The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Clueless: RIM Releases The $120 BlackBerry PlayBook Mini Keyboard
- After Endeavor Invests, Reid Hoffman Joins Globant’s Advisory Board; Is An IPO Next?
- Nokia Maps Arrives On iOS & Android (But Only As A Web App)
- As Dell Shifts To Software & Services, Announces Plans To Buy SonicWall
- Yahoo’s Patent Suit Against Facebook Is A ‘Crock Of Shit’ (Plus, It Pulled This Move On Pre-IPO Google)
- Camera+ Sees Major Update: Dozens Of Features, New API, Integration With WordPress, Foodspotting & More
- LG Spectrum Review: Initial Impressions (Video)
- Multiple Usernames & Passwords No More: OneID Unveils Its Next-Gen Identity Service
- RAM And CPU Clock Speed Confirmed For New iPad, But The Spec Is Still Dead
- Slam Dunk Or Rimshot? NBA Star Tracy McGrady Launches His Own Daily Deal Site
- Got Facebook Pics? Transform Them Into Wall Art With CanvasPop
- Quattro Alums Launch Mobile Targeting Startup Adelphic, Raise $2M
- The Currency Cloud Secures $4M To Disrupt The Trillion Dollar Foreign Exchange Market
- ‘Social’ Investment Network eToro Is Picking Up Another $15 Million From Spark, Others
- Combining Yelp & Twitter For Foodies, Fondu’s Redesign Beefs Up Recommendations, Discovery
- Samsung Finally Pushes Ice Cream Sandwich To The Galaxy S IIs Of The World
- Motorola Further Details ICS Rollout, But Is Verizon Delaying The Ice Cream Party In The States?
- UK Researchers Plan Mobile Real-Time Sign Language Translation App
- Intel Eyes Web TV As Aereo Turns Legal Screws On Networks [Docs]
- Just.me Wants To Be The Go-To Social App On Your Phone
| Clueless: RIM Releases The $120 BlackBerry PlayBook Mini Keyboard Posted: 13 Mar 2012 09:19 AM PDT  Research In Motion announced the PlayBook 17 months ago. Then, eleven months ago, the company actually launched the product. It took them another 10 months to finally bring a native email and messaging app to the product. Now, almost a full year after the product hit stores, RIM is releasing a keyboard folio case for the struggling tablet. Oh, and it costs $120. I’m fully convinced Research in Motion is stuck in some sort of time warp where hours equal days and days equal months. It’s the only logical explanation regarding the company’s product release cycle. That or RIM is run by ignorant executives that spend more time on the golf course than in the office. Maybe both. The Playbook is a quality product ruined by an incompetent company. It feels great in the hand and the OS is actually pretty slick. But RIM clearly didn’t throw the proper resources behind the product’s development. It should have launched with apps that users expect from a BlackBerry device: email, messaging and calendar. Instead, RIM took its merry time to develop these key applications and just recently pushed them to the device. The tablet’s launch could have also benefited from a large offering of accessories including the keyboard folio that was just announced. It’s not like the idea of a keyboard case is novel. These sort of cases were around back when RIM announced the Playbook in 2010. I’m sure the new keyboard case works well. RIM makes quality, but often overpriced, hardware. The company just doesn’t know how to launch them in a timely manner.
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| After Endeavor Invests, Reid Hoffman Joins Globant’s Advisory Board; Is An IPO Next? Posted: 13 Mar 2012 08:58 AM PDT  Over nine years, Globant has been building one of the stronger and more reputable IT companies in South America. It’s no easy feat to build innovative software products for a global audience, but Globant seems to have hit the right note with its combination of open source and proprietary software, which have allowed it to become one of the go-to IT outsourcing firms for multinational organizations. While the Argentinian software company has received plenty of attention from the West, it today received further validation from Silicon Valley, as it announced the addition of well-known serial entrepreneur, investor, and author Reid Hoffman to its Board of Advisors. The LinkedIn Founder and early Zynga investor joins the company’s advisory board on the heels of the $2 million investment made by the Endeavor Foundation‘s Catalyst Program, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting high-impact international entrepreneurs, of which Hoffman is Board Director. In fact, Globant was the first company funded by the initiative, which beyond Hoffman includes names like Chairman of True North Venture Partners Michael Ahearn, Former Chairman of Warner Music Group Edgar Bronfman, and Pierre Omidyar, the Founding Partner of the Omidyar Network as well as Founder and Chairman of eBay. (The new infusion of capital brings the company’s total investment to $30 million.) And considering Globant is also responsible for the development of LinkedIn’s mobile apps for Android and the iPhone, as well as the implementation of the OpenSocial framework to integrated third-party apps into the professional network, it’s no wonder that Hoffman led the investment and opted to join its advisory board. Hoffman also just funded Kiva.org with $1 million to let people try out microlending for free and help needy families start small businesses. Check out kiva.org/free to lend out $25 of Reid’s money. Obviously, the interest in Globant is more than skin deep, as it operates a network of more than 2,500 software engineers (3,000 employees globally), developers, and designers based in 15 locations across Latin America and the U.S. The network of engineers creates software products for a host of international clients, including LinkedIn, Google, Zynga, EA, Citi, Coca-Cola, and Nike — to name a few. What’s interesting is that, considering Globant’s prior round was $15 million and revenues for 2011 topped $90 million, the company wasn’t exactly in dire need of the additional funding. Instead, it was likely a move to get some superlative leadership experience on board, with greater access to the company and its operations. In Globant’s words, its Board of Advisors plays “a key role in defining the strategic agenda and providing advice and guidance.” There have been rumors of a potential Globant IPO now going back at least three years. And, although Sarah may have jumped the gun a bit on the IPO speculation, as she pointed out at the time, the company has never been interested in a quick sale, instead focusing on growing a business that’s viable in the long term. But that was three years ago, and the company is still growing fast (it jumped 72 percent all told last year). Reid Hoffman has been Executive Chairman of LinkedIn since 2009, before which he was the founding CEO. LinkedIn had a very successful IPO in early summer last year and has gone on to perform well as a public company. Hoffman was also an early investor in Zynga and sat on the board, during Zynga’s recent, much-ballyhooed IPO. If an IPO is on the table for Globant in the near-term, there are few better people to have as an advisor than Hoffman — so it will be very interesting to see what 2012 holds for the company. It could just be the next big South American company heading to American public markets, but don’t hold your breath. For more on Globant, check them out at home here.
