Monday, May 28, 2012

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Push Level Agreement Top
20120527-200328.jpgThat's the big secret Wall Street is struggling with, that push is the monetization model of mobile. Who cares what the UI is, or what the advertising surface is. The moment a push hits your screen, it comes down to a binary decision: do I want to know more, or do I already know enough. To make that decision, we need social metadata to help out. Who said this, who retweeted it, who @mentioned it, and how are these signals parsed to prioritize the queue.
 
Backstage at Disrupt, Cornell's Dan Huttenlocher is Bringing Big Red to the Big Apple Top
Screen shot 2012-05-27 at 10.28.50 PMCornell University made big news earlier in the year when it was announced the Ivy League school, located in upstate New York, would open a technology campus in New York City. Leading the charge for Big Red will be Dan Huttenlocher, dean of computing and information science -- and a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Dean Huttenlocher was kind enough to come backstage after his session to discuss more details about the campus and program. Cornell will build a technology campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City, which will house a full master's program that combines academic research in computer science and engineering along with a variety of practical training programs. While the curriculum will focus mostly on software, Huttenlocher did hint at the possibility of having programs focusing on smaller-scale hardware, as well. This video would be of interest to folks who are in the New York technology community, as well as those could have some type of relationship with the campus in the future.
 
Surprise! Announcing The TC Mini-Meet Up In Philadelphia On June 19 Top
shutterstock_81770029If you're in the City of Brotherly Love, you're in a for a treat. Thanks to constant entreaties by one of your own, Anthony Coombs, we're going to hold a mini-meet up in Philly on June 19 at the Field House, 1150 Filbert St. Please RSVP here.
 
The Authors Of Space Quest Are Back With Another Adventure Top
Dome_Postcard_1024x768If you're an older gamer, you will remember the holy trinity of Sierra RPGs - King's Quest, Space Quest, and Police Quest. All three of these games used something called "imagination" and "storytelling" to immerse early gamers in an Ad Lib sound card-induced gaming coma. Now you can relive those heady days with a new game by the makers of Space Quest, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe (aka "The Two Guys from Andromeda"). Their new game, called SpaceVenture, is a refresh of the old Sierra series and promises spills, chills, and horrible jokes. It's getting funded on Kickstarter as we speak.
 
GameStop Rolls Out Android Tablets With Pre-Loaded Games To 1,600 Stores Top
galstopDiversification is the key to longevity. With that likely in mind, GameStop just announced widespread availability of Android tablets throughout its chain of retail stores. This comes after a 200 store trial that started last October. These aren't ordinary Android tablets, though. GameStop is pre-loading the Samsung, Asus, Acer, and Toshiba with extra gaming titles such as Sonic CD, Riptide, the Kongregate Arcade app and a free issue of GameStop's gaming mag, Game Informer. Thanks to these extras and with prices that are inline with other stores, GameStop actually has a chance to capture a bit of the tablet market.
 
Fast Track To A Facebook Phone — Buy INQ Mobile? Top
Facebook-phone-INQAs the heat around the "Facebook Phone" story gets higher, our thoughts turn to the days a couple of years ago when it emerged Facebook had been thinking about developing an actual phone. Back then, it transpired that Facebook was working with INQ Mobile on a smartphone. The phone duly emerged - the INQ1 - and did indeed have great Facebook integration. Even if it hasn't exactly been a smash hit, it's fared well enough. Indeed, HTC has also released their own "Facebook" phone, such HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa respectively. INQ's runs on Google's Android operating system, but with deeper Facebook integration. When asked about the INQ phone back in 2010, Zuckerberg said it wasn't "some massive big thing". But quite clearly, a phone is now firmly on the agenda.
 
A Bit Too Much Klout: User Says He Can Sign In To Someone Else's Account Top
kloutIt's not clear if this is a one-off glitch, a signal of a bigger issue -- or a way of pumping up/sabotaging Klout scores for those who care. But it's not great news any way you spin it, if it's true: a Klout user has gotten in touch to say that when he accesses the social influence ratings service, he is getting signed in to Klout not as himself but as someone else. Using an HTC Sensation device running the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, IT consultant Halil Kabaca,of Istanbul, Turkey-based Novarum Consulting, tells us that when he goes on to Klout via the phone's mobile browser, he is being signed in automatically as someone completely different -- someone he doesn't know at all who happens to work for Adobe in business development (see screenshots of Kabaca's and the other guy's profiles after the break).
 
