30 December, 2011

VentureBeat

VentureBeat

Google+ traffic & users jumped in final months of 2011

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 09:27 AM PST

Google+ has seen a steady surge of new signups and user activity over the final quarter of 2011.

While more than a few doubters have wondered whether, after several failures, Google can succeed in the fickle world of social networks, new reports from analytics firm Chitika show the service has as many as 62 million users.

Google’s suite of social tools started out with strong user curiosity and great initial user statistics. Just three weeks after its launch, Google+ had already seen 20 million unique visitors.

However, both traffic to Google+ pages and users’ perceptions of activity on the service began to level off. A couple months after its launch, some of G+’s most ardent advocates were complaining that it was a ghost town and a graveyard.

A September study showed a 40 percent drop in public posting on Google+. Then, a widely circulated study published in October stated that visits to the service peaked quickly then dropped by 60 percent.

But one major strategic move has helped Google achieve steady growth: Google+ has been slowly integrated with other Google mobile and web applications, starting with Google Reader’s integration back in October. Now, you’ll find G+ features in Gmail, Google Apps, Blogger and more.

As the social tools and connections become more ubiquitous throughout Google’s sizable slice of the web, so do Google+’s statistics continue to climb.

According to Chitika’s data, Google+ had a 118 percent increase in overall activity between September 2011 and November 2011. The service’s most significant growth happened between September and October, when Google+ grew 55 percent.

"When we look at engagement, we look at how often those users are coming back to Google, and they're coming back all the time — for search, to look at maps, to read email," said Google executive Bradley Horowitz in a recent exclusive interview with VentureBeat.

“Our engagement is extremely high, and this isn't rhetoric. This is going to manifest in the products themselves."

Still, Google+ has a long way to go to catch up with Facebook or even Twitter. Stats from the summer show G+ low in the rankings of social media traffic, with Facebook claiming around 90 percent of the pie:


Filed under: social


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Dump Go Daddy Day results: 27K domains transfer in, only 14K out

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 09:06 AM PST

godaddy-sopa-2Results from yesterday’s Dump Go Daddy Domain Day boycott show that almost twice as many domains transferred into Go Daddy than out.

The boycott day was organized by users of community news sharing site Reddit last week after Go Daddy appeared on an official congressional list of companies that publicly supported the recently proposed piece of legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). While Go Daddy eventually renounced its support for SOPA on two separate occasions since then, many critics decided to go forward with their boycott efforts.

According to data from domain statistics site DailyChanges, Go Daddy had 27,843 domains transferred into the company’s service yesterday and only 14,492 transferred out. The same positive results show up in Go Daddy’s other statistics, such as the number of new domains (43,304) verses deleted domains (35,907). We’re contacting the company for a confirmation on these numbers, and we’ll update the post with any new information.

If the current boycott efforts aren’t hurting the company’s domain business, which is very large and influential, the negative PR from its involvement with SOPA could still have long-term damaging effects. Plenty of lesser-known domain registrars got a healthy influx of new, loyal customers that aren’t likely to retreat anytime soon — meaning, if nothing else, that Go Daddy’s competition has been strengthened.

For more information about the proposed SOPA legislation , check out VentureBeat's ongoing SOPA coverage.

[Via TechDirt]


Filed under: media, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Anonymous exposes 860K Stratfor users (and 75K credit card numbers)

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 08:48 AM PST

Hacker collective Anonymous has just dumped 200 GB of names, email addresses and passwords for around 860,000 Stratfor users. Anonymous also exposed credit card numbers for 75,000 paying customers of Stratfor.

Stratfor, a security think tank, provides reports on international security and related threats to government and military personnel as well as to the private sector.

It is unknown whether Anonymous gained access to other, more sensitive information during the Stratfor hacks, which occurred on December 24.

“The time for talk is over,” Anonymous wrote last night on Pastebin.

“It’s time to dump the full 75,000 names, addresses, CCs and md5 hashed passwords to every customer that has ever paid Stratfor. But that’s not all: we’re also dumping ~860,000 usernames, email addresses, and md5 hashed passwords for everyone who’s ever registered on Stratfor’s site… Did you notice 50,000 of these email addresses are .mil and .gov?”

Anonymous’ motives for the attack are also somewhat hazy. In last night’s statement, representatives of the movement wrote, “All our lives we have been robbed blindly and brutalized by corrupted politicians, establishmentarians and government agencies sex shops, and now it’s time to take it back.”

In addition to the Stratfor attack and exposure, Anonymous is threatening a new action on New Year’s Eve, December 31.

In addition to “noise demonstrations” outside of jails and prisons, ostensibly to show solidarity and support for the incarcerated, Anonymous says it will unveil “our contributions to project mayhem by attacking multiple law enforcement targets from coast to coast.”

Project Mayhem, a name nabbed from the book and film Fight Club, alludes to the group’s desire to topple (or at least shake up) systems of capitalistic and political power by exposing certain types of information by or on December 12, 2012.

Stratfor’s site has been offline since December 24, and the firm has delayed its website relaunch in order to review its security.

"As part of our ongoing investigation, we have also decided to delay the launching of our website until a thorough review and adjustment by outside experts can be completed," the company said in an email to VentureBeat earlier this week.

For a detailed account of what happened during the Stratfor hack and what it means, see our 10-part FAQ on Anonymous and Stratfor.


Filed under: security


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Ocean Marketing holds N-Control’s digital accounts hostage, relents after more drama

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 08:31 AM PST

You’d think that Ocean Marketing’s Paul Christoforo would try to avoid the limelight after one of the worst PR moves ever this week, but you’d be wrong.

Christoforo (pictured) was apparently holding the e-mail and social media accounts for the N-Control game controller hostage, according to Moisés Chiullan, who took over PR for the company after Christoforo was ousted. Chiullan went on to detail the situation in a Reddit AMA discussion (where people answer questions submitted by Reddit readers), which eventually drove Christoforo to cooperate.

Chiullan wrote on Reddit:

I’ve been trying to get him to give up the access to these things he’s been holding hostage (email accounts, Twitter, etc) by asking nicely for a couple of days. The gloves are off now.

Paul told me on the phone two hours ago that “Eight months ago, I locked down all this stuff so they wouldn’t be able to fuck with me. If they don’t give me what I want, it’s war.” His demands include a contract written on his terms and substantial compensation, both immediate and for as long as the company continues to exist. He flaunted the PR debacle he created as proof that he “made the company a success”, citing all the media and public attention as the “best thing that ever happened to Avenger”.

He didn’t count on the fact that I anticipated all of this and have been a computer hardware and web tech since I was 14.

Several hours after the Reddit AMA began, Chiullan tweeted on the Avenger Controller’s Twitter account: “Happy to report that Mr. Christoforo has abruptly become very forthcoming regarding digital assets that he was previously withholding.”

I’m sure we’ll see more details about this latest drama soon, but for now I’m just flabbergasted by Christoforo’s complete lack of self-awareness.

Christoforo’s Ocean Marketing (he’s the only employee) rose to Internet stardom thanks to an over-the-top e-mail to an N-Control customer. VentureBeat’s Dylan Tweney bravely re-enacted the fiasco in our latest VB Weekly segment.