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| Nokia Maps Arrives On iOS & Android (But Only As A Web App) Posted: 13 Mar 2012 08:20 AM PDT  Nokia has just announced the launch of an iOS and Android-compatible version of its mapping service known as Nokia Maps. The service, which powers Nokia’s native mapping applications on its own devices, has not arrived as a native iOS and Android app, however, but as a HTML5-based web service available at m.maps.nokia.com. In addition to basic mapping, Nokia Maps provides navigation support, through separate sets of directions for those who are driving, walking or taking public transport. There are also audio directions available, but for now, these are only offered when you’re on foot. There are multiple map views available in the online service as well, including a default map view showing streets and labels, a satellite view, a public transportation view and even a live traffic view, which can help you better plan your route. However, there are drawbacks to using a web-based application over a native one. For starters, the app will need your permission to access your location in order to provide you with directions – and unlike native apps, it won’t remember your response to its prompt the next time you go to use the app. Also, when Nokia Maps provides audio directions, you have to wait while it downloads a 2 MB audio file to your device, as opposed to just having the audio play. And of course, mobile web apps are limited in terms of the background processing they can do, which could impact your ability to multitask during navigation. In early tests, it seems that the resolution of the online maps offering isn’t comparable to what you’ll get with a native application like Google Maps on iOS or Android, but the service itself was solid enough. It even has a nice, British-sounding man who prompts you to “start your journey,” which would make driving to a store feel like an adventure, I have to admit. Nokia Maps, you’ll remember, became core to Microsoft’s mapping service when the companies aligned their mobile strategies in early 2010. That’s why it’s interesting now to see the company attempt expansion to other non-Microsoft platforms. However, if Nokia really wants to compete with Google Maps (and perhaps Apple’s own forthcoming mapping service), it will need to release a native version that more seamlessly integrates with users’ phones and tablets. A web-based version of Nokia Maps would be a good first step toward that goal, though. The new web app works on iPhone, iPad or Android (2.3+) device, and is accessible from m.maps.nokia.com.
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| As Dell Shifts To Software & Services, Announces Plans To Buy SonicWall Posted: 13 Mar 2012 07:50 AM PDT  Computer manufacturer Dell announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement that will allow it to acquire SonicWall, a security vendor specializing in firewalls, network security and data protection. The move will help Dell round out its security solutions portfolio, the company reports, which currently includes Dell’s SecureWorks security services, cloud security solutions, data encryption solutions and Dell KACE vulnerability and patch management. The acquisition is more than just a “beefing up” of Dell’s security line up, though – it’s representative of a shift in Dell’s overall strategy as a technology firm. The move comes shortly after last month’s announcement regarding the formation of a new Software Group within the company, designed to enhance Dell’s solutions capabilities. Dell hired John Swainson to serve as President of the Group. Swainson, whose background includes over 26 years at IBM, and 4 years as the CEO of CA, Inc., took the position on March 5th – only a week ago. And boy, did he move fast. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, SonicWall is no small potatoes. In 2010, it was bought for around $717 million led by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC. Founded in 1991, SonicWall got its start selling Ethernet cards, hubs and other networking equipment. It later shifted into firewalls and VPN appliances for the SMB market and went public on NASDAQ back in 1999. Today, SonicWall has 300,000 customers in 50 countries, 950 employees and a channel program with 15,000 retailers, which Dell plans to integrate into its own PartnerDirect program. When the deal closes in Dell’s Q2 2013 (early August), resellers from both Dell and SonicWall will be about to sell the enhanced security line up. SonicWall also has over 130 patent apps, with 64 issued to date, which Dell rightly states as another reason why the acquisition has value. Explains Swainson in a release, “SonicWALL gives Dell access to unique intellectual property resources and technology that position us well in fast growing parts of the software security business.” Dell also told Wall St. this morning that SonicWall had approximately $260 million in revenue over the last 12 months, and it expects the acquisitive to be accretive to earnings in the second half of its fiscal 2013. The acquisition, beyond being an attempt to beef up Dell’s security portfolio, is also indicative of a bigger shift for the computer maker – a move to software and services boosted by acquisitions, with a special focus on business customers. The change is reflective of an overall shift in computing, and especially in personal computing, which is a decreasing part of PC manufacturers’ business, and Dell’s in particular. In Dell’s last earnings call, the company noted that in its consumer business, revenue was down 8% year-over-year and client growth was down 6% in the same time frame. Companies that once made their bread-and-butter putting PC’s in every home – Dell, HP, and IBM, for example – are now moving towards high-margin software and services to make up for the fact that consumers are now using mobile devices and Apple computers in increasing numbers.
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| Posted: 13 Mar 2012 07:26 AM PDT  When Yahoo chief executive Scott Thompson got on his first investor conference call after taking over in January, he bragged to media and investors about the great wealth of talent and IP that existed at the struggling company. He said that it needed to "build great innovative products and put them inside customer experiences." The news that it is suing Facebook over alleged infringement of ten “method” patents by the social network, however, points to a different strategy to move ahead. The action has ignited some strong opinions from the gallery: Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures pulls no punches and calls the suit a “crock of shit” because it “crossed the unspoken line which is that web companies don’t sue each other over their bogus patent portfolios. I don’t think there’s a unique idea out there in the web space and hasn’t been for well over a decade.” But this is not the first time that Yahoo has leaned on a big company with its patents just before the target has gone public — Facebook is planning an IPO that could value the company at $100 billion — nor is it the first time that Facebook has found itself in court. Last year alone, the social network was involved in 22 separate patent suits, according to Reuters division Westlaw, double the number from 2010. These cover areas like message transmission to large numbers of users. Up to now, Facebook, which has only around 40 patents granted to its name (compared to Yahoo’s 3,300), has only been the plaintiff in one suit.* That small number, and Yahoo’s large size, may mean a lot more cases like this one up ahead, making social media and web services the next terrain for patent litigators. Facebook has been in courts over other issues as well, beyond patents. That’s the price of success these days. Just last week, Facebook lost a ruling in Germany over how it handles user information and applies its “Friend Finder” feature: both were found to violate privacy laws. That case, brought by Germany’s Central Consumer Association, an umbrella group for consumer rights organizations, was originally filed in 2010. It will be finalized in the next week or two and then Facebook will have one month to modify its services to comply with the findings. In a separate case around privacy in Germany, Facebook is being sued by the Hamburg data protection authority over its facial recognition feature. Germany was also the focus of a copy-cat case for Facebook: The German social network StudiVZ won a case lodged by Facebook over alleged IP theft and source code theft. That was back in 2009, and to be honest the sites have evolved away from each other quite a lot since then. Further back than this, there are also the cases involving Paul Ceglia and the Winklevoss twins. As for Yahoo, it is not known for bringing lots of cases against its competitors or for having to defend itself against other’s allegations, but it’s not exactly a stranger to enforcing its patent rights. According to Reuters, in 2004, Yahoo took patent claims to Google before it went public, and in exchange got shares in Google worth some $201 million at the time. It could be that this is what is behind Yahoo’s intention this time around, too. *As Lenny Kravets points out in comments, the number of patents granted to Facebook is currently 42, with the other 120 being patent applications. Our original article had said that Facebook had around 160 patents.
