The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Reddit Transforms Into Incredibly Informative Real-Time News Source For Aurora Shooting
- Google Acquires iOS/Mac Email Client Sparrow, Apps To Remain Available But Development Stopped
- Amazon, Warner Bros. Licensing Deal Brings More TV Shows To Prime Instant Video
- Rocket Internet’s New Site Reveals A Huge Global Cloning Operation In Full Flow
- Kayak And Palo Alto IPOs Looking Better Than Facebook’s (Whew!)
- Kickstarter: FLASHr Wants To Make The iPhone’s Bezel A Massive Notification Light
- HTC Confirms Jelly Bean Updates For Most One Series Smartphones
- DreamIt Ventures Heads To Austin For A Little Pre-SXSW Entrepreneurin’
- YC-Backed Photo Sharing Service PicPlum Gets A Revamp; Mobile App & API Are Next
- Spoonflower Lets You Design And Sell Your Own Custom Fabric
- The New iPad Launches In China Without Incident
- Bookpocalypse: Adult Fiction eBook Sales Now Greater Than Hardcover Revenue
- The Power Users Are Revolting
- Autonomy Founder Mike Lynch Looks Set To Launch Investment Fund Post HP
- From Startup To Incubator: Games Distributor HitFox Launches HitFox Game Ventures
- Electronic Arts Comes Out Against Defense Of Marriage Act
- 4 Ways Dell Is Becoming An Open Source Company
- Pinterest Has Been Locking Accounts In Response To Hacks, May Not Know The Cause Of Security Breach
- Facebook Begins Testing Sponsored Results, Its First Search Typeahead Ads
- How’s Skype Doing At MSFT? Usage Jumps 50%, Users Logged 115B Minutes Of Calls Last Quarter
| Reddit Transforms Into Incredibly Informative Real-Time News Source For Aurora Shooting Posted: 20 Jul 2012 09:37 AM PDT  Victims and witnesses of last night’s horrific shooting in Aurora, Colorado have turned to Reddit for support and news updates, transforming the online news aggregator into one of the best sources of information on the evolving story. A continuously updated board of victim status and their current hospital sits atop a rolling update of critical news, including pictures, video, and essential information about the situation, making it quite possibly the quickest way to get essential news for those needing information on potential victims (more informative than the government websites and local news channels). The incredible outpouring of eyewitness journalism and support has turned the humble news aggregator into an impressive source of information in the midst of a national crisis. Early after the shooting, a man claiming to have been shot posted photos of his wounds in the “WTF” vertical of Reddit (warning: graphic photos). “i am one of the 50 wounded in the aurora theatre shooting. here are a few photos of my very lucky but nonethless terrifying brush with death. my thoughts go out to those less fortunate than me,” he wrote, which has received 5800 Reddit votes so far and hundreds of comments. The initial post was followed by another alleged victim, who reached out for support to “calm” her nerves as she recovered from the incident. “Someone came into our theater at the midnight release of Dark Knight Rises and began opening fire. Who here on Reddit can help me calm my nerves?”, she posted, which opened a deeply personal conversation between the user and the commenters, including other victims looking for the same solace. “Thank you for the well wishes everyone. Heart is still racing,” she followed up, in thanks to the community. Perhaps the most endearing utility of Reddit’s outpouring of support came in the form of spreadsheet of victim status, updated with the number of deaths, wounded, and casualties, including their location at the 6 area hospitals. Admittedly, the information likely contains some inaccuracies, given the loose nature of the submitters and turbulence of the situation (Twitter has been known to spread misinformation in time of crisis). The impressive usefulness of Twitter compares interestingly to common news sources and government sources. Aurora.gov’s website was crippled by the incoming traffic, NY Times map of the situation was certainly helpful, but not to those looking for support, and I couldn’t find any of the same information on the Colorado 9 News website, which was covered with live video and testimony of the story, but no immediately apparent information on victims. The comparison stands as an intriguing testimony to the priority of user-generated content vs. more traditional outlets. Our hearts go out to the victims and their loved ones of the tragedy. Please be respectful in the comments as we discuss the proper role of journalism and online community for this incident.
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| Google Acquires iOS/Mac Email Client Sparrow, Apps To Remain Available But Development Stopped Posted: 20 Jul 2012 09:21 AM PDT  Google just acquired Sparrow, the company behind the popular iOS and OS X email client. The company’s team, says Sparrow CEO Dom Leca, will be joining Google’s Gmail team “to accomplish a bigger vision – one that we think we can better achieve with Google.” Sparrow raised a small seed round of funding from French VC firm Kima Ventures in 2011 but did not take any other outside investments since. Neither Google nor Sparrow disclosed the financial details of the acquisition. Sparrow says its applications will continue to be available for the time being, but according to an email the company just sent to its users, the Sparrow team, we won’t see any updates to the apps anytime soon: “”However, as we'll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps.”
