Monday, June 22, 2009

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Alice.com Is Your Housekeeper And Personal Shopper Rolled Into One Top
Ever run out of toilet paper or trashbags at an inopportune moment and think to yourself, I wish I had someone to remind me when I need to buy household basics? Tonight at 9 pm, Alice.com will show you a better way to buy household essentials online that will not only remind you when you need more toilet paper but will save you time, and most importantly, money. The basic idea behind Alice.com, which raised $4.3 million in funding last fall, is that the site is an open platform for consumer packaged goods manufacturers, like Procter & Gamble, to sell directly to consumers instead of going through retail channels like Target or Wal-Mart. On the consumer side, Alice.com lets users create a profile of their household (how many people, kids etc.) and then the site will keep track of items and reminds users with emails when they are running low and need to reorder. Each shipment is bundled together in a single 'Alice' box, delivered directly to the consumer's door, with no shipping costs attached. Although young, the site, which has over 6,000 products, has a great deal of variety when it comes to different types of products. There are 86 choices under bathroom paper, which includes kleenex, toilet paper, cotton balls and more. And there are 804 offerings for hair products. You can choose to shop for goods by type of room (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom), brand, green/natural products, or by the best deals. You can also filter results by lifestyle choice (green, bargain hunter, premium), by brand, or by those that have coupons. Alice also crawls the web for coupon codes (often discounts offered by the manufacturers themselves) and will automatically apply discounts to products on the site. I did a comparison of a bottle of Tide liquid laundry detergent on Alice.com and Drugstore.com. On Alice.com, the price was $7.71 with discounts, nearly $6 cheaper than the price on Drugstore.com, which was $13.99. The other nifty tool that Alice provides is a built in comparison shopping feature for each item, that will look up comparable prices on competitors including Drugstore.com, Safeway, Walgreens, CVS and Amazon Fresh. Of course, you pay your state’s tax on the item and you have to buy at least six items at a time, which can be annoying if you run out of certain items at different rates. But Alice saves your information so when you return to the site, it will calculate what you need and suggest items for you. You will also be able to choose free samples to add to your shipments from manufacturers. You can also review products on the site but you have to have purchased an item in order to submit a review. And you can publish your list to the site, if you want others to see what you’ve bought (which might not be that interesting considering all lists will be composed of household items). And to keep up with budget conscious users, Alice.com will chart your spending history over your orders. On the manufacturer side, Alice.com makes no retail margin allowing each manufacturer to control product assortment and pricing in its own direct sale to the end consumer. Alice collects the goods from the manufacturers in a warehouse and manages all of the e-commerce and shipping. So how does the site make money? Advertising. Alice.com collects money from manufacturers which post ads on the site and also offers alternative ways to advertise via free samples and coupons. It should be interesting to see if advertising alone is a viable business model for Alice. Alice.com could have the recipe for success for a startup-a solid idea, competitive pricing and experience. Co-founders and serial entrepreneur can get Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire managed to sell three companies in the past +10 years, most recently flipping social shopping service Jellyfish to Microsoft (which it later used to create Live Search Cashback ). Wiegand and McGuire both said that manufacturers are excited at the idea of selling directly to the consumer via Alice.com. Wiegand cited one reason that I found interesting: the emergence of retail stores providing their own labels for household goods. For example, Target has created their own brands of dishwasher soap, which competes directly with Dawn, Palmolive and others and is often priced at lower pricepoints. Wiegand says that manufacturers find this frustrating, especially when retailers advertise their cheaper brands next to the manufacturers more expensive brand. Competitors of course range from online retailers like Drugstore.com to Target, Walmart, Lowe’s, and even grocery stores. But with Alice’s prices and convenience, the startup has the potential to make significant strides in in the space. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
New Business Model In Hand, Tagga Raises $400,000 Top
Last August we wrote about Tagga , a new SMS service that made it easy for individuals to set up free interactive SMS campaigns. Since then the company has shifted gears, changing its business model to help larger marketing agencies (the sort with actual budgets) set up their campaigns. Now the company has closed a $400,000 funding round led by a number of independent investors out of the US, Canada, and the UK. Tagga’s core service remains largely the same: pick out a shortcode (we’ll use ‘TECH’ for this example), and then invite people to send ‘TECH’ to 82442, Tagga’s special phone number. You decide what these vistors receive after opting in, with messages that can include things like an invitation to check out your website or an interactive poll. Tagga’s intial business model was to append ads to the end of its outgoing messages. CEO Amielle Lake says that the company swapped models in November after finding that advertisers weren’t yet biting at the chance to appear at the end of the texts. What the company did notice, however, was that some of North America’s 30,000 advertising agencies needed a good way to manage SMS campaigns and had no idea how to do it. Thus, the new Tagga Agency Platform was born. The company now helps marketing agencies create SMS-based campaigns, allowing them to schedule when they’d like their messages sent out, create voting campaigns, and build mobile websites. The service also takes care of any issues involved with carrier fees and device problems. Lake says that 12 advertising firms have signed up for the service, and that some US government representatives are building SMS campaigns as well. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Now We're Talking: AIM With Push Support Hits The App Store Top
