The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Divorce in the Age of Twitter
- Thanksgiving Day Online Holiday Sales Up 39 Percent; Mobile Shopping On The Rise
- Engagor: Yet Another Social Media Management Tool, Or A Better One?
- Verizon Teases The Internet With $199 Galaxy Nexus
- Amazon Reveals Cyber Monday Deals: Xbox 360 For $199, Nokia N8 For $299
- Walgreens Launches Scannable Mobile Coupons Today
- ‘The Millionaire Matchmaker’ Meets Silicon Valley: WePay CEO Looks For Love On Reality TV
- The Roundabout Tapes – RjDj Plans To Game Reality With Sound [TCTV]
- Apple’s Black Friday Deals Go Live: Up To $61 Off On iPad 2, $101 Off On Macs
- LuvBook S: Japan Gets Super-Cute “Hello Kitty” Laptop
- Yandex To Become Default Search Engine On Windows Phone In Russia
- Why Haven’t We Seen A Rollup Yet in Online Video?
- Nobody Wants To Feel Like They’re Obsolete
- FlyScreen Launches An iOS 5-Like Lockscreen API For Android
- Google+ Gets A Thanksgiving Day TV Ad: “Sharing, But Like Real Life”
- Chrome Getting Native Gamepad, Webcam, And WebRTC Support In Early 2012
- 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Laptops Are A Geek’s Best Friend
- Dream Come True: Ice Cream Sandwich Comes To The HTC G1, Unofficially
- How To Be The Best Entrepreneur In The World
- How HowToWeb Ignited Bucharest And Central Europe
| Posted: 25 Nov 2011 08:31 AM PST  Editor’s note: Guest contributor Miles Beckett is the CEO and and co-Founder f EQAL, the media company that builds influencer networks around celebrities and brands. He was the co-creator of the original web video series lonelygirl15, and was previously a medical doctor. Divorce. It happens to the best of us. As emotionally heart wrenching as it can be, it's even worse now that we're living out our lives on the public stages of Facebook, Twitter and the like. If the recent very public separation of Ashton and Demi is any indication, it's only going to get worse. As a former physician, current internet entrepreneur, and ever-curious observer of the human condition, I'm fascinated by how the internet is broadly shaping our culture, and the day-to-day implications this has on our interpersonal relationships. It used to be simple, our public lives and private lives were distinctly separated by physical boundaries. It was really hard to bring public attention to our relationship status in the days before iPhones, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and most of us didn't need to think about our "public image", nor did many people care. The closest historical analogues to Facebook and Twitter were the society pages in newspapers around the country, but those were only available to an elite class more comfortable with the concept of maintaining a carefully constructed public image. Now we all have the ability to broadcast our lives, but many of us aren't equipped with the tools to handle it. It's no surprise that there is a national fascination with celebrity relationships. Just as with every other aspect of their lives, their marriages and divorces are a reflection of ours, and now more than ever we can learn from their successes and failures. Like a giant tripping and falling with a massive BOOM!, when a celebrity makes a mistake on Twitter they crash and burn harder than us "regular people." Ashton and Demi provide a lesson for all of us, both their successes as early adopters of the medium, and their more recent breakdowns. I've learned a lot of lessons about how to navigate a celebrity brand through both positive and negative PR. I've also spent some time talking to everyday, non-famous people about how they managed their personal brand during their divorce. There used to be another layer of privacy, but now relationships can become very public very quickly. I found that everyone from my next door neighbor to a veteran entertainment publicist agree that we must now control our urges to make the private public unless we are prepared to live with the consequences. With this in mind, here are my "Do's" and "Don'ts" for managing your relationship, separation or divorce while living in the public eye: Do
Don't
Bottom line: Pause and think before you Tweet. Image credit: Shutterstock/Teerasak
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| Thanksgiving Day Online Holiday Sales Up 39 Percent; Mobile Shopping On The Rise Posted: 25 Nov 2011 07:18 AM PST  As we heard a few weeks ago, retailers were expecting Thanksgiving Day to be a major online shopping day as more and more consumers are hitting their laptops, tablets and more to get a head start on sales in between Turkey time. It looks like early results point to the day being a profitable one for retailers. According to IBM’s Coremetrics retail data, online Thanksgiving 2011 sales were up 39 percent over Thanksgiving 2010. Mobile shopping also had a break out day on Turkey Day. The number of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site reached a high of 15.2 percent, up from 6.45 percent in 2010. The number of consumers using their mobile device to make a purchase increased to 11.09 percent, up from 4.25 percent in 2010. The success of online and mobile sales on Thanksgiving is a good signs for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales as well. As eBay predicts, 'couch commerce,' will be huge this year. Basically, consumers will be using their tablets and mobile phones from the comfort of their couches to shop this holiday shopping season. It looks like eBay may have been on to an important trend this season. comScore is expecting a 15 percent increase in overall online spending during the November-December season; and already online sales are up 14 percent.
