søndag 31. januar 2010
Har firkantet Have A Douchebag Problem?
Med firkantet så rask vekst, og begynner å bli omfavnet av elementene i den ordinære (som deres nye avtale med Bravo), kan det være beslutning gangen. Et populært del av gaming element av tjenesten er stadig emblemer, virtuelle symboler som viser deg ' har gjort en viss aktivitet på tjenesten. De fleste av disse er flinke, som Photogenic skiltet når du sjekker inn på tre forskjellige steder med photobooths. Men noen er litt mer dristige, som Douchebag skilt. Som firkantet fortsetter å vokse, vil det være press for å bli kvitt disse?
Liste over store Grammy-vinnere
Beyonce vant seks trofeer, plukket Taylor Swift opp fire, og mange andre endte opp med gull.
Stephen Colbert viser av en iPad på Grammy's
Apple får alltid en etappe opp til sine konkurrenter med glamour faktor på sine produkter. Det begynner allerede med iPad. På 52dre årlige Grammy-utdelingen i natt, Stephen Colbert pisket en iPad ut av jakkelomma hans (må ha vært en stor lomme!), Mens på scenen gir en pris. Han sa, "Jay-Z, gjorde du ikke får en av disse i gavepose? Jeg er kulere enn deg? " Han spurte om det gjorde ham ser kult. Såvidt produkt plassering går, kan du ikke gjøre mye bedre enn dette. Spørsmålet er om dette er enda et eksempel på gratis reklame for Apple, eller om det betales for å få Colbert å trekke stunt. Logikken er alltid søt. Hvis du får kjendiser å godkjenne produktet, så flere folk vil synes det er kult. Og når mange klone tabletter kommer ut, vil folk ignorerer dem. De vil bare kjøpe hva som er kult, selv om det er dyrere enn andre tabletter der ute .. [Photo Credit: Engadget]
Amazon: “We will have to accept Macmillan’s terms” on e-book pricing
We reported on Friday that all Macmillan book titles, minus a few stragglers, had been removed from Amazon.com’s U.S. site. The books were still listed, but you couldn’t buy them from Amazon, and still can’t on Sunday evening. Only links to third-party sellers are available. If you want to buy the bestselling tell-all about John Edwards, The Politician, a book that’s all over TV and radio talk shows this weekend, you’ll have to go somewhere else.
Even Macmillan titles on Kindle owners’ wish lists magically disappeared.
What happened, we’ve learned via forwarded communications from Macmillan and Publisher’s Marketplace, is this: Macmillan went to Amazon last week and told them that they earnestly believe Amazon’s $9.99 pricing for Kindle copies of books — a loss-leader price designed to jump-start Kindle sales and use — was bad for Macmillan, bad for their authors, and bad for the book business at large.
From now on, Macmillan representatives said, Amazon would no longer be a retail outlet for Macmillan books. Instead, Macmillan would require all e-book sellers to use what’s called an “agency model.” Amazon would act as an agent of Macmillan. Macmillan would set each book’s sale price individually. Macmillan books would be priced at $14.99 to $15.99, with a few $12.99 new titles.
As an agent, Amazon would get a cut, say 30 percent, of each sale. But Amazon wouldn’t be allowed to knock down prices to move units. Macmillan’s public stance was that Amazon would make more money per book from the agency model, so everyone should be happy.
Amazon’s public stance on Friday was: Take a hike, Macmillan. If that’s the only way we can sell your books, we won’t sell them at all. We’ve deleted your print titles. Sorry, did we break your concentration?
Today, Amazon changed their stance. In a post on the Kindle forum, an official company statement says:
Dear Customers:
Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.
We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.
Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!
Thank you for being a customer.
Even Macmillan titles on Kindle owners’ wish lists magically disappeared.
What happened, we’ve learned via forwarded communications from Macmillan and Publisher’s Marketplace, is this: Macmillan went to Amazon last week and told them that they earnestly believe Amazon’s $9.99 pricing for Kindle copies of books — a loss-leader price designed to jump-start Kindle sales and use — was bad for Macmillan, bad for their authors, and bad for the book business at large.
From now on, Macmillan representatives said, Amazon would no longer be a retail outlet for Macmillan books. Instead, Macmillan would require all e-book sellers to use what’s called an “agency model.” Amazon would act as an agent of Macmillan. Macmillan would set each book’s sale price individually. Macmillan books would be priced at $14.99 to $15.99, with a few $12.99 new titles.
As an agent, Amazon would get a cut, say 30 percent, of each sale. But Amazon wouldn’t be allowed to knock down prices to move units. Macmillan’s public stance was that Amazon would make more money per book from the agency model, so everyone should be happy.
Amazon’s public stance on Friday was: Take a hike, Macmillan. If that’s the only way we can sell your books, we won’t sell them at all. We’ve deleted your print titles. Sorry, did we break your concentration?
Today, Amazon changed their stance. In a post on the Kindle forum, an official company statement says:
Dear Customers:
Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.
We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.
Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!
Thank you for being a customer.
Why iPad will sell despite “missing” features
Since Apple announced its forthcoming iPad tablet device last week, there’s been quite a bit of banter about its shortcomings. The device has no camera, no phone, no Flash support, no way to project to a big screen (TV), and doesn’t allow multitasking, just to name a few of the issues.
But before you conclude Apple’s made a terrible mistake here, remember, this is exactly how Apple it’s launched several of its most successful devices.
Remember how the Macbook Air came without a DVD drive? And how the iPod Touch came without a camera or speakerphone? It seemed like a no-brainer — why wouldn’t Apple put a camera and a speakerphone in iPod Touch and make it more attractive? After all, the iPhone has both of these features and is still almost the same size as iPod Touch (3G does add a little weight of course). So why does Apple leave out obvious features? Well, here’s why:
1. It doesn’t want to sell too many of one product at the expense of another. So while a few additional features would certainly make iPad more PC-like and open it up to broader sales, they could also eat into MacBook sales (just as adding a speakerphone and video camera to iPod Touch would reduce iPhone’s sales). While Apple is obviously interested in maximizing revenues from iPad, it is even more interested in maximizing its total revenues from all products.
2. Adding more features to iPad would increase its price to a point where it’s no longer affordable. Adding certain features could also compromise its size and performance, and thus defeat the basic selling point of the iPad: its portability and form factor. It’s no secret that iPhone performs better than certain competing operating systems because Apple consciously left out such performance hogging capabilities as Flash and multitasking.
3. Apple believes in doing fewer things right than doing a lot of mediocre things. For example, when iPhone came out, it didn’t have a copy and paste feature because there was no easy way to implement it without a physical keyboard. Since iPhone didn’t have any keys except the home button, Apple had to invent a more intuitive way to copy and paste. Eventually it did come up with the feature, and when it did, it was a brilliant solution, which has since been copied by other touch screen smartphone manufacturers.
4. Time to market is important. Should Apple wait for another year to make iPad “perfect” before it launches it, or launch it when it’s good enough? I’m sure that, with time, Apple will find a solution to do multitasking in a less resource intensive fashion, or the processors on small devices such as iPad and iPhone will become powerful enough to handle multiple applications at the same time (this is assuming that Apple didn prevent multitasking on iPad to avoid reducing Macbook sales). This leaves opportunity for Apple to launch newer versions in the next few months or years, in turn generating more revenue in the long term.
Fundamentally, what Apple’s created in the iPad is a new category of device. By defining its feature the iPad’s feature set the way it has, it’s not creating a new phone or a new kind of PC or just an e-book. It’s creating something new, and — here’s the sticking point, perhaps — the industry is having a hard time deciding if the category Apple’s defining here really makes sense.
Well, the answer’s clearly still out on that, but at this point it does seem that Apple’s the only vendor playing into this new category.
Several other vendors have showed off prototypes this month of tablets due out later this year, and as far as I can tell, they’re all chasing the established categories. Lenovo’s IdeaPad is a particularly interesting hybrid of a netbook and a tablet. You can detach the “monitor”, and take it with you as tablet. However, the high price of $999 isn’t too attractive.
Then there’s the Dell Mini 5, which has a 5 inch screen and is based on the Android operating system. Its size makes it more of a powerful smartphone and less of a tablet, which makes it less interesting for “e magazines”. Its price is unknown at this point.
Then there are at least three slate PCs coming down the pipeline (one from HP), all running Windows 7 and all targeting the PC category. However, there isn’t much information available about them yet.
What is clear about all of them is that they offer more functionality than iPad. If their manufacturers are able to pull off these tablet devices without compromising either size or price (I don’t think they will), they could offer stiff competition to Apple’s iPad, when or shortly after it launches, which means iPad won’t get the same head-start iPhone got when it first launched (Andorid, Palm, and Blackberry were quick to launch competing touchscreen smartphones with competing app stores, but iPhone had already built substantial momentum by then).
Is iPad truly a new category?
In case you’re just not buying my new-category argument here, let’s take a closer look.
Let’s rank Apple’s current products (and other computing devices) in terms of power and mobility. A laptop is on the high end of power but on the low end of mobility. iPhone or iPod Touch on the other hand rank low on power and functionality, but rank highest on mobility. These two attributes make them very different from each other, ensuring that more sales of one product won’t impact sales of the other. It is no wonder that iPhone ate into iPod sales: Both rank high on mobility, and iPhone ranks higher on power and functionality. When the price difference between the two becomes small enough, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to buy an iPod (although arguably Apple has done a good job of keeping them in slightly different buckets: For example, iPod Touch’s maximum storage capacity is 64GB compared to the 160GB of an iPod Classic).
iPad obviously ranks in between a Macbook and an iPhone — both on power and mobility. According to Jobs, neither Macbook nor iPhone does a better job at browsing, email, photos, video, music, gaming, and e-books.A tablet seems to be the best device to use for browsing when you’re laying on the couch watching TV.
How does it then compare with a netbook? Doesn’t a netbook lie in the same spot in our map — between a laptop and a smartphone in terms of power and mobility? And yet a Windows 7 netbook lets you practically replace a laptop, whereas iPad is nowhere near to replacing a MacBook. A third attribute might explain the difference.
While iPad ranks lower than a netbook on the functionality scale, it ranks much higher in form factor. Due to its tablet form factor, it allows things not possible with a netbook. For example, its accelerometer allows developers to design creative games such as F.A.S.T, which detect motion and positioning of the device to move a jet in the game. Moreover, its touchscreen and form factor open up opportunities for media companies that a netbook cannot dream of (more on that in a minute).
This is not to say that the iPad’s better than a netbook — netbooks remain a highly viable category. However, saying that iPad is inferior to netbooks because it doesn’t allow for a webcam or multitasking is missing the point that it allows for a lot of other things that netbooks don’t.
It’s also important to note that most PC manufacturers, such as HP and Dell, didn’t have a choice but to make netbooks, even if it meant lower profit margins. Otherwise Acer and others would eat into their market share as people start buying more netbooks and fewer laptops. On the other hand, Apple would be shooting itself in the foot if it launched a netbook, as that would eat into its MacBook sales. And therefore it makes even more sense for Apple to define a new category.
Three reasons the iPad will outsell the competition
What I’m betting is that, even with more feature-rich tablets on the market, the iPad may sell best for three reasons: First, there’s a huge ecosystem of iPhone apps iPad can immediately tap into, most of which are games, and thus will make iPad an entertainment device from day one of its launch. Second, iPad’s form factor and weight would make it a more likely destination for reading “e magazines”, thus making media partnerships more likely. Third, fewer features mean a lower price.
So what does this all mean for entrepreneurs?
Tablet PCs offer several new opportunities for startups and established companies alike. iPad,with its huge ecosystem of app developers, will especially help the following markets.
Content Publishers
I’m not going to predict that iPad is going to save the media industry, because it isn’t. However, it does give media companies a chance to reinvent themselves by offering beautiful and meaningful content, making full use of iPad’s real estate (screen size). If you want to see what’s possible, watch this video of a tablet being sponsored by Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc in a project dubbed a “Hulu for Print” by The Economist. What they’re trying to do with their new tablet is already possible in iPad. Few media companies have the expertise to envision and produce such rich and interactive content, and this opens up a tremendous opportunity for players such as Zinio who can help traditional publishers go digital.
Advertisers
Content on iPad would open up opportunities for creative ads and thus open doors to entrepreneurs who want to innovate in “e advertising”. Bigger screen size, higher video quality, and portability allow for greater innovation in advertising business. This would partly pay media companies for their content. Media companies could also subsidize the cost of an iPad for readers buying annual subscriptions, for example.
Gaming
Although iPad is not a competitor to XBox, Wii, or Playstation, it could present a threat to mobile gaming platforms like PSP and Nintendo DS. What it really does, however, is open up a new market for gaming. iPhone has already proven that it is an extremely successful gaming platform. iPad, with its bigger screen size, offers a lot more possibilities to game developers — for example, allowing them to introduce new and enhanced controls for iPad versions of their iPhone games.
Video and TV
One big reason mobile TV hasn’t picked up is the small screen size of mobile devices. iPad removes that limitation. It makes perfect sense for products such as Boxee that do not have an iPhone app, now to write an app for iPad.
It’s hard to write an analysis before the product is actually out in the market, and even harder when several of its competitors are not out either. But given Apple’s history and a strong developer support, I think iPad will live up to the hype. What would make it even more compelling are media partnerships and a few more powerful apps such as the ones suggested above.
But before you conclude Apple’s made a terrible mistake here, remember, this is exactly how Apple it’s launched several of its most successful devices.
Remember how the Macbook Air came without a DVD drive? And how the iPod Touch came without a camera or speakerphone? It seemed like a no-brainer — why wouldn’t Apple put a camera and a speakerphone in iPod Touch and make it more attractive? After all, the iPhone has both of these features and is still almost the same size as iPod Touch (3G does add a little weight of course). So why does Apple leave out obvious features? Well, here’s why:
1. It doesn’t want to sell too many of one product at the expense of another. So while a few additional features would certainly make iPad more PC-like and open it up to broader sales, they could also eat into MacBook sales (just as adding a speakerphone and video camera to iPod Touch would reduce iPhone’s sales). While Apple is obviously interested in maximizing revenues from iPad, it is even more interested in maximizing its total revenues from all products.
2. Adding more features to iPad would increase its price to a point where it’s no longer affordable. Adding certain features could also compromise its size and performance, and thus defeat the basic selling point of the iPad: its portability and form factor. It’s no secret that iPhone performs better than certain competing operating systems because Apple consciously left out such performance hogging capabilities as Flash and multitasking.
3. Apple believes in doing fewer things right than doing a lot of mediocre things. For example, when iPhone came out, it didn’t have a copy and paste feature because there was no easy way to implement it without a physical keyboard. Since iPhone didn’t have any keys except the home button, Apple had to invent a more intuitive way to copy and paste. Eventually it did come up with the feature, and when it did, it was a brilliant solution, which has since been copied by other touch screen smartphone manufacturers.
4. Time to market is important. Should Apple wait for another year to make iPad “perfect” before it launches it, or launch it when it’s good enough? I’m sure that, with time, Apple will find a solution to do multitasking in a less resource intensive fashion, or the processors on small devices such as iPad and iPhone will become powerful enough to handle multiple applications at the same time (this is assuming that Apple didn prevent multitasking on iPad to avoid reducing Macbook sales). This leaves opportunity for Apple to launch newer versions in the next few months or years, in turn generating more revenue in the long term.
Fundamentally, what Apple’s created in the iPad is a new category of device. By defining its feature the iPad’s feature set the way it has, it’s not creating a new phone or a new kind of PC or just an e-book. It’s creating something new, and — here’s the sticking point, perhaps — the industry is having a hard time deciding if the category Apple’s defining here really makes sense.
Well, the answer’s clearly still out on that, but at this point it does seem that Apple’s the only vendor playing into this new category.
Several other vendors have showed off prototypes this month of tablets due out later this year, and as far as I can tell, they’re all chasing the established categories. Lenovo’s IdeaPad is a particularly interesting hybrid of a netbook and a tablet. You can detach the “monitor”, and take it with you as tablet. However, the high price of $999 isn’t too attractive.