There’s been a lot of talk the past few days since the launch of the iPhone 3.0 software about the lack of Push Notification apps in the App Store. Well, today brings a big one: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). Instant messaging apps are perhaps the perfect use for Push Notification, which allows you to use such services without requiring that they be open at all time. In our test of the pre-release beta version of the AIM app with Push, the messages were sent almost instantaneously. In testing it out right now, it looks to be just as fast. When you first fire up this new version of AIM, it asks you if you’d like to receive Push notifications. You can change this at any time in the settings. And you can also choose if you’d like the notifications to be brief (only say that you have a new IM), feature the sender’s name only, be normal size, or full size. You can also set how you’d like Push messages to show up on your phone for each app in the device’s settings. You can have it pop up a message, play a sound, badge your icon or do any combination of those. And Push works with both the free [ iTunes link ] and paid version [ iTunes link ] of the app. The $2.99 paid version removes all advertising. Push is great for services like IM, but it doesn’t resolve the lack of iPhone background support for all apps. With Push you still can’t listen to Pandora while doing something else on the web, for example. I still believe it’s only a matter of time before we see some sort of third-party background task support as well. Update : While users are reporting that they aren’t receiving notifications to update their apps yet, if you use the links above, it is the latest version with Push. CrunchBase Information AIM iphone App iPhone Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Don't Have Enough Widgets In Your Life? Netvibes Adds Recommendations. Top
For those of you who need more information widgets in your life, Netvibes is adding widget recommendations to its homepage service. It just started rolling this feature out today, and all Netvibes users should see it within the next two or three days. It looks at all of the information widgets on all the pages and tabs in your account, compares that to other members with overlapping taste, and suggests content they have that you don’t. When users click on the “add content” button on the top left, a “Recommended” option will appear below the widget search box. Clicking on that will generate 12 new widget recommendations across nine categories of interest: news, sports, business, technology, entertainment, shopping, lifestyle, games, and travel. Netvibes is calling this new widget recommendation and distribution feature Talk To Me. When I tried it, most of the recommendations were for news, since the way I use Netvibes is to scan dozens of blogs and news feeds on a single page. The recommendations, at least for me, were a bit too predictable: WSJ blogs, the Financial Times, The LA Times, CBS News. (Click above for a larger image). These are all things I could have found myself. But the recommendations are suppose dto get better over time, learning from what you add and what you reject. Netvibes is in the widget business, so it needs to encourage more consumption of widgets. It will also be showing targeted sponsored widgets in the same window, marked accordingly, and it gets paid every time someone installs those widgets on a cost-per-install basis. I personally have moved on from widgets to more linear streams of data as my information consumption habit of choice, but a lot of people still like widgets (see, iGoogle). Most widgets are really just a different way to package streams of data such as news or Twitter feeds. On Netvibes, you arrange them in boxes on your page, and can organize multiple pages in tabs, and even go beyond that. But at a certain point you stop adding new widgets just like you stop adding new feeds to your RSS reader because you don’t know what else to add or it simply becomes overwhelming. A good recommendation system could help you discover new widgets, but what is equally important is a way to clean up the widgets you added long ago but never bother to look at. Recommending what to get rid of is just as important as recommending what to add. But that is not part of the system yet. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Exclusive: OTOY Goes Mobile, Turns Your Cell Phone Into A Powerful Gaming Rig Top
