All The World’s A Game

Editor’s note: Tim Chang is a managing director at Mayfield Fund. This is the first in a three-part series about the Quantified Self movement. Follow Tim on Twitter @timechange.
As a lifelong gamer, I grew up fascinated with role-playing games, from pen-and-paper fantasy worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, to computer-based RPGs like Ultima and Wizardry. I’ve spent thousands of hours crafting and “leveling up” dozens of alternate personas, tuning their stats and experience point allocations across various character traits, and charting their virtual careers. I’ve always loved exploring all the different possible attributes and powers to minimize or maximize, and then mapping out how to achieve the optimal configuration for my style of play.
Several years ago I started wondering, “What if real life were the ultimate role-playing game? What character class would I be, and what would my current level be? Which skills would I go deep in and master?”
What started out as a fun thought experiment grew into a bit of an obsession — not only in how I approach life personally, but also in my job as a venture capitalist. Having been an early investor in social gaming and backing companies like Playdom, ngmoco, Lumos Labs, and Badgeville, I’ve witnessed the interplay between “real world” social media and “in game” behaviors generate tremendous value (Playdom was acquired by Disney for $763M, and ngmoco was bought by DeNA for $403M; Lumos Labs and Badgeville continue to grow like weeds). Now Gamification (the application of game mechanics to non-game fields) influences much of my ongoing thinking and investment.
I believe we all have a “superpower,” no matter how niche or small it may seem. In the game world, we always know precisely what our superpower is and what level it’s at, how we’re being scored and how each action affects that score. Our superpower is explicitly shown to and valued by other players. In the real world, our talents, tastes, and know-how aren’t always evident, yet we spend our lives, often ineffectively, trying to score, balance and demonstrate them. But now we have the technology to bring the scoring, feedback and interactivity of games into our real-world lives.
Thank the Quantified Self movement, which centers around gathering as much personal numerical data as possible and analyzing it, for making this possible. Together with the Quantified Self, Gamification will have a huge impact on how we play the “Game of Life.”
‘If It Ain’t Fun, It Don’t Count’
These days, there’s a lot of grassroots buzz and increasing hype around Quantified Self. The problem, though, is that early Quantified Self adopters — like me — are tech-savvy people fascinated with data and new devices. Unlike us, however, the mainstream consumer is never going to go out of her way to adopt all these newfangled sensors simply for the sake of raw data.
After all, I could give you a lifetime’s worth of granular information about your lipid levels and heartbeat, but so what? If it’s presented as just data, you’d say, “That’s cool, but what am I supposed to do with it?” As my friend Brett Leve from Summit Series likes to say, “If it ain’t fun, it doesn’t count.”
That’s where gamification comes in. A game at its basic definition is nothing more than an objective for victory, a score, and a clear set of rules for how players can influence that score. A score of 64 is meaningless, but add a rubric, a goal and clear paths to get there, and you’ve got a game going.
The Seven Deadly Sins
But isn’t “fun” subjective? Well, yes — different people play each game differently. But there is a unifying framework to understand the core motivations for most people.
When I first got into the venture capital business more than a decade ago, I thought that I’d spend my time evaluating disruptive technologies coming out of deep IP research labs. But after lots of time with consumer-facing startups, I came to rely on the framework of the Seven Deadly Sins (7DS) to help me decode what makes a social media app or site addictive.
As an example, young males often index highly on Wrath, as they love to compete and rub their wins in each other’s faces. As they rack up points and achievements, they climb the leaderboards, which indulges their Pride.
Older female players typically seek self-discovery and affinity with others instead of head-to-head competition. They respond to Envy, as well as Greed when presented with the opportunity to collect sets of special items.
Now, I’m not suggesting that entrepreneurs go out and build sites that ruthlessly exploit consumers or encourage users to mercilessly prey upon each other. What I’m pointing out is that it’s better to understand root motivations (especially for younger users), and be able to reverse engineer them to design engagement loops in your site, app or service.
In fact, Gamification platform vendors like Badgeville and Gigya now offer plug-and-play systems to instantly tap into the power of game mechanics for your business. As an example, Shoebacca, an up-and-coming online shoe store, leverages social gamification tools from Gigya to shape desired consumer behavior on their site. As soon as users sign in with their preferred social account, they are instantly awarded with points, badges and social standing with the larger site community as they interact with products and content. By tying gamification with users’ social graphs (their social network friends), shoppers are incentive to compete, share, and essentially “play” with their real friends for social rewards when they make purchases, view pages or drive valuable referral traffic to shocebacca.com.
Game on!
As users are presented with unique data and scores about themselves along with interesting insights that tell them “here’s what will happen to you if you do X, Y, or Z next,” life really does start to resemble the immersive and captivating role-playing games that I grew up with.
And if this enables each of us to better identify, improve and share our individual superpowers in the real world, while having fun in the process and becoming closer to our ideal selves, then I say: “Game on!”

Companies: Norwest Venture Partners, Gabriel Venture Partners, Dealmaker Media, ngmoco, Iridigm Display Corporation, Lumos Labs, PCH International, Brite Semiconductor, AdChina, AllReach Media, Badgeville
Tim is a Managing Director at Mayfield Fund, focusing on investments in mobile, gaming, digital media, social media, eCommerce, and AdTech in the US and China. Tim’s venture investments have generated more than $1.3B in M&A exit value, and he was named on the Forbes 2011 Midas List of Top Dealmakers. Previously, Tim was a Partner at Norwest Venture Partners, where led NVP’s investments in AdChina, PCH International, All Reach Media, Lumos Labs, Basis, Badgeville, Brite Semiconductor and...
Learn more
Founded in 1969, Mayfield Fund is a venture capital firm located in Menlo Park, CA. The firm has over $2.7 billion under management with expertise in communications/wireless, consumer/media, enterprise software and semiconductors.
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

Amid Privacy Concerns, Apple Has Started Rejecting Apps That Access UDIDs

Kim-Mai Cutler is a technology journalist who has worked for Bloomberg, VentureBeat and The Wall Street Journal. Before she joined TechCrunch, she led mobile coverage at Inside Network, a six-person media startup that was acquired by WebMediaBrands in 2011 for $14 million in cash and stock. She specializes in covering gaming, distribution and monetization of mobile applications and venture... ? Learn More

Amid extra scrutiny from Congress around privacy issues, Apple has started rejecting apps that access UDIDs, or identification numbers that are unique to every iPhone and iPad, this week.
Apple had already given developers a heads-up about the change more than six months ago when it said in some iOS documentation that it was going to deprecate UDIDs. But it looks like Apple is moving ahead of schedule with pressure from lawmakers and the media. It can take more than a year to deprecate features because developers need time to adjust and change their apps. A few weeks ago, some of the bigger mobile-social developers told me that Apple had reached out and warned them to move away from UDIDs.
But this is the first time Apple has issued outright rejections for using UDIDs.
“Everyone’s scrambling to get something into place,” said Victor Rubba, chief executive of Fluik, a Canadian developer that makes games like Office Jerk and Plumber Crack. “We’re trying to be proactive and we’ve already moved to an alternative scheme.” Rubba said he isn’t sending any updates until he sees how the situation shakes out in the next few days.
For those unaware, the UDID is an alphanumeric string that is unique to each Apple device. It’s currently used by mobile ad networks, game networks, analytics providers, developers and app testing systems, like TestFlight, for example.
Playhaven, which helps developers monetize more than 1,200 games across iOS and Android, said several of its customers had been rejected in the last week. The company’s chief executive Andy Yang says that developers should try and stay as flexible as possible by supporting multiple ID systems until there’s a clear replacement.
“This is definitely happening,” Yang said. “In the next month or two, this is going to have an impact on all ad networks and apps using advertising. Everybody’s trying to make their own choices about what to use instead.”
At least one of the apps that faced issues a week ago came from a publicly-traded, multibillion dollar company, I confirmed. But they declined to be named so as not to jeopardize their relationship with Apple.
So here’s what I’m hearing. Two of the 10 review teams started doing blanket rejections of apps that access UDIDs this week. Next week, that will rise to four the ten teams, and keep escalating until all 10 teams are turning down apps that are still using UDIDs.
This is a big deal because mobile ad networks use these ID numbers to make their advertising better targeted. Using UDIDs, mobile ad networks can track consumers from app to app to understand more about ads they respond to and apps they use most often.
“The UDID is essential for managing the conversion loop,” said Jim Payne, who runs a real-time bidding platform for mobile ads called MoPub and was early at leading mobile advertising network AdMob before it sold to Google for $750 million. “All the performance dollars that are spent on mobile are going to impacted by this not being there.”
At the same time, however, there are very real privacy risks tied to the widespread use of UDIDs. They’re more sensitive than cookies on the web because they can’t be cleared or deleted. And they’re tied to the most personal of devices — the phones we carry with us everywhere. Apple has been facing pressure from lawmakers in the last week about how apps can share consumer data without their knowledge. Two U.S. House representatives Henry Waxman and G. K. Butterfield sent letters to 34 iOS developers a few days ago asking about how they collect and use consumer data.
It’s still not obvious what developers will use instead. Some companies turned to the Wi-fi MAC Address, or media access control address, but it has a lot of the same privacy flaws that the UDID did. Another company Appsfire is behind an open-source solution called OpenUDID, that it hopes developers will adopt instead.
Yang and others are seeing a few developers get through approval process if they ask users for permissions first before storing their UDIDs. If so, this mirrors the approach that Facebook and Google Android take in making developers show a permissions dialog to consumers when they first install the app.
However, Yang’s not so sure that this is a good user experience or that enough consumers will say yes to make this strategy effective.
“I just don’t think the opt-in rate will be that high,” he said. “It feels like a Band-Aid solution for now.”

