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Wednesday, 27 March 2013
The Daily Roundup for 03.27.2013
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Twitterrific 5.2 brings push notifications, one handful of testers at a time
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Super Mario Spacetime Organ lets you remix the plumber's world
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This is the Modem World: Nerds in rabbit holes
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ZigBee IP spec goes public, offers open IPv6 mesh networking
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Google Translate on Android gains offline support for thrifty globetrotters
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La Tierra en el equinoccio de marzo de 2013
Dos veces al año, entre el 20 y el 21 de marzo, y entre el 22 y 23 de diciembre, el Sol se coloca en el plano del Ecuador, con lo que el eje de la Tierra queda perpendicular al Sol, momento en el que los dos hemisferios reciben igual cantidad de luz.
En marzo de 2013 el equinoccio tuvo lugar a las 11:02 UTC, momento que casi recoge esta imagen tomada en el espectro visible por el satélite GOES 13 a las 11:45, según se puede leer en GOES Satellite Captures Spring Equinox .
Pasado el equinoccio de marzo el hemisferio norte empieza a recibir la luz del Sol de forma cada vez más perpendicular, mientras que el sur la recibe de forma cada vez más tangencial, justo lo contrario a lo que pasa tras el equinoccio de septiembre.
Esto es lo que causa las estaciones, y no la distancia de la Tierra al Sol, que tiene una influencia muy pequeña en la temperatura que hay en la Tierra; lo explicábamos hace algún tiempo en la anotación Perihelio, afelio, y por qué las estaciones, según las mires, van al revés.
Por cierto que el Sol que se ve en la imagen publicada por la NOAA es un añadido.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/ciencia/tierra-en-el-equinoccio-de-marzo-de-2013.html
Mozilla partners with Epic Games to bring Unreal Engine 3 to the web
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GameStick dev unit found at GDC 2013, we go eyes-on
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ModernMix is a $5 program that lets you run Metro-style apps in desktop-style windows
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Evernote for Windows Phone gets refined UI, document search and more in 3.0 update
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New Technology Could Engineer the Perfect Baseball Swing
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'Hakitzu' Teaches Kids to Code With Robot Warriors
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Boxee TV Update Lets You Stream Your Network Videos
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Slim, Portable Charger Could Keep Your Phone Powered for a Week
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ZTE Grand Memo and Grand S on sale now in China
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Fongo makes a very public bid for control of Wind Mobile
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Microsoft adding more content to Xbox Live this week, including Toys R Us movies and a refreshed MLB.tv app
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Sony's PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 controller and Eye found at GDC 2013, we go eyes-on
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Google Glass will reportedly be built in America, at least initially
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CASIS wants to send your research project into space, give Engadget readers $100 off the application fee
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Production F-35B fighter jet's first vertical landing was years, billions in the making (video)
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Moovweb Raises $16M To Help Businesses Bring Their Web Content To Mobile
Moovweb, a startup that offers technology for companies to build and maintain their mobile presence, just announced that it has raised $16 million in its first round of institutional funding.
The funding came from Jafco Ventures, Trinity Ventures, and previous investors, including Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim. Jafco’s Joe Horowitz and Paul Sallaberry have joined Moovweb’s board of directors, while Trinity’s Gus Tai is becoming a board observer.
The company says its technology takes the content from an existing desktop website and converts it into a mobile site, as well as apps for smartphones and tablets. And it’s not just the content, but other features and business logic too, so that it can capture the full functionality of the site. Companies can then use the Moovweb SDK to build device-specific features. And when a customer updates their site in the future, all of those changes are synchronized their mobile versions too.
Moovweb says it has already converted “nearly 12 billion mobile pages” for customers like Macy’s, 1-800-FLOWERS, Sur la Table, and Accenture. It says that revenue has quadrupled over the past 12 months.
