally tomorrow, Conde says it is trying two different approaches to the iPad (and tablets in general) as part of a “R&D period” that will run through October, while it figures out the best way to please readers, advertisers, etc.
But in a conversation I had with Chuck Townsend last week, Conde’s CEO was more blunt: He can’t fully embrace the Wired version, which was created with Adobe’s (ADBE) help and uses Adobe’s Flash platform, unless Apple (AAPL) embraces Flash.
Conde will have “two parallel development tracks going until the relationship between Apple and Adobe is clear,” he told me Friday.
But what about Adobe’s assurances that it’s no big deal to move the mag app it built for Wired, which is based on Flash, into a form Apple approves of? Not convincing enough, Townsend said.
I asked Townsend if he’d prefer to use the Wired model — which boasts features like integrated video, interactive ads, etc — if Apple was OK with Flash. In that case, he said, “the answer would be an easy yes.”
Given that Apple has made its distaste for Flash a key part of iPhone/iPod/iPad ecosystem, that puts Conde in a difficult position.
It has spent significant time and energy working with Adobe, and one of its flagship titles (“magazine of the decade,” per Adweek) has lined up behind the company. And it is indeed possible to move Flash apps to the iPhone, and presumably the iPad.
But content companies like Conde have convinced themselves that the iPad will be huge part of their future. And that means they want Apple’s full cooperation, and not its grudging approval. For instance, there’s zero chance Apple promotes a Flash-based app in one of its ads.
The GQ app for the iPhone is pretty good, by the way, and I’m assuming it will work well on the iPad, too. But it’s a pretty straightforward transfer of the print version into digital form, and doesn’t feature the bells and whistles that Wired and Adobe dreamed up.
Will anyone care? Let’s see. For now, here’s Conde’s official iPad app time table: A new version of the GQ app, tweaked to the iPad’s specs, should be available when the device launches at the end of March. After that, it is planning similar apps for Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour. The Wired app is scheduled to debut at the end of May.
And then readers, advertisers, and everyone else can finally compare for themselves.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Here’s some troubling news for my fellow World of Warcraft players. It seems that hackers, account thieves, and other miscreants have now embraced man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks to further their evil ways. Blizzard says it’s not a widespread issue, and it’s rather difficult to pull off, but it’s something y’all should be aware of.
The deal is that WoW hackers are able to infect your PC—this is a PC-only problem, mind you, so Mac players can more or less ignore all of this—with a bit of malware that’s then able to initiate the MITM attack. The purpose of this is to intercept your login name, password, and authenticator number so that they can log into your account. Once online, they can do whatever it is you’d be able to do inside the game world: sell items, mail gold to other players, etc. They cannot, it should be noted, delete your actual account or anything like that. Still, it’s potentially devastating, selling all your epics for fast gold, then turning around and selling that gold for real money to someone else.
MITM attacks aren’t new or anything. There’s plenty of programs out there can initiate them rather easily, letting people intercept passwords, instant messages, you name it. They work in that they sit in between your PC and the server you’re trying to connect to. So, if you’re playing WoW, instead of your username and password and authenticator number going directly to Blizzard’s servers, they first go to the hacker’s rogue server, which then passes the info onto your intended server, capturing the information in the process. It’s essentially invisible to you, the end-user, which is why the attacks are so dangerous.
Blizzard has already identified the piece of malware that initiates the MITM attack, so be on the lookout for emcor.dll. Be sure to keep your anti-virus software up to date.
One final bit: the odds of you being a victim of such an attack are quite low, if only because it requires so much work for the hacker to pull off; you’d have to be hacked a the very moment he wants to break into your account, and that’s something that simply doesn’t happen. Rather, your account will be compromised on, say, Monday, but it won’t be until the following Saturday that the hacker actually access your account. And again, the worst thing that could happen with this kind of attack would be for someone to sell off your character’s items and gold, then, for good measure, delete your character—your actual account cannot be tampered with. That may be a distinction without meaning, yes.
So yeah, just be sure to keep your anti-virus software up to date, and keep your wits about you. Stay away from the shady parts of the Internet!
via wow.com
The guys behind Shanzai.com – a blog covering the very best in China and Indian shanzai products – are taking the world of shanzai online with a new crowdsourcing site called Shanzaistudios.com
Basically, its your standard crowdsourcing model or better yet “Social Production” – the site puts up a product they can manufacture in China and everyone visiting the site gets to help form the final design that gets made and sold.
While the first product is very interesting to tablet fans (a tablet bag ‘natch) its how deep they plan to go that is exciting. While in Hong Kong, I was able to chat with one of the founders and they were telling me that ultimately this is the way to get a more personalized cellphone or a tablet device, but starting smaller and building it up is their initial goal.
Said the founders:
“Actually, we see the key to success in crowdsourcing or social production as we call it is finding the right manufacturing partners who understand the business model and have the flexibility to meet the different demands of our community. This is very different approach than mass volume production but it is one that shanzai manufacturers understand instinctively because they themselves have grown by developing niche market products in small-size lots.”
Beyond the tablet bag, they are getting into LED lighting which they have direct contacts at factories in China to manufacture and they are looking to hear what the community that grows really wants to get in to. Don’t like the JooJoo or the iPad, this could be your shot to help make the one you really want.
Crowdsourcing success is going to depend on the quality of the people in the crowd. I’ve not yet seen this work in a true social way, but sites like Crowdspring.com (for logo designs), Kickstarter.com (creative projects investments) and Local-motors.com (the design of a car) are going for it in various ways.
But in a world where the dictatorship of Apple makes the most coveted products, do we need a bunch of wanabee-Jonathan Ives try to make something for a group to buy? Can a group of 10, 100 or 1,000 agree on something they would all buy?
Who’s got Mark Burnett’s number? I’ve got a reality show to pitch him.
Reader Dan of the UK sent us this image of the UK iTunes store, where things are a little more Cool Britannia, if you know what I mean.
As I said before, this is all about image in the US. We’re a delightfully prudish people, aren’t we?
AFP - US national security leaders and top cyber warriors from around the world are gathering here to plot defenses against criminals and spies that increasingly plague the Internet.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Since this is a clone however, the price is really the only area where one could say it "competes" with Sony's premium-priced Vaio P.
The clone offers a 160GB for about $300, as well as a $380 model with 350GB storage, 2Gb ram and 3G.
Aaand scene. [Gizchina - Thanks, Andi]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
"Of course, we don't comment on rumours or leaks, but we are looking forward to C BIT for the next series of Nokia announcements. Right we're off to pack our rucksacks and lederhosen, C you there."