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| Engagor: Yet Another Social Media Management Tool, Or A Better One? Posted: 25 Nov 2011 06:56 AM PST  There’s certainly no shortage of social media monitoring and analytics service providers out there, with companies like Radian6, Visible Technologies, Sysomos, Socialbakers and Buddy Media among those who get most of the attention. But the market remains young, and there are lots of opportunities for small startups still. This morning, I sat down with Folke Lemaitre, co-founder and CEO of Engagor, to see how their offering stacks up against that of its competitors. A bootstrapped startup, Engagor has managed to deliver a product that can definitely compete on features, pricing and overall user experience. In essence, Engagor enables organizations to monitor and analyze what’s being said about their company, brand(s), competitors and whatnot on social networks, news sites, blogs and forums. Apart from tracking what’s being said across social media services, the Engagor platform also enables individuals and teams to respond to and engage with the people who are saying it. The product is designed to cater to multiple people within an organization handling consumer outreach and support, enabling them to assign tasks, tag conversations, perform sentiment analysis and identify influencers across demographics, and publish across multiple networks and profiles. Engagor serves companies of all sizes, but currently its pricing suits medium-sized and large enterprises best. Lemaitre tells me there will be more options for small businesses to make use of Engagor’s platform at a reasonable price in the near future. Also in the works: platform enhancements that will enable companies to identify and proactively reach out to potential customers using a wide variety of social media services. All in all, Engagor is a very powerful, well-designed online software suite for monitoring conversations across social networks, and a useful tool for companies to take part in online conversations. Lemaitre says they’re already cashflow profitable and looking for seed funding to accelerate growth. There’s a 10-day free trial if you’d like to try out the service, but if you sign up here and put “TECHCRUNCH” in the ‘message’ field you’ll get a full month free of charge.
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| Verizon Teases The Internet With $199 Galaxy Nexus Posted: 25 Nov 2011 06:47 AM PST  No, this isn’t a turkey-induced hallucination: ads for Verizon’s LTE-capable Galaxy Nexus have begun to pop up on a number of Android fan sites, and they clearly state that Samsung and Google’s latest joint effort will retail for $199. AndroidPolice notes that the ads are being run by a company called NetShelter, an ad network who coordinates these sorts of marketing efforts directly with carriers and manufacturers. The ad certainly looks legitimate, but it may not have been ready for prime time: clicking the Learn More button takes users to Verizon’s holiday landing page where the Galaxy Nexus is conspicuously absent. Also absent is any solid information on a release date: part of the ad’s URL hints at a November 29 launch, but a recently leaked Verizon document points to a December 8 release alongside the Droid 4. Nearly all of Verizon’s recent 4G-friendly heavyweights have hit store shelves at $299 (barring a few great promos), so seeing the Galaxy Nexus undercut the competition by $100 is a bit of a shock. That price tag could be part of a holiday promotion meant to drive units into people’s hands, but I certainly hope not. Discounting a long-awaited device after it launches is one thing, but potentially launching a device with a lower price tag only to raise it later may not sit well with people. Even so, my wallet just let out a sigh of relief. If that price tag holds true (and my fingers are crossed as I write this), then Apple’s line of iPhones may see some strong competition in the next few weeks.
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| Amazon Reveals Cyber Monday Deals: Xbox 360 For $199, Nokia N8 For $299 Posted: 25 Nov 2011 06:18 AM PST  It’s Black Friday in the United States, but Amazon this morning revealed a couple of deals that it will be running from Cyber Monday and/or the next few days (specifically, starting at midnight on Sunday, November 27, through the end of next week). The company is selling a $79 Kindle, a $99 Kindle Touch, a $149 Kindle Touch 3G and a $199 Kindle Fire – and reiterates that the latter device is “currently the best-selling item across all of Amazon”. Good thing they’re prepared for the rush. Also see: Apple's Black Friday Deals Go Live: Up To $61 Off On iPad 2, $101 Off On Macs On Cyber Monday, Amazon says it will also introduce new deals on other popular products, and the company was kind enough to offer a ‘sneak peek’ at some of the deals you can expect. Those that I assume will interest you the most are listed below:
Amazon says last year’s Cyber Monday was its absolute peak day last year, with more than 13.7 million items ordered worldwide (or 158 items per second). Note that there are other gadgets that we think you should look for on Black Friday.