View the original article here

Read more »

The Rise Of The Explainer Video

Editor’s note: Rico Andrade a former executive producer at Transvideo Studios and Picturelab. Follow him on Twitter @andrade_rico.
Two years ago, Jason Kincaid wrote a short but influential post titled “The Underutilized Power Of The Video Demo To Explain What The Hell You Actually Do.” He said:

During my time at TechCrunch I’ve seen thousands of startups and written about hundreds of them. I sure as hell don’t know all the secrets to building a successful company, but there are a few things I’ve seen that seem like surefire ways to ever-so-slightly grease the road to success. Here’s an easy one: make a video demo and prominently promote it somewhere where new visitors can find it. One that shows off the core function of your product without making people think they’re watching an ad or a pitch. And answer, as thoroughly as possible in 2-3 minutes, what it is that you’re bringing to the table.

Jason was spot-on with his assessment. Today, a significant number of startup companies rely on a prominent overview video on their home page (you can browse through this compilation to get a sense of how many), and there is an overabundance of companies dedicated to serving the video needs of the tech community. Just look at how companies like Google and Facebook use overview videos as an integral part of their overall marketing strategy.
Many individual companies do A/B testing of these specific types of videos on their own home pages, but these numbers are not usually disclosed, and I have yet to see industry-wide studies looking at the effects of these specific videos.  However, the effectiveness of product videos in the ecommerce and retail space is well-documented, and the same factors that help these videos sell products seem to apply to promoting websites and apps as well. That was typically our experience at my former employer Transvideo Studios: of the companies that kept track and disclosed the data to us, videos usually improved conversion rates by 15%-75%.
Why Video?
Conversion rates don’t tell the whole story about overview videos.  Other reasons to include video are:
- Increase press coverage. In Jason’s own words:

Here’s a sad truth: a lot of reporters really are quite lazy. Not in the sense that they don’t want to find and cover a cool new company (in which case they should consider a new career path), but in that they don’t like to spend time wading through marketing material trying to figure out what your company actually does. After all, we’ve got inboxes stuffed with pitches from companies vying for coverage. If it takes more than a minute or two to figure out what problem you’re trying to solve, we’re probably more likely to simply skip to the next message than to try to make sense of your feature set.

Not only does it make it more likely you’ll get covered, but also that the coverage won’t simply be the author’s interpretation of your site, but will actually include your video – your own words – to supplement the story.
- Help your fans evangelize your product. Video is an extra standalone tool that can be easily shared on Facebook or Twitter. My favorite example of this is Visual.ly – Visual.ly had over 80,000 signups from a video on its LaunchRock page… months before the company actually went live.
- Improve the SEO of your site.
- Repurpose elsewhere.  Videos can be included in email signatures, start off VC pitches, shared by sales team, etc… well beyond your home page.
- Buy you time. While “nothing kills a bad product better than good marketing”, a video can give users an insight to your product that allows them to both use it more effectively, and understand your larger vision, so that if the product isn’t there yet, they know where it is going and don’t immediately turn you off.  I’m a firm believer that if Color had originally launched with a video that explained its vision a bit better, instead of the employee–made demo they launched with, users might have given them a bit of a chance to improve.
Tips on making videos.
If you are going to make a video, here a few basic rules to keep in mind:
Don’t make a “viral” video.  While there are extremely successful and truly viral videos out there people don’t usually realize the time, effort, and experience required to create something people actually want to share.  And even if they do, virality itself is unpredictable.  Most companies would be better off leveraging the existing organic traffic on their site and focus on turning those users into customers, rather than spending resources they may not have trying to designing to get a mass audience to post their videos on their Facebook page.
This doesn’t mean the video needs to be a PowerPoint pitch deck, or that it can’t be engaging, but that the top priority should be to explain how a product fits into a user’s life, and not shareability.Don’t just make a product walkthrough.  Product walkthroughs have their place, but they are only effective after the user understands what the product is about in the first place. Don’t just do a product demo, starting at the login screen, and walking through all the features.  Answer the question, “How does this product fit into my life?”, or “Why should I use this?”, before answering “How does this work?”.  You want to pique the user’s interest with the video, then let them figure how the product works on their own, by signing up and using it.
Having said that…Prioritize your message and keep it short.  It is tempting to want to present every use case, every benefit, to as many different audiences as possible, as you might in a pitch deck.  However, the sweet spot for these videos tend to be around 45-90 seconds.  Shorter than 45 seconds feels sales-y and incomplete, and viewers don’t hang around videos that are longer than 90 seconds, so putting too much in there hurts you.
That means that you should pick just a few messages to put in the video  Are you targeting your dream user, or are you catering to early adopters (i.e.: “Normals” vs “TechCrunch Readers”)?  Are you trying to differentiate yourselves from an established competitor?  Are you solving a problem that hasn’t been tackled, or is it a new solution to an old problem?  Is there information that all users must know about your product ahead of time to use it effectively?  These are the types of questions that help determine what goes into a final video.  Focus on the three most important things, and then let them move on from the video to your product.Include a call to action at the end.  Videos perform better if the user knows what to do after the video is done. And if you tell a user to download a product, make sure there is a prominent “Download” button next to the video at all times. (See: Flipboard).Prominently feature the video.  The video does little good if it is hidden behind a lot of links.  Put it on your home page, and place a large “play” button on a still of the video for maximum effectiveness. (See: Nextdoor).Quality matters.  While you may now be tempted to grab your camcorder and record a video of your product, the production quality does matter.  A concise script, good design, clear visuals, and good quality audio all make a difference in whether users watch the video, and how they react to it and to your product.  This is especially true if your product has privacy implications, or is business to business – an amateurish production may give the impression that the company is not reputable and is run from a college dorm room.

The illusion of a professional looking site is easily burst by an amateur how-to video card.io—
Philip Kaplan (@pud) June 23, 2011

Remember – the goal is for the user to understand what it is your product does.  If you can show your video to a person in your target audience and they can tell you what your product is after watching your video, you’re probably in good shape.
The harder question to answer is, “How much should we spend on video?”, and that’s for another time.

Rico Andrade is the former Executive Producer at Transvideo Studios and of the founders of the company’s creative and design division, Picturelab. Picturelab specializes in providing high-quality video and animation for tech companies in Silicon Valley. Rico is a Computer Science and Communication major from Stanford, and a former member of the Stanford Men’s Gymnastics team. He is a two-voyage veteran of Semester at Sea, and a big fan of This American Life.
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

Jobs’ Rejection Of TV Designs “Isn’t A Huge Deal” Says Former Apple Engineer

Kim-Mai Cutler is a technology journalist who has worked for Bloomberg, VentureBeat and The Wall Street Journal. Before she joined TechCrunch, she led mobile coverage at Inside Network, a six-person media startup that was acquired by WebMediaBrands in 2011 for $14 million in cash and stock. She specializes in covering gaming, distribution and monetization of mobile applications and venture... ? Learn More

It’s a sin I know almost too well as a blogger. It’s slow going for news on a Friday night and the pageview gods send you a reprieve in the form of a tweet.
A former Apple engineer is berating the company’s design ethic in the post-Jobs era in less than 140 characters?
Score! Suddenly one story becomes another story then another story then another story then another story.
Until it’s a crisis! ZOMG! Apple is over! The company is finished!
Interested in the actual story, I talked with former Apple TV engineer Mike Margolis about the tweet that launched a thousand blog posts.
So here’s what he said on Twitter.

