via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/z9IaI0js8co/
Tuesday, 3 December 2013
From iPad mini to Galaxy Note: Which Tablet Is Right for You?
via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/NzrHf50hfCg/
Visualized: Inside the Vertu workshop, where phones are made by hand (video)
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/_suW4ZJctSk/
FiftyThree's Paper app updated to play nice with its Pencil stylus
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/auhOjbKgi4s/
BMW and Mini connected cars now support Amazon Cloud Player
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/TZ2hX5VqX2U/
Popular photo-editing app VSCO Cam makes its way to Android
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/8n6Bd_jZh8A/
UPS experimenting with delivery drones, set to challenge Amazon's Prime Air
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/FZD0-QrxD-M/
Microsoft begins sign-ups for its Project Spark open beta
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/A7aNPYwxtxU/
Futuristic Unmanned Submarines Could Move Like Stingrays
via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/iNr30Hzw_G0/
Netflix's first original animated series to premiere on Christmas Eve
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/iHBFu7P8lqE/
SumAll Raises Another $4M To Help Businesses Understand Their Data
Business analytics company SumAllis announcing that it has raised $4 million in new funding from existing investors Battery Ventures and Wellington Partners, as well as an additional $1 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank.
The company allows customers to connect a wide range of services, including social networks like Facebook and Twitter, email marketing tools like MailChimp and Constant Contact, payment providers like Amazon Payments and PayPal, and ad platforms like Bing Ads and Google AdWords. Businesses can then view and analyze all of that data from a single interface.
CEO Dane Atkinson said SumAll's appeal is boils down to allowing customers to “see your damn data.” He added that his team works hard to understand the key performance indicators that customers care about. (And some of those customers can be pretty big - SumAll says one agency is using the service to track more than 120 Google Analytics pages and 50 Facebook pages.)
The new funding was actually revealed last month in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but SumAll hasn't talked about the deal until now.
Atkinson told me the company actually had enough money in the bank to last until “well into next year,” when it planned to raise a larger round. However, the service has been growing quickly, supposedly tracking $4 billion in sales activity for 100,000 businesses, with the total amount of data doubling every 45 days. As a result, SumAll's infrastructure costs are increasingly rapidly, and Atkinson said he wanted to raise the money so that he wasn't tempted to cut expenses by “shaving down” the amount of data that SumAll tracks.
He added that SumAll talked to other potential investors, but ultimately decided to “stick to a smaller round for now” from existing backers and “barrel through until we get to bigger scale” (and can presumably raise money at a higher valuation).
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/eB0FEjC2oso/
UK carriers agree to cap bills on lost and stolen cellphones
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Uc6HxZwh8CQ/
The Future of 3D Printing in 3 Minutes
via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/GGnf0UZJB7E/
Google adds Game of Thrones and other hit HBO shows to the UK Play Store
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/_tuU4i9du2k/
10 Actors Who Appeared on Screen After Their Deaths
via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/NTlsbEFBlNE/
Tracking Santa in Real Time, Now in 3D
via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/MgqNUckzKB8/
NORAD and Microsoft team on a touch-friendly Santa Claus web tracker
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/EwJaRPO0Ccg/
Este retrato parece una foto, pero es un dibujo y está pintado con los dedos en un iPad
Morgan Freeman por Kyle Lambert.
Espectacular retrato de Morgan Freeman pintado por Kyle Lambert en un iPad Air, con 285 000 trazos hechos con los dedos, la app Procreate y 200 horas de trabajo — a partir de una fotografÃa de Scott Gries.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/arte-y-diseno/retrato-morgan-freeman-dibujo-ipad.html
HTC One Mini banned in the UK following Nokia patent win
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/rtjQCE5dw3w/
Copenhagen Wheel turns any bike into an electric hybrid, ships early 2014 for $699 (video)
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/u2GWDUbpk7w/
Intel Makes Another Acquisition: Hacker League, A Platform For Hackathons, Is Now A Part Of Mashery
Intel's acquisition spree continues apace, with the latest being made to augment one of its other recent acquisitions. It is buying Hacker League, a popular platform for managing hackathons, which will be incorporated with the API management company Mashery (acquired April 2013). The terms of Hacker League deal are not being disclosed but we understand it is for a sum significantly smaller than the $180 million Intel reportedly paid for Mashery. Only the platform, IP and other assets are coming over to Intel; the three co-founders Mike Swift, Abe Stanway, and Ian Jennings, who are all in their early 20s, are not.