The company is also announcing that has hired Tony Russo, who most recently served as CFO at Adobe-acquired Efficient Frontier, as its new chief operating and finance officer.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/HxUpjsLyT3k/
Suelo interactivo
Un suelo que a base de paneles LED, sensores y una programación de partículas resulta altamente interactivo y gozoso. Es un montaje de Mediatec Group. Un poco viejuno pero no lo había visto en su día.
(Vía A Cool Link.)
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/juegos-y-diversion/suelo-interactivo.html
iStockphoto Founder Returns To Stock Photography With Stocksy, A Co-op That Puts Artists (And Quality) Before Profits
With the launch of Stocksy this week, Bruce Livingstone is officially taking another shot at building a digital stock photography service. His last attempt, iStockphoto, which he founded in 2000, has since become one of the largest resources for stock images, media and design elements on the Web. And, as a result, Livingstone has become known as one of the pioneers of “microstock” or “micropayment” photography.
Having learned from the ups and downs of iStockphoto (and its sale to Getty in 2006), Livingstone is now on a mission to put a new spin on the world of stock photography. With Stocksy, the founder wants to create a digital licensing co-op and an online marketplace that is actually owned by its members and is dedicated not only to paying them for sharing their work with the masses, but to helping them sustain their careers.
To do that, Stocksy will give its photographers 50 percent of each transaction it sees, along with 100 percent on extended licenses. In addition to that, 90 percent of all profits will be divided among its members at the end of each year. And, what’s more, photographers accepted into the co-op will be given equity in the business and “will have a real say in how the business is operated,” he says.
Given how competitive the market for selling digital photos online has become over the years, these are some ambitious goals, to say the least. But it’s also true that Livingstone has a long history with stock photography — especially on the Web — one that dates back to the 1990s.
When the graphics company he was working for in the 1990s put the kibosh on his suggestion that they should begin selling online, Livingstone struck out on his own. He built a small collection of stock photography, but struggled to find buyers. Frustrated, he pulled a 180 and opted to give them away instead. In 2000, he founded and launched a site where people could register and download “as many high-res photos as [they wanted] and use everything with a royalty-free license,” he later told CNET. iStockphoto was born.
But, again a funny thing happened: People didn’t want Livingstone’s images; instead, photographers and designers wanted to upload their own images to share with the community. The platform started to snowball thanks to its user-generated content and, over the next year as bandwidth expenses became too high, iStockphoto began selling credits — but at a much lower price than competing stock photo sites. Users could get high-res images for a buck and artists got paid a royalty.
The site continued to grow from there — to the point where it now has millions of images, members and tens of thousands of contributing artists. In 2006, Livingstone sold to Getty for $50 million, where he stayed on as CEO until being fired in 2009.
However, in the years after the acquisition, the microstock and royalty model that Livingstone put in place in the early years was slowly eroded. Over time, Getty changed its format and licensing deals and decided to reduce its high royalty rate, which, as Fast Company points out, Livingstone himself defended. Since then, Getty has struck up a deal with Google that allows Google Drivers to use its photos in their work, paying only a relatively minor one-time fee.
Now, with the capital gained from the $50 million sale of iStockphoto, Livingstone has the runway to develop a model that is, in fact, much more favorable for the photographers.
Again, as FC points out, compared to iStockphoto, which gives photographers 15 percent of sales and as much as 45 percent of exclusive sales, and Shutterstock which offers 20 to 30 percent royalties, the share that Stocksy doles should look pretty attractive to photographers. 90 percent of profits divided equally among contributors and shareholders at the end of each year? Hard to beat that.
Livingstone says that photographers have continuously sought him out to tell him how tough the industry is and how unfavorable the terms are for artists on most digital photography sites. So, while there are plenty of big names out there, like Shutterstock, the Canadian believes that there’s plenty of demand for the Stocksy model — one that gives photographers and artists a more equitable shake.
The model has already attracted people like Sean Locke, who Fast Company says had nearly one million license sales on iStockphoto until the company ended the relationship ecause he had criticized the Google Drive partnership, he explained on his blog. Locke is now one of 220 photographers on board at Stocksy, who are uploading 1,000 photos each day and selling those images for prices that range from $10 to $100.