EU Privacy Directive: Why All The Fuss? Just Be Open With Users Top
markEU Cookie legislation is now in force across Europe, but in a last minute change on Friday, the UK's information commissioner amended the way it will be implemented in the UK. It's now the case that sites will only have to obtain 'implied consent' from users not explicit consent. This is much friendlier for businesses but means the UK is now out of the step with the EU on privacy online and the transparency of cookies. In the middle of a recession, UK businesses probably won't lose too much sleep. This is a much more pragmatic approach and most websites have yet to even comply with the legislation. In this guest post, Mark Macdonald, of Skimlinks argues sites should still consider being up-front with users about their use of cookies.
 
Protip: Do Not Post A Pic Of A Pile Of Cash To Facebook Top
21087284As tempting as it might seem, please do not upload a picture of a bunch of cash and then upload it to a social network. That's just dumb. But that's also what one 17-year-old Australian girl did only to have two robbers armed with a knife and a club show up at her house. The story goes that a 17-year-old girl was helping her grandma. Likely somewhere in between vacuuming and feather dusting, the two started counting money, and, as we all know, the elderly tend to keep a good sum of cash on hand. Apparently the 17-year-old snapped a picture of the pile which was likely fanned-out in the traditional gangster style. This girl then uploaded the picture to Facebook.
 
Yandex.Factory Seed Funding Bears Fruit: SocialMart Launches Social Shopping With Yandex.Market Top
socialmart logoIt's not a given that a leader in search can successfully pivot into other areas like social media -- just ask Google -- but a new service launching in Russia today, from that country's search leader Yandex, shows one route a company with a lot of smarts can take to make sure they remain a central player in the social game. Today sees the launch of SocialMart, a social shopping startup financed by Yandex (through its seed-funding program Yandex.Factory), and powered by Yandex (via Yandex.Market), but is not Yandex itself. Both Yandex and SocialMart are banking on the fact that the rising popularity of ecommerce in Russia is inevitably going to cross over with the equally popular trend of social networking: up to now, those twains have not met, unlike in other markets, where services like Mertado (now part of Groupon), Sneakpeeq, and Fab have been running away with the "social shopping" banner, picking up users and funding in the process.
 
It'll Be A Miracle If The Facebook Phone Doesn't Suck Top
Screen Shot 2012-05-27 at 10.30.22 PMHere we go again: Facebook is apparently trying for the third time to get its phone project off the ground -- snatching up iOS design and engineering talent left and right Nick Bilton is hearing. We're hearing (and seeing) similar regarding iOS talent, but with one caveat: Word on the street is that few mobile design whizzes actually want to work at Facebook, but everyone has their price, and post-IPO Mark Zuckerberg is willing to pay that price, whatever it is.
 
Video Highlights From Disrupt NY 2012 – Day 3 [TCTV] Top
7256412424_79c83d2139_bIn the last of our series of posts featuring daily videos from Disrupt NY, Day 3's highlight was the final round of the Startup Battlefield presentations and the passing of the cup to the new winner UberConference. Wednesday also featured an entertaining hardware panel, an inspirational tech talk from the White House, and new beer that's caught the interest of tech investors.
 
Please Don't Ruin The Second Screen Top
Second_screenThere are advantages and disadvantages of being one of the earlier companies in a very early market. While new companies get to watch, observe, and create their own insights based on product features incumbents develop, we get to constantly introspect on "what has worked" based on real data, real feedback, and being out in the market talking to partners. The second screen space is going to be a multi-billion dollar market. Just last week, Tim Cook announced that 67M iPads were sold in less than two years. It took more than 24 years to sell that many Macs.  With the growing trend of second screen activity (i.e. using tablets while you watch TV), there is bound to be major disruption in the TV industry.
 
How The Future of Mobile Lies in the Developing World Top
unicef-1In less than three decades, the mobile phone has gone from being a status symbol to being a ubiquitous technology that facilitates almost every interaction in our daily lives. One month after the world's population topped 7 billion in October 2011, the GSM Association announced that mobile SIM cards had reached 6 billion. A 2009 study in India illustrated that every 10 percent increase in mobile penetration leads to a 1.2 percent increase in GDP. Yet patterns of mobile phone use in developing countries are vastly different from what you see on the streets of New York, San Francisco, and Berlin. This is a market underserved by technologists and startups. This is where the majority of future growth lies, and Silicon Valley has yet to realize the huge economic opportunities for network operators, handset developers, and mobile startups. Where are these opportunities?
 
Video Highlights From Disrupt NY 2012 – Day 2 [TCTV] Top
7255748452_6cde11e9e6_bContinuing our trio of daily video highlights from Disrupt NY, Day 2 of the conference featured talks with Andreesen Horowitz's Jeff Jordan, Sequoia's Roelof Botha, and SV Angel's Ron Conway. We also asked our Aol CEO Tim Armstrong some tough questions. Tuesday's Battlefield competition included a startup trying to disrupt the dry cleaning business, a new way for musicians to collaborate and a neat 3D Modeling program in your browser.
 