Chances are that some of Sparrow’s work will flow into Google’s mobile clients. Google’s own Gmail client obviously had a rough start while Sparrow quickly garnered a loyal following on both the Mac and iOS. Sparrow’s OS X application launched in October 2011 and its iOS app launched in March 2012. It still remains to be seen for how long Google plans to support Sparrow’s Mac client. Until now, Google did not offer its own native email client for any operating system and given Google’s focus on the web, it seems unlikely that the company would continue to fund the development of a desktop email client. It’s also unclear if Google will continue to charge for Sparrow’s apps. The Mac app currently costs $9.99 and the iOS client costs $2.99. Here is the full announcement from Sparrow:
We also want to thank our advisors and investors — Loren Brichter, Dave Morin, John Maeda, Xavier Niel, Jérémie Berrebi — as well as our friends and family: Simon Istolainen, Jérémie Kanza, Sacha Cayre, Cedric Gepner, Laurent Merlinot, Didier Kuhn, Christophe Baillon, Laurent Cerveau, Christophe Giaume, Sebastien Maury, Manuel Colom, Bertrand Guiheneuf and all of you who have helped us along the way.
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| Amazon, Warner Bros. Licensing Deal Brings More TV Shows To Prime Instant Video Posted: 20 Jul 2012 09:05 AM PDT  Amazon today announced that it has struck a licensing deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution to bring more TV shows to its Prime Instant Video catalog. Among these new shows are The West Wing, Fringe, Dark Blue, Alcatraz and The Whole Truth. According to Amazon, both Fringe and The West Wing will be available exclusively on Prime Instant Video for the summer. In total, Amazon’s subscription video streaming service now feature about 18,000 movies and TV episodes. With Amazon Instant Video, the company also features about 120,000 titles that users can purchase or rent. Prime Instant Video is mostly meant as an extra perk for subscribers to Amazon’s $79/year two-day shipping service. In addition to “free” access to the streaming video library, users also get to borrow books for their Kindle devices. In a canned statement, Ken Werner, the president of Warner Bos. Domestic Television Distribution acknowledges that digital distribution is going to become increasingly important to his business. “As more and more television content is enjoyed by fans across a myriad of subscription channels and platforms and on numerous devices from televisions to tablets, deals such as this give consumers the opportunity to discover, catch-up, or simply enjoy a favorite series again and again." Almost exactly a year ago, Amazon also announced that it had reached deals with CBS and NBCUniversal to bring about 11,000 movies and TV shows to its Prime service. Despite these deals, though, Amazon’s Prime catalog still remains relatively small compared to Hulu’s and Netflix’s.
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| Rocket Internet’s New Site Reveals A Huge Global Cloning Operation In Full Flow Posted: 20 Jul 2012 08:49 AM PDT  Rocket Internet, the secretive incubator vehicle and some-time clone factory piloted by the billionaire Samwer Brothers out of Berlin, is all of a sudden becoming more open about its activities. Local blog Deutsche Startups has noticed that instead of a pretty dull home page as before, Rocket’s site has now been spruced up immensely. Rocket is famously coy about its activities in order not to alert rivals to their next cloning project, which makes sense when you are ripping off Amazon’s design or cloning Square. As a result of the refreshed site It’s now much clearer where their operation lies, and it’s wide. Aside from Germany, they are running sites in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Pakistan and Morocco to name just some of the countries where their mostly e-commerce oriented clones are operating. It operates in 25 offices on five continents and is active in over 40 countries. The global portfolio thus consists of more than 50 active companies. Rocket Worldwide currently employs over 700 people, but its headcounts including startups adds up to around 15,000 employees. The management team is also extensive, but nowhere is mention made of the Samwers, and there appear to be only pictures of Rocket managers, not the Samwers themselves (unless we missed something?). It’s also clearer now who their backers are: Access Industries, DST Global, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Kinnevik, New Enterprise Associates and Summit Partners. Usually, the only time you’ll see the Samwers appear in the press is when they are raising a new round of funding, as we did earlier this year with big articles in the likes of Wired magazine and Business Week (unless they are walking out of interviews). So with all that PR, don’t expect any more interviews with them for a while. There are two main reasons why Rocket Internet has de-cloaked to a much greater extent. Either it’s finding it harder to recruit the typically MBA-trained executives it needs for its high execution rate companies. Or their high growth means they need to look more attractive to potential recruits. Whatever the case they have taken on huge new offices in the centre of Berlin, where most of the job openings are currently. Though surprisingly no mention is made of the kinds of emails you might get from managers. Certainly, they have lost talent after a whole rafter of experienced managers left to form Project A Ventures. The Deutsche Startups blog’s reporting is well timed, but not unexpected. It’s ultimately owned by the Samwer brothers. (German media gets complicated – the competing Gründerszene is owned by Samwer rival Lukasz Gadowski, of the Team Europe incubator.