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| Posted: 13 Mar 2012 07:25 AM PDT  Following increasing competition, most recently from SmugMug’s nifty Camera Awesome app, everyone’s favorite iPhone camera replacement app Camera+ is rolling out a major update today. There are a ton of new features in version 3.0 of the app, including speed improvements, multiple photo import, better sharing options, and more, but the biggest change isn’t really a consumer-facing feature at all – it’s an API. Starting today, developers can integrate Camera+ into other apps or create web services that make use of the photos shared by the app’s millions of users. According to Camera+’s maker, Lisa Bettany, several developers are already integrating Camera+ into their apps using the new APIs, including WordPress, Tweetbot, Twitterific, Foodspotting and Twitterlator Neue. For those unfamiliar (Android users?), Camera+ is the 10th best-selling paid iPhone app of all-time, and it recently shipped its 7 millionth copy. The app serves to replace the iPhone’s built-in camera with a number of additional options for editing and sharing photos. With Camera+ version 3.0, which rolled out a day earlier than expected, there’s a long list of improvements, including the following:
While this feature set will definitely have everyone hitting up their App Store app today to grab the update, the most interesting change is the Camera+ API. With some nearly 600,000 iOS applications, offering other developers the option to integrate Camera+ into their own applications will lead to even more usage and visibility. Not only will Camera+ be able to serve as the photo-taking interface within other non-photography focused apps like Foodspotting, it will also allow developers to include Camera+ users’ photos as an option in apps related to social sharing, like those Twitter apps, for example, mentioned above. More than that, it positions Camera+ as a service, instead of just a utility. And that, in turn, means it could one day take on the default photo-sharing services like Flickr and Photobucket, if the company chose to do so. After all, where do most of your photos come from today? Your phone! Wouldn’t it make sense for the service that manages your online photos to be built from the ground-up for mobile photo sharing? Camera+ isn’t discussing its future plans in this arena, but it seems like an obvious next step for the company as the mobile photo-sharing market continues to grow. The updated version of Camera+ went live in iTunes this morning.
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| LG Spectrum Review: Initial Impressions (Video) Posted: 13 Mar 2012 07:02 AM PDT  Let me just start by saying that so far, I’m not a fan. But, these are just initial impressions so we’ll see how my relationship with the Spectrum progresses over time. Sure, the LG Spectrum has a stunning 4.5-inch 720p display, Verizon 4G LTE, and all the innards of what could be a great smartphone. But so far I’m not ready to call it a great smartphone. There are two very fundamental issues that I have with the Spectrum. The first is that it feels awful and plastic-y in the hand. It’s a pretty sizeable phone, but has no weight to back up a premium feel. And even worse, the battery door (which comprises the majority of the phone) is made of this weak, patterned plastic. It scratches easily, doesn’t take prints well, and shines in all the wrong ways. The second major issue I have with the Spectrum is that LG UI is awful, both aesthetically and in use. Though I’m told by LG that it’s a light overlay, it clearly slows down the system. Then let’s add to that the fact that the UI doesn’t add anything in terms of design or attention to detail. At least in my own opinion, everything’s a bit too bubbly and round for my tastes. I do like that apps are categorized by default, though. And if we’re talking about attention to detail, I also take issue with the fact that both of the camera lenses (front and back) aren’t centered within the hole they peek through. On the other hand, you can’t argue with that display. Seriously, it’s one of the best I’ve seen in a long time with regards to true colors and pixel density (326 ppi), so if you’re a mobile video kind of person the Spectrum may very well find a place in your heart. We’ll get into performance and battery life later on in the review process, but for now the Spectrum has an uphill battle on its hands. I’d need to see some killer testing and slap a case on this bad boy before I could write anything glowing, but I’ve backtracked before after initial impressions, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
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| Multiple Usernames & Passwords No More: OneID Unveils Its Next-Gen Identity Service Posted: 13 Mar 2012 06:41 AM PDT  Today, our online identities are fragmented across an array of usernames, email addresses, screen names, social media accounts, passwords, and on and on. We struggle to remember our login info and passwords, so oftentimes we use a few simple passwords that are easy to remember, or find ourselves turning to hints or inboxes to remember our forgotten permutations. Of course, this can cause cracks in our security armor, especially when it comes to online transactions, leaving us vulnerable to online thieves and no-goodniks. Enter: OneID, a San Jose-based startup launching in beta today that is aiming to play a role in the next-generation of digital identity with a service that eliminates the need for multiple usernames and passwords. With OneID, users can securely log in to websites (across platforms), paying online with one single digital identity. Many have gone after the single sign-on holy grail, but as of yet, all have been rebuffed, because no one wants to hand over all their sensitive personal information to one company. According to the OneID team, its service is made possible by a combination of asymmetric cryptography, the maturity of mobile hardware/software (and their ubiquity), as well as a distributed architecture that collectively reduces business’ vulnerability to sophisticated online threats by merging the security keys of several personal devices, then encrypted in an amorphous mass in a data center. In short, it’s an all-out, world-changing infrastructure play, and although it’s got a steep hill to climb, the company will remain one to watch based on its leadership alone. The startup was founded by Steve Kirsch, a wealthy serial entrepreneur, who has founded six companies, including Mouse Systems, Frame Technology, Infoseek, Propel, Abaca, and OneID. Beyond Infoseek, which Kirsch sold to for a reported $1.7 billion, he is one of the co-inventors of (and holds one of the original patents to) an early version of the optical mouse, which behind Kirsch’s vehicle Mouse Systems, helped bring the optical mouse to IBM PCs. Along with engineers Jim Fenton, Adam Back, and Bobby Beckman, who co-created the technology behind OneID, Kirsch is going after the big fish: Integrating OneID’s technology into sites across the Web to let users create their own uniform digital identities, using the distributed software to both house payment information and for form-filling requirements. As such, OneID’s identity software runs in four places — browsers, mobile devices, websites, and the cloud. Again, for businesses, this means reducing the IT costs inherent to authentication and financial transactions, like lost password recovery, chargebacks, liability from credit card theft, the need to store credit card information on their servers, and, thanks to speeding up sign in and check out shopping, reduces cart abandonment. And for consumers, their credit card and personal information is stored on their personal devices using OneID’s software, which means it won’t be exposed in the event of a central security breach. Users can also choose the level of security they want for each type of transaction, allowing them to balance security with convenience at their discretion. Of course, many companies have barked up the next-gen secure identity software tree before, to no avail. However, OneID already has several companies lined up to integrate the identity and payment technology, among then Salsa Labs, which offers payment and marketing services for 2,000 nonprofits organizations. “After evaluating OneID, we see that nonprofits and campaigns of all sizes can benefit from using the service as another way to protect their supporters, donors and members,” said Salsa Labs Co-founder and CEO Chris Lundberg. “The benefits that OneID brings, such as the ease of use for online users and unparalleled security for website owners, was more than enough incentive for us to roll out the service to the Salsa Network.” For more on OneID, check them out at home here.
