Waterloo-based Thalmic Labs is working on getting the MYO armband into the waiting arms of pre-order customers, which now number well above the 25,000 announced in March, Thalmic told me, making up over $4 million in total sales to date. MYO is a unique control device worn around the forearm, which measures muscle movement and electrical impulses and translates those into a control mechanism for various devies over Bluetooth.
This new video by Thalmic is a solid explainer for those curious about the engineering that goes into the MYO, and acts as a sort of general FAQ about how it works and what’s going on in terms of ongoing third-party development from the community MYO is trying to build. MYO’s official dev program is slated to come online in the coming months, and will include early access to hardware.
The new video is more about what’s going on within the company as Thalmic continues to build momentum ahead of its targeted ship date of sometime late in 2013, but the Sphero cameo is cool enough to make me slightly giddy. In case you didn’t know, the Sphero is the best dog toy ever created, and the MYO looks like it’ll make it even better in that regard.
Leap Motion’s gesture-based controller launch is less than a month away, but so far we’ve heard relatively little about app support, besides the fact that the company is working hard on filling out its Airspace app store. Now, Leap Motion and Google are announcing support for Google Earth for Leap Motion tech, which will be built-in to the desktop Google Earth app for Windows, Mac and Linux as of version 7.1 (out today).
That’s a good initial user pool for Leap Motion, since Google Earth has been downloaded by over 1 billion people according to Google’s stats. The endorsement by Google is crucial because of the company’s stature, and the fact that it builds a whole lot of software, including the Chrome browser, and because it gives potential Leap Motion owners a very tangible, natural and commonplace app to test out Leap Motion’s utility with.
And we won’t have to wait until mid-May to find out how effective it is – 10,000 developers arleady have access to Leap Motion Controller hardware as it is. Leap motion is looking for devs to try it out and submit their own YouTube videos of the experience, by flagging the posts with #LeapInto. Those will go into a playlist the company will share to show off its tech.
For those startups in newer areas like robotics, artificial intelligence and augmented reality who complain that VCs are too focused on consumer internet companies, help is at hand: Genesis Angels is a new VC that has raised a fund of around $100 million, with a large chunk coming from co-founder and serial investor and Kazakh petrochemical mogul Kenges Rakishev, which it plans to use for early stage investments in emerging areas like these and others. Based in Israel, but looking for startups worldwide, Genesis launched just this week, naming ex-Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert as its chairman.
Moshe Hogeg, the other co-founder behind Genesis Angels (and founder and CEO of mobile video/photo startup Mobli, pictured here with Rakishev, left, and Olmert, center), says that the idea for Genesis came out of his and Rakishev’s observation that while the market for consumer internet services is saturated with a lot of me-too companies, there is a flourishing world of R&D in areas like robots and artificial intelligence that is not getting enough attention. It’s mostly giant tech companies like Google and Microsoft and academic institutions that are putting money into the very cutting edge of technology.
(Indeed, it was just yesterday, during Google’s earnings call, that CEO Larry Page talked about the “big bets” that Google wants to make on new technology. Google is not afraid to make big investments, he said, because the fear is that if it doesn’t it may miss out on the next big thing.)
The problem with this is that it leaves little room for startups. And although more recent developments like Kickstarter and Indigogo are creating a new groundswell of interest and financial support for some of these projets, there are yet others that will not want that kind of public profile for what they’re working on.
Hogeg describes Genesis’ role as something between the concept stage and when a VC may typically become interested in a company working on cutting-edge technology. “You can send the most brilliant scientist to a VC, but often it might take that scientist and his startup five years to create their products,” he explained in an interview. “VCs will say, ‘No problem, come back in four years.’ Genesis will invest in those companies in the meantime.” Typical investments will be in the range of $200,000 and $2 million.