Then there’s the Dell Mini 5, which has a 5 inch screen and is based on the Android operating system. Its size makes it more of a powerful smartphone and less of a tablet, which makes it less interesting for “e magazines”. Its price is unknown at this point.
Then there are at least three slate PCs coming down the pipeline (one from HP), all running Windows 7 and all targeting the PC category. However, there isn’t much information available about them yet.
What is clear about all of them is that they offer more functionality than iPad. If their manufacturers are able to pull off these tablet devices without compromising either size or price (I don’t think they will), they could offer stiff competition to Apple’s iPad, when or shortly after it launches, which means iPad won’t get the same head-start iPhone got when it first launched (Andorid, Palm, and Blackberry were quick to launch competing touchscreen smartphones with competing app stores, but iPhone had already built substantial momentum by then).
Is iPad truly a new category?
In case you’re just not buying my new-category argument here, let’s take a closer look.
Let’s rank Apple’s current products (and other computing devices) in terms of power and mobility. A laptop is on the high end of power but on the low end of mobility. iPhone or iPod Touch on the other hand rank low on power and functionality, but rank highest on mobility. These two attributes make them very different from each other, ensuring that more sales of one product won’t impact sales of the other. It is no wonder that iPhone ate into iPod sales: Both rank high on mobility, and iPhone ranks higher on power and functionality. When the price difference between the two becomes small enough, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to buy an iPod (although arguably Apple has done a good job of keeping them in slightly different buckets: For example, iPod Touch’s maximum storage capacity is 64GB compared to the 160GB of an iPod Classic).
iPad obviously ranks in between a Macbook and an iPhone — both on power and mobility. According to Jobs, neither Macbook nor iPhone does a better job at browsing, email, photos, video, music, gaming, and e-books.A tablet seems to be the best device to use for browsing when you’re laying on the couch watching TV.
How does it then compare with a netbook? Doesn’t a netbook lie in the same spot in our map — between a laptop and a smartphone in terms of power and mobility? And yet a Windows 7 netbook lets you practically replace a laptop, whereas iPad is nowhere near to replacing a MacBook. A third attribute might explain the difference.
While iPad ranks lower than a netbook on the functionality scale, it ranks much higher in form factor. Due to its tablet form factor, it allows things not possible with a netbook. For example, its accelerometer allows developers to design creative games such as F.A.S.T, which detect motion and positioning of the device to move a jet in the game. Moreover, its touchscreen and form factor open up opportunities for media companies that a netbook cannot dream of (more on that in a minute).
This is not to say that the iPad’s better than a netbook — netbooks remain a highly viable category. However, saying that iPad is inferior to netbooks because it doesn’t allow for a webcam or multitasking is missing the point that it allows for a lot of other things that netbooks don’t.
It’s also important to note that most PC manufacturers, such as HP and Dell, didn’t have a choice but to make netbooks, even if it meant lower profit margins. Otherwise Acer and others would eat into their market share as people start buying more netbooks and fewer laptops. On the other hand, Apple would be shooting itself in the foot if it launched a netbook, as that would eat into its MacBook sales. And therefore it makes even more sense for Apple to define a new category.
Three reasons the iPad will outsell the competition
What I’m betting is that, even with more feature-rich tablets on the market, the iPad may sell best for three reasons: First, there’s a huge ecosystem of iPhone apps iPad can immediately tap into, most of which are games, and thus will make iPad an entertainment device from day one of its launch. Second, iPad’s form factor and weight would make it a more likely destination for reading “e magazines”, thus making media partnerships more likely. Third, fewer features mean a lower price.
So what does this all mean for entrepreneurs?
Tablet PCs offer several new opportunities for startups and established companies alike. iPad,with its huge ecosystem of app developers, will especially help the following markets.
Content Publishers
I’m not going to predict that iPad is going to save the media industry, because it isn’t. However, it does give media companies a chance to reinvent themselves by offering beautiful and meaningful content, making full use of iPad’s real estate (screen size). If you want to see what’s possible, watch this video of a tablet being sponsored by Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc in a project dubbed a “Hulu for Print” by The Economist. What they’re trying to do with their new tablet is already possible in iPad. Few media companies have the expertise to envision and produce such rich and interactive content, and this opens up a tremendous opportunity for players such as Zinio who can help traditional publishers go digital.
Advertisers
Content on iPad would open up opportunities for creative ads and thus open doors to entrepreneurs who want to innovate in “e advertising”. Bigger screen size, higher video quality, and portability allow for greater innovation in advertising business. This would partly pay media companies for their content. Media companies could also subsidize the cost of an iPad for readers buying annual subscriptions, for example.
Gaming
Although iPad is not a competitor to XBox, Wii, or Playstation, it could present a threat to mobile gaming platforms like PSP and Nintendo DS. What it really does, however, is open up a new market for gaming. iPhone has already proven that it is an extremely successful gaming platform. iPad, with its bigger screen size, offers a lot more possibilities to game developers — for example, allowing them to introduce new and enhanced controls for iPad versions of their iPhone games.
Video and TV
One big reason mobile TV hasn’t picked up is the small screen size of mobile devices. iPad removes that limitation. It makes perfect sense for products such as Boxee that do not have an iPhone app, now to write an app for iPad.
It’s hard to write an analysis before the product is actually out in the market, and even harder when several of its competitors are not out either. But given Apple’s history and a strong developer support, I think iPad will live up to the hype. What would make it even more compelling are media partnerships and a few more powerful apps such as the ones suggested above.
Grammy: Beyonce versus Swift?
Kampen mellom sangerne kan gi drama, men det vil også være en hyllest til Michael Jackson.
Amazon Caves å Macmillan's eBook Priser Krav
En ny utvikling i Amazonas g. Macmillan fiasko. Amazon nettopp lagt ut en kunngjøring om at skal "kapitulere" til Macmillan ved å selge utgivernes bøkene for deres ønskede priser. Macmillan prøver å prise sine e-bøker på $ 15, mens Amazon prisene e-bøker på $ 9,99. Macmillan's CEO John Sargent sa at hvis ikke Amazon setter prisen på nye e-bøker til $ 15, vil utgiveren ikke distribuere nye bøker til Amazon når de er utgitt. Fredag Amazon utgangspunktet forbudt titler, både papir og digitale, utgitt av Macmillan ved å nekte å selge dem direkte. Og Macmillan tok ut en annonse i Publishers Marketplace magasinet protesterer taktikken blir brukt av Amazonas vedrørende prissetting.
Davos Intervjuer: Brightcove CEO Talks Video Gir Tech Support
Jeg satte meg ned med Brightcove administrerende direktør Jeremy Allaire på World Economic Forum i Davos, Sveits i forrige uke for å snakke om virksomheten sin. Brightcove er ikke sexiest oppstart der ute. De er en video plattform - som gir nettsteder de verktøyene de trenger for å være vert, og streame video, mot et gebyr fra $ 100/month til «seks tall per år" for de største kundene. For det meste brukerne aldri ser Brightcove merke. Og Allaire er bare bra med det. Han ønsker bare fornøyde kunder. Selskapet lansert i 2005, har reist i overkant av $ 90 million in venture capital, og nærmer seg lønnsomhet, sier han. Allaire sier han ønsker å bygge et aksjeselskap, og er glad for å være basert i Boston. Hele videoen nedenfor.
Verizon's New VZ Navigator 5 kan du sende ditt sted til Facebook
Tilbake i oktober, forandret Google mobil navigasjon plass da det lanserte Google Maps Navigation for Android. Mens selve produktet er god den også har en killer funksjon: det er gratis. Dette har tvunget produsentene av andre ikke-fri ferdsel verktøy for å rykke ut for å overbevise brukerne deres produkter fortsatt er verdt å betale for. Verizon er den siste til å gjøre det med sin VZ Navigator 5, lanseres i morgen. Så hva ville gjøre det verdt å betale for? Verizon har et par nye funksjoner i denne siste oppdateringen, men en av de den er touting de er sosiale medier integrering. Nærmere bestemt kan du nå oppdatere Facebook-statusen ved hjelp av VZ Navigator. Dette i seg selv er ikke så interessant, men du kan også sende ut posisjonen din til Facebook med denne funksjonen, tydeligvis.
TC50 People's Choice Vinner YourVersion kommer til iPhone
September i fjor, tok YourVersion scenen på TechCrunch50 som DemoPit People's Choice vinner, etter å ha fått flest stemmer fra konferansen deltakere. Det oppstart mål er ganske enkel: for å hjelpe deg med å finne innhold som du er interessert i, i sanntid. Og nå er det å bringe sine program til iPhone. Du kan laste ned gratis program her. Programmet er ganske grei. Først angir du noen emner som du er interessert i. Hver gang du starter programmet, vil du bli presentert med en liste over disse emnene. Klikker du på den ene vil ta deg til en liste over siste blogginnlegg, tweets og annet innhold som inneholder disse emnet søkeordene. Du kan også filtrere gjennom dette innholdet ved kilden, slik at du kan bare se innhold fra Twitter, nyhetssider, og så videre. Hvis du allerede har satt opp en konto på YourVersion nettstedet, kan du synkronisere at med app (noen produkter du bokmerke eller dele fra app vil bli reflektert på området i tillegg).
'Avatar' leder billettkontoret igjen
Cameron saga er på vei til å krysse Titanic's innenlandske brutto på $ 600 millioner i bare dager, tjene ytterligere 30 millioner.
Google Labs Legger Søk Icon å 'Compose Mail "Window In Gmail
Orli Yakuel merke til at Google har stilt til et nytt ikon i vinduet "Skriv e-post" av sin gratis webmail tjeneste Gmail, slik at brukerne kan kjøre søk fra grensesnittet og sette inn resultater og nettadresser rett inn utkastet e-post eller åpne chat-samtaler . Dette er en utvidelse av en Google Labs funksjon, ganske enkelt kalt "Google Søk", som ble introdusert tilbake i april 2009 som en valgfri innstilling i Gmail.
På eBay, Twitter Followers er verdt mindre enn en Penny Hver
Det pleide å være at Twitter tilhengere var verdt noe, eller i det minste folk trodde de var verdt noe, som er den samme. Det var bare et år siden da Jason Calacanis ble tilbyr $ 250.000 for å kjøpe en flekk på Twitter Foreslåtte User List, som ville garantert ham kanskje en million tilhengere før Twitter endte opp revamping i SUL å være mindre monolittisk. Han fikk aldri på listen, men hvis hans tilbud ville ha kommet til cirka $ 0,25 per etterfølger. Dag kan du "kjøpe" tilhengere på eBay for mindre enn en krone hver. Noen av de Buy-It-Now reiseaktører omfatter 5000 tilhengere for $ 20 (som kommer til 0,4 øre / tilhenger), $ 5500 for $ 40 (0,7 øre / tilhenger), $ 1100 for $ 10 (0,9 øre / tilhenger). Du er ikke egentlig kjøper tilhengere outright (Twitter ikke tillater folk å overføre sine tilhengere), men heller tjenester som "garanterer" får kontoen din opp til det lovede antall tilhengere gjennom "utprøvde og trygge metoder." Noen teller bare gjensidige tilhengere (tilhengere som følger bak).
NSFW: Guest Post! Fem grunner iPad vil blah blah blah tenne
Spaltist's Merk: I litt under 24 timer, må jeg sende den endelige manuskriptet til min neste bok. Min opprinnelige fristen - 1. januar - seilte forbi uker siden, som gjorde en-ukes forlengelse jeg tildelt meg selv på grunnlag av at ingen gjør noe arbeid i den første uken av året. Dette siste frist, er imidlertid urokkelig: advokater og redaktører og typografene og proof-lesere står ved; tingen må skrives på et tidspunkt. Jeg har ikke sovet på flere dager, er mitt blod en 80:20 Koffein: Provigil blanding og jeg kan ikke føle fingrene mine. Jeg tror det jeg prøver å si er at jeg ikke har tid til å skrive denne uken kolonnen. Og likevel, jeg har fortsatt kontrakt med TechCrunch - en som er intet mindre bindende eller rettskraftig enn den jeg har med forleggeren min . Med krok eller crook, 1000 ord må vises i dette rommet. Jeg kort vurdert å outsource denne uken kolonnen til India - eller kanskje ansette noen indianere på H1Bs her, jeg samler det er fremtiden. Men så husket jeg at ansette folk koster penger. Neste Jeg tenkte å spørre en av mine journalist venner å ta over for uken, men det er alltid fare for at de vil bli bedre på jobben enn meg, og jeg finner meg selv arbeidsledig. Igjen. Jeg trengte en løsning som a) fyller mellomrom, b) er gratis og c) er usannsynlig å sette meg ut av en jobb. Og det er da det slo meg - jeg skal bestille en Gjest Innlegg.
Hvorfor My Mom's Next datamaskin skal være An iPad
Editor's note: Dette er en gjest innlegg skrevet av Ethan Nicholas, utvikleren av det million-dollar iPhone spill iShoot og den nylig utgitte Kim Rhode utendørs skyting. Før iPad ble også annonsert, Nicholas var allerede gravid sin neste kamp med tabletten enheten i tankene. Internett er et morsomt sted. Etter at Apple annonserte sin nye iPad, krøp jeg på hat blir rettet seg på steder som Slashdot og Digg. Selv gutta på Penny Arcade, som jeg normalt er enig med, sier at iPad presentasjonen måtte være det verste jeg har selv sett på på Apple-scenen ", og at Apple ikke hadde klart å lage en sak for enheten. Dersom du tror dem er iPad skal være en stor flopp. Vel, de uvaskede massene på Internett også spådd at iPod ville være en fiasko. De var galt da, og de er feil nå.
Motorola Q4 finansielle rapporten er ute: Ting blir bedre
Motorola publiserte sine Q4 og full 2009 finansielle rapporter, som viser helt klare tegn til at selskapet får tilbake på føttene. De har tjent 142 million US dollar i Q4, som har brakt ned ...
Samsungs Q4 finansielle rapport annen lønnsom kvartal
2009 var et veldig godt år for nesten alle Samsung divisjoner. Og som nettopp publisert finansielle rapporten viser Q4 var bare glasuren på kaken. Kvartal etter kvartal antall sendes Samsung mobiltelefoner ...
In The Limelight: An American Entrepreneur In China Talks About Startup Culture
Calvin Chin is an American entrepreneur who lives in Shanghai. He founded Qifang, a P2P lending site for Chinese student loans. You can read more about Qifang here. He attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this last week, where China was the center of attention. We asked him to write this guest post and share his unique perspective as an American building a startup in the heart of China.
Here at Davos it seems China keeps coming up in two ways - neither of them positive. One, with the worst of the crisis behind us, people are turning from last year's hopes of China as economic savior to China as free-rider keeping its currency cheap, bullying its minorities and shirking its responsibilities in Copenhagen. Two, in the tech community, seems everyone is talking about Google, Chinese government hackers and censorship.
My view, and I think it's one that many in China would probably share, is that while free access to information and the rest of the world is inherently a good thing, so is political stability. The Chinese government has earned a lot of slack for raising hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, and if things did go out of control a heck of a lot of people would get hurt. So even if they want China to be plugged in to the rest of the world to encourage innovation and Chinese tech entrepreneurship (which I think they do), they'd put that priority after getting most Chinese people better lives.
Here at Davos it seems China keeps coming up in two ways - neither of them positive. One, with the worst of the crisis behind us, people are turning from last year's hopes of China as economic savior to China as free-rider keeping its currency cheap, bullying its minorities and shirking its responsibilities in Copenhagen. Two, in the tech community, seems everyone is talking about Google, Chinese government hackers and censorship.
My view, and I think it's one that many in China would probably share, is that while free access to information and the rest of the world is inherently a good thing, so is political stability. The Chinese government has earned a lot of slack for raising hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, and if things did go out of control a heck of a lot of people would get hurt. So even if they want China to be plugged in to the rest of the world to encourage innovation and Chinese tech entrepreneurship (which I think they do), they'd put that priority after getting most Chinese people better lives.