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| Walgreens Launches Scannable Mobile Coupons Today Posted: 25 Nov 2011 05:00 AM PST  Starting today, on the retail shopping holiday known as Black Friday here in the U.S., Walgreens will begin rolling out its new scannable mobile coupons which work at its over 7,700 stores nationwide. The coupons are being made available in the Walgreens mobile applications and to use them, you simply show your phone at checkout where it will be scanned by the cashier. You’ll find the coupons in a special section within the mobile application where you’re also able to sign up for SMS-based alerts. Shoppers can also use the mobile app to view the weekly ad and sales, shop directly from their phone, browse products, check availability, scan barcodes, manage prescriptions and receive text alerts about Walgreens’ offers and exclusive deals. Walgreens says the coupons will be available through December 24th, but details regarding its post-holiday mobile couponing plans are not yet available. The Deerfield, Ill.-based company has 7,786 locations across all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, making this initiative one of the largest retail mobile couponing programs in the country. The Walgreens mobile app is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
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| ‘The Millionaire Matchmaker’ Meets Silicon Valley: WePay CEO Looks For Love On Reality TV Posted: 25 Nov 2011 04:01 AM PST  Dude I know this happened a month ago but I’ve been staying at my parents’ now for three days and we’ve already had the “You should start thinking seriously about your relationships” conversation because I will soon be no longer in my twenties and if I don’t get married asap I will be sent to the glue factory. So it’s still relevant. Ugh, society totally pressures you to find a life partner, even if you’re a dorky/crazy workaholic and can’t ever see yourself settling down BECAUSE what if when you did, the kid came out all Asperger’s? Because you are clearly on the spectrum and whoever your partner is would totally be on that level too, hypothetically. Which is why I give mad props to WePay’s Bill Clerico, for stepping outside our tech nerd echo chamber and heading to Hollywood to find love, as a guest on Patti Stanger’s reality TV show, “The Millionaire Matchmaker.“ Deemed “better looking than Mark Zuckerberg,” Clerico tries out “fishing in a different pond,” telling Stanger, “My life and work are very closely intertwined” — Used that exact quote earlier tonight, no kidding. Stanger drops some wisdom, namely “Nerds with sex appeal = husband,” which, coupled with Jenny McCarthy’s line (yes she’s in there too), “If they’re not overweight then there’s hope,” pretty much should be your dating philosophy, single ladies. In high school my favorite joke was, “Q: What do you call a nerd in ten years? A: Boss.” Also, Honey. The whole thing is worth watching, for how achingly human everybody is and how much of a sport Clerico (who I’ve loved ever since he gave me a ride home from Startup Soccer) proves to be — especially when artificially surrounded by a bunch of millionaire-seeking missiles in bikinis. Also: WePay is also trying to buy Yahoo, or raise money for clean water — You can help them out here. Via: WESLEY ZHAO
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| The Roundabout Tapes – RjDj Plans To Game Reality With Sound [TCTV] Posted: 25 Nov 2011 03:22 AM PST  RjDj’s Michael Breidenbruecker, also a Founder last.fm, has certainly opened up the avenues for sound apps on mobile platforms. The startup’s apps have become platforms for musicians, but are gradually evolving into augmented reality mobile apps. Most recently the company partnered with screenwriter Christopher Nolan on Inception: The App, which reached 4 million downloads. The amount of “dreamtime” (time spent listening to the app ) was over 94 years. The average listening time per session is over 30 minutes. This was not your average app!
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| Apple’s Black Friday Deals Go Live: Up To $61 Off On iPad 2, $101 Off On Macs Posted: 25 Nov 2011 02:47 AM PST  I’m not convinced these are discounts you’ve really been ‘waiting 364 days for’, but Apple’s Black Friday deals have gone live this morning. The prices leaked earlier, but hey. If you were looking at buying a new Mac, iPod or the latest iPad, now’s the time, even if the discounts aren’t really that big in terms of percentages. You can also save some cash on a bunch of accessories, ranging from peripherals to iPad Smart Covers and even iTunes Gift Cards. The iPhone gets no Black Friday love. No worries: there are other gadgets that we think you should look for on Black Friday. Third-party offerings are also on display on Apple’s site, with some interesting deals: Jawbone’s JAMBOX can be bought for $148 instead of $199.95 (a $51.95 discount) and the lovely Parrot AR.Drone is available for purchase at a price of $248 instead of $299.95 (also a $51.95 cut). Here’s a limited list of promotions Apple is running today (and today only): iPad 2 $41 off on 16GB — ($458 instead of $499) iPod touch $21 off on 8GB — ($178 instead of $199) MacBook Air $101 off on all models: 11-inch, 64GB — ($898 instead of $999) MacBook Pro $101 off on all models: 13-inch, 2.4 GHz — ($1,098 instead of $1,199)
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| LuvBook S: Japan Gets Super-Cute “Hello Kitty” Laptop Posted: 25 Nov 2011 01:36 AM PST  We have covered the one or the other Hello Kitty gadget in the past, but it’s been a while since the last notebook featuring the popular cartoon cat. But now Japan’s Mouse Computer is selling the so-called LuvBook S, [JP], an 11.6-inch laptop with Hello Kitty all over it. It has been co-developed with Hello Kitty maker Sanrio and luxury goods maker Swarovski. Swarovski designed the body of the laptop (the Hello Kitty face and heart you see below is made of about 1,100 Swarovski stones): These are the three different wall papers buyers can expect: Screensaver and box: Spec-wise, the LuvBook S features an 11.6-inch LCD with 1,366×768, an Intel Core i3-2330M CPU (2.20GHz), a 500GB HDD, 4GB memory, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0+HS, a 1.3MP web cam, a USB 3.0 slot, two USB 2.0 slots, an SD card interface, and an HDMI port. The LuvBook S runs on Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit/SP1). Mouse Computer has already started selling the device in Japan (price: US$900). Visit specialized sites like the Japan Trend Shop or Flutterscape if you really want to get one shipped outside Japan.
