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Monday, 4 March 2013
Fujitsu launches three new Lifebook E series laptops, we go hands-on
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Fujitsu's PalmSecure readers about to be seen in the wild (if you use UniCredit bank)
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Samsung's zero-commission app portal for indie developers goes live
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Netflix Still Has No Plans for BlackBerry 10
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Free Digital Workshops Help Teens Design Robots and Apps
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Canon sensor records video in very low light, sees movie stars of a different sort
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With $2.1M From True Ventures (And Others), TripleLift Builds Ads From A Brand’s Trending Images
TripleLift is a New York City-based startup aiming to help advertisers embrace what Chief Strategy Officer Ari Lewine calls “the rise of the visual web.”
“The web is increasingly dominated by images, and images are quickly becoming the primary currency with which brands communicate with their potential customers,” CEO Eric Berry told me in an email. “TripleLift identifies how consumers engage with brands across the web and uses that data to create more relevant and effective advertising. “
The company was actually founded a year ago (by Lewine, Berry, and President/CTO Shaun Zacharia, who all previously worked at online ad company AppNexus), and it has already run campaigns with some major advertisers. However, the company has only received a little bit of attention from the press — now it’s ready to do more of a publicity push, and it’s announcing that it raised a $2.1 million seed round at the end of last year.
The round was led by True Ventures and iNovia Capital, with participation from NextView Ventures, Laconia Ventures, MESA+, the Social Internet Fund, Pinterest investor William Lohse’s Social Starts, former DoubleClick executive Paul Olliver, and Liberty City Ventures.
Lewine and Berry told me that TripleLift monitors brand content across major publications and social media sites like Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram — it collects more than 10 million engagement points per day, they said. Then it can automatically add that content to standard banner ads. So for example, if a celebrity is seen showing off a company’s new handbag and everyone is getting excited about it online, TripleLift will automatically detect that activity and make sure an image of the handbag gets featured in the company’s ads. And it uses technology like face detection and color analysis to crop the pictures, so images of different size and proportion will look good together in an ad without any extra work from the advertiser.
TripleLift says it has already run campaigns for with Martha Stewart, Gucci, H&M, and Puma, among others. Right now, the data side of the business is being used primarily to power TripleLift ads (“We don’t really sell analytics, and we don’t send them into our dashboard a lot,” Lewine said) but over time that could change as the company expands its analytics features, helping its customers understand what content is working and what isn’t.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the name, Berry said the company is trying to “tie together owned, earned, and paid media” — in other words, brand content, editorial content, and advertising. Plus, there are three founders, and three main products.
“We can come up 10 other reasons,” Lewine added.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/pL10w5-pF-k/
Wickr: Can the Snapchat for Grown-Ups Save You From Spies?
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Fujitsu's German-made Lifebook AH562 turns up at CeBIT, we go hands-on
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Intel launches Atom CE5300-based storage platform with multiple streams, smart scaling
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Facebook's move to mobile powered by intensive internal training
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Google Chrome receives minor updates across Windows, Linux, Android and iOS
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Slickdeals' best in tech for March 4th: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and 50-inch Panasonic Viera 3D HDTV
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Open Garden 2.0 Makes Sharing Your WiFi And Mobile Connections Easier And Faster
Open Garden, one of the finalists at TechCrunch Disrupt New York last year, just launched the newest version of its Android, Mac and Windows app that makes sharing your mobile Internet connections even easier. In many ways, this 2.0 release, which the company presented at the Launch conference this morning, fulfills the promises Open Garden made when it first launched.
The new version, for example, now automatically creates a mesh network between all the Open Garden-enabled devices within reach and automatically picks the fastest connection to route traffic. If one phone is connected to Wi-Fi, for example, other phones can then use this connection to offload their 3G and 4G bandwidth through this one phone or laptop (or even multiple devices to increase the bandwidth available to all devices on the network).