Jacksons barn å være del av Grammy hyllest
Michael Jackson's to eldste barna vil vises på scenen søndag kveld under Grammy-show hyllest til sin far, Jackson far og andre bekreftet.
lørdag 30. januar 2010
Tidligere Current TV strateg Sloan hopper til Twitter
Robin Sloan, tidligere strateg og direktør i Current TV, er å bli Twitter til å håndtere media partnerskap. Han sier han vil hjelpe "produsenter, reportere, utviklere og strateger i media organisasjoner som ønsker å gjøre kule, transformative ting med tweets." Han ble rekruttert av en tidligere kollega Chloe Sladden som eksperimenterte med en av de tidligste av bruk av Twitter mot en direktesending. Under den første presidentkandidat debatten i 2008-kampanjen, bygget Sloan et program som skulle overlappe kuratert tweets over bunnen av skjermen (se video under). Han ville ikke gi noe detaljert om hvordan han ser på Twitter jobber med medier organisasjoner. I stedet pekte han på hvor raskt selskapets økosystemet har utviklet seg. Han skrev på sin blogg: "Jeg føler at jeg stadig lærer og re-lære å bruke Twitter. Og jeg tror det er fordi, sammen med denne rare tvang, du har fått denne sprø åpenhet-dette nektet å spesifisere nøyaktig hva du skal gjøre med tjenesten, eller hvordan, eller hvorfor. Så de bestemmelser falle til oss, og som et resultat, synes det hele å være kramper og transformere, like, hvert halvår. " Sloan var auspiciously også forfatteren av Twitter fem milliarddels tweet.
Er Bill Gates 'nye nettsider Really kjører på Linux?
Noen ganger tips kommer inn som virker for godt til å være sant. Ta i dag, for eksempel. Jeg fikk et tips om at Bill Gates 'nye nettsted, The Gates Notes, ble kjører på en Linux-powered server. Dette ville være ironisk siden Gates er selvsagt grunnleggeren av Microsoft, som er Linux største konkurrent i server-markedet. Det ville være det samme som å fange Gates eller CEO Steve Ballmer å bli tatt med (og ikke bare signering) en MacBook på en konferanse. Så er det sant? Et raskt søk på Netcraft viser at thegatesreport.com sikker nok ser ut til å være kjører på Linux OS. Men vent. Resultatene sier også at webserveren er Microsoft-IIS/7.0. Det høres ikke riktig, så hva gir? Vel, viser det seg at fordi Gates bruker Akamai å speile sin plass innhold i tilfelle av massiv trafikk (eller mer spesifikt, noe som et DDoS angrep), er disse dataene blir filtrert gjennom der. Akamai bruker Linux for sine servere, så det er det OS som blir sendt tilbake til Netcraft. Men samtidig, for å gjøre ting mer forvirrende, er Akamai servere fremdeles passerer tilbake riktig server overskriften for Gates 'nettsted: Microsoft-IIS/7.0.
Googles Nexus En håndbok har sans for humor
Sharp eyed leseren Mike merke til litt humor i Nexus En manuell skjermbilder. Det ser ut til forfatterne var ikke fornøyd med navnet "Jane Doe" for en endring. Hubris-substantiv overdreven stolthet og selvtillit, arroganse. (Takk til Mike for tipset) Crunch Nettverk: TechCrunch svært godt profilering og gjennomgå nye Internett-produkter og selskaper
Why Bigger Is Better: The iPad And The Arc of Computing
The following guest post was written by Edo Segal (@edosegal).
Earlier last week, as the day was coming to an end and I was speaking with my 5 year old at bedtime we shared the highlights of our day. I started by telling him the company that created the iPhone is about to come out with . . . I paused—how do I describe it?—well, a "big iPhone" I said. About this big, I gestured holding my hands about 10 inches apart. “Wow, Amazing!” was his instant reaction as his eyes lit up. Even my 5-year-old knows that bigger is better, especially when it comes to tactile interfaces. In fact, the advantages are probably more obvious to his generation than it is to ours.
For this first generation born into a world of the iPhone, Wii and soon the Xbox's Project Natal, the distance between the metaphor created by these devices and the reality of their interaction is constantly shrinking. My wife is currently doing her PhD research on the merits of tangible interfaces for young children in education and the data is telling. There is no doubt that there is great potential to enhance learning with tactile computing. Through that lens the “Bigger iPhone” is akin to a bigger yard to play in or a bigger room. This insight is telling. For these kids the iPhone’s primary function is by no means a phone. It is first and formost a gaming device, followed by a networked camera, followed by everything else. Through this lens one can see the importance of the iPad in the historical trajectory of our human-computer interaction. What's lost in all the complaints about what the iPad is lacking (multitasking, camera, etc.) is that people need to view the iPad on more than its merits as a first-generation product. Rather, they need to understand it in context of the evolutionary arc of computing.
Earlier last week, as the day was coming to an end and I was speaking with my 5 year old at bedtime we shared the highlights of our day. I started by telling him the company that created the iPhone is about to come out with . . . I paused—how do I describe it?—well, a "big iPhone" I said. About this big, I gestured holding my hands about 10 inches apart. “Wow, Amazing!” was his instant reaction as his eyes lit up. Even my 5-year-old knows that bigger is better, especially when it comes to tactile interfaces. In fact, the advantages are probably more obvious to his generation than it is to ours.
For this first generation born into a world of the iPhone, Wii and soon the Xbox's Project Natal, the distance between the metaphor created by these devices and the reality of their interaction is constantly shrinking. My wife is currently doing her PhD research on the merits of tangible interfaces for young children in education and the data is telling. There is no doubt that there is great potential to enhance learning with tactile computing. Through that lens the “Bigger iPhone” is akin to a bigger yard to play in or a bigger room. This insight is telling. For these kids the iPhone’s primary function is by no means a phone. It is first and formost a gaming device, followed by a networked camera, followed by everything else. Through this lens one can see the importance of the iPad in the historical trajectory of our human-computer interaction. What's lost in all the complaints about what the iPad is lacking (multitasking, camera, etc.) is that people need to view the iPad on more than its merits as a first-generation product. Rather, they need to understand it in context of the evolutionary arc of computing.
CrunchRumor: iPhone OS 3.2 støtter videosamtaler, multitasking?
Etter iPad SDK, er programmerere begynt å si at den nye versjonen av iPhone OS støtter videosamtaler, nedlasting av filer, og en slags multitasking. Det er også flere andre funksjoner i SDK som ikke vil fungere med iPad, men vil være gjeldende for iPhone i den gjeldende konfigurasjon. Vi kunne [...]
Week in review: All about Apple’s iPad, how a tweet revived services in Haiti
Here’s our rundown of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:
McGraw-Hill axed from iPad launch after CEO leaks on TV — The day before announcing its iPad tablet, Apple appeared to have removed McGraw-Hill from the list of publishers who will sell e-books on the device’s iBookStore. The move followed the appearance of the publisher’s 61-year-old leader, Harold McGraw III on CNBC, where he prattled about the tablet’s iPhone operating system. McGraw-Hill later claimed that it wasn’t removed from the iPad launch, because it had never been part of it.
Rumored Apple iPad advertisement surfaces — Writer Cody Barbierri thought the ad resembled a real Apple commercial, but didn’t find the featured product all that convincing. At this point, it’s pretty clear that the ad was a fake.
At last: Real photos of the Apple tablet — On the other hand, these photos, which were leaked to Engadget the night before the iPad launch, turned out to be real. (By now, you’ve probably picked up on the connecting thread between our most popular stories. Sorry, Apple-heaters.)
No Flash on Apple’s iPad — One of the more contentious features of the iPad was its lack of support for Adobe’s Flash technology. That decision prompted several responses from Adobe, as well as speculation about the presence of Flash in Apple’s iPad commercial, which has since been removed.
More potential photos of Apple’s iPad — Yep, people sure wanted to catch a glimpse of the insanely-hyped device. This set turned out to be fake.
And here are five more stories we thought were important, thought-provoking, or fun:
How a tweet brought makeshift 911 services to life in Haiti — Haiti’s earthquake devastated not only lives. It destroyed whatever emergency services the barely functioning government had to offer. But in less than five days, a makeshift version of 911 sprung to life. Here’s the story of how a few tech-savvy social entrepreneurs, receptive ears in the U.S. government, and hundreds of Haitian Creole-speaking strangers crowdsourced from around the world were able to help people on the ground get food or medical attention.
Tesla Motors files for $100M public offering — If the darling of the burgeoning electric car market pulls off an IPO, electric vehicles will have taken another big step towards mainstream acceptance.
Amazon.com mysteriously removes Macmillan book titles — On Friday evening, we noticed that Amazon stopped selling many books from major publisher Macmillan. Initially, there was no explanation for the removal, but a source later told The New York Times that it was caused by a dispute between Macmillan and Amazon over the price of e-books.
iPad-iFail debate: Paul, you ignorant slut! — Sometimes, VentureBeat writers disagree. In this case,, Dean Takahashi was so appalled by Paul Boutin’s list of five reasons not to buy an iPad that he penned this point-by-point rebuttal (whose headline quotes an old Saturday Night Live skit).
Inkling lets textbook makers embrace the iPad — Backed by Google investor Ram Shriram and Lotus designer Mitch Kapor (among others), the startup’s chief executive told us, “The book will never die. But the textbook probably will.” Inkling wants to create the experience that will take the textbook’s place.
McGraw-Hill axed from iPad launch after CEO leaks on TV — The day before announcing its iPad tablet, Apple appeared to have removed McGraw-Hill from the list of publishers who will sell e-books on the device’s iBookStore. The move followed the appearance of the publisher’s 61-year-old leader, Harold McGraw III on CNBC, where he prattled about the tablet’s iPhone operating system. McGraw-Hill later claimed that it wasn’t removed from the iPad launch, because it had never been part of it.
Rumored Apple iPad advertisement surfaces — Writer Cody Barbierri thought the ad resembled a real Apple commercial, but didn’t find the featured product all that convincing. At this point, it’s pretty clear that the ad was a fake.
At last: Real photos of the Apple tablet — On the other hand, these photos, which were leaked to Engadget the night before the iPad launch, turned out to be real. (By now, you’ve probably picked up on the connecting thread between our most popular stories. Sorry, Apple-heaters.)
No Flash on Apple’s iPad — One of the more contentious features of the iPad was its lack of support for Adobe’s Flash technology. That decision prompted several responses from Adobe, as well as speculation about the presence of Flash in Apple’s iPad commercial, which has since been removed.
More potential photos of Apple’s iPad — Yep, people sure wanted to catch a glimpse of the insanely-hyped device. This set turned out to be fake.
And here are five more stories we thought were important, thought-provoking, or fun:
How a tweet brought makeshift 911 services to life in Haiti — Haiti’s earthquake devastated not only lives. It destroyed whatever emergency services the barely functioning government had to offer. But in less than five days, a makeshift version of 911 sprung to life. Here’s the story of how a few tech-savvy social entrepreneurs, receptive ears in the U.S. government, and hundreds of Haitian Creole-speaking strangers crowdsourced from around the world were able to help people on the ground get food or medical attention.
Tesla Motors files for $100M public offering — If the darling of the burgeoning electric car market pulls off an IPO, electric vehicles will have taken another big step towards mainstream acceptance.
Amazon.com mysteriously removes Macmillan book titles — On Friday evening, we noticed that Amazon stopped selling many books from major publisher Macmillan. Initially, there was no explanation for the removal, but a source later told The New York Times that it was caused by a dispute between Macmillan and Amazon over the price of e-books.
iPad-iFail debate: Paul, you ignorant slut! — Sometimes, VentureBeat writers disagree. In this case,, Dean Takahashi was so appalled by Paul Boutin’s list of five reasons not to buy an iPad that he penned this point-by-point rebuttal (whose headline quotes an old Saturday Night Live skit).
Inkling lets textbook makers embrace the iPad — Backed by Google investor Ram Shriram and Lotus designer Mitch Kapor (among others), the startup’s chief executive told us, “The book will never die. But the textbook probably will.” Inkling wants to create the experience that will take the textbook’s place.
E-leser sammenligningen draft: 6 lesere, 19 funksjoner
PaidContent.org har satt sammen en grundig, nyttig diagram som sammenlikner de seks mest populære e-lesere: Amazon.com 's Kindle 2 og tenne DX, Sony's Daily Edition, Barnes & Noble's Nook, Plastic Logic's Que proReader, og selvfølgelig Apples iPad. Figuren sammenligner 19 trekk fra maskinvare til programvare til innholdet. Klikk her for full størrelse versjon av oversikten.
Apple yanks Flash fra iPad demo video
PC World rapporter at iPad demo video som viste arbeider Flash-komponenter i en New York Times nettsiden har blitt erstattet. I den nye videoen, genererer den innebygde Adoble Flash-spilleren den lille blå Lego som betyr "Jeg har ikke et fungerende plug-in for dette innholdet. Hvorfor er Apples bevisst bryte Adobes Flash-innhold? Ingen vet sikkert. Teoriene spenner fra "fordi Flash fraråder bruk av Apples app modellen" til "fordi Steve bare hater Flash." Uansett vil iPad sikkert bli kastet masse blå legos skjermen, spesielt i annonser som vist på denne siden av mockups. Flash brukes for i-side video, animasjon, spill og innhold. Teknologien, som ikke bruker åpne Internett-standarder, og oppfordrer til en mangel på konsistens i nettstedet brukergrensesnitt, ble ansett bannlyst av mange Web teknologer til 2005, da YouTube brukt Flash til å levere sine lett spille av videoer. YouTube kjørte mange Internett-brukere å oppdatere Flash-plugins, plutselig rendering alle slags andre Flash-innhold spillbart. Siden da Flash har vært Embedded-video-spiller teknologi valg. Online reaksjon på iPad er bevisst mangel på Flash er delt inn i to leire: De som anser det egoistiske av Apple å la den ut, og de som anser det en tjeneste. [Bilde: PC World]
ClientShow Debuterer Realtime Collaboration App For Creative Plasser
Fjor høst, TechCrunch50 oppstart ClientShow presenterte sin innovative program for å hjelpe kreative, annonsering og markedsføring profesjonelle show, tonehøyde, dele og selge sine verk til kundene mer effektivt gjennom sanntids samarbeid og kommunikasjon. Ligner på en Web-Ex for kreative profesjonelle, lar ClientShow brukerne hovedsak opprette en "virtuell byrå å samarbeide og dele ideer med klienter. Denne uken er det oppstart debuterte sin plattform i privat beta. Vi har 1000 invitasjoner til Techcrunch lesere her. Søknaden, som er bygd av av Adobe Air, inkluderer et dashbord som lar byrået vise klienter, prosjekter og pitch sesjoner på en enkelt blikk. Dashbordet fungerer som en organisatorisk lanseringen dotten, der du kan se vedlagte notater og bilder om kommende plasser og en tidsplan av øktene. Den andre funksjonen er en "jobb" delen som faktisk lar deg sette opp og forberede seg til møter. Du kan dra og slippe filene dine i programmet, der du kan utsikten prosjektene.
En prising tvist forårsaket Macmillan forsvinning fra Amazon (rapport)
Fredag kveld, la vi merke til at bøker fra de største utgiver Macmillan hadde forsvunnet fra Amazon.com, men kunne ikke forklare hvorfor. Det faktum at Macmillan var en partner på Apples iPad, som bør være en formidabel konkurrent til Amazons Kindle, virket tankevekkende, men igjen: Vi visste ikke. Nå The New York Times har en forklaring. Siterer en anonym kilde "i bransjen med kunnskap om tvisten," The Times sier fjerningen ble forårsaket av en uenighet mellom Macmillan og Amazon over prisingen av e-bøker på tenne. Amazon insisterer på at utgivere belaste 9,99 USD for de fleste e-bøker, mens Macmillan ønsket å heve prisen til $ 15. Så den elektroniske forhandleren er "uttrykker sterk uenighet ved midlertidig å fjerne Macmillan bøker." Samtidig er Apple tillater utgivere å sette prisene de vil på iPad's iBookstore. The Wall Street Journal faktisk trykket Apple-sjef Steve Jobs på dette problemet ved iPad lanseringen hendelsen spørre hvorfor noen ville kjøpe en $ 15 e-bok fra Apple når de kan få den samme boken fra Amazon for $ 9.99. "Prisen vil være den samme," Jobs sa antyde at Amazon vil til slutt bli tvunget til å innføre mer fleksible prismodeller. Hvis The Times er riktig, kunne Macmillan's fjerning signal neste stadium i slaget. Amazon og Macmillan fortsatt ikke har svart på e-post ba om en forklaring.