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| RAM And CPU Clock Speed Confirmed For New iPad, But The Spec Is Still Dead Posted: 13 Mar 2012 06:02 AM PDT  Good news, everyone! It’s confirmed that the new iPad is indeed slightly “faster” than the iPad 2. Early benchmarks of the new iPad show that the actual clock speed of the A5X SoC is still set at 1GHz, the same speed as the iPad2. But the new model also rocks 1GB of RAM, which should make for a smoother and faster experience. Plus, as Apple stated in the announcement keynote, the A5X rocks a quad-core graphics chip for better graphic performance. Apple rarely talks nerd-level specs. The company would much rather talk about marketable improvements based on user experience — you know, general arbitrary nonsense. That’s why Tim Cook & Co. just glazed over the technical improvements during the new iPad’s launch and instead focused on new features. It was mentioned that the new tablet has an updated A5X SoC but the actual clock speed and amount of RAM was never mentioned. In many ways Apple’s method is right. The spec is dead — but just for Apple. Listing specs is only important when comparing competing products. There is no direct competitor to the iPad. Android tablets are locked in a sort of spec race. Slightly different hardware is the only differentiating factor between Android tablets since they all run the same OS and have the same form factor. But there is only one iOS tablet out there: the iPad. Comparing the specs between an iOS and Android device is a fool’s affair. It only matters in fanboy flame wars. Specs like clock speed and RAM for iOS hardware should only really matter to developers planning product road maps — not that they should be coding just for the new hardware. Smart developers will use this information to plan future products but continue to optimize their apps to work on a broad number of devices instead of limiting themselves to the newest model. You’ll never see a post-PC era Apple video ad running through a list of specs or acronyms. The company doesn’t need to get into a pissing match. Apple would rather sell you on fun new features than boring new hardware. Saturday Night Live got it right.
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| Slam Dunk Or Rimshot? NBA Star Tracy McGrady Launches His Own Daily Deal Site Posted: 13 Mar 2012 05:19 AM PDT  Just as Lady Gaga, The Biebs, and other celebs did for Twitter, the oftentimes prosaic world of daily deals is getting some of its own glam factor, as NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady is the latest athlete-turned-entrepreneur to launch his own online business — in the form of a quasi-Groupon for sports. With the growing maturity of social media, it’s no longer a secret that distributing discounts and other promotional offers via social platforms can be a great way to increase sales for professional or personal brands, and, of late, we’ve seen a host of sites offering promotions and discounts in collaboration with celebrities as a way of increasing visibility. But professional athletes launching their own daily deals site? Not as much. In what is likely a first for the NBA (if not professional sports), we’ve learned that the NBA’s Tracy McGrady has launched his own daily deals website, called TMacsDeals.com. For those unfamiliar, McGrady is a seven-time NBA All-Star whose career has spanned 15 years and six different teams. The former scoring leader currently plays for the Atlanta Hawks. With his new entrepreneurial venture, McGrady is looking to capitalize on the fact that social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, have become essential marketing tools — for both celebrities and brands. While Twitter may be slightly more confounding when it comes to direct marketing, operating more effectively as a CRM or customer support channel, both social platforms allow businesses and brands to connect with their fans and become a part of the conversation, in realtime. Of course, for celebrities, or “influencers” as they’re called, social media can be a double-edged sword. Many tip-toe around their personal accounts, leaving them to be managed by experts or teams of witty copywriters, as one ill-worded tweet can mean disaster — there’s far more at stake when you have 1 million followers than there is for the rest of us. On the other hand, social media presents an effective way for celebrities and athletes to organically increase brand awareness, to communicate directly with loyal fans, and drum up interest in products, campaigns, charities, or games. Seeing as this is the case, while many professional athletes have businesses outside of their chosen sport, and many are active social media users, McGrady is in the minority when it comes to the way he’s chosen to leverage his brand online. This week, McGrady, in partnership with Engager Media — a company that specializes in social media management for influencers — launched TMacsDeals both on the Web and on Facebook, using both platforms to offer his fans discounts on his own merchandise as well as sports-related deals from Adidas (McGrady is sponsored by the apparel company), Dick’s Sporting Goods, Best Buy, Lids, and more. “When I started my career, the only way to interact with fans was signing autographs after a game or doing some promotional appearance,” he says. “Now I can interact with my fans instantaneously.” McGrady’s following of over 1 million Facebook fans currently puts him at 11th most among active players in the NBA. Much of that is due to his performance on the court, but it’s also because he’s recognized that social media provides athletes with an invaluable platform by which to both activate brand sponsors and to create semi-authentic connections with fans — the people who, in the end, pay athletes’ salaries. Social media also presents an opportunity for a dialogue in a way that TV and print can’t offer, and, naturally, using YouTube or Ustream to hone on-camera skills and personality while playing can open up secondary career opportunities after the body wears down. That’s why you’ll find short YouTube clips on McGrady’s Facebook deals page, in which the forward talks to his fans and gives updates on what’s going on in his world. For McGrady, who considers himself an active investor and entrepreneur, this multimedia interaction, along with his daily deal pages, are just a smart way to create value for himself and for fans. Microsites, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter accounts receive the highest engagement from fans and customers, so McGrady thinks there’s really no better way to connect with his fanbase. What’s more, social media is populated by young people, so for athletes like him looking to offer (even indirectly) products or deals, they’re already likely speaking to an audience that will go out and buy the product. Of course, while McGrady’s website is by no means winning any design awards (and has clone material written all over it), or pushing the envelope technologically, it gets the job done, and, perhaps more importantly, it does so in a way that doesn’t stink of brand shilling. For McGrady, this means no sponsored ads: “I have been approached about doing sponsored ads on my social media sites, but I think that can come across as disingenuous. With TMacsDeals, I can provide a service to my fans by helping them save money on brands they actually use.” And that’s really the key — not only for athletes, but brands in general. McGrady likely has a built-in audience of young sports fans (especially on Facebook), so offering athletics-related deals makes sense. Of course, it’s not so easy for all brands to find their niche, but still, it’s essential. What’s more, with businesses flocking to social media, it behooves influencers to lead the way, to not treat social media as advertising (even if it is, let it be secondary), but instead as a communication tool. As always, ROI is the defining metric for every social media strategy, with engagement coming in at the top. Social media creates an opportunity for dialogue between athletes or brands and their fans, and that interactive experience is far more engaging (and authenticity-inducing) than anything else. If McGrady can ensure that TMacsDeals (especially the Facebook portion) remains a two-way street, rather than something that’s groomed and stultifying, then he’s definitely going to see some traction. There’s plenty more he can do from the engagement side, but as of now, the casual appearance and design of the site works in its favor, and, if the site’s early engagement is any indication, it probably won’t be long before other pros follow suit. For more, check out TMacDeals at home here and on Facebook here.
