Monday, October 31, 2011

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Kickstarter: TILT, The Cooling Pad That Matches Your MacBook Pro Top
Photo01_smallAnyone who has ever used a MacBook Pro can tell you that they can get awfully toasty after a little while. Countless laptop cooling solutions have hit store shelves over the years, but I don't think I've ever seen one quite as handsome as the TILT by madMINDS.
 
iPhone 4S Battery Life Bugs Got You Down? Try This Top
BatterylifeIt hits you when you least expect it. It slips away under a mask of dormant inactivity. And it can ruin your entire day. It's your iPhone 4S battery life, and it sucks. It's been 17 days since the iPhone 4S was released — 19 since iOS 5 — and just like the madness that was Antennagate, complaints are churning out left and right. As Erick so clearly pointed out, the iPhone 4S is meant to offer 8 hours of talk time, or "up to 6 hours" of Internet use on 3G. For so many of us — including iPod touch and iPhone-not-4Ses running iOS 5 — that simply isn't the case. But there may be hope.
 
Republic Wireless: An Android-Powered, VoIP/Cellular Hybrid Carrier That'll Cut Your Phone Bill In Half Top
republicwirelessTalk about good timing. Over the weekend, I wrote a post pleading with Google to please, finally, bring VoIP capabilities to Google Voice — namely, with an app for Android. The app would have some major benefits: it would let you make and receive calls over your home and work Wifi networks whenever they're available (that means fewer dropped calls at the office, even if you're deep inside a large building). And whenever you aren't around Wifi, you could fall back to your carrier minutes. Unfortunately, while Google was actually working on building a VoIP-powered app for Android long ago, it shelved it, likely because it was concerned about infuriating the carriers. But shortly after that post ran, I started hearing some whispers. Turns out I'm not the only one with the idea — there's another big (albeit less well known) fish that's about to make a splash. Get ready for Republic Wireless, a new mobile phone service from Bandwidth.com that will be launching on November 8, and could truly be the phone carrier you've always wanted.
 
Airbnb Is Thinking About Partnering With Car-Sharing Services Top
airbnb-1Airbnb, a marketplace that allows people to rent their homes and apartments via the web, is considering entering the car-sharing space. In a survey sent to us by an Airbnb host, the startup is asking hosts if they would rent out their cars along with their residences. As shown in the screenshots below, Airbnb asks if owners allowed a guest to use a car during a stay, and if owners would rent a car to guests if there is insurance provided. The survey also asks hosts whether they would rent a car to a guest that is not renting their home.
 
Trouble Hiring? Create A Cult. Top
justin_headshot_standardEveryone knows there's a war going on today in Silicon Valley: a war for talent. Startups are competing for a limited supply of engineering and product design labor, largely constrained by the failure of the US to invest in STEM education and a terribly restrictive immigration process for work visas. Meanwhile, big companies like Facebook and Google are paying out millions to either retain or rehire engineers through talent acquisitions. This system is under even more pressure from seed funds (Sorry: I'm a part-time partner at Y Combinator, so I'm probably contributing to the problem). Not only do you have to worry about your engineers going to your competition, you have to worry about them getting seeded to run off and start their own company. It's often hard to compete against the "grass is greener" dream of being a founder, especially when the theoretical upside of doing your own thing is nearly infinite and there are investors ready to write you a convertible note check today. No cap necessary! If you want to attract and retain the best talent, you're going to have to work hard at it. Here are a few lessons I've learned in the past couple months:
 
Battlefield 3 Sells 5 Million Units In First Week, Becomes EA's Fastest Selling Title Top
BF3_LE_PCBattlefield 3 is here and in a major way. The latest shooter in the long-running franchise hit the interweb and retailers last week and EA just announced that they moved 5 million units within the first week. For anyone that cares, that makes Battlefield 3 the fastest selling title in EA's 29 year history. And for good reason. EA and DICE conducted a flawless marketing campaign for Battlefield 3.
 
And Here It Is: The New Google Reader Revealed Top
screen_500Today, Google is rolling out its update to Google Reader which features the promised user interface overhaul, and, more importantly, the new Google+ integration. Now, Google Reader users can "+1" items directly from Google Reader to share it with their friends on Google+. This feature now replaces the "Share" and "Share with Note" options previously present.
 