EC Roundup: The need for speed – and three little words to help you succeed
Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner.
Ask the Attorney: What issues do I need to consider when forming a start-up? – In part two of this column, attorney Scott Edward Walker looks at the things you need to address as you’re ramping up your company, including IP, management and employment issues.
50 Three-word phrases that can make your start-up a success – The best advice is digestible advice – not long rambling statements. Serial software entrepreneur Dharmesh Shah consolidates his best tips for start-up owners into a series of three word statements, with a little help from a friend.
A new way of looking at sales and marketing – Sometimes, getting a different perspective on things can make an enormous difference. Marketing specialist Brant Cooper offers a different want to view the sales and marketing process – and how that can save your company money.
Speed and Tempo: Fearless decision making for start-ups – Too many entrepreneurs overanalyze their decisions, which can cost their companies dearly. Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank looks at why quick decision-making – about the right things – can move your company forward exponentially.
The start-up chronicles: My Website’s not working: Now what? – Bruce Judson’s bootstrapped start-up has been getting plenty of page views, but the conversion rates haven’t been what they were hoping for. In the latest installment of this continuing series, he talks about the process that went in to an upcoming site redesign.
Ask the Attorney: What issues do I need to consider when forming a start-up? – In part two of this column, attorney Scott Edward Walker looks at the things you need to address as you’re ramping up your company, including IP, management and employment issues.
50 Three-word phrases that can make your start-up a success – The best advice is digestible advice – not long rambling statements. Serial software entrepreneur Dharmesh Shah consolidates his best tips for start-up owners into a series of three word statements, with a little help from a friend.
A new way of looking at sales and marketing – Sometimes, getting a different perspective on things can make an enormous difference. Marketing specialist Brant Cooper offers a different want to view the sales and marketing process – and how that can save your company money.
Speed and Tempo: Fearless decision making for start-ups – Too many entrepreneurs overanalyze their decisions, which can cost their companies dearly. Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank looks at why quick decision-making – about the right things – can move your company forward exponentially.
The start-up chronicles: My Website’s not working: Now what? – Bruce Judson’s bootstrapped start-up has been getting plenty of page views, but the conversion rates haven’t been what they were hoping for. In the latest installment of this continuing series, he talks about the process that went in to an upcoming site redesign.
Gjest Innlegg: The Yo-Yo Life av Teknisk Entreprenør
Dette er en gjest postering av Mark Suster, en 2x entreprenør som har gått til den mørke siden av VC. Han startet sitt første selskap i 1999 og var med hovedkontor i London, som han forlot i 2005 og selger til et børsnotert fransk tjenester. Han grunnla sin andre selskap i Palo Alto i 2005 og solgte dette selskapet til Salesforce.com, bli VP Product Management. Han kom til GRP Partnere i 2007 som en general partner med fokus på tidlig stadium teknologiselskaper. TechCrunch Europa kjørte en artikkel i november i fjor at europeiske oppstarter trenger å jobbe like hardt som de i Silicon Valley, og jeg ekko av følelser i mitt innlegg om behovet for gründere til å være gale om sin virksomhet dersom man ønsker å arbeide i hyper konkurransedyktige tech verden.
Vil Kina Spis America's Lunch i Cleantech?
I State of the Union Address sist onsdag, sa president Obama "nasjonen som leder den rene energien økonomien vil være den nasjonen som leder den globale økonomien og Amerika må være at nasjonen." Samtidig, på den andre kysten, 75 ren energi investorer, gründere og forskere var debattere hvorvidt USA kan få dette lederposisjon. De ble enige om at selv om Silicon Valley fører verden i teknologien, er det ikke klart om det noensinne vil føre i Cleantech. The Valley kan utvikle noen banebrytende teknologi, men uten at regjeringen hjelpe disse er usannsynlig å oversette til globalt lederskap. Teknologien verden er rettmessig allergisk til statlig hjelp og innblanding. Cleantech er forskjellig, imidlertid, og vi ikke har å gjøre med en plan global playing field.
Belgisk Band Gets Creative Med Video Annotations På YouTube
YouTube har lenge innført måter for brukerne å kommentere sine videoer og legge til linker til eksterne nettsteder, andre videoer på nettstedet, og mer. Men jeg har ikke sett at mange mennesker eller bedrifter ta i bruk video merknader på kreative måter - Jeg vil ikke tilbringe så mye tid på YouTube for å være ærlig, så kanskje det bare er meg. Belgiske electro bandet The Subs kom i kontakt med oss å fortelle oss hvordan de bruker video merknader å krydre The Famous videocast prosjektet, og resultatet er ganske ryddig hvis du spør meg.
Patent Troll Sues Over Apple Wireless Messaging Teknologi
Intellekt Wireless, et lite selskap basert i Reston, har VA arkivert drakten mot Apple over mobile bilde / videomeldinger teknologi den hevder å ha lykkes patentert år siden. Patentkrenkelser drakten ble innlevert 28. januar i Illinois Northern District Court. Klagen statene at Apple krenket på selskapets patenter når det forutsatt trådløse bærbare kommunikasjonsenheter (du vet, som iPhone) at "motta og vise nummergjenkjenning informasjon, ikke-faksimile bilder, video meldinger og / eller Multimedia Messaging Service."
Stjerner skinne på den røde løperen
Anne Hathaway var på hånden for Giorgio Armani Prive haute couture-show denne uken. Sjekk ut den røde løperen galleriet.
Context is King: How Videos Are Found And Consumed Online
Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of posts by guest writer Ashkan Karbasfrooshan. Previously, he wrote about the State of Online Video, and 12 Surprising Things Holding Back Online Video Advertising. In part 3 today, he examines how videos are found and consumed online. Karbasfrooshan is the founder and CEO of WatchMojo , a producer of premium, informative and entertaining video content. The company’s catalog of 5,000 videos has generated over 110 million streams since 2006.
To try to understand—let alone guess—the future of video advertising, one needs to start by looking at the biggest trend in media over the past few decades. In November 2006, Bear Stearns Cable and Satellite analyst Spencer Wang published a study called “Why Aggregation & Context and Not (Necessarily) Content are King in Entertainment”. While Bear Stearns has since been acquired by JP Morgan and is now a mere footnote in business books, the study’s findings are more relevant than ever. Let's examine 8 key factors behind online video consumption
To try to understand—let alone guess—the future of video advertising, one needs to start by looking at the biggest trend in media over the past few decades. In November 2006, Bear Stearns Cable and Satellite analyst Spencer Wang published a study called “Why Aggregation & Context and Not (Necessarily) Content are King in Entertainment”. While Bear Stearns has since been acquired by JP Morgan and is now a mere footnote in business books, the study’s findings are more relevant than ever. Let's examine 8 key factors behind online video consumption
Owen Van Natta Talks About His First 8 Måneder Running MySpace (video)
Jeg satte meg ned med MySpace konsernsjef Owen Van Natta på World Economic Forum i Davos i Sveits tidligere denne uken fortelle om sine åtte første måneder på jobb. Dette er en av Owen første video-intervjuer siden tok jobben i april i fjor. Vi snakker om Van Natta visjon for den gang mektige MySpace. Stedet var en gang verdens største sosiale nettverk, og hadde flere sidevisninger enn noe annet amerikansk nettsted. Men i de siste par årene har det vært i skyggen av Facebook fantastiske veksten. Still, Van Natta og team har en plan. MySpace i fremtiden vil være om den sosiale opplevelsen rundt innholdet, og selskapets sterke tilbud i musikk og musikkvideoer via MySpace Music vil bli hjørnesteinen for den innsats. Fra intervjuet:
iPad v. A Rock
Dette taler for seg selv. Takk til Phil Santoro for å skape den og sender den oss (et spill på iPhone v. rock spøk).
fredag 29. januar 2010
Favilous joins crowded social bookmarking space
A young UK-based startup called Favilous has joined the crowded social bookmarking space. It hopes to differentiate itself from the legions of existing bookmarking services by building a community behind the bookmarks, so users can share descriptions of sites and help each other discover new online destinations (see a clip from one of their tour slides below).
On the site, users can see other users’ popular bookmarks as well as the most popular bookmarks in various categories, including “Top Sites” and picks for categories such as food, entertainment, and travel. Once you sign up, you pick a number of categories, for example, blogs or music, that are of interest to you. Favilous populates the top sites in each of those categories, and to edit this list, you need to expand the category to see “all sites” and narrow it down from there, or else enter in a URL manually.
At this point, there is no way to transfer bookmarks directly from a browser upon registration, but that is about two weeks away, according to founder Steve Whyley. Right now, it seems a bit too manual to me, and that may be why the service hasn’t seen much pickup, accumulating just under 200 users in about a week.
The company also plans to add customized theme pages in the coming weeks as well as the ability to integrate social networking profiles so you can easily share bookmarks with your friends.
The company plans to make money in 3 ways: by licensing the API to businesses and allowing them to customize Favilous for their own needs; by creating a subscription model to bookmark music playlists (they have reached out to Spotify to allow users to bookmark their playlists); and to possibly look at affiliate relationships and advertise to users, although they are hesitant to do that at this time.
The site is better looking than a lot of its competitors, but whether or not it will make for a better social bookmarking experience won’t be evident until the promised features roll out in the next couple of weeks.
Favilous was founded by Whyley and Mike Doyle. Competitors include Pinboard, Instapaper, which charges for its iPhone app but not for use of its site, and Delicious, which is free. Favilous is self-funded.
On the site, users can see other users’ popular bookmarks as well as the most popular bookmarks in various categories, including “Top Sites” and picks for categories such as food, entertainment, and travel. Once you sign up, you pick a number of categories, for example, blogs or music, that are of interest to you. Favilous populates the top sites in each of those categories, and to edit this list, you need to expand the category to see “all sites” and narrow it down from there, or else enter in a URL manually.
At this point, there is no way to transfer bookmarks directly from a browser upon registration, but that is about two weeks away, according to founder Steve Whyley. Right now, it seems a bit too manual to me, and that may be why the service hasn’t seen much pickup, accumulating just under 200 users in about a week.
The company also plans to add customized theme pages in the coming weeks as well as the ability to integrate social networking profiles so you can easily share bookmarks with your friends.
The company plans to make money in 3 ways: by licensing the API to businesses and allowing them to customize Favilous for their own needs; by creating a subscription model to bookmark music playlists (they have reached out to Spotify to allow users to bookmark their playlists); and to possibly look at affiliate relationships and advertise to users, although they are hesitant to do that at this time.
The site is better looking than a lot of its competitors, but whether or not it will make for a better social bookmarking experience won’t be evident until the promised features roll out in the next couple of weeks.
Favilous was founded by Whyley and Mike Doyle. Competitors include Pinboard, Instapaper, which charges for its iPhone app but not for use of its site, and Delicious, which is free. Favilous is self-funded.
Apisphere høyner $ 4.6M for location-basert bedrift apps
Apisphere, et selskap som gjør en rekke forretningsapplikasjoner som bruker geografiske data, har tjente NOK 4.6 millioner i støtte. Som andre har nevnt, Berkeley, Calif selskapets finansiering er spesielt bemerkelsesverdig siden de fleste av de høyprofilerte lokasjonsbaserte oppstarter to-date, for eksempel Loopt og firkantet, har fokusert på sosiale evner fremfor business. Apisphere's programmer, derimot, inkluderer verktøy for lokasjonsbaserte mobile reklamekampanjer og en plugin som leverer varsler til Microsof e-og kalenderprogram Outlook. Midlene ble avslørt i en regulerende arkivering, som nevner ikke noen investorer. Jeg har mailet Apisphere på høring og vil oppdatere hvis jeg hører tilbake.
Ooh.com aims to create a marketplace for activities
The founders of Sofa.com, Pat Reeves and Rohan Blacker, have launched a new startup that should be particularly useful for anyone who has ever had trouble finding things to do in their community, or while on vacation. With Ooh.com, they’re offering a place for activity providers to sell their services with as little fuss as possible — much like eBay did in the late nineties for used and collector goods, but without the auction aspect.
At the site activity providers can post their events (pretty much anything “time-bookable”) for free, and allow customers to check out via Paypal or Google Checkout. Activity providers can incorporate Flickr and Youtube into their listings, and also promote events to Facebook and Twitter from within the site. It doesn’t look like the site has any place for free events — but given that there are so many other online venues for finding free activities, it’s probably better for Ooh.com to stick within the paid event niche.
Ooh.com competes with the likes of Craigslist and Eventbrite, but its all-in-one solution for activity providers is fairly unique. It’s simpler than Craigslist because the activity provider doesn’t have to worry about tracking incoming payments via a third-party service, and it caters to individuals and smaller activities better than Eventbrite.
The UK-based service already boasts some 1,000 activities from North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. According to their press release, the variety of courses and activities listed so far include:
[A] jam and chutney making course in Hampshire, paragliding with hawks in Nepal, a holiday cottage in Dorset, medieval jousting lessons in California, film screenings in London, financial crisis tours in New York with a former bond trader, ski lessons in Japan, lindy hop lessons in Belfast, hip hop tours in Harlem and bushcraft days in Missouri.
While there are many similar options available, Ooh.com’s simplicity may be an appealing option to activity providers and users just looking for something fun to do.
At the site activity providers can post their events (pretty much anything “time-bookable”) for free, and allow customers to check out via Paypal or Google Checkout. Activity providers can incorporate Flickr and Youtube into their listings, and also promote events to Facebook and Twitter from within the site. It doesn’t look like the site has any place for free events — but given that there are so many other online venues for finding free activities, it’s probably better for Ooh.com to stick within the paid event niche.
Ooh.com competes with the likes of Craigslist and Eventbrite, but its all-in-one solution for activity providers is fairly unique. It’s simpler than Craigslist because the activity provider doesn’t have to worry about tracking incoming payments via a third-party service, and it caters to individuals and smaller activities better than Eventbrite.
The UK-based service already boasts some 1,000 activities from North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. According to their press release, the variety of courses and activities listed so far include:
[A] jam and chutney making course in Hampshire, paragliding with hawks in Nepal, a holiday cottage in Dorset, medieval jousting lessons in California, film screenings in London, financial crisis tours in New York with a former bond trader, ski lessons in Japan, lindy hop lessons in Belfast, hip hop tours in Harlem and bushcraft days in Missouri.
While there are many similar options available, Ooh.com’s simplicity may be an appealing option to activity providers and users just looking for something fun to do.
Tesla Motors files for $100M public offering
Big news for late on a Friday afternoon: Tesla Motors, the darling of the burgeoning electric car market, has filed for an initial public offering worth $100 million. If it pulls it off, electric vehicles will have officially gone mainstream.
Tesla was one of several companies in the cleantech sector named as likely IPO candidates at the start of the year, along with Silver Spring Networks in the Smart Grid space. With solar system maker Solyndra also filing in December, it looks like green might be one of the most active areas for public exits in 2010 — just as the Cleantech Group predicted.
But this isn’t your average public sale. Eyes have been fixed on the company’s success since its inception, both because of its sexy product and its notorious CEO, Elon Musk — who has been pushing toward this IPO for years. For this reason, its success could boost business for the whole electric car market, including competitors like Fisker Automotive, Th!nk North America, Coda Automotive and even General Motors with its Chevy Volt. However, if the filing languishes, or it doesn’t exceed $100 million, it could dampen excitement for the next generation of advanced vehicles.
It’s hard to imagine Tesla failing at this juncture. The company saw a series of wins in 2009. Not only did it achieve profitability in July due to sales of its hot $109,000 Roadster, but it swept the country with new showrooms in major cities, landed $82.5 million in new financing, even more from Daimler, and built up hype for its forthcoming sedan, the Model S. This more practical model, starting at $50,000 before rebates, should open up new sales channels for Tesla.