@aral Fun fact – those new designs were tossed out 5 years ago because SJ didn’t like them. Now there is nobody to say “no” to bad design.
— Michael Margolis ? (@yipe) March 24, 2012

Here are his thoughts with far more context:

I woke up this morning with hundreds of new followers on Twitter and two dozen text messages from friends – many of them Apple employees past and present. Turns out a few of my tweets were being blogged about. I wouldn’t mind, except many people were misquoting and painting doom and gloom scenarios for Apple and making false claims about the design teams at Apple. I have not been present for any of the Apple TV product discussions for more than four years, so I’m a bit surprised that everyone is all atwitter about what SJ rejected so long ago and what that means today.
Specifically, I stated in a tweet that Steve did not like the grid design five years ago. That is absolutely 100% true. It’s also true that five years ago the iPad didn’t exist, Apple users weren’t in love with app-grid interfaces like they are now, a streaming-only iCloud connected device was a pipe dream, and AppleTV did not have great new third party content like YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, NBA, NFL, and more. The UI didn’t make much sense back then but it makes much more sense now. If you compare Front Row to AppleTV 1.0,  ”AppleTV Take 2?, and the new AppleTV UI it is clear that the product is continually improving. The new UI is no doubt cleaner, simpler, easier to use, and more in line with the now-popular iPad UI and Lion’s Launchpad.
Timing and context are crucial – both on Twitter and in product design.
Steve rejecting a design five years ago isn’t a huge deal. Steve was well known for rejecting ideas, tweaking them, and turning them into something even better. And that’s a very good thing. One of my favorite parts of working at Apple was knowing that SJ said “no” to most everything initially, even if he later came to like it, advocate for it, and eventually proudly present it on stage. This helped the company stay focused and drove people to constantly improve, iterate, and turn the proverbial knob to 11 on everything.
A quick clarification: many sites are now worried that there is only a single designer in the consumer apps team. That is absolutely not true. I simply stated (in 140 characters) that one designer from the consumer apps team was largely responsible for the Apple TV visual design, not Jonathan Ive.

Margolis adds that he no longer owns any Apple stock and hasn’t been employed by the company since 2008.

IPO: March 25, 1980, NASDAQ:AAPL
Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

You Say “SoLoMo,” I Say, “I Hate My Life”

Anthony Ha is a writer at TechCrunch, where he covers media, advertising, and startups. Previously, he was a staff technology writer at Adweek, worked as a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and was also a reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing.... ? Learn More

Working in tech does weird things to your vocabulary. Five years ago, if you’d told me that I’d become someone who talks about whether they have the “bandwidth” to get something done or promising to “ping” you later, I would have laughed in your face. Yet here I am, finding the bandwidth to ping people — like it or not, you adopt the language of the people around you.
Still, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere. And for me, the phrase SoLoMo (short for social-local-mobile, if you’re lucky enough to have never heard it) crosses that line and outrages all decency and common sense.
When it first popped up, I assumed it was the latest feeble attempt to make “Socio Loco” take off and would die in a few weeks. But no, it seems to be catching on, and it’s even crept into a couple of TechCrunch headlines.
Why do I hate it so much? For one thing, it just sounds so ridiculous. “Soe-low-moe.” Wait, what? I’m convinced that the only way to say “SoLoMo” with a straight face is to literally stop thinking about the syllables coming out of your mouth or keyboard. Or perhaps you’ve heard it so often that you’ve become desensitized, which is basically the same thing.
I was also going to argue that it doesn’t mean anything, but that’s not entirely true. For example, blogger and analyst Greg Sterling defined it for Mashable as a more “mobile-centric” version of hyperlocal search, with “greater local precision”: “It’s about getting nearby information on demand, wherever you may be.” A little vague, but okay, it’s a definition.
What I object to, really, is the way everyone is seizing on the term as a way to automatically hype up an app as innovative and exciting, in the same way that “cloud” was slapped on everything a couple of years ago. Are you about to release the millionth local deals app? Call it SoLoMo! What about a reviews app? Do the same! An app that lets you find which of your friends are friending the friends of friends around you? Come on baby, do the SoLoMotion!!!
And I’m worried about what could happen if the reign of SoLoMo continues. In a few months, new startups will feel obligated to describe themselves this way, no matter what they actually do. “Oh, you’ve got a mobile social app? That’s so lame, bro. Don’t you know SoLoMo is where it’s at?”
Welcome to the brave new world of buzzword inflation.

View the original article here

Read more »

One Screen To Rule Them All

Editor’s note: Jay Fulcher is CEO of video technology company Ooyala. He previously contributed a column about “Fear And Loathing In Online Video.” Follow him on Twitter @jbfulcher.
While hosting this year’s Academy Awards, Billy Crystal cracked, “I prefer the big screen… which is my iPad.” The remark was an ironic counterpoint to the evening’s theme, “Let’s go to the movies,” itself a half-hearted attempt to resuscitate flagging U.S. box office sales. On the heels of a year that saw the lowest movie theater attendance in almost two decades, it’s clear that the silver screen feels threatened by younger, slimmer screens.
Apple’s new iPad is shattering sales records and quickly ushering in the post-PC era. The company sold three million tablets in the first weekend they went on sale and may sell as many as 66 million by year’s end. Like the iPhone and iPod before it, the iPad is reinventing an entire technology category and bringing it to the masses.
It’s not surprising that more people are watching more shows and movies on their tablets than ever before. The iPad’s slim form factor and large, HD screen make the device perfect for kicking back with the latest episode of “Sharktank.” At Ooyala, we’ve seen this new way of watching online video emerge and evolve over the past 18 months. Our data suggests that explosive tablet sales (fueled largely by Apple’s iPad) will increase the share of tablet video viewing by over 500% in the next year alone.
Our data also suggests that people are watching more shows, movies and other videos on their iPads during primetime TV hours: a third of daily video plays occur between 7PM and 11PM – hours that could otherwise be spent in front of cable TV or out at the local movie theater. In fact, Americans are now watching more online movies than DVD content. The key takeaway here is clear:  Networks, studios and other providers of professional TV and film content need to pay attention to this new screen.

Luckily, the rise of tablet video presents significant new opportunities for viewers and publishers. Tablets are personal devices — there’s a one-to-one relationship between the screen and viewer. Content owners and advertisers equipped with the right tools can now make better connections with individual viewers than ever before. As a result, there exist new opportunities to engage viewers by delivering not only personalized video content but meaningful advertising less likely to disengage the audience.
Personalizing a Netflix account that is shared by a family of four and lives on a big-screen TV is tricky. Personalizing content for a tablet owned by a single person is far more impactful. While smartphones also have a more intimate connection with their owners, added screen real estate makes tablets a strong candidate to lead the way in new TV technology and consumption.
Here are just a few examples of how tablets are changing the face of traditional television.
Tablet TV Apps — The Team Coco Tablet App delivers second screen content in real time and offers an “all access” look behind the scenes of the Conan O’Brien show. The Turner App delivers exclusive content to engage fans of the show and encourage appointment viewing.
Tablet TV is Social TV — The rise of social television has had a huge impact on linear broadcasting. While there are plenty of people liking and tweeting from their phone or laptop, tablets will continue to impact trending topics and industry buzz in the coming years. Social TV app GetGlue also functions as a content discovery engine. When media companies leverage the social graph, they increase organic discovery on leading social networks and gain valuable insights into the habits and tastes of their most loyal viewers.
Tablets as Second-Screen Guides — Just as tablets made television content portable and personal, they are also redefining how people discover content. Netflix recently refreshed its iPad app in an effort to make it easier for people to find content. There are a number of established and emerging companies working to resolve the paradox of choice that online video is creating. When nearly everything is available online, how will we decide what to watch? Expect the winners here to offer a visually pleasing, easy to use, data-driven discovery engine.
Tablets as Universal Remotes — Tablets have even revolutionized remotes. Apple offers a free remote app for the iPad that lets users control the action from their tablet. Newer companies like Dijit are combining universal remote tablet technology with social content recommendation to deliver a more personalized viewing experience.
Tablets are bringing about a big shift in personal computing and creating unique opportunities for media companies to connect with their viewers. Those that profit will leverage video analytics and advanced content recommendation algorithms to deliver personalized viewing experiences across all connected devices.
The stakes need not be overstated: By 2015, 100 million Americans will regularly watch premium content on connected devices. While it is true that delivering broadcast-quality tablet video is only a single piece of a larger streaming media puzzle, developing an effective tablet strategy is crucial for content creators and broadcasters as we shift from broadcast to broadband video. The promise of online video lies in its ability to connect viewers with relevant content in ways traditional broadcasting never could. Tablets may not be the biggest screens, but they’ve brought about big innovations in TV tech.