If you visit Genesis Angels’ site, you will see that it already lists a number of companies in its portfolio, including Hogeg’s. These are listed, he says, because they are some of the investments Rakishev himself has made. Genesis, he notes, is still raising money for its first fund, with the total in play currently close to $100 million. Among those contributing to the fund are merchant bank Forbes & Manhattan, as well as private individuals who are well-known in the space of angel investments specifically around areas like hardware and new technology. The first three investments that are being made out of the new fund, Hogeg says, will be coming out shortly.
Ehud Olmert’s appointment as chairman is about laying the groundwork for the kind of assistance that Genesis Angels will be able to offer its portfolio companies, Hogeg says.
“He is a big believer in technology. Irasel invested the most in this area when he was still prime minister,” he notes. The relatively small country currently has some 3,000 tech companies, according to this report from the AP on the launch of the new VC.
Olmert took office in 2006 but left in 2009 under a corruption scandal cloud that he is still fighting. But that, apparently, has not affected his wider influence. “Mr Olmert is a very powerful man and he can use his contacts to help us and our companies, for example in partnering and joint ventures. He can open any door in the world.”
There have been other VC funds focused on these emerging areas. Dmitry Grishin, for example, the CEO of Mail.ru and founder of Grishin Robotics, last year started a $25 million fund dedicated to investing in other robotics companies (examples of his investments here, here and here).
It may be that Genesis teams up with people like this to cooperate on investments. “He shares a vision with us about this space,” says Hogeg.
Immigration reform is a huge issue in Silicon Valley (and the rest of the country) right now, and we’ve seen a bevy of realistic proposals for dealing with a system that many describe as “broken.” But Blueseed, a group of entrepreneurs aiming to build a floating city off the coast of San Francisco to house foreign tech workers who can’t obtain visas, is definitely the wildest. The premise of the 2-year-old Mike Maples-backed startup is simple: give foreign workers a place to live that’s close enough to commute a few times a week on a business tourism visa, but far enough that they don’t need work visas. More »
Jolla, the Finnish startup comprised of ex-Nokians who left to keep the MeeGo fire burning, has confirmed it will be showing off its first handset next month, and kicking off a “pre-sales” campaign to allow fans to register to buy the phone. Although Jolla has demoed its Sailfish UI in some detail before, it has generally been tight-lipped about its plans for the device’s hardware design — so next month will mean another big reveal.
Jolla had previously pegged the second half of this year for its debut device launch. Today it has confirmed to TechCrunch that this launch timeframe is not changing, despite its intention to show the phone next month. It provided the following emailed statement confirming the pre-sales campaign and noting that the shipping timeframe remains the same:
Jolla will showcase its first device in May. The exact timing of the introduction will be announced later. A pre-sales campaign is expected to start after mid-May. The campaign is currently being planned and further details will be available at the time of the product introduction. The sales start of the first Jolla device will take place during the second half of 2013 as earlier announced.
The pre-sales campaign was reported earlier in Finnish publication digitoday, which ran an interview with Jolla chairman Antti Saarnio. According to the interview (translated from the Finnish by Google translate), the pre-sales campaign will be a “Kickstarter-style” crowdfunding campaign, whereby early backers can expect to get a device with a few special extras compared to buyers who pile in later.
Jolla told TechCrunch via Twitter that the pre-sales campaign is not a crowdfunding campaign to fund the initial production run, rather “pre-sales is for the fans to sign up their interest and make sure they get the device first”. However the distinction between a pre-sales campaign for fans and a crowdfunding campaign to fund production is a minimal one, and mostly a difference of emphasis.
In its interview with digitoday, Saarnio apparently talks about taking “advance payments” and “pre-payments” from fans who register to buy the device — payments that “will not be so great as to constitute a threshold for the fans” but will be tiered, allowing them to get a more “tailored” phone, the more they pay.
Jolla has not, however, confirmed this advanced payment detail separately to TechCrunch. Its statement suggests it is still finalising plans for the pre-sales campaign. Update: Jolla has now confirmed via Twitter that it will be taking payments ahead of the phone’s launch from fans who intend to buy it. “Yes, there will be various options to show the support and get something in return. Stay tuned for the announcement in May,” it said.