The company has also been shrinking its losses. It reported a loss of $31.5 million for the third quarter of 2009, down from $57.3 million the year previous. Its revenue also skyrocketed from a mere $580,000 to $93.4 million. This is an amazing turnaround for a company that was rumored to have $9 million left in the bank in the fall of 2008 when the downturn hit.
That said, Tesla still is losing money. This highlights a broader issue with cleantech companies looking to go public. A123Systems, which broke the seal on public sales in the sector last September, is still in the red. Solyndra also is a long way from profitability. Clearly, losses have no bearing on how big a sale can be — A123’s exceeded expectations by almost 50 percent– but will shareholders be willing to stick with stock that may not break even for months? Years?
Tesla could be an excellent case study. Its executive team has already admitted that it will probably continue to lose money until the launch of the Model S in 2012.
Investors include Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, The Westly Group, Aabar Investments, Daimler, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DraperValor Equity Partners, Technology Partners and Compass Venture Partners. The IPO’s underwriters include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities.
This will be the first IPO filed by an automaker in the U.S. since Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Company went public in 1956.
Tesla was one of several companies in the cleantech sector named as likely IPO candidates at the start of the year, along with Silver Spring Networks in the Smart Grid space. With solar system maker Solyndra also filing in December, it looks like green might be one of the most active areas for public exits in 2010 — just as the Cleantech Group predicted.
But this isn’t your average public sale. Eyes have been fixed on the company’s success since its inception, both because of its sexy product and its notorious CEO, Elon Musk — who has been pushing toward this IPO for years. For this reason, its success could boost business for the whole electric car market, including competitors like Fisker Automotive, Th!nk North America, Coda Automotive and even General Motors with its Chevy Volt. However, if the filing languishes, or it doesn’t exceed $100 million, it could dampen excitement for the next generation of advanced vehicles.
It’s hard to imagine Tesla failing at this juncture. The company saw a series of wins in 2009. Not only did it achieve profitability in July due to sales of its hot $109,000 Roadster, but it swept the country with new showrooms in major cities, landed $82.5 million in new financing, even more from Daimler, and built up hype for its forthcoming sedan, the Model S. This more practical model, starting at $50,000 before rebates, should open up new sales channels for Tesla.
The company has also been shrinking its losses. It reported a loss of $31.5 million for the third quarter of 2009, down from $57.3 million the year previous. Its revenue also skyrocketed from a mere $580,000 to $93.4 million. This is an amazing turnaround for a company that was rumored to have $9 million left in the bank in the fall of 2008 when the downturn hit.
That said, Tesla still is losing money. This highlights a broader issue with cleantech companies looking to go public. A123Systems, which broke the seal on public sales in the sector last September, is still in the red. Solyndra also is a long way from profitability. Clearly, losses have no bearing on how big a sale can be — A123’s exceeded expectations by almost 50 percent– but will shareholders be willing to stick with stock that may not break even for months? Years?
Tesla could be an excellent case study. Its executive team has already admitted that it will probably continue to lose money until the launch of the Model S in 2012.
Investors include Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, The Westly Group, Aabar Investments, Daimler, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DraperValor Equity Partners, Technology Partners and Compass Venture Partners. The IPO’s underwriters include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities.
This will be the first IPO filed by an automaker in the U.S. since Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Company went public in 1956.
Den iPad og Chrome OS netbooks er på kollisjonskurs
"Vi vet ikke hvordan å bygge en $ 500 datamaskin som ikke er et stykke søppel." Netbooks er ikke bedre på noe. "De to sitater er begge fra Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Den første var under en inntjening samtale i slutten av 2008 da Jobs montert under flykroppen et spørsmål om hvorfor Apple ikke var å kutte prisene blant de stigende suksess netbooks. Den andre kom på onsdag som Jobs ble avduket i iPad. Apple har gjort det klart hele tiden at de ikke hadde noen planer om å bygge en netbook. Og tro mot sitt ord, har de ikke. Men det betyr ikke at Apple ikke følte det var behov for en enhet som bodde i mellom en full bærbar PC og en mobiltelefon - faktisk er det helt og holdent der Apple er posisjonering i iPad. Med det, føler de at de har opprettet en $ 500 (for den opprinnelige versjonen) enhet som er overordnet alle netbook der ute.
Firefox Mobile for Maemo Offisielt Innlede
Good news, everyone! Firefox er offisielt tilgjengelig for Maemo enheter, som Nokia N900! Hva er det du sier? Firefox har vært tilgjengelig for Maemo for en stund nå? Sure, men nå er det offisielt. Nå, det er ikke å si at de siste utgivelsene var "uoffisielle", de var bare "Release kandidater", som er en slags fancy måte å [...]
Amazon.com fjerner mystisk Macmillan boktitler
Gå til Amazon.com. Søk etter enhver publisering av Macmillan, en av verdens største forlag. Prinsen av Silicon Valley, kanskje, eller Sarah's Key. Eller fjorårets enorme # 1 bestseller The Gathering Storm. Gone, mystisk borte. Vi fant Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, men hans nye roman Makers og hans populære debut, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, har blitt fjernet. Robert Jordan hele Wheel of Time serien av fantasy-romaner er borte, med unntak av 2005's The Knife of Dreams. Du får linker til andre selgere. Men Amazon har sluttet å bære dem. Verken Amazon eller Macmillan har svart, men jeg vil oppdatere med mer info når vi får det. Jeg gjetter titlene du kan fortsatt finne en eller annen måte var savnet i fjerningen. Macmillan er en av Apples annonserte partnere for iPad, tungt hyped som Kindle morder. Men vi er ikke sikker det er tilkoblingen. Send oss et tips. Commenter Atul Arora påpeker at bøkene er fremdeles oppført på Amazon.co.uk og Amazon.ca.
Victory: En ranking system for hva som gjør en sosial lek i en blockbuster
Alok Kejriwal, konsernsjef i indisk spill fast Games2win, delte et par interessante diagrammer med meg som beskriver en måte å rangere sosiale spill ved benchmarking hvordan de stakk opp i en rekke viktige funksjoner som for eksempel kvaliteten på spillet, det virality i spillet som gjør det spres raskere, hvor originalt det er, om den har internasjonal appell, og hvor vanedannende eller vane forming spillet er. Kejriwal egne interne spillutviklerne satt opp rangeringssystemet, som de dub Victory, og rangert noen av verdens mest populære sosiale spill som bruker systemet. Den øverste figuren viser rangeringen av spill som Zynga's Farmville, og den andre figuren forklarer rangeringssystemet selv. Den legger noen interessante perspektiv på hva toppen spill andel i felles. Hvis du gjør sosiale spill, kanskje du vil være sikker på at spillet priser høyt på disse tiltakene, som er uten tvil subjektivt, men likevel nyttig.
Topicfire Oppretter Solid Breaking News Twitter-feeder for Alle emner
Mange mennesker bruker Twitter som en primær måte å få informasjon raskt i disse dager. Kontoer som BreakingNews er enormt populære fordi de gir opp historier til sine 1,6 millioner tilhengere (og enda mer gjennom retweets) umiddelbart. Topicfire en realtime aggregator nyhet vi dekket i desember er nå å utvide at konseptet til alle forskjellige emner. Mens det er ingen mangel på tjenester prøver å utnytte Twitter for å destillere informasjon om ulike emner, Topicfire's bekker virker ganske solid takket være bruken av deres HeatRank teknologi, som er det samme som driver Topicfire seg selv. Selv om det er noen faktorer som går inn HeatRank, den viktigste drivkraften bak det er kommentarer på historier. Hvis de kommer i rask nok, vil HeatRank bli presset til 10 år.
'Housewife' er 'a born-again virgin'
Danielle Staub, den polarisert stjernen i "The Real Housewives of New Jersey, er« snu deg et nytt blad:
Hvorfor "Ugly Betty" vil bli savnet
Akkurat når jeg trodde uken kunne ikke bli verre, bestemte ABC for å avbryte "Ugly Betty".
Tesla's $ 100M IPO: Tap Forventet inntil 2012 Least. Musk Taking $ 1 år.
Elektrisk bil selskapet Tesla Motors har arkivert for en $ 100 millioner IPO. Det var rykter nylig flyter rundt at selskapet, som ledes av PayPal medgrunnlegger Elon Musk, ville gå offentlig "snart". En interessant godbit fra innlevering: Musk tar bare $ 1 i årlig lønn. Annet interessant factoid. I filing, Tesla hevder at den har sett netto tap i hvert kvartal siden oppstarten. Selskapet forventer å fortsette på samme veien før det begynner å levere større mengder av sin modell S sedan, som ventes ikke før 2010 eller senere. Tesla tok et tap i de tre første kvartalene av 2009 på $ 31.5 millioner som er mindre enn dens tap for samme periode i 2008, som var på $ 57.3 millioner. Bruttofortjeneste for de tre første kvartalene av 2009 var på $ 7.8 millioner sammenlignet med $ 561K for samme periode i 2008. Omsetningen for de tre første kvartalene av 2009 toppet ut på $ 93.4 millioner.
Sky Sports Channel til televize 3D idrett kamp i UK
Det ser ut som storfilmen suksess 3D-film Avatar starter en ny trend i 3D underholdning. Denne søndagen, britiske Sky Sports Channel vil vise en 3D-live TV-sending klokka ni puber i Storbritannia. Seerne vil måtte bruke 3D briller for å se live fotballkamp mellom Arsenal og Manchester United. Sky vil ikke opplyse om plasseringen av disse puber for å unngå overbefolkning. Ifølge kanalens nettsider, vil de ha egne team av kameraet mannskap og kommentatorer å levere mat til sine tradisjonelle idretter kanal kunder og 3D-seere separat. (Bildet til høyre: Sky Sports kommentator Andy Gray i 3D-briller.) Selskapet har store planer om å begynne å tilby andre TV-innhold til sine kunder i 2010. Etter den store suksessen med Avatar på storskjerm, en rekke TV-kanaler vurderer levedyktigheten til 3D-innhold på TV-skjermen også. 3D broadcast trenger to sett med kamera og en digital prosessor som kombinerer bilder fra disse to kameraene i én ramme. Suksess i denne piloten sendingen kan starte en ny trend i TV-programmer, særlig idrett. TV beslutningstakere i mellomtiden har vært forberede ankomsten av 3D. På årets Consumer Electronics Show i Las Vegas tidligere denne måneden, viste en rekke av dem helt nye 3D-modeller.
JooJoo tablet — coming next week, or not?
The JooJoo is a startup-built tablet that came up first as TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington’s CrunchPad. The product’s launch was tarnished by a legal fight between Arrington and Fusion Garage, the company he partnered with to build the thing, after the design firm informed him they planned to sell the gadget themselves, changing their name to JooJoo in the process.
But lawsuits are boring. Will people who pre-ordered get their tablets? And if so, when?
The company began taking orders at $499 per JooJoo on Dec. 11 of last year, promising to get them into customers’ hands in “eight to ten weeks.” Seven weeks later, I emailed JooJoo yesterday to ask for a statement on when they planned to ship, and what they thought of Apple’s iPad, which starts at the same price.
Silence.
I’ve never gotten a response from JooJoo about anything. Apple PR doesn’t answer their mail, either, but at least that company pushes out a lot of marketing messages and sells nearly $50 billion worth of products and services per year. JooJoo has been completely silent since putting out a statement on Arrington’s lawsuit in December.
It’s disappointing, because the JooJoo story is a good one. A lawyer-turned-journalist spots what he thinks is a hole in the space on which he reports. He pulls together a product design and hires out the rest of the work. Arrington also claims to have cut a deal with a big-box retailer not only to carry the device, but to cover all his up-front costs.
Notably, the JooJoo’s touchscreen is even more ambitious than the iPad’s: Apple’s screen is less then 10 inches diagonal. JooJoo’s is 12.1 inches, nearly the size of an Apple MacBook screen. It has more than 300 extra rows of pixels, too. Any engineer knows that making something 30 percent bigger is a lot more than 30 percent harder. If it works, the JooJoo’s screen will be its killer feature.
It’s unlikely the JooJoo will match Apple’s gesture-driven applications, but functionally they’re not necessary. A solid HTML5-supporting browser would let JooJoo owners use Web 2.0 browser-based apps to do everything — email, music, photos, video, social networks, etc. If that’s good enough for Google’s Chrome OS, it’s good enough for the JooJoo.
I’m hoping to get an update from the company soon.
But lawsuits are boring. Will people who pre-ordered get their tablets? And if so, when?
The company began taking orders at $499 per JooJoo on Dec. 11 of last year, promising to get them into customers’ hands in “eight to ten weeks.” Seven weeks later, I emailed JooJoo yesterday to ask for a statement on when they planned to ship, and what they thought of Apple’s iPad, which starts at the same price.
Silence.
I’ve never gotten a response from JooJoo about anything. Apple PR doesn’t answer their mail, either, but at least that company pushes out a lot of marketing messages and sells nearly $50 billion worth of products and services per year. JooJoo has been completely silent since putting out a statement on Arrington’s lawsuit in December.
It’s disappointing, because the JooJoo story is a good one. A lawyer-turned-journalist spots what he thinks is a hole in the space on which he reports. He pulls together a product design and hires out the rest of the work. Arrington also claims to have cut a deal with a big-box retailer not only to carry the device, but to cover all his up-front costs.
Notably, the JooJoo’s touchscreen is even more ambitious than the iPad’s: Apple’s screen is less then 10 inches diagonal. JooJoo’s is 12.1 inches, nearly the size of an Apple MacBook screen. It has more than 300 extra rows of pixels, too. Any engineer knows that making something 30 percent bigger is a lot more than 30 percent harder. If it works, the JooJoo’s screen will be its killer feature.
It’s unlikely the JooJoo will match Apple’s gesture-driven applications, but functionally they’re not necessary. A solid HTML5-supporting browser would let JooJoo owners use Web 2.0 browser-based apps to do everything — email, music, photos, video, social networks, etc. If that’s good enough for Google’s Chrome OS, it’s good enough for the JooJoo.
I’m hoping to get an update from the company soon.
Nicira tar $ 3.9M å virtualisere bedriftsnettverk
Nicira Networks, utvikleren av programvaren som brukes til overgangen datasentre til sky infrastruktur ved å virtualisere databehandling nettverk, har brakt inn $ 3.89 millioner av en forventet 4 millioner dollar runde av egenkapital, ifølge en filing til SEC. Basert i Palo Alto, California, selskapet er støttet av Andreessen Horowitz og flere private investorer. Tidligere denne måneden, løftet det $ 9 millioner i egenkapital.
Smackdaddy kan du hekle dine kamerater og Satser på sport på iPhone
Like dårlig øl å få, cracker knekter, og drukne fans hamret på parkeringsplassen, smack-snakke-og sports-spill er stifter av amerikansk idrett. Og derfor Bema Studios opprettet Smackdaddy, en gratis iPhone app [iTunes link] som lar deg både satse på spill (foreløpig bare NFL, NHL og NBA) og fortell dine venner de lukter. Jeg fikk en sjanse til å leke med Smackdaddy denne søndagen, og elsket den - den er enkel å bruke, intuitivt og vanedannende
Ny bin Laden tape klandrer USA utviklede verden for klimaendringene
Den grønne bevegelsen har akkurat fått en svært uvelkommen støttespiller. I et opptak som vises i dag på al-Jazeera nettverk, terrorist lederen Osama bin Laden skarpt kritisert USA og industrielle nasjoner for å fortsette å skade miljøet ukontrollert. Overraskelse at nyhetene umiddelbart bedt konservative reaksjoner fra kilder som Fox News, sensor og drudge Rapport trekke paralleller mellom bin Laden og amerikanske grønn aktivist og tidligere Vice President Al Gore. Allerede ser det slik ut tape - selv om dets ekthet er ennå ikke bevist - kan være noen ganske dårlig PR for miljøbevegelsen i USA og i utlandet. Kunne bare være en tilfeldighet at president Barack Obama tilbrakte mye av sin State of the Union Address på utfordringene med klimaendringer og behovet for å vokse en grønn økonomi og alternative energikilder? Det er nesten som om bin Ladens budskap ut til å utfylle presidentens uttalelser. Kan målet være å sap støtte fra den grønne bevegelsen? Det er uklart. "Alle de industrialiserte landene, særlig de store, har ansvaret for den globale oppvarmingen krise," bin Laden sier på båndet, den andre fra ham til overflaten denne uken. Han legger skylden mange av disse landene for å fortsette å forurense selv etter å ratifisere Kyoto-protokollen i 1997, innebærer at ingen global Pacts får jobben gjort. Han viste også til svikt i Kyoto i 2002 brev sluppet til pressen. I svar på tape, sier Pentagon vil den begynne å planlegge strategisk rundt klimaendringer og verdens oppfatning av USAs innsats på dette området.