Do you C? Because they're laying it on pretty thick (and so am I!). So coy, that Nokia. Too bad they're doomed. Maybe these phones will help. Otherwise, C ya later. [Engadget]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Anyway, really, designer Marcos Ignacio Madia must have gone all Sigourney Weaver in the jungle from Gorillas in the Mist on us, because he just went and designed a line of speakers that look and grow (by stacking) like trees. There's a woofer, midrange and tweeters, all of which you can stack and...hrm...grow as you expand the collection.
You can even, theoretically, turn the speakers to face different directions as you experiment with sound. Which is just like regular speakers except birds won't accidentally nest in those.
It's just a design at the moment, so you audiophiles will just have to put those woodies away for now. [Home Tone Coolest Gadgets via DVICE]
The truth is that cats will make themselves comfortable anywhere. On a bed of coals, or atop Mount Doom, or hurtling through space at 99% of the speed of light, a cat will somehow find a way to curl up and doze off. So the idea of including a special place for your cat to sleep underneath a perfectly good cat bed (in this case a glass coffee table) seems redundant. But let’s be honest — are you going to let a little redundancy keep you from buying a cat hammock?
Alas, like most things worth having, the cat hammock is not real. Sure, there’s one somewhere in Japanese designer Case-Real’s warehouse, but I don’t think they’re going to let you have it.
I think I’m beginning to fall in love with Case-Real — they also designed this stunning amplifier from a few months back. Check out the other stuff on their site; maybe we can convince them to start getting it manufactured.
[via 1designperday and Geekologie]
I'd love for any UK-based small business owners to weigh in on this debate, and the bill. Is it really as annoying as the ZDNet article makes it sound? Are daily, detailed user records really too much a burden for the corner coffee shop to bear? Light those torches and brandish your pitchforks in the comments! [ZDNET]
Editor’s note: Guest author Ashkan Karbasfrooshan is the founder and CEO of video site WatchMojo. Below are his picks for the ten most likely M&A deals in online video. Previously, he wrote a series if posts about the state of online video (Part I, II, III, and IV).
Which online video companies will get bought in 2010? Venture capitalists are desperately looking for exits while the usual suspects are sitting on more than $80 billion in cash: Microsoft ($20B), Apple ($40B), Google ($15B), Amazon ($3B), and Yahoo! ($3B) just to name the cash positions of a few potential acquirers. Theoretically, it should be a match made in heaven, but the sheer number of venture-backed video startups is staggering so when the music stops, not everyone will find a dancing partner.
Once you assess what drives companies to merge or acquire one another, however, it seems like we’re about to enter a period of mergers between video competitors and see a series of acquisitions by larger companies looking to accelerate their video strategies, with a common theme being increasing both monetization and margins.
Right now, as the chart above shows (click to enlarge), there are two types of online video companies: those with sky-high ad rates but fairly limited inventory (company A) and those with huge inventory but woeful monetization (company B). Companies can extend profitability through technology, ad solutions or content.
With that in mind, let’s look at those 10 potential deals.
1. Demand Media will acquire Tremor Media
Demand Media has raised $355 million but to this day still generates the bulk of its revenue from its domain registrar unit, eNom. However, it is trying to move into the content business, with its “Content Farm” strategy getting a lot of attention.
Demand Media’s existing content lends itself better to an arbitrage strategy built around Google marketing and monetization, but over time it will want to do a better job entering both display and video advertising and it will do that by buying one of the many, many video ad networks out there. Brightroll, which is focused on brands, is one option. Tremor is another, focusing on reach. That strategy should fit well with Demand Media’s modus operandi. Tremor Media’s ads reach 177.6 million uniques, or 85% of internet users.
2. Lagardere Groupe will acquire Dailymotion
At first glance, French media conglomerate Lagardere seemingly sees no value in communities as a marketing platform: “There is no clear business model because you have a huge, massive audience, but it is not a marketing community,” says to Lagardere’s Chief Financial Officer Dominique D’Hinnin.
Monsieur D’Hinnin might be right, but never underestimate France’s sense of nationalism. Dailymotion is France’s answer to YouTube and it has taken steps to reduce its share of user-generated and pirated content in favor of professional videos. (Disclosure: Dailymotion is also one of WatchMojo’s distribution partners).
With $68.5M in funding—including a tidy sum from Le Fonds Strategique d’investissement, which is an investing arm of the French State—you can imagine that one of the pillars of the French media landscape, Lagardere Groupe could eventually step in and acquire Dailymotion despite its admitted monetization problems: “At the moment, we are poor at monetising our audience,” admits Dailymotion CEO Cedric Tournay. Lagardere could help with that provided Dailymotion can continue to de-emphasize its less advertiser-friendly content.
Additionally, Lagardere will be able to leverage Dailymotion’s audience to promote its own content: the company owns Hachette along with numerous other media entities.
3. Scripps will acquire 5Min
When 5Min (another one of our distribution partners) launched, it focused on user-generated how-to content. Thankfully for them, they have since moved away from that and currently mesh
a) aggregated premium and super premium content with
b) their monetization engine, a strategy which has propelled 5Min to become a Top 10 comScore video company.
Scripps is a producer of super premium content, and like Discovery Holdings, it might prefer to distribute its programming through TV and cable. But, with consumers viewing more and more videos on the Web, it will need more content for its sites and will look for more inventory online.
The two companies already have a strategic deal in place, so they have some familiarity with each other.
4. Google will acquire Ooyala
Last year it was rumored that Google was going to acquire Brightcove for $500-700M. That was always unlikely because many of Brightcove’s financial backers are the very same media companies that view Google as the bane of their existence. Moreover, Google makes a lot of acquisitions but rarely are they large (YouTube, DoubleClick and AdMob being the exceptions).
A more logical fit to expand its video foothold would be Ooyala, which competes with Brightcove and includes Glam Media and others as clients… and was founded by a former Google executive.
Google has the consumer video market cornered with YouTube. Iit could leverage Ooyala to go after the corporate market by undercutting Brightcove.
5. Microsoft will acquire Brightcove
The consolidation in ad services peaked with Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick and Microsoft’s $6B acquisition of aQuantive. After selling ad agency unit Razorfish, today aQuantive is Microsoft Advertising, and as advertising continues to move into video, MSFT will probably want to offer a video content management to go along with the Atlas ad serving platform. That is where Brightcove fits in.
If you think about it, Google owns video search by way of its YouTube acquisition. Microsoft wants to push into cloud computing and at least conceptually, owning Brightcove would give it a legitimate cloud computing foothold in professional video content with no real threat to any of its core businesses. It could also better integrate Brightcove (which increasingly powers media companies’ videos) into Bing’s video search, helping it kill many birds with one (albeit expensive) stone.
