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Friday, 5 April 2013
Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes (video)
Arduino-enhanced guitar promises less typing, more shredding
Audi and T-Mobile Team Up for $15/Month In-Car Wireless Data Service
Google Glass Apps of the Future: Ghostracing and Real-Time Coaching
The Engadget Interview: Tesla's Elon Musk promises more Superchargers, better service, cheaper EVs that don't suck
Phones4U taking BlackBerry Q10 pre-orders, giving away PlayBooks to first 300 customers
British Library to archive every UK digital publication from tomorrow
Popular Calendar App Tempo's Reservation Line Hits the Fast Lane
Nokia Lumia 720 starts shipping, costs £300 prepaid at O2 UK
8 Solar-Powered Mobile Chargers
Firefox updates Android, desktop betas with treats for privacy, font snobs
Distro Issue 85: Does the Razer Edge have enough muscle to upend portable gaming?
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 arrives at one UK store: £339 for the WiFi-only, 16GB model
Nokia Music app launched for Windows 8 and RT hardware
Ketchup Helps You Determine Which Friends Actually Want To Spend Time With You
Do you ever feel like you’re always talking about plans to go here or hang out with so-and-so, but you’re never actually doing most of those things?
Well that’s why Ketchup, a new app available on the App Store, has launched into existence. The app lets you keep track of all the activities you said you’d do with someone, or even ping a friend on the fly to go to a movie sometime, grab drinks, or whatever.
The idea is to always have a running list of all your potential hang-out opportunities with friends, whatever that might be. That way, when you’re bored, you can scroll through the list and start texting people.
Many social planning apps have tried and failed to bring people together, but flakiness seems to stand in the way of most. That’s why founder Matt Capucilli decided to leave timing out of the app completely. Instead, he wants Ketchup to be a place where two friends can make a contract with each other: “We’re going to do X.”
Since the app uses Facebook to connect, chances are you have some way of getting in touch with friends you’ve chosen to hang out. That way, Ketchup doesn’t get mixed in with all the intricacies of planning, but still helps you figure out what you’re going to do with friends.
But how does Ketchup ensure that your social contract with your friends will hold up when it comes time to pick a time and day?
In short, it doesn’t. To Capucilli, there will always be instances where people make promises to hang out and don’t follow through, “but that way you know who wants to hang out with you.” It sounds over-simplified, but this type of information is actually pretty useful. After a couple of weeks on Ketchup, seeing which activities come to fruition and which remain a promise, you’ll be able to target friends better the next time you want to go out and do something.
Plus, the app has a “flake out” button. This lets users cancel on their other friends, plus it lets you remove “a contract” from your list if the other party never seems to have time to go hang out.
Though monetization isn’t a huge focus right now, Capucilli sees a huge opportunity to leverage this type of data with marketers and advertisers. “Once the app picks up, we’ll be able to know where you want to go before you’ve gone there,” said Capucilli, who believes this data will eventually be highly valuable.
For now, it’s all about user acquisition. So if you’re interested in playing Ketchup, head on over to the App Store.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/pWgA4E-lQZg/
Facebook Home and Other News You Need to Know
PSA: T-Mobile's iPhone 5 pre-orders start rolling today
«Facebook Home destruye cualquier noción de privacidad»
Om Malik, Why Facebook Home bothers me: It destroys any notion of privacy ,
El GPS del teléfono puede enviar información constante a los servidores de Facebook [«infractor reincidente en cuestiones de privacidad»], indicando tu paradero en todo momento.
De modo que si tu teléfono no se mueve de un mismo lugar entre las 22h y las 6h durante, digamos, una semana, Facebook puede deducir que esa ubicación es tu hogar. Facebook será capaz de localizar en un mapa dónde está tu casa aunque nunca hayas indicado tu dirección personal en Facebook.
Así Facebook puede comenzar a construir un perfil de ti mejor y más completo. Puede correlacionar todas tus relaciones, las tiendas en las que compras, los restaurantes en los que comes y otros muchos datos. El acelerómetro del teléfono le dirá a Facebook si estás caminando, corriendo o conduciendo.
El problema es que Facebook va a utilizar todos esos datos —no para mejorar tu vida— sino para mejorar sus campañas de publicidad.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/opinion/facebook-home-destruye-cualquier-nocion-privacidad.html
Facebook Home para Android
De la nota de prensa,
Home es compatible con los siguientes dispositivos: HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III y Samsung Galaxy Note II. Home también será compatible con HTC One y Samsung Galaxy S4 y con otros dispositivos en los próximos meses.
Me chirría la desconexión entre los teléfonos que son compatibles con Facebook Home y el perfil de quien pueda estar interesado en que Facebook invada su pantalla de inicio.