Oren Michels, Mashery's founder who still runs the business, tells me that the idea behind the acquisition is to augment the developer outreach work that it already does on a daily basis. “We acquired the assets of Hacker League to take a product that makes hackathons great so that we could do more things to support developers,” he said. “It adds something that we can support the developer community with and eventually build parts into our core product over time.”
Adding Hacker League will mean that Mashery (and Intel) will be significantly ramping up their events for developers. Mashery is involved in some 80 hackathons annually, while Hacker League has powered some 460 events worldwide since October 2011, with a database of some 6,000 hacks from those events. (The hackathons it has powered includes the one that kicks off TechCrunch Disrupt, our flagship conference.)
Mashery and Hacker League already had friendly relations before this, crossing paths in the hackathon circuit. “We have a lot of respect for Mashery,” Swift told me. “This is the best possible place for Hacker League to go. I got really excited by the idea of Mashery taking it to places where we couldn't.”
Swift - who created Hacker League with Stanway and Jennings while the three were still students at Rutgers University - says that it had from the start been a side project, created more out of what they themselves wanted out of hackathons than really a startup in its own right. It was always bootstrapped, and until this past summer (when they started to consider what would happen with Hacker League longer term) was run more or less as a side project, with the three co-founders holding down day jobs at places like SendGrid, Etsy and PubNub. They are continuing with other projects post-sale. All three had been a part of the HackNY program, which organises university student hackathons among other things, and this could be called HackNY's first exit. (Swift is continuing his interest in student hackathons; he's the “commisioner” of Major League Hacking, vying to be the official league for intercollegiate, competitive student hackathons.
While Mashery already has an existing business targeting developers - which is beneficial overall for Intel and its mindshare in that community - it will be interesting to see how and where Hacker League's platform gets used in the future. One area where Intel could use the platform would be in its own hardware-focused hackathons. And like other API-focused businesses like Appcelerator, Mashery itself is doing business with enterprises, helping them work on their own internal development, so potentially this could be used to help build out Mashery's outreach in that area as well.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/3V34T-FS6r8/
Rdio Names Former Amazon Exec Anthony Bay Its New CEO
After enduring a round of layoffs last month, Rdio, the streaming music startup from Skype co-founder Janus Friis, has found a new chief executive officer, Anthony Bay. Bay, whose experience includes executive positions at Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, inherits the challenge of making Rdio profitable as it competes against market leaders like Spotify.
Margins in the streaming music business are extremely tight and Rdio, which lacks the the music industry connections Spotify has formed, may be struggling to get enough paying subscribers to stay afloat (the company has not disclosed the size of its current user base). Rdio did not say how many employees were fired last month, but we were told by one person that the layoffs affected 35 people, while another tip said that the number amounted to about one-fifth to one-third of Rdio's workforce, with the biggest cuts in engineering.
A representative for the company told us that they layoffs were to “improve its cost structure and ensure a scalable business model for the long-term.” It's unclear how Vdio, the startup's video-streaming service, has been affected.
Another potentially worrying sign is that the startup has not released any user numbers in a while. In contrast, Deezer reported earlier in November that it had passed 5 million user mark, despite not entering the U.S. market. Spotify, which reported 6 million paying users in March 2013, announced today that it is opening up its analytics to musicians and managers. Rdio did tell TechCrunch, however, that its tripled the number of new users since the end of 2012, and 90% of those subscribers are now on the Rdio Unlimited tier, which costs $9.99 per month.