From that price range, it’s easy to see that Stocksy is making a play at becoming not only a resource for stock photography, but a repository for premium photography. The founder says that you won’t find the traditional, run-of-the-mill images that comprise the bulk of the inventory on most photography sites. Instead, Stocksy will prioritize quality over quantity, screening each image before it goes on the site.
Of course, Shutterstock also plans to launch its own premium stock photography site in the near future, so even if Stocksy is seen as being relatively alone in the space for now, it won’t be for long. Stocksy plans to add vector-art illustrations to its catalog at some point in the near future, and may look to video after that, but it likely won’t be soon.
The problem is that, while Stocksy may be an incredible deal for photographers, the average person on the Web looking to use photography for their content or website (or whatever the case may be) isn’t looking to pay $100 for a photograph, unless they plan to frame it and hang it on their wall. So you won’t be seeing Stocksy opt for the iStockphoto or Shutterstock model anytime soon, and, naturally, that’s just the way Livingstone wants it.
The hope is that, just as consumers are becoming increasingly interested in Fair Trade coffee and how their food is grown, packaged and distributed, for example, and interest has grown in brands like Tom’s that put social good ahead of profits, they’ll be willing to do the same for photography. Stocksy may have a leg up on the bigs in this market by not worrying itself with profits and big quarterly returns, and it certainly has plenty of appeal to photographers.
Of course, being able to support the careers of its resident photographers requires enough sales to make that possible. There’s no reason to think it can’t get there over time, but relying on the consumers of stock photography to be as fair-minded as those buying Tom’s Shoes may mean that Stocksy is waiting for a long time.
In the meantime, check Stocksy out at home here.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/V0VbSMTugVc/
UK carrier Three is in 'no rush' to switch on LTE, probably won't do so until Q4
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Boxee TV update brings DLNA access, on device DVR management and more
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2000 Calorias visualizadas en distintos tipos de alimentos
Un vídeo de BuzzFeed inspirado en esta colección de imágenes de comida representando 200 Calorias.
Es curioso ver por ejemplo que —en lo que a la ingesta pura y dura de calorías se refiere (sin considerar grasas ni otra cosas)— aporta más calorías una ensalada que una hamburguesa, o que un bollo de canela equivale (de nuevo, en aportación de calorías) a una veintena de lonchas de beicon.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/internet/2000-calorias-visualizadas-distintos-tipos-alimentos.html
Audioair Wants To Unlock Audio From Muted TVs Everywhere And Give Your Local Bar A New Way To Advertise
If you’ve ever been in a sports bar with your friends to watch a big game, you’ve likely run into the “muting” problem. While the bar may have two dozen TVs, each might be playing a different game, and there’s either too much sound or none at all. At most local restaurants, bars, airports and health clubs, you’ll find TVs muted for this very reason.
Some have opted to, say, put speakers on tables in their bars to project sound more directly, but the problem is that this puts a damper on any socializing you planned to do with your friends and fellow bar mates. Might just be me, but repeatedly yelling “WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” over the audio can detract from the viewing experience. After all, you’re really there to enjoy some quality time with friends — the thrilling play-by-play isn’t the only attraction.
Durango, Colorado-based Airborne Media is hoping to offer another solution with a new product called Audioair, which aims to turn smartphones into your own personal listening device to help unlock sound from the tens of millions of muted TVs out there. Essentially, Airborne wants to put its audio solution anywhere an un-muted TV would add to the location’s overall noise pollution — every airport, hospital, sports bar, stadium or health club in the U.S.
But how does it work, you ask? Users download Audioair’s free mobile app, which taps into the sound system (via Wi-Fi) at any Audioair subscriber location, allowing you to determine which TV you want to listen to, projecting the audio through your smartphone so you can listen from your pocket or through headphones. Airborne is currently piloting its solution at 47 sites, including sports bars, restaurants, student health facilities and even a large resort casino, and plans to be in 800 locations by the end of the third quarter.
