torsdag 29. oktober 2009
TomToms iPhone bilmonteringssett ingen workie med iPod touch, første-gen iPhone
Dårlige nyheter, folkens. Hvis du har tenkt å slippe $ 120 på TomToms iPhone bilmonteringssettet og deretter en annen $ 100 på TomToms navigering app for bruk med ditt første generasjons iPhone eller andre generasjons iPod touch, ser det nå ut som du ønsker å kjøre inn i noen kompatibilitetsproblemer. AppleInsider er rapportering "at selv om bilmonteringssettet dokkingstasjonen er kompatibel med alle iPhone-modeller, vil TomTom programmet kun fungerer med iPhone 3GS og iPhone 3G - selv med dokkingstasjonen kobles til en første generasjons iPhone eller iPod touch."
Is Nintendo’s new DSi enough to stave off the iPhone and PSPgo?
Nintendo is introducing a new version of its DSi gaming handheld, as we reported last night. The DSi LL will hit Japan on Nov. 21 and North America and Europe as the DSi XL in the first quarter.
Nintendo introduced its new dual-camera DSi just a year ago in Japan, but the company has to move fast. This handheld is an answer to the threat from the Sony PSPgo and Apple’s iPhone/iPod. But I’m afraid it isn’t enough. It doesn’t really bring Nintendo into the modern age of social apps which can be downloaded onto the fly onto a smartphone-like device. That’s the sector that is seeing a boom now.
Nintendo is sure to talk about more features in the future, but it hasn’t yet spelled out what you can do with this new DSi that you couldn’t really do with the older one. A larger touchscreen doesn’t quite do the job. The Nintendo DSi LL has larger dual screens — 4.2-inch screens compared to the DSi’s 3.25-inch screens. The viewing angle is better. It weighs 314 grams and has a battery life of three hours. It has a small stylus and a longer one. Users can choose between dark brown, red wine and natural white.
For now, this seems like a rush job. It doesn’t address Apple’s biggest advantages: an AppStore with 100,000 apps and lots of free games, downloadable content that you can buy instantly and download over a Wi-Fi connection, and outstanding communications that you can really only get with a phone. I think we can expect Nintendo to chase these features over time, but in the meantime, this new DSi is going to have to do. Perhaps that is why Nintendo hasn’t changed its forecast for DS sales in its current fiscal year. Before, it expected to sell 30 million units in the fiscal year ending March 31, and now it still expects that. Meanwhile, Apple is closing in with nearly 60 million sold in two years. Nintendo is still on top with 110 million sold since 2004, while Sony is somewhere above 50 million sold with the PSP.
It will be interesting to see if the PSPgo can compete with the new DSi as well as the iPhone/iPod Touch. The PSPgo has downloadable content and cheaper mini games available for lower prices. It has a crisp screen and is a gamer’s device, with much more sophisticated games than are available for either the DSi or the Apple devices. But if it is pigeonholed as a hardcore gamer’s device, it’s not going to outsell the others. The game in handhelds now is all about getting to the mass market, and that means these devices are competing with smartphones.
Nintendo introduced its new dual-camera DSi just a year ago in Japan, but the company has to move fast. This handheld is an answer to the threat from the Sony PSPgo and Apple’s iPhone/iPod. But I’m afraid it isn’t enough. It doesn’t really bring Nintendo into the modern age of social apps which can be downloaded onto the fly onto a smartphone-like device. That’s the sector that is seeing a boom now.
Nintendo is sure to talk about more features in the future, but it hasn’t yet spelled out what you can do with this new DSi that you couldn’t really do with the older one. A larger touchscreen doesn’t quite do the job. The Nintendo DSi LL has larger dual screens — 4.2-inch screens compared to the DSi’s 3.25-inch screens. The viewing angle is better. It weighs 314 grams and has a battery life of three hours. It has a small stylus and a longer one. Users can choose between dark brown, red wine and natural white.
For now, this seems like a rush job. It doesn’t address Apple’s biggest advantages: an AppStore with 100,000 apps and lots of free games, downloadable content that you can buy instantly and download over a Wi-Fi connection, and outstanding communications that you can really only get with a phone. I think we can expect Nintendo to chase these features over time, but in the meantime, this new DSi is going to have to do. Perhaps that is why Nintendo hasn’t changed its forecast for DS sales in its current fiscal year. Before, it expected to sell 30 million units in the fiscal year ending March 31, and now it still expects that. Meanwhile, Apple is closing in with nearly 60 million sold in two years. Nintendo is still on top with 110 million sold since 2004, while Sony is somewhere above 50 million sold with the PSP.