Filed under: games, offBeat, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The DeanBeat: From the Supreme Court to Anonymous, 2011 was a transformational year for games

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST

Skyrim was the “most played” game of the year, and we voted Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception our Game of the Year. But if you paid attention only to the big games this year, you may have missed some of the most important news ever to hit the game industry. It’s no exaggeration to say that 2011 was a transformational year for the game industry. As the game industry’s trade group chief, Michael Gallagher, said, "The word 'historic' is overused, but as we look back on 2011, it is a perfect fit for our industry's year.” Here’s a recap of 13 events that made this such a big year for games.

1. Video game violence case. The U.S. Supreme Court put to rest a decades long legal debate over video game violence and whether game publishers’ right to publish violent games without restrictions on who could buy them is protected by the First Amendment. The court struck down a California law as unconstitutional because it banned the sale of violent video games to minors. For the first time, the highest court in the country will give games the same legal protection that books, plays, and movies enjoy, because games "communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium." The court cited a previous case that held, "the basic principles of freedom of speech do not vary with a new and different communication medium." With that, a long chapter of legal warfare will end and the video game industry will finally enjoy its own measure of creative freedom.

2. Zynga and Nexon went public. They each raised $1 billion or more in the biggest initial public offerings ever to happen in the 40-year history of the industry. The offerings were somewhat rocky, but after the dust settled, Nexon was worth around $7 billion and Zynga was worth more than $8 billion — valuations that made them more valuable than Electronic Arts, which was founded in 1982. Nexon was the Asian company that pioneered the free-to-play, virtual goods business model, which, has proven an effective way for game makers to make money despite rampant piracy. That model made it OK to buy virtual goods in games in micro-transactions. Zynga took that model and ran with it on Facebook, growing at an incredible rate from nothing in 2007 to more than $1 billion in sales now. We wrote an in-depth story (now an eBook) about Zynga’s journey to the IPO. The bears say that the Gold Rush of social gaming won’t last. But with mobile gaming coming on fast, it’s not so easy to bet against the upstarts of gaming. This story has just begun, and it will be interesting to see what Zynga will do with an extra billion dollars in cash.

3. EA strikes back. Electronic Arts had been trying to catch up with Zynga in the fast-growing social game market. But EA finally outmaneuvered Zynga by purchasing PopCap Games for at least $750 million, snatching the casual game hit maker away from Zynga. Then EA launched The Sims Social, based on the popular Sims games that had sold more than 140 million units. The game was the first non-Zynga game to grow exponentially in a matter of a couple of months. The Sims Social outgrew FarmVille but fell short of unseating CityVille at No. 1. But it showed that the unstoppable Zynga could be beaten with a better game. Jeff Brown, a spokesman for EA, joked, “The Sims Social proved they can bleed. And if they can bleed, we can kill them.”

4. Console game sales flatten. Even in November, one of the biggest months for retail game sales of the year, the U.S. game industry barely grew at all. That means that 2011 will likely go down as a year for console and PC retail game sales. It’s hard to believe that, in a month when Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 debuted, the industry couldn’t grow over year-ago numbers. That means more dollars are going to the market leaders, and the also-rans aren’t getting much of the pie at all anymore. Meanwhile, mobile and social gaming are growing, helping to offset the sales losses. This doesn’t mean that console games are dead. But it means that there will be changes in the ranks of the top game companies as this transition plays out. And it means that the console makers had better stop milking the cycle for profits and better move on to introducing new machines that can recapture the public’s imagination.

5. Games spread to new platforms. Google+ emerged as a new platform to take on Facebook in social network games. OnLive enabled game streaming of console-like titles to smartphones and tablets, making those devices into even better gaming platforms than they already were. Smartphones and tablets saw game usage soar. As Seamus Blackley, co-creator of the Xbox said, it’s as if the public demands that every single new device or platform be able to play games.

6. Game platforms morph into entertainment platforms. Microsoft upgraded Xbox Live to a new Kinect-enabled, voice-controlled user interface and added more than 40 entertainment services. The goal is to transform the entertainment experience on television, adding everything from YouTube to Comcast on-demand shows on the web-connected game console. Microsoft has also improved the quality of using Kinect voice commands to move from one choice to another, or to search through all of the entertainment options at your disposal in an instant. The latest update was one of the biggest in the past five years for the Xbox 360 because Microsoft is trying to improve the experience of watching entertainment. It also includes cloud-based access and storage for gamers to improve the basic gaming experience.

7. Modern Warfare 3 sells $1 billion worth in 16 days. All year long, it was fun to listen to the bluster between rival shooting game executives as Battlefield 3 squared off against Modern Warfare 3. But the big victory went to Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty series. EA’s Battlefield 3 was no slouch. But Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 sold 6.5 million copies on its first day and generated $400 million in revenue, shattering all entertainment records. It went on to shatter other records as well. Possibly even more significant, after some growing pains, Activision Blizzard managed to launch Call of Duty Elite, a gamer social network for Call of Duty fans. That network could be key to changing Call of Duty from a once-a-year launch to a year-round subscription gaming service.

8. The PlayStation Network gets hacked. The most embarrassing comeuppance of the year started when Sony sued hacker George “Geohot” Hotz, who had broken the digital locks on the PlayStation 3. Then the company went after consumers who had used the hacking tools provided by Hotz. That’s where Anonymous, the hacktivist group, stepped in. It attacked Sony and evidently distracted the company so much that it didn’t notice cyberattackers had exploited its network weaknesses. The attack brought down the PlayStation Network, preventing 77 million users from logging in to play online games. The network stayed down for more than six weeks, forcing the CEO of Sony and top PlayStation executives to apologize to consumers and offer them goodies to lure them back to the network.

9. Nintendo flops with the 3DS. Nintendo bet heavily that stereoscopic 3D would wow users, but its handheld 3DS didn’t take off like the Wii or the DS did. Beset by competition from Apple and Google Android devices, the 3DS wasn’t as appealing, since games could cost as much as $40 each, compared to free or 99 cent iPhone games. Nintendo had to slash its price on the 3DS by 40 percent and accept a fiscal year loss for first time in decades of outstanding financial performance. Sales have improved, but the jury is still out. The problem is that kids have an easy migration path from the iPod Touch to the iPhone to the iPad. With those options, they may not need a 3DS.

10. Nintendo unveils the Wii U. At the E3 trade show in Los Angeles, Nintendo finally took the wraps off the Wii U console, debuting in 2012. The machine takes Nintendo into the high-definition age, and it sports tablet-like controllers with small displays. The system barely catches up with the processing power of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. So it’s not clear if gamers are going to go hog-wild about this kind of machine, particularly as Microsoft and Sony are likely to launch more powerful machines in 2013. The ball is in Nintendo’s court. It has to prove that it can recapture the magic of the Wii, which is the best-selling console of the generation but has fallen out of favor.

11. Sony launches the PlayStation Vita. Having put the embarrassment of the PSN hack behind it, Sony launched the PlayStation Vita handheld gaming system in Japan. It is the company’s answer to the 3Ds and the iPhone and iPad, with a high-end console-like gaming experience. The system sales started well enough, though technical troubles have dampened the initial enthusiasm. The system’s success is critical for Sony, but it seems like an uphill battle.