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| Got Facebook Pics? Transform Them Into Wall Art With CanvasPop Posted: 13 Mar 2012 05:08 AM PDT  If ever there was a meeting ground between your decorative tastes and your virtual self, it would be CanvasPop. The service lets you upload photos, even those taken with a cameraphone, and blows them up onto canvas to hang in your home. It’s pretty nifty to say the least, though until today the fun was limited to uploads and Instagram photos. But CanvasPop is ready to go big, thus introducing the option to blow up and print out Facebook photos. The truth of the matter is, we rarely ever see the photos we treasure most in any greater size than a few thousand pixels. CanvasPop changes that, taking your favorite shots that may have always remained virtual and bringing them into the real world. And don’t worry if the picture you want to CanvasPop happens to be small and pixelated. CanvasPop specializes in image upsizing, as proven by its history enlarging Instagram photos for users over the past six months. But CanvasPop is about more than just putting your pictures on canvas — the service centers around artistic photography. That said, the site will let you choose between various filters (not unlike what you’d see on Instagram) before printing them out. CanvasPop offers sizes anywhere from 8 x 10 to 24 x 72 with prices ranging from $30 to $419.
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| Quattro Alums Launch Mobile Targeting Startup Adelphic, Raise $2M Posted: 13 Mar 2012 04:38 AM PDT  Two mobile veterans who worked together at Quattro Wireless, the mobile ad network that formed the basis of Apple’s iAd program, are announcing a new company today called Adelphic Mobile. Jennifer Lum, who was the vice president of ad ops at Quattro, tells me that me that she teamed up with her Quattro colleague Changfeng Wang because they wanted to tackle some of the unsolved problems in mobile advertising. Specifically, she says that Wang has developed new “AudienceCube” targeting technology that should help “unlock” the brand badges for mobile campaigns, giving advertisers new insight about who exactly their ads are reaching. Adelphic’s Predictive Data Platform can be sold to advertisers and publishers to help them optimize campaigns. For example, Lum says Adelphic could partner with a publisher like TechCrunch to use predictive modeling to determine which members of its readership are likely to fall into a specific demographic, and to target ads based on those predictions. Early tests, which began in the third quarter of last year, have already shown a dramatic improvement in campaign results, she says. The company is also announcing a $2 million seed round of funding. General partner Antonio Rodriguez is joining Adelphic’s board of directors, and he compares Adelphic to the last Matrix investment that I talked to him about, The Echo Nest. There might not seem to be much connection between a music startup and mobile ad tech, but Rodriguez said both startups have taken a time-consuming process and improved it by making it technologically- and algorithmically-driven.
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| The Currency Cloud Secures $4M To Disrupt The Trillion Dollar Foreign Exchange Market Posted: 13 Mar 2012 04:15 AM PDT  Last year at GeeknRolla a little known startup appeared in the demo pit, but went on to win the admiration of judges in the startup competition. It’s the only time The Currency Cloud has made a public appearance, but today the startup has a inked a $4 million Series-A funding, led by Atlas Venture with follow-on participation from Anthemis Group. Maybe you don’t need to launch at SXSW to make noise? The company previously raised $2 million from Anthemis and others. The money will be used to ramp up product and commercial activity. Now, there’s something typically London about this company, which suggests it probably couldn’t have come from anywhere else. The Currency Cloud has developed a Foreign Exchange (FX) payments automation platform which supercharges the tired old world of cross-border business payments, aiming to reduce costs for business and make multi-currency payments more frictionless. Why is this interesting? Well, we’re talking about a team from the City of London that built the UBS online FX platform bringing their skills and experience to the combined revolutionary powers of the Cloud and SaaS. Since FX is one of the last great ripoffs in finance, this might actually be a pretty big deal. Obviously Foreign Exchange is a big market to attack. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at over $4 trillion. The startup now has over 100 corporate customers using the company’s SaaS offering and 20+ platform partners using its API. Think Stripe (a developer-friendly way to accept payments) but geared toward Foreign Exchange and you are close to what The Currency Cloud is. Mike Laven, CEO and veteran of the West Coast tech scene, says “Businesses everywhere need to deal in multi-currencies in every working day. Yet the methods being used are antiquated and expensive to all but the largest corporates and the banks. Our re-design of the industry business model delivers price transparency, risk management and ease of use.” Fred Destin, Partner, Atlas Ventures, says FX remains error-prone, low tech and expensive and think the startup can “take costs out and bring transparency and automation in.” Sean Park, co-founder, Anthemis Group, added: "Selling one currency to buy another should not be that hard. Yet for the millions of companies and individuals doing so today is too often a painful and expensive experience.” It looks like The Currency Cloud is on to something.