Last week we posted a pair of videos showing off OTOY, the upcoming server-side rendering service that can stream complex 3D games to your computer through any web browser. It’s a very impressive technology, requiring no plugins or lengthy installs — just open your browser and you can instantly jump into a game of Crysis or GTA4, streamed in HD quality. Today we’ve gotten our hands on a clip proving that when OTOY says its technology will work on nearly any browser-enabled device, it means it. As the video below shows, OTOY is going to bring modern games like Crysis and GTA 4 to your mobile phone. The phone in the video is a Samsung Omnia, which was released to the public last summer (in other words, you don’t need a cutting edge phone for the technology to work). The game is running through the phone’s built-in browser, with no installs required, and is being controlled via a Xbox gamepad connected wirelessly. OTOY Chief Strategy Officer Mark Tseng says that the company is working on a variety of control schemes, allowing users to control games using a phone’s accelerometer, onscreen gamepad, or external peripherals like the Xbox controller. OTOY will work over Wi-Fi or a 3G connection (the company has it working speeds as low as 1.5 Megabits per second), though Tseng says Wi-Fi works best. He also notes that the technology will work on the iPhone, going on to emphasize that it should work on nearly any device — we can likely expect it to work on the Palm Pre, Android, and most other smartphones as well. At this point the company isn’t willing to divulge how pricing will work, though Tseng says more details will be coming soon. This is very powerful stuff. Imagine being able to whip out your cell phone and join a quick raid in World of Warcraft, or play through a mission in Grand Theft Auto. I see this as being particularly appealing for MMO’s, which tend to attract especially devout players who would love to be able to access their accounts away from home. Of course, mobile phones are becoming powerful enough to render 3D graphics on their own — the iPhone offers a slew of games with complex graphics, and the iPhone 3GS is able to support even more detailed games. But these graphics won’t rival modern console or PC games for many years, and you’re going to always have to continuously upgrade your hardware if you want to stay current. Once you have a phone that supports OTOY you shouldn’t have to worry about upgrading your hardware, as all game processing is being done remotely. But streaming games on mobile phones come with its own set of issues. Unlike your home PC, where you can normally count on a stable connection, many of us play games on our phones while we’re in transit, when you can hardly rely on your cell phone’s reception to hold up. But even if they have to stay stationary or jump on a Wi-Fi connection, this is a service that I’m sure many gamers will be salivating over. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Bush Advisor: Twitter Founders Should Get Nobel Peace Prize Top
Oh my God, the haters of Twitter are going to love this. Speaking to Fox News, Mark Pfeifle, a former Deputy National Security Advisor to George W. Bush, offered up this appraisal of the Iran situation: “If there’s anybody that should possibly get a Nobel Peace Prize in the next time around, it should be the founders of Twitter who delayed the tuning up of their system in order for an amazing amount of tweets to be sent out in the last week or so.” Let me just repeat the key phrase there: “If there’s anybody that should possibly get a Nobel Peace Prize in the next time around, it should be the founders of Twitter” Now watch this clip over and over. Just so we don’t get accused of entirely taking this out of context, below we’ll paste the full transcript (and full video) of what he said in the interview. But again, he did say “If there’s anybody that should possibly get a Nobel Peace Prize in the next time around, it should be the founders of Twitter”. Twitter, for its part, says it is not a covert government agency , even though it did postpone maintenance to make sure it was up during the peak hours of Iranian protests. Update : Here’s a tweet Pfeifle sent out recently as well (emphasis mine): RT JBergsman,M. Pfeifle on FNC: Nobel Peace Prize for Twitter founders for #iranelection? Why not. @ev & @biz > deserving than Arafat.Carter Full transcript: Bream: Let’s talk about the Administration’s so far. Has it been on point? What do we need to see next from the White House? Pfeifle: They are walking a tightrope. That’s what they are doing. They do not want the U.S. or West to become the talking point for the Iranian regime, saying they are trying to do a coup by their public statements. What the reaction has been in the prayers yesterday by their supreme leader, he used it anyway and said the West is trying to do this. So, sometimes it doesn’t work. And you try and stay quiet and you try to stay mum or you say too much. The real winners in this and the people that have gotten the message out, even though the U.S. with some exceptions has been fairly quiet is Twitter, has been Facebook, Flickr, YouTube. It’s been all of those. If there’s anybody that should possibly get a Nobel Peace Prize in the next time around, it should be the founders of Twitter who delayed the tuning up of their system in order for an amazing amount of tweets to be sent out in the last week or so. Bream: It’s been such a valuable source of information because, in the past the government there probably had a lot more control over the information disseminated inside the country and outside as well. So now that we have this additional information coming in, does it put the Administration in a different place as far as, you know, crediting some of this information - maybe not being able to credit all of it because it’s coming from unreliable sources? Pfeifle: It’s difficult because it’s moving so quickly. We saw just on the 17th, 221,000 tweets sent about Iran, 3,000 videos were uploaded onto YouTube. It’s been really remarkable, you know, how the emerging media the social networking has taken over and has given a voice to a lot of people who have been silent. Bream: And let’s talk about this escalating today as well, because the government had been cracking saying no more protests in Tehran. Mousavi will be responsible for whatever happens if these people are hurt or injured. They turned out anyway, thousands of them we know so far. Now he’s also amped things up so far by talking about being ready for martyrdom and also calling for a national strike if he is arrested. You know, this seems to be on a trajectory. What happens next there? Pfeifle: It’s really hard to tell. If the country is shutdown by a strike or portions of it, it’s going to put the Iranian regime in a very difficult situation. Already