12. The iPhone and Android smartphones triumph over the game portables. Apple helped cement its ascendance in gaming with the launch of the iPad 2 early in the year and the iPhone 4S in the fall. Using the A5 processor, those devices made it possible to run console-like games like Infinity Blade II, and more and more game fans wondered why they would need to buy a dedicated handheld with $40 games. In 2011, iOS and Android had 58 percent of the U.S. portable game market, while Nintendo had 36 percent and the PlayStation Portable had 6 percent. That was a huge turnaround from 2009, when Nintendo had 70 percent with the DS, Sony had 11 percent, and Android and iOS had only 19 percent of the market in terms of game software revenue, according to mobile analytics firm Flurry. Google announced that the Android Market had hit 1 billion app downloads per month. Nintendo responded with the launch of the 3DS, but users didn’t like the stereoscopic 3D and Nintendo had to crater its prices and report a rare loss. Sony trashed the PSP in favor of a new handheld, the PlayStation Vita. That may be too little too late.

13. 3D games finally hit the web. The launch of the Google native client for the Chrome browser went unnoticed by much of the industry on Dec. 8. But the three-year effort makes it possible to play higher-quality 3D graphics games on an ordinary web browser. Square Enix chief executive Yoichi Wada (pictured) said his company has been waiting for the day for a long time. The company created a version of its Mini Ninjas game for Chrome as a "native client" game, and many other titles will follow. The benefits of running a game natively in the Chrome browser are high performance, security, and the ability to port to the system easily. For game developers, this represents a chance for a much wider audience, as Chrome has been downloaded more than 200 million times. Meanwhile, Unity Technologies also launched the ability to debut Unity-based 3D games via Adobe’s new Flash Player 11. That will also get 3D on the wider web.


Filed under: games, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Verizon blames “growing pains” for LTE 4G outages

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 07:27 AM PST

VerizonVerizon Wireless may be paying the price for being the first carrier in the world to widely roll out LTE 4G technology.

The carrier has pointed to the relative immaturity of LTE as the reason for its 4G service outages throughout 2011, reports GigaOm, who chatted with Verizon VP of network engineering Mike Haberman yesterday.

"Being the pioneers, we're going to experience some growing pains," Haberman said. "These issues we've been experiencing are certainly regrettable but they were unforeseeable."

Verizon’s 4G network suffered three separate outages during December, as well as a major failure in April. According to Haberman, the issues stemmed from bugs with Verizon’s service delivery core, also known as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Notably, every outage was the result of a completely new bug, so at least Verizon seems to be successfully squashing issues as they pop up.

“Verizon's IMS systems are a complex network of databases, servers, routers, gateways and policy managers supplied by multiple vendors,” writes GigaOm’s Kevin Fitchard. “Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks, Acme Packet and Tekelec all provide different parts, but Haberman declined to identify which particular elements or which particular vendors were responsible for the problems. In fact, Haberman defended Verizon's vendors saying that they were experiencing the same LTE growing pains as Verizon.”

To minimize future outages, Verizon will begin segmenting its LTE network by geographic location so that they don’t affect the network nationally. The company is also upgrading its IMS software and making other tweaks to prevent future issues.


Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Not even a shift to full SOPA opposition can stop Go Daddy from hemorrhaging customers

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 08:47 PM PST

Go Daddy, SOPADomain registrar Go Daddy has changed its stance on recently proposed legislation Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) from “not supporting” to full on opposition, according to a new statement issued by the company today.

"We have observed a spike in domain name transfers, which are running above normal rates and which we attribute to Go Daddy's prior support for SOPA, which was reversed," said Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman. "Go Daddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities. Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time."

The strengthened opposition may have something to do with today’s “Dump Go Daddy Domain Day” boycott, which was organized by users of community news sharing site Reddit. Despite Go Daddy’s previous statement of opposition after losing over 37,000 domains two days after appearing on an official list of SOPA supporters, many Reddit users pressed on with their boycott, as VentureBeat previously reported.

Other internet users have even gone beyond a simple boycott. We’ve pointed out that the company now has its own “Scum Bag Go Daddy” Meme. Also, BetaBeat reports that programmers are getting into the mix as well — producing things like a Chrome extension that displays a banner at the top of a site letting you know if the company behind the domain supports.

The proposed SOPA legislation gives both the U.S. government and copyright holders the authority to seek court orders against websites associated with infringing, pirating and/or counterfeiting intellectual property. The implication of having the act pass is that it could drastically change the way the Internet operates.

For more information about the bill, check out VentureBeat’s ongoing SOPA coverage.

[Image via Netaholics.net]

 

 


Filed under: media, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

VBWeekly: A dramatic re-enactment of Ocean Marketing’s spectacular self-destruction

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 06:48 PM PST

In this week’s video, VentureBeat does a dramatic reading of one of the most entertainingly stupid email chains ever to see the light of day.

A one-man agency, Ocean Marketing, destroyed itself this week when its principal, Paul Christoforo, sent a ridiculously over-the-top, rage-fueled series of emails to a disappointed customer — and then dug himself in even deeper by continuing the same rant with Mike Krahulik, the publisher of the immensely popular web comic Penny Arcade and organizer of a popular videogame convention, Pax.

We were so amused by the emails that we couldn’t resist putting our own video interpretation of some selected excerpts. We did our best to read these selections verbatim, in all their bizarre, douchey, ungrammatical glory.

And yeah, I know I look ridiculous. I’ve rarely had so much fun at work since I got to play Rambo with my coworkers. Happy New Year.


Filed under: games, video


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

SEC probed Groupon about Andrew Mason memo prior to IPO

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 06:21 PM PST

Andrew MasonThe government questioned Groupon CEO Andrew Mason for his potentially market-conditioning statements, according to documents released by the SEC today.

Soon after filing papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission for Groupon’s initial public offering, the company’s chief executive Andrew Mason got wind of some harsh words about Groupon’s ability to perform. Reacting, Mason sent a letter to his employees explaining Groupon’s potential, beefing up its positive attributes and even including some financial information.

When a company files for an IPO, however, a quiet period goes into affect, where the company’s employees cannot “condition the market,” or provide information that may sway potential stockholders. During this period, only factual statements can be released, no forward-looking statements, and most communications must go through a legal department before reaching the public. For this reason, Mason’s letter caught the eye of the SEC.

“The e-mail was a direct communication with employees of factual business information of the type permitted by the applicable rules of the Commission,” states one letter sent by Groupon.

Mason’s memo, which was intercepted and published by All Things D, was meant only for employees, and was sent to two mailing lists, ” North America Groupon” and “Managing Directors at Groupon.de.” Given that this was an internal communication, it wasnot considered hyping the company to potential stockholders. However, the SEC did want to know just who saw the letter and what precautions were taken to make sure the letter did not leak out. These precautions included sending three separate e-mails asking employees not to share the memo, along with statements by Andrew Mason within the original e-mail telling employees they could not “share this yet.”

In July, one month before the Mason memo was sent out, Groupon chariman Eric Lefkofsky was accused of breaking quiet period rules when he reportedly said, “Groupon was going to be wildly profitable,” in an interview with Bloomberg. Groupon amended its filing that month.

Obviously, Eric’s slip and the memo leak did not interfere with Groupon’s eventual entrance into the public sector. The company made its debut on the Nasdaq in early November, priced at $20 a share. However, it does show that any business going through the IPO process is under scrutiny and will be called out for breaks in the quiet period.

via Wall Street Journal


Filed under: deals


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Letter reveals embarassing details of Mark Hurd’s sexual appetites while at HP

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:52 PM PST

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd lost an appeal to a Delaware court today to keep a series of letters dealing with sexual harassment allegations against him confidential.

Hurd, who is currently co-president of technology giant Oracle, was accused of sexual harassment against HP marketing contractor Jodie Fisher during his time with the company. Several HP board members made the argument that they needed to see the documentation about Hurd’s relationship with Fisher to assess both wrong doing at the company during his tenure as well as any implications the relationship might have on Hurd’s severance package.