Since its launch last year, the Open Garden app has now been installed over 2.1 million times, the company’s CEO and co-founder Micha Benoliel told me last week from the company’s offices on Treasure Island. Until now, Benoliel said, the app was mostly being used for sharing mobile data. The new version changes this in his view. Now, the app really allows you to crowdsource connectivity.
The new version can also create a multi-hop network, meaning there could be multiple phones or laptops in between you and the final Internet on-ramp on the mesh network. In previous versions, users had to connect directly to the device that provided the actual Internet connection. Using its so-called “gossip” feature, all the devices in the mesh are now aware of the other phones, laptops and desktops with Open Garden around them, which makes for a smarter network and also ensures that the mesh is very reliable and can route traffic faster.
The company is already talking to a number of carriers, though Benoliel wasn’t ready to disclose any details about these discussions yet. Not all of the carriers, of course, like the idea of Open Garden, given that it allows you to circumvent their own mobile hotspot features. AT&T, for example, continues to block the service. Open Garden, however, believes that its service could be a boon for carriers. “As the public accesses more data-centric and bandwidth-intensive applications, delivering that video content will become an increasingly bigger challenge for mobile operators. Consumers will blame carriers if their video quality is subpar,” Benoliel said in a statement today.
Besides the carriers, Open Garden is also talking with the automotive industry. For car manufacturers, Benoliel argued, Open Garden could offer a kind of asynchronous telemetry service that could use a driver’s phone to cache data on the phone and then send it to the car manufacturer when it’s on a Wi-Fi network. In addition, an Open Garden-enabled car could also just use a driver’s phone to provide Internet access to on-board apps.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/H2SEeztgd6g/
Toyota i-Road EV concept leans like a motorcycle, won't soak you or your wallet
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29 SXSW 2013 Panels You Can't Miss
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Samsung's Galaxy S IV Smartphone Could Have Eye Scrolling
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Apple's 'iWatch' Could Run iOS and Be Very Profitable
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NYT: Samsung Galaxy S IV will tout eye-based scrolling
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Canonical announces Mir, a custom display server that will serve up future versions of Unity
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The Engadget Interview: Sony product marketing manager Stephen Sneeden at MWC 2013
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Clues Suggest Malware Is Moving From PCs to Mobile Devices
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Vertu TI luxury phone lands in Hong Kong, we go hands-on (video)
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White House responds to phone unlock petition: 'we agree with you'
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Mobiroo intros Android subscription service for those who fear app commitment
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Raspberry Pi coming in limited edition blue, you'll have to win it to own it
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La bomba atómica que se mantenía caliente con pollos viviendo en su interior
Esta historia es más vieja que el fuego, pero no la conocía y me hizo mucha gracia. Llegué a ella desde Mental Floss.
En 1957 los británicos planearon colocar minas atómicas de 10 kilotones en territorio alemán en previsión a una posible, y entonces por momentos incluso inminente, invasión de los soviéticos.
Al detonar las minas de forma remota se destruiría una gran extensión de territorio que concentraba fábricas e instalaciones industriales. Pero también serviría para disuadir al enemigo de ocupar un territorio contaminado por la radiación durante mucho tiempo.
Estando a punto de ejecutar el plan surgió un inconveniente,
Blue Peacock — Un problema técnico era que al enterrar las minas atómicas éstas quedaba expuestas a temperaturas demasiado bajas, especialmente durante el invierno, que podían afectar al correcto funcionamiento de la electrónica. Se estudiron varias opciones para resolverlo, incluyendo envolver las minas atómicas en mantas.
De entre todas las soluciones propuestas la más sorprendente pasaba por utilizar pollos vivos para mantener la bomba caliente.
Los pollos irían encapsulados dentro de la bomba con algo de agua y comida, de modo que podrían mantenerse vivos durante una semana. El calor corporal de los pollos al parecer habría sido suficiente para mantener los componentes de la bomba a la temperatura adecuada para su funcionamiento correcto.