The pre-sales campaign is clearly part of Jolla’s marketing and community-building efforts to spread the word about Sailfish and build momentum behind it. But taking payments ahead of production also makes sense for a startup with limited resources to build hardware and one that is competing in such as fiercely competitive space, against smartphone makers with such huge resources.
Unless you’re reading this while using an inhaler, this fact may surprise you: According to the CDC, 26 million Americans currently have the chronic respiratory disease we know as asthma. Not only that, but the CDC tells us that the disease costs the U.S. $3,300 per person annually, and medical expenses associated with asthma have increased to about $56 billion (thanks to hospitalizations, emergency room visits and missed work), while over 10 percent of insured Americans are unable to afford their prescription medicines.
Asthmapolis launched in 2010 to help find a solution by leveraging the advances in sensor technology (and the reduced costs of producing said sensors) and mobile data monitoring to help people manage their asthma more effectively, in turn reducing the costs both for those suffering from asthma and for the U.S. healthcare system itself. And, today, the Wisconsin-based startup has announced that it has raised $5 million in Series A financing from The Social+Capital Partnership to build out a comprehensive solution and support system for those with the chronic respiratory disease.
Asthmapolis is one of a new generation of digital health startups attempting to hack the old software, devices and care systems that continue to prevail in today’s healthcare landscape. We recently wrote about Intersect ENT, for example, which is hacking stents (yes, stents) to help doctors more effectively treat the 31 million-plus people suffering from sinusitis.
Meanwhile, Glooko, Omada Health and a number of other startups are bringing mobile and digital technology to those with diabetes to help them manage the condition and, in Omada’s case, hopefully even prevent it.
Asthmapolis, on the other hand, is on a mission to hack your inhaler. The startup has designed snap-on, Bluetooth-enabled sensors that track how often people are using their inhalers (along with location and time-of-day), along with analytics and mobile apps for iOS and Android to help them visualize and understand their triggers and trends while receiving personalized feedback.
In turn, the data collected by the solution enables doctors to identify patients who are risk or need more help controlling its symptoms. This allows them to potentially prevent attacks before they happen, saving them the cost of hospitalization or a trip to the emergency room.
In fact, Asthmapolis’ early studies found that this access to realtime data was able to reduce the number of people with uncontrolled asthma (or those not regularly using inhalers) by 50 percent. Without realtime data and the ability to collect information on the context and situations in which people develop symptoms, doctors are groping around in the dark and waiting for attacks before they analyze context and begin treatment.
Many startups are beginning to recognize the opportunity both to create a sustainable businesses and affect real change by positioning themselves at the intersection of growing trends like mobile devices and mobile health initiatives, personalized medicine, big data and sensors. Asthmapolis co-founder and CEO David Van Sickle thinks that the startup can sit at that intersection, while differentiating from competitors by offering both a hardware and software solution.
Not only that, but Asthmapolis received approval from the FDA in July to market its asthma-tracking device and software solution to consumers, which puts it on a very short list. In turn, its software platform, which is available both in English and Spanish, allows users to keep a digital log on their use of medications, while receiving personalized feedback — both designed to improve their ability to successfully manage the disease.
In the big picture, the startup also wants to help public health institutions better evaluate the efficacy of their interventions and treatments and unlock insight into how asthma works and where it originates. And that’s where Asthmapolis is monetizing: By selling its hardware and software solution to payers and health plan providers. With more effective treatment solutions, insurance providers and health plans can save between $4,000 to $6,000 in annual healthcare costs — and, naturally, that’s money in the bank.
The company has formed a number of partnerships in the last year in this regard, which include programs with payers like Amerigroup Florida/WellPoint and providers like Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in New York and Dignity Health in California. Going forward, the startup will look to continue expanding its relationships with providers and payers, along with initiatives in retail pharmacy and the public sector.
“Asthmapolis is in a unique position in healthcare IT,” explains Social+Capital General Partner Ted Maidenberg, “where its technology can easily integrate with existing behaviors (like using your inhaler), while adding a huge amount of data (time, location, activity) that provides a much smarter package compared to your over-the-counter inhaler.”