Jay Fulcher became CEO of Ooyala in August 2009. Ooyala has been one of the fastest growing companies in online video technology and has more than 500 customers worldwide. Prior to Ooyala Fulcher was CEO & President of Agile Software, a publicly traded enterprise software company which was acquired by Oracle in 2007. During his tenure, Agile became the fastest growing PLM company in the industry, establishing itself as a market leader with over 11,000 customers and a tremendous...
Learn more
Ooyala is a leader in online video management, publishing, analytics and monetization. Its integrated suite of technologies and services give content owners the power to expand audiences, and deep insights that drive increased revenue from video. Ooyala serves hundreds of global media companies and consumer brands including Dell, ESPN, Fremantle Media, News International, Sephora, Telegraph Media Group, Vans, Whole Foods and Yahoo! Japan. Ooyala was founded in Mountain View, California in 2007 by Bismarck Lepe, Sean Knapp, and Belsasar...
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

“Screenshots Of Despair” Reveals The New Human Condition

Alexia Tsotsis works for TechCrunch as a writer. She attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, majoring in Writing and Art, and moved to New York City shortly after graduation to work in the Media industry. After four years of living in New York and attending courses at New York University, she returned to Los Angeles... ? Learn More

More and more of us are spending more and more of our time staring at screens; And it’s amazing how emotional we’ve started to get about pixels.
I’m pretty sure the last thing I see before I die will be one of those blasted spinning rainbow cursor balls. And I’m not alone (good call on the Morrissey, guys).
The latest paean to the increasing power of online graphics, text and symbols is the fascinating Tumblr “Screenshots of Despair,” a site which catalogues and re-contextualizes the sometimes inadvertently depressing images we see online, along the lines of “No one likes this” or “Are you still there?”
Inspired by New York Times columnist Rob Walker’s “Gallery of Anonymous Internet Avatars”, Screenshots of Despair creator Josh Kimball views the project as an attempt to capture the current state of the human condition, “I think the screenshots inspire pangs of real isolation. To me, the best of these screenshots are supposed to be practical social media interface elements, but they read as inadvertent commentary on one’s entire existence.”
Kimball, who is an executive editor at a trends research firm, thinks the site has caught on because it exemplifies dark nerd humor and creates broader commentary on the meaning of digital connectivity. “Everyone has felt these pangs before,” he says.
YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS.
^ See it sort of hurts, don’t it? So chew on that the next time you’re designing one of these screens … And maybe try to phrase things a bit more empathetically?


View the original article here

Read more »

Redpoint eVentures Avoids The “Helicopter VC” Approach In Brazil, Announces New Investment

Anthony Ha is a writer at TechCrunch, where he covers media, advertising, and startups. Previously, he was a staff technology writer at Adweek, worked as a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and was also a reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing.... ? Learn More

Earlier this month, Redpoint Ventures and BV Capital’s eVentures announced the formation of a new, joint firm in Brazil — called, somewhat predictably, Redpoint eVentures. Managing director Yann de Vries and founding partner Anderson Thees were in the Bay Area this week, so I had a quick talk with them about their plans.
Brazil’s startup ecosystem is taking off, but until now, Thees said VC firms have fallen into two camps. On the one hand, you have small, local firms, and on the other hand, you have “helicopter VCs” who have offices in Silicon Valley or elsewhere, and make their investments from afar. Redpoint eVentures, on the other hand, has the resources of an international firm, but Thees is also “Brazilian born and raised,” and both he and de Devries are based out of Sao Paolo.
“We do have a local presence and dedicated partners, but at the same time we do bring a very integrated and a global network,” Thees said.
International firms will probably find the “high-pedigree Brazilians who studied at Stanford or [Harvard Business School] and know the lingo,” De Vries said, but Redpoint eVentures’ local connections will help it find entrepreneurs outside that circle.
He also touched on one aspect of the global strategy that I wasn’t expecting — in addition to connecting Brazilian startups with international partners and customers, the firm is also looking for ideas that it can bring back to Brazil. So if there’s a new product that seems to be taking off in China, and it seems like it would also work in Brazil, Redpoint eVentures might put together a startup to pursue the idea locally.
The firm has announced four investments — Viajanet, Grupo Xango, Shoes 4 You, and 55Social. Thees and de Vries told me they have since made a fifth investment, in yet-to-be-launched jewelry site Sophie & Juliete.

Redpoint Ventures has helped entrepreneurs build innovative businesses that defy convention, shape the future, and change the world. From early investments in industry pioneers like MySpace, Netflix, TiVo, and Juniper to companies such as RightMedia, Zimbra, LifeSize, Danger, Fortinet, and Solyndra – we stand behind our entrepreneurs helping them go all the way to the top. With our deep experience and focus on quality, we offer entrepreneurs a culture and approach that values mutual respect, meaningful relationships, and...
Learn more
BV Capital is an early-stage Venture Capital firm with an investment focus on consumer internet and mobile. With investments within the US, Brazil, Eastern and Western Europe and Asia, BV Capital has a global investment approach, enabling them to leverage their portfolio’s business opportunities internationally. BV Capital traces its history as a team to the early days of the Internet and has occupied a front row seat in the evolution of this dynamic industry ever since. Their US investments include...
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

Why Entrepreneurs Should NOT Buy Homes

Editor’s note: James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing. His latest books are I Was Blind But Now I See and FAQ ME. You can follow him @jaltucher.
Many people have said to me in the past few months, “I’m going to buy a home.” Or, “What do you think of the idea of me buying a home?” Everyone thinks: Well the housing crisis is now over so I should buy a home. They think: It’s probably a good investment. They think: Time to put down “roots”. 
I’ve owned a home. A couple of times. I bought a home once after I sold a business. I then lost that home. I then went almost completely insane trying to sell it. Two things: If you are about to do a startup or if you are in the middle of startup-phase then you definitely can’t afford to waste the time or money to buy a house for reasons I explain below. Second, when you sell your startup — everyone wants to buy a house with the proceeds. Don’t. It’s just part of the American mythology. You know the myth: the white picket fence, the yard, the pool, the walls that you can paint, the keeping up with the Jones family. Just don’t. You’ll go broke. At least, if you are as stupid as me. I might be dumber than most though.
The other story I have of owning a home is still too personal. It’s filled with about as much pain as I can fit onto a page. Oh, I have a third one also from when I was growing up. But I don’t want to upset anyone in my family so I’ll leave it out. Oh, I have a fourth story that I just forgot about until this very second. But enough about me. Let’s get right to it.
There are many reasons to not buy a home: [By the way, I also put this in the category of Advice I want to tell my daughters, including my other article: 10 reasons not to send your kids to college.]
Financial:
A)     Cash Gone. You have to write a big fat check for a down payment. “But its an investment,” you might say to me. Historically this isn’t true. According to Robert Shiller from Yale, in Irrational Exuberance, 2nd edition, inflation-adjusted housing returned 0.4% from 1890 – 2004. And that’s just housing prices. It forgets all the other stuff I’m going to mention below. Suffice to say, when you write that check, you’re never going to see that money again. Because even when you sell the house later you’re just going to take that money and put it into another down payment. So if you buy a $400,000 home, just say goodbye to $100,000 that you worked hard for. You can put a little sign on the front lawn: “$100,000 R.I.P.”
(you might as well set this cash on fire)
Much better for an entrepreneur is to invest in yourself. Take 1/20th of the down payment amount. Start a business. Your investment might go to zero (which it might also do with a house) but it might also go up 10,000%. Eventually, as an entrepreneur, if you are persistent enough, you will get one of those 10,000% returns. And you will be able to be persistent because you didn’t waste all the money and time that a house would’ve cost you.
B)      Closing costs. I forget what they were the last two times I bought a house. But it was about another 2-3% out the window.  Lawyers, title insurance, moving costs, antidepressant medicine, therapy. It adds up. Two- to three-percent. Do you like flushing your money down the toilet? But, people say: isn’t that what you are doing with rent money? Absolutely not. See below.
C)      Maintenance. No matter what, you’re going to fix things. Lots of things. In the lifespan of your house, everything is going to break. Thrice. Get down on your hands and knees and fix it! And then open up your checkbook again. Spend some more money. I rent. My dishwasher doesn’t work. I call the landlord and he fixes it. Or I buy a new one and deduct it from my rent. And some guy from Sears comes and installs it. I do nothing. The Sears repairman and my landlord work for me.
When you are an entrepreneur, two things: A) you need every last dime for your business. Not for your dishwasher. And B) you need every last second for your business. Not for your dishwasher.
D)     Taxes. There’s this myth that you can deduct mortgage payment interest from your taxes. Whatever. That’s a microscopic dot on your tax returns. And guess what, that whole thing about how rent will go up with inflation? Well your property taxes will go up even faster than inflation. So you lose.
E)      You’re trapped. Let’s spell out very clearly why the myth of home ownership became religion in the United States. It’s because corporations didn’t want their employees to have many job choices. So they encouraged them to own homes. So they can’t move away and get new jobs. Job salaries is a function of supply and demand. If you can’t move, then your supply of jobs is low. You can’t argue the reverse, since new adults are always competing with you. That’s one reason for the myth. The other reason is that we have a 15 trillion dollar mortgage industry. That’s a lot of money vested on you believing that owning a home is “the right thing to do”.
And, the benefits of being an entrepreneur is that all choices are open to you. Mobility is not just an option, it’s often a necessity. You aren’t tied down to one factory. The world is your opportunity.
F)      Ugly. Saying “my house is an investment” forgets the fact that a house has all the qualities of the ugliest type of investment:
Illiquidity. You can’t cash out whenever you want.High leverage. You have to borrow a lot of money in most cases.No diversification. For most people, a house is by far the largest part of their portfolio and greatly exceeds the 10% of net worth that any other investment should be.
Investing in yourself is also illiquid. But it involves less money, and allows you more choice. So do that instead.
Personal reasons to not own a house.
A)     Trapped, part 2. Some people like to have roots. But I like things to change every once in a while. Starting March, 2009 I was renting an apartment directly across the street from the New York Stock Exchange. It was fun. I’d look out the window and see Wall Street. How exciting! Before that I lived in The Chelsea Hotel with Chubb Rock. Last year we decided to relax and move a little north. Now I look out the window and see the Hudson River. And it’s quiet and I can walk along the river in the morning with no noise. It took us two weeks to pick a place and move. No hassles. I like to live a hassle-free life.
I’m constantly involved in other activities that I care about and love. What do I want the hassle of owning a home for? What if, god forbid, I want to focus on my next start-up?
(click image for my favorite Chubb Rock video)
B)      Walls. You can’t change the walls when you rent. A lot of people seem to want to tear down walls. Or paint them. Sometimes when you rent you can’t do these things. Well, make sure you have a landlord that lets you tear down walls. There must be some ancient evolutionary tic that makes us want to tear down walls or put nails in them or paint them. I don’t get it. I like the walls to stay right where they are.
C)      Rent. People will argue that the price of the mortgage, maintenance taxes, etc is all baked into the price of rent. Sometimes this is true. But usually not. And often maintenance and taxes will go up faster than your rent.
D)     Psychology. Look at your personal reasons for wanting to own. Do you feel like you can’t accomplish something in life until you own a house? Do you feel like its part of getting married and “Settling down”, i.e. creating a nest for your future children? For you, is it a part of becoming an adult. Is this what your parents taught you? Examine the real reasons you want to own and make sure they are coming from a good spot in your heart.
E)      Your time. Do you really want to spend all that time working on your house? Is this where your time is best spent towards creating a happy and fulfilled life for yourself?
F)      Choices. I feel when I rent I always have the choice to leave. To live wherever  in the world I want whenever I want. Adventure becomes a possibility even if I never take advantage of it.
G)     Stress. For me (not for everyone) owning a home equals stress. I saw what my parents went through at their worst moments owning a home. I saw what I and others went through in the Internet bust when I first owned a home. I saw what people went through in 2008. People were killing themselves. I don’t like that sort of stress. This is how I deal with stress.
H)     Cash is king. I like cash in the bank. I like having access to it.  I don’t like it all tied up in one illiquid investment. I want to fill a bathtub with all the dollar bills I would’ve used as a down payment on a house. I want to bathe in that bathtub. I’m going to do that later today in fact.
By the way, this is going to sound like a contradiction: but I think housing is a great investment right now. I think housing prices have gone down far enough and I can list the reasons why housing as an abstract investment concept is going to go higher from here. Suffice to say there are many stocks/REITs you can buy, with leverage if you want to take advantage of the rise in housing. But those are liquid investments. You can get your money back.
There’s also probably many companies you can build where you will get 10,000% returns where you can take advantage of the rise in housing that is about to occur.
But I’m never going to buy a home again. And sit there in the middle of the night thinking, “Why the hell did I do this to myself again?”


