Saturday, 5 October 2013
Volkswagen XL1 Gets an Augmented Reality Service App
Alt-week 10.05.13: status update science, hands-on search and real 'piano hero'
Gogo Vision teams up with Magnolia Pictures to offer films in-flight before theatrical release
Ask a Dev: How Do Developers and QA Engineers Work Together?
BlackBerry Talking to Google and Samsung About Potential Sale: Report
Apple CEO Tim Cook Commemorates Anniversary of Steve Jobs' Death
Founder Institute Says It Has Graduated More Than 1,000 Companies
Adeo Ressi, founder of the Founder Institute startup incubator, recently told me that FI has hit a big milestone — more than 1,000 (1,003 at the time of our conversation) companies have graduated from the program.
A mind-boggling number of incubators and accelerators have launched in the past few years. That’s seems doubly true when you remember how few there were when the Founder Institute launched four years ago. By Ressi’s count, FI was one of the first three, following Y Combinator and Tech Stars.
And it has a pretty different model. Instead of targeting twentysomething programmers who have already started working on new companies, Ressi said his team created “a structured process” that would allow people who were working at big companies and “daydreaming” about their own startups to learn about the business and to figure out whether it really made sense to pursue their ideas.
Another distinguishing feature (and a factor in the relative speed with which 1,000 companies have emerged from the program) is the Founder Institute’s approach to geographic expansion — Ressi said it has chapters in 55 cities across 30 countries and six continents, with more to come. He added that in order to launch in a new city, the Founder Institute needs to be satisfied with both the local mentors who have volunteered/been recruited, and with the level of entrepreneurial interest.
But the real measure of an incubator’s success may have less to do with how many startups it launches, and instead how many have successful exits of some sort. Ressi estimated that the total portfolio has an estimated value of $5 billion, which might seem like a big number when there have only been six “liquidity events” (including the acquisitions of Shopalize and Grindblaze). But he noted, “Our best companies are far from selling.” He also said that 89 percent of companies are still operating, and 74 percent of companies are operating at or ahead of their growth plans.
Ressi predicted that those numbers will get even better as FI revamps its curriculum. He said he looks at the curriculum as “a versioning system,” and the institute is currently launching version 3, which responds to changes in the startup landscape in areas like social media.
I also wondered if we’re going to see a consolidation in the number of incubators over the next few years. Ressi responded: “The Founder Institute is in an unsuual position, in that we’re not doing it for the money, we’re doing it to be an organization that affects entrepreneurship. With other investors, I don’t believe that they’re going this to find be that a viable model, and what you’ll see, I don’t know if will be consolidation per se, but they’ll decide that this is too long a game for me to play.”
Oh, and if you’re wondering how hard it is to get into the Founder Institute, Ressi said it has a global acceptance rate of 14 percent (if you include incomplete applications) or 35 percent (if you only include complete ones).
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/J17hcTIY4CM/
GalerÃa de autorretratos de astronautas
Helmet View from Astronaut Mike Fossum
Ya habÃamos sacado por aquà este autorretrato de Mike Fossum durante la misión STS-135 de la NASA como ejemplo de fotos que sólo un astronauta puede hacer.
En Best Ever Astronaut ‘Selfies’ hay unos cuantos más de estos autorretratos, que sin duda dan para tener unas fotos bien chulas para el perfil de cualquier red social.
El autorretrato en este caso serÃa el reflejo de Neil Armstrong en el casco de Buzz Aldrin
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/fotografia/galeria-autorretratos-de-astronautas.html
Recommended Reading: the legacy of Myst, the fall of BlackBerry and more
División Azul (el cómic)
En 1941 un cientÃfico alemán que trabaja en el Proyecto Uranio hace una copia de toda la información relevante acerca del proyecto de la Alemania nazi para fabricar una bomba atómica.
Esa información llega a manos de comunistas españoles, que intentarán hacerla llegar a Rusia a través de Santiago, un joven estudiante de medicina cuyo padre fue fusilado en la guerra civil española.
Para ello se alista en la División Azul, dispuesto a desertar en cuanto llegue al frente ruso.
Pero en el tren que lo lleva a Alemania junto con el resto de los voluntarios de la División Azul comienza a hacer amigos, aunque no quiera, y se encuentra también con Marta, una vieja conocida de cuando vivÃa en Santiago de Compostela, también alistada como enfermera en la División Azul por motivos muy personales que no tienen nada que ver con la lucha contra el comunismo.
Una vez en el frente ruso la realidad del combate complicará enormemente las cosas de cara a poder llevar a cabo su misión, y hará que Santiago se plantee muchas cosas aún antes de que el guión de un giro que al menos yo no vi venir y que permite al autor rematar la historia del cómic sin faltar a la historia real.
Entretenido, bien documentado, y con un cameo del mÃtico Derby de Santiago de Compostela, definitivamente recomendado.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/comics/division-azul-el-comic.html
Lenovo IdeaPad B6000 and B8000 tablets spotted at German online retailers
U-Verse adds live TV streaming via web and iPad now; iPhone and Android later
Comcast's new X1 cable boxes apparently suffering nationwide outage
BLU Studio 5.5 smartphone carries big screen, $179 off-contract price
Tesla Model S catches fire after battery puncture, Musk responds
Developing the First iPhone: Behind the Scenes
Changes coming to Engadget's RSS feed
BlackBerry sale plans could include Google, Intel, Samsung or others
Filing Says Sleep- And Health-Tracking Startup Lark Is Raising Another $3.6M
Lark, which launched a wearable silent alarm on-stage at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference back in 2010, has raised $3.1 million of an intended $3.6 million round of funding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
I’ve emailed the company and its CEO Julia Hu for confirmation, and I’ll update this post if I hear back. The filing doesn’t specify the investors in the new round, but intriguingly, it does identify Weili Dai, president and co-founder of Marvell, as as member of its board of directors.
Although Lark started out with a silent alarm, it expanded its product lineup to include a sleep coach product called Lark Pro and a more general device and app called Larklife. The company announced Larklife in October of 2012, and Hu described it to me as a way for folks who aren’t as serious about fitness or weight loss to track and get actionable recommendations about their diet, exercise, sleep, and more. Like Lark’s other devices, Larklife was sold in Apple’s retail stores (and elsewhere).
I actually tried the service out for a few months late last year and early this year. During that time, everyone kept asking me about the blue wristband (the look definitely wasn’t as subtle as, say the Nike+ Fuel Band). I thought it had potential, but eventually I decided that it wasn’t providing enough value to justify the (minor) inconvenience — and, perhaps more damningly, the ridicule that it prompted from my roommate. In the months since, while I’ve seen an increasing number of people around San Francisco wearing some sort of fitness device, it usually isn’t the Larklife wristband.
Lark previously raised $1 million in funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, CrunchFund (which, like TechCrunch, was founded by Michael Arrington), and others.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/bpRFmU4QiR8/
Daily Roundup: Honda and Toyota's human transporters, Valve's Steam Machine specs, Siri's voice actress and more!
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition: For Serious Tableters Only
NASA's Curiosity Rover Continues to Explore Mars Despite Shutdown
Engadget Podcast 363 - 10.04.13