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| Kayak And Palo Alto IPOs Looking Better Than Facebook’s (Whew!) Posted: 20 Jul 2012 08:20 AM PDT  Happy IPO Friday! Two tech startups are making their public debuts today: Palo Alto Networks and Kayak Software, and so far, so good on both. Morgan Stanley, scapegoat for the troubled Facebook IPO brouhaha, is leading both, for what it’s worth. Kayak priced its IPO last night at $26 per share, and is looking to raise $91 million at a valuation of $1 billion. Originally, the travel company was looking at shares priced between $22 and $25. Palo Alto, meanwhile, offered 6.2 million shares at $42 each, after raising the price range from $38-$40 last week, which was up from $34-$37, originally. Both are now trading up. KAYAKTrading under “KYAK,” the IPO is for 3.5 million Class A shares, and all those issued prior will be converted to Class B shares with 10 votes each. Piper Jaffray, Stifel Nicolaus Weisel and Pacific Crest Securities are co-managers for the offering, with Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank Securities jointly leading. Kayak has 185 employees as of June 30th. In Kayak’s previous quarter, the travel company reported $73.3 million in revenue, up 39% from $52.7 million in the year-ago quarter, and net income of $4.1 million, or 11 cents per share, fully diluted. Revenue is generated by ads and referrals to airlines, hotels, rental cars, etc. But you knew all that, right? Here’s the big idea behind Kayak: it makes the still amazingly super-painful process of booking online travel easier by indexing hundreds of travel sites together so you can find the best prices for your flight, hotel, rental car, or cruise. Kayak lets users book on site, which offers a better user experience. It also has expanded to offer tools that help users interact with the service beyond the initial booking – for example, its Trip Management feature lets travelers build itineraries which can be shared with family and friends and viewed from mobile. This is the kind of thing that helps users develop loyalty, because the service becomes thought of as more than a booking tool. In 2011, the site saw 899 million user queries, which was 42% up from 2010. People like this thing. Kayak's mobile apps have been downloaded over 15 million times since their debut in March 2009. During the past quarter, those apps were downloaded 3 million times, or 43% growth over the same time last year. Kayak has been busy focusing on product since its original filing (ages ago, in late 2010! – yep, Kayak delayed a lot. “Market conditions.” Hmm.) It launched a redesigned iPad app, updated its website's UI in order to offer a more universal consumer experience across web, mobile and apps, and launched direct booking for flights. But it also lost its first-ever CFO Willard (Bill) Smith, who joined in May of 2011 to help Kayak move towards an IPO. He left the company for a competitor. One of the biggest threats to Kayak is Google, which bought ITA’s travel search software and launched an ITA-integrated search product of its own called Google Travel. ITA’s software is used by other travel search providers, including Kayak, Expedia, and Microsoft. This morning, Kayak is up (as of time of writing) 27.85% to $33.24. PALO ALTOSanta Clara-based Palo Alto Networks, a network security startup known for its firewall tech, is offering 4,687,259 company shares and stockholders are selling 1,512,741 shares (totaling 6.2 million), and was looking to raise $260.4 million. VC’s Greylock and Sequoia (22.3% before, 20.7% after) aren’t selling. The deal is being led by Morgan Stanley, and includes Credit Suisse, Barclays, UBS and Raymond James. For the July 2011 fiscal year, the company, valued at $2.8 billion, had revenue of $118.6 million, up from $13.4 million in 2009, and narrowed its loss from $21.1 million a year earlier to $12.5 million. In the nine months ending April 30, it brought in revenue of $179.5 million. The IPO was over-subscribed and this morning was trading up 31%. This morning, it started trading at $55.15 then climbed to $56.40, up 34%. Palo Alto’s IPO follows a successful IPO from IT management services provider ServiceNow Inc last month. More to come.
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| Kickstarter: FLASHr Wants To Make The iPhone’s Bezel A Massive Notification Light Posted: 20 Jul 2012 07:26 AM PDT  Putting fanboy bias away for a minute, I think we can all agree that the iPhone is an amazing device. But it’s not perfect. Chief among my criticisms is the lack of a true notification light rather than just the LED camera flash. This Kickstarter project aims to fix Apple’s oversight. The FLASHr is simply an iPhone case that supercharges the LED flash notification. Using a so-called Glow Frame, the LED flash illuminates several sides of the case, making the notification impossible to miss no matter how the phone is oriented. Spouses and dates will no doubt love this case. Owners will never miss a text message, email or call again! As explained on Kickstarter, the case is essentially made of three layers with an additional small part that reflects the LED flash onto the large glow frame. Each layer is available in five colors, resulting in 125 possible color combinations. The company is looking for a hefty $75,000 in pre-orders and as of this post’s writing, is currently at $1,500 with 35 days to go. Something this cool needs to be funded. Pledge $35 for one of six color combinations– my money went to the SilverFox. Drop down $50 for a slick special edition that uses a clear outer frame.