One crucial document the board wanted to see was the letter written by Fisher’s lawyer to Hurd, which outlines a two-year period where Hurd uses his power as HP head to make unwanted sexual advances on several occasions. The letter describes the period as an “uncomfortable dance” — and having reviewed the copy obtained by AllThingsD. , I’d say that’s a pretty accurate (albeit mild) description of what occurred. Another description would be that it is the equivalent of a bad soft-core adult movie that’s been edited for late night basic cable.

"It is appalling that you would use HP revenues for the purpose of procuring female companionship and romance under the guise of HP business," the letter to Hurd states.

In once situation described in the letter, Hurd invited Ms. Fisher to his hotel room after a conference to discuss a business trip to China. The letter states that Hurd asked her to spend the night with him. Fisher declined and departed his room, but that didn’t stop Hurd from trying again. The following night he asked her to dinner, making reference to how many women liked him — including singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow.

Other instances make reference to Hurd’s mistresses in San Francisco and New York, showing Ms. Fisher a million dollar account balance on one of his ATM statements…. and lots of other juicy details. It’s pretty easy to see why Hurd tried to have the documents remain confidential due to the large number of embarrassing situations described.

While Fisher later recanted much of what was written in the letter the day after it was sent to Hurd, it’s still documented. In a followup statement to Hurd, she wrote:

“Upon further reflection and review, I wanted to clarify certain issues related to the correspondence that was sent to you on my behalf on June 24, 2010. First, I do not believe that HP engaged in any inappropriate conduct towards me in any way. Second, there are many inaccuracies in the details of the June 24, 2010 letter. I do not believe that any of your behavior was detrimental to HP or in any way injured the company or its reputation.”

For anyone who’d like to read the entire story, you can check out the full letter here. (Alternately, you could just flip on the Soap Opera channel which undoubtedly has better production quality and more subplots.)


Filed under: VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Banks battle for $220M share of Facebook IPO

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:31 PM PST

Green may be the color of money, but Wall Street bankers are only seeing blue — Facebook blue, that is.

The social network is poised to file its papers to become a public company in early 2012 — raising $10 billion in the process — and covetous bankers are hoping to hitch a last-minute ride to money town by way of the company’s expected $100 billion market valuation. Rival banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are said to be the front-runners battling it out for the title of lead investment bank, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“The deal will be one of the most hotly contested offerings of the decade, with hundreds of millions of dollars in potential fees and bragging rights on the line,” the Journal reported.

Why the frenzy? Up for grabs in Facebook’s looming offering is roughly $220 million in IPO fees, according to investment analytics company Dealogic.

Goldman, the same bank that put together a private offering of Facebook shares to help the social network raise $1.5 billion in funding last January, is said to have lost some favor with the company because the original deal came close to violating U.S. securities laws. “Goldman solved the problem by limiting the offering to non-U.S. investors, but executives at the social-networking company became less enamored with the bank,” sources told the Journal.

But that doesn’t necessarily make Morgan Stanley, the top underwriter of Internet-related IPOs in 2011 according to Dealogic, a shoe-in either. Facebook could penalize the firm for its lead role in Zynga’s lackluster public offering, bankers said.

The dueling banks, however, are still believed to be the top contenders for the lead role. Supporting underwriter roles are also in high demand. “Some bankers have been waiting by the phone over the holidays for the call that they will be participating in the company’s IPO in some way,” a person familiar with the matter told the Journal.

[Image via Laughing Squid/Flickr]


Filed under: deals, social


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Viacom may owe $383 million to Harmonix shareholders

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:29 PM PST

harmonix1

Viacom Inc. may owe $383 million to former shareholders of Cambridge-based developer Harmonix Music Systems, best-known for the Rock Band series.

There are apparently a handful of legal battles going on between Viacom and shareholders over their $175 million acquisition of the developer back in 2006.

An arbitration team ruled Dec. 19 that Viacom still owes money to shareholders based on sales targets which were met in both 2007 and 2008. The $383 million stems from the legal dispute over those unpaid bonuses for sales targets. However, Viacom filed suit in the Delaware court in hopes of overturning the ruling.

According to reports, Viacom had paid $150 million in bonuses previously, but ended up suing shareholders for a refund saying they had overpaid. The arbitration ruling said that the game had sold so well that the contract would call for a much higher payout anyway.

Currently, Harmonix owns their IPs, Rock Band and Dance Central. About a year ago, Viacom sold off Harmonix, letting them retain those rights. This was thanks to the declining popularity of the music game genre as a whole. Though their games had done fairly well, it seems Viacom did not find them worth the risk.

It's also worth noting that according to a Harmonix spokesperson, the dispute is between the former shareholders and Viacom, rather involving the developer itself. However, as the report says, many of those shareholders, such as co-founder Alex Rigopulos, are currently staffed with Harmonix.

via Boston Globe


Filed under: games


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Texting still king for the 234M US mobile device users

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:00 PM PST

TextingThere are 91.4 million people in the United States who use smartphones, according to a report by comScore today, but how are they using their phones? Texting, app usage and listening to music top the charts.

For three months, ending in November, over 234 million mobile devices were used by 13 year olds and older, says comScore. Smartphones make up around 39 percent of that group. Android is still winning smartphone market share, up 3.1 percent to 46.9 percent, with Apple trailing in second. Research in Motion fell 3.1 percent, but remains the third competitor. As a phone manufacturer, RIM fell another .6 percent, and sits at the bottom, below Samsung, LG, Motorola and Apple in that order.

While smartphones have changed much of the way we use our phones, some activities remain the same. Of all types of mobile devices, 72.6 percent of users use their phones to send text messages. Checking social media and playing games also made the leader board. Most interestingly, however, is the switch from browsing to application usage. In the three prior to this current study, more people, 42.1 percent, used their browsers to get information in comparison to the 41.6 percent that used apps. Now, however, applications have taken the lead by .5 percent. The percentage is small, but it shows the need for better browsing on smartphones.

Mobile music listening comes in sixth place, at 20 percent. While this number seems small, most of these users probably come from smartphones, except for a few feature phones which support the activity. Given that smartphones only make up 39 percent of the mobile user population, half of these people use their mobile phones to listen to music. Indeed, sales for Apple’s iPod dropped 27 percent since last year’s fourth quarter, and is projected to continue decreasing popularity.

Texting image via Shutterstock


Filed under: mobile


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Apple could bring facial recognition to the iPhone, à la Android

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 04:05 PM PST


You can bet if one major smartphone manufacturer develops a new feature, its main competitor will follow suit. On Thursday the U.S. Patent Office published an application from Apple for a facial recognition patent. Looks like Apple is right on Google’s heels; in mid-December the Android 4.0 Galaxy Nexus was released, with the ability to unlock the phone by recognizing your face touted as a key feature.

Apple’s proposed technology uses a 2D correlation matching system to compare the image of the person trying to unlock the device with a reference image, i.e. an image the device would be programmed to remember. By analyzing the differences between the two images, the device could determine facial identity and unlock. The patent specifications put an emphasis on skin variations and the location of certain facial features and would possibly eliminate the need for specific lighting conditions for accurate recognition.

Facial recognition abilities are still shaky as far as security goes. The Galaxy Nexus can be unlocked with a photo of its owner, as Mobiledia reported in November. One of the figures included with Apple’s patent filing hints at the ability for the facial recognition to detect the user’s level of attentiveness, thus potentially avoiding the Galaxy’s flaw. For example, the device wouldn’t unlock when its owner merely glances quickly at its camera.