6. Yahoo! will acquire Freewheel
After acquiring Blue Lithium and Right Media, Yahoo! got a shot in the arm and grew its advertising reach across the Web, outside of the Yahoo.com property.
Freewheel is founded by former DoubleClick employees but Google (which bought DoubleClick) might have less interest than one would think in augmenting its video advertising reach across the Web considering it owns YouTube which accounts for 40% of online video consumption. YouTube only monetizes a small share of the billions of videos on the site.
Freewheel, which allows marketers and publishers to manage campaigns across a variety of distribution sites, would be a nice fit with Yahoo!, which might want to extend its Audience Network in video offerings.
7. Gannett will acquire Livestream
Gannett already invested $10 million in Livestream (then known as Mogulus).
The fit is a natural: print media will want to bolster its video offerings (be it content or technology). The main challenge here is that media companies have grown wary of buying technology firms, but news organizations will have a natural predisposition for all things live and the investment sets the stage up for an all-out acquisition.
8. Nielsen will acquire TubeMogul
TubeMogulprovides analytics to countless marketers and publishers (we use them at WatchMojo). Nielsen and comScore are both looking at adding video capabilities and TubeMogul has done a good job of getting wide adoption, providing Nielsen with a quick entry into the burgeoning video space.
Also, David Toth, former president, CEO, and co-founder of the NetRatings service joined TubeMogul’s board.
9. AOL acquires Howcast
AOL’s recent acquisition of StudioNow is a sign of things to come: When AOL was spun off from Time Warner, it was shackled with restrictions on its use of cash and thus the size of the deals it could complete.
But AOL wants to create content, lots of it. AOL’s Tim Armstrong is an investor in Howcast; he was also an investor in Patch, a local startup Armstrong acquired after joining AOL (to his credit, he simply recouped his initial investment and did not participate in the capital gain).
Howcast creates videos themselves, lets users create and upload videos and aggregates other professional content (Howcast is one of our distribution partners as well). While Howcast might have proven redundant with the StudioNow acquisition, AOL has a history of doubling up when it focuses on a space (think ad services: Tacoda, Advertising.com, and Third Screen Media) and Howcast is more focussed on how-to videos.
10. News Corp. acquires Break Media from Lionsgate, spins off NewCo
News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch is in the process of divesting from the Web: first selling Photobucket, then chucking Rotten Tomatoes to Flixster while retaining a stake in the new venture. I see something similar happening with Acquisition #10.
Break Media is one of the so-called YouTube clones who has managed to differentiate itself by focusing on the men’s 18-34 market and creating content, be it videos and now video games. Back in 2007, Lionsgate invested $21 million in stock for a 42% stake in Break.com. At the time, it also got a call option (basically, the right to buy) which is “exercisable at any time from June 29, 2007 until the earlier of 30 months after June 29, 2007 or a year after a change of control, to purchase all of the remaining 58% equity interests (excluding any subsequent dilutive events), including in-the-money stock options, warrants and other rights, of Break.com for $58 million in cash or common stock, at the company’s option.”
The 30 month window expired on December 29, 2009, and despite Break’s momentum, I don’t see any major incentive for Lionsgate to exercise its call option. I do, however, see the following happening (well, maybe…).
Lionsgate might be more willing to trade its 42% stake in Break Media for a smaller share in a NewCo. that houses both Break Media and News Corp.’s IGN Entertainment, another leader in the men’s 18-34 space. (again, bothh Break and IGN are distribution partners). This NewCo. would then be a more likely candidate for an IPO and would allow both Lionsgate and News Corp. to focus on their core businesses and cash out their investment over time.
Needless to say, all of the above deals are idle, if informed, speculation on my part. What do you think are the most likely video exits this year?
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Following the earthquake in Haiti, mobile fundraising via texting exploded; with over $40 million raised via text messaging alone. With the massive success of the Haiti campaign, mobile donations are now being used to raise funds for the victims of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that shook Chile over the past weekend.
Mobile giving is fairly simple; you text a keyword to a code on your phone and a micro-donation is made to a given charity. The donation is billed via your carrier. Similar to the Haiti campaign, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile are waiving text-messaging fees for the donations. According to the Mobile Giving Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, The Salvation Army, The American Red Cross and World Vision are all accepting SMS donations for the Chile earthquake.
Mobile Accord, which ran Haiti mobile fundraising efforts for the Red Cross, is also coordinating SMS fundraising on behalf of several philanthropic foundations raising money for Chile. Via the company’s mGive program, you can make $10 donations to Friends of the World Food Program, Operation USA, and Convoy of Hope.
It’s unclear whether the fundraising campaign for the Chile earthquake will see the impressive results of the Haiti initiative, but the model did prove to be successful.
Photo Credit/Flickr/curiouslee
Then there's the video:
Now, keep in mind this is all pre-production hardware we're seeing, and could improve before launch. Maybe. [Touchscreen Tablet via Engadget]
Looks pretty sturdy too, which is incredibly important should the pilot happen to have a James Cameron-sized ego. [Nowhere Else via CrunchGear]
People who use Jimdo to create and publish their own basic website know how versatile yet easy-to-use the tool really is – I know because I used the service myself to set up and manage a site for my wedding last year. And if these users now want to start selling something online through their websites, it wouldn’t involve as much hassle as it would have a week ago.
This is because the German startup behind Jimdo has added a ‘Store’ feature to their website building service, enabling users to add a full-fledged ecommerce element to their sites.
Jimdo users who want to set up an online business can use Store to start organizing and publishing a catalog of products, which can be presented in various ways: multiple pictures with detailed-view zoom functionality, videos, text, PDFs and more. Products can have multiple variations (e.g. shirt colors, sizes, etc.) and can be featured as ‘bestsellers’ or within a given specific product category.
A shopping cart feature is built right into the new product extension, complete with PayPal integration and the ability to include a custom check-out process (i.e. by invoice). The startup has also considered the challenges of conducting online business on a global level, making it possible for sellers to switch between U.S. Sales Tax and VAT (Europe) and customize shipping costs accordingly.
Here’s a reference site, fully powered by Jimdo (more can be found here). For pricing and current promotions, check this page.
In other, rather unexpected news, Jimdo investor United Internet has withdrawn from the company’s board. In May 2009, the international ISP had acquired 30% of the startup and also inked a license deal with the young company that allowed it to have its hosting provider subsidiary 1&1 enable their customers to build Jimdo sites as a white-labeled service.