No era más que una propuesta y al final no ocurrió: los británicos cancelaron el proyecto unos meses después, en 1958.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/curiosidades/la-bomba-atomica-mantenia-caliente-pollos-viviendo-interior.html
Amped Wireless' PLA2 super power-line adapters are available from today
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Fly Or Die: Smart Watch Edition
As the race toward mainstream wearable computing heats up, watches are hot and smart watches are hotter.
In fact, word on the street is that Apple is working on a new smart watch that would integrate with its iCloud and iOS devices. But as it stands now, the majority of great “smart watches” available are coming from smaller companies.
We took a look at the Pebble, the Metawatch, and the Basis smart watches for an episode of Fly Or Die, to help you get a handle on which is best for you, if any at all.
To start, John and I both believe that the whole idea of a smart watch isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. Sure, it’s nice to have a second channel for incoming information like texts and calls, but unfortunately the watch isn’t all that conducive to action (replies, answering calls, etc.).
Plus, watches are meant to be every day devices, and with the battery requirements of a smart watch (even a whole week, which is promised from the Pebble), remembering to plug in your wrist watch on a regular basis can grow tiring.
However, it’s hard to argue with the cool factor brought along with a smart watch. If, to you, that outweighs being not-quite-satisfied with the end-product, then we should move on to the compare and contrast section of this smart watch PSA.
The Pebble was a Kickstarter phenomena, thanks to its E-Paper display which gives the watch face a crisp, readable look at all times, even in direct sunlight. The Pebble also hooks into iOS and Android for email, text, and call notifications, and has customizable watch faces. If you find yourself focusing on the design aspect of a smart watch, you’re probably looking for the $150 Pebble.
The Metawatch comes out of Fossil, so it looks much more like a standard watch than either of the other options. It’s got a leather band and a metal/glass face. It feels heavier than the Pebble, but doesn’t have as crisp of a display. However, the Metawatch has an API that will let you send almost anything to the watch. This one’s for someone ready to get into the smart watch world but not ready to let go of the solid, classic build of a watch.
The Basis can’t really compete with the Pebble or the Metawatch, as it’s more of a quantified self device with a built-in clock. It measures motion, skin temperature, heart rate, calories burned, sleep patterns, and other physiological indicators, and connects to your phone via Bluetooth and dedicated apps. All in all, it’s a fine looking $200 device that’s much more suited to the fitness guru than the timepiece snob or the tech geek.
As for smart watches in general, John and I both believe they will have their time. We’re just not sure that time is today.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/2V_z164HqsU/
Google to monitor unused white space across the US, take us one step closer to spectrum sharing
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Microscopio portátil con conexión wifi
Este microscopio portátil consiste en una pequeña cámara de resolución VGA (640 x 480 píxeles) y tiene capacidad para entre 5 y 200 aumentos.
Es verdad que no es nada nuevo y que hay microscopios de este tipo con mucha más resolución, pero lo que me parece chulo de éste es que es wifi. De modo que funciona como una cámara IP y se puede utilizar con cualquier teléfono móvil o tablet (y ordenador, claro) accediendo a la señal de vídeo por wifi que emite el microscopio.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/gadgets/microscopio-portatil-conexion-wifi.html
How the Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Those Amazing Images
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To-Do List App EasilyDo Launches A Tool For Creating Automated Tasks
When co-founder and CEO Mikael Berner first showed me his app Easilydo last year, he pitched it as a tool for increasing productivity and “making life simpler.” The company is taking another step in that direction today with the launch of the EasilyDo Builder.
The initial version of the app provided user with a list of basic tasks (pulled from their Facebook Account, iPhone contact list, and other accounts that they’ve connected) that they can accomplish within a couple of taps — things like wishing friends a happy birthday on Facebook or merging duplicate contacts in their address book. Berner said Easilydo has already performed 750,000 actions for its users.