Happy April First, errybody! Yes, that’s right, we’ve reached that special, inimitable time of year. April Fools Day 2013. At TechCrunch, we have a long history of taking April Fools seriously. Deadly, deadly seriously. So, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to create a master list (which will be updated throughout the day) with the best tomfoolery, pranks, WTFs and LOLs the Internet and the tech industry have to offer.
All night and all day, whatever it takes. If a company close to you happens to break out its clown shoes in what can only be an eye-rolling effort at being funny (really, the one time of year we indulge terrible nerd jokes publicly), please alert us in the comment section. And, again, thank you for your help in advance.
We’ve tried to separate the good from the bad and the ugly — and highlight the stuff that’s actually funny — sometimes with success, sometimes not.
So here they are.
(And, again, for our annual disclaimer: If you’re one of those folks who finds April Fools stressful because you’re constantly subject to punkings courtesy of your co-workers, rest assured that we at TechCrunch would never do that to you. Never. Never ever.)
The Best:
Google Nose
You have to give Google props. They always take April Fools Day pretty seriously, and cats are usually involved. But this year Google is poking fun of its Glass Project with some olfactory goodness. Google Nose. Smells galore. You’ve probably been wondering what Google does with all that information that it tirelessly indexes for its search engine, combing the Web with Page Rank to serve you moderately usable results. Well, it’s also been collecting scents.
Now, as Greg reports, instead of paying hundreds or thousands for its newest piece of sexy hardware, Google is now letting you type your favorite scent into its search engine, tap the “smell button” and inhale to your hearts content. Just try not to sneeze on your monitor.
YouTube? More like NOTube, amirite?
That’s right. You heard it here first. Jordan broke the news Google has decided to shut down YouTube. After eight years, the company revealed that the whole thing has actually been an American Idol-like competition. Thank god, because for those of us that were taught that life is a competition — no enjoyment necessary — well, we’ve been a little suspicious of YouTube.
But the company has finally revealed that the competition that we know as YouTube is coming to a close, and that an expert panel of judges — YouTube celebrities themselves — will choose the winners. But don’t expect the winners to be announced any time soon. The judges will spend the next decade sifting through YouTube videos to choose said winners. Tomorrow, at midnight, the site will shut down and all content will be deleted. When it reopens in 2023, the only remaining video will be the winner. Frankly, it all makes perfect sense.
The hits just keep coming for The Googs. Next stop on the April Fools Google Train? “Gmail Blue.” That should explain itself, but just in case, it took Google “six years to develop the technology” to turn Gmail blue. Google turns nine tomorrow, and it might as well just go for it.
A poke at Facebook? Who’s to say?
You Got Vowels? Give Twitter Money.
Twitter has announced Twttr. Who needs vowels, am I right? Not you. Or Twitter. Twitter’s new “two-tiered” service includes a free portion called “Twttr” where each tweet (or “twt”) shall contain nary-a-vowel. But just in case that has you up in arms, you can have your stinkin’ vowels back, but it will cost you $5/month.
Pretty minimal price to pay for the fundamental building blocks of, you know, the English language and all. But because Twitter is ever-the-beneficent social network, it will offer the “sometimes Y” free of charge. Well, isn’t that precious? Oh, and thankfully URL vowels are free. Twitter’s not into the whole “hidden fees” thing, you understand. It’s almost like that April Fools joke where Facebook tried to make you pay $1 to message strangers. Oh wait, that actually happened.
It seems like an angry intern has wiggled his way into Netflix’s genre system, with all sorts of new genres popping up for the first time today.
Other family favorites include “Movies That Are In English But Still Require Subtitles”, “Movies With Epic Nicolas Cage Meltdowns”, and my favorite, “Surreal Ballets Based on a William Shatner Album” which just lists William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet 50 times.
The White House
This is the best April Fools of all. Maybe all time.
Square + Box = ?
