Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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The Rebuttal: An EVO 4G Owner Walks Into An Apple Store (NSFW) Top
Yesterday, we posted a video showing an iPhone shopper talking to an EVO 4G salesman . That video was a little one-sided, depicting the iPhone buyer as a mindless drone who wanted the iPhone no matter what features the EVO offered. Today comes a video from the other side. In this video, also made by tinywatchproductions using Xtranormal text-to-speed software, an owner of an EVO 4G walks into an Apple Store to try and get his phone fixed. “But this has a 4th G, the iPhone 4 is missing a ‘G’.” Just as before, the language here gets a bit NSFW.
 
Cisco Announces The 7-inch Cius Android Tablet Top
Cisco is in the business of sending bits from one place to the next. Therefore, anything that will allow them to play to their strengths, namely data access, is important. That’s why they bought Flip and that’s why they just announced this odd business tablet. It’s basically an HD tablet running Android with full video conferencing and email and media access. Obviously there’s no price and they’ll be shipping in 2011, if they ever ship. This is definitely not a consumer-facing product. It will be part of their Communications package that they sell to business users. My thinking is this won’t ship at all, but that’s just a hunch. Perhaps they’ll farm out the manufacture to an OEM for mass production, but don’t expect it in your local Best Buy. Read more…
 
Hulu Launches Premium Subscription Service 'Hulu Plus', Coming To iPhone, iPad & PS3 Top
The rumors were true. Today, Hulu is announcing a limited launch of Hulu Plus, an ad-supported, premium subscription service that will run $9.99 per month and includes HD access to full season runs of shows from Fox, ABC, and NBC. Better yet, Hulu Plus will work across a multitude of platforms, including PCs, the iPad, iPhone, some Samsung Blu-ray players, and soon, the PlayStation 3. The service is currently only available to select Hulu members who have been invited — you can request an invite here . Even if you don’t have an invite, you’ll still be able to download a Hulu Plus application on the iPad, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (it isn’t up on the App Store yet — we’ll update when it is). The application will feature a limited number of episodes, but you’ll be able to get a feel what the service will be like. Hulu says that the service wil launch broadly in the coming months. The new subscription service will feature shows from over 100 content providers, including both current and ‘classic’ episodes. Subscribers will have access to every episode from current seasons of 45 programs from ABC, Fox, and NBC, including Glee, Modern Family, 30 Rock, and The Office through a ‘Season Ticket’ system (see the screenshot below). The service will also offer a back catalog of older shows, some of which will include the entire series run of episodes. Content will be delivered at a resolution of 720p (HD) when available, and can be downgraded in low-bandwidth scenarios. Hulu clearly intends to distribute the service across as many platforms as it can. Along with the aforementioned device partners, Hulu intends to include Hulu support with more Blu-ray players and TVs, including some from Sony and VIZIO. Support for the Xbox 360 will be coming in early 2011. You can see a full list of supported devices here . Updating with more
 