Jimdo co-founder Matthias Henze had this to say about the whole ordeal:
“United Internet has left the board of shareholders. As you know, they mainly invested because of the partnership we had with 1&1. Since 1&1 had different views concerning the roadmap we changed the agreement with 1&1 which now has a license to develop the white-labeled version on its own. I’m really sorry, but due to signed NDAs I can’t share any more details on the deal.”
It’s a bit of a strange development, but Jimdo doesn’t seem to be all too worried about the ties getting cut – the company also tells me they’ve reached profitability with team of 30 full-time employees. We’ll see how they fare now that they’re on their own again.
Section: Computers, Hardware, Software / Applications, Gadgets / Other, ebooks
Microsoft and Amazon have announced an agreement that would give the companies access to each other’s patents. The deal includes both the popular Kindle and Amazon’s use of Linux based servers, and Microsoft’s FAT, ClearType, and other technologies.
“Microsoft’s patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved,” Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for intellectual property and licensing at Microsoft, said in a statement.
The exact details haven’t been released but it’s likely Amazon will pay for its access. No telling yet what this might mean for the Kindle or if it may result in a Windows Mobile Kindle app. The app is already available for the BlackBerry, iPhone/iPod Touch, and PC.
Read [PCMag]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Computers, Security, Features
Unbelievably, Wyndham Hotels is reporting yet another data breach, it’s third in the past 19 months. That’s right, it’s third. This time it happened between October 2009 and January 2010 and affected an undisclosed number of hotels and franchises.
“A hacker intruded on our systems and accessed customers’ information from a limited number of franchised and managed properties,” the company said. “The hacker was able to move some information to an off-site URL before we discovered the intrusion.”
The hacker was able to steal all the data necessary to commit identity theft and credit card fraud including the names, credit card numbers and CC expiration dates of guests. The first breach happened between July and August of 2008 and the second the year after.
Wyndham operates Days Inn, Super 8 Motels, and Ramada Inns & Suites, and frankly, its time they bought themselves a clue and a decent IT department. A single breach is one thing, but three? C’mon Wyndham, get your act together! Three data breaches in 19 months is completely inexcusable. Good luck getting your customer’s trust back!
If you stayed at a Wyndham property during the time period the breach occurred, talk to your credit card company or bank and keep a very close eye on your account!
Read [PCWorld]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Editor’s note: Earlier this month, BrightRoll raised a $10 million Series B for its video ad network. In this guest post, CEO Tod Sacerdoti shares some of the lessons he learned trying to raise that money in the current environment.
As Peter Drucker once wrote, “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity.” Put more simply, change is good . . . of course, that’s unless you’re trying to raise capital in these trying times.
After my company BrightRoll recently closed its Series B round of financing, we took a step back to digest the lessons we learned from pitching and negotiating with a handful of VCs over our 6-week fundraising effort.
To say raising money in the current economic environment has been different than it was two years ago is a massive understatement. Saying it’s night and day would be more accurate. As a year that was touched off by Sequoia’s now famous “RIP Good Times” presentation, 2009 was highlighted by massive layoffs, significant cost cutting and many well publicized company failures. As a result, many VC firms, and their portfolios, are now fraught with uncertainty—walking a fine line between licking their wounds thanks to poor fund returns and looking for new opportunities to improve their fortunes as the market recovers.
Perhaps the most important lesson gleaned from our financing is that over the last two years, the fundraising environment has become more complex. A still dormant IPO and comparatively sluggish M&A markets offer little hope for the future in terms of exits, while a handful of well-publicized scandals have led to more bureaucratic layers in the due diligence process and a new series of metrics are being used to gauge long-term prospects.
It’s a market in flux, with a whole new set of best—or worst—practices, depending on how you look at them. What follow are some highlights from BrightRoll’s most recent trip down Sand Hill Road.
1. The Mint.com Acquisition Left Anything But a Minty Aftertaste in the Mouths of Many on Sand Hill Road
If you read TechCrunch, you undoubtedly know the story of Mint.com. The winner of the inaugural TechCrunch40, Mint.com’s personal finance application lets users track and monitor their financials. The company grew by leaps and bounds following its debut and just three years after its founding was acquired by Intuit for $170M.
By most accounts Mint.com’s rapid rise to prominence and ultimate acquisition is the quintessential Silicon Valley success story. Yet, the Mint.com acquisition brought to light an interesting phenomenon, one I’ve coined the “Patzer Problem.” Prior to submitting offers to invest, three separate VCs wanted to confirm that we had no intention of “Pulling a Patzer,” modern-day Sand Hill Road parlance for selling too early.
Here’s why: with large funds being raised on Sand Hill Road and returns from previous funds underperforming, investors are becoming increasingly desperate for that single homerun investment that returns $1B or greater. Even though Mint.com was a huge success for the founder and team, generating $60 million in equity value per year, many VCs believe they sold too early and left too much potential value on the table.
2. Fraud and Its Impact on the Due Diligence Process
In addition to the challenge of getting a term sheet signed, new barriers have emerged that make closing transactions harder than ever. Chief among them is completing due diligence, which has gone from a relatively efficient and painless series of “check-the-box” financial and legal processes, to a full-blown corporate and financial audit.
These changes can be primarily attributed to the alleged fraud and ultimate failure of Canopy Financial, a company that raised more than $85 million from FTP and Spectrum. Canopy is alleged to have falsified financial reports and auditing statements and its investors were left holding the bag, which means that other entrepreneurs seeking funding are now paying the price. To prepare for these changes, companies should make sure to negotiate a cap on legal expenses ($25,000 max) in all term sheets because there is no end to what can be attributed to due diligence under this new model.
3. Perception is Reality, So Prepare Your Third-Party Data
As Mark Twain once said, “Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.” While both companies and venture capitalists often argue that internal logs are both factual and the most accurate source of online traffic data, this data carries little weight when there are millions of dollars at stake. At BrightRoll, we were amazed how many investor decisions relied on metrics provided by comScore and Quantcast, even when the same investors would simultaneously mock the validity of those reports.
The lesson here? VCs act like public market investors and perceived leadership may be as valuable as actual leadership—don’t forget to put apples-to-apples measurement in place before making your pitch and understand how to explain any discrepancies that may exist between your logs and those of third-party providers.
4. New Metric: Revenue vs. Money Raised (RoR)
We all know that Rome wasn’t built in a day and that venture investing is by nature one of the most risky investment classes. History has shown that companies pursuing billion dollar exits that VCs covet are often required to spend significant amounts of time and capital in their formative years to build out their product and gain market share.