To help get Audioair off the ground, the startup has raised $3 million in seed funding, $1 million of which is convertible debt, from a handful of local investors. But, let’s be honest, creating a personal audio channel for muted TVs has some appeal, but it could be subject to a fairly limited use case. It’s not difficult to imagine significant others and friends the world over not being particularly pleased when, in the middle of a conversation, you throw in your headphones to hear the local play-by-play.
Plus, Airborne has to convince enough restaurants that it’s a good idea to invest in their on-premise hardware and buy another TV for their in-venue display. How does it hope to accomplish that tall order?
Airborne believes that its technology can help change the consumer experience within a multitude of these noisy environments and bridge the gap between mobile devices and customer engagement displays. So, not only does it want to provide a better audio experience for the end user, it wants to act as an interactive social networking experience and dedicated, location-based advertising network for bars, restaurants and any local venue.
The service allows users to chat with other people in the venue directly through the Audioair app, along with checking-in and adding content from their phones to the sports bar’s local network. This adds a social networking element to the end-user experience; in the meantime, Audioair allows venues to display local advertising on the user’s phone or on a 42-inch digital display that they install in the bar.
At the outset, the startup has been offering discounts on the cost of the TV (and the installations themselves) to reduce friction for early customer acquisition, but the idea is that — once/if this catches on, bars will be paying for the cost out of their own pockets.
Audioair charges a monthly fee, which will be an add-on to the fees bars are already paying to DirectTV and so on for cable, but the idea is that the product can help venues reduce the perceived (and actual cost) by helping them attract more customers who stay on the premises longer — because they can actually hear the sound of the game.
On top of that, bars can distribute on-site promotions through Audioair’s digital display and mobile app, facilitating increased spend, while engaging customers in an in-bar, interactive social and ad network.
Venues can then share in the ad revenue gained from their displays, while receiving analytics on how customers are interacting, what they’re sharing and so on. They can also disseminate the needed info publicly or privately as needed (think personalized hospital, airport alerts).
The Airborne Media founders said that they see revenue coming from three buckets — advertising, installation and licensing — with revenue initially coming from subscription and installation and advertising revenue becoming the main stream over time. As to the licensing piece, the team says that they’ve filed for eight patents on their system (which are currently pending), which could help them manufacture some defensibility for a model that could become vulnerable to competition from big players as prices on hardware continue to drop.
Audioair also tries to sweeten the deal by providing an optional on-site server to manage the local, network and cloud-based content and, by splitting a portion of the advertising revenue with the owner, the startup wants to help them cover the cost of the subscription fee and grow their own revenues over time.
The Audioair creators also believe they have a leg up on the competition because it has inked a partnership deal with one of the original commercial DirecTV installers, which has exclusive territory rights to a big chunk of real estate — from Florida to Washington, D.C. It provides DirecTV service and support to over 5,000 restaurants and will be helping Airborne make installations throughout its territory, which the founders believe will be critical to helping it expand its footprint.
Again, it seems like a niche play, but if something like this is going to work, it could be a multi-pronged approach that’s not only an audio helper but a local information and advertising system, complete with hardware support and revenue sharing. There are 38,000 sports bars and restaurants in the U.S., 28,000 health clubs and plenty of airports, casinos and college campuses where Audioair could potentially have some appeal.
If the startup is able to keep its prices from stifling those venues that are willing to give it a try — and surmount the potential “this is too complicated” reaction from local venues — while offering real value-add on the advertising side (and some better design of its mobile interface), there’s a chance Audioair could have some real legs.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/sIzZccJFbM4/
Ocean Array Could Clean 7,250,000 Tons of Plastic
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OpenELEC 3.0 gets official, supports 'more hardware than ever'
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Recyclable organic solar cells: a clean fuel future made possible by trees
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Here's Everything You Need to Know About Google Keep
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