View the original article here

Read more »

Get Rich or Die Trying

Editor’s note:  Contributor Ashkan Karbasfrooshan is the founder and CEO of WatchMojo, he hosts a show on business and has published books on success.  Follow him on Twitter @ashkan.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
President Calvin Coolidge
Determination is critical to success as overnight successes actually take years to build; indeed, “overnight successes” are a myth.
If a Cat has Nine Lives, How Many Does a Startup Have?
In fact, examples of perseverence include:
-          Pandora was nearly bankrupt; today it’s valued at $1.75 billion.
-          A year ago, OMGPOP was nearly dead.  But one hit led to a $200 million exit to Zynga.
-          Angry Bird’s Rovio staved off bankruptcy to become an IPO candidate.
-          Jeff Bezos was lauded and ridiculed early on, but he ignored the haters to make Amazon one of the most valuable brands in the world.
-          Even a large multinational like FEDEX overcame its share of obstacles, legend has it that founder Fred Smith “won enough hands of blackjack in Las Vegas to help meet a payroll.”
-          And last but not least, Apple came back to become the most valuable company.
You’ve Got Hope!
Comebacks aren’t restricted to sports, they happen in business, too.
But does that mean you should put your head in the sand, charge ahead, ignore the critics and warning signs?
It depends.  After all, when you consider that Fab and Groupon pivoted their way to greatness, it begs the question: how do you determine what advice to take when it comes to sticking to your guns or not?
Let’s Remember the Basics
Humans value success, money, power, respect and fame differently.  But ultimately, while simpler things like health and happiness measure our satisfaction, in business the most common standard for success is some kind of liquidity event.
Options vs. Talk
An advisor once told me that entrepreneurs sometimes think they have options with regards to exits when all they have is talk.  It’s thus important to differentiate interest, intent and action with regards to deal-making.
“Wanna Know What I Think?”
“Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.”   Publilius Syrus
While the journey is rewarding to the entrepreneur, it’s the outcome that matters to other stakeholders who will tell you what they think, regardless of whether it makes any sense (or you want to hear it) or not.
Advisors, Consultants, Mentors
Advice can be:
-          Practical, Applicable and Realistic OR Impractical, Inapplicable and Unrealistic
-          Sincere OR Self-serving
-          Relevant OR Irrelevant
-          Stuff you know OR Stuff you don’t know
-          True OR False (only over time do you know if was true or false).
Ultimately, some genuinely like to help others (the “missionaries”) and vicariously live the entrepreneurial dream; others don’t generally root for you unless they have skin in the game (the “mercenaries”).  Each group may have something to offer and teach you, but you may have to incentivize them one way or another; to quote John Doerr: “no conflict, no interest”.
To the mercenary the incentive may be equity; to the missionary, it may be an advisor title.
Advice: The Good, Bad and Ugly
Advice can be good, bad and ugly:
-          Good advice is usually Practical, Applicable and Realistic, though sometimes Impractical, Inapplicable and Unrealistic advice may prove useful, too.
-          Bad advice tends to be wrong, though it comes with good intentions.
-          Ugly advice is self-serving, spiteful and envious.
You really need to weed out those who give you ugly advice.
Bad advice can still be helpful in general ways provided you can find ways to apply and adapt it to your reality and business.
Lessons of Advice Giving/Seeking (file under “obvious, but worth stating”)
Advice is a double-edged sword:
More often than not, when people give you advice, you already know it.People don’t listen, so mastering how you communicate and frame advice is important.Memory is selective: people will retain a portion of what you say.Interpretation is subjective: no matter what you mean, people will understand things in a different way.It never hurts to ask and seek advice, as you’re under no obligation to apply it, but if you don’t implement what someone recommends, they may feel slighted.It’s almost more important what people don’t say than what they do say.You have to ask the right questions, and, hmm… you actually have to let the person answer those questions.Just because people appear to not be listening doesn’t mean they’re not, so be careful what you say; they will hold it against you if it backfires (people like scapegoats).Advice is akin to the falling tree in the forest: information is a valuable asset and creativity is a valuable skill, provided they’re put to use.  Increase your social value by being generous with both.You need confidence and diplomacy to ask and receive advice.  You won’t like most of the advice you’re given and people may be offended by what you have to say.
An entrepreneur’s ability to communicate is an undervalued skill.
So What Do You Do?
But it’s what you do with advice that ultimately matters.
The common denominator in successful businesspeople (executives or entrepreneurs) is knowing when to follow your gut, mind and heart – each one is usually saying something different.
Using the data and applying it to your industry and business is paramount.
Be Realistic
How do you quantify and qualify success?  For example, tech is a zero-sum, winner takes all game.  Despite your traction, maybe you’re fighting a losing battle.  Content isn’t, and most content companies take a long time to become big businesses.  If you can stay in the game, maybe that’s not a bad strategy.
While the grass is greener on the other side, pivoting non-stop to chase the latest fad isn’t a strategy either.  Sometimes it’s the macro backdrop: location hasn’t lived up to the hype, video is underwhelming, and online media remains small.
Be Honest With Yourself
Mainly, be honest with yourself.  You’re the man in the arena, after all. If you’re having fun and are passionate about what you do – and can manage the emotions that come with the highs and lows of entrepreneurship – my advice is persevere even if the definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting a different outcome. Sometimes you don’t need to trade the whole team, you just need to make some mid-game adjustments.  After all, to win the championship, you have to stay in the game and keep it close, for you’re always only a lucky play away from winning.