What do you get when you add a square to a box?
WRONG.
And if you said, four dimensions, a hypercube, cubity-cube, a “Squa-ox” or a “Buh-square” you were especially wrong — and may god have mercy on your soul.
No, what you actually get is a Polyhedron. [Memorize that: Because it will be a question on technical interviews at both Square and Box.] That’s right. Today, @levie and @jack two random dudes of the evil masterminds behind Box and Square have decided to merge their companies into one strangely-shaped geometric phenomenon known as a Polyhedron.
As the announcement explains, drawing on ancient and long-forgotten texts, only the greatest of Business Gurus understand the deep interplay between Shapes and Startups:
Sometimes companies merge because of strategic fit, culture, and shared vision. And while we think these are certainly compelling reasons to join forces, sometimes the real strategic value is in similar names.
Om. Let the wisdom wash over you, small business owners and enterprise CIOs. Building a lasting business is all about understanding the interplay of shapes within free markets. Look it up. So, clearly, we can expect great things from Polyhedron.
The blog post continues:
This is just the beginning. In the future, we will look to aggressively roll up other shape-inclined companies. And while we’re biased towards right angles, that will not limit our ambitions.
After all, simplicity isn’t just about focus. It’s about disrupting traditional ways of thinking about all the shapes around us, and how these shapes can fit together.
Following Samsung’s lead, Jack and I will be looking for a third co-CEO, given that triangles are the optimal executive shape. Polyhedron will be located in Union Square in San Francisco.
To all aspiring founders out there, take the above nugget of wisdom, put it next to your ear and let it whisper truth into your brain. Yes, the true power of leadership and management is derived from the almighty love triangle. Let it be known. Amen.
A Brief History Of Uber Time
Today, Uber has released the first true, authorized history of how it came to be. In a chronology that reaches back through the ages, the Uber Elders teach us that the concept that has defined a generation of on-demand luxury car rides first landed in America in the year of our Lord, 1849. It was at this point that: “Jeremiah T. Uber and his three sons arrive in the port of San Francisco from Panama. They open Uber & Sons, a modest dry goods store catering to gold miners and prospectors. With his venture capital funding running low, Jeremiah pivots the business into providing on-demand horse-drawn carriages.”
But hard times were ahead, thanks to the Great Depression:
1929: The Great Depression nearly sinks Uber’s business when a stock market crash and 25% unemployment severely curtails public desire for private chauffeurs.
A desperate foray into on-demand food delivery backfires when Uber is criticized for using dynamic pricing to charge more for turkey on Thanksgiving.
Glass-bottomed boats are so last year. That’s why Virgin is stepping it up a notch with the world’s first-ever glass-bottomed plane. Richard Branson proves himself to be a peerless innovator yet again:
We hope to trial the glass bottom technology with other Virgin airlines in time and have asked other Virgin companies to support this innovative trial and launch our new domestic Scottish route. This really is a team effort from all corners of Virgin.
Speechless.
Sony For Pets
Sony is releasing a new “Animalia” line of products for your tech product-starved pets. And they’re really “stoked” about it. As are your pets, no doubt. Because your hamsters need to test out those Beats headphones you bought them for Christmas.
According to Sony:
The introductory line-up includes Sony-branded products targeted at owners with dogs, cats and hamsters, with additional devices and networked services slated for release later this year. Check out this video to learn all about our new K9 4K TV, M3-OW KittyCans, and In-Cage Speakers.
ThinkGeek
ThinkGeek has a whole new line of April Fools products that are fun for the whole family. Like this “Eye Of Sauron Desk Lamp.” My apologies if your order doesn’t go through. I’ve already bought 50 of them.
Archeological analysis has confirmed that our Google Maps Street View team has indeed found one of history’s long lost relics: a treasure map belonging to the infamous pirate, William “Captain” Kidd.
The map was found on a recent expedition in the Indian Ocean, as part of a deep-water dive to expand our underwater Street View collection. Captain Kidd was rumored to have buried his treasure around the world, and tales of a long-lost treasure map have lingered for generations.