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| HTC Confirms Jelly Bean Updates For Most One Series Smartphones Posted: 20 Jul 2012 07:24 AM PDT  No one really expected HTC to let their newest smartphones languish without Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but it’s always nice to hear that sentiment confirmed straight from the source. Representatives from the Taiwanese company noted earlier this morning that the company’s flagship One X, One XL, and One S handsets would indeed get a taste of Jelly Bean at some point down the line. Engadget was also able to confirm that some of the North American carrier variants of those devices would also get the update, so owners of the the AT&T or Rogers One X and the T-Mobile One S will eventually get the chance to join in the fun. Sadly, there’s no word yet if modified models like Sprint’s EVO 4G LTE will get the delicious little update, but it’s almost certainly just a matter of time. Interestingly, one member of the One family is conspicuously absent from the list: the relatively-tiny One V. It launched both internationally and on Sprint’s Virgin Mobile subsidiary with the usual Sense-ified version of Ice Cream Sandwich, but there are rumblings that the under-the-hood improvements found in Jelly Bean may be too much for the device’s older Snapdragon S2 chipset. I wouldn’t worry too much if I were a One V owner though — someone is bound to cook up a Jelly Bean ROM for the little guy before long. As usual though, there was no mention of when the company would officially push out the update, though I suspect it won’t be making the rounds for some time. HTC has to ensure that their Sense 4.0 modifications jibe with Jelly Bean, and what’s more, the carriers have to put the builds through extensive testing. That part of the process already seems to have tripped up one Jelly Bean update push — Nexus S owners on Vodafone Australia were promised that the update would come this week, but The Next Web reports the rollout is being held up because Jelly Bean’s emergency call functionality isn’t up to regulatory standards.
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| DreamIt Ventures Heads To Austin For A Little Pre-SXSW Entrepreneurin’ Posted: 20 Jul 2012 07:23 AM PDT  The three-month long DreamIt Ventures accelerator program is landing in Austin in December, running for a full three months before unleashing the chosen startups on the crowds at SXSW in March 2013. DreamIt is also running events in Philadelphia and New York. This additional program will be run by Austinite Kerry Rupp. Citing Texas’ “vibrant” start-up community, Rupp will help launch a portion of the 45 companies running through the DreamIt gauntlet over the next year. "A successful startup community must cluster a variety of elements including world-class entrepreneurs, capital, professional service providers, startup leaders and mentors, universities, and a nurturing community,” said Rupp. "Austin has all these elements.” Applications will open this summer and you must move to Austin to participate but don’t worry: not all of Texas is the way you imagine it. Austin is pretty chill.
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| YC-Backed Photo Sharing Service PicPlum Gets A Revamp; Mobile App & API Are Next Posted: 20 Jul 2012 07:12 AM PDT  PicPlum, the Y Combinator-backed photo-sharing and printing startup that debuted last summer, is rolling out a major upgrade today. The focus, for the most part, has been on an improved user experience, offering everything from minor tweaks like address autocompletion, to new product offerings like more print sizes. But as a regular PicPlum user, I’m more excited about what they’re working on next: a mobile application and API that will allow any other developers to offer “print photos” from their camera or photo-sharing application. First of all, a confession: I’ve been using PicPlum since Day One, and I don’t think I’ve ever skipped a month. But I never use it from the web anymore, so all of today’s changes don’t impact my everyday experience that much. To catch you up: PicPlum is a photo printing service, in the same space as something like Shutterfly or Snapfish, for example, and admittedly, a more pricey one. While PicPlum touts its high quality prints, the real reason for the extra cents that makes it worthwhile (in my humble opinion) is that it’s dead simple and convenient to use. I honestly can’t say the same about the competition. For me, “usage” means emailing select photos from my iPhone’s Camera Roll to photos@picplum.com. Afterwards, everyone I’ve configured to receive them will be automatically shipped photo prints and/or a batch via email. But today’s upgrade will entice those who prefer to work with PicPlum on the web. Fro starters, they’ve made it easier for new users to get going – you don’t have to sign up before dragging-and-dropping your photos into the box on the homepage, for example. You add your photos, then add recipients via Facebook or optionally sign up for the service. Also new today are additional photo sizes: 4×6, 5×7 and 8×10′s are available, with the option to print text and dates on the back. In terms of features focused on ease of use, the service now completes typed-in addresses using Google’s Places API, fixes obvious typos (Gmial becomes Gmail, e.g.), and it helps you track down mailing addresses you don’t know with a feature called “ask for address.” You enter in the email address for the person, and PicPlum sends out a message to them telling them you would like to ship them photos, and provides a form where they can enter their address. When complete, the service automatically ships the photos to them, without any extra involvement needed by you. However, one of the more notable features in today’s upgrade are new “sharing” pages. You can now configure a customized email address which everyone at an event can use (baby showers, family reunions, weddings, etc.). All the photos are mailed into that address, and participants can later view all the photos everyone shared from the PicPlum website, with the option to print the photos they want to keep. The company has also added the ability to send a customized greeting alongside the printed photos. They’ll soon expand this feature with themes, so you’ll be able to use this for your holiday cards, for instance. Combined, all these new features make for a completely revamped online service today. However, what’s more exciting is what’s still in the works: a mobile photo-taking app with the ability to share to PicPlum and elsewhere on the web, which will hopefully make PicPlum even easier to use from mobile, since the iPhone limits you to five photos per message. Another item on the way is the PicPlum API, which will allow third-party developers to integrate photo printing services into their app - and even generate some income by doing so, unless they want to go white label. While PicPlum isn’t disclosing user numbers, co-founder Paul Stamatiou (who created PicPlum with Akshay Dodeja), says that 90% of its top users are new parents or families sending in 15-20 photos per week (guilty on all counts). Engagement is high with users returning monthly, and despite PicPlum not having a mobile app, 30% of the photos shared come from mobile devices. You can try out the new PicPlum from here.