Bay was formerly head of Amazon's global video business, and also served as chairman at Loudeye, where he led its B2B digital media content division before it was sold to Nokia. At Microsoft, Bay was in charge of the company's e-commerce technology platform, as well as developing Windows Media Technologies, including Windows Media Player. He also worked eight years at Apple, where he led Apple's Online Services.
Bay follows Drew Lamer, who is now Rdio's vice chairman and strategic advisor to itsboard of directors. Lamer announced earlier this year he planned to vacate the CEO post.
Friis said in a statement that Rdio now plans to focus on growing its paying user base globally and added that Bay will “play a critical role in unlocking the value of our global terrestrial radio partnerships.” Rdio announced a strategic partnership with Cumulus Media, which operates 525 radio stations in the U.S., in September. The deal gives Rdio access to Cumulus' programming, as well as promotions on its stations. In return, Cumulus, which took an equity stake in Rdio's parent company Pulser Media, now has an online platform.
To date, Rdio has raised $17.5 million from Atomico, Mangrove, Janus Friis and Skype.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/sUToVvLCUhY/
Motorola Apologizes for Cyber Monday Mess, Adds Two More Days of Deals
via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/KNUBt8nHiuE/
Scientists create malware that communicates using sound, no network required
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/sO_FTY_i62c/
Tobii Opens Eye Control Software to Developers
via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/sx10Dz0Egu4/
PayPal launches digital gift card store, boasts iTunes as its first partner
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/usTPUTfzrjU/
10 Excellent Platforms for Building Mobile Apps
via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/x9rLLWkmK5E/
El crecimiento de la velocidad de los superordenadores más rápidos
Esta pequeña perla gráfica muestra cómo ha crecido con el paso de los años la velocidad máxima que cada año marcan las supercomputadoras más poderosas del mundo: Fastest supercomputers (Science News).
La mayor bestia del cálculo hasta el momento sigue siendo el Tianhe-2 chino con sus 3,1 millones de núcleos, 1 petabyte de RAM y 33 petaFLOPS de capacidad de cálculo (sobre 54 petaFLOPS «teóricos»).
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/ordenadores/crecimiento-velocidad-superordenadores.html
Spotify tries to win over artists by predicting their future royalties
via Engadget RSS Feed http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/IaFxczPV6lk/
Huawei's Problems In The U.S. Point To Branding Challenges For Other Chinese Tech Companies
After two years of dealing with espionage accusations, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei recently told French publication Les Echos that he wants the telecoms equipment manufacturer to pull out of the U.S. market. Huawei's problems stem in large part from Ren's past association with the People's Liberation Army, but they also serve as a warning about potential marketing issues for other Chinese companies that want to break into the U.S.
The Les Echos interview was first published last week, but published in English today by Foreign Policy. Ren, who rarely grants media interviews, declared that he is giving up after two years of issues with the U.S. government, including concerns from the U.S. House Intelligence Committee that the telecoms equipment manufacturer may be spying on behalf of the Chinese government.
“If Huawei gets in the middle of U.S.-China relations, it's not worth it. Therefore, we have decided to exit the U.S. market and not stay in the middle,” Ren told Les Echos.
Huawei has denied all espionage accusations, and a White House review reportedly backed up its assertions of innocence, finding no evidence that the company spied on the U.S.
Suspicions about Huawei stem in part from Ren's background: before founding Huawei, he was a military technologist for the PLA. But Huawei's problems underscore similar challenges for other Chinese companies. China's tech industry already faces the stereotype that it is a knock-off factory, not a fount of innovation. Potentially even more problematic, however, is the way distrust of China's government is reflected wariness toward both startups and well-established companies regardless of whether or not they have ties with the Chinese Communist Party or military.