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| ‘Social’ Investment Network eToro Is Picking Up Another $15 Million From Spark, Others Posted: 13 Mar 2012 12:41 AM PDT  eToro, the investment network that uses real-time features to let users follow and trade based on other users’ activities, has raised another $15 million in funding in a venture round led by Spark Capital with participation from existing investors BRM, Guy Gamzu and Jonathan Kolber. The new round takes the total amount of funding in the Israel-based company to $33.9 million. Billing itself as a disruptive social trading platform, the company has seen some strong growth over the last year, and now claims to be the world’s largest online investment network, with more than 2 million users across 140 countries, with traded positions on the network growing by more than 500 percent in the period. While there are a fair number of companies out there that cater to the armchair investor — letting individuals play the stock market without having to invest vast sums or deal with brokers — the unique thing about eToro (electronic bull, geddit?) is that it takes the investment model and gives it a kind of Twitter/Klout twist: the central feature of the site is a river charting what all of the other users are doing on the network, right there and then. Then eToro takes that one step further: using its CopyTrader function, you can “follow” others on the network, to watch what they do, and even invest money to mimic their trading activities — a bit like going to a casino and putting money down on someone having a lucky streak at the Craps table. eToro says that on average the “win ratios” for those who copy traders is 80 percent. The traders who get followed, as a result, have a double revenue stream: one from their trades (if they’re good) and one from those who copy their trades: Yoni Assia, the company’s founder and CEO, tells me that the company pays its members $10 per follower per month. The most popular user at the moment, “Moksel1972” from Germany, has just over 3,000 copiers, and nearly 20,000 followers. For the record, he’s a currency trader and 99.6 percent of his trades have been profitable. eToro, like other investing sites, takes a commission on the trades made — but otherwise does not charge for its service. Assia says this commission is competitive with those of other trading networks. Assia says its spreads are on average 0.03 percent of the value of the deal. (The spread varies between instruments between 0.03 percent to 0.1 percent.) This is a compelling model, and one that has the opportunity of bringing in people into the stock market who have often thought of investing but have been reluctant to do so for lack of knowledge and experience. And the full disclosure on trades also pulls down the curtain on a process that a lot of people regard with wariness (especially in recent times, with all the banking fiascoes). There is a lot of growth left to do for eToro. Assia says the new funds will be used to hire more employees — their numbers have already doubled in the last year to 200 in Europe, the U.S., Australia and Israel — and to invest in more R&D. But there are other areas where we might also see some activity coming up: for example, the company has yet to properly launch in the U.S. — partly because it needs to still finalize licenses and partnerships (required by regulations) to be enable the “CopyTrader” service. Assia tells me that the company expects a proper U.S. entry later this year. Equally, for the moment the company runs its platform as a retail-only operation, but Assia says that it is also speaking with a number of other institutions to white-label this service. “We are working with the top investment houses on a white label services, including a couple of banks and financial institutions,” he tells me. “That will give them the ability to offer our services on a wide consumer basis.” If that comes to pass, this may not be the last we see of this bull.
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| Combining Yelp & Twitter For Foodies, Fondu’s Redesign Beefs Up Recommendations, Discovery Posted: 12 Mar 2012 10:26 PM PDT  At TechCrunch Disrupt NYC last year, Gauri Manglik, Mike Lewis, and Orion Burt launched SpotOn, a recommendation engine in app, which served its users suggested local businesses based on their friends’ activity on Foursquare, Facebook, and more. The co-founders quickly found, however, that its customers were using the app more as a social networking tool than for its recommendations. So, based on user feedback, the team changed directions and built a new app, today called Fondu. Manglik describes the new service as “Twitter meets Yelp for restaurants,” in that the team wanted to solve Yelp’s noise problem not with more noise from Twitter, but by targeted, friendsourced recommendations. In other words, a review written on Yelp goes into a community directory, meaning that the recommendations you peruse likely come from people you don’t know, and most users want to skip past the noise right to their immediate network when looking for a new place to grab a bite. Thus, with Fondu, you only see reviews from your friends, or the most popular reviews that have been one-upped by the Fondu community. What’s more, Fondu has officially launched a redesign that, among the new features, shows that the app is getting serious about search and discovery. The redesign includes a new search and discovery tab to replace the old “Popular” tab, which allows users to search for anything from “sushi” to “dive bar” and view relevant nearby reviews, prioritized by those written by friends. For those who remember SpotOn, the new discovery feature also resurrects a map mode that enables users to swipe through destinations on an interactive map. Fondu users have written over 20,000 reviews of restaurants across the world (with the majority focusing on New York, San Francisco, and Seattle), and now every review on Fondu has a “bookmark” button that allows one to save the review to their own bookmark list, which is also viewable on Fondu’s map mode. This means that, as users move about town on the go, they can see the places they have saved that they either wanted to try for the first time or couldn’t wait to try again. Users also now have easy access to this list and the map of their bookmarks on the app’s “Friends Feed.” The new Fondu also boasts the ability to snap photos to include as context in those bite-sized reviews, whether it’s a photo of the food itself, the ambiance, or company, along with the ability to recommend restaurants directly to friends and family. After visiting a bar that you know your best friend will love, for example, users can simply add them in the “recommend to friends” section, which works even if they aren’t on Fondu. Users can send recommendations through email, Facebook, or Twitter. Fondu isn't just making its users happy though—the team has also begun partnering with restaurants like GustOrganics in NYC that are top-rated among its users, taking a cue from Zagat and others by offering restaurants the chance to display those top-rated stickers in their windows. Of course, this is all well and good, but there is plenty of competition for user attention in the foodie app space. Google’s $151 million acquisition of Zagat means that the company will be playing an important role in Google’s SoLoMo strategy, but while Zagat has plenty of brand recognition, the app is still priced at $10, so there’s plenty of room for free apps to undercut it price-wise. That still leaves the immensely popular Yelp, as well as apps like IAC’s Urbanspoon, which offers some similar features to the fast-growing app, and Food Finder. Matchbook also offers a nifty bookmarking feature, with some great deals to boot. Plus, there’s Tasted Menu. So, in the end, it really comes down to price, design, and whether or not your friends are actually using it. Fondu wins on pricing, and it looks great, but it’s still lacking a bit in the last area. Yelp is a monster in terms of reviews and it’s great for finding places quickly, within reach, but Fondu can beat Yelp in terms of ease of use, its reviews are succinct and more likely to be about restaurants you actually care about. There’s still plenty of room for a new personalized, friendsourced foodie app to be successful, but those friends have to be there (and be active) for it to win on the user experience front. For more, check out Fondu on the App Store here and at home here.