they have massive problems with gas rationings for fairly wealthy country. Where they’ve been putting money into funding Hamas and Hezbollah and putting so much money into their nuclear program instead of into their people. All of this is quailing up. It’s hitting a point right now where the regime is going to have to make some drastic changes one way or the other. They’ve already said that they are going to count 10 percent of the vote. They are already making some concessions and the people’s voices are being heard. Bream: Alright, so we know about the official response we’ve already talked about that so let’s talk about back channels. Obviously there’s a lot going on probably that we don’t know about. What kind of efforts can the Administration make off the radar in this situation? Pfeifle: well, it’s difficult to get to the actual Iranian regime. They are very isolated. There’s some ways through the Swiss, there’s some ways through Ambassadorial channels that you can makes some entries to the Iranians but for the most part they’re not going to listen to the West, they are not going to listen to the U.S. They are going to listen to them more between press releases and public statements as President Obama has done, as the Secretary of State and others have done periodically last week. Bream: Mark Pfeifle, we thank you so much for your insight on this and for sharing your Saturday with us as well. Pfeifle: Thank you Shannon. [thanks James ] CrunchBase Information Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Sets The Record Straight About Pending Lawsuit Top
We reported a few weeks ago that Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard filed a lawsuit against Tesla and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, citing allegations of slander, libel and breach of contract. Tesla issued a short statement when the lawsuit was filed, calling the lawsuit a "fictionalized account of Tesla's early years." Now Musk has taken to Tesla’s blog to give his own version of the messy situation. Unrelated to the lawsuit, Musk says that Tesla will be profitable by next month, thanks to lower material costs, and increased Roadster Sport sales. Musk responds to several of Eberhard’s allegations that he lied about his background and fictionalized pieces of his resume to embellish the truth: The facts are that when I requested through AC Propulsion to meet Eberhard, he had no technology of his own, he did not have a prototype car and he owned no intellectual property relating to electric cars. All he had was a business plan to commercialize the AC Propulsion Tzero electric sports car concept. Three years later, when Eberhard was asked to leave Tesla, most of the work that he had been paid to do had to be redone. Particularly, Musk addresses Eberhard’s complaints that the PayPal founder misrepresented his education. Musk maintains that he did his undergraduate studies in physics and business at UPenn/Wharton (we confirmed this with Wharton—Musk was an undergraduate alum and holds degrees from both Wharton and the College of Arts & Sciences) and despite dropping out of grad school at Stanford, maintained affiliations with the university by working with the Stanford Engineering Advisory Council. Musk also addresses Eberhard’s claims that he had no hand in the making of the Roadster and that Musk’s management was detrimental to the business. Musk writes that while Eberhard was leading the operational teams, Musk himself focused on the body design, technical specifications and building the Tesla brand. Musk also says he spent significant time “on the details of the product and particularly the body styling — you will see elements of two of my favorite cars (Porsche and McLaren F1) in the Roadster body — but left most day to day management of the company up to Eberhard.” The tale from Musk is quite different than Eberhard’s allegations that Musk and Tesla pushed him out of the company for no reason. According to Musk’s post, Eberhard grossly miscalculated costs of production of the Roadsters and purposely withheld this information from Musk and investors: The real reason that Roadster development cost so much more than can be accounted for by typical entrepreneurial hubris is that we essentially had to spend the development money twice. After Eberhard was asked to step down from the CEO role two years ago, almost every major system on the car, including the body, HVAC, motor, power electronics, transmission and battery pack, had to be redesigned, retooled or switched to a new supplier. The post is a fascinating read in its own right, diving deep into some of the early missteps at Tesla and how they were overcome. For instance, the company’s decision to move production of the battery packs from Asia to the United States was counter-intuitive, but crucial to its survival. Writes Musk: Avoiding the cost of shipping a half ton pack from Asia also meant significant savings on shipping costs. This is a much bigger deal for a heavy and bulky product than a small consumer electronics device, where outsourcing to Asia makes a lot more sense. Very importantly, our supply chain went from a tectonically slow six months and having to pay for tens of millions of dollars of inventory in transit to a matter of a few weeks. Musk also includes some emails to back up his counter-claims against Eberhard but says that while the post is meant to clear up several misconceptions, there is more to come in a formal response to the lawsuit which will be filed soon. I’ve included a couple of the juicier snippets from the emails below but you can see more of the emails in Musk’s blog post. As we wrote in our earlier report, a lot of Eberhard’s claims seem like sour grapes. It’s unclear how much he’s seeking in damages. FYI-Michael Marks was the interim CEO of Tesla who was brought in to the company in 2007. Darryl Siry, was the head of Sales, Marketing & Service at Tesla during this time period From: Michael Marks Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 