Gemvara Aqhires Former Zappos/Gilt UX Guru Brian Kalma Top
brian-kalmaWhat do you do when you have more than a billion potential product combinations on your site? You hire a user experience (UX) guru. Gemvara, a jewelry e-commerce site that lets consumers custom-design their own jewelry, just acquired Snipwits, a one-man startup founded by Brian Kalma, who will now be in charge of the customer experience team at Gemvara. Kalma previously headed up UX design at both Zappos (as one of its first employees) and Gilt Groupe.
 
Urban Airship's Strategic Partnership With SimpleGeo Turns Into An Acquisition Top
Screen shot 2011-10-31 at 1.29.45 PMBack in November of 2009, former Digg Chief Architect Joe Stump and Social Thing founder Matt Galligan first publicly unveiled their new startup, SimpleGeo, which was slated to become the new infrastructure for location-based services. They called it the "Amazon Web Services" for location, offering products that make it easy for developers to build location-enabled web and mobile apps, including storage, context, API features, and polymaps. This morning Mike Arrington reports that SimpleGeo has been acquired by Urban Airship for approximately $3.5 million. In July, the two companies formed a strategic partnership which was intended to, put simply, provide better ways for developers to offer location-aware push notifications in their applications. Geo-targeted notifications were expected to be a big source of revenue for both startups, but it seems that it just made more sense for the companies to move forward as one rather than as two separate entities.
 
Techmeme Opens The Kimono On How It Chooses Headlines And Sources Top
techFor many, the methodology behind how technology news aggregator Techmeme chooses sources to link to for headlines has been an enigma. But today, founder Gabe Rivera has opened the kimono a little bit on how stories are chosen to be featured on the site. So bloggers and tech journalists take note. For background, Techmeme uses a set of algorithms as well as human editors to choose and curate stories to highlight. As Rivera writes, Techmeme's mission is "to highlight the essential tech news and commentary of the moment on a single page. The must-reads for anyone who needs to know where the industry is going, whether they're an investor, engineer, entrepreneur, executive, or enthusiast." That doesn't include biotech, cleantech or content that hardcore gamers might enjoy. Techmeme works to be comprehensive, fast, relevant, scannable, and story-rich.
 
HTC Rezound Appears On Video And Signage Ahead Of Launch Top
rezoundstoreBy now it's no secret that HTC's Verizon-bound Rezound will debut shortly, but the stars seem to have aligned recently, because we're absolutely swimming in Rezound-related news. Most notably, a video demoing the Rezound in action has begun to make the rounds, and it gives us our best glimpse yet Verizon's next holiday heavyweight.
 
Keen On … How Steve Jobs Changed Our World (TCTV) Top
Ooyala Backlot Web-deu 1Back in 2000, in the prehistoric age before the iPod, the iPhone or the iPad, the noted technology journalist Alan Deutschman wrote a very well received biography entitled The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. And now, more than a decade later, Deutschman is back on the Jobs circuit and has just authored what he calls an e-slice essay entitled How Steve Jobs Changed Our World. Jobs changed our world twice, Deutschman told me when I caught up with him on Skype. First of all, he revitalized American business in the dark days of the early 80's, Deutschman explained, seizing back the mantle of innovation from Japanese companies like Sony and even reviving the ideal of the American manufacturing industry.  Most of all, Deutschman told me, Steve Jobs changed American industry after 2000 by first grasping and then realizing the idea of what he calls "digital lifestyle" and design.
 
Confirmed: Music App Developer Smule Raises $12 Million Top
smuleSmule, the music app developer behind I am T-Pain and others, has raised another $12 million in funding, according to a recent SEC filing. We've confirmed the funding with the company. The round was led by Shasta Ventures and Shasta partner Jason Pressman has joined the Smule board of directors. Granite Ventures and Bessemer Ventures also participated in the round. The company previously raised $13.5 million in funding. Smule is the developer behind a number of popular mobile music apps including I Am T-Pain, Ocarina, Leaf Trombone, Glee Karaoke, MadPad, and Magic Fiddle.
 