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| Spoonflower Lets You Design And Sell Your Own Custom Fabric Posted: 20 Jul 2012 07:10 AM PDT  Our trip to the Southeast a couple weeks back offered up plenty of cool tech companies, but one that lingers in the memory is Spoonflower. And not because the name is so… catchy, either. The idea itself is actually quite interesting: Spoonflower lets the everyday Joe design their own fabric and have it printed to use for curtains, clothing, etc. This means that you can upload an image of you and your family on vacation and have it printed on mercerized cotton for t-shirts, blankets, etc. But even better than that, aspiring fabric designers now have access to a huge online marketplace, as you also have the option of selling your wares on Spoonflower. All you have to do is upload a JPG or TIF at 150 DPI and no larger than 25MB. From there, you can choose to center your image or repeat it in various ways like half-drop and half-brick. Based on which cotton type you choose, prices range from $17.50 to $38 per yard, and the more fabric you order the more prices go down. Click to view slideshow.
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| The New iPad Launches In China Without Incident Posted: 20 Jul 2012 06:18 AM PDT  Apple product launches in China traditionally draw big crowds. Thousands of prospective buyers (and scammers) usually amass outside Apple Stores, all hoping for a chance to buy the latest iDevice. This time around Apple turned to a reservation lottery system to curb some of the chaos. It seemed to work. The new iPad launched in mainland China earlier today and there was nary an uproar. As seen in the video below filed by Reuters‘ Jon Gordon, there was hardly a crowd at Apple’s flagship Beijing location. According to other reports China’s other Apple Stores saw short lines, too. Previous Apple launches drew huge crowds with some buyers waiting 8-12 hours for the devices. Apple utilized a reservation system for this launch, which required buyers to select a model and input their government ID to be entered into a lottery pool. Winners were then notified that they won a spot in line. This was done not only to keep the crowds to a minimum but also reduce scammers and scalpers from taking advantage of unsuspecting buyers. China is currently Apple’s second largest market. It remains to be seen if unscrupulous importers and dealers cut into Apple’s bottom line thanks to the new iPad’s delayed launch in China. For the foreseeable future the new iPad will only be available in mainland China through this reservation system. That said, the new iPad has been available in neighboring Hong Kong since March, which could also be one of the reasons for the low crowds. Since Hong Kong’s launch the new iPad has been readily available through importers — but of course at a price higher than the MSRP.
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| Bookpocalypse: Adult Fiction eBook Sales Now Greater Than Hardcover Revenue Posted: 20 Jul 2012 06:17 AM PDT  If you couldn’t tell from the massive e-sales of a tale about a young lady who loves to love the wrong man, ebooks are massively popular, doubling in 2011 to completely surpass sales of hardcover adult fiction. The Book Industry Study Group released their poll of 2,000 publishers yesterday, announcing that book sales declined 2.5 percent in 2011, down to $27.2 billion from $27.9 in 2010. Ebooks brought in $2 billion in 2011 while most revenue still came from print. The BISG abstract notes that retail sales remain the top sales channel for publishers in 2011 although direct-to-consumer sales doubled to $1 billion. Given that it’s probably in the publisher’s best interests to report that retail sales are still strong, we can take that last note with a grain of salt. From where I sit – with a Kindle Fire and a Nook at my left hand and an iPad at my right – it looks like the slow decline of the dead tree book is continuing apace.
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| Posted: 20 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT  Digg, which in its heyday was effectively run by its power users, is dying. Wikitravel is probably joining it: two-thirds of its admins want to jump ship to the greener grass of the Wikimedia Foundation. Who in turn have their own people problems–a stubborn gender gap and a diminishing number of active admins. Meanwhile, across the Web, people are asking “Is StackOverflow being ruined by its moderators?” There’s a common thread here. Site starts up; site scales; a power-law minority of its users become its key community, and if/when that community withers, the entire site is endangered. The examples above are edge cases who explicitly assign admin rights to unpaid users, or take the power law to its extreme. But they indicate a larger point. Like it or not, we live in the Age of Social Media, and the wars for dominance have begun. Facebook bought Instagram as a defensive move. They’re clearly in Google’s sights–and before you laugh, bear in mind that Google+ traffic is apparently up 43% since December and now surpasses LinkedIn’s. Path is gunning for Facebook too, whether they admit it or not. App.net just set its sights on Twitter. Meanwhile, Reddit is rampant, Pinterest just erupted out of nowhere, and Quora continues to underachieve. But how do you conquer an enemy social network? Not with features alone. A nifty new feature like Google+’s Hangouts can and will get people to your site, but it won’t keep them there. Users will only stay if they find a community there, whether it’s public like Quora, semi-public like Twitter, semi-private like Facebook, or private like Path. Once established, a community doesn’t move until its members move, and its members won’t move until their community moves. That’s a nice catch-22, and a mighty big moat. But not an insurmountable one. New modes of communication can and will open space for newcomers: for instance, mobile is the chink in Facebook’s armor that Path hopes to exploit. And there seems to be space in most lives for several different online communities. If you can get people to adopt your site as their second or third online home, and keep them coming back, and get more and more of their cohort to do the same–there comes a tipping point at which the community has effectively moved, and you’ve won the battle. But how do you get them to make your site their second- or third-choice destination in the first place? I suspect the answer is to go after the power users, the ones with the most influence or the most followers. George Takei, Robert Scoble, Lady Gaga. Reward them somehow for making your network their primary outlet. Maybe even with cold hard money. App.net wants its users to pay to be customers, but alas, I think most people would rather remain product for free. I suspect it’s more effective to offer a chunk of your advertising income to your most popular power users. YouTube does that already: and I bet that as the social wars intensify, others will adopt that model too. Not that I’m all that excited about this. I share with Dalton Caldwell the dark suspicion that the relentless spread of monetization means that average users will ultimately be the losers of the social wars, and eventually we’ll be reminiscing about these good old days. But let’s hope I’m wrong.