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| Yandex To Become Default Search Engine On Windows Phone In Russia Posted: 24 Nov 2011 11:27 PM PST  Yandex, the Russian online search and advertising giant, has teamed up with Microsoft, Nokia, HTC and Samsung to become the default search engine on the latest – and upcoming – Windows Phone smartphones in Russia. Yandex's search engine is currently installed on Samsung’s Оmnia W, which is already on sale in Russia, as well as on Nokia's Windows Phone-powered Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 smartphones, which will hit stores in December. Following the launch of Windows Phone-based Titan, Mozart and Radar smartphones last autumn, HTC is also planning an update release with Yandex as the default search engine on its handsets. The news comes on the heels of the announcement last month that Yandex became the main search provider on bada-powered smartphones available in Russia and the CIS. Yandex points out it has already developed some apps for Windows Phone, including mapping service Yandex.Maps and online marketplace Yandex.Market, and that it will build more applications for the platform and other mobile operating systems in the future. According to LiveInternet data, Yandex's share of the Russian search market averaged 62.7 percent in Q3 2011, trumping Google by a margin. The company, which raised over $1.4 billion in a NASDAQ IPO earlier this year, recently reported revenues of RUR 5.2 billion ($161.9 million) for the third quarter of this year, up 65 percent compared with Q3 2010. Aside from Russia, Yandex also operates in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey.
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| Why Haven’t We Seen A Rollup Yet in Online Video? Posted: 24 Nov 2011 09:14 PM PST  Editor's note: Guest contributor Ashkan Karbasfrooshan is founder and CEO of WatchMojo, a video publisher. Online video is booming and the are tons of small video companies across production, advertising, distribution, and technology. Yet we have yet to see a serious attempt to roll up the industry. The reasons, I submit, boil down to egos and greed. What is a Rollup? Historically, large private equity firms have "rolled up" various small companies in a given market through mergers or acquisitions in order to reach economies of scale. A rollup is different than a simple merger in that it involves multiple parties, oftentimes taking place in a mature industry where growth can't occur organically, but rather, through financial engineering or cost cutting. This is partially why we haven't seen that many rollups of Internet companies, because usually a merger is all it takes to reach considerable market dominance. Sometimes rollups make sense because building a product or business would take too long to build internally and grow organically. Ask Jeeves bought Interactive Search Holdings for $343M in March 2004 to double market share and then sold to IAC a year later for $1.8 billion. Other times a company will roll other assets up to make itself more attractive for an exit. In 2005, I saw first-hand how IGN merged with competitor Gamespy, and then proceeded to acquire Rotten Tomatoes and my old company AskMen before flipping to News Corp. for $650 million. How multiples work In finance, companies are valued either through a discounted cash flow exercise, or by comparing one's financials to similar companies in an industry. Oftentimes, a company's value is measured through price-to-sales and price-to-earnings multiples. In traditional media for example, companies trade for about 15 times earnings and two times sales. Online, then numbers vary considerably depending on the economy and cycle. But seeing how the only valuation that matters is the one at which you sell a company for, then it's worth noting that multiples tend to be abnormally high at both the low and high end, then they tend to normalize in between. In other words, early on, a company's valuation in a sale boils down to the price at which an entrepreneur is willing to let a business go, even if it makes little financial sense. As companies grow to reach mid-sized status, their multiples fall within industry standards. As such, a company can only reach outsized returns if they really consolidate the market as multiples grow when the business acquires greater scale. Rollup concept is nothing new While the rollup concept is popular in private equity, venture capitalists have rarely adopted the strategy. Part of the resistance to the idea is focus: it's better for a founder, team and company to tackle just one idea. Another reason is that the notion of attaching a number of far-flung businesses rarely works. Of course, in video, the premise is intriguing, partly due to the many inefficiencies and shortcomings inherent in the landscape. Vertical or Horizontal Rollup There are four pillars in video: tech, advertising, content and distribution. A case can be made for both a vertical and horizontal rollup. In a vertical rollup strategy, for example:
In the horizontal rollup strategy, or what I call the "Script casting" method, you are basically casting a number of actors in a movie for a given script. In other words you might need Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise as the lead, but you won't need both. You do, however, need a Zach Galifianakis in the supporting role, as well as a Meg Ryan to round out the story. Similarly, in the horizontal approach, a content company's catalog might be better monetized against a large distribution company's audience which can then generate more sales if they leverage the advertising company's sales force which can better target ads and content on the right tech platform. In video, the right strategy is actually a combination of horizontal and vertical, and the reason why it hasn't happened yet boils down to two simple reasons. Obstacle #1 – CEO Egos This may come as newsflash to many, but CEOs tend to have big egos, and those egos tend to get in the way of doing the right thing. Depending at what stage of a company's life cycle a startup finds itself in, it's also possible that the CEOs don't even see a reason to do this until it's too late, even though their companies are too small to really make marketers want to open up their wallets and spend ad dollars with them. Mind you, most CEOs in our industry have, for lack of a better word, enough fatigue and battle scars that this is becoming less of an issue. Obstacle #2 – VC Greed Outweighs Fear The second, bigger issue, frankly, is that while most VCs have been invested in video companies for the better part of the past decade, few are willing to throw in the towel, or specifically, trade in their Preferred Equity standing on their company's capitalization table for a subordinated standing. In other words, in their existing structure, they stand to get their money out first… and seeing how a rollup inevitably requires fresh money, then this creates the thorny issue of "women and children" first, then who? New investors want to get ahead of the pack, and occasionally, that kills most discussions with existing investors. When it's said and done, online video keeps growing and with the rising tide everyone feels good enough to expect a better day tomorrow, but most VCs are not – despite the bravado – very patient or even risk-takers. Eventually, though, someone somewhere will try the rollup strategy in online video. Photo credit: Matt Septon