Google+ Photos And +Emotion
Google+ now lets you add real emotions to your photos. This would be hilarious if 25 startups weren’t currently working on/pitching this idea — outside of Google+. Because the best Google+ April Fools joke is, really, well, Google+.
Google Analytics
Some users of Google Analytics may begin noticing that they have a few new international visitors checking out their sites. I’m just glad Google didn’t say that they were “totally out of this world.” Google is now including active visitors from the International Space Station, Control Room, who clearly have nothing better to do than to check out your WordPress blog. Here’s Carl to explain.
Is your house looking a bit tired and shabby? Want to make your narky step-aunt jealous? Trying to keep up with the Joneses but don’t have the money to complete an expensive reno?
Now you can give your house a lick of fresh paint for free on Street View with Google SCHMICK (Simple Complete House Makeover Internet Conversion Kit). Forgot to mow the nature strip? Deck it out with some fresh buffalo grass. Front steps falling down? Swap them out for doric columns and a pergola. Graffiti on the front fence? Cover it with so many palm trees people will think they’re on the Vegas strip.
Google’s Levity Algorithm
For your Google Apps pleasures:
Toshiba Gets A Console
That’s right. Today, Toshiba is announcing its first-ever gaming console: The Shibasphere. Look out, every gaming console ever made, past, present or future. The Shibasphere is here.
The Shibasphere features unprecedented computing power, a completely controller-free interface, and Logical Aggression Monitoring that deploys positive therapeutics to prevent emotionally devastating rage-quits. Available accessories include the Shibadome, Shibasuit and Shibatote that enhance the sound, motion detection and portability of the console, and also features:
12 core 3.5 Ghz Processors 8192 MB GDDR5 RAM Graphics Card 809.3b Infrared Motion Detection 1080p Full HD 7.1 Channel Surround Sound 5 Stereo Mini Jacks 8 HDMI Ports AC Power
SoundCloud’s Dropometer
Sometimes you just don’t know when “the drop” is going to hit in a song. Not sure what I’m talking about? If you’ve ever seen a Harlem Shake video, it’s that very short, euphoric moment where the music drops out for a second and suddenly everyone is dancing/humping something. (See a notable example from my alma mater here.) Well, now, using its patent-pending algorithm, SoundCloud will tell you when that “unpredictable and surprising moment” is going to happen, via The Dropometer:
… The Dropometer is designed to help you prepare yourself for the big moment, whether that means getting in the mental space where you can really break it down, or fixing yourself a fortifying snack.
While we first innovated the Dropometer around dubstep, we’ve identified broad utility for this new functionality across all genres. Look to the Dropometer to find out when to expect a key crescendo in a 17th-century symphony or the emotional climax in an episode of This American Life.
Love with Food Gon’ Get You High
Love With Food is announcing a new product line called Love With WEED — a monthly subscription that delivers a new high every month. For every box sent, we’ll plant a cannabis shrub along CA Route 1. It’s like Tom’s, but greener. Here it is.
Sphero PeaceKeeper
Robotics takes a step forward today with “Sphero — Peacekeeper Edition.” The robotics maker is now offering a super-sized version of Sphero that you can control from your smartphone or tablet. And cats love it. It measures 3-feet in diameter, weighs over 150 pounds but is totally fun and lightweight and agile. The future is now, people. GoSphero.
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon has put together a big list of things you can to do prank your colleagues, family members and loved ones. See it here.
RunKeeper
The next revolution in running is here. Now. And it’s really big.
Despite the best efforts of my administration, prolonged partisan debates in Congress are preventing us from a solution to our mounting national debt. Instead of bickering over taxes, we’re taking a new approach: asking everyday Americans to chip in so we can pay off our debt once and for all.
With your help, it’s time to act. HELP PAY OFF our NATIONAL DEBT
Samsung’s Eco Trees
Really hilarious, Samsung: “Samsung Electronics announced Eco Trees, a smart, eco-friendly air purifier that runs on solar energy.” Get it? Chlorophyll? More like Bore-ophyll. Here are all of their fresh new Eco Tree products.