It will be interesting to see if the PSPgo can compete with the new DSi as well as the iPhone/iPod Touch. The PSPgo has downloadable content and cheaper mini games available for lower prices. It has a crisp screen and is a gamer’s device, with much more sophisticated games than are available for either the DSi or the Apple devices. But if it is pigeonholed as a hardcore gamer’s device, it’s not going to outsell the others. The game in handhelds now is all about getting to the mass market, and that means these devices are competing with smartphones.
Når faktisk møter fiksjon, tilfeller er vanskeligere å løse
Det sies at livet imiterer kunsten. Men det er det siste du ønsker når du skriver kriminalfortellinger. Du aldri vil se de tingene du skriver om speilet tilbake til deg i det virkelige liv.
What rehab taught me about making bad investments
(Editor’s note: Jeff Bussgang is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. This column originally appeared on his blog Seeing Both Sides.)
For as long as I can remember, I have been an enthusiastic participant in sports. To be clear, I’m not a great athlete (in fact, I’m the only one of the five Flybridge General Partners that wasn’t a varsity athlete in college). I’m just good enough to participate passionately and aggressively like the prototypical weekend warrior.
During any of my amateur sports efforts — whether competing in mini-triathlons, tackling hard ski runs, or trying to jump the wake while water skiing — I’ve always enjoyed pushing myself and approaching the task fearlessly.
Earlier this year, for reasons that will become clear shortly, I was reflecting on why it is that I am so fearless as a competitor, even as I’ve gotten older. I came up with two reasons. First, I’m not afraid of losing or failing and, second, I’m not afraid of getting hurt.
The former is probably because winning has never my ultimate objective, but rather the fun of competing and the enjoyment of achieving some level of mastery. And I’ve probably never been afraid of getting hurt because I’ve never gotten hurt. I’ve been simply very lucky. That is, until this spring, when a collision during a Saturday morning pick-up basketball game caused my ACL tendon to rupture. My luck ran out.
During my recuperation period, one question I contemplated was: When I’m back to full strength, will I return to sports with the same aggression, or will I find I have lost some of my fearlessness?
Ironically, that’s the identical question I struggle with as an investor. Vinod Khosla once said it takes 7 years and $30 million in losses to train a venture capitalist. Although I haven’t lost $30 million of my LPs’ and partners’ money in my 7 years as a VC, I have made my share of bad investments. When I look back on my struggling deals and do my post-mortem with my partnership (something we do during our annual strategy offsite), I point to the mistakes I made and errors I’ll try to correct the next time.
But I think I now appreciate that Vinod’s point is something broader than being a good VC requires learning from failure. It also requires the fearlessness to pick yourself up after failure and take high risks again and again.
Not losing confidence in your ability to judge good people, good opportunities and good markets is the key to transforming those early failures into more consistent successes going forward. Vinod and other legendary VCs still make their own investment mistakes 20 years later, but they remain fearless in willing to plunge forward to back the next big idea and great entrepreneur.
With this challenging economic environment, VCs are facing more than their share of failure – and there’s more to come. Let’s hope for our industry’s sake that we VCs all bounce back with the same spring in our step that I intend to once I’m cleared to return to the basketball court.
For as long as I can remember, I have been an enthusiastic participant in sports. To be clear, I’m not a great athlete (in fact, I’m the only one of the five Flybridge General Partners that wasn’t a varsity athlete in college). I’m just good enough to participate passionately and aggressively like the prototypical weekend warrior.
During any of my amateur sports efforts — whether competing in mini-triathlons, tackling hard ski runs, or trying to jump the wake while water skiing — I’ve always enjoyed pushing myself and approaching the task fearlessly.
Earlier this year, for reasons that will become clear shortly, I was reflecting on why it is that I am so fearless as a competitor, even as I’ve gotten older. I came up with two reasons. First, I’m not afraid of losing or failing and, second, I’m not afraid of getting hurt.
The former is probably because winning has never my ultimate objective, but rather the fun of competing and the enjoyment of achieving some level of mastery. And I’ve probably never been afraid of getting hurt because I’ve never gotten hurt. I’ve been simply very lucky. That is, until this spring, when a collision during a Saturday morning pick-up basketball game caused my ACL tendon to rupture. My luck ran out.