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| Nobody Wants To Feel Like They’re Obsolete Posted: 24 Nov 2011 04:51 PM PST 
I don't know about you, but I try to avoid technological discussions with my parents. Even though they are relatively tech aware, they tend to be Team Windows and I am Team Mac. Also: While the “My cool grandma owns an iPad” trope is totally ubiquitous and real, older people tend to be over-sensitive about their level of tech acumen. It's a fear of mortality thing, I'm thinking. That's why when Alexis Madrigal came with the idea to turn Black Friday into "Update Your Parents’ Browser Day," I winced, despite holding universal modern web browsing standards as something to aspire to. As part of what might be the last generation to remember what life was like before the World Wide Web, the idea of having to explain something as simple as a browser update to the people who bought me my first computer — and, you know, gave me life — strikes me as sort of sad. If technology makes us more human, as Twitter’s Jack Dorsey has argued, then the absence of technology turns those at the short end of the USB stick into a different species. You hate thinking of your parents as weaker than you in any way, let alone using Internet Explorer 6. This morning I was almost too scared to ask my parents what browser they use, for fear that I might actually have to celebrate tomorrow's holiday. After being silly (he is after all related to me), my Dad answered Google Chrome (whew!). For the record I use Chrome Canary — and it’s way buggy in OS X Lion. To the insular group of tech early adopters that read (not to mention write for) a site called TechCrunch, it is scary to think that 7.9% of the world still uses the decade-old IE6. The advantages of updating to a recent browser version go way beyond improved speed and lack of self-installing ‘BonziBuddy’-esque toolbars … One Hacker News commenter describes the terror of his Dad inadvertently playing into the hands of spyware, "He fired up the ol’ IE7, went to the HSBC page, completed the first step of logging in, and there it was, clear as day. A mysterious third box prompting the user to enter their full PIN." Shudder. He goes on, "We, as the more technically-minded people in our families, have an obligation to do this for the people we care about, in a way that extends far beyond those clever CSS animations or native video support. I’m lucky enough that my folks know to keep their eyes open to anything fishy online, but I had no idea he was still using IE7. The idea of him (or indeed anyone) inadvertently giving their complete bank details to some cyber-criminals out of completely innocent ignorance terrifies me." But not all parents are that amenable to technological change; evidence another Hacker News horror story, "Once I came to my parents’ house to find the family laptop having gained a wonderful feature where every search result would redirect to spyware. Did my best to clean the mess and get everything somewhat reasonable, and then got a call a few weeks later saying my “porn watching” ruined their computer and deleted their bookmarks." To avoid this sort of “You broke my Internet” issue, even savvier techies like Google’s Matt Cutts have resorted to Follow @mattcutts@mattcutts Matt Cutts @alexia And yet needed. For inlaw Xmas last year, I installed Chrome, then gave it the IE icon, then moved it to old IE spot on desktop Whether you're the tech snob or the tech n00b at your family gathering, one thing is clear — the technological gulf between my parent's generation and mine will be completely dwarfed by whatever our children come up with to feel superior. So here's a message to my future offspring while they're helping me on "Update Your Email Reading Contact Lenses Day" or whatever: Re-read the title of this post. Sad image above: Shutterstock
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| FlyScreen Launches An iOS 5-Like Lockscreen API For Android Posted: 24 Nov 2011 02:00 PM PST  I know, I know. Apple totally stole its new Notifications Center for iOS 5 from Android. But let’s be honest, they did a pretty good job with it. (Except for those impossibly small “X” buttons, that is.) As someone who switches between both platforms, one thing I really like about iOS 5′s Notification Center is that it’s available from the phone’s lockscreen, too. On Android, you typically have to unlock your phone in order to view your notifications. Well, until now. Thanks to app maker FlyScreen and its brand-new “SuperFly API,” Android users may soon get their own lockscreen notifications, too. The API is just launching today, with messaging app Kik as the first API partner. The company is also taking sign-ups from other interested app developers via a form on the SuperFly homepage. Further down the road, the API will be publicly released so all Android apps can integrate with the service through what CEO Itamar Weisbrod says is just 5 lines of code. At first, these SuperFly notifications will be just an icon and text, as they are by default on iOS 5 and Android, but the company is working towards making them richer and more interactive in the future. When it goes live, the notifications lockscreen will be a part of the redesigned FlyScreen app for Android. FlyScreen updates, missed calls, SMS messages and email previews will be supported, too. While the I love the idea of a better, customizable lockscreen for Android users, the challenge will be getting Android app makers to sign up. FlyScreen will need to do more than just offer a public API – it will need to actively court partnerships to make this thing a success. However, it sounds like the company is doing just that. Weisbrod says there are “more big apps to come soon” and they already have some “big ones” in testing now. The new notifications section is already live in FlyScreen’s app in the Android Market, but Kik’s integration won’t arrive for a week or two. And as new developers sign up to use the SuperFly API, they’ll be added right away, making the app gradually more useful. If you’re interested in testing the new FlyScreen, you can grab it here from the Android Market.