View the original article here

Read more »

Inside The NewMe Accelerator 2012 Startup House [TCTV]

Colleen Taylor is based in San Francisco where she is a reporter for TechCrunch TV. Previously she worked for GigaOM, where she reported on startups and Silicon Valley. Earlier, Colleen reported for Mergermarket, an online newswire and subsidiary of the Financial Times focused on M&A. Before that, she was a contributing editor for Electronic News, the semiconductor industry trade newsletter. Colleen... ? Learn More


The NewMe Accelerator, a startup incubator program focused on underrepresented minorities in the tech industry, assembles a select group of tech entrepreneurs from all over the United States every year to participate in its 12-week Silicon Valley accelerator. NewMe is a residential program, meaning that the entrepreneurs all live together in a house for three months to brainstorm and hack on their respective projects — “eating, sleeping and drinking our startups,” as NewMe puts it. Along the way, mentors such as Mitch Kapor, Vivek Wadwha, Ben Horowitz and others stop by the NewMe house to provide advice, insight and inspiration.
Sounds pretty intense, right? So of course, we at TechCrunch TV were keen to check it out. At the moment, NewMe is smack in the middle of its 2012 program, so we made a visit to its house in San Francisco to see how things are shaping up so far.
In a word, being at the NewMe house is invigorating: The environment of eight strong entrepreneurs living together is certainly heady, but in a really good way. Everyone at NewMe is psyched about what they’re working on while also being super encouraging and proud of what their fellow founders have built.
In the video embedded above, you can watch NewMe partner Wayne Sutton talk about how the program has grown in recent years, the challenges that face minority entrepreneurs in tech, and much more. You also get an introduction to NewMe’s Class of 2012, and a brief introduction to some of the 7 companies that are being built inside the accelerator.
For a more in-depth look at the NewMe startups, you can watch each founder’s pitch in the video embedded below.
NewMe’s Class of 2012 startups, in the order in which they appear:
AgLocal
Founded by Naithan Jones, it’s a web and mobile marketplace that connects regular consumers with local farms that supply meat.
Butlr
Founded by Andre Gabriel, it’s a social shopping game that lets you buy real-world items with virtual currency.
PictureMenu
Founded by Christopher Lyons, it brings photo-rich restaurant menus to diners’ smartphones, aiming to eliminate paper menus entirely.
Helpr
Founded by Tendekai Muchenje, it allows users to make customer care inquiries through a social media-enabled web app, rather than through the typical telephone help line.
Kairos
Co-founded by Amanda McClure and Brian Brackeen, it has developed a new way for retail companies to report sales data and point-of-sale analytics using facial recognition and augmented reality technology.
Modul.us
Founded by Rachel Brooks, it is a software platform that enables any e-commerce company to allow their customers to customize and live-render products on the web.
Ubi Video
Founded by James Norman, it is a multi-platform video delivery solution that allows users to watch cross-platform video through one portal, and easily discover new things to watch.

NewMe Accelerator is an accelerator for minority led technology start-ups that houses a handful of visiting start-ups in Silicon Valley. NewMe does not invest in its startups, but rather offers support in the form of community. In 2011, the program supported 8 in-house visiting start-ups (five of which were selected, three of which were chosen by the community). It included weekly dinners and mentorship from industry experts, and concluded with Demo Day.
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

Forget Today’s Drama, Dustin Curtis’ Svbtle Is About Pushing Blogging Forward

Eric Eldon is the Editor of TechCrunch. He was previously the cofounder and editor of Inside Network, where he managed publications including Inside Facebook, Inside Social Games and Inside Mobile Apps. Before that, he spent a couple years covering technology and finance at VentureBeat, a leading Silicon Valley publication where he was the first employee. While Inside Network sold... ? Learn More

Widely read designer Dustin Curtis has come up with a new blogging platform called Svbtle, that’s meant to help you take blog posts from ideas to well-presented articles. At first, it looks like a better Tumblr, based on the work he showed off on Thursday. And in fact it looks so good that a couple developers had copied the design within hours, and offered new versions for the world to install.
Which, in turn, sparked a big debate about the rights that creatives have over their work… I’m going to skip over all that because it’s not a new topic, and it misses the point.
Curtis has a plan for this project that ties in the minimalistic admin and public interfaces of the platform with his larger goals as a writer, and possibly as an entrepreneur.
He’s creating an exclusive blog network.
He’s using his clout in design and startup circles to attract other thought leaders who blog, including Dom Leca of the beloved email client Sparrow, and John Collison of payment startup Stripe.
The idea is that the design of the blogging platform should be a vital part of the creative process, that helps some of the best minds in the business refine and present their thoughts. The interface includes a section for brainstorming ideas, and an easy flow for turning them into posts. It removes the array of options, like advanced markup features that you’ll see on WordPress and other established platforms, to focus writers on core ideas.
I got a bit more from Curtis about his plans on Thursday night, before his work got engulfed in a wide-ranging debate in the hacker community.
Svbtle is an experiment. I wrote it for myself; it was only very recently that I decided to build it into more of a platform. My goal is to eventually open it to the public, but I want it to be really good before any kind of official release. Finding only the absolutely essential features that are required for something as complex as blogging takes a lot of work. For something like this, to paraphrase Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the design is finished not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
In the meantime, he’s following a proven strategy for seeding quality.
Until I feel the design and workflows are good enough for a wide release, I’m working on building a private network of extremely well-vetted bloggers. I’m running it with more of a newspaper model than a blogging platform model; I plan to offer copy-editing and other benefits to help improve the writing of members on the Network, for example.
This is key. Lots of professional blogs have little or no copyediting. The network is intended to help writers polish the writing and reading experience, just like the design is.
Because Svbtle is designed from a philosophy that focuses first and foremost on writing and the curation of ideas, and not on social features or personalization, I don’t see much of a chance of competing with Tumblr. I wouldn’t want to, anyway. They’re really good at what they do.
So forget Tumblr. Curtis is trying to scale the type of brand experience that long-time bloggers like Jason Kottke and John Gruber have captured. People who read Daring Fireball aren’t just on the site because they also love Apple stuff. They also identify with the the clean feel, the form-plus-function design principles that Apple embodies, that Gruber writes about.
And, indeed, Kottke.org and Daring Fireball show how Curtis could turn his platform into a business. Both use The Deck, the self-described “ad network of creative, web and design culture.” Its business is running quality, non-intrusive ads alongside the words of thought leaders. Here’s how Curtis responded when I made the comparison:
If the Svbtle Network works as well as I hope, there is nothing stopping me from building an exclusive ad network similar to The Deck. I haven’t really thought about it, but that would almost definitely be the best way to monetize this platform.
Innovation, as many of Curtis’ critics have been proclaiming, is about everybody taking a creator’s work and building on top of it. That’s exactly what Curtis is doing. He didn’t invent the first blog platform, and he isn’t building the first blog network that the world has seen. But he is taking the best elements of all the work that has come before, and building a new brand — the sort of thing that could prove quite defensible regardless of who scrapes the words or copies the design.


View the original article here

Read more »

FCC Documents Show Sony Chromebook, Potentially Running On ARM

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. ? Learn More

Google’s Chromebooks haven’t exactly made a splash, but apparently not everyone has been scared off. Sony seems to think there’s gold in them thar laptops, and they’re making their own. For now it’s known as the VCC111 (probably shorthand for “Vaio Chromebook Computer, series one, 11-inch display”), according to documents and pictures from FCC testing.
The understated look continues with these Vaio Chromebooks, even as far as what appears to be a matte black unbranded shell. A white version is also shown in the test setup photos. But the most interesting thing is the processor, which is listed simply as T25, and may in fact be Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chip by that name. An ARM laptop? Hey, if Microsoft can do it, why not Google and Sony?

At 1.2GHz, with 2GB of RAM and a few of the other usual fixings, it isn’t a stunner spec-wise, but that’s kind of the point. It’s a tastefully-designed netbook designed to boot fast and get on the internet. It isn’t an ultrabook or work laptop or what have you. So it should fulfill that purpose admirably, and sell well below $500 to boot.
Release date is unclear, but they filed a confidentiality request for 180 days after August 15, 2011, so this unit has been around for a while — but they probably weren’t planning a release until at least 2012, judging by their request to keep the external photos secret for half a year.
Perhaps they’re waiting for Google I/O? Seems a bit of a long wait to release something that was more or less ready late last year. Hopefully we’ll see an official announcement soon and get our hands on the device for some real-world testing.
[via Laptop Reviews]

View the original article here

Read more »

Women, Tech, And Tone

Jon Evans is a novelist, journalist, and software engineer. His novels have been published around the world, translated into several languages, and praised by The Times, The Economist, and the Washington Post. His journalism has appeared in Wired, Reader’s Digest, The Guardian, The Globe & Mail, and The Times of India, and he writes a weekly column for TechCrunch.... ? Learn More