Pero esto es lo que yo opino, claro.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/opinion/facebook-home-android.html
You Can Now Pre-Order an iPhone 5 From T-Mobile, Starting at $99
Bank of America brings live teller video chat to ATMs
DFJ Esprit To Close Another Fund Of Up To $15M For UK/Euro Angel Investments
Angel investing in Europe is getting another boost: DFJ Esprit, a UK-based division of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson network of VCs, is preparing to close its second EIS Angel Co-Investment fund, up to £10 million ($15 million) that will be used to help angels invest as syndicate partners alongside DFJ Esprit’s larger investments from its institutional funds, with the latest of these valued at £90 million ($137 million).
Richard Marsh, a DFJ partner and manager of the EIS fund, says that they are currently 80% subscribed for the £5 million first close on the new fund, with the expected final range to be between £5 million and £10 million.
Last year’s angel fund was a pilot program, valued at £5 million and twice oversubscribed. Investments from that fund included Achica, Unbound, Lyst, Datahug and Aveillant, with Horizon Discovery, Sport Pursuit and one other expected to close soon. DFJ Esprit’s portfolio has included LOVEFiLM (sold to Amazon); Kiala (sold to UPS); and Nimbus (now a part of Tibco).
The Angels EIS fund is part of a scheme DFJ first announced last year, and is related to a UK government initiative called the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), created to increase early-stage investments for startups from individual investors. That scheme encourages investments by way of tax breaks: private investors, DFJ Esprit points out, “benefit from institutional, investment-led deal quality with a tax wrapper that enhances returns,” which include 30% income tax relief on investments; zero capital gains on profits; and possible deferral of prior capital-gains tax on the initial investment.
While the U.S. has been very fertile ground for angel investors (some might argue too fertile), it has been less so in the UK and Europe, with the knock-on effect being, so the thinking goes, fewer startups in general.
What’s interesting is how the EIS scheme ends up changing the game for angel investing in general.
Here, angels are brought into the game as a syndicate partner to invest alongside DFJ Esprit’s institutional investors, which are part of the larger fund. It opens the door to bigger opportunities for those angels and gets them more involved potentially in later stages beyond seed as well. “It looks and acts and has the deal flow and scale of a full scale VC fund, and gives access into top tier VC deals to angel investors and has 10-20x scale compared with what EIS alone has had in the past,” says Marsh. “We believe this fund is setting new horizons for what can be achieved with EIS.”
Marsh says that targets for its investments are startups with potential $100 million+ exits, with 3x-10x returns on investment.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/weEh9x16QUo/
Asthmapolis Wants To Hack The Inhaler And Help 26 Million Americans Better Track And Manage Their Asthma
Unless you’re reading this while using an inhaler, this fact may surprise you: According to the CDC, 26 million Americans currently have the chronic respiratory disease we know as asthma. Not only that, but the CDC tells us that the disease costs the U.S. $3,300 per person annually, and medical expenses associated with asthma have increased to about $56 billion (thanks to hospitalizations, emergency room visits and missed work), while over 10 percent of insured Americans are unable to afford their prescription medicines.
Asthmapolis launched in 2010 to help find a solution by leveraging the advances in sensor technology (and the reduced costs of producing said sensors) and mobile data monitoring to help people manage their asthma more effectively, in turn reducing the costs both for those suffering from asthma and for the U.S. healthcare system itself. And, today, the Wisconsin-based startup has announced that it has raised $5 million in Series A financing from The Social+Capital Partnership to build out a comprehensive solution and support system for those with the chronic respiratory disease.
Asthmapolis is one of a new generation of digital health startups attempting to hack the old software, devices and care systems that continue to prevail in today’s healthcare landscape. We recently wrote about Intersect ENT, for example, which is hacking stents (yes, stents) to help doctors more effectively treat the 31 million-plus people suffering from sinusitis.
Meanwhile, Glooko, Omada Health and a number of other startups are bringing mobile and digital technology to those with diabetes to help them manage the condition and, in Omada’s case, hopefully even prevent it.
Asthmapolis, on the other hand, is on a mission to hack your inhaler. The startup has designed snap-on, Bluetooth-enabled sensors that track how often people are using their inhalers (along with location and time-of-day), along with analytics and mobile apps for iOS and Android to help them visualize and understand their triggers and trends while receiving personalized feedback.
In turn, the data collected by the solution enables doctors to identify patients who are risk or need more help controlling its symptoms. This allows them to potentially prevent attacks before they happen, saving them the cost of hospitalization or a trip to the emergency room.