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| Google+ Gets A Thanksgiving Day TV Ad: “Sharing, But Like Real Life” Posted: 24 Nov 2011 01:02 PM PST It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of flipping on a television and seeing a commercial for anything Google-related seemed totally implausible. For many years, the company seemed to take a certain pride in not having to resort to traditional marketing channels, and it eschewed TV ads entirely for well over a decade of its existence. Then, in February 2010, the web giant made its TV commercial debut: with a Super Bowl Ad, no less (and a fantastic one at that). Since then it’s become a bit more common to see Google ads running on TV — the company has started promoting its Chrome browser with ads, for example. And earlier today it ran what appears to be its first TV spot for its social network, Google+. The ad, which appeared during the Thanksgiving Day Lions/Packers game, focuses heavily on Google+’s Circles feature and Hangouts, telling viewers that it’s “Sharing, but like real life”. The move isn’t terribly surprising — Google has been putting a lot of muscle behind driving users toward Google+, including featuring an unmissable ad on Google.com when the service first opened its doors to the public, and prompting users of the latest version of Android to create a Google+ if they haven’t already.
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| Chrome Getting Native Gamepad, Webcam, And WebRTC Support In Early 2012 Posted: 24 Nov 2011 12:30 PM PST  It’s not always easy to tell when Chrome has been updated, and at any rate the changes aren’t always significant enough to even wonder about it. But a pair of features worth caring about are user-bound come early 2012, according to Google developer advocate Paul Kinlan, who spoke recently at the Develop conference in Liverpool. The conference is focused on game development, so it’s no surprise that the features are also game-centric. First, there will be plug-and-play gamepad, webcam, and microphone support in Chrome, and second, the nascent real time communication protocol WebRTC will begin to be implemented as well. This opens the door for seamless video chat and conceivably OnLive-like gaming services. It’s not as if there are already tons of games and applications waiting to take advantage of gamepads and WebRTC. And while it would extend the capabilities of Chromebooks, for instance, so it would extend the capabilities of any netbook or desktop running Chrome. Still, making the browser platform natively support peripherals is an important step towards making it less of an application layer and more of a primary OS layer. Replacing the driver layer always introduces all sorts of complications, so it’s no surprise that this hasn’t been properly implemented yet. A passthrough from the OS drivers and device managers has been the standard, and this may take a while to supplant. But if it works, it works, and no one will care whether it’s Microsoft, Apple, Logitech, Adobe, Google, or Halliburton making their webcam work. All they want to do is video chat with their kids. Kinlan also said that an OnLive-type streaming video/game service is in the works at Google, which should come as no surprise. Google + integration is almost a certainty as well: “Blank is playing Modern Warfare 3! Click here to watch. Click here to rent.” Naturally the hardest part of this service would be the licensing agreements, in which OnLive and others have a long head start. Servers Google has. It’s content they need. “First quarter” is as specific as Kinlan got, and it’s fairly early to make those determinations anyway, so no doubt we’ll be hearing more when we are nearer the release date.