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| Autonomy Founder Mike Lynch Looks Set To Launch Investment Fund Post HP Posted: 20 Jul 2012 03:23 AM PDT  Mike Lynch, the founder of pioneering data-analysis and enterprise search company Autonomy, is reportedly planning to set up a technology investment fund to back startups which will allegedly involve other former Autonomy executives in the fund, according to sources. It’s understood that the fund, as yet unnamed, will be based in London but invest in companies globally. Autonomy was acquired by HP for $10.3 billion last August, but Lynch left this year following a decline in license revenue at the Autonomy unit. Bloomberg reports that Lynch owned about 8 percent of Autonomy's shares at the time of HP's offer, which was valued at $834 million (£505m). Lynch has had a combative relationship with some analysts over Autonomy’s value in the past, but is respected for his deep knowledge of complex software. He already has a stake in Featurespace, a Cambridge University research spin-out, which aims to predict customer behaviour and act as an early warning mechanism for identify fraud. He also has a large stake in Aurasma, an augmented reality spin-out form Autonomy which became part of HP which we’ve covered before. Lynch’s move will be welcomed by plenty in the tech startup eco-system as Lynch has been a champion of tech entrepreneurs, especially at UK government level, where, last year, he advised an initiative on allowing small companies to pitch for UK government procurement contracts. However, Lynch, given his career path to date, is likely to concentrate on the enterprise rather than consumer web/mobile startups.
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| From Startup To Incubator: Games Distributor HitFox Launches HitFox Game Ventures Posted: 19 Jul 2012 11:30 PM PDT  Hitfox, the Berlin and San Francisco-based games distributor founded by serial entrepreneurs Jan Beckers, Tim Koschella, Ruben Haas, Hanno Fichtner, along with Team Europe, is venturing into the incubator space with the launch of HitFox Game Ventures. The new enterprise will stick to a tight vertical brief of investing in and acquiring startups in the video game sales and marketing space. Specifically, HitFox says it will offer seed money in the “six-figure” range, as well as applying its experience in game distribution, sharing the founders’ own networks, and (presumably) resources. To that end, CEO Jan Beckers is talking up HiFox’s team of 55 gaming, marketing and IT specialists that it’s put together over the last 12 months. In other words, on the surface at least, it looks like a pretty hands-on and active incubator in the making, done German-style, dare I say. It aims to acquire or establish at least two businesses per year. “Taking on the role of incubator, we are now using this momentum and rapport with customers to support other game distribution startups.”, says Beckers. As for how HitFox itself is performing, the startup, which was founded in May 2011 and whose backers include Tengelmann Group, Hasso Plattner Ventures, Kite Ventures and Digital Pioneers, says it expects to reach a “seven-figure monthly turnover” and — more importantly, perhaps — break even sometime this year. In February 2012, HitFox acquired Ad2Games (Chili Entertainment), Germany’s largest advertising network for online games.