In fact, Asthmapolis’ early studies found that this access to realtime data was able to reduce the number of people with uncontrolled asthma (or those not regularly using inhalers) by 50 percent. Without realtime data and the ability to collect information on the context and situations in which people develop symptoms, doctors are groping around in the dark and waiting for attacks before they analyze context and begin treatment.
Many startups are beginning to recognize the opportunity both to create a sustainable businesses and affect real change by positioning themselves at the intersection of growing trends like mobile devices and mobile health initiatives, personalized medicine, big data and sensors. Ashmapolis co-founder and CEO David Van Sickle thinks that the startup can sit at that intersection, while differentiating from competitors by offering both a hardware and software solution.
Not only that, but Athmapolis received approval from the FDA in July to market its asthma-tracking device and software solution to consumers, which puts it on a very short list. In turn, its software platform, which is available both in English and Spanish, allows users to keep a digital log on their use of medications, while receiving personalized feedback — both designed to improve their ability to successfully manage the disease.
In the big picture, the startup also wants to help public health institutions better evaluate the efficacy of their interventions and treatments and unlock insight into how asthma works and where it originates. And that’s where Asthmapolis is monetizing: By selling its hardware and software solution to payers and health plan providers. With more effective treatment solutions, insurance providers and health plans can save between $4,000 to $6,000 in annual healthcare costs — and, naturally, that’s money in the bank.
The company has formed a number of partnerships in the last year in this regard, which include programs with payers like Amerigroup Florida/WellPoint and providers like Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in New York and Dignity Health in California. Going forward, the startup will look to continue expanding its relationships with providers and payers, along with initiatives in retail pharmacy and the public sector.
“Asthmapolis is in a unique position in healthcare IT,” explains Social+Capital General Partner Ted Maidenberg, “where its technology can easily integrate with existing behaviors (like using your inhaler), while adding a huge amount of data (time, location, activity) that provides a much smarter package compared to your over-the-counter inhaler.”
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/bhoWb4hQ_U4/
Audi Connect gets new T-Mobile data plans
Un escáner 3D asequible para convertir objetos en modelos 3D
El escáner 3D Photon —similar al Digitizer de Makerbot permite escanear objetos reales, tridimensionales, y convertirlos en modelos virtuales en 3D.
El modelo 3D resultante puede utilizarse de forma digital (en películas de animación o videojuegos, por ejemplo) o utilizarse a su vez para replicarlo utilizando una impresora 3D sin necesidad de utilizar software de modelado 3D. Es decir, hacer una copia de un objeto físico.
Vía TechCrunch.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/tecnologia/photon-escaner-3d-asequible.html
Sailfish OS SDK released for Linux, Windows and Mac
Una sudadera para combatir el «ataque de los drones»
Stealth Wear —ropa contravigilancia— del diseñador Adam Harvey, en The Guardian,
Esta sudadera con capucha plateada [...] no favorece especialmente a quien la viste. Pero eso no es lo importante de esta sudadera, porque ha sido diseñada para esconderme de los sistemas de imágenes térmicas de los vehículos aéreos no tripulados de vigilancia, los «drones». Y diría que funciona.
Por cierto que si te interesa el tema de los vehículos aéreos no tripulados, en The Magazine el extenso artículo Ground Control analiza el uso y la popularización de estos ingenios, incluyendo los posibles conflictos y las amenazas a la intimidad o privacidad que pueden originarse con su utilización.
Vía Kottke.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/conspiranoia/sudadera-ocultarse-drones.html
El Venon GT, otro coche «de calle» que supera ampliamente los 400 km/h
El video muestra al Hennessey Venom GT alcanzando los 427 km/h. El Venon GT es en esencia un nunca-suficientemente-apreciado Lotus Exige modificado y con un motor de 7 litros y 1244 CV de potencia.
Este coche recientemente se hizo con el título de aceleración más rápida, pasando de 0 a 300 km/h en 13,6 segundos —que es un tiempo parecido al que la mayoría de supercoches necesitan para alcanzar los 200 km/h desde parado.
Al alcanzar 427 km/h el Venon GT supera la velocidad punta del Bugatti Veyron, de momento y todavía considerado el vehículo de producción más rápido. Además, cinco unidades del modelo Veyron Super Sport World Record Edition —una serie de 30 coches, 25 de ellos limitados a 415 km/h— alcanzan una velocidad aún mayor, 431 km/h. Pero al ser una edición limitada a cinco unidades no se considera un coche de producción.
Sin quitar mérito al logro de Hennessey desde luego lo que sí que (parece por el vídeo que) no hace el Venon GT es moverse a esas velocidades con la finura y con el estilo del Veyron, esto es sin despeinarse.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/tecnologia/venon-gt-coche-supera-ampliamente-400-kmh.html