Delicious Rolls Out A Few mer appetittvekkende Features
Social bookmarking service Deilig er sparket i år av med et par forbedringer til sin service og grensesnitt. Deilig, som har gjort Michael's favoritt produkter liste for de siste tre årene, kan du lagre, få tilgang til og dele bokmerker og lenker fra rundt på nettet. Tjenesten har oppdatert sin bokmerke vise alternativer i en mer kompakt grensesnitt, som kombinerer alle alternativer for å th høyre for Tagbar. Tag Valg har blitt stokkes på nytt og flyttet den til sidepanelet hvor kodene er faktisk oppført som fornuftig.
TechCrunch Europas Mobile Meetup, 17 Barcelona Feb, MWC
Vi treffer i 2010 GSM World Mobile Congress igjen. Og TechCrunch Europa vil være tilbake til Barcelona Feb 17 for enda en interaktiv og live-video-strømmet økt. Vi kommer med noen av de mest innovative og spennende mobile oppstarter og investorer i Europa. Du kan få billetter til arrangementet her. Her er programmet for dagen så langt.
Seks hemmeligheter fra "Lost" set
Detaljer på den sjette og siste sesongen av ABC's "Lost" har vært vanskelig å komme med - men folk har noen.
China beats U.S. in gov. Smart Grid funding with $7.3B
The Chinese government will be sinking $7.3 billion into the creation of a cleaner, more energy efficient Smart Grid in 2010, actually beating out the U.S.’s investment in the same area by more than $200 million, and rising to the top of the global list of Smart Grid leaders.
The news indicates how Asia’s largest country is getting serious about distributed energy generation, renewable sources like solar and wind, and transmission inefficiencies — all of which a more developed Smart Grid would tie together. It has become such a priority there, that China is actually spending more on grid improvements than it will on power generation projects. This is a major turnabout for the nation, which has been growing its energy infrastructure as fast as it can to promote economic growth.
Still, the sum committed to building a smarter grid may not be enough. Last year, Bloomberg released a report recommending that the country invest $10 billion a year at least for the next decade in order to successfully deploy smart meters, demand response programs, and home energy management systems.
Just as the construction of a super grid in the U.S. has drawn interest from companies based overseas — Siemens leaps to mind — China’s new initiatives have attracted attention from the biggest American players, including General Electric, Cisco Systems, Oracle, ABB and Accenture (all names that played a role in VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 2009 conference on the Smart Grid last November). IBM has even estimated its potential revenue from Chinese Smart Grid development at $100 million a year. Look for all of these corporations to be staking out their claims in China this year before the Smart Grid gains momentum.
With Japan and South Korea coming in third and fourth place (according to a ranking by research firm Zpryme), respectively, when it comes to federal stimulus money for grid improvements, it looks like Asia is poised to become the powerhouse in this area of the green sector. Spain and Germany (in fifth and sixth place) continue to dominate in the solar industry, but haven’t placed as much emphasis on electricity transmission.
Even though China is technically trumping the U.S. in Smart Grid funding, the slim margin between the two says good things about efforts in America. China has a lot more ground and people to cover with almost the same amount of money. The U.S. government’s commitment to spend $7.1 billion suggests that efforts will transcend basic smart metering and take a more holistic approach to energy management.
Recent Smart Grid announcements from both the U.S. and China fit into predictions that the number of smart meters in the world will jump from 76 million last year to 212 million in 2014 (estimated by ABI Research). This feat will also be helped by Europe’s so-called “Energy Package” which includes the replacement of all traditional electric meters with smart replacements by 2022.
The news indicates how Asia’s largest country is getting serious about distributed energy generation, renewable sources like solar and wind, and transmission inefficiencies — all of which a more developed Smart Grid would tie together. It has become such a priority there, that China is actually spending more on grid improvements than it will on power generation projects. This is a major turnabout for the nation, which has been growing its energy infrastructure as fast as it can to promote economic growth.
Still, the sum committed to building a smarter grid may not be enough. Last year, Bloomberg released a report recommending that the country invest $10 billion a year at least for the next decade in order to successfully deploy smart meters, demand response programs, and home energy management systems.
Just as the construction of a super grid in the U.S. has drawn interest from companies based overseas — Siemens leaps to mind — China’s new initiatives have attracted attention from the biggest American players, including General Electric, Cisco Systems, Oracle, ABB and Accenture (all names that played a role in VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 2009 conference on the Smart Grid last November). IBM has even estimated its potential revenue from Chinese Smart Grid development at $100 million a year. Look for all of these corporations to be staking out their claims in China this year before the Smart Grid gains momentum.
With Japan and South Korea coming in third and fourth place (according to a ranking by research firm Zpryme), respectively, when it comes to federal stimulus money for grid improvements, it looks like Asia is poised to become the powerhouse in this area of the green sector. Spain and Germany (in fifth and sixth place) continue to dominate in the solar industry, but haven’t placed as much emphasis on electricity transmission.
Even though China is technically trumping the U.S. in Smart Grid funding, the slim margin between the two says good things about efforts in America. China has a lot more ground and people to cover with almost the same amount of money. The U.S. government’s commitment to spend $7.1 billion suggests that efforts will transcend basic smart metering and take a more holistic approach to energy management.
Recent Smart Grid announcements from both the U.S. and China fit into predictions that the number of smart meters in the world will jump from 76 million last year to 212 million in 2014 (estimated by ABI Research). This feat will also be helped by Europe’s so-called “Energy Package” which includes the replacement of all traditional electric meters with smart replacements by 2022.
«Mass Effect 2" plukker opp der første slapp
Når du er ferdig med en video spillet i en serie, og begynne den neste, er du i utgangspunktet nødt til å starte fra scratch uten å bære over noen av prestasjonene fra forrige runde.
Tidlig Chaplin filmer "ganske ekkel, ganske voksen '
Charlie Chaplin vant over hele verden spiller Little Tramp, men komisk skuespiller var ikke alltid så elskverdig fyr.
Citysearch Unleashes CityGrid, A Massive Local Advertising And Content Network
The momentum around local online advertising is growing, especially with the expansion of the Web to mobile devices and flowering of Geo-mobile apps which need a way to make money. Today, Citysearch is throwing its hat into the local advertising ring with teh launch of CityGrid, a set of APIs which makes all of Citysearch's local listings content and advertising available to other Websites and mobile apps. The APIs include more than 15 million local business listings, 3 million user reviews, and access to 500,000 local advertisers looking to reach people near their places of business.
I sat down with Citysearch CEO Jay Herratti at IAC headquarters in Manhattan to get an overview of CityGrid (watch the video interview above). Citysearch itself is a 12-year-old site which Herratti has been updating, but it is not really growing much anymore and it is feeling considerable competitive pressure from Yelp and, even more so, from Google Local.
To counter that pressure, Citysearch already distributes its local listings content to about 100 sites and mobile apps with a collective reach of 100 million people (about a quarter of that is Citysearch.com). "I thought what if I took all the tools that we put together to build Citysearch and put it on a platter, an API and web services layer," says Herratti. Specifically, he is referring to all the descriptions of local businesses, the reviews, photos, videos, hours of operation, offers, menus, metered phone numbers, merchant messages, and more. "What if I open that up to publishers big and small?" he asks. "I let them take it and enhance their experience, and get more pageviews."
I sat down with Citysearch CEO Jay Herratti at IAC headquarters in Manhattan to get an overview of CityGrid (watch the video interview above). Citysearch itself is a 12-year-old site which Herratti has been updating, but it is not really growing much anymore and it is feeling considerable competitive pressure from Yelp and, even more so, from Google Local.
To counter that pressure, Citysearch already distributes its local listings content to about 100 sites and mobile apps with a collective reach of 100 million people (about a quarter of that is Citysearch.com). "I thought what if I took all the tools that we put together to build Citysearch and put it on a platter, an API and web services layer," says Herratti. Specifically, he is referring to all the descriptions of local businesses, the reviews, photos, videos, hours of operation, offers, menus, metered phone numbers, merchant messages, and more. "What if I open that up to publishers big and small?" he asks. "I let them take it and enhance their experience, and get more pageviews."
Anmeldelse: Crush slottet for iPhone / iPod Touch
Hver så ofte du finner et spill slik addicting at du ikke kan stoppe å spille det. Jeg er slik med to spill på iPhone: Fieldrunners og Civ Revolution. Lukk andreplassene er iShoot (det er bare så mange ganger du kan starte atombomber) og nå Crush slottet. Designed by Armor Games, CTC var opprinnelig en [...]
Den iPad Kjører Flash?
Hør: Cry me a river om Flash og fleroppgavekjøring. Hvis Apple vil holde fleroppgavekjøring for egne programmer i et forsøk på å hindre folk fra å kjøre deres OS som Windows Mobile på en god dag, være min gjest. Push-servere fungerer også fint for alltid-tilkoblet programmer. Som for Flash, tror jeg det er all politisk. Allikevel, rant over. De små minxes på 9to5mac funnet Flash kjører i Safari på iPad. Hvis du ser på videoen etter hopp, merker du at når de blar NYT kan du se Servering delen dukker opp. The Dining delen er vanligvis representert av video i Flash-boksen.
Anmeldelse: Crush slottet for iPhone / iPod Touch
Hver så ofte du finner et spill slik addicting at du ikke kan stoppe å spille det. Jeg er slik med to spill på iPhone: Fieldrunners og Civ Revolution. Lukk andreplassene er iShoot (det er bare så mange ganger du kan starte atombomber) og nå Crush slottet. Designed by Armor Games, CTC var opprinnelig en Flash-spill portet til iPhone. Slik spiller du laster opp en trebuchet med våpen (bergarter , firebombs, hva annet) ved å trykke én gang. Du trykk igjen innlede og trykk for å løsne på et punkt i lysbue. Elementene svinge ut i verdensrommet og lande på et punkt på et slott som i hovedsak er laget av bjelker. Bjelkene reagere på en naturalistisk måte betyr de beveger seg som om de var ekte bjelker og deretter knuse småfolk under dem. Skyll. Gjenta.
Whitehouse.gov streames The State of the Union Live til 1,3 millioner personer
Det er ingen tvil om at president Obama Det hvite hus har vært å bruke teknologien mer enn noen annen tidligere administrasjonen. Presidenten har en Twitter-konto, er å bruke YouTube på innovative måter og har selv utviklet en iPhone app. The White House lanserer noen imponerende engasjement tall fra denne ukens State of the Union-adressen. Det hvite hus hadde en live stream av talen som ble innebygde på blogger eller nettsteder. Nesten 1,3 millioner mennesker stemt inn i WhiteHouse.gov 's live video av talen, som er ti ganger økning i trafikken over de mest populære live-streames hendelsen. Dessverre virker ikke Det hvite hus ikke har noen konkret statistikk over antall unike strømmer av talen fra den nye iPhone App, men sier at nesten en terabyte med data som ble servert til iPhone med programmet under arrangementet.
Blimey! Alle HTC HD2 smartphones ute pack 576 MB RAM
Vi har HTC deaktivere funksjonene fra sine telefoner 'i programvaren før, men dette er bare latterlig. Som det viser seg at alle HTC HD2 enheter faktisk har 576 MB, men bare 448MB av disse er tilgjengelige for brukeren ...
Samsung Galaxy 2 og S5620 Monte lekkasjen
De første detaljene om Samsung Galaxy 2 og S5620 Monte nylig ble tilgjengelig. Android hæren er åpenbart i ferd med å få en annen mektig våpen med nye Galaxy, mens Monte vil kjempe for ...
Tagged.com Wins $ 201,975 i standard dom mot Spammer
Sosiale nettverk selskapet Tagged.com har blitt tildelt mer enn $ 200,000 i en standard dom mot Erik Vogeler som spammet tusenvis av Merket medlemmer ved å sende dem uønskede meldinger med linker til en voksen dating nettsted. I en kjennelse utgitt tidligere denne uken, en US District Court Judge i Northern District of California Vogeler funnet skyldig i å sende meldinger til 6079 Tagged brukere og vurdert erstatning på $ 25 per brudd på totalt $ 151.975. Domstolen også beordret Vogeler å betale Tagged $ 50.000 i advokathonorarer og å slutte å sende kommersiell e-post gjennom Tagged.com.
Apisphere Hever $ 4,6 millioner for Geografisk plassering Apps
Apisphere, en oppstart som leverer location-aware teknologier for mobile applikasjoner, har hevet $ 4.6 million i finansiering i henhold til en SEC filing. Apisphere skaper mobile applikasjoner som bruker location-aware teknologier for å gi tilpasset informasjon til brukerne. For eksempel oppstart opprettet Apisphere for Outlook, et sted kjent plug-in for Microsoft Outlook som lar brukere sende og motta automatiske meldinger på sine mobile enheter eller GPS-aktiverte bærbare basert på Outlook-kalenderen og sted. Så når et møte er planlagt i Outlook, vil plugin-modulen gi relevant stedsbasert informasjon rundt arrangementet herunder kartlegging, sanntids trafikkinformasjon oppdateringer og geo-utløste tale og tekstmeldinger for påminnelser på go.pping sanntid trafikk oppdateringer og geo-utløste tale og tekstmeldinger for påminnelser på farten.
The start-up chronicles: My Website’s not working: Now what??
(Editor’s Note: The Start-up Chronicles is a semi-monthly feature giving an inside view of the trials of a bootstrapped start-up – The Cost Savings Guy. CEO and founder Bruce Judson is also the author of “Go It Alone!: The Secret to Building A Successful Business on Your Own” and a senior faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management.)
As we’ve struggled with low conversion numbers at The Cost Savings Guy (CSG), it has become increasingly clear that our biggest problem is site design.
We purposely created CSG with multiple ways to enter potential areas of interest and just as many to demonstrate the site’s value. While this made sense to us as designers, it doesn’t seem to have had the same effect on site visitors – and I’ve concluded that it’s not the way to build sales.
Even though users engage with the service, this design flaw seemingly prevents them from moving through the complete process – to the point where a sale occurs. We lose numerous prospects every day.
To address the issue, I’ve adopted a two-pronged approach:
First, I have consciously worked on my inner attitude. Our design reflected the advice of lots of talented people. At the same time, it violated some of my personal “rules” from high-converting earlier ventures about simplicity and moving visitors to clear next steps.
It would be easy for me to play a “blame game” around our current issues. However, this approach would be unproductive and would violate what is, for me, a central rule of entrepreneurship (and life in general): You must believe you are responsible for everything that happens to you. If not, it’s too easy to fail.
Second, I looked for sites that effectively take a potentially complex product or service and make it simple. Examining and studying how other sites work is perhaps the most cost-effective means of understanding your own errors. It’s one thing to say your site is too complex. It’s another to contrast it with sites that have overcome the limitations you face.
Of course, one of the dangers in this I-like-it-so-let’s-do-it approach is you never know whether what appears effective on the surface actually works. Nonetheless, an in-depth study of sites that have similar issues or problems as yours inevitably gives you valuable insights and ideas for experimental changes.
In undertaking this effort, I made the decision to look hard at two different types of sites: BillShrink.com (which, from a broad perspective, offers a service similar to ours) and SlideRocket.com (which is in an unrelated industry).