We are delighted to announce a significant new extension to Nokia’s product offering with the Nokia 5AM-TH1N6 Constellation, a touch-screen microwave oven. The Constellation sets itself apart with a superfast, water-cooled 8-core high-voltage transformer, which brings a combined performance of 5,000 watts to end-users, letting them heat up turnkey meal solutions within seconds. ‘Nokia has a proven track record and extensive IPR in working with microwave radios, so for us this was a logical next step. We can attack our competition in their core business,’ says Olavi Huhtikuu, Nokia’s director of household innovation.
‘That’s why we developed the highly innovative 5AM-TH1N6 Constellation, which will revolutionize everything from single households to canteen kitchens.’
The new Nokia 5AM-TH1N6 has even more innovative features. The device comes with the latest eye-tracking technology, which stops the food from rotating when you look at it, and it automatically adjusts the temperature depending on how hungry you look.
BMW Gets Into Strollers
With a royal baby due this summer, we are proud to announce the launch of our limited edition BMW P.R.A.M. (Postnatal Royal Auto Mobile). Available in Princess Pink or Royal Blue, this soft-top convertible has been designed using our EfficientDynamics technology. With two or four-wheel-drive, it rides as smoothly on a polo field as it does down The Mall and comes with air conditioning and built-in extendable flagpoles as standard. For those who are ‘too posh to push’ this masterpiece of motherhood even comes fitted with N.A.P.P.I.E. (Nanny-Assisting Petrol-Powered Injection Engine).
Roku Streaming Shades
You like streaming media? Do you like cool shades? Well, my friend, Roku has just the thing for you. Today, the company is announcing its so-called “Roku Streaming Shades,” the first “wearable Roku player.” Isn’t that essentially the idea behind Google Glass, you ask? You quiet down there, peanut gallery.
The company says that it designed its Roku Streaming Shades were designed with on-the-move TV watcher in mind: “Comfortable, silicone nose pads keep the lightweight frame securely in place on even the smallest-featured of faces. Our industrial designers worked side-by-side with fashion designers to create a frame that looks smart wherever you want to watch a movie secretly, whether it’s a dull work presentation or your child’s piano recital … Simple voice commands put you in control of Roku Streaming Shades.”
Oh, there’s more:
Roku Streaming Shades will support over 100 Roku channels at launch, with more to be added. Video is the star. Our research shows that users don’t want to use head-mounted displays to send text messages to people 10 feet away, learn the length of the Brooklyn Bridge or creep friends out by live casting a party. They want to veg out to marathon sessions of Homeland.
Two models of Roku Streaming Shades will be available:
Roku Streaming Shades – Plastic frames in tortoise shell, mulberry or onyx. Up to 720p video. 801.11 a/b/g/n. Bluetooth 4.0. Roku Streaming Shades XS – Aluminum frames in ultramarine, persimmon, cornsilk or dust storm. Up to 1080p video. 801.11 a/b/g/n (801.11n in 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz. GSM/EDGE, LTE connections (data plan $50/month for 50GB from to-be-announced wireless carrier). Bluetooth 4.0. Both models support voice commands via a built-in microphone and audio output with speakers and a stereo headphone mini-jack. A mini bluetooth Roku remote makes it simple to skip songs on Pandora when you don’t want to appear to be talking to yourself. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides up to 10 hours of video streaming bliss.
Microsoft’s Sad Bing Entry
Google has some 100 April Fools jokes, and here’s Microsoft/Bing’s. How many managers do you think this had to go through before finally getting approved?
Every day on the Bing homepage, we strive to bring you a picture of the world that you’ve never seen before. Just a single image a day, but always something memorable and beautiful. But for all the variety we’ve explored through the thousands of images we’ve showcased on our homepage since 2009, there are still internet searchers for whom full motion videos of South Pacific beaches, images of exploding geysers or 3-D underwater scenes are just too engaging. Indeed we’ve been told many people come to Bing to find the name of the movie with tom cruise and a unicorn only to get lost for days clicking around the homepage image.