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| Electronic Arts Comes Out Against Defense Of Marriage Act Posted: 19 Jul 2012 07:26 PM PDT  Electronic Arts today announced that they are joining a group of businesses opposing DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). In case you aren’t familiar with it, the Defense of Marriage Act is a federal law that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The law also states that no U.S. state or political subdivision is required to recognize a same-sex marriage treated as a marriage in another state, and that no same-sex marriage need be recognized for federal purposes, such as insurance benefits or the filing of joint tax returns. By standing up against the law, EA is joining dozens of other companies in signing an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit of Appeals to find portions of the act unconstitutional. Here’s the company’s official word on the matter:
We’re glad to see EA step up to the plate on this matter, as the tech industry continues to hold more and more weight not only in our economy but in the country’s general well-being. [via SlashGear]
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| 4 Ways Dell Is Becoming An Open Source Company Posted: 19 Jul 2012 05:50 PM PDT  Is Dell becoming an open source company? Yes, but it is not exactly being planned that way. It is bubbling up like most open source projects do. But in many respects the move to open source is also by design. Dell does not want to be a box maker anymore. That makes open source a desirable option. With open source, Dell can leverage an ecosystem of partners and developers. Here are four examples that show the shift and why it matters to the company’s future. PCs (Laptops): Dell turned some heads this week at OSCON with the news that it would be selling a Linux laptop made for developers. Klint Finley writes that Dell will sell a special "developer edition" of its XPS13 Ultrabook starting this fall. Code named Project Sputnik, the laptop will come pre-loaded with Ubuntu, a user friendly distribution of the open source operating system Linux (or GNU/Linux to purists). Canonical, which manages Ubuntu, worked closely with Dell in the development of the laptop. The laptop gives Dell credibility in the open source developer community. With that support, Dell can partner with a company like Canonical to build a community that can help it grow a new sector of the hardware market. Cloud: Dell is investing heavily in OpenStack, the open source cloud effort. It is a platinum supporter which gives the company a board seat on the new OpenStack foundation. OpenStack is one of the fastest growing open source efforts in recent history. OpenStack gives Dell an opportunity to compete against Amazon Web Services and other major cloud services providers such as Windows Azure. Software: Crowbar is an open source deployment tool developed by Dell as part OpenStack. It started as a tool for installing Open Stack, but can deploy other software through the use of plug-in modules called "barclamps." Dell released the source code for its Apache Hadoop barclamp on Github. Software is a new game for Dell. The company can build greenfield apps without the drag of legacy technology. Open sourcing its software means Dell can then leverage developers and partners in the vast open source ecosystem. Servers: Dell joined OpenCompute,a project led by Facebook. It is of the more interesting projects intended to open source the data center. Dell made much of its fortune in the server business. To see it start opening its server technology is evident that Dell recognizes the importance of opening its hardware. Dell’s open source slant is tied to its deeper effort to focus on developers. In an interview yesterday at the OSCON event in Portland, Dell’s Barton George said it is that focus which helped Project Sputnik go from skunk works to real product. Dell is differentiating its server technology by adding technology layers that can be packaged for services providers. That may include enterprise companies that see the importance of embracing data and turning it into the "digital oil" that increasingly drives business. It is difficult to change the DNA of a company. For a big company like Dell, it is almost impossible to go it alone. It’s unaffordable. Open source gives Dell a chance to remake itself.
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| Pinterest Has Been Locking Accounts In Response To Hacks, May Not Know The Cause Of Security Breach Posted: 19 Jul 2012 05:38 PM PDT  Pinterest has been temporarily locking accounts in response to hacks. It looks like the company doesn't know the cause of the security breaches. On July 16, Pinterest posted a "Locked Account Survey," asking affected users to complete a survey to "assist our investigation." The eleven question survey is broad, covering a wide range of possible issues, from whether the user had experienced other security hacks to how they used Pinterest to what browser they used, suggesting that Pinterest doesn't know what's causing its hacks. Pinterest posted five different notices between July 10 and 16 regarding hacks and locked accounts, with the last one being the survey. They have not posted since then. Blogger Josh Davis has been following the issue closely on his site; Pinterest users have been sharing their hacked and locked-out tales in the comments of his July 7 post. On July 10, Pinterest posted the note, "Help! Someone is accessing my account without my permission," telling users to change their passwords. They continued:
In some cases, hacked users may lose all their pins and boards, which could be a crushing blow to those who’ve invested tons of time into the site. On July 12, they published a guide, “Account Security: How to Protect Your Pins.” The guide told users to create a strong password, be cautious, protect their devices and keep them up to date. The guide did not detail the ongoing account hacks, merely writing at the top that “account security is a top priority at Pinterest.” On July 13, Pinterest posted twice: first, “Help! I received a notification that my email/password changed or that there was a suspicious login.” Just a few hours later, they posted “Notice of Locked Account.” The first note, Pinterest informed users that they may get emails from Pinterest about account activity (changing passwords or emails) that they don’t recognize; they told users to lock their account and inform Pinterest. Hours later, the second note told users, “When we detect unusual activity on an account, we temporarily lock it to protect its pins and prevent spam.” Three days later, the company posted the survey to help their investigation. There has been no update since then. We have not been able to find accurate data on how many users have been affected. Pinterest was not immediately available for comment. Update: Pinterest responds … Here is our statement, which can be attributed to a spokesperson. Statement: It’s difficult to identify how a given account may be compromised. Best,