Video Highlights From Disrupt NY 2012 – Day 1 [TCTV] Top
7249111016_3759dae6c8_bDid you miss some of our NY Disrupt conference this week? Or want to watch it again? TechCrunch Disrupt and our Hackathon provided more than 30 hours of demos, interviews, panel discussions, and Battlefield competition. Sure, you can spend the holiday weekend watching all of it. But, we've also put together daily video highlights that we will be publishing in a trio of posts today. The player below shows some of the favorite moments from Monday, Day 1 of the conference, including some surprises from VC Fred Wilson, Fab.com and Tumblr. Monday's Battlefield presentations included the first public preview from the Disrupt Cup winner and runner-up.
 
Backstage at Disrupt, America's CTO Todd Park is Giving Away Really Big Data Top
Screen shot 2012-05-26 at 10.20.16 PMIf you feel there's been too much hype about "big data" recently, check this out: the Chief Technology Officer of the United States of America -- Todd Park -- wants developers and entrepreneurs to build new products, services, and companies using free data provided by the federal government. In this brief discussion backstage at Disrupt, Park emphasizes that he, his team, and the President of the United States have all fully endorsed the idea that key datasets be made available to the public, and there have even been examples of entrepreneurs forming companies around free datasets, one that's even hired over 70 employees. (For entrepreneurs interested in health data specifically, Park's group is helping organize an entire symposium on the topic in early June in Washington DC; click here for more details.) For developers interested in big data sets, this brief discussion with Park would be quite relevant.
 
Digital Chocolate Downsizing? Founder Trip Hawkins Out As CEO; Reports Of Layoffs, Marc Metis As Interim CEO Top
Digital ChocolateSome significant changes afoot at social and mobile games company Digital Chocolate: founder Trip Hawkins has stepped down as the CEO of the company. And we have also heard a report -- yet to be confirmed directly by the company -- that president Marc Metis has stepped up as interim CEO; and that Digital Chocolate has laid off up to 180 people across offices in India, San Mateo, Russia and elsewhere. Hawkins' news was made public by Trip himself in his company blog, where he notes that he is "transitioning into a consulting and advisory relationship with Digital Chocolate." Without giving away much about the state of affairs at the company, the move, he writes, is being made as the company  is "narrowing its focus." "It made sense to get more streamlined," he explains. Hawkins founded the company eight years ago.
 
Hey Kids, Get Off My Lawn: The Once And Future Visual Programming Environment Top
SeededfertilizedlawnWhen I was a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab fifteen years ago, my research group went on a retreat every year with Famous Computer Scientists from Xerox PARC. I greatly admired these people and their work. But I was young and in a hurry to get where I thought I was going. And it sometimes seemed that every time us young folks talked about our research, or showed a demo, someone would say something like, "oh, that's very nice, when we did that at PARC ...." Fast forward to the present. For the last few years, every time I see a new piece of small, open, hackable, networked hardware, or a new reputation engine, or a generative art piece, or a product built around location tracking plus real-time information push, or — well, you get the idea — I have to bite my tongue and think of the PARC folks to keep myself from saying, "oh, that's very nice, when we did that at the Media Lab ...." All of which just proves that the wheel of history revolves. New work is always new, by definition, even if it's not entirely new (which nothing can ever be).
 
Mobile Online Shopping Holds The Real Opportunity In Mobile Payments Top
netplenish1Every day there is a new headline about mobile payments focused on using a mobile phone to pay at retail locations. Paypal, Google and other industry giants are racing to provide new in-store mobile payment solutions. Large merchants, such as Wal-mart and Target have contemplated their own mobile payment solutions. The debate about whether NFC will be the preferred technology to enable mobile payments rages. However, despite all this press and efforts by industry giants, there is stunningly little traction to use a mobile device to pay at retail locations. This is largely because the solutions offered by industry giants thus far don't solve a meaningful problem in the daily lives of consumers or merchants. Few things in life are easier for consumers than swiping a credit card at checkout and in-store payment systems are as easy and ubiquitous as dial-tone for merchants. However, There is a massive mobile commerce opportunity that is a severe pain point for both consumers and merchants, but large industry players are failing to meaningfully address it. That opportunity is e-commerce on the mobile device or m-commerce. M-commerce is ramping up, proving that consumers not only like to shop via their mobile device, but also will purchase. However, the numbers also show that there's significant room for improvement in the mobile device purchasing experience – mainly through optimizing the shopping and payment processes for consumers.
 

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