During my recuperation period, one question I contemplated was: When I’m back to full strength, will I return to sports with the same aggression, or will I find I have lost some of my fearlessness?
Ironically, that’s the identical question I struggle with as an investor. Vinod Khosla once said it takes 7 years and $30 million in losses to train a venture capitalist. Although I haven’t lost $30 million of my LPs’ and partners’ money in my 7 years as a VC, I have made my share of bad investments. When I look back on my struggling deals and do my post-mortem with my partnership (something we do during our annual strategy offsite), I point to the mistakes I made and errors I’ll try to correct the next time.
But I think I now appreciate that Vinod’s point is something broader than being a good VC requires learning from failure. It also requires the fearlessness to pick yourself up after failure and take high risks again and again.
Not losing confidence in your ability to judge good people, good opportunities and good markets is the key to transforming those early failures into more consistent successes going forward. Vinod and other legendary VCs still make their own investment mistakes 20 years later, but they remain fearless in willing to plunge forward to back the next big idea and great entrepreneur.
With this challenging economic environment, VCs are facing more than their share of failure – and there’s more to come. Let’s hope for our industry’s sake that we VCs all bounce back with the same spring in our step that I intend to once I’m cleared to return to the basketball court.
Offerpal treff mer enn 160 millioner forbrukere med spesialtilbud
Offerpal har stilt bygget et spesialtilbud imperium. På sine to-års jubileum, er selskapet annonserer at den har gitt mer enn 730 milliard virtuelle poeng til 160 millioner forbrukere. Offerpal hjelper utgivere på Facebook, spill plattformer og virtuelle verdener for å tjene penger på sine programmer. Heller enn å selge til forbrukere, gir det dem et alternativ betalingssystem via spesielle tilbud, som er annonser for eksempel spørreundersøkelser eller kredittkort avtaler. For å få virtuelle poeng at de kan bruke i et spill, brukerne fylle ut en undersøkelse. Annonsørene betaler Offerpal for hvert fullstendig oversikt og Offerpal deler inntektene med app utgiveren. Så langt, Fremont, California-basert Offerpal har registrert seg mer enn 2000 utgivere. Offerpay har også laget en nøkkelferdige betaling plattform som nå makter millioner transaksjoner per måned. Det har betalingsmåter i 190 land og har i mer enn 80 land. Offerpal først lansert sin plattform i oktober 2007, på Facebook app (fluff) venner, et virtuelt kjæledyr spill. Nå konkurrerer med Gambit og Adknowledge Super Rewards plattform. Nå app, eid av Social Gaming Network, har generert betydelige inntekter takket være Offerpal. Selskapet har lagt til en testing program, en måte å bekjempe virtuelle currenc svindel, og samarbeider med selskaper som IMVU og Tapjoy. Offerpal planlegger å rulle ut flere forsterkninger til plattformen gjennom 2010. I februar reiste selskapet 15 millioner dollar i en ny runde med finansiering. Tidligere har hevet det $ 5 millioner i 2007. Investorer inkluderer Interwest Capital, North Bridge Venture Partners, og DE Shaw Ventures.
AdMob: Dumbphones fortsatt trekke 60 prosent av mobilannonser
De nyeste månedlige rapporten fra mobilt annonsenettverk AdMob, som hevder å være verdens største, inneholder en skarp påminnelse for smarttelefonen fans: Non-smartphones, som mobilindustrien kaller "feature phones" fortsatt distribuere 60 prosent av annonsene i AdMob nettverk av mer enn 15.000 mobile nettsteder og programmer. Her er gjeldende Topp 10 liste på antall telefoner. Apple iPhone Apple iPod Touch HTC Dream Samsung R450 Palm Pre Motorola RAZR V3 RIM Blackberry 8300 Kyocera S1300 Samsung R430 HTC Magic AdMob fullstendige rapporten vil bli offentliggjort torsdag kl metrics.admob.com.
With smartphone rise, Qualcomm suddenly wants to be anybody’s girlfriend
The world’s largest phone maker, Nokia, plans to invade the U.S. market with a batch of new high-end and low-end phones. Part of its strategy apparently includes an about-face in its relationship with Qualcomm, the mobile phone chip-maker.