Here’s what I learned from them:
1. At both sites, visitors know exactly what each service does and how it works within the first 10 seconds of landing. While these sites may offer complex services under the hood, they hide that. The user experience is straightforward.
2. Both sites move the user forward with a growing sense of anticipation. Prospects grow curious about “what happens next”. This is unquestionably difficult, but it may be the key to success. Creating curiosity among today’s jaded consumers is a monumental feat.
3. My best guess is that these sites were built using what I have started to call the 80/50 rule. Design your site and content – and then cut 80 percent of it. Now, take the remaining site content and cut another 50 percent. With short consumer attention spans, each page needs to provide relevant details or functionality – and nothing more. The natural inclination of almost every site designer and service creator is to provide too much information.
So, the challenge we now face is implementing these principles as they apply to our service. I’m curious: When you look at your own site, how do you score on these three principles and do you think they matter?
Image by tantek via Flickr
As we’ve struggled with low conversion numbers at The Cost Savings Guy (CSG), it has become increasingly clear that our biggest problem is site design.
We purposely created CSG with multiple ways to enter potential areas of interest and just as many to demonstrate the site’s value. While this made sense to us as designers, it doesn’t seem to have had the same effect on site visitors – and I’ve concluded that it’s not the way to build sales.
Even though users engage with the service, this design flaw seemingly prevents them from moving through the complete process – to the point where a sale occurs. We lose numerous prospects every day.
To address the issue, I’ve adopted a two-pronged approach:
First, I have consciously worked on my inner attitude. Our design reflected the advice of lots of talented people. At the same time, it violated some of my personal “rules” from high-converting earlier ventures about simplicity and moving visitors to clear next steps.
It would be easy for me to play a “blame game” around our current issues. However, this approach would be unproductive and would violate what is, for me, a central rule of entrepreneurship (and life in general): You must believe you are responsible for everything that happens to you. If not, it’s too easy to fail.
Second, I looked for sites that effectively take a potentially complex product or service and make it simple. Examining and studying how other sites work is perhaps the most cost-effective means of understanding your own errors. It’s one thing to say your site is too complex. It’s another to contrast it with sites that have overcome the limitations you face.
Of course, one of the dangers in this I-like-it-so-let’s-do-it approach is you never know whether what appears effective on the surface actually works. Nonetheless, an in-depth study of sites that have similar issues or problems as yours inevitably gives you valuable insights and ideas for experimental changes.
In undertaking this effort, I made the decision to look hard at two different types of sites: BillShrink.com (which, from a broad perspective, offers a service similar to ours) and SlideRocket.com (which is in an unrelated industry).
Here’s what I learned from them:
1. At both sites, visitors know exactly what each service does and how it works within the first 10 seconds of landing. While these sites may offer complex services under the hood, they hide that. The user experience is straightforward.
2. Both sites move the user forward with a growing sense of anticipation. Prospects grow curious about “what happens next”. This is unquestionably difficult, but it may be the key to success. Creating curiosity among today’s jaded consumers is a monumental feat.
3. My best guess is that these sites were built using what I have started to call the 80/50 rule. Design your site and content – and then cut 80 percent of it. Now, take the remaining site content and cut another 50 percent. With short consumer attention spans, each page needs to provide relevant details or functionality – and nothing more. The natural inclination of almost every site designer and service creator is to provide too much information.
So, the challenge we now face is implementing these principles as they apply to our service. I’m curious: When you look at your own site, how do you score on these three principles and do you think they matter?
Image by tantek via Flickr
Video Ringtone Company Vringo Filer for $ 64.3 millioner IPO
En SEC-filing har avdekket at videoringetonen dele fellesskapet Vringo har arkivert å løfte om lag USD 64.3 million via en børsnotering av aksjer og tegningsretter. Selskapet planlegger å handle på NASDAQ, med Maxim Group betjener som bly Underwriter. Vringo aksjonærer omfatter Warburg Pincus, som investerte $ 12 millioner for en 31,9% eierandel i 2007, og sum private investorer.
Review: 'Edge' får jobben gjort
Kan det være innløsning for Mel Gibson, fire år etter hans drukne Tirade skapte overskrifter over hele verden?
"Catcher 'gjenklang i filmer
Den opprørske tenåringer antihelten vanlig i dagens kino var ikke like fremtredende før Holden Caulfield.
Netbiscuits Signs Tasty Deal With UMG For Artist-branded mobilnettsteder
Sjansen er at du har aldri hørt om Netbiscuits - Jeg hadde sikkert ikke. Men selskapet driver en av verdens største B2B web programvareplattformer gir tusenvis av utgivere å opprette, administrere og generere inntekter fra mobile nettsider. Netbiscuits serverer de mobile Internett-programmer for merker som Yahoo, MTV, og eBay, og velkjente digitale byråer som som Razorfish, Isobar, og annonsenettverk som Google-eide AdMob. For å gi deg et inntrykk av størrelsen: globalt, hevder Netbiscuits å levere mer enn 1,5 milliarder mobil sidevisninger på månedsbasis. Morges tiåret gamle selskapet kunngjorde at det har inngått samarbeid med Universal Music Group for å hjelpe musikken selskapet utvides sin line-up of direkte til forbruker mobilt innhold og tjenester.
Antallet 3G-kunder over hele verden treff 500 millioner
Det var rundt 8 år siden da den japanske mobiloperatøren NTT DoCoMo lanserte verdens første 3G-nett. Tro det eller ikke, går antallet 3G-nettet kunder rundt om i verden nådde 500 ...
Honda takes the lead in hydrogen car game, tests fuel pump
We’ve been hearing more about cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells in the last few weeks, with Toyota expanding its hydrogen vehicle program earlier this month, and new entrant SunHydro unveiling plans to build hydrogen fueling stations along east coast highways. But today we head from the anointed leader in this new racket, Honda, which not only has a car in development (already approved for sale in the U.S.), but just successfully tested its own hydrogen fueling mechanism.
Running on solar energy, the company’s new pump produces about half a kilogram of hydrogen gas a day, enough to power a car through an average day’s commute. Here’s how it works: Rooftop solar panels channel about 6 kilowatts of energy into a tank of water, which is split. The hydrogen gas is then contained until the car needs to fuel up.
This is an interesting strategy for Honda — one that could provide a model for Toyota, Daimler and General Motors, which all have hydrogen fuel cell models in the works. One of the biggest challenges to any of the advanced vehicles poised to hit the road — plug-in models included — is that there isn’t fueling infrastructure to support them. It’s unclear what needs to come first: the cars themselves, or adequate charging and fueling stations. By pursuing both in-house, Honda may have found a promising solution to this conundrum.
Honda seems to be way ahead of the game in other areas too. For one, it’s already putting driver in hydrogen-powered cars, whereas Toyota, a close runner up, is looking ahead to a 2013 public release. It’s leasing fuel-cell sedans from a company called FCX Clarity to consumers for $600 a month in Los Angeles — the only U.S. city equipped with hydrogen fueling stations.
If General Motors and others follow Honda’s lead and develop their own fueling station designs, what will the average highway look like? Will a standard emerge that can service across brands? Will hydrogen trump electric charging and battery switching stations proposed by the likes of Coulomb Technologies and Better Place? There’s a lot of action in this field to come.
Running on solar energy, the company’s new pump produces about half a kilogram of hydrogen gas a day, enough to power a car through an average day’s commute. Here’s how it works: Rooftop solar panels channel about 6 kilowatts of energy into a tank of water, which is split. The hydrogen gas is then contained until the car needs to fuel up.
This is an interesting strategy for Honda — one that could provide a model for Toyota, Daimler and General Motors, which all have hydrogen fuel cell models in the works. One of the biggest challenges to any of the advanced vehicles poised to hit the road — plug-in models included — is that there isn’t fueling infrastructure to support them. It’s unclear what needs to come first: the cars themselves, or adequate charging and fueling stations. By pursuing both in-house, Honda may have found a promising solution to this conundrum.
Honda seems to be way ahead of the game in other areas too. For one, it’s already putting driver in hydrogen-powered cars, whereas Toyota, a close runner up, is looking ahead to a 2013 public release. It’s leasing fuel-cell sedans from a company called FCX Clarity to consumers for $600 a month in Los Angeles — the only U.S. city equipped with hydrogen fueling stations.
If General Motors and others follow Honda’s lead and develop their own fueling station designs, what will the average highway look like? Will a standard emerge that can service across brands? Will hydrogen trump electric charging and battery switching stations proposed by the likes of Coulomb Technologies and Better Place? There’s a lot of action in this field to come.
3 Million Amazon Kindles Selges, Angivelig
«Millioner av mennesker nå egne Kindles," sier Jeff Bezos, grunnlegger og CEO av Amazon.com går. Det overrasket analytikere som mente at Amazon vil selge 2,5 millioner eller så av enhetene innen utgangen av 2010, nesten et år fra nå. Vi har sjekket med våre kilder, som har vært utrolig nøyaktig på antall tenne er solgt over siste par årene. Det totale antallet av alle typer Kindles ute i brukernes hender traff 3 millioner gang i desember, sier en kilde nær Amazon. Og det var før den nye modellen med verden data hit. Og før Amazon startet tilbyr gratis Kindles å velge lang tid kunder.
Den Subplots Av iPad Blockbuster
Selvfølgelig går var alt om den iPad. Egentlig er i dag også. Det har vært tusenvis av historier som allerede er skrevet om enheten (inkludert noe sånt som to dusin på TechCrunch alene), men noen punkter synes å være fullstendig overskygget av skinnet fra iPad selv. La oss gå tilbake disse. A4 Mens bare noen få mennesker virkelig plukket opp på den, i mitt sinn, de største nyhetene i går var ikke om iPad selv, men heller om hva makter det. Apple har opprettet en ny prosessor, A4, en tilpasset ARM A9-prosessor. Never mind at det synes å samsvare med spesifikasjoner av Snapdragon (chip inni Nexus One), er sentrale punkt at Apple nå er i kontroll over sine prosessorer . Er det virkelig noen tvil om at disse Apple-designet chips vil ende opp i neste gjentakelser av iPhone fra her på ut?
torsdag 28. januar 2010
Spotify løfter om profitt og et amerikansk Launch? Still MIA
Jeg kommer til å holde dette innlegget kort og greit fordi ingen liker en blogger som sier "Jeg fortalte deg det." Men Spotify fans: Paul Carr og jeg fortalte deg det. StrategyEye rapporterer at mindre enn 4% av brukerne av Spotify -den nydelige online musikk app med en plaget forretningsmodell-er betalende abonnenter. StrategyEye siterer Universal Music International digitale VP Rob Wells, som sier at selskapet trenger 10% til 12% av sine brukere til å abonnere på en bærekraftig virksomhet. Det er bare på 10% -12% terskelen at Spotify er i stand til blekk inntektsandel avtaler med navn, inntil da har det å betale for musikk ved bekken, kjørte den koster opp betydelig.
PhoneTag Voice-til-tekst er bare 86 prosent Nøyaktig, men det er bedre enn Google Voice
Computer tale-til-tekst-teknologien har kommet langt, og hver gang det blir bedre, nye programmer åpne opp. Det er fortsatt ikke 100 prosent nøyaktig. Hell, det er ikke engang 90 prosent nøyaktig. Men det er nøyaktig nok for automatiserte talepost transkripsjonstjenester å bli stadig mer tilgjengelige og gode nok til å ikke lytte til 15 talepostmeldinger å få hovedpunkt av hva de handler om. Selvfølgelig er talepostmeldinger ofte oversatt feil, noen ganger til komisk effekt. I en studie som sammenligner nøyaktigheten av fire ulike stemme-til-tekst teknologier (Google Voice, Forhåndsvisning i Microsoft Exchange, Ditech's PhoneTag, og Yap) den som kom ut på toppen var PhoneTag, som nå er en del av Ditech Networks. PhoneTag viste en 86 prosent nøyaktighet kurs i å oversette 500 talte meldinger til tekst. Google Voice var bare i stand til å oppnå en 82 prosent nøyaktighet i stemmen sin til tekst oversettelser. Studien kun evalueres rent automatisert tale-til-tekst-systemer. Her ser du hvordan alle fire gikk:
How a tweet brought makeshift 911 services to life in Haiti
Haiti’s earthquake devastated not only lives, but whatever emergency services the barely functioning government had to offer. However, in less than seven days, a makeshift version of 911 sprung to life.
It’s a striking story of how a few tech-savvy social entrepreneurs, receptive ears in the U.S. government and hundreds of Haitian Creole-speaking strangers crowdsourced from around the world were able to help people on the ground get food or medical attention.
Hours after the earthquake struck Port au Prince, 23-year-old Josh Nesbit (pictured right), who heads a non-profit delivering health care in Sub-Saharan Africa through mobile phones, thought that an SMS gateway would be critical in Haiti.
He sent a tweet out asking for help. A Cameroonian managing a startup incubator in Africa, Jean Francis Ahanda, responded mentioning that a contact, Jean-Marc Castera, was headed to the command center of the Caribbean’s largest wireless carrier Digicel that day.
Within three days, they had co-opted a shortcode, 4636, that had been used for weather information in Haiti. They rushed to get several other partners like Ushahidi, which provides an open-source platform for tracking crisis communications, and Google on board. A non-profit that specializes in using technology for disaster relief, Instedd, built an emergency information system using the shortcode. On a very late Saturday night, a cobbled-together team of a half-dozen organizations or so launched ’4636′ as an emergency number.
They started publicizing it on the ground in Haiti through radio stations. Haitians could text the number with messages about injuries, people trapped under rubble or reports of missing people.
Some of them are desperate:
“My name is J___ ____ my brother is working in Unicef and I live in C__ 11 A___ I have 2 people that is still alive under the building still ! Send Help!”
Two San Francisco-based startups, Crowdflower and Samasource, came on-board to help find volunteers to translate and categorize the messages. Both are in the “Mechanical Turk” space — they farm out simple, rote tasks that computing can’t solve to thousands of people at a time. (Crowdflower is a venture-backed startup while Samasource is a non-profit that gives this work to refugees and people in the poorest parts of the world, including Haiti.)
Crowdflower and Samasource asked for people around the world fluent in Haitian-Creole to translate and prioritize emergency texts coming out of Haiti. So far, a few hundred have signed up. (See the map below.) Nesbit admits the privacy situation isn’t perfect, but the project helps people in dire need.
Another contact, Katie Stanton, who was an early Google employee and is now the Director of Citizen Participation at the State Department, helped get emergency responders from the U.S. Coast Guard and Red Cross involved.
Now if a Haitian texts 4636, a stranger on the other side of the world will translate it and other volunteers (pictured right) will send it to the right responder whether it’s an urgent medical need or a general request for more food and water. Volume has risen to about 2,500 messages a day since the Jan. 16 launch and messages are translated and forwarded usually in between 2 and 10 minutes. They’ve filtered through more than 20,000 texts so far.
In some cases, it’s been life-saving. Earlier this week, a Haitian woman went into labor and started bleeding out. She texted 4636, calling for help. A translator and stranger pinpointed her location on a map, giving the U.S. Coast Guard her coordinates. They were able to reach her in time to help her deliver the baby.
The non-profits behind ‘4636′ are now trying to scale it up as the number of messages rises 10 percent a day. They’re also trying to make it more sustainable with larger pools of consistent volunteers.
“Honestly, this is rare to see groups like the State Department, Ushahidi and Instedd all working together,” Nesbit said. “I hope it doesn’t take another catastrophe to see this type of collaboration again. The bright spot in all of this is seeing the tech community take ownership.”
True, but the more intriguing part of the story may be that this all started with a simple tweet. In fact, Nesbit never set foot in Haiti.
(Top photo is from the United Nations Development Program’s Flickr stream)
It’s a striking story of how a few tech-savvy social entrepreneurs, receptive ears in the U.S. government and hundreds of Haitian Creole-speaking strangers crowdsourced from around the world were able to help people on the ground get food or medical attention.
Hours after the earthquake struck Port au Prince, 23-year-old Josh Nesbit (pictured right), who heads a non-profit delivering health care in Sub-Saharan Africa through mobile phones, thought that an SMS gateway would be critical in Haiti.
