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Thursday, 12 December 2013
Razer Comms for Android keeps in-game chat alive when you leave your PC
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Daily Roundup: Jawbone Up24 review, Instagram Direct announced, Aereo controversy and more!
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Qualcomm COO reportedly added to Microsoft's list of potential Ballmer successors
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¿Crees que sabes de aviones? Prueba Aircraft Recognition Quiz
Si el aerotrastorno circula por tus venas, descárgate Aircraft Recognition Quiz , disponible para iPhone e iPad, para ver si eres capaz de reconocer los aviones que te van proponiendo.
Tiene un modo sencillo, en el que puedes ver alzado, planta, perfil, y una foto del avión, y otros modos más complicados en los que sólo puedes ver una foto o una de las vistas.
Está dividido por épocas, y según vayas desbloqueando hangares al acertar cinco aviones seguidos se irán añadiendo más aviones que adivinar; por eso al principio se repiten con cierta frecuencia.
También hay la típica colección de logros que puedes ir rellenando según vayas progresando.
Y si se te queda pequeño siempre puedes añadir aviones modernos civiles y helicópteros, aunque estas dos opciones son de pago.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/aerotrastorno/crees-que-sabes-de-aviones-prueba-aircraft-recognition-quiz.html
Unlocking Your Phone in the U.S. Is About to Get a Lot Easier
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Ford's Fusion Hybrid research car will explore our driverless future
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Scientists combine magnets with bull semen to create 'spermbots' (yes, really)
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FCC FTW: wireless telcos agree to more consumer-friendly phone unlocking policies
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The Instagram Direct Primer: Everything You Need to Know
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IFTTT now lets iOS users automate their location
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Microsoft joins the FIDO Alliance to put an end to passwords
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Aereo chief: 'We have decided not to oppose the broadcasters' petition before the Supreme Court'
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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 hits Android and iOS with long-lost Palace Zone stage
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CrunchBase Reaches Agreement With People+, Announces New Terms Of Service
Following a legal dispute with Pro Populi, the company behind startup database People+, CrunchBase is announcing new terms of service. CrunchBase data will now be available through a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license.
CrunchBase President Matt Kaufman also told me, “People+ has agreed to operate under our revised Terms of Service,” which presumably ends the legal fight.
(Conflict of interest alert: As the names imply, CrunchBase and TechCrunch have always had close ties, and we’re part of the same team at AOL.)
The dispute arose when CrunchBase tried to stop the startup from using its data, suggesting that People+ was just creating a copycat competitor. The position taken by People+, and then by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, was that CrunchBase had the right to decide who accesses its data through its API, but People+ had the right to continue using the data it had already collected, because it was licensed under Creative Commons.
Put another way: The CrunchBase team ended up looking like it didn’t really understand how Creative Commons worked, or at least what the vast majority of online commentary suggested.
But like I said, it seems like the legal situation is resolved, and the new terms will hopefully prevent similar conflicts in the future. As I understand it, the big change is that the data is is only available under Creative Commons for non-commercial use. If the use is commercial, you’ll need to get a license from CrunchBase.
This is how Kaufman explained the change in an email;
Our position is that the old terms made that clear, but EFF and People+ argued that you cannot leverage Creative Commons while attaching additional terms (found in the TOS and license) to Creative Commons. It’s a “spirit” vs. “letter of the law” debate with no resolution. The new terms make our position unambiguous.
Meanwhile, a People+ spokesperson sent me the following statement:
We have been overwhelmed and thankful for the support of EFF and the tech community particularly Hacker News and some of the original team who created CrunchBase. We are thrilled with the outcome and are looking forward to continue growing our product and the company far beyond this controversy.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/ThXy0zG3tG8/
Court Rules Against iPhone Ban in South Korea
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Why I’m Crowdfunding My Book
I like to write. A lot. I write a lot for TC, and then when I’m done here, I like to write non-fiction, and most recently, fiction. I just finished a novel – and “finished” is a very loaded term when it comes to writing, but let’s say I’ve completed the story – and now I’m crowdfunding it. I’m going to write about my experience here on TC because I’ve been an avid supporter of both crowdfunding and new publishing paradigms for years but I’ve never put my money where my mouth is.
So here goes.
I just launched my Indiegogo campaign, and with the help of a few friends it got off to a good start. I’ve hit $1,600, mostly in paperback sales, but I got one whale who paid $500 to appear in the next book in the trilogy. I almost worried that I priced the campaign too high. I’m looking for $8,000 to publish the book mostly because I’d like to get some economies of scale if I’m able to sell a few hundred print copies (and maybe a few more electronic copies.) In retrospect I should have shot for lower, but I’ve seen that $8,000 is about the advance you get for a first-time fiction book these days and I wanted to see if a relatively lucky dude could make that on his own. In order to recreate the full publishing experience, I wanted to aim for something close to that to see if I could actually “earn out,” as they say in the business. It’s a bold experiment that could backfire.
I’ve also discovered that social media is awful for sales conversions. My posts have been retweeted and tweeted to millions of people (I got a shout out from Jim Gaffigan, which was amazing) but I don’t think I’ve gotten a single bite from someone I don’t know personally. Like the grumpy dad who funds his daughter’s crowd funding project on Portlandia, this is mostly a friends and family round.
Portlandia: Kickstarter by IFC-Official
I’ve also chosen to price my ebooks at or around Amazon prices simply because selling them for $4 or even 99 cents doesn’t seem like a solid decision, especially this early in crowdfunding. The paperback book price should allow me to break even on the printing but I am afraid of the hardback version pricing, although everyone has assured me that printing is not as drastic an expense as I thought. What I’m really excited about, oddly enough, is producing a special edition of the book for backers that will be more a work of art than a hardback. Although I don’t believe in the future of print, it sure is fun to hold a nicely done book, and I hope to offer that to my backers.