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| 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Laptops Are A Geek’s Best Friend Posted: 24 Nov 2011 11:09 AM PST  When it comes to gift-giving, there are a few presents that siimply go above and beyond. Getting a first car on your sixteenth birthday (if you’re so lucky) is one of those moments, and some young couples are even lucky enough to get a house as a wedding present. But after a house and a car, a brand new laptop is probably the best gift you can get. We’ve compiled a list of notebooks ranging in price from $839 to starting points of $1,999, so there should be something here for everyone. Without any further ado, here are some of our recommendations if you’re looking to get your loved one a new notebook. I’m actually typing this post on an S3 as we speak, and I must say it’s a pleasant, comfortable little notebook. The first thing you should know is that this is one of, if not the first computers to fall in line with each of Intel’s ultrabook requirements (like being under .83 inches thick, having at least a 5-hour battery life, employment of Intel’s rapid start technology, and a sub-$1000 price tag), meaning you’d be getting your loved one the first in an entirely new category of Windows-powered laptops. The S3 Ultrabook is powered by a Core i5 processor, packs 4BG of on-board memory, and combines a spinning hard drive with an SSD for speed performance and greater memory. It’s super thin, at just .51-inches thick and weighs just 2.94 pounds, which you’ll surely notice the first time you pick this little guy up. The 13.3-inch screen isn’t amazing by any account, but with a 1366×768 resolution at 450-nits it gets the job done. You can pick up the Acer S3 Ultrabook for the low price of $839.99. Apple MacBook Air (Thunderbolt): If the S3 ever had a competitor, it would be the new MacBook Air. In fact, the MacBook Air is seemingly the inspiration for the entire sub-category, so if you’re in a Mac state of mind (or are ready to convert), look no further. With its unibody aluminum construction, waist line of .11 inches at its thinnest point (.68 inches at its thickest), and new LED backlit island-style keyboard, the MacBook Air simply can’t be beat in terms of design. Plus, you’ll have between 64GB and 256GB of flash storage (2GB and 4GB internal) depending on the model with either a 1.6GHz or 1.7GHz dual-core Core i5 processor. The Air comes in both 11.6- and 13.3-inch models, with the 11-inch model forfeiting an SD card slot and both models sporting USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt ports. Configurations start at $999 and go all the way up to $1599. This 13-inch laptop looks and feels about as corporate as you can get. It’s basically a wedge-shaped black box measuring just .65 inches thick at its thinnest point, with sharp corners and a soft-touch finish. It also happens to be the most rugged of the laptops we’re recommending, so if your loved one is prone to spills or clumsiness in any form, this may be your winner. With a water-shedding LED backlit keyboard and Corning Gorilla glass on the display, it’d be a task to destroy this thing. I’ve seen it attempted, first hand. As far as the guts are concerned, the ThinkPad X1 can be configured with Intel’s Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, and has the same 1366×768 resolution as the S3′s display. Again, like the S3, Lenovo traded out a matte display for a highly reflective, and thus less viewable, one. Still, Dolby speakers produce more than enough volume for even the hardiest of partiers, while Intel’s integrated 3000 HD graphics helped keep things crisp in the entertainment department. All in all, this is a great option for the laptop gifter starting at $1,349. It is here that we venture into pricey territory, but not without extra luxury and performance. The Sony Vaio Z combines a super slim design with powerful graphics and processing in the form of a 2.7GHz Core i7 processor, Intel HD 3000 Graphics, and an AMD Radeon 6630M GPU built in to the included docking station. Oh right, there’s a non-optional Kindle-sized docking station (as in, included in that high price) which features that AMD Radeon GPU and a Blu-ray drive, as well as some extra ports. The 13-inch Vaio Z has way more processing power, but looks and feels like a competitor to the MacBook Air measuring just .7 inches thick. Of course, you get a little extra heft when you add the optional battery slice, which nearly doubles its five and a half hour battery life. It has an impressive 1920×1080 pixel resolution, along with a 1,600×900 resolution option. Unfortunately, these high-end specs come at a high-end price, with models starting at $1999. Dell Alienware M18X Gaming Laptop Whenever I look at this beast, which is taking up the majority of my desk space at the moment, I can’t help but feel like some sort of all-powerful, futuristic planet conquerer. The M18X is huge, for one thing, but just sexy as hell with a highly customizable back-lit keyboard, back-lit front grills and a Space Black matte anondized aluminum chassis. The display is a solid 18.4-inch 1920×1080 WLED display that I’ve simply replaced my TV with for the time being. Yep, it’s that good. On the inside things get no less impressive, with Intel Core i7 quad-core processors ranging between 2.2GHz and an overclocked 4.0GHz, between 4GB and 32GB of on-board memory, and the choice between a 1.5GB Nvidia GeForce 560M GPU, dual 1.5GB NVidia GeForce SLI-enabled 560M GPUs, and dual 2GB Nvidia GeForce SLI-enabled 580M GPUs. There are also dual AMD Radeon graphics card options. That said, things can get painfully expensive with the lowest configuration going for $1999 up to a dual AMD Radeon HD 6990M graphics card, 4GHz Core i7 dual-core processor-powered model for $4,560. A truly generous gift to say the least, but one that will surely go over well in the brownie points department. Check out the rest of our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide here.
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| Dream Come True: Ice Cream Sandwich Comes To The HTC G1, Unofficially Posted: 24 Nov 2011 11:06 AM PST  HTC’s G1, the first Android phone, had a long and interesting life until it was retired last year, and although I loved the phone, I’ll be the first to admit that being limited to Android 1.6 was kind of a disappointment. Naturally modders had their way with it, but development slowed down long ago in favor of newer and more popular phones. But today, in a feat of nostalgia and hacking skills, XDA-Dev poster Jcarrz1 has made a working AOSP port of the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, for the venerable G1. It may not extend the life of many phones out there (most have been long since abandoned, though not mine), but definitely demonstrates the flexibility of the platform. Of course, with a lot of work, you could probably get Ubuntu to run on the G1, or Windows 95. But Really, this is a very pleasant development. It’s amazing to think that the G1′s paltry 528MHz processor and 256MB of RAM (paltry compared to modern phones, anyhow) can run a mobile OS designed to debut on one of the most powerful mobile devices out there right now, the Galaxy Nexus. Naturally not all is well in G1 town. This is just an AOSP port, not a fully customized ROM, and is labeled as “Alpha 1,” which should give you an idea of the state of the thing. Wifi and Bluetooth don’t work, no doubt owing to incompatibility with the wireless chipset used, and a number of hardware features are unsupported, like some buttons and lighting controls. And of course it runs like a dog. On the other hand, the browser is apparently snappy, calling and SMS work, and interestingly, using the trackball produces a little cursor like a mouse’s. This last detail, if it’s not just a holdover from debugging, indicates ICS will have support for external pointing devices, since few if any phones include a trackball or trackpad any more (though the pointer does feature in Google TV and the Asus Transformer and is in the ICS settings, as commenters note). What’s next? Now that basic compatibility has been shown, a custom ROM with unnecessary stuff snipped and better support for the G1 hardware will probably appear in the next couple weeks. Thanks to Jcarrz1 for his hard work.