Patently Apple reports that in addition the facial recognition patent, Apple previously filed for a presence detection patent and a high end 3D recognition patent in 2011. This latest patent was actually filed in the second quarter of 2010 by inventor Robert Mikio Free, long before Android brought this type of technology to market. Perhaps Apple is up to something and looking at new ways to unlock its devices. However, don’t expect this type of technology to show up in whatever iPhone Apple decides to release next; right now it’s all just speculation.

Image via Patently Apple


Filed under: mobile


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Windows Phone LTE plans: Nokia Ace, HTC Radiant, Samsung Mendel coming to AT&T early 2012

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 01:50 PM PST

nokia-lumia-800If you’re interested in the Windows Phone mobile operating system, but holding out for LTE 4G devices on the platform, you may not have to wait much longer.

Microsoft’s first round of LTE-equipped Windows Phone devices will be headed to AT&T in the first half of 2012, reports WinSupersite’s Paul Thurrott.

The phones, which include the Nokia ACE, HTC Radiant, and Samsung Mendel, will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month. The ACE is apparently scheduled for release on March 18, 2012, and it’s likely an LTE version of the Lumia 800, which we reported both AT&T and Verizon were testing.

The devices will run a version of Windows Phone that supports LTE, but doesn’t include the Tango update (which is rumored to land in the middle of 2012), the Verge reports.

Windows Phone needed LTE support yesterday, so it’s good to see that plans are already in motion for some flagship LTE devices. Still, Microsoft is going to have a hard time drumming up excitement for its first LTE lineup at CES next year, when Verizon pretty much stole the show with its LTE debut this year. It seems that, yet again, Microsoft is playing catch-up with Windows Phone.


Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Why the biggest companies aren’t wiping the floor with social startups

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 01:44 PM PST

It's paradigm shift time — again.

Fab.com is the latest in a string of companies that is seeing huge success by applying principles to commerce that at first glance, seem like old hat; Thematic fire sales. Big deal… right? Actually, it is. And we (in North America at least) have Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and (soon) Google+ to thank for it. But you already knew that.

So the real question is, why haven't the biggest retailers and affinity-brands wiped the floor with these startups that go from launch to millions of members in 90 days? Is it just because they are offering discounts? Flash sales? Free shipping? Or is it because they have tapped into a collective force so powerful that they are in fact "drafting the masses"?

Perhaps it’s because a decade later, many in the marketing world have still not read and understood The Cluetrain Manifesto — a collection of concepts aimed at bringing a call to action for companies operating within a new marketplace of the internet age.

The collaboration of Doc Searls, David Weinberger, Chris Locke and Rick Levine coined the Cluetrain Manifesto term, and it shook the foundation of the marketing world in 1999. It starts with this paragraph:

"A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies."

Now, maybe the 'blinding speed' part wasn't so real in 1999. I know it wasn't in 2003 when I joined a fledgling email marketing company named Emma that grew up to be one of the leaders in email marketing for small and medium-sized businesses. Back then, email was absolutely king, and the power that marketers had over their customers was heavy-handed.

Through their favorite email marketing system, marketers could simultaneously message millions of potential customers (open rates aside), and the best that any one of these recipients could do to socialize that communication with their friends was "forward to a friend". But hardly anyone ever wanted to do that. It was clunky (still is), impersonal and felt too much like you were selling on behalf of some company since it just stuck your tiny message on top of their humongous email.

Then came Facebook and its 800 million members.

Suddenly, people (which is what they are on Facebook, not customers) were empowered to speak to their communities of friends from their phone, tablet or laptop, in their own voice with dominance over the brand. The brand they are talking about is merely the subject of the conversation, not the voice initiating it. And guess what, people react really well to messages from their friends, and even their acquaintances, when the topic is something they are genuinely interested in, something they have an affinity for. It's why Gartner predicts that 50% of sales will come from Social and Mobile by 2015.

And here we are, in 2011, finally seeing what Cluetrain Commerce looks like. It took a while, but it is here now! No more mindless herding of 'users' through search engine optimization, insulting advertisements and inbox overload. Today, companies with an authentic voice, the desire to be part of a conversation rather than dominate it, and a novel offering are going to put the brands that don't evolve into extinction. Why?, Because the people want it that way.

No, I'm not saying email marketing is dead. I'm saying that Email Marketing is now part of Social Commerce, not the other way around.

Brands that don't get it, that don't use Social to build consumer relationships, are now perceived as rude and primitive. But why shouldn't they be? Rather than reach out to people, they seek to drive traffic. Instead of dazzling people with a great experience, they seek to convert users through a funnel (I don't know about you, but I do not want to be converted by anyone, especially not through a funnel). And most importantly, they refuse to accept that their customer is their most powerful marketer. Social Commerce is the way to produce vibrant consumer insight and relationships that will have people wanting more, not opt-ing out.

[Mopping photo via ShutterStock]

Marcus-WhitneyMarcus Whitney is currently the CTO of Boston-based social commerce platform Moontoast, which offers musicians, celebrities, brands and companies a way to turn their social media presence into a source of revenue. He’s founded four startups to date and somehow managed to maintain a love affair with his family, friends and hip-hop. He is a cyborg innovator in Social and Music Startups and a student of Founder Happiness.


Filed under: Entrepreneur Corner, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Small businesses are hungry for tablets, but only want iPads

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 01:29 PM PST

Seventy-three percent of small and medium businesses in the U.S. intend to purchase tablets in the next 12 months, but these companies won’t settle for any old tablet — they want iPads.

The iPad is the most-considered tablet by businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees mulling the hardware investment, according to new survey data from research firm The NPD Group and its SMB Technology Monitor.

“The iPad, just as it is in the consumer market, is synonymous for 'Tablet' in the business market, leaving Apple poised to take advantage of the increased spending intentions of these SMBs,” Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, said.

Small and medium businesses indicated that they will spend, on average, more than $21,000 on tablets over a 12-month period, NPD found, though the amount skews higher or lower depending on business size.

Medium-sized business with 501 to 999 employees are the most tablet-hungry — well iPad-anxious, actually. Nearly 90 percent of businesses in this category said they plan to purchase new tablets, with each planning to spend an average of $39,000 on the new hardware over the next 12 months.

The data supports a perceptible shift in the workplace, with Apple mobile products being embraced by business users and IT departments alike. At VentureBeat’s CloudBeat conference in early December, the consensus among a panel of cloud and enterprise experts was that corporate CEOs (and their egos) are the driving force behind iPad adoption in the enterprise.

[Image via OU Platform/Flickr]


Filed under: enterprise, mobile, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Web series network Blip.tv raises $6M round of funding

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 12:49 PM PST

blip.tvBlip.tv, a site known for producing independent web videos, has raised a $6 million round of funding, according to a recent SEC filing.

Unlike competing video sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, Blip.tv isn’t focused on letting people upload their videos. Instead, it is focused on becoming the top destination for videos produced independently by big studios or networks. Basically, it’s like a refined crop of YouTube’s best channel partners with more polish. The site gives its content partners a way to connect fans with its library of previous episodes as well as links to the official show website and online store.

Last week the company debuted a new logo, and presumably some of the new funding will go to continuing to polishing the site. The $6 million round, which is still open, came from existing investors Bain Capital and Canaan Partners, reports TechCrunch.