He sent a tweet out asking for help. A Cameroonian managing a startup incubator in Africa, Jean Francis Ahanda, responded mentioning that a contact, Jean-Marc Castera, was headed to the command center of the Caribbean’s largest wireless carrier Digicel that day.
Within three days, they had co-opted a shortcode, 4636, that had been used for weather information in Haiti. They rushed to get several other partners like Ushahidi, which provides an open-source platform for tracking crisis communications, and Google on board. A non-profit that specializes in using technology for disaster relief, Instedd, built an emergency information system using the shortcode. On a very late Saturday night, a cobbled-together team of a half-dozen organizations or so launched ’4636′ as an emergency number.
They started publicizing it on the ground in Haiti through radio stations. Haitians could text the number with messages about injuries, people trapped under rubble or reports of missing people.
Some of them are desperate:
“My name is J___ ____ my brother is working in Unicef and I live in C__ 11 A___ I have 2 people that is still alive under the building still ! Send Help!”
Two San Francisco-based startups, Crowdflower and Samasource, came on-board to help find volunteers to translate and categorize the messages. Both are in the “Mechanical Turk” space — they farm out simple, rote tasks that computing can’t solve to thousands of people at a time. (Crowdflower is a venture-backed startup while Samasource is a non-profit that gives this work to refugees and people in the poorest parts of the world, including Haiti.)
Crowdflower and Samasource asked for people around the world fluent in Haitian-Creole to translate and prioritize emergency texts coming out of Haiti. So far, a few hundred have signed up. (See the map below.) Nesbit admits the privacy situation isn’t perfect, but the project helps people in dire need.
Another contact, Katie Stanton, who was an early Google employee and is now the Director of Citizen Participation at the State Department, helped get emergency responders from the U.S. Coast Guard and Red Cross involved.
Now if a Haitian texts 4636, a stranger on the other side of the world will translate it and other volunteers (pictured right) will send it to the right responder whether it’s an urgent medical need or a general request for more food and water. Volume has risen to about 2,500 messages a day since the Jan. 16 launch and messages are translated and forwarded usually in between 2 and 10 minutes. They’ve filtered through more than 20,000 texts so far.
In some cases, it’s been life-saving. Earlier this week, a Haitian woman went into labor and started bleeding out. She texted 4636, calling for help. A translator and stranger pinpointed her location on a map, giving the U.S. Coast Guard her coordinates. They were able to reach her in time to help her deliver the baby.
The non-profits behind ‘4636′ are now trying to scale it up as the number of messages rises 10 percent a day. They’re also trying to make it more sustainable with larger pools of consistent volunteers.
“Honestly, this is rare to see groups like the State Department, Ushahidi and Instedd all working together,” Nesbit said. “I hope it doesn’t take another catastrophe to see this type of collaboration again. The bright spot in all of this is seeing the tech community take ownership.”
True, but the more intriguing part of the story may be that this all started with a simple tweet. In fact, Nesbit never set foot in Haiti.
(Top photo is from the United Nations Development Program’s Flickr stream)
5 ting The iPhone kan lære av iPad
Som å bli forventet av alle enheter som massene bli begeistret, før den faktisk eksisterende, har iPad revet Internett i to. Noen elsker det, ser det som den første iterasjon av et eventuelt verden endring enhet, andre bare ikke ser et poeng. "Det er bare en stor iPhone, sier de," og [...]
5 ting The iPhone kan lære av iPad
Som skal forventes av alle enheter som massene bli begeistret, før den faktisk eksisterende, har iPad revet Internett i to. Noen elsker det, ser det som den første iterasjon av et eventuelt verden endring enhet, andre bare ikke ser et poeng. "Det er bare en stor iPhone, sier de,« og jeg har allerede en iPhone! Disse iPhone eiere er nøyaktig hvem som bør være mest begeistret for iPad - selv om de ikke har planer om å kjøpe ett. Allerede før det ble lansert, har iPad varslet en rekke endringer på vei for iPhone OS - og antagelig iPhone selv.
VeriFone’s Square Competitor Hits The App Store. Hands On With The Hardware.
As we noted back in December, VeriFone wasn't just going to sit back and let Square, the new startup by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, dominate the iPhone/iPod touch payment space. Unfortunately, their announcement of PAYware Mobile looked rushed (and Photoshopped), and Dorsey himself didn't seem too worried. Since then though, VeriFone was nice enough to send us the hardware they are going to use to accept payments on the iPhone — it's very real.
Today, the other key part of the equation has just gone live in the App Store, the PAYware Mobile app. This free application, when paired with the hardware, allows you to use your iPhone to easily accept credit card payments, just as Square does. Still, as Dorsey noted in the original video we took with him (second video below), Square is being aimed at a broader market of people who may not have merchant accounts but still wish to be able to accept payments. Also, while VeriFone's hardware is clearly better designed for use with the actual iPhone, Square's method of using the headphone jack is so that it will be able to be used with other mobile devices eventually (Square is currently working on an Android app, for example). VeriFone promises support for other platforms as well, but this particular hardware unit will only work with an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS.
Today, the other key part of the equation has just gone live in the App Store, the PAYware Mobile app. This free application, when paired with the hardware, allows you to use your iPhone to easily accept credit card payments, just as Square does. Still, as Dorsey noted in the original video we took with him (second video below), Square is being aimed at a broader market of people who may not have merchant accounts but still wish to be able to accept payments. Also, while VeriFone's hardware is clearly better designed for use with the actual iPhone, Square's method of using the headphone jack is so that it will be able to be used with other mobile devices eventually (Square is currently working on an Android app, for example). VeriFone promises support for other platforms as well, but this particular hardware unit will only work with an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS.
Benioff On The iPad: "Den viktigste funksjonen er dens 10-timers batteri"
Alle har en mening om iPad, selv ved Davos. Michael er det denne uken under World Economic Forum, ta tak i video-intervjuer med personene han går inn (som Michael Dell viser av en ennå å lansere Android-enhet). I videoen etter hopp, Salesforce administrerende direktør Marc Benioff snakker om iPad (hva ellers?). Andre mennesker kan være wowed av berøringsskjermen eller 140000 apps eller iBook, men ikke Benioff. Han er imponert over batteriet: "Den viktigste funksjonen er den 10-timers batterilevetid. At han klarte å få den slags funksjonalitet i et slikt robust enhet, tror jeg vi har en spill-veksler.
MyYearbook Rolls sine Crowdsourced Redesign
Denne uken lanserte social networking site MyYearbook en oppgradert design, endrer noen viktige UI elementer for å bedre gjenspeile hvordan folk bruker området. En av de mer interessante punktene i redesign er ikke utseende skjønt - det er hvordan det faktisk var satt sammen. Stedet for bare å rulle ut et nytt design, MyYearbook faktisk ble spurt sine userbase for forslag, så utarbeidet noen mockups som brukere stemte på. Resultatet? Brukere favorisere den nye designen med en faktor på over 3 til 1, uten slags tilbakeslag andre nettsteder har sett fra deres redesignet. Den mest åpenbare endringen til området er logoen, som har gått fra cartoony til noe litt mer profesjonelt ( men det har fortsatt et par smilefjes). Navigeringslinjen har også blitt forenklet. Administrerende direktør Geoff Cook sier at over tid MyYearbook hadde integrert en haug med spill menyalternativer til hovednavigasjon området, uten å gjøre mye for å skille kjernen funksjoner som faktisk gjør området et sosialt nettverk.
Drug charges dropped mot ex-Broadcom sjef
Henry Nicholas fikk en stor pause i dag som en føderal dommer bestemte seg for å droppe kriminelle narkotika anklager mot den tidligere konsernsjef i chip maker Broadcom. Det rettslige seier for Nicholas kommer på hælene av dropping av 21 kostnader knyttet til hans påståtte feil backdating tilfelle. US District Court judge Cormac Carney avviste tidligere avgifter i desember på grunn av prosecutorial uredelighet. Nicholas fortsatt står overfor en skilsmisse sak, men hans verste juridiske problemer som truet med fengsel tiden er over. "Fra bevis, samt hva som er oppnådd fra pretrial tjenester, det virker som du hadde et alvorlig narkotikaproblem, sa dommeren fra benken. "Du har betalt dyrt for det. Du mistet ditt ekteskap, mistet du jobben din har rykte er flekket, men fra det jeg samler du har vært rene og edru i to år, og jeg rose deg for det. " Jeg har før nevnt at jeg noen ganger intervjuet Nicholas da han var på vei til å gjøre milliarder av dollar på Broadcom. Det var sjokkerende å se ham brakt lite av påstander om narkotikamisbruk. Men det ser ut som han får en ny sjanse. Det vil være mest interessant å se hva han gjør med den. [Photo Credit: OCBiz]
Microsoft: Windows 7 sales are rocking, business sales are not
Microsoft posted strong earnings for the final three months of 2009, but some parts of its business have been having a harder time, executives acknowledged during an analyst conference call this afternoon. The company’s good news was driven by strong sales of Windows 7, while business sales are lagging.
There’s a clear contrast in tthe revenue numbers Microsoft posted today. During the last three months of 2008, business revenue outpaced Windows and Windows Live revenue, $4.9 billion to $4.1 billion. A year later, Windows leaped past to $6.9 billion, while business revenue fell slightly to $4.7 billion.
“While we have yet to see a return on business spending growth, the consumer segment continues to perform better than expected,” said Bill Koefoed, Microsoft’s general manager of investor relations.
The question-and-answer session at the end of the call seemed pretty brief, but Microsoft found time for a few answers about the enterprise sales. Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said that it’s taking longer and longer to close those sales, and there’s sometimes a gap between the expiration of old deals and the start of new agreements — but in most cases, Microsoft isn’t losing those customers.
One analyst asked whether Microsoft expects things to remain sluggish in the coming months.
“The thing that I can say is that we have the great product pipeline,” Klein said. “We don’t have visibility into exactly what business spend will be, so we’re just going to have to work through that in the next couple quarters.”
During the just-ended quarter, Microsoft also continued its cuts with another 800 layoffs. The company’s scheduled releases this year include Windows Mobile 7 (which Microsoft is expected to demo at the Mobile World Congress in February) and Office 2010.
There’s a clear contrast in tthe revenue numbers Microsoft posted today. During the last three months of 2008, business revenue outpaced Windows and Windows Live revenue, $4.9 billion to $4.1 billion. A year later, Windows leaped past to $6.9 billion, while business revenue fell slightly to $4.7 billion.
“While we have yet to see a return on business spending growth, the consumer segment continues to perform better than expected,” said Bill Koefoed, Microsoft’s general manager of investor relations.
The question-and-answer session at the end of the call seemed pretty brief, but Microsoft found time for a few answers about the enterprise sales. Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said that it’s taking longer and longer to close those sales, and there’s sometimes a gap between the expiration of old deals and the start of new agreements — but in most cases, Microsoft isn’t losing those customers.
One analyst asked whether Microsoft expects things to remain sluggish in the coming months.
“The thing that I can say is that we have the great product pipeline,” Klein said. “We don’t have visibility into exactly what business spend will be, so we’re just going to have to work through that in the next couple quarters.”
During the just-ended quarter, Microsoft also continued its cuts with another 800 layoffs. The company’s scheduled releases this year include Windows Mobile 7 (which Microsoft is expected to demo at the Mobile World Congress in February) and Office 2010.
Calacanis 'tablett tweets uhell hoax mainstream media
Hvis du har ønsket bevis på at vi i det profesjonelle trykk er like gal som en pakke med Mac-fanboys når det gjelder rapportering av Apple, her er det. Sent tirsdag, til natten før Steve Jobs gikk på scenen pakke den iPad, baby-faced entreprenør Jason Calacanis, som fikk bank på 90-tallet som redaktør av Silicon Alley Reporter og igjen i 2000-tallet med Engadget, begynte goofily tweeting at han var en betatesting for Apples om å innlede tablett. Calacanis, som har 95.000 tilhengere, bestående funksjoner tilfeldig: "Ja, det er 2cameras: ett foran og ett bak (eller det kan være ett med noen dobbel linse) slik at du registrere deg og foran u." Som oss, har du sannsynligvis glipp av denne historien i tidevannsbølgen av støy rundt Apples lansering. Men Calacanis 'faux specs ble rapportert av flere massemediene publikasjoner vanligvis kjent for bedre hest-følelse om teknologi. Valleywag redaktør Ryan Tate laget en "collage av skam" nedenfor med screenshots fra nettsteder som burde ha visst bedre: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, CNN Money, Reuters, Macworld, og Joystiq. Ja, Joystiq! Jeg skriver for NYT, WSJ og Wired, så det er slags vanskelig å rapportere dette. Men som Tate's screenshots gjøre det klart, dekningen Calacanis fikk var definitivt for godtroende. Jeg har jobbet med Jason nå og da, og jeg tror han at han ikke prøvde å dra av en stor spøk. Den solcellepaneler skulle ha vært en giveaway. [Foto: Flickr / doctorparadox]
Ustream lanserer desktop app for mer profesjonell live video
Hvis du ønsker å ta med levende bilder sendingene til neste nivå, ustream kunngjorde i dag lanseringen av sin ustream Produsent, noe som gir brukerne mulighet til å opprette mer profesjonelt utseende høy kvalitet direkte video. Den ustream Produsent desktop programmet vil fungere på både PC og Mac-maskiner. En grunnleggende gratis pakke vil la deg streame fra ett kamera, importere filmer og lyd, kjøre tre overganger, støtte bilde i bilde, skjermen fange funksjonen og H262 video. Hvis du leter etter enda flere funksjoner, så selskapet har ustream Produsent Pro. Med Pro, har brukeren ubegrenset kameraet bekker, ubegrenset overganger, bruk av sjabloner, lag og legge til titler, tilpassbare bildet i bildet, og selvfølgelig HD og H.264-video for en engangsavgift på $ 199. En side-by-side-sammenligning finner du her. Ustream Produsent lanserer bare dager etter at konkurrerende live video plattform Justin.tv kunngjorde at det hadde forenklet sine sendinger brukergrensesnitt etter at kunder klaget over sin kompleksitet. Så som ustream sikter mot en mer profesjonell publikum, er konkurransen skape noe enklere og lettere
Jacksons barn å ta scenen
Michael Jackson to eldste barna er planlagt å godta Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for sin far.
Flere dårlige nyheter for Intelius: cofounder siktet lyver om sex med Stripper
Intelius, et nettsted som hjelper brukerne å finne informasjon om andre, fortsetter å ha flere dårlige nyheter rundt sitt senior execs. John Arnold, en medstifter og konserndirektør, har blitt tiltalt på en kostnad for å lyve til en storjury om å ha sex med en danser. Selskapet har vært å dra publikum til tross for hundrevis av svindel klager, og fryktelig juridiske registrering av konsernsjef Naveen Jain. Vi dekket mange av de problemene tilbake i 2008. I fjor det amerikanske Senatet startet en etterforskning i innlegget transaksjonen markedsføring tilbud som driver mye av Intelius inntekter. De nye prisene er litt ironisk, siden Intelius nylig lansert en iPhone dating program kalt datecheck.
Video: Obama's State of the iPad Adresse
Husk de folka som gjorde dem nifty Google Wave film mashup videoer? Du vet, de med Pulp Fiction og Good Will Hunting? Vel, de er i gang igjen, med den nye varme billett i byen: Det iPad. Hvirvlet Creative har laget en mashup av gårsdagens iPad kunngjøring og president Obama første State of the Union Address fra i går kveld. De som var opptatt av at Apple-kunngjøringen begynte å bli mer buzz enn presidentens tale kan nå ha det beste fra begge verdener.
Holy wow! AT & T innrømmer NYC / San Fran 3G service sugd
En fersk AT & T inntjening kaller besto av mye snakk snakk snakke, men ett lysbilde skiller seg ut: det vesentlig innrømmer at 3G i San Francisco og New York suger vel AKA var begge langt under deres offisielle resultatene målet. Selv om jeg ikke kan finne ut hva den faktiske "Performance Objective" virkelig er basert på dette bildet, [...]
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