Earlier this week a startup named Geeklist was called out on Twitter for a promotional video which apparently featured a woman dancing around in her underwear. (I say “apparently” because the video has since been made private.) The Geeklist founders acknowledged that this was problematic — and then, inexplicably, they went right off the rails.
Click through that link to see some jawdropping bad judgement; they responded to the woman who complained by Twitter-cc’ing her employer(!) while calling on her to “take it offline” and explaining they “weren’t cool with the angry tone.” While their own haughty tone, of course, was perfectly acceptable…
At which the geekosphere erupted. This will be an interesting test of “no such thing as bad publicity”; I’d never heard of these guys before, and based on the available evidence hopefully never will again, but suddenly they were all over my Twitter feed, in a context of furious condemnation. Best of all was the darkly amusing bug report filed by Coda Hale, which, alas, has since been deleted. Thankfully, somebody managed to screen-shot it.
In the end, Geeklist apologized, more or less. End of story, right? Weird hyperoverreaction, public rage and shaming, concession and apology. Well, if you consider their apology an apology — and a lot of people don’t –

"We apologize as well *if* our handling of the tweets offended anyone"? Whaddya mean, "if", guys?! Classic fauxpology. gklst.tumblr.com/post/197346209…—
Kagan MacTane (@kmactane) March 22, 2012

Repeat after me:
“I’m sorry you were offended” is not an apology. The words you’re looking for are: “I’m sorry I offended you.”—
Faruk Ates (@KuraFire) March 22, 2012

I’m still baffled by why Geeklist’s founders went berserk in the first place. Baffled, but not surprised; a co-founder of a startup I mentioned in a recent TC post responded with a similarly bizarre and erratic (although, to his credit, not actually insulting, so I won’t link to it) Twitter rant. Have these guys never been criticized before? Are they so deluded and entitled that they think the slightest hint of disapproval gives them license to break out the flamethrower? Does everyone out there need online skin-thickening training?
More important, though, is the demonstration that sexism in tech is an ongoing trend rather than an occasional aberration.

Dear tech guys getting called out on sexism: It's not (just) that you need to tweak word choice or reduce nakedness in your ads.—
erin kissane (@kissane) March 22, 2012

It means you need to rethink the toxic culture that made those choices possible.—
erin kissane (@kissane) March 22, 2012

I like to think — in fact, I genuinely believe — that the tech world, despite the fact that socially awkward young men are currently massively overrepresented in its ranks, generally wants to be helpful and welcoming. And believe me, it could be worse; a friend of mine is an NYPD cop, and she reports that the entrenched sexism there makes Silicon Valley seem like Utopia.
But it’s hard to argue that things are getting better. “This industry is one of subtle sexism. I almost prefer outright sexism, because at least that you can point out.” It was especially disheartening to see a claim that the Hacker News community was flagging and downvoting posts about the Geeklist controversy; to quote that discussion, ‘Did you really just say “HNers aren’t ostriches, they just don’t want to talk about sexism”?’
Similarly, I expect comments on this post complaining that it isn’t appropriate for TechCrunch. Unfortunately, subtly but systematically excluding a huge pool of capable people from the tech community is a very large tech problem indeed, and all the ostriching and fauxpologizing in the world won’t help to solve it.
Image credit: Ostrich, by David Lewis, on Flickr.

View the original article here

Read more »

6waves Lolapps’ CTO Rue and Chief Product Officer Sethi Step Down

Kim-Mai Cutler is a technology journalist who has worked for Bloomberg, VentureBeat and The Wall Street Journal. Before she joined TechCrunch, she led mobile coverage at Inside Network, a six-person media startup that was acquired by WebMediaBrands in 2011 for $14 million in cash and stock. She specializes in covering gaming, distribution and monetization of mobile applications and venture... ? Learn More

Just a few days after social gaming company 6waves Lolapps said it was laying off most of its development staff to focus on publishing, its chief product officer Arjun Sethi and chief technology officer Brian Rue have stepped down.
6waves Lolapps was born last July out of a merger between a Facebook game developer Lolapps and a publisher 6waves. The publisher had been instrumental to the success of Lolapps’ hit Ravenwood Fair, which was considered one of the best games on the platform in late 2010 and early last year.
Clearly, the merger didn’t work exactly as intended. But with the deal, 6waves Lolapps picked up some valuable technology that helped boost revenue per day from players across the publisher’s network of titles. Sethi said his resignation after more than four years at the company was planned ahead of the layoffs.
“After more than four amazing years with Lolapps, I find it so hard to say goodbye to the team and to the impressive products that we’ve built together,” he said in a statement on his personal blog.
After joining Lolapps as its chief executive, Sethi saw the company transition from simple, very viral quiz apps in the early days of the Facebook platform when distribution was easy to more intensive games like Ravenwood Fair, which was like a mix between Frontierville and a business sim game.
Rue added in his own blog post: “It’s been a crazy ride of ups and downs and it feels very strange that it’s come to an end. I’m proud of the culture that we built, and it was especially evident this week as suddenly-former employees banded together to commiserate and find new companies to call home.
Up until recently, it looked like 6waves Lolapps was going to be a dual publisher and developer. After the two companies merged, they raised about $35 million in funding from Insight Venture Partners and South Korean gaming giant Nexon. Not long after that, the company ponied up to buy a developer in China called Smartron5 and a mobile development team through a deal to buy Escalation Studios.
Sethi hasn’t planned his next move yet. Going forward, 6waves Lolapps will focus on publishing. Its existing titles will continue to work and 6waves Lolapps is looking for a third-party team to service them.
The titles that were still in development including Ravenshire Castle will still come out. Sethi and one of Lolapps’ original co-founders Kavin Stewart will personally fund a spin-off to make that happen.
All in all, the layoffs are just another sign of how challenging the environment is for gaming companies on Facebook. It’s a very bittersweet week that underscores just how fickle the gaming industry week is with OMGPOP’s stellar turnaround and sale to Zynga and 6waves Lolapps’ sad layoffs.

6waves Lolapps is the result of the merger of social gaming companies 6waves and Lolapps. The two companies continue to function independently.
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

Pinterest Updates Terms Of Service As It Preps An API And Private Pinboards: More Copyright Friendly

Ingrid is a reporter for TechCrunch, joining February 2012, based out of London. She comes from paidContent.org, where she was a staff writer, and has in the past also written freelance regularly for other publications such as the Financial Times. Ingrid covers mobile, digital media, advertising and the spaces where these intersect. When it comes to work, she feels most... ? Learn More

Pinterest is growing up fast: just last week the image-based social network rolled out redesigned profile pages, and now it’s following that up with an updated Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy and Privacy Policy that sharpen how the company interfaces on a number of commercial points, as it rides its wave and rapidly reaches and passes 12 million users.
“We think that the updated Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy are easier to understand and better reflect the direction our company is headed in the future,” CEO Ben Silbermann wrote in an email late on March 23 to Pinterest users informing them of the changes, due to take effect on April 6. From the looks of it, that future direction involves not just more private experiences on Pinterest but also stronger push to get Pinterest working in a whole lot more places, and with a whole lot more partners.
The new terms put a much stronger emphasis on how Pinterest can commercially use the information you post on the site. Specifically, Cold Brew Labs (owner of Pinterest) says it is changing its terms to spell out that Pinterest does not have the right to sell your content — something it says it never intended to do in the first place.
“Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for us to sell your content,” Silbermann writes. “Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms.”
Conversely, users are not allowed to use the site for commercial purposes, either. “We grant you a license to use the Service, including accessing and viewing Pinterest Content, for your personal, noncommercial use to allow you to express yourself, discuss public issues, report on issues of public concern, engage in parody and as expressly permitted by the features of the Service.”
And speaking to all the controversy around the use of copyrighted material that has surrounded how Pinterest users pin copyrighted content — raised by Flickr but also touching rights owners like Getty — the site says it now has “simpler” tools to make it easier to report infringements on copyrighted or trademarked content.
But while it looks like it might be getting easier to report infringements, it appears that it will still be up to Pinterest to approve whatever changes need to take place as a result. Given that at the moment over 80 percent of content is re-pinned rather than original content, it’s not likely that this will be the last we hear of the intersection of Pinterest and content infringements.
The company also gave more indication of what products might be on the horizon. Silbermann writes that across all of its revised terms the company has “added language that will pave the way for new features that include a Pinterest API as well as Private Pinboards.”
The Pinterest API will likely bring more of the functionality of Pinterest out of the site, but also make it easier for users to pin content to Pinterest from other places. But Pinterest content, of course, is already being used on third-party sites, and in some cases for commercial gain by those doing the integration. (We wrote only yesterday about the social marketing company Vitrue, which offers a product to its clients to port Pinterest content to its Facebook brand pages. It’s doing the same with Instagram.)
Another key area of change, and one that Pinterest really had to address as it continues hone its credibility as it continues to grow, is that it is now formally no longer allowing pins that “explicitly encourage self-harm or self-abuse.” Silbermann writes that these revisions were devised partly in response to user feedback — or in his words, “help from our community”. One wonders how much its 80-percent-female user base played a part in this change.