Why You Should Ban Laptops at Board Meetings Top
Businesspeople in MeetingEditor's Note: This is a guest post by (@msuster) Mark Suster, a 2x entrepreneur, now VC at GRP Partners. Read more about Suster at Bothsidesofthetable Back when I ran board meetings as a CEO, the biggest annoyance was Blackberrys. You would always be able to tell what was going on by seeing the unhealthy infatuation board members had with staring at their crotches. Somehow they imagined you didn't notice that they were glancing beneath the table secretly firing off one-line emails. Every entrepreneur I know bitched about it and the smartest boards banned Blackberrys. Fast forward to today. We now have ultra-lightweight laptops (MacBook Air) and totally available Wi-Fi connections. So every board meeting I'm at has laptops opened. They are just there to "be productive" and review your material. Um, yeah. This is a mistake. Read on to find out why and what to do about it ....
 
Hypothes.is: A Kickstarter Project To Peer Review The Web Top
Hypothes.is screensThe Web: never before has there been a medium where it was so easy to find so much information. And never before has so much of it been so wrong. Somebody needs to fact-check the Internet. But who? Dan Whaley thinks it should be you. Whaley, who founded the first travel website (GetThere) in 1995, is behind a Kickstarter project called Hypothes.is. With Hypothes.is, Whalen wants to tackle the problem of rampant misinformation by combining Web annotation technology with a reputation system and peer moderation. The project has raised $60,000 so far, and needs $100,000 by November 13th to get off the ground. (He explains the concept in the video below).
 
Onkyo Updates Receivers And Remote App With Spotify Support Top
f-1024-0Attention all Onkyo-using music lovers: if you've felt like your life has been too quiet as of late, a new update for the Onkyo Remote Android app may be just what the doctor ordered. Onkyo has announced that they have added support for Spotify Premium to their free app, and that a handful of their network-enabled receivers and home theater systems will be updated to play nicely with it.
 
New Mobile Ad Unit Lets Developers Promote Apps That Are "Coming Soon" Top
coming-soon-iphoneMobile marketing platform Appsfire is launching a new ad unit for iPhone that lets app developers promote the applications they're about to launch. The "Coming Soon" ad doesn't just announce the forthcoming applications, however, but can also gather early sign-ups from potential users through its "notify me" button.
 
The Google Analytics For Business Data, Chart.io, Raises $3.2 Million Top
chartY-Combinator-backed Chart.io, a startup that gives businesses access to enterprise level analytics tools for databases, has raised $3.15 million in a Series A funding led by Avalon Ventures with Bullpen Capital participating. This round brings the company's total funding to $4.38 million. Founded in 2010 by David Beyer and Dave Fowler, Chart.io is a "Google Analytics for Business Data," that helps companies analyze and track their critical data in real time.
 
Jawbone's Fitness-Friendly Up Wristband Appears In Online Stores Top
jawboneupblueJawbone CEO Hosain Rahman turned a few heads when he unveiled the Jawbone Up at this past year's TED conference, mostly because it seemed like such a radical departure from the usual Jawbone lineup. When speaking to our very own Sarah Lacy, Rahman promised that the Up would be available "soon," but we may be getting very close to a release. The health-conscious Up wristband has popped up very briefly in Apple's online stores and Jawbone's own website today, which means the official launch can't be too far off.
 
Startup School and the Instigation of Entrepreneurship Top
startup_school1If you've ever met Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator (YC), you quickly realize that the incubator they run is like a family and they are its attentive parents. They have managed to put a very human face on venture capital, one that appeals to young engineers during their most insecure stage: when they have just begun, or are still deciding whether to begin, their lives as entrepreneurs. As the gateway to Silicon Valley - and truly, you'd be hard pressed to think of another singular starting point for this community's entrepreneurs (there's a reason Ron Conway calls it the "Harvard/Stanford of startups") - YC has decided not only to open its doors to budding entrepreneurs but to actually encourage more undecided youth to become entrepreneurs. This is the raison d'être for Startup School, an annual event that YC holds at Stanford (and which took place again this past Saturday). A large crowd of fresh-faced engineers fills an auditorium for eight hours to collect pearls of wisdom from notable technologists like Mark Zuckerberg, Max Levchin and (not ironically) Ashton Kutcher. And they walk away feeling more confident about starting companies themselves, and not coincidentally, leaning towards opting for YC to do it.
 

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