While the company is getting a fresh infusion of cash, it’s parting ways with CEO and founder Mike Hudack and co-founder Dina Kaplan. The company’s COO Steve Brookstein is currently acting as interim CEO until a replacement is found.

Founded in 2005, the New York-based Blip.tv raised a $10.1 million third round of funding in May 2010. It raised a total of $24 million in funding to date.


Filed under: deals, media, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Amazon may miss projected quarterly sales by $300M

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 11:43 AM PST

Amazon stock stumbled today when a Goldman Sachs analyst estimated the company’s quarterly sales at $17.9 billion rather than the earlier estimate of $18.2 billion.

AMZN, which was trading on the NASDAQ as high as $178 earlier this week, briefly dropped to $167 this morning as analyst Heather Bellini’s note was made public.

As of this writing, AMZN has returned to trading at $173.26. Bellini named a price target — the price at which current investors would be best to exit — of $190 in her note.

“For the stock to materially appreciate in the near term would require the company to beat and raise on the bottom line over the next few quarters,” her note read.

“Given our lower operating forecasts for 2012, we see this scenario as unlikely.”

Taking into account the lower Q4 sales estimate, Amazon’s year-over-year growth is still projected at 38 percent.

On the other hand, Amazon itself is nothing but positive about its Q4 activity. Earlier today, the company countered Bellini’s prediction with news that the 2011 holiday shopping season was Amazon’s best season to date. Online holiday shopping overall amounted to a $35.3 billion market during the last couple months of 2011 alone, and Amazon captured its fair share of that number.

In particular, Amazon’s sales of its Kindle lineup (especially the new Kindle Fire tablet/e-reader hybrid) have been astounding. Throughout November and December, Amazon has been selling roughly one million Kindle units each week. For the entirety of Amazon’s Kindle lineup, Black Friday sales figures quadrupled year over year. At that time, the company also stated the Kindle Fire had been its top-selling product for the previous eight weeks.


Filed under: VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Stuxnet may have up to 4 malware siblings made on the same platform

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 11:37 AM PST

malwareStuxnet has been called the most sophisticated computer worm ever created. We know there are siblings to the malware which took down Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, but now Kaspersky labs is saying there may be up to four other worms in the family tree.

In 2010, Stuxnet infiltrated Iran’s nuclear program. The highly capable malware targets an industrial control system called SCADA, which operates as a management tool for commercial grade software and hardware. It shut down the equipment responsible for creating fuel for nuclear weapons, which Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad later admitted. In 2011, the Duqu virus was discovered and named as part of the Stuxnet family of malware, bringing the count up to two highly sophisticated worms.

According to a report by Reuters, Russian security company Kaspersky Labs has identified three others. When originally found, Kaspersky said Stuxnet was so mature it could have been made by an intelligence agency. Later, the United States and Israel were both blamed for its creation and eventual dispersal. Neither country has taken responsibility.

Though we don’t know what lab the worms originated from, the same one gave birth to both Stuxnet and Duqu as well as the three siblings. Kaspersky discovered this after observing the two virus’ attempt to find the other three. Costin Raiu, the firm’s director of global research and analysis, explained that when the two are deployed, they search for registry keys that allow them to fully install their malware. When searching for those keys, however, Kaspersky found Stuxnet and Duqu were both searching for three other keys. This means that the worms have siblings that work in tandem with it, strengthening its damaging power.

“It’s like a Lego set. You can assemble the components into anything: a robot or a house or a tank,” Raiu told Reuters.

Stuxnet specifically attacks equipment running on the Windows operating system. It can erase its tracks, pose as certificate-baring legitimate software and multiply on its own. Duqu, on the other hand, acts as a Trojan, stealing data, potentially acting in the planning stages of an attack.

It’s not yet clear what the siblings can do, but it seems the existing sisters want a reunion.

via Reuters, Malware image via Shutterstock


Filed under: security


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Vistaprint completes $117.5M acquisition of DIY website builder Webs Inc.

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 11:34 AM PST

Vistaprint, an online printing service famous for its free business cards, has completed its acquisition of Webs Inc., a do-it-yourself website building tool.

Expanding on its printing services, Vistaprint will use Webs Inc.'s technology to offer digital marketing services to customers. Vistaprint is well known for providing business printing services, including business cards, banners and flyers. Now the company is able to offer website building services with custom text, design and domain, starting at $4.99 per month. The service is designed for customers who aren't able to build a website on their own.

“The value of this transaction lies primarily in three areas,” Vistaprint CEO Robert Keane told VentureBeat. “An increased ability to serve customers via the integration of physical and digital small business identity and marketing, the addition of impressive talent who have an innovative and customer-centric approach to product development, and plans to monetize our mutual customer bases over the long-term via the sale of physical products and premium digital marketing subscriptions.”

The deal was initiated on December 19 and Vistaprint announced the completion of the acquisition on Thursday. Vistaprint paid $117.5 million to Webs Inc., which was comprised of $101.3 million cash and $16.2 million in restricted shares. Webs Inc.'s founders and several employees will be added to the Vistaprint team to run the new website building service. Vistaprint expects the acquisition to make the company an additional $5 million to $6 million in revenue for its 2012 fiscal year.

Vistaprint is a marketing company that offers services to micro businesses and consumers. It currently employs more than over 3,100 people and is based in the Netherlands.


Filed under: deals, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Facebook Messenger for Windows is more than a chat app — and you can get it now

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 11:34 AM PST

Update: Facebook has made the download link available in the Help Center.

Facebook is busy perfecting a Messenger desktop application for Windows that compacts the best of Facebook — chat, ticker and notifications — into an always-accessible, dock-able miniature window. The social network may not be ready to officially show Messenger for Windows to the world, but don’t let that stop you from getting it now.

The trial application was initially released to a small group of Facebook users in late November. The folks at TechIT, however, have leaked the download link, which means Messenger for Windows is available to anyone running Windows 7.

“We are continuing to make Facebook Messenger easily accessible across platforms,” a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Messenger is available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and we're testing Messenger for Windows, a new desktop application.”

So what does it do? The desktop client lets you use Facebook while browsing the rest of the web without needing to be on Facebook.com. It’s far more sophisticated than the mobile app versions for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry that focus specifically on Facebook chat.

Messenger for Windows supports chat, of course, but also includes ticker updates and a mini blue Facebook bar for the same real-time notifications you see on the site.

The application is, by default, undocked, which means you can drag it and move it about your screen. You can also optionally click the dock icon, located in the bottom-right corner, to affix the app to the right side of your screen.

Messenger is noticeably missing group chat and video calls, but a help center entry hints that these features may be on their way.

The social network is clearly experimenting with ways to encourage perpetual Facebook usage. There are, of course, several third-party applications that offer off-Facebook social networking activities — especially Facebook chat — but the company seems best positioned to build an application for mainstream adoption.

via The Verge


Filed under: social, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The most interesting phones of 2011: what mattered most in a year of smartphone overload

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 11:26 AM PST

iPhone 4S 1

It seems like every week a must-have smartphone is either announced or released. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to track which phones are actually worth paying attention to and which will be swiftly thrown into the scrap heap of devices nobody cares about.