10:38 PM To: Elon Musk Subject: boardI've thought about it, and completely agree with the idea that Martin shouldn't stay on the board, just fyiEmail presaging the host of issues that had to be fixed: —–Original Message—– From: Elon Musk Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 08:56 AM Pacific Standard Time To: Jim Marver; Ira Ehrenpreis; Antonio J. Gracias; kimbal Subject: Fw: meeting This is not good. Sounds like there are more issues that the board was not informed about. I will send out a note as soon as I talk with Marks and will ask him to email an assessment to the board as soon as he can. Martin seems to be focused on his public image and position within Tesla, rather than solving these critical problems. If you should speak with Martin, please urge him to spend all his energy on making sure that the Roadster works and arrives on time. He doesn't seem to understand that the best way to maximize his reputation and position within the company is to help get this right. From: Darryl Siry Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 6:28 PM To: Elon Musk; Ze'ev Drori Subject: Martin EberhardElon & Ze'ev Some recent developments in the past few days have given me cause for serious concern regarding the amplification of Martin's public statements about the company. I have come to the conclusion that Martin and his wife are hell bent on damaging the company by doing everything that they can to cast the company in a negative light and accuse the company of deceptive and unethical practices. My counsel to you in the past has always leaned to the side of appeasement, thinking that by doing what we can to defuse the situation would minimize the negative publicity potential. Recent events have led me to a conclusion that Martin and his wife will continue to take every opportunity to damage the company through their statements in the press and on public internet forums. The fact that we are on the verge of delivering his car and he is increasing his attacks causes me to wonder whether we will ever be free from these unceasing attacks on the company. In conclusion – I believe the board should take under serious consideration the severing of all ties with Martin Eberhard including the refunding of his reservation payment and cancelling of his order. If this course of action were to be pursued by the board, I would recommend that the company issue a public statement announcing our intention and outlining the rationale that led us to this conclusion. While this action may be considered severe and would no doubt create a stir, I feel this route may be better than subjecting the company to an unceasing negative publicity campaign that is fueled by his continued ties to the company as an early customer. Carolyn Eberhard's comments in an email to me implying that they would seek to derail our attempts at going public is especially concerning. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
What's In A Name, Indeed. Apple Now Calling It The "iPhone 3GS", No Space Top
When the iPhone 3G S was announced at this year’s WWDC conference, I first wrote it as the “iPhone 3GS” and was corrected by a colleague that according to Apple, there was a space between the “G” and the “S.” That seemed to be the case on Apple’s entire website. But today, with its million units sold announcement , I noticed that Apple has apparently moved to calling the device the iPhone 3GS — with no space. And I’m hardly the only one who noticed the change. So which is it, Apple? Obviously, this isn’t a huge deal, but considering how many people are writing stories, posts, tweeting, etc, about the device right now, you’d think Apple would like to have one correct name out there. But it seems that it’s not even sure. While the press release this morning has “iPhone 3GS,” the website still has “iPhone 3G S.” As I’ve said from when the name was first rumored , I think the iPhone 3G S (or 3GS, for that matter) is kind of a silly name. Already, I’ve heard some people who are unclear if “3GS” just means multiple iPhone 3Gs. And then there’s the whole issue of writing iPhone 3GSs, plural. Plus, having played around with the device all weekend, I’m still not sure they shouldn’t have called it the iPhone 3G V — for Video . I’ve contacted Apple for some clarification. Update : According to a tweet from The Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro , Apple has made the change to “iPhone 3GS,” citing Apple’s Greg Joswiak. Someone should probably let their website know. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
A Social Force Departs Google Top
Kevin Marks , a social force within Google and one of the main drivers behind its recent social efforts (including OpenSocial , its Social Graph API, and Microformats ) is leaving the company. He announced his departure today on his blog . Marks was an evangelist to other engineers outside Google, his official title was Developer Advocate. For many Web developers outside Google, he has been the public face of its social efforts in recent years. Contacted by phone, Marks says he is working on a bunch of things “related to the social Web” and “activity streams,” but declined to get into specifics. Asked why he is leaving Google, he responds that his work is pretty much completed: “Over the last two years, we have built out the infrastructure for the social Web. Now it is time to build things on that infrastructure.” He also is ready to work in a smaller company. Noting that he has worked at both large and small companies over the years, he says, “I am due for a small company phase.” That is a nice way to put it. OpenSocial has been gaining steam, but still seems to be lagging Facebook as the platform of choice for social applications and Websites. That is not to say that the game is over or that OpenSocial cannot prevail over time (precisely by being more open). The action, anyway, is moving to real time activity streams and Marks now seems to be pointed in that direction. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Instapaper Gets Folders And Goes Social Top