With the new Builder, users can customize the app to perform certain tasks automatically. I didn’t get to see the Builder in action, but Berner and his co-founder Hetal Pandya said the structure is pretty simple — you identify a trigger, and then the task that you want the app to perform when that trigger occurs. For example, you could tell the app to post a birthday message any time one of your Facebook friends has a birthday. Or you could tell it to alert you when you have to leave for a meeting.
The task can either occur completely automatically, or the app can ask you for approval first. And the creation of “Do Its” occurs on the Easilydo website, but they work on the iPhone app.
Since many of EasilyDo’s tasks occur in a social context, I wondered whether some people might see the automation as distasteful. For example, I might be a little peeved if I found out that my friend sent me a birthday message on Facebook without writing a word himself, or even knowing that it was my birthday. Ultimately, Berner and Pandya said that sort of thing will be up to the individual users.
Berner also predicted that Easilydo will follow “a Wikipedia sort of model,” meaning that most users won’t create Do Its themselves. However, there’s a small group of power users that will, and they can share their tasks with other users. You could also follow specific task makers, allowing you to check out any new Do Its they create and add the ones that you like to your own account.
Berner and Pandya are hoping to extend the platform even further by allowing developers to build their own tasks using the same basic model — to jump start those efforts, they’re holding a hackathon in Redwood City on March 15 and 16.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/tRRBBahBi6s/
Samsung apologizes for plant acid leak incident
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HelloFlo Launches To Be A Little Fish In The Big Pond Of Tampon Subscription Services
Aunt Flo got you down? The Crimson Tide wearing you out? Well, the good news is that you no longer have to make that awful run to the drug store for tampons and pads, and better yet, you don’t need to make your boyfriend do it, either.
A new service called HelloFlo has just launched, which offers a subscription service for feminine hygiene products. To be clear, HelloFlo isn’t the first company to take advantage of the subscription model, and it isn’t even the first to offer subscription-based tampons. Le Parcel launched around Christmas last year to offer a similar product.
Founder Naama Bloom has very little to say on competition other than “my competitors and I all have different approaches to this market,” she said. “I believe that my approach is the right way for my business.”
There is virtually no difference between HelloFlo and Le Parcel, except the brands they’ve partnered with. There are other services that do a similar thing and even offer candies or flowers. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for everyone.
Truth is, it can’t hurt to have some solid competition in a sector that’s so terribly broken, and worth so much.
Speaking from a woman’s perspective, I can honestly say that the only thing worse than buying tampons is actually having your period. Unfortunately, those two things often come hand-in-hand, usually with some sort of awkward walk, a leak, and an overwhelming sense of embarrassment.
“I have always hated buying pads and tampons,” said Bloom. “There are so many things wrong with the experience. Specifically, there are no good reminders that are also tied in with the product. There have been so many times when I’ve been caught off guard and needed to run out to the drugstore at an inconvenient time.”
She’s preaching to the choir, of course. Even if, like myself, you were raised to put a nice big dot (or period, hehe) on your calendar as a reminder, there’s no woman on earth who has never been surprised by a visit from Aunt Flo.
But Bloom’s gripes extend beyond that.
“The boxes aren’t packaged in a way that makes sense,” she said. “For example, if you use overnight pads, you only need about two per period, but you are forced to buy a huge box that could last a year or more.”
HelloFlo sends you a combination of pads and tampons that fit your period, based on low, medium or heavy flow. It also solves the problem of remembering your period by doing it for you, as HelloFlo’s packages are delivered based on the time you say you have your period.
“Lastly,” adds Bloom, “I don’t want people knowing my business. It’s not that I’m embarrassed, it’s just that it’s not anyone else’s business. I knew with a little technology I could fix what’s broken.”
HelloFlo is starting out by offering the basics, Always and Tampax Pearl products, on a monthly basis. But Bloom believes there’s a lot of opportunity to be found within the relationship she’s creating between brand and customer.
This certainly isn’t the last you’ll hear about subscription menstrual products, but we’re glad to see HelloFlo join ranks and offer more competition. After all, competition fosters innovation.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/cklWmY2l00s/
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