So, after a year of smartphone overload, we want to look back and see which devices this year actually mattered. Some will be obvious, others less so. But perhaps by paying special attention to the most relevant devices of 2011, we’ll be able steel ourselves for the avalanche of new models coming in 2012. (Don’t forget that the next Consumer Electronics Show is just weeks away.)

iPhone 5

Yes, the most talked about phone this year is one that doesn’t even exist yet. Rumors of the iPhone 5 began shortly after the iPhone 4′s release, but throughout 2011 the talk reached fever pitch with speculation of a thinner, larger-screen iPhone. iPhone 5 speculation was so rampant that some fans managed to create a stunning replica of the device, and many expected Apple to announce it in October. Instead, we got the iPhone 4S (more on that below), which initially left hardcore Apple fans disappointed.

But even though iPhone 5 rumors have quietened down, they never truly died off. The sheer amount of early information on the phone hinted that it was indeed something Apple was working on — we likely just got our hopes up a year too early. Speculation was further buoyed by a report from analyst Ashok Kumar, who said that the iPhone 5 was Steve Jobs’ last major project with Apple. Kumar echoed previous rumors, saying the phone will be thin and sport a 4-inch screen, but he added that it will support 4G LTE technology as well.

I wouldn’t be too surprised if all of the rumors proved true come next year.

iPhone 4S

iPhone 4S SiriSo instead of the iPhone 5, we got the iPhone 4S. Sure, it looks exactly the same as the iPhone 4, but the introduction of Apple’s virtual assistant Siri is a significant computing milestone that shouldn’t be ignored. As I wrote in my iPhone 4S review:

More than a smarter version of the iPhone's previous voice command feature, Siri represents the first step towards widespread adoption of consumer artificial intelligence (AI). It's the beginning of something that will fundamentally change the way we live with our computing devices over the coming years.

The phone also sports Apple’s dual-core A5 processor and an improved 8-megapixel camera, which helped make it competitive against ever-faster Android smartphones. But while the better hardware is nice, the real star of the show is Siri. The iPhone 4S is also the first iPhone to be available on multiple carriers at launch, with Sprint joining Verizon and AT&T.

You’d think that consumers wouldn’t have flocked to the iPhone 4S since it looks exactly the same as last year’s model, but you’d be wrong. Apple managed to sell 4 million iPhone 4S units in its launch weekend alone, and analysts expect the company to sell at least 30 million this quarter. Not bad for a phone stricken with a 3.5-inch screen in an era of 4.3-inch behemoths. 

Galaxy Nexus

Google’s Nexus line typically sets the stage for the next year in high-end Android devices, and Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus doesn’t disappoint. With a 4.65-inch screen, the Galaxy Nexus inches into tablet territory. It certainly makes a striking comparison to the iPhone 4S. Spec-wise, the phone has pretty much everything you’d want in a dream device (although its camera still lags behind the iPhone 4S’ more sophisticated 8-megapixel shooter).

The Galaxy Nexus is also notable for being the first Android 4.0 device. With its latest mobile OS, Google is finally focusing on making users love their Android phones as much as iPhone users fawn over their devices. Android 4.0 sports a cleaner and friendlier interface than previous iterations, and according to Google’s mobile design guru Mattias Duarte, it’s just the beginning.

Indeed, there’s a level of polish that Android has lacked since its inception, and I’m hoping that Duarte’s new design focus will bring it to the level of iOS and Windows Phone. Android has always been great for techies, but for average users it can often be an exercise in frustration.

Droid Razr

Did you miss the Razr brand? Me neither, but Motorola certainly did. As I said when the phone was first announced, it’s an unholy union between Motorola's former and current top phone brands. The Droid Razr aims to be a reminder of what made the original Razr so cool (Look ma! It's thin!) while also cementing Motorola's role as a powerhouse Android manufacturer.

The company certainly managed to turn some heads with the Droid Razr, though that attention was short-lived given that the Galaxy Nexus was announced shortly after. But even if the phone didn’t have much of a chance to shine, it’s an important release for Motorola, which desperately needs to reclaim some of its former glory. Though if regulators allow Google’s $12.5 billion Motorola acquisition to go through, the company will be far less pressed to increase device sales immediately.

Galaxy S II

Samsung’s follow-up to last year’s wildly successful series of phones, the Galaxy S II was my dream Android device throughout most of 2011. After launching in Asia in April, Samsung managed to ship 10 million Galaxy S II phones by September, when they finally reach US shores. By that point though, Apple’s iPhone event was all the news, and we began hearing inklings about the Galaxy Nexus, which is also built by Samsung.

Had Samsung delivered the Galaxy S II to the US during September, it likely would have held the limelight for much longer. Now though, the Galaxy S II is just one of many great Android options.

Nokia Lumia 800

nokia-lumia-800While it may be shocking to see a Nokia phone in this list — especially when it’s not even available in the US yet — it’s hard to deny the significance of the Lumia 800 and its cheaper sibling the Lumia 710. They’re the first result of Nokia’s agreement to use Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, and while they may not trounce other devices when it comes to specs, they symbolize something more. As I wrote in my Lumia 800 un-review:

The fact that the Lumia 800 exists at all is a sign that Microsoft and Nokia's partnership is already paying off. It shows that Nokia is capable of humbling itself by wholeheartedly and quickly adopting Microsoft's platform and that Microsoft is fine with relaxing its typical restrictions on Windows Phones to make a truly unique product. (Microsoft is rumored to be paying Nokia over $1 billion to use Windows Phone.)

HTC Thunderbolt

Given the rapid rate of Android phone releases, it almost seems like the HTC Thunderbolt came out years ago. But no. It was first announced at CES last January, and it was particularly notable because it was the first phone to run on Verizon’s wicked fast 4G LTE network. After a slight delay, the Thunderbolt was released in March, and excitement about the phone reached a point where it was even outselling the iPhone 4 in some locations.

Once a slew of other LTE devices were released later in the year, the Thunderbolt was mostly forgotten. Therein lies the problem with so many killer Android devices being released — while you may be king of the hill for a few months, it won’t be long before you’re knocked off. That’s an issue Apple doesn’t have with the iPhone, since it only announces one new phone every year.

Looking to 2012

Aside from the iPhone 5, 2012 will be the year when we finally see what Nokia and Microsoft are made of. After lackluster sales since its launch last year, Microsoft needs to do everything it can to entice consumers towards Windows Phone. Nokia’s devices, including the Lumia 800 and anything else it announces next year, will be Microsoft’s key to success.

And then there’s RIM. Its BlackBerry 10 devices are expected late next year, and it’s the company’s last shot to make a meaningful impact in the mobile market. RIM will be relying on its BlackBerry 7 devices for most of 2012, but since that platform already felt outdated when it launched this summer, they likely won’t attract many new customers. If RIM fails to make a bang with BlackBerry 10, it will likely be forced to find a suitor by the end of next year.


Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Mystery mobile-social app Just.Me raises $2.7M

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 10:29 AM PST

See that? Someone just gave that $2.7 million dollars.

The video is a promotional vehicle for stealth startup Just.Me. Yes, we’re in the kind of bubble where “stealth” companies make promo videos for tech conferences (Le Web, in this case) and post them to YouTube.

Just.Me has notified its friends at the SEC that it’s raised $2.7 million. We’re sure it had more to do with the team and the app than the promo video, but check out that sweet Boba Fett helmet and try to tell us you wouldn’t pitch in a couple thou just to see where they’re going with that.

This is the company’s first round of institutional funding, and according to the filing, a grand total of 15 investors participated. TechCrunch speculates that Khosla Ventures and True Ventures were among the participating firms.

The Palo Alto-based startup was founded in 2011 by Internet oldtimer Keith Teare, who says on his LinkedIn profile that he’s founded several digital companies over the past three decades and has been working in the Valley since the dotcom boom.