The online bookmarking functionality I use most often isn’t Delicious or Google Bookmarks or even my browser’s bookmarking area. Instead, I use Instapaper , a really simple way to store things that you want read or come back to later. And the service just got a series of updates over the weekend to make it even better. The biggest update is the addition is the addition of folders . You can now better organize the stuff you bookmark. Developer Marco Arment calls this “by far, the most requested feature in Instapaper's history.” He had been waiting to unveil the web version of folders until it was live in the 2.0 Pro version of the Instapaper iPhone app, but apparently Apple has been really slow at approving it ( no surprise there ), so he rolled it out early. Another big update is that you can now subscribe to other Instapaper users’ Starred items , making the service social. The advent of the folder feature allows for this, as when you click on the “Add folder” link, you now have an option to add another users’ starred items simply by typing in their Instapaper username. Those items are placed in the left-hand sidebar of the Instapaper site, and when you click on a user’s name, you will see all their items just as you would your own Instapaper items. Starring an item in Instapaper works and looks exactly like the same functionality does in Gmail. But before this feature, there wasn’t much of a reason to star items beyond further highlighting what you’ve already bookmarked. Now there is a reason — to share things. At the core of Instapaper is its bookmarklet, which allows for one-click saving on items on the web. That too has received a nice upgrade . Instead of popping open another small browser window to let you know something is saved, it’s all done on the actual page you are saving now as a quick overlay. Apparently, this works better for the new Safari 4 web browser. And finally, Arment announced that the current version of Instapaper Pro, the premium version of the iPhone app (there is also a free version) is available for $4.99 for a limited time, as Instapaper 2.0 looms. This is a nice reduction from the app’s normal $9.99 price and if you buy the current version (1.3) at this discounted price, you’ll still get the full 2.0 update for free. You can find the app in the App Store here . CrunchBase Information Instapaper Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
LiquidPlanner Finds $1 Million For Project Management Software Top
Project management software startup LiquidPlanner has secured $1 million in angel funding from investors, including the Alliance of Angels, the Bellingham Angel Group and Investor Geoff Entress. The startup will use these funds to support new sales and marketing initiatives and invest in product development. LiquidPlanner, which we reviewed here, help teams of all sizes manage complex projects and is specifically designed to account for unplanned events and delays in projects. Launched to the enterprise space last year, LiquidPlanner’s software is currently being used by 200 companies from a wide spectrum of industries, from creative agencies, design firms, and IT consultancies to the energy, aviation, and telecommunications sectors. Competitors in this space include Basecamp, Clarizen, Huddle, and Viewpath. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
The Story Of Twitter In Picture Form Top
Sure, you could read about the history of Twitter in long-form blog posts, but that seems to go against the spirit of the micro-messaging service. So instead, here’s a picture created by InfoShots for the blog Manolith that puts some key moments of the service’s history in visual form. This spans from the advent of UNIX “Talk” in the 1980s (an early real-time text update system), all the way to the Twipocalypse . And here is InfoShots’ original concept for the image: [Thanks Sean ] Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Google Researchers Teach Computers Out How To Recognize Images Of Famous Landmarks Top
Image recognition is still one of those things that humans find easy to do but computers keep stumbling over. Some Google researchers published a paper describing progress they are making in teaching computers how to identify famous landmarks, which may eventually be applied more broadly to image search in general. In a blog post, Jay Yagnik, the head of Computer Vision Research at Google, writes : While we’ve gone a long way towards unlocking the information stored in text on the web, there’s still much work to be done unlocking the information stored in pixels. In the experiment, the researchers fed “an unnamed, untagged picture of a landmark” found on the Internet and the system would spit back the name and location of the landmark, such as the Acropolis in Greece. Each untagged photo was be compared to 40 million GPS-tagged images on Picasa and Panoramio (both owned by Google), as well as related photos found through Google Image Search. Using clustering and new image indexing techniques, the Google researchers were able to identify untagged photos of the same landmarks from different angles and under various lighting conditions. The researchers report that their system can identify 50,000 landmarks with 80 percent accuracy. I’m not sure that’s quite good enough to even roll that out in a beta product, but if Google can get it to 90 percent or 95 percent that would start to be consumer-friendly. Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of progress in image recognition, especially with facial recognition For instance, Face.com does a particularly good job with Facebook photos. But buildings and objects may be pose a different set of image-recognition challenges. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Microsoft Poaches Former Yahoo Exec To Head Up Data Center Services Top