Yet, in what may be a harbinger of things to come, in multiple meetings I was asked to compare BrightRoll’s annual revenue to the amount of money it had raised in previous years. This is what I now call the Revenue on Raised (RoR) Ratio. If your RoR is greater than one, meaning you generate more revenue every year than your total capital raised, then you are in good health and outperforming most later-stage startups.
Just a few years ago, the “Patzer Problem” and the “RoR” ratio would have seemed paradoxical. After all, how can a company be expected to pursue a multi-billion dollar opportunity, bring a product to market and generate revenues in excess of the funds they’ve raised fast enough? As difficult as it is, that is what companies must do. Savvy investors now realize that fast time-to-market, and massive market opportunities and significant revenue generation are all possible in today’s online environment.
5. Revenue Growth or Profitability, Pick One
There is a perception that in 2009 companies were either reducing head count to get profitable or gaining market share to grow revenue. Yet, in most of our conversations the concept of doing both—doubling revenue and getting profitable in a down year—was regarded as the gold standard.
Is this thinking the fatal flaw in the venture model? Looking back to early 2009, it would have been a smart move to invest in companies at low valuations to enable them to deliver either revenue growth or profitability, not both. These results would have been achievable through a disciplined approach, focused on several factors, including:
Together, these small steps can pay dividends when it comes to raising follow-on rounds, particularly during tough economic times.
I hope the above lessons help other companies looking to dive into today’s VC environment, as a little knowledge from the companies that have come before you can go a long way.
Photo credit: Flickr/ Steven Damron
Section: Communications, Mobile
The big news that came out of Mobile World Congress this year was Microsoft’s complete rebuild of their mobile platform. At last, Windows Mobile was going to be replaced with a modern looking smartphone OS. But don’t think that it is going away completely.
It has now been confirmed that Windows Mobile 6.5 will now be known as Windows Phone Starter Edition. Like their Windows desktop operating systems, Microsoft has made a version that will come without several features, such as Office Mobile, that will be sold on the cheaper side with Windows Phone 7 series being its more expensive partner.
Windows Phone Starter Edition might also be accompanied by another OS codenamed Windows Phone Classic, which would complete the phone family under the Windows Phone name.
Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
The coverage of the Winter Olympics on NBC has been painful to watch. In addition to the tape delays which ruined the outcomes for anyone paying attention to any other news, sports or social media outlet other than NBC, there are a lot of other complaints. In between the hard-hitting reports of polar bears in the Canadian North and life among the lumberjacks, NBC did manage to squeeze in some actual Winter games, which were matched in quantity by the constant loop of the same handful of commercials on heavy rotation for McDonald’s, Visa, AT&T, Diet Coke, and NBC’s upcoming shows Parenthood and the Marriage Ref. (Thank goodness for DVRs).
We already know that NBC’s handling of its Olympics coverage sucks, if only because everyone on Twitter says so. Right now, Twitter Sentiment shows that 73 percent of Tweets about “NBC Olympics” are negative. But what are they complaining about exactly, and is it just Twitter? Some new data from Crimson Hexagon, another sentiment analysis service for brands, shows the breakdown of hate:
Tape Delay Horrible: 19%
NBC Is Awful In General: 13%
Commentators Are Lacking: 9%
Not Enough Sports: 20%
Mobile/Web Lousy: 12%
Other Complaints: 12%
Happily Watching: 15%
These numbers come from an analysis of nearly 20,000 Tweets and 5,700 blog posts and forum comments. On Twitter alone, the biggest complaint by far (25 percent) is the tape delay. But that’s what you’d expect from a bunch of realtime addicts. Overall when you count blogs and forums that complaint ranked second, barely nudged out by the lack of enough actual sports coverage. Notably, only 15 of people on the Web were happy with NBC’s coverage.
Perhaps people just go to the Web to complain, and happy viewers had no reason to log on because they were enthralled by those polar bears. But something tells me the Web’s view reflects the general one. How do you rate NBC’s coverage?
A total of 19 Japanese startups were given the chance to show their services at TokyoCamp, a demo event held by TechCrunch Japan (one of the country’s biggest blogs) this Friday. The event, which was co-organized by hosting company KDDI Web Communications, was a blast and attracted over 200 people this time.
This was the third TokyoCamp (see here and here for my previous reports), and here are short profiles of all the startups that presented there. (Please note not all of the services offer English homepages.)
Demo 1:
AQUSH by Exchange Corporation
Launched by Tokyo-based Exchange Corporation in December last year, AQUSH is a peer-to-peer lending service that is similar to ZOPA in the UK. AQUSH aims to unlock some of the more than US$7 trillion of retail cash and bank deposits (that are earning nearly 0% interest) by offering individual investors access to the US$300 billion Japanese consumer loan market.
Lenders set their desired investment amount and interest rates from 4% to 15% for 5 classes of borrower credit risk, as denoted by AQUSH itself. AQUSH loan applicants are screened based on their credit histories, financial situation and FICO scores.
The service has been in operation for 2 months and so far the average annualized ROI for investors is 10.58% after fees. AQUSH says for borrowers, interest rates range between 25% to 50% cheaper than available from specialized consumer lending companies.
If you can read Japanese, there’s an in-depth (and fairly recent) article on AQUSH on TechCrunch Japan.
Demo 2:
Maysee by Mogura
Japan is business card country, which means that your average salary man collects hundreds of these cards in any given year. Maysee is a service that scans business cards for clients, corrects OCR errors manually and makes the data accessible via PCs or mobile phones through a web app (for $20 per month per user/$0.35 per business card). The company is currently looking for business partners overseas.
Demo 3:
Sketch Piston by Team Lab
Sketch Piston is the name of a “new game genre” created by Tokyo-based Team Lab. There are two “Sketch Action” games available at the moment, Sketch Piston 3 and 4 (both of which were made for Team Lab clients). Players can interact with characters in the Flash games by “sketching” various objects with a virtual pen, stamp and eraser. The games have no goal per se, but users can make and share creative gameplay videos on a dedicated platform.
Demo 4:
Cacoo by Nulab
Cacoo is a what appears to be a powerful online drawing tool that allows multiple users to create designs collaboratively and in real-time. The designs can be shared with certain users or published on the web, for example on blogs or wiki sites. If you make changes to the designs in Cacoo, the blog or wiki the designs were pasted into gets updated automatically and in real-time, meaning there is no need for another upload.
Mainly made for technical illustrations (wireframes, software design diagrams, network diagrams, UMLs etc.), Cacoo is completely browser-based, free and available in English.
Demo 5:
Link Knowledge by SAN SAN
Link Knowledge is an SaaS solution with a focus on CRM and SFA (sales force automation). Much like Maysee (profiled above), Link Knowledge digitizes information found on printed business cards, puts the data into context and stores it in the cloud for customers who can then access their data from anywhere they want.