Tencent, one of China's largest Internet companies, was spotlighted in the U.S. media recently as an investor in Snapchat and “role model” for its founder Evan Spiegel. But before that, Tencent's own popular messaging app, WeChat, encountered a slew of controversy during its global expansion. After WeChat was found to be blocking certain words and phrases, the company defended itself by stating that the situation was due to a “technical glitch” and not because of censorship.
Other issues WeChat faced included a less-than-warm welcome in countries the Chinese government has a stormy relationship with. In Taiwan, for example, legislators from the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, voiced concerns that WeChat posed a security risk when it first launched there in October 2012. Also faced issues in India and Vietnam because of security concerns (though it is important to note that Vietnamese legislators have proposed banning all messaging apps, not just WeChat).
Younger Chinese tech companies have to tread carefully in order to avoid the problems faced by Tencent and Huawei.
So far smartphone maker Xiaomi has avoided same issues, but it may also face branding challenges as it prepares to scale up globally (including complaints its name, which means “little rice,” is hard to pronounce). Xiaomi rose very rapidly in China, where its market share in China passed Apple in the second quarter of 2013, just three years after it was founded in 2010. But Xiaomi first grabbed the attention of American consumers when Hugo Barra, Google's former Android VP, joined it in a surprise announcement three months ago.
Barra will oversee Xiaomi's international expansion and try to help it do what no other Chinese smartphone maker: achieve the name recognition of competing smartphone makers like Apple, Samsung, HTC and Sony. (In fact, Huawei is top third smartphone vendor in the world after Samsung and Apple, though its 5% market share lags behind those two companies by a wide margin.)
In China, Xiaomi's growth was fueled in part by the high profile of co-founder and CEO Lei Jun, whose resume includes launching Joyo.com, which was purchased by Amazon in 2004 for $75 million and is now Amazon China, and chairing the board of UCWeb, the largest mobile Web browser in China. But in many U.S. media outlets, Lei has been presented as a Steve Jobs copycat. It's a comparison that Lei has only recently started to protest. In September, he told told CNN that “they [Apple] don't really care about what the users want. They imagine what the users want.” Lei's remarks may indicate that Xiaomi wants to begin aggressively combating Apple comparisons in order to avoid being branded a “knock-off” when it enters the U.S.
At the TechNode/TechCrunch Shanghai event two weeks ago, Bowie Gai, the founder of World Startup Report, asked panelists if they felt a bias against China-based companies in a discussion about how Chinese startups can build their brand in international markets.
David Chen, founder of Web site builder Strikingly, the first Chinese company in Y Combinator, said that though his company doesn't emphasis that it is headquartered in Shanghai, the fact sometimes comes in handy. “It's a weapon that you can use at certain stages, but you can't use it to associate with innovation unfortunately,” said Chen.
But Chinese tech companies are already making an impact on tech innovation in the U.S. - and not just by providing cheap outsourced labor. For example, Tencent's monetization model influenced Zynga in addition to Snapchat. (Zynga partnered with Tencent in 2011 when it launched a localized Chinese version of Cityville.)
During the TechNode/TechCrunch Shanghai event, Glow co-founder and CEO Mike Huang said that all of the fertility app's product development and speccing is done in Shanghai. Huang, who said Glow sees itself as a data science company, added that the startup doesn't treat China as an “outsourcing firm.”
“Chinese product engineers are very impressive. What they need is more exposure to innovative thinking,” Huang said. “But it will grow very, very fast.”
Edith Yeung, the head of strategy for Sequoia-backed browser maker Dolphin, told the audience that Chinese startups wishing to combat negative perceptions should focus on the benefits of their product.
“Don't say that you are building the Dropbox of this or that,” said Yeung. “What people care about is what problem you are solving, why you care about it so much and why are you in the U.S. or China market.”
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/_Jvem9JE98U/
Yahoo's 2013 Year in Review Includes Top Searches and Tumblr Trends
via Tech http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/2QgGgfLSzfU/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)