Facebook Disabled The Massively Popular Boycott BP Page "In Error" Top
This morning, there was some ruckus on the Web when Facebook seemingly flat out deleted the Boycott BP page , which has amassed some 734,000 ‘fans’ on the social network so far. The message spread quickly, with posts going up on CNN’s citizen journalism project iReport and Desmond Perkins , who set up the Boycott BP page, alleging that Facebook singled him and members of his family out to silence him on the site via his own website and Twitter account. Perkins promptly set up a new Facebook page , which grew to just south of 10,000 users in half a day. About 9 hours after its removal, Facebook reinstated the page, which is used by a vocal group of users to vent their feelings and share information and opinions regarding the oil spill and the way BP is handling (or rather, not handling) the tragic situation. Following multiple reports on the Web about the mysterious apparent removal of the page and its return, we contacted Facebook to learn what happened exactly. Moments ago, the company provided us with an official statement on the matter, which remains quite vague but at least acknowledges there was no malicious intent involved, let alone a conscious decision by someone at Facebook to shut the page down: "The admin profile of the Boycott BP Page was disabled by our automated systems therefore removing all the content that had been created by the profile. After a manual review we determined the profile was removed in error and it has now been restored along with the Page." Asked what triggered the automated systems to flag said profile in the first place, Facebook declined to go into detail because it fears people knowing about how their systems work will “weaken their effectiveness”. Either way, Perkins and the 734,000+ who are keen on showing their dislike for BP on Facebook can rest assured they were not intentionally marked for silencing. It was a systems failure – rather ironic of course considering the reason why this page was set up in the first place. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Ad.ly Expands In-Stream Ad Network To Twitter Apps Top
In-stream advertising network Ad.ly, which launched last year, recently expanded beyond the Twitter ad model to serve ads in MySpace streams. And today, the startup is launching an ad network for third-party developers, allowing clients to serve ads to users within their applications. Called Ad.ly for Apps, the new network allows developers to leverage an API to serve contextually and locally targeted ads to app users based on the streams they are reading and where they are located. For example, Ad.ly will allow developers who create clients to serve Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn updates to serve an ad for a local LA restaurant to a user who lives in LA or has been Tweeting about LA. Ad.ly founder Sean Rad says the platform is completely realtime and is essentially an “AdSense for the stream.” Developers can tap into the Ad.ly Apps API, which take as its input the contents of the stream and returns one or more targeted in-stream ads, which the app can stylize and display adjacent the given stream. Ads are served on top of a stream, not within the stream. Advertisers themselves can sign up to serve ads on third party apps through Ad.ly’s self-service platform. This ad network joins Ad.ly’s influencer ad network, which links up advertisers with users and then distribute links to marketing campaigns through the user's Tweet streams or MySpace streams with full disclosure. Ad.ly's recently launched self service platform platform enables Advertisers to connect with any user who signs up for Ad.ly’s service. Rad says that the App Ads will probably not see as high of CTRs as Ad.ly’s influencer ads, which see average campaign CTR ranges from 1%-3.5%. But he maintains that the in-app ads will perform well compared to other in-stream advertising options. But Ad.ly may be playing with fire here when it comes to serving ads within a Twitter stream. A few weeks ago, Twitter COO Dick Costolo announced a strict policy on developers s erving in-stream ads within the Twitter stream timeline that is leveraging Twitter’s API. The updated Twitter TOS was thought to ban in-stream ads and affect in-stream ad networks like Ad.ly. However, Ad.ly’s was quick to respond that their influencer service does not violate Twitter’s TOS and will continue to operate as is. While Rad says the new network doesn’t currently violate Twitter’s TOS because the ads are not technically served within the stream or timeline, we’re all assuming that Twitter may crack down even harder on these Twitter advertising networks. Ad.ly is also facing a number of worthy competitors in this space, including 140 Proof, OneRiot, and TweetUp. The startup, which just raised $5 million in funding, says that it has enlisted a number of third party social media app developers to use its ad platform but declined to name these developers. CrunchBase Information Ad.ly Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Tesla IPO Shares Pop, Drop, And Rally. Market Values It At $1.7 Billion. Top
With the Dow down more than 250 points, today is not the best day for an IPO. But Tesla shares are rallying after an initial scare. Tesla Motors rang the Nasdaq opening bell earlier this morning to commemorate its initial public offering under the ticker symbol TSLA The shares opened at $19, a 12% jump from its $17 pricing yesterday. But then they immediately dropped, dipping below $17.70 before rallying again. Currently, they are trading above $18, which gives Tesla a market cap of about $1.7 billion The company was able to price the shares above its $14 to $16 range, and will collect $202 million from the IPO Tesla is selling 13.3 million shares, 11,880,600 through the company and 1,419,400 through selling stockholders, including founder Elon Musk . This is the first time an automotive company has gone public in more than 50 years. (For a skeptical take on Tesla’s chances, read this in-depth Reuters article , in which GM’s Bob Lutz predicts, “These geniuses always get their comeuppance”). Any bets on where the shares will end the day? CrunchBase Information Tesla Motors Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Reevoo Secures Series B Round To Expand Into Europe Top
Last year we found out Reevoo , the online customer reviews startup which had looked like it was slowing down , was actually signing up partners and getting traction. Today it announces a Series B round of funding from existing investors, though terms were undisclosed. The funding has been secured from existing investors Eden Ventures, Banexi Ventures and business angel Andrew Phillipps. The expansion capital will be used to grow faster across Europe and adding social functionality. A Series B funding is usually in the range of £8-10m. Prior to this Reevoo had raised over £7m. That means Reevoo is clearly confident of making it in the long term and becoming a pretty big business, although there is also the chance this is a "down round", which is never great for the founders.
 