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| Facebook Begins Testing Sponsored Results, Its First Search Typeahead Ads Posted: 19 Jul 2012 04:25 PM PDT  Heads up, Google. Facebook is testing a new format of search ads called Sponsored Results that lets advertisers show ads in the Facebook search typeahead to users looking for a particular Page, app, or Place. It basically will let businesses divert traffic from each other. For example, a competing game company could target Zynga’s CityVille so anyone searching for “CityVille” would see an ad leading to their game alongside the organic search result leading to Zynga’s game. Sponsored Results could be big for Facebook’s bottom line, pulling in ad dollars from direct advertisers with something to sell. The Sponsored Results will look just like organic results in the typeahead search box atop every page, except for being marked with a tiny word “Sponsored”. Facebook tells me they’ll be sold on a cost per click basis, can be targeted to people searching for any Page, app, Place, (and possibly event) without that business’ permission, and the tests begin tonight. Sponsored Results are not keyword ads. Advertisers can’t target something broad like “beach”, “games”, or “cameras”. They have to target a specific entity on Facebook, similar to how brands can currently target users with sidebar and Sponsored Story ads based on a user’s interests. For example, Sponsored Results could be targeted to people searching for “Sandals Resort Hawaii”, “CityVille”, or “Nikon Camera”. The Sponsored Results will not appear on the full Facebook Search results page, only in the typeahead. Facebook struck a deal years ago with Microsoft to let it place ads at the bottom of the search results page, but now Facebook is taking control and offering a fully-owned platform for search ads. This new ad format can only direct users to on-Facebook properties, but that includes an on-Page application or a specific Page post. That could let advertisers send users to a Facebook Offer coupon they’re distributing, a contest app they’ve launched, or an email or phone number sign-up widget. It could also help brands team up, to run ads pointing traffic from people searching for them to a joint promotion run with another business they’re partnering with. Advertisers can target multiple entities that people are searching for at a time. They can also layer on Facebook’s other ads targeting criteria so a news website targeting Sponsored Results to people searching for the “CNN” Page could refine their ads to only be shown to 30-50 year old women in San Francisco who Like Barack Obama. Advertising To People Ready To BuySponsored Results will appeal to a class of advertisers Facebook doesn’t serve well right now — direct marketers who sell products online or games trying to gain traction. Until now, Facebook was better for less urgent brand advertising because it didn’t offer many ways to reach users after they’ve shown purchase intent — when potential return on investment is highest and most easily measured. Ads on Facebook’s sidebar for shoes or your company’s latest puzzle game might be ignored because users aren’t interested at the time. Sponsored Results could hit them when they are, just as they’re searching for another shoe brand or game. Sponsored Results, as well the recently announced but just starting to roll out Facebook Exchange cookie-based retargeted ads, could let Facebook compete with Google sponsored search results and offsite ad networks for dollars. Some might say users on Facebook generally aren’t in the mood to buy things The ads have the potential to reduce the relevance of results in Facebook’s search typeahead, similar to how Google Sponsored Results ads push down organic results a searcher might actually be looking for. Honestly, I often find out about cool products and events from Facebook’s standard ads because I’ve given the site so much data to target with, but Sponsored Results seem like they could get in the way. Facebook tells me it will be watching for feedback, though, and stresses that this is just an early test. It’s also difficult to gauge the total presence of these ads, as Facebook doesn’t share the volume of on-site searches users run. If rolled out, Sponsored Results could open up a huge new revenue stream for Facebook, and make its currently slumping stock price look like more of a bargain. Sponsored Results won’t have generated any significant revenue that impact Facebook’s first earnings report since becoming a public company though, which TechCrunch will be thoroughly covering on July 26th.
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| How’s Skype Doing At MSFT? Usage Jumps 50%, Users Logged 115B Minutes Of Calls Last Quarter Posted: 19 Jul 2012 03:40 PM PDT  In May of last year, Microsoft acquired everybody’s favorite VoIP and chat provider, Skype, for a cool $8.5 billion. It was a big move for Microsoft and a landmark deal, which it officially closed in October. Yet, as Frederic pointed out earlier this week, other than getting to wear the brand’s pin on its lapel, Microsoft has seemed content to let Skype exist as a stand-alone service. But this morning the company announced that it will be integrating Skype into its office productivity suite, powering the “presence” feature in Outlook and becoming a default piece of every version of Office shipped — among other things. As part of its quarterly earnings announcement this afternoon, Microsoft also shed some light onto just how well Skype has been performing since it joined MSFT’s ranks. One notable milestone to come out of those stats? Users logged 115 billion minutes of calls on Skype over the quarter — a number that was up 50 percent over the prior quarter. The other good thing for Microsoft, given Skype’s seeming continuing popularity, is that it’s been a boost for the overall numbers in its entertainment. Revenue in its Entertainment and Devices division, which isn’t exactly barren, grew a significant 20 percent — by $292 million — which primarily reflected the inclusion of Skype. Of course, on the flip side, Microsoft’s cost of revenue increased in Q4, related to Skype’s acquisition, basically because it had to deal with all the related costs of onboarding Skype’s team, paying a bunch of new people, etc. But, it’s safe to say with Xbox 360 shipments dropping from 1.7 million to 1 million, besides the Xbox LIVE boost in subscriptions (year-over-year, by the way), and that big increase in rev, most of that $292 million likely comes from Skype, potentially a good look at what the company’s quarterly revenues look like. Which is interesting, because Skype (although it was on its way) has never been a public company, despite being owned by eBay until 2009 (when they sold it to a group of investors, including Andreessen Horowitz) — so it’s been hard to get a sense of just how profitable (or not) the business is, despite having millions of users. Myself included. 115 billion minutes of Skype calls logged is nothing to scoff at — and the 50 percent jump from the last quarter shows some strong growth for such an established business. Although, annoyingly, there was no mention of the number of paid calls. Even so, at least at the surface, it looks like that Microsoft reach could already be paying off.
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