We talked with Rob Chandhok, senior vice president of Qualcomm responsible for software strategy. He’s also president of the new Qualcomm Innovation Center Inc, called QuIC, and effort by Qualcomm to support all phones on all platforms, mainly by embracing open source software. As such, it hopes to compete more effectively against competitors such as Texas Instruments, and of course the iPhone, which customizes chips supplied by other vendors. QuIC will work with developers, giving them tools to support Linux and Webkit and open source operating systems such as Symbian, Android and Chrome.
VB: So why are you setting up QuIC ?
RC: Well, we’ve always been there in the mobile space, offering systems solutions to the marketplace. We support Brew, we aim to support all platform systems, really, So now we want to optimize open source software with Qualcomm technology.
VB: So the big news seems to be that Qualcomm has become “open” now, too. There’s a lot of open in our industry. Android is “open”, Symbian is “open” – what does open mean to Qualcomm ?
RC: A lot of the “open” has to do with what Geoffrey Moore has described as “context”. You’ve got the core, which you want to decide yourself on, but you’ve also got the “context” which you want others to decide on. We want to offer something to all the best platforms, we want to collaborate with developers on offers how to do platforms better. And there’s a lot of on the context part which they should
have a say on. There’s a lot of sense to offer some of the things as a commodity. We don’t need to differentiate around context.
VB: So where do you stand out in terms of technology, for example? Where’s your “core”?
RC: We’ve got HSPA+, we’ve got LTE for example. We want to build a lot of these chips. We also want to be known what we do the best and fastest chips around that. We’ve recently heavily invested in multimedia graphics engines, so we want to lead there, just to name some examples.
VB: And why is “open” so important for mobile in particular?
RC: There are a lot of physical limitations which come with the mobile web. Take for example mobile browser technology. You just can not assume a working wide area network connection. You never can assume 100% connectivity. You may get into a tunnel with your phone, for example. So you have to take this variable into account. How does this affect voice, how does this affect data ? What do data apps need to do in order to deal with that? There are many of such issues connected to mobile. And we at Qualcomm have really good know-how in dealing with them. So part of this “open” is Qualcomm giving tools back to the developers.
VB: How many resources have you put into this?
RC: We want to give considerable chunks of our know-how back to the community. And with the QuiC we intend to be more visible doing that. We don’t give out numbers, but we are putting a siginificant amount of engineers on that.
VB: So you say “open”, I get that. But which of the “open” initiatives do you intend to support most?
RC: We really aim to support all the platforms. Some 25 of the 30 Windows Mobile 6.5 phones which recently launched have our technology in them. We have done a lot of work on the first Android phones, some of that which was made public, some of that which wasn’t.
VB: Sure, but you will indicate certain preferences by what you spend time on….
RC: There are different demands from our customers, depending on their geography. Yet, we are not picking a winner. That’s not our role .”Open” is for us at Qualcomm a lot about contributing ideas there on standards. We established QuiC to have a more influential voice in the open source sommunity. We want relationships with all platform players. We want an influence on Android, Windows, Symbian phones. We need to participate in all these communities. But as you know we aren’t part of Symbian.
VB: But you just were speaking here at a Symbian conference. There’s a lof of kiss and make-up going on.
RC: (laughs) Matt already asked me that. As I said, there are different demands from our customers, depending on their geography.
VB: That does not sound specific, does it. So what in particular do you want to embrace with being “open”?
RC: Well, for example the really open portal is the internet. On the internet, you’re not encouraged to download particular apps. On mobile phones, though, the app which everybody seems to use in the moment is Facebook Mobile. Is that really open? No, the tools for all the platform aren’t owned by any one player, not by iPhone, Android, Symbian or Windows Mobile. The most promising platform, probably, is the web. So we want to offer a lot of web browsing support going forward.
VB: What would be a good example of such a tool ?
For example, let’s say we develop a really cool graphics accelerator. What we optimally would like to do is to offer it across all platforms
and map it into each of the communities.
VB: What’s the most important technologies ahead for you?
RC: I may sound cliche, but I think HTML5 is pretty important. HTML5 could enable the cross-platform delivery of services we speculate about. The question here is, for example, that will be driving the user experience going forward, Java or the web. We still don’t really know what this mysterious Chrome things is, do we. Multi-core processors are another one. I also think that someone has yet to write a really good application framework.