Demo 6:
Wishcovery
Wishcovery aims at matching people who have the right skills with those who have uploaded requests or project proposals on the site. The service is scheduled to launch in alpha in April. TechCrunch Japan covered Wishcovery just last month after it won the “TechCrunch Japan Award” at the first Startup Weekend Tokyo event.
Demo 7:
Conyac by anydooR
Dubbed “social translation service”, Conyac is actally based on a virtual currency called “Conyac Points”. The way it works is that “requesters” need to pay a certain fee upfront, upload a text and indicate which languages the text should be translated into. Registered translators (who don’t need to get screened or examined) translate texts they think they can handle to earn Conyac points. Those points can then be converted into real money via Paypal, with the service itself getting a 20% cut.
Demo 8:
LIFEmee
TechCrunch50 demopit company LIFEmee presented a revamped version of their eponymous life management service that will go live early next month. Expect less clutter, a simplified UI, fresh features (i.e. a scheduler) and a new mobile version (scheduled for release next month).
Demo 9:
Mangaroo by Mobakids
Mangaroo is a free, social manga service that allows comic artists (amateurs and professionals alike) to upload and share self-created works with other users. Readers can just read the comics, leave comments, bookmark their favorite manga or rate them.
Here’s how a typical “e-comic”, submitted by a Mangaroo member, looks like (click to enlarge):
Each manga is based on Flash and can be embedded in other websites.
Demo 10:
meme memo by meme design
meme memo is a free, Flash-based “pin board” that can be covered with “virtual Post-its”. Each user can set up to ten pin boards (folders) and embed up to 1,000 Post-its (“cards”) to scrape, organize and share various information. Some cards require work by the users themselves (i.e. the ToDo card or the address book), but others get updated automatically once you add them to your folder (i.e. the Twitter card or the RSS card). Apart from pure text, it’s also possible to add videos (YouTube card), images or audio files to the pin board.
Demo 11:
TwitCasting Live by sidefeed
As one of the few iPhone apps that were shown at TokyoCamp, Twitcasting Live (iTunes link) is a free Twitter client that lets you broadcast (video and audio) live through your Twitter account. The app splits the iPhone screen in half: You can see what you currently broadcast on the top and access your Twitter timeline on the bottom. When you start the recording, Twitcasting tweets a link to your followers who can watch the live broadcast on their PCs or iPhones. The app works with both 3G and Wi-Fi and supports the 3G as well as the 3GS (click here for a demo video).
Demo 12:
Bang Me! by DigitalNomad
Let me explain the name first: Bang Me! is a wordplay of sorts on the Japanese word for “program” or “show”, which is pronounced “ban-gu-mi” (seriously). Provider DigitalNomad is marketing the downloadable software as a dead-simple video editing tool for beginners or online businesses that don’t have the budget to produce flashy promo videos.
Bang Me! was featured on TechCrunch Japan last month and appeared to be much better than the name suggests (I was told they will change it when the software goes on sale internationally).
Demo 13:
Hanashirabe by Knowledge System
In case you ever stumbled upon a flower whose name you either forgot or were interested to know, Hanashirabe is the solution for you. Just upload a picture of the flower in question, crop it, specify when you took it and the “flower recognition engine” will reveal the name of the flower in a heartbeat (demo video).
Demo 14:
Talknote
Pitched as “Yammer for private use”, Talknote is a micro social communication service that has yet to launch. The main selling point of the service is that it enables multiple users to text-chat across a number of different devices – virtually in real-time. Talknote will be the first service that allows iPhone users to communicate with owners of regular Japanese handsets this way (PCs, Symbian, Blackberry, Android etc. will eventually be supported as well). The conversations are stored as “talknotes” and can be accessed again anytime later. I was able to play around with the iPhone version, which looked pretty nifty already.
Demo 15:
Qlippy by SpinningWorks
Presented for the first time at TokyoCamp, Qlippy is an iPad application that extends to the web in the form of a social network for book lovers. The app will let users download EPUB-based ebooks off the web to read on the iPad. Provider SpinningWorks says readers will also be able to clip pictures or texts on the iPad to create their own scrapbooks. The clipped elements and scrapbooks can be shared with other people on the Qlippy website (demo video).
Here is an early screenshot (click to enlarge):
Demo 16:
waarp by Waaotn
Korean transplant Dong Yol Lee has presented a very early version of waarp, his 3D audio augmented, “eyes-free” social network system that eliminates the need for a visual UI.
Demo 17:
Video Analytics by sus4
Video Analytics is a freemium-based “Google Analytics for video” that’s especially geared towards e-commerce and education sites. The tool helps to analyze how visitors view videos by breaking down which keywords from search engines are the most effective, how many times a certain video was accessed, how many users watched it from beginning to end, at which points users pushed the stop button etc. All data is visualized online through a Google Analytics-like dashboard.
Demo 18:
mindia
mindia wants to be the online “encyclopedia of your mind”. The main idea behind the service is to provide a platform for people to share their viewpoints on any given keyword with the world (in Japanese, at least). Unlike Wikipedia, mindia encourages users to post what they personally think and makes all discussions public, with every member having a specific profile page (example). In other words, mindia is like Wikipedia with a social network built on top of it. The platform is free to use, but there’s also a solution for enterprises.
Demo 19:
Fastweet/Fastweet Live by Glucose
Tokyo-based startup Glucose presented three Twitter apps for the iPhone. Fastweet is one of the many, many Twitter clients out there and is available in the App Store as a free version (which stores just the latest 200 tweets) or as Fastweet 2K (for $1.99), which keeps the latest 2,000 tweets. Fastweet Live (iTunes link) is a good solution if you search for specific keywords or hashtags. The app then displays just the relevant tweets dynamically, which makes sense during an event or if you want to stay informed continuously on a current hot topic or a specific news item (demo video).
The next TokyoCamp will probably take place in April. Thanks to all attendees, startups and co-organizer KDDI Web Communications, and a sorry to the many people who couldn’t make it on the guest list this time!
Go to TechCrunch Japan’s Flickr account to see more pictures of the event.
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile
According to a leaked document from RIM, three of the manufacturer’s BlackBerry smartphones are soon to be no more. The Pearl Flip, original Storm and Curve 8330 are on their way to retirement says the document, which lists them as “Current devices with limited or no remaining shipments from the vendor.”