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| How To Be The Best Entrepreneur In The World Posted: 24 Nov 2011 10:31 AM PST  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 book is I Was Blind But Now I See. You can follow him@jaltucher. Iʼm writing this white sitting in a hotel room. To my left is the Pacific Ocean and all the magical San Francisco fog stuff people kept whispering to me about. About 12 floors downstairs Claudia is doing yoga in the gym. About four feet directly behind me is a woman that is a complete stranger to me who is having an unbelievably long orgasm. Thereʼs a wall between us. Hold on a second while I take a glass and listen against the wall. If there was no wall there then this whole thing would probably have been pretty awkward. I probably would not have been able to keep staring at the computer screen, for instance. — Sex is like driving. In polls, nine out of ten people think they are "above average". Letʼs say for a second that "average equals median" (I donʼt want to get into basic math arguments in the comments). Clearly, then, itʼs impossible for nine out ten people to be above average. Itʼs also like sales or negotiating or poker or being "a good judge of people". Nine out of ten think they are above average. Most people have overinflated views of their performance in a variety of areas. Letʼs go back to Malcolm Gladwellʼs book, "Outliers" for a second. To guarantee being among the best in the world at something you pretty much need 10,000 hours of practice as per his "10,000 hour rule". He cites the Beatles as an example. They were basically average, then they put in their 10,000 hours by playing 24 hours a day for a few years in German strip clubs and then they became the best band in history. You can argue Bobby Fischer was a fairly average chess player until he put in his 10,000 hours. Then he was the best in history. My friend Ylon made nothing in poker for ten years then suddenly made $3 million and was among the best in the world. He put in his 10,000 hours. (See, "My Year Where I Did Nothing But Play Poker") You donʼt have to be the best in history to be above average. But most things that are worth doing (being an entrepreneur, amassing a good amount of money as a result) have a very steep learning curve and then it flattens out. So maybe 1000 hours gets you better than most people (above average) and then the next 2000-5000 hours gets you to be the best in your circle of colleagues (i.e. good enough to make a great living at it) and then from 5000-10,000 hours is the subtle refinements that are needed to be the best in the world. They require 5000 hours precisely because they are unobvious and subtle. But thatʼs ok. Who cares about the other 5000 hours. Itʼs the first 2000-5000 hours that are the most important. We need to feed our families and then be able to enjoy life. Not everyone needs to be the Beatles (who, its unclear if they were ever truly happy) or Steve Jobs (who was screaming on the phone at Eric Schmidt months before his death about how much he was going to sue Google for stealing the Android operating system). (See also, “10 Unusual Things I Didn’t Know About Steve Jobs”) Based on my own experience being an entrepreneur and talking to hundreds of other entrepreneurs, 2000-5000 hours experience is whatʼs needed to be a successful entrepreneur. Successful enough to build a product people want, get revenues, sell the business. Itʼs nice to have the 2000-5000 hours in your passion or field of interest and then spend the next 10,000 hours focusing on how to be happy and healthy. This is my recommendation at least. What do you do during those 5000 hours. How do you get better at something? If you are doing any of the below then you have my permission to clock in on the 5000 hours, but I think the below have to be done with balance. You canʼt do one without the others:
Then the question is: why do I need to be great at anything. Canʼt I just get by? Sure, but then you probably wonʼt have as much fun in life as the woman with the forty five minute orgasm who is presumably sleeping blissfully just four feet from me. Photo credit: Shutterstock/ Goodluz
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| How HowToWeb Ignited Bucharest And Central Europe Posted: 24 Nov 2011 10:22 AM PST  I recently hit Bucharest in Romania to experience the rising star event of the Central and Eastern European scene, HowToWeb. This annual conference is doing an amazing job of bringing CEE entrepreneurs together, and Bucharest is gradually emerging as one of the key tech hubs in the region. The reason? It’s pretty simple – there is great engineering talent, plenty of it (there are 22 million Romanians) and it’s affordable. I could of course name any other number of cities that fit this profile – Kiev, Ljubljana, Sofia, Warsaw and more – but at the moment HowToWeb is bringing many startups and entrepreneurs in from the region to network and party, and mashing them up with international speakers such as Mark Randall of Adobe, Michael Breidenbruecker, founder of Last.fm and RjDj and Pablos Holman of Intellectual Ventures Lab.
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