We talked with Rob Chandhok, senior vice president of Qualcomm responsible for software strategy. He’s also president of the new Qualcomm Innovation Center Inc, called QuIC, and effort by Qualcomm to support all phones on all platforms, mainly by embracing open source software. As such, it hopes to compete more effectively against competitors such as Texas Instruments, and of course the iPhone, which customizes chips supplied by other vendors. QuIC will work with developers, giving them tools to support Linux and Webkit and open source operating systems such as Symbian, Android and Chrome.
VB: So why are you setting up QuIC ?
RC: Well, we’ve always been there in the mobile space, offering systems solutions to the marketplace. We support Brew, we aim to support all platform systems, really, So now we want to optimize open source software with Qualcomm technology.
VB: So the big news seems to be that Qualcomm has become “open” now, too. There’s a lot of open in our industry. Android is “open”, Symbian is “open” – what does open mean to Qualcomm ?
RC: A lot of the “open” has to do with what Geoffrey Moore has described as “context”. You’ve got the core, which you want to decide yourself on, but you’ve also got the “context” which you want others to decide on. We want to offer something to all the best platforms, we want to collaborate with developers on offers how to do platforms better. And there’s a lot of on the context part which they should
have a say on. There’s a lot of sense to offer some of the things as a commodity. We don’t need to differentiate around context.
VB: So where do you stand out in terms of technology, for example? Where’s your “core”?
RC: We’ve got HSPA+, we’ve got LTE for example. We want to build a lot of these chips. We also want to be known what we do the best and fastest chips around that. We’ve recently heavily invested in multimedia graphics engines, so we want to lead there, just to name some examples.
VB: And why is “open” so important for mobile in particular?
RC: There are a lot of physical limitations which come with the mobile web. Take for example mobile browser technology. You just can not assume a working wide area network connection. You never can assume 100% connectivity. You may get into a tunnel with your phone, for example. So you have to take this variable into account. How does this affect voice, how does this affect data ? What do data apps need to do in order to deal with that? There are many of such issues connected to mobile. And we at Qualcomm have really good know-how in dealing with them. So part of this “open” is Qualcomm giving tools back to the developers.
VB: How many resources have you put into this?
RC: We want to give considerable chunks of our know-how back to the community. And with the QuiC we intend to be more visible doing that. We don’t give out numbers, but we are putting a siginificant amount of engineers on that.
VB: So you say “open”, I get that. But which of the “open” initiatives do you intend to support most?
RC: We really aim to support all the platforms. Some 25 of the 30 Windows Mobile 6.5 phones which recently launched have our technology in them. We have done a lot of work on the first Android phones, some of that which was made public, some of that which wasn’t.
VB: Sure, but you will indicate certain preferences by what you spend time on….
RC: There are different demands from our customers, depending on their geography. Yet, we are not picking a winner. That’s not our role .”Open” is for us at Qualcomm a lot about contributing ideas there on standards. We established QuiC to have a more influential voice in the open source sommunity. We want relationships with all platform players. We want an influence on Android, Windows, Symbian phones. We need to participate in all these communities. But as you know we aren’t part of Symbian.
VB: But you just were speaking here at a Symbian conference. There’s a lof of kiss and make-up going on.
RC: (laughs) Matt already asked me that. As I said, there are different demands from our customers, depending on their geography.
VB: That does not sound specific, does it. So what in particular do you want to embrace with being “open”?
RC: Well, for example the really open portal is the internet. On the internet, you’re not encouraged to download particular apps. On mobile phones, though, the app which everybody seems to use in the moment is Facebook Mobile. Is that really open? No, the tools for all the platform aren’t owned by any one player, not by iPhone, Android, Symbian or Windows Mobile. The most promising platform, probably, is the web. So we want to offer a lot of web browsing support going forward.
VB: What would be a good example of such a tool ?
For example, let’s say we develop a really cool graphics accelerator. What we optimally would like to do is to offer it across all platforms
and map it into each of the communities.
VB: What’s the most important technologies ahead for you?
RC: I may sound cliche, but I think HTML5 is pretty important. HTML5 could enable the cross-platform delivery of services we speculate about. The question here is, for example, that will be driving the user experience going forward, Java or the web. We still don’t really know what this mysterious Chrome things is, do we. Multi-core processors are another one. I also think that someone has yet to write a really good application framework.
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