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| Samsung Finally Pushes Ice Cream Sandwich To The Galaxy S IIs Of The World Posted: 12 Mar 2012 08:47 PM PDT  Well, after a bit of a false start, Samsung finally seems to have done it. According to a new blog post on the official Samsung Tomorrow blog, the Korean consumer electronics giant has finally begun to push their Ice Cream Sandwich update out to the Galaxy S IIs of the world. And with that, Galaxy S II owners began once again to feel the love. Or at least, most of them did. The update in question is meant for international spec Galaxy S II (the GT-I9100), so State-side owners of a AT&T/T-Mobile Galaxy S II or a Sprint Epic 4G Touch won’t be joining in the official fun just yet. Aside from going live in the company's native Korea later today, users in Poland, Hungary, and Sweden will be among the first to get the long-awaited update via the Kies software manager. Rest assured that other markets will soon follow, though Samsung doesn't get any more specific than that. In their official announcement, Samsung has also confirmed that the Ice Cream Sandwich update will "follow soon" for the Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II LTE, and the 8.9 and 10.1-inch Galaxy Tabs. On top of that, Samsung will soon push out new updates that bring features like Face Unlock and a revamped photo editor to devices like the Galaxy S (and its Super Clear LCD variant), Galaxy Tab 7, Galaxy S Plus, and the Galaxy W. Though there's no word yet on when any of these updates will hit, expect Samsung to mistakenly announce it on their Indonesian portal before pulling the post and telling people to watch their Twitter account for news instead.
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| Motorola Further Details ICS Rollout, But Is Verizon Delaying The Ice Cream Party In The States? Posted: 12 Mar 2012 08:42 PM PDT  Slowly but surely Ice Cream Sandwich will hit last year’s flagship Android phones. Motorola just updated its ICS schedule that details the expected timetable for each device. The biggest change is that ICS is now scheduled for non-U.S. RAZR models. But that’s seemingly the case for most Moto devices. For the most part ICS will hit Moto devices starting in the second quarter — but only for non-Verizon devices in the U.S. Here in the States the status of ICS for the majority of Motorola’s devices is still listed as “Evaluation & Planning” with “Further details to follow”. The updated ICS rollout schedule lists 13 U.S. devices: three are WiFi-only tablets, two are AT&T-only, one is for Sprint, one is for U.S. Cellular and the rest are Verizon devices. Wanna guess which devices do not have an expected rollout date? Take the U.S.-only XYBoard for example: ICS is scheduled to hit the WiFi-only model in the third quarter. The 3G/VZW model is in the Evaluation & Planning stage. The RAZR devices in Asia Pacific, Canada, China, EMEA, Japan, Korea & LATAM will get Ice Cream Sandwich in the second quarter. ICS isn’t scheduled for the US RAZR nor any of the Droid devices — all of which are exclusive to Verizon. The oddball device here is the Motorola Electrify, which is basically a U.S. Cellular-badged version of Sprint’s Photon 4G without a WiMax radio. The Sprint version is set to get the update in Q3 2012 where the U.S. Cellular version is still listed as “Evaluation & Planning” with “Further details to follow”. Several things could be going on here but it all likely loops back to the carrier. It’s possible that each carrier has their own set of stringent evaluation processes and requirements for major system updates, and Motorola of course has to play nice with their carrier partners. In Verizon’s case a number of things could be going on. Verizon might want to set the schedule itself. Or Verizon could just be playing it safe. The carrier’s early history with the Gingerbread update was buggy and left many owners (including me) with bricked devices. But don’t fret, Verizon subs. Motorola reiterated previous statements saying, “DROID RAZR, DROID RAZR MAXX, DROID 4, DROID BIONIC, DROID XYBOARD 8.2 and 10.1, and MOTOROLA XOOM WiFI + 3G/4G will be upgraded to ICS.” It would just be nice if Moto could communicate the expected timetable with its loyal supporters. Maintaining Android updates must be a huge task for Motorola and others. Google is holding to a yearly release schedule, but manufacturers are seemingly marching to a different beat. By the time the RAZR, XYBOARDs and Moto’s other flagship devices finally get Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean will be only several months away from launching. Once Google officially absorbs Motorola, the two will work to solve this strange delayed rollout scheme, but that will not help Samsung, LG and others. Speaking as a Droid X owner, the practice is frustrating and very anti-consumer. Google often talks down Android’s system fragmentation but the problem is only getting worse. [image via flickr/Eric Hauser]
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| UK Researchers Plan Mobile Real-Time Sign Language Translation App Posted: 12 Mar 2012 06:29 PM PDT  With real-time translation of text common on the web and instantaneous speech-to-text gaining popularity, it seems that transliteration is cool again. But less obvious, and more difficult, methods of input are yet to be implemented. Case in point: sign language. The complicated and often contextual gestures form a vast visual vocabulary that isn’t easily captured or interpreted. A team of British researchers, however, is making the attempt, creating a tool that translates a set of standard signs into readable text, in real time. It’s called the Portable Sign language Translator, and it should be out next year. The signer would gesture as normal towards a camera on a phone or PC, and it would instantly translate based on a database of signs. Right now they are planning to support British Sign Language, but the system is perfectly capable of handling ASL, Makaton, and international languages and alphabets. It is possible, however, that the static set of known symbols may still be limiting to signers, so the app will also allow the user to create their own signs for more complicated or personal objects. The obvious application is for day-to-day communication between someone who cannot speak and someone who cannot understand sign language. But a visual, gestural language could be useful in other situations as well, and not just to people with disabilities. Multimodal communication is becoming the standard for interacting with our technology, and while heretofore we have communicated largely with inorganic tools, so to speak, such as the mouse and keyboard. Directly interacting with a machine that understands our voice, gestures, and position is going to produce extremely rich interaction methods in the future. In the meantime, the app is being developed by Technabling, a company spun off from the University of Aberdeen. They plan to release it as a product next year, though there is no word of platforms or price. It is being funded by the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Small Business Research Initiative.