Teare is joined in this venture by Jay Borenstein, who has been teaching computer science at Stanford for the past three and a half years and who also took part in the dotcom heyday in Silicon Valley.

According to the video posted above, the startup’s app is an all-in-one social and contact management tool designed to let users share pictures, video clips and other media and to communicate with anyone else in the user’s phone’s address book, “even if you’re the only person in the whole world who is using it.”

The app will be available soon, likely in the spring of 2012, for iOS and Android devices. You can sign up now for early access to the app.


Filed under: deals


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Verizon plans to charge a ‘convenience fee’ to pay your bill

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 10:16 AM PST

VerizonThe country’s largest wireless carrier, Verizon, will begin charging its subscribers a $2 “convenience fee” to pay their bills.

The only way to avoid this fee is to sign up for automatic payments through Verizon’s website, according to a report from Droid-Life. The new fee will go into effect beginning Jan. 15, 2012. Verizon’s actions follow the same policy Sprint implemented earlier this year to get more people signed up for automatic payments.

Verizon subscribers have every right to be nervous about setting up an automatic payment agreement — especially now that the company has shifted from unlimited data usage subscription plans to capped/metered data usage plans. Last year, the company admitted that it had overcharged 15 million customers for unnecessary data usage, netting the company an estimated $90 million in fees.

More than that, it’s ridiculous to consider paying a bill a “convenience”. I can understand why Verizon would want to charge people for paying bills over the phone, since it requires additional labor costs. However, this new policy implies that the act of allowing you to pay your bill when it’s due isn’t a convenience, it’s a necessary cost of doing business.

The reason Verizon and other carriers can get away with this type of practice has to do with the lack of competition in the wireless market. It wouldn’t work in other markets. Imagine if your local grocery store decided to implement a fee for walking in the door, using a shopping cart and ringing up all of your items. You’d go somewhere else.

I hope federal regulators are paying attention to this type of behavior when assessing Verizon’s recent deal with big cable companies to expand its wireless business.


Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Thiel Foundation: Silicon Valley needs to stop requiring college degrees

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 10:01 AM PST

Everybody knows that if you're smart and ambitious, you attend college. Why? Tradition. But if we're ambitious about creating a better twenty-first century, should we follow traditions from the nineteenth?

In the past hundred years, technology entrepreneurs have given us cars, jets, vaccines, cell phones and computers. The college industry, meanwhile, has made remarkable innovations in raising prices and offering novel forms of debt.

College tuition has gone up 500 percent in the last 30 years, helping all of us speed towards bankruptcy at an even faster rate than our health care system. But while medicine has made at least some quality improvements since the early 1980s, higher education is all price and no product.

If anything, actual learning at college campuses is in decline. Today's students report spending 75 percent of their time socializing and sleeping, leaving a scant six hours per day to attend class, study and work, according to a recent study of more than 2,300 undergrads. It's not clear why kids should have to pay to learn how to sleep and socialize. Most people get pretty good at doing both for free.

After two years in school, the same study found that 45 percent of college students showed no significant gains in learning, and after four years, 36 percent showed almost no change in skills. More students than ever are taking six years to graduate, but no matter how many years they haunt the campus, they're not learning anything new. Universities take in more money than ever before while failing to deliver results.

Even at schools that go out of their way to attract top talent, there's no guarantee that a student will actually be mentored by someone with a great mind. She's much more likely to sit in a classroom led by a low-paid teaching assistant while the famous professor plays academic politics to win government grants.

Employers make the problem worse by requiring bachelor's degrees when hiring, but this problem can be solved with the stroke of a pen. A degree means a job candidate went to college. But what happens in college stays in college. When a company needs specific skills, knowledge, or talents, it's better off asking for those directly. Requiring a BA guarantees nothing, and may keep out some of the most creative minds. If we replace our degree fixation with an emphasis on skills, colleges can stop sleepwalking through their stagnant four-year (and five-year and six-year) rituals and start focusing on dynamic ways to transmit skills and knowledge for actual careers.

Some employers will be slow to change, but it's already true that you don't need a degree to start a company, and you don't need a degree to create a new technology that will change the world for the better. Just ask Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or David Karp.

That's why we started the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship. The Thiel Fellows aren't going to college. Instead they're designing their own projects, getting guidance from our Silicon Valley mentoring network, and learning for themselves how to do research and start companies. And instead of charging six figures, we're giving each fellow $100,000 to rescue them from creativity-killing debt.

We're not fixated on academic achievement. Some of our fellows ace high school, and some never fit well with traditional schooling at all. We probe how they think, what motivates them, and whether they're truly driven to change the world. These qualities are much more powerful than a stellar GPA.

Encouraging people to skip college is controversial, but it's a controversy that's long overdue, and our nation's future is at stake. Employers need to get more creative about hiring new talent instead of using meaningless proxies like BAs. We challenge students everywhere to think carefully about the costs, benefits, and risks of all their options, including college. And we challenge teens who want to change the world to apply to join us as Thiel Fellows. The future can't wait forever.

James O'Neill runs the Thiel Foundation, which promotes science and liberty across the globe and opposes violence in all its forms. He co-founded and oversees the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship, which is accepting applications through Dec 31. He also serves as a managing director of Clarium. Previously, he was the principal associate deputy secretary of health and human services. He lives in Mill Valley with his wife, Lien, and their three children.


Filed under: Entrepreneur Corner, VentureBeat


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Samsung has already shipped more than 1 million Galaxy Note tablet-phone hybrids

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 09:34 AM PST

Samsung’s Galaxy Note hasn’t yet arrived in the U.S., but it’s seeing robust initial sales in other markets around the world.

While Samsung can’t seem to decide whether the “smart device” is a tablet, a phone or something in between, the company did confirm in a press release today that the Note has reached the 1 million milestone for units shipped globally.

Worldwide, Galaxy Note sales are rising in Europe and Asia. Samsung specifically mentioned France, Germany, Taiwan and Hong Kong as markets where the Note is turning out to be quite popular.

“The rapid global sales of Galaxy Note are notable since it is creating a new market for something between smartphone and tablet PC,” the company stated in a release.

And of course, Samsung is bracing itself for even bigger numbers when the smart-doohickey reaches the gadget-hungry shores of the United States. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a U.S. release date more specific than “sometime in 2012.”

While the company has had to bob and weave through a volley of Apple lawsuits over the alleged copycat design of its Galaxy lineup (Apple company says the phones and tablets bear a distinct Apple-y flavor, and some courts have agreed), the Note is unquestionably unique. It’s too huge to be an entirely pocket-friendly smartphone, but its capabilities go beyond those of a tablet. Also, it’s got a stylus — a utilitarian accessory perfect for smaller screens, but one that’s never really made it into the mainstream consumer gadget market.

If you’re confused as to what the Note is, this commercial won’t clear anything up for you:

“One million global shipping of Galaxy Note means it has well positioned itself as a market creator,” said an unnamed Samsung representative in a statement released today. ”Samsung will continuously strengthen its leadership in the global smartphone market as well as create new markets with innovative devices.”

Samsung sold more than 300 million smartphones in 2011 and expects that number to climb 15 percent in 2012.

While the Note ships with the Gingerbread release of Android, it will get an over-the-air update to Ice Cream Sandwich, Google’s one-size-fits-all OS for both tablets and phones, sometime during the next few weeks.


Filed under: mobile


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Posted by at