Cloning Is Lame. Google Should Do It To Facebook Anyway. Top
Small companies clone big companies all the time. And by clone I don’t just mean steal a basic idea. I mean clone almost literally – they just plain rip off every single feature and hope for the best. It certainly saves time on user testing. Big companies, particularly big tech companies, don’t do this as much. Pride and ethics come into play at an individual and team level. Pure copying just isn’t how things are done. Instead they tweak a little here, add a little there, and launch it as a variation of the original. That’s evolution, not stealing. And most of the time it doesn’t work very well. Facebook’s users just don’t seem to want to behave like Twitter users, for example, no matter how hard Facebook tried to get them to change. And Google Buzz, besides the privacy snafus in the beginning, is just a little too complicated to get people using it wildly. Plus, I’m not convinced that people want all that junk in their email inbox. But pure clones work well. Microsoft crushed Netscape in the 90s by simply building their own web browser and giving it away for free. Webmail and instant messaging services across Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and AOL are all largely the same, and that market is fragmented among all of those companies. If there’s a better way to do mail and messaging, no one has figured it out yet and gotten all the users to switch to them. And that’s why it’s time for Google to just plain clone Facebook. Enough with the fancy pants Google Buzz Twitter-Facebook-Yelp killer. They need to raise the white flag and just copy Facebook right down to the details. Otherwise the war is over before Google even got to the battlefield. So I’m not surprised to see that Google appears to be working on exactly that – a new social network that isn’t Orkut and isn’t Buzz but that will be 100% focused on being as good as or better than Facebook. Why do they need to do this? Google is, after all, firing on all cylinders. Google continues to grow fast and has $24 billion a year in revenue. They dominate search marketing, possibly the most profitable business in the history of our species if you don’t include taxes, drugs or prostitution. Facebook has a long way to go to catch up. Or do they? Facebook’s self serve ad business is exploding, say our sources, and may be significantly more robust than even the most favorable third party forecasts predict. Google let’s self serve users target ads based on search queries, and that works extremely well. But Facebook knows much, much more about its users than Google does, and allows self serve ads targeted to extremely relevant and timely user information. And with Facebook’s strategy of organizing the Internet through Facebook Platform has created a big open door for them to later insert ads on those sites, too. Facebook could be challenging Google’s revenue lead much sooner than people think. It’s not outrageous to think that the two companies could be in a dead heat by 2015, for example. See The Age Of Facebook for more of my thoughts on the rise of Facebook and why I think they’ll dominate the next decade. Facebook is already bigger than Google in many ways. Not in total unique visitors per month – Facebook’s 550 million is still a lot less than Google’s 900 million. But Facebook has more page views: 250 billion v. 165 billion per month. And total minutes spent on Facebook is more than 2x Google: 150 billion v. 73 billion. (All stats are Comscore worldwide, May 2010). Google needs a horse in the social networking race to be able to defend itself against Facebook over the long run. And the only way they’re going to be able to compete effectively is to just clone the darn thing. Original? No. Honorable? nope. But people have very short memories, sadly, and it’ll all blow over shortly. There is one area where Google can gain a quick advantage – in truly open data with simple export tools and easy to understand privacy settings. I’d recommend going with the Twitter model on privacy – it’s all public or it’s all private (for approved friends only). It’s not hard to understand, and very few people actually choose the private option. What Google shouldn’t do – must not do – is try to tie the service to other Google products for the wrong reasons. Microsoft’s web properties are constantly hobbled by the strategic decisions of a parent company that must protect an aging Windows and Office revenue stream, for example. Google must avoid that pitfall. And Facebook’s Twitter experiments, as well as Google bolting Buzz onto Gmail, show that users don’t like having the fundamental way they use products change very much. They need to flock to Google Me, or whatever it’s called, simply because they like the service. This will be the great battle in consumer Internet over the next few years if Google does it right. And while I don’t like seeing clones, there’s really no other choice for Google. And at least the users will win – one thing Facebook needs right now is a little competition. ps – Next up would be the Google Twitter clone. An exact copy, except with an open protocol that would let anyone run the service on their own server . They should call it Glitter. CrunchBase Information Google Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase
 

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