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| Intel Eyes Web TV As Aereo Turns Legal Screws On Networks [Docs] Posted: 12 Mar 2012 06:14 PM PDT  It’s hard to believe we’re not stuck in some strange time warp, as it’s beginning to feel (again) like TV is the next hot thing. Well, really, web TV. For one, The Wall Street Journal today reported that Intel is rumored to be developing a web-based, pay-TV service and reportedly has been pitching media companies on creating a “virtual cable operator” that would offer TV channels to U.S. consumers in a “bundle similar to subscriptions sold by cable and satellite TV operators.” According to these reports, Intel will be offering its own set-top box to carry the service. Regardless of the fact that the chip company has struggled with consumer-facing (and set-top) offerings, Intel’s purported service would join GoogleTV, AppleTV, and a host of other companies already offering set-top boxes like Roku and Boxee. Of course, as much as Aereo, the New York-based startup backed by $20 million+ from IAC recently entered the fray with big plans to actually make a dent in this problem with a cloud-based service that streams over-the-air channels for just $12 a month. (You can read more background on the service here.) Of course, just like so many that have come before it, Aereo seems inherently subject to having to change its DVR-in-the-cloud model or to fighting it out with the networks in court. And now it’s countersuing. Last week, a group of broadcasters, which includes Fox, Univision, and PBS filed two separate lawsuits against Aereo (with those two groups collectively representing most of the major media outlets in New York City), as well as an injunction based on the grounds of Copyright Act infringements, which if granted, would prevent Aereo from releasing its product on the market. Shortly thereafter, Aereo released a statement saying, in short, that the broadcasters’ case did not have “any merit.” (Statement and more background here.) The interest in this case also prompted me to take a lengthy look at whether or not Aereo actually has any shot at winning this case. Despite many indications otherwise, I was hopeful. Speaking at SXSW this weekend, Barry Diller, the Chairman and CEO of IAC (the principal investor in Aereo), made it clear that both he and Aereo expected the broadcast networks to resist, and that the issue would likely be resolved in court. (Obviously it would have been a huge mistake not to prepare for this end.) As reported by CNET, Diller said, “This is not some evil thing … This is absolutely predictable. Media companies have hegemony over broadcast TV and they want to protect it.” Diller and Aereo are both of the mind that what they’re doing is completely legal — and not only that — they shouldn’t have to pay retransmission fees either. (Under their conception, this is because each customer would own their own antenna and thus have rights to free, publicly transmitted broadcasts of network TV.) Diller said that he’d recently met with reps from the networks in New York and told them:
Given the trajectory of this back-and-forth with the networks, the news today that Aereo has officially countersued is expected, but it’s further evidence that neither Diller nor Aereo will be backing down from the battle anytime soon. And given Diller’s penchant for mixing it up with traditional media, and his own cloud as a long-time media exec himself, there aren’t a whole lot of people better suited for this battle. After all, with the growing interest among big tech companies (and the public) in this issue, it was either Aereo or someone else. Hey, maybe it could be Ora.tv and Larry King! (Probably not.) After writing this post, we heard from Carlos Nicholas Fernandes, the CEO of RecordTV.com, which launched a similar service in Singapore back in 2007. They were taken to court, lost at first, but eventually won against the state-owned broadcaster, MediaCorp in a landmark ruling. That ruling formed the basis of Optus’ landmark victory in Australia, as it is referenced extensively in the judgement. (No idea what I’m talking about? More here.) The point is that Aereo’s case stands to be a big one. Given what’s at stake, this will probably take a long time to resolve, and could travel all the way up the high courts in appeals, etc. But, given the RecordTV and Optus decisions, there are certainly precedents working in favor of Aereo. Aereo only filed one suit today, but a company spokesman said that the “second filing will happen in due course.” So, again, it’s clear, this battle is just heating up. Well, not only that, Diller and company want swift resolution, as the IAC CEO is already saying that he expects the service to be in 75 to 100 cities within a year. A bold statement even if it’s not likely to hold true; either way, all those wanna-be cord cutters out there should be paying attention. Here’s Aereo’s official statement:
Lawsuit below:
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| Just.me Wants To Be The Go-To Social App On Your Phone Posted: 12 Mar 2012 05:28 PM PDT  Keith Teare, co-founder of TechCrunch and partner at incubator Archimedes Labs, isn’t thinking small when it comes to his new project Just.me — he says that it’s “asking and answering the question of what would happen if the phone was upgraded to be truly social.” The app hasn’t launched yet, but Teare previewed it today at the South by Southwest Startup Accelerator, and I got a few more details from him afterward. Right now, he says that if you want to share something from your phone, you have to open a different app depending on whether you want to share a text update, a photo, or a video, and depending on who you want to share it with. Teare’s goal is for users to open Just.me whenever they want to capture a moment, and then to share that content with whoever they want, on multiple social networks. You tap a button to create a “message” on Just.me, and that message can be a photo, a video, an audio recording, or plain text. Then you can keep it completely private, share it with a limited group of people, or post it publicly (in the last case, you can also post it to Facebook or Twitter). The ultimate result should be a fairly comprehensive record of your life, some of which has been shared, some of which is just for yourself. It’s similar to the Google Circles model of sharing, except with the option to keep things completely private, and designed specifically for the mobile experience. (I also know people who use Path as their “default” social app, sharing everything with a close circle on Path and then deciding what’s worth pushing more broadly on other apps — but on Path itself, everything is shared with the same group of people, without the solo option or the ability pick-and-choose recipients). It looks easy to create collaborative threads or albums — once someone shares a message with you, say a photo at an event, you could respond with photos of your own. At the same time, you retain control over every message you create, so you can stop sharing it with someone whenever you want — if I created a thread with a coworker and they left TechCrunch, I can hide that content from them. Just.me also implements some of the ideas that Teare has been presenting in guest columns at TechCrunch, specifically that “the address book was stolen by web 2.0,” and that the smartphone creates the possibility for users to take back control. So you share Just.me messages using your address book (for example, you could email them a link to a video), but that contact information is never uploaded onto Just.me’s servers. As for the business model, Just.me will be including brands in the mix — users can add brands to their address book, thereby enabling private offers; and brands can also push public messages into the update stream. Just.me plans to release its apps later this year. It has raised funding from Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, Google Ventures, True Ventures, Betaworks, CrunchFund (which is of course tied up with TechCrunch in several ways, including the fact that our parent company AOL is an investor), and individuals including Don Dodge and Michael Parekh.
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