The Pearl was a decidedly unpopular model to begin with. Designed to be consumer friendly, most simply didn’t find the clamshell design or tiny keyboard attractive. The candy-bar version of the Pearl did much better, and the updated Pearl 9100 is due soon. The Storm launched to great fanfare and demand but soon found itself surrounded by a storm of complaints thanks to buggy firmware and poorly built hardware. RIM made amends with the release of the Storm 2 a few months ago. The Curve on the other hand was wildly popular and stable, but has been replaced with the Curve 2.
Rumor has it RIM could be preparing to release up to a dozen new handsets this year. If you love BlackBerry, stay tuned!
Read [PCWorld]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Time was, companies knew how to keep track of their important customers.
First, they set up loyalty programs: computerised systems that tracked the monetary value of everyone who shopped in their stores or flew on their planes or ate at their restaurant. When a high spender made a booking, the company was alerted to their status and they were treated accordingly. Frequent fliers got upgrades and champagne, frequent diners got a visit from the chef at their table – that kind of thing. Anything to ensure that the money kept flowing.
And then there was the other way of measuring worth: celebrity. It was understood that if you were (in order of importance) in movies, or on television or a journalist with a significant audience then you would get special treatment too, often for free. Brad Pitt doesn’t have to mingle with the plebs in the American Airlines lounge, Courteney Cox doesn’t wait in line at the bank, and the New York Times restaurant critic never has to wait a month for a table at Le Bernardin. If you’re a business, all of this makes perfect sense: high paying customers are the ones who keep you in business, and celebrities are the ones who guarantee positive mentions in the press. No one messes with Oprah.
And for decades the system worked.
Sure, the rest of us often found ourselves treated like crap but what were we going to do about it? Write a letter to the company’s complaints department? Write a furious blog post? Post a negative review on Yelp? Ooooh – scary! The fact is that, even with Google making it easier than ever to find negative reviews, most large companies couldn’t care less about individual complaints. The average customer simply didn’t have the value, the cachet or the audience to cause more than the tiniest PR blip. A $10 gift certificate and a form letter from the head of customer services was enough to make everything better.
Frankly, I had absolutely no problem with this system. In fact it suited me just fine. For a start, I’m a journalist, so people are generally nice to me. But more importantly I’m a Brit and, as such, any reminder of our old class system – hereditary peers making the rules and peasants knowing their place – makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. None of your Thomas Jefferson ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident’ colonial bullshit.
So can imagine how horrified I was when I picked up a newspaper and realised that something was starting to go very wrong with the established order of things.
Two weeks ago, Kevin Smith – the film maker who brought the world Clerks, Chasing Amy and the character of Silent Bob – was flying from Oakland to Burbank on Southwest Airlines. Smith, as fans will know, is a big guy to the point where he frequently books two seats when he flies. On this occasion though, there was only one seat available on his flight, so he booked that. Which is where the problems started.
Despite having checked Smith in and allowed him to board, the Southwest flight crew suddenly decided – just before takeoff – that he was (in his words) ‘too fat to fly’. In front of hundreds of passengers they escorted him off the flight. None of the crew realised he was a celebrity – he’s really only famous to stoners and people who have watched Die Hard 4 – so to them he was just a fat dude who needed to be dealt with.
In response to his treatment, Smith did what you’d do, and what I’d do: he Tweeted about it. Not once, but a billion times.
Dear @SouthwestAir – I know I’m fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?
Wanna tell me I’m too wide for the sky? Totally cool. But fair warning, folks: IF YOU LOOK LIKE ME, YOU MAY BE EJECTED FROM @SOUTHWESTAIR.
So, @SouthwestAir, go fuck yourself. I broke no regulation, offered no “safety risk” (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?). I was..wrongly ejected from the flight
Thank God I don’t..embarrass easily (bless you, JERSEY GIRL training). But I don’t sulk off either: so everyday, some new fuck-you Tweets for @SouthwestAir.
…and on and on, to his 1.6m + Twitter followers, many of whom of course retweeted each and every message. But it didn’t stop there: before long, a host of major news sources had picked up the story – including many who would never normally write about a cult film maker getting bumped from a flight. The LA Times headline summed up the angle most of them took: Kevin Smith’s Southwest Airlines incident sets Web all a-Twitter.
And that’s when I realised something interesting, and terrifying: Smith’s involvement wasn’t the reason the story was deemed newsworthy; Twitter’s was.
Don’t believe me? The following week, across the pond and at the other end of the follower spectrum, my friend Robert Loch, founder of the Yes And Club, started his own Twitter fight. His target: One Alfred Place – a members’ club in London that offers work space for entrepreneurs. The club has recently brought in a new CEO to revitalise its fortunes and her first act was to start axing members who were using facilities too frequently. One of those members happened to mention to her friend Robert that she’d been booted, prompting him to go into battle on her behalf – writing a scathing blog post about the club and tweeting the URL…
My thoughts on One Alfred Place’s appalling treatment of its members. http://tinyurl.com/yds97lm
Robert only has a little over 1300 followers, but – as with Kevin Smith’s Southwest embarrassment – the story struck a nerve with enough of them (me included) that we began to retweet it. As did people who saw our retweets, and people who saw those, and so on. By the end of the day, Robert’s tweet had spread far enough that he was contacted by reporters from most of London’s major business publications, all wanting details on the “Twitter revolt” that he;d sparked. Again, it didn’t matter that Robert wasn’t himself particularly newsworthy: Twitter was the angle that interested them.
You don’t have to look far for dozens more examples of this journalistic trend. Just type “twitter sparks…” (no quotes) into Google News and you’ll find dozens of headlines where Twitter’s involvement in an otherwise mundane corporate failing has propelled it to the pages of the mainstream media. A random, recent example from those results: “Artist sparks Twitter campaign against Paperchase over disputed design” – another UK-based story, this time concerning ‘Hidden Eloise’ an artist who noticed that the upscale stationery company ‘Paperchase’ had apparently ripped off one of her designs. She took her fight to her 1,000+ followers and before long the story had been retweeted enough times to become a trending topic. The Guardian quickly picked up the story and forced Paperchase into issuing an embarrassed apology to the artist, and taking steps to make things better.
Two years ago, none of this would have been news. A cult film maker was kicked off a flight? So? What was he going to do? Make a film called ‘Jay and Silent Bob hate Southwest airlines’? (Admittedly that would still have been better than Jersey Girl). An entrepreneur’s got quietly kicked out of a members’ club to make way for more profitable clients? Tough shit: that one’s not even newsworthy enough for the most desperate trade magazine. A little known designer gets ripped off by a gigantic retail chain? Boo hoo. Tell it to someone who cares. Without a major celebrity angle, there was little to no chance of the media picking up a run-of-the-mill intellectual property complaint and forcing the company into action.