Pinterest is a social networking site with a visually-pleasing “virtual pinboard” interface. Users collect photos and link to products they love, creating their own pinboards and following the pinboards of other people whom they find interesting. The site is currently invite-only, and it has experienced rapid growth in recent months.
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

Why IT Professionals Aren’t Monogamous

Editor’s Note: Alexander Haislip is a marketing executive with cloud-based server automation startup ScaleXtreme and the author of Essentials of Venture Capital. Follow him on Twitter @ahaislip.
Pity the enterprise software conglomerate, its salespeople abandoned at the altar, its customers fleeing from committed relationships. Shed a tear for the server maker, no longer able to lock-in long-term sales, support and service engagements. Their customers are cheating on them with sexy new startups.
Today’s IT professionals are veritable libertines, swapping services and systems around like priapismic satyrs at a techno-bacchanal. What’s worse: management condones this kind of behavior by pouring even more money into IT budgets.
I blame easy-on SaaS-ified software, give-it-away mobile apps and no-commitment cloud infrastructure. They’ve seduced IT professionals with their breezy bohemian attitudes. They’ve undercut the high moral fiber that the established enterprise vendors have long embodied vis-à-vis mutual commitment  and connubial sales agreements.
Aspersions, I cast them:
Software-as-a-Service
We’re fortunate that this nasty bit of business hasn’t penetrated every aspect of enterprise IT. Its lascivious invitation to IT professionals simply could not be more direct: “pay-as-you-go.” How such a slatternly proposition goes unchecked by the authorities, I know not.
And the companies engaged in Software-as-a-Service do so without the proper courtship rituals of a well-trained enterprise sales team. It used to be accepted that IT professionals could expect months of meetings, calls and presentations before getting down to business. Yet these Software-as-a-Service companies fully embrace the concept of Quicumque vult, conducting their business with whomsoever should encounter their website.
And the awful acronymization! Oh, how they do pronounce it. “SaaS.” As though referring to an unmentionable anatomic. Insouciant connotations might have been nipped in the bud by simply rhyming the acronym with “face” or “bouillabaisse.” Surely a cunning linguist might have avoided such a gouache double entendre. Meditate on that, Mr. Benioff!
Mobile Apps
“Why buy the suite when you can get the app for free?” I found myself mortified upon overhearing this utterance escape the lips of a technology executive. But this is the reality of the modern situation.
App-makers run rantipole throughout the tech industry, offering quick and easy access to functionality previously reserved for serious software suites. These houri slyphs, by denting their relationship with the wireless carriers, entice users with an experience delivered “right to the palm of their hand,” as though enjoining them to some sort of digital onanism.
Cloud Computing
When you buy a server, you make a commitment to have and to hold that machine until death do you part. How is that not clear?
I blame virtualization vendors for encouraging people to think of “instances.” It is one thing to keep these dalliances confined within the enterprise, where they may be embraced as a healthy form of digital role-playing. I’m told that there are even illustrated examples of setting up virtualization scenarios such as the “eager applicant” and “naughty nurse,” in that excellent reference book The Joy of Server Administration.
But to extend virtualization to a shared computing infrastructure where servers are swapped around willy-nilly just isn’t right. It’s a digital version of the Kerista Commune, a constant key party of computing.
A Public Confession
I abhor the moral decline in information technology driven by these new movements. I have seen first-hand how they destroy committed, long-term relationships between enterprise software conglomerates and their customers. Sure, there were rocky moments between the betrothed—the service pack, the bug fixes, the integration and training consulting—but leaving was never an option under the old agreement. When you tied the knot with a vendor, you couldn’t just unwind it.
Yet times change.
I’m not proud of it, but I have contributed to the decline. My company’s server automation products are delivered as a service and available online. Our mobile app is free to use—even in public. And worst of all, we empower IT professionals to try cloud computing for the first time. I blush just to think of it.
I know what we’re doing entices IT professionals; good people who have already promised their budgets to legacy software conglomerates. I don’t want them to abandon their long-standing commitments, even if their love has cooled. I just want to make our customers happy. Is that so wrong?
At least we’re honest about who we are. It’s not an “A,” but our logo does feature a scarlet letter.

ScaleXtreme Delivers Server Automation for the Distributed Datacenter. ScaleXtreme provides powerful, cloud-based server automation products for the modern distributed datacenter. Built from the ground up to be simple, scalable and social, ScaleXtreme gives customers a unified automation platform to build and control physical, virtual and public cloud servers.
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

Instagram Unveils A Sign-Up Page For Android Users, Still No Launch Date

Anthony Ha is a writer at TechCrunch, where he covers media, advertising, and startups. Previously, he was a staff technology writer at Adweek, worked as a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and was also a reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing.... ? Learn More

Instagram has been iPhone-only for so long, and its executives have been so coy about their plans for other platforms, that it can be hard to believe the company will ever release an app for Android. And no, it still hasn’t announced a launch date, but if you’re an Android owner who wants the app, you should go to this page and sign up right now.
Earlier this month, when TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis interviewed co-founder Kevin Systrom at South by Southwest, he teased the audience by waving around the Android app on-stage. Apparently it wasn’t ready for a real demo, but he claimed that “in some ways, it’s better than our iOS app.”
During the Q&A, Systrom also said the app already has more than 27 million registered users. In other words, Instagram is growing at a crazy clip on the iPhone alone, thank you very much.
The new Android sign-up page has literally zero information to add. It just asks, “Want to be first in line for Instagram on Android?” and lets users enter their email address. Still, it’s a sign that the company wants to start building up the Android excitement. And if you sign-up, you’ll probably hear about the app before I do.
[via TheNextWeb]

Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows users to take photos, apply a filter, and share it on the service or a variety of other social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr , Foursquare and Posterous.[2] The application is compatible with any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 3.1.2 or above. Instagram, in an homage to both the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, confines photos into a square shape. This is in contrast to the...
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »

Gillmor Gang: Resisting the Obvious

Steve Gillmor is a technology commentator, editor, and producer in the enterprise technology space. He is Head of Technical Media Strategy at salesforce.com and a TechCrunch contributing editor. Gillmor previously worked with leading musical artists including Paul Butterfield, David Sanborn, and members of The Band after an early career as a record producer and filmmaker with Columbia Records’ Firesign Theatre.... ? Learn More

The Gillmor Gang — Dan Farber, Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — welcomed CBS News Online editor in chief Dan Farber back to the West Coast and the comfort of the Gang clubhouse. Dan was one of the Gang’s earliest members, gracing the IT Conversations podcast number 2 or 3 or so. Now, as the Web gets overrun by a sea of apps, as @scobleizer autofilters the firehose in realtime, as we go 15 minutes before we realize @jtaschek hasn’t moved a muscle (locked up), as the networks desperately stonewall live to iPad, the Gang feels like fun.
I’ve been saying Office is dead for years; it’s blindingly obvious. I like Word, using it to write this post. As we point out, collaboration is almost here as Redmond copies Google and the Sinofski fans in the chat room say social is coming in Office 15. But social is already here, and it’s going to be hard to sell the inevitability of cloud just when it’s already so obvious. I’ve kept the pro-Salesforce chatter (cough) at a low boil for as long as I can. See you on the funway.
@stevegillmor, @dbfarber, @stevegillmor, @jtaschek, @kevinmarks
Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

Dan Farber was named Editor-in-Chief of CBSNews.com in Dec. 2008. Prior to CBS News he was Editor-in-Chief of CNET’s News.com in February 2008. Previously he was vice-president of editorial at CNET Networks and editor in chief of ZDNet. Dan has more than 25 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. He joined ZDNet in 1996, and led the development of ZDNet’s worldwide network of more than 70 technology-focused sites. Prior to joining ZDNet, Dan served...
Learn more
Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. He is best known for his popular blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. Scoble joined Microsoft in 2003, and although he often promoted Microsoft products like Tablet PCs and Windows Vista, he also frequently criticized his own employer and praised its competitors like Apple and Google. Scoble is the author of Naked Conversations, a book on how blogs are changing...
Learn more
Kevin Marks is a software engineer. Kevin served as an evangelist for OpenSocial and as a software engineer at Google. In June 2009 he announced his resignation. From September 2003 to January 2007 he was Principal Engineer at Technorati responsible for the spiders that make sense of the web and track millions of blogs daily. He has been inventing and innovating for over 17 years in emerging technologies where people, media and computers meet. Before joining Technorati,...
Learn more
John Taschek is vice president of strategy at salesforce.com. He is responsible for corporate product strategy, corporate intelligence and market influence. Taschek came to company in 2003, bringing over 20 years of technology evaluation experience. Taschek currently is also the editorial director for CloudBlog - an independent blog run as an adjunct to salesforce.com’s web properties. He occasionally is on Steve Gillmor’s The Gillmor Gang enterprise web video-cast. Previously, Taschek ran the testing labs at eWEEK (formerly PC Week) magazine....
Learn more
View the original article here

Read more »