I did a very straightforward video with a DSLR and a nicely lit room. I also had our own Bryce Durbin help with a few illustrations for the book, which has really added a great deal in terms of personalizing the product. The kind folks at Indiegogo gave me a few pointers, including the suggestion that readers want to know, personally, who they’re pledging to. To that end I added a bit about my inspiration and some personal history.
This is actually quite frightening. Throughout my tenure at TC I’ve become increasingly supportive of the little guy. I don’t like the Sonys and Random Houses of the world, I like the mad tinkerers who create smartwatches, cameras, and guitars out of whole cloth without huge budgets or even much experience. This is the era of the informed amateur making it big, at least in hardware, software, and media. Instead of waiting to turn pro in some cubicle farm somewhere or slaving away namelessly on a trunk novel, amazing people are doing amazing things in their basements and garages.
I’m realistic about this. It’s a novel aimed at young adults but I hope it will appeal to older folks as well. I’ve seen only a few sales in the few days the campaign has been live and I honestly have no idea how this will end. I know I’m very lucky. I get to talk about my project to a huge audience and I’ve also been lucky to have a fairly large social presence online. But I know this will be hard. I’ll be posting intermittent updates over the next forty-five days and then, if I’m funded, post what I learned while getting a book published from the comfort of my keyboard. If you have any specific questions drop me a line at john@techcrunch.com or tweet me. Until then, here’s hoping the world doesn’t hate what I made.
You can read more about my project, as I post updates, here.
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The Engadget Podcast is live at 3:30PM ET!
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Borderlands 2 mobile app turns QR codes into absurd in-game armaments
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Ad Tech Startup TellApart Hits $100 Million Revenue Run Rate
TellApart may not be a household name, but if you spend time shopping (or window shopping) online, you have probably come across its technology. The Burlingame, California-based startup helps online retailers precisely target relevant ads to customers based on in-depth user data — so if you’ve ever clicked on an ad for a pair of shoes that seem like they were made for you, TellApart may very well have been responsible.
TellApart, which drove nearly 1 percent of all Cyber Monday e-commerce in the United States this year, is powered by some serious technology. And it turns out that it has also been making some serious money in the process.
TellApart is now operating at a revenue run rate of $100 million per year, according to CEO and co-founder Josh McFarland. The company, which was founded back in 2009, now has 50 employees and has comfortably profitable operations. In fact, TellApart hasn’t raised outside funding since its $11 million Series B round back in June 2011.
It’s an impressive performance, particularly at a time when it sometimes seems like the words “startup” and “revenue-generating” hardly ever appear together — let alone “profit.” So it was a pleasure to have McFarland stop by TechCrunch headquarters to talk about hitting this milestone and the lessons learned along the way. He was accompanied by James Slavet, the Greylock partner who has worked with TellApart since McFarland and his co-founder Mark Ayzenshtat started working on the concept as Greylock entrepreneurs-in-residence.
Watch the video embedded above to hear about how TellApart’s technology sets it apart from others in the field, how McFarland avoided the trap of becoming an “entrepreneur-in-reticence” in the early days of TellApart, the importance of the VC-founder relationship, and more.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/PaTWUxTINlI/
Google+ for Android update brings search and notification improvements, holiday cheer
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The next game from Braid's creator supports the Oculus Rift
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Nokia releases Motion Tracker beta for Lumia 1520 owners looking to get up and go
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Microsoft uses eye tracking to argue that Google distorts search results
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Coders Trade Secrets on the Smartest Corner of the Internet
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Latest Gmail tweak lets images display in your email automatically
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Cablevision: Case against Aereo could destroy cloud computing (and our cloud DVR)
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Gmail Will Never Ask You to 'Display Images Below' Again
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Jawbone Up24 review: wireless syncing makes this Jawbone's best fitness tracker yet
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UK court relaxes ban on HTC One Mini despite Nokia patent win
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Latest SwiftKey beta brings over 500 emojis to Android, makes your texts even more precious
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Eye-Fi Mobi Cards Can Now Transfer Directly to a Windows PC
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Korean StarCraft pro among first foreign eSports competitors to obtain athletic visa
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Blockbuster to shutter all of its remaining UK stores
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Instagram Introduces Instagram Direct
Today at a press event in New York, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom has announced that the photo-sharing service is introducing private photo-sharing and messaging.
Instagram has always been a mostly public social network, with a broadcast structure instead of connections based on mutual friendship, like Facebook. The introduction of Instagram Direct marks a new phase for the company.
Here’s how it works:
When you go in to post a picture (the same way that you’ve been posting pictures on Instagram), you’ll see two new tabs on the top of the post: Followers and Direct.
With Direct, you can choose a specific friend and type a special message, and that goes only to your friend. Once that friend opens up the photo, their profile picture within the message gets a check mark, noting that it’s been read. Users can also like direct photo messages, and chat can ensue from there.
You can send Direct messages up to 15 people, and Instagram Direct also offers up suggested recipients.
When you receive a photo, you’ll see a little inbox icon on the top right corner of the app, which will send you directly to your new messages. You can chat privately one-on-one or with a group of people.
People who mutually follow each other can easily send messages to each other. If you don’t follow someone, and they’ve sent you a direct message, it’ll show up as a pending request rather than a received message in your private inbox.
When you accept, that person can henceforth send you direct messages that will land in your inbox.
Developing
To learn more about Instagram’s announcement, check out all of our coverage here.
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Instagram debuts Direct, letting users share photos and videos with select groups
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