Acquiring Yahoo , one employee at a time: Microsoft has recruited Kevin Timmons , former lead of Yahoo’s data center team, to head up its Data Center Services organization. Timmons was once director of Operations at GeoCities and worked his way up to VP of Operations at Yahoo, where he led the build-out of the company’s data centers and infrastructure. This move comes shortly after Microsoft data center exec Michael Manos left Redmond to fill a new position at Digital Realty Trust, and only two months after the company hired another Yahoo executive - Dayne Sampson - for a key position at Microsoft Global Foundation Services (which Data Center Services is a part of). (See the GFS blog post for more - hat tip to Data Center Knowledge for the heads up). Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Geodelic Raised $3.5 Million For Location-Aware Recommendations Top
On a mobile phone, the more you can automate search, the more likely people are to use it. Or at least that is the principle which seems to be guiding Geodelic Systems , a startup which is creating a “search-less search” experience for mobile phones. Today in a press release, it revealed that it raised $3.5 million in an earlier round possibly in 2008 from Clearstone Ventures (where it was incubated) and Shasta Ventures. The company was founded by Rahul Sonnad, who previously founded thePlatform , a Web video publishing service he sold to Comcast in 2006. Geodelic is creating a location-aware search engine for restaurants, movies, stores, flights, hotels, and local attractions which recommends results based on their distance from you. A “location carousel” brings up nearby results on a map by category and it learns from you behavior which places, stores, and brands you like the best, and will target you accordingly. The app is designed to be as passive as possible, eliminating or minimizing the amount of typing required. However, it doesn’t go as far as some augmented reality tagging apps such as Layar or Sekai Camera, which add a data layer on top of the view through a phone’s camera. T-Mobile’s next-generation Android phone, the myTouch 3G, will feature an app created by Geodelic called Sherpa . And, judging by all the iPhone screenshots on its site (two of which I’ve pasted below), an iPhone app is also in the works. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Apple Touts Over 1 Million iPhone 3GS Devices Sold, Quotes Steve Jobs Top
Earlier today, reports started flowing in about Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster claiming 750,000 iPhone 3GS devices were sold over the weekend. In a news release , however, Apple claims that that number is off by more than 1/3, saying that sales actually exceeded 1 million units. In addition, the company says six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days since its release. Remarkably, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is quoted at the beginning of the press release - something we haven’t seen for quite a while and this after a weekend during which it was uncovered the man had a liver transplant a couple of months ago - saying: “Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning. With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.” As a reminder, Apple also sold 1 million iPhone 3G devices on its first weekend back in July 2008. I’m not entirely sure if this is new, but the press release also mentions that MMS on the AT&T network will be available in ‘late summer’ (it was ‘later this summer’ in all other communication about the launch date as far as I can remember). Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Is Privacy An Illusion? Facebook 'Fans' Claim Hack Exposes Private Profile Information (Update) Top
FBHive , a new site covering news and opinions about Facebook started by ‘two twenty-something guys’ who are self-proclaimed ‘avid fans’ of the social networking service, is launching today with a bang. According to the website owners, a security loophole allows anyone to view private profile information even if that information has been shielded off by privacy settings. Think FBHive is touting this hack simply to draw attention to the new site? Think again. As a challenge, I asked them to tell me some things about me that they could only find on my Facebook account, which is protected from public viewing and should only be accessible to my networks and friends. Almost immediately, they replied with my birth date, the name of my hometown, the name of my fiancé and my political views. That’s scary (and more proof is available if you click the link below). In their first blog post , FBHive mentions that a similar hack - using the search function to uncover private information - was reported by The Register back in 2007, but that their process is ‘much more simplified and specific’. Moreover, they also claim the bug has already been reported to Facebook several times since June 7th, but that so far response has been virtually non-existing. The FBHive team is giving the Facebook team - which we’ve also alerted about the claim - about 24 hours to finally respond to their reach-out, and will post details on how exactly one can obtain basic private profile information from protected accounts should the company fail to respond adequately. Update: statement from Facebook: We have identified this bug and closed the loophole. We don't have any evidence to suggest that it was ever exploited for malicious purposes. This is yet another blow to Facebook: yesterday Michael published an article about a weeks-long issue with click fraud on the social networking service, which the company acknowledged almost immediately with a promise for a quick fix. (Image found on the blog of Pino Bruno ) Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
FitOrbit Launches With Heavy Backers, Connects You To Real Personal Fitness Trainers Online Top