But today it doesn’t matter who you are or how many fans you have. You can have 1.6m like Kevin Smith or you can have 1000 like Hidden Eloise. All that matters is that a) you have a story that tweaks people’s ‘David vs Goliath’ nerve and that b) you get enough people retweeting it that the mainstream press can paint it as a ‘Twitter campaign‘.
In the past few months Twitter has been promoted daily on network news shows, it’s been name-checked by Hollywood A-Listers – hell, it was even mentioned in Dan Brown’s latest book; wedged in right at the end to keep da kids interested. The result: Twitter itself has become an A-list celebrity. And like with any A-list celebrity, any story that even tangentially involves it is automatically newsworthy.
This presents an enormous problem for companies. If Twitter campaigns are inherently newsworthy then anyone with a Twitter account and a gripe against you has the potential to become your biggest global PR nightmare. Pissing off Joe Twitter User is just as dumb, from a PR point of view, as upsetting Will Smith or Donald Trump.
Sure, I can hear the response from CEOs and heads of PR. “Oh, it’s ok, we’re on Twitter already – if anyone complains we reply to them straight away. We have an intern dedicated to it.”
Yeah.
No.
Southwest Airlines is on Twitter, One Alfred Place is on Twitter – even Paperchase finally dragged itself on to the bandwagon a couple of weeks ago. The problem is, official responses, even if accompanied by some kind of grand gesture of apology, do little to quell a Twitter storm once it has started. The phenomenon of mass retweeting means that – to paraphrase Churchill – a complaint makes it half way around the world before the official company response has time to put its pants on. Or as the CEO of Paperchase put it to the Telegraph: “I am sure it can be beneficial but if you get an untruth (on it) it can be very dangerous.”
Really there’s only one answer – and it’s one that strikes at the very heart of the established hierarchy of customer importance. Companies are going to have to start treating every single customer like a VIP. Actually, no, it’s worse than that – consider the Hidden Eloise example; she wasn’t a customer, but just a humble designer. Companies are going to have to start treating every single person in the world like a VIP.
In all areas of their business they’re going to have to make sure they’re purer than pure; they’re going to have to examine every one of their processes to ensure that no one is getting screwed over. Moreover, they’re going to have to treat every complaint like it’s the most important complaint they’ve ever received, lest the complainer take their fight to Twitter. In other words, if you’re going to kick someone off a plane, you had better be sure you’re kicking them straight into the VIP lounge with a huge gift certificate and possibly even a hot stone massage. Because all of those things are cheaper than cleaning up the mess afterwards.
Of course, as a Brit, this horrifies me. I mean, the idea that everyone, regardless of their wealth or fame, should be treated equally by companies just smells a bit… well, French. Quelle horreur!
But as a customer, I have to admit that it’s about bloody time.
FROM GAMERTELL - Haven’t caught all of the Gamertell news this week? Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles…
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
I have much love for Wordle. I’ve used the text cloud generator dozens of time for use in presentations, TechCrunch posts and random stuff ever since I discovered the tool.
But as of yesterday, the application is no longer available, and the website only displays the message copied above. In a notice and a blog post, Wordle developer Jonathan Feinberg says he’s been forced to take the service offline due to a trademark claim against his use of the word “wordle” and states that he’s looking for pro bono legal advice from IP lawyers to fend off the infringement claim.
Update: the free service seems to be back online now – meanwhile there’s some sort of Twitter campaign going on dubbed #savewordle
A quick search on Trademarkia reveals that there is in fact a live trademark for ‘Wordle’, owned by Mark Jordan Koeff, a photographer from Orange County, CA.
Any intellectual property lawyers out there who want to provide the developer with some free counsel? The tool is loved by many and it would suck for the service to have to be rebranded, considering the name awareness Wordle has built up over the years. There are similar tools out there, e.g. WordItOut, but they’re not as good as Wordle.
Feinberg, a programmer who works at IBM Research, can be reached on the e-mail address shared on the Wordle placeholder website and his personal site or via Twitter.
(Via @jackschofield / @digitalmaverick)
Section: Business News, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Mobile
Phone companies constantly need to expand to fit the needs of the consumer and keep up with the latest technology. As MobileCrunch points out, phone companies can easily bang out new phones with slick features, but expanding and upgrading the current network takes a lot of devoted time and resources.
Verizon began with an announcement of moving to LTE in February 2009, and six months later they began testing it in a small market. Now, they will expand 4G technologies to nearly 30 markets before the year 2011. Today, CTO Tony Melone shed some light on Verizon’s 4G plans; basically they will launch it in 30 additional markets 15 months after the initial launch. The initial launch is the 30 market test of the 4G network, which would occur sometime this year, and 15 months later puts the 60 market test sometime in 2012. Unfortunately for Verizon users, it is not known yet which markets will be receiving the 4G network, but I’m sure Verizon would aim for a big market, such as New York, San Francisco, etc.
Via [MobileCrunch]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
The Philosophy of Punk Rock Mathematics - Technoccult interviews Tom Henderson (via Beyond the Beyond)So, the concept I pitched to Nick was, "Let's talk about math from the platform of 'Math that humans are likely to want to know, because it's about other humans.'" Social conflict. Sex. Beauty.
It gives us an excuse to talk extensively about game theory. And, game theory is a key place to teach humans mathematics, because we seem to have some optimized "cheat detection" in our brains.
Let me give you an example, it's something like, uh...
There are four face-down cards on a table. There is a rule: "If the number showing is even, then the back of the card MUST have a vowel." Now, given an E, 3, 8, D, what is the smallest number of cards you need to flip over to verify that the rule is being followed? Maybe I fucked up the puzzle. But, anyway, the answer as I've phrased it is NOT E and 3.
You need to make sure that 8 has a vowel on the back, and you need to make sure that D does NOT have an even number on the back.
Everyone gets this wrong, basically. Well, non-mathematicians always do, and I'm pretty sure I got it wrong because I get every answer wrong on the first try. Punk as fuck. Now, if you ask the same people a logically equivalent question: "You see four people. Two are drinking beer and two are drinking coke. Whose IDs do you have to check?" No one says you have to check the ID of the coke drinker. Because who cares how old they are? If it's the same puzzle, but phrased as a problem of possible social cheating, we nail it.
| World : News Archives | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Technology | Science | Marketplace Audio |
| India : News | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Telugu | |
| Blogs : Humor pages | Norkay's Blog | Kids Stories | Indian Recipes | Database Tech Blog |
| Sundries : World Video Clips | Songs Clips | Indian Video Clips | |