Today sees the launch of FitOrbit , a service that aims to remove the disadvantages associated with working with real life personal trainers for one-on-one fitness and meal plans. FitOrbit, which comes with both a web and iPhone application, boasts the support of a number of big names in both the financing and health industry. The newly formed startup behind FitOrbit, dubbed Global Fitness Media, is backed by people like angel investor Ron Conway , John Brown (President of Time Inc’s Health franchise), Dr. Jeffrey Weisz (Medical Director of Southern California Permanente Medical Group), Kathy Kaehler (’trainer to the stars’) and Jake Steinfeld (Founder, Body by Jake, Exercise TV and Chairman of the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports). Private investment company Polar Capital Group is also participating. When you register for a FitOrbit account, the first thing you want to do is take a short quiz to determine which real life personal trainer you would want to connect with based on your profile and current lifestyle. You can also opt to pick your own trainer, but it makes more sense to indicate what type of fitness plan you’re most interested in and why, what your gender is, whether you’re living alone or with a big family, and so on. I signed up and picked Rachel C as my personal trainer, and she said: “I will create a customized, personalized, fitness and meal plan for you. I’ll be on hand to give you feedback, edit your plan, and give you timely motivation and encouragement.” That’s exactly what you’d expect from a real life personal trainer, so I was interested to learn how she aimed to do that over the Internet. But this comes with a price tag that you’re only going to be able to live with if you’re really serious about your plans to achieve better fitness: prices range from $9.99 per week for a 6-month package to $29.99 per week for just one week. In return, you get an instant channel to your personal trainer (who also gets the majority of the fees that you pay), who besides providing you with adequate training and nutrition plans also helps you stay motivated. Here are some funny but helpful actions that can be part of the feedback loop (see this video for more clarity on that one): What is a Cheat? A cheat is an opportunity for you to tell your trainer when you stray from your fitness plan. Examples of cheats would be going to town on a bag of greasy potato chips, or, staying in bed all day with a tub of ice cream. What is a Panic? A panic is an opportunity for you to tell your trainer, and support group when need motivation to do something, you are frustrated, and you don't know what else to do. Your trainer and support group will get your panic and send you messages of encouragement to get up and get with the plan. What is a Nudge? A nudge is a friendly hello, and a reminder that you've got supporters. What are Alerts? Alerts are status updates for you, your trainer, and your supporters If you’re a trainer looking to sign up for FitOrbit, be prepared to do some homework yourself: apart from submitting identification and other documents, signing an NDA and a contract, trainers who want to be accepted must quality for the program by attending a special webinar and pass a ‘Trainer Test Week’, among other things. And even then, anyone who chose you as their personal trainer has the right to disagree with you on meal or workout plans and even file a concern that he or she doesn’t ‘like you’. All in all, I think the FitOrbit model makes sense in a modern world where people are increasingly growing accustomed to getting what they would usually have to leave the house for and pay a premium for real life interaction over the wire. For those interested in contracting a real life personal trainer, it’s definitely worth comparing the costs and effectiveness of FitOrbit to the real deal. If you do, let us know how it went and how both stacked up. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
YCD Multimedia Raises $12 Million For In-Store Digital Media Solutions Top
YCD Multimedia , an international provider of in-store digital media solutions has closed its Series E investment round, a new financing package totaling $12 million. This packages includes conversion of a bridge loan facility and new equity investment led by Pitango Venture Capital and Arts Alliance Digital Ventures. YCD Multimedia software integrates with existing retail and communications applications, and delivers a range of digital media - music playlists, visuals, etc. - to on-site digital signage. This allows traditional retailers, banks, hotels etc. to run digital promotion and advertising campaigns on screens and video walls throughout physical locations. Founded back in 1999, YCD Multimedia boasts offices in the US, UK and Israel and an international reseller network. The company is headed by CEO Barry Salzman, former President of DoubleClick’s global media business. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Celeb Blogger Perez Hilton Assaulted By Artist will.i.am, He Tweets Top
Renowned celebrity blogger Perez Hilton (real name Mario Armando Lavandeira) was apparently assaulted by artist will.i.am, frontman of The Black Eyed Peas and his security guards, according to messages posted to his Twitter account . We’re pretty sure this really happened, although you never know. Follow-up tweets read that the bleeding had stopped, the police had arrived and would investigate the case further, and that today would be a normal day at work for Lavandeira without any mention of the incident on his wildly popular blog until the authorities close up the investigation. Update: will.i.am’s video response Update 2: and Perez Hilton’s video response It’s remarkable that he chose to tweet out a message for help rather than contact the police directly (he has over 1 million followers on Twitter). From the looks of it, he needed to effectively ask people to stop calling the police because the department got flooded with incoming calls from his fans. Or how Twitter can be both a way for people to call for help in real-time, but also a way for them to order a mob. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 

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