So we ran some numbers on this unique online behavior, did some ethnographic research to study habits and tastes; and then took a shot at redesigning Bing’s homepage to discourage this behavior of exploration and discovery. So today we’re running a special test, where if you visit bing.com and enter a certain telltale query, you’ll get something a little more bland. We decided to go back to basics, to the dawn of the Internet, to reimagine Bing with more of a 1997, dial-up sensibility in mind. We may see some uptick in our numbers based on this test, but the main goal here is just to learn more about how our world would look if we hadn’t evolved.
We probably won’t be going in this direction long-term, but we’re always interested in your thoughts, so please let us know what you think by hitting us @bing and use #bingredo if you’re feeling fancy.
– Michael Kroll, Principal UX Manager, Bing
Bonobos: The Girlfriend Jean
Bonobos, the men’s luxury apparel company, has come out with a new line today called “The Girlfriend Jean,” which purports to take everything a “woman looks for in jeans, and stitches it together in a way men can understand. Because sometimes a guy’s favorite pair of jeans aren’t guy jeans at all.” Confusing, we know, but your girlfriend’s gonna love it.
AnyRoad
Travel startup AnyRoad has a Kim Jong Il tour for $25 million Japanese yen. Just so you know. The image below makes it worth it.
Juniper
Juniper, “a startup that is providing monthly deliveries of items that a huge segment of the population absolutely needs on a monthly basis: Tampons and sanitary napkins,” according to Colleen’s recent coverage, doesn’t want to leave guys out of the equation.
Today, it’s releasing a limited time “Man Pack” that has all that many stuff that you need to be a man. No, not Old Spice, but industrial-grade lighters, motor oil, beard trimmers and presumably other stuff to cut, maul or stab things. Find it here.
Mixpanel
Mixpanel, the realtime web analytics platform, is announcing today that it has identified a little market opportunity. A little market opportunity called Big Data. Of course, Mixpanel hasn’t been the only one to get excited about Big Data. So, three years after graduating from YC, Mixpanel is pivoting. Pivoting big time, shifting its focus from “Big Data to Bigger Data.” Yep, that’s right. You heard it here first.
Simple’s CA$H$IMPLE
Online banking service, Simple, has a lot of cash just lying around. You know how it is. C.R.E.A.T. So, the startup created a new tool that lets you take a picture of your cash, and presto, instantly deposit that cash into your account. Technology! What do they call this thing of beauty? Why, CA$H$IMPLE, of course.
Here’s their explanation:
Until now, Simple customers had to turn cash into money orders, and then deposit using Photo Check Deposit. As one very clever Twitter follower of ours has noted, that’s not very Simple! We agree, and that’s why today, we’re thrilled to announce CA$H$IMPLE!
CA$H$IMPLE is the perfect way to keep your cash in order. Just like all the tools we’ve built, CA$H$IMPLE has the beauty and simplicity of use you’ve come to expect from our team. It works like this: just stack your cash (US Dollars only, Bitcoin support is in beta) in denomination from lowest to highest, then tap “Deposit Cash” on your Simple Activity screen. From there, enter the amount, snap a photo, and boom! Cash in your account. Immediately!
We know you’ll love how absolutely effortless it is to fund your account in this way
Social media has proven to be more than just a trend or a fad; even regulated industries like banks and government agencies are establishing social strategies to help them join the online conversation.
Executives crave a secure way to roll out a social media plan that benefits both the company and its customers. In response to demand for a simpler, more robust security solution, HootSuite has created a new product that is already flying off the shelves:
TripAdvisor/SniqueAway
TripAdvisor and SniqueAway are offering you a grandiose little vacation to Aunt Gerdie’s house. It’s just around the corner. Here’s the description:
One step through the squeaky screen door and you’ll know why you came to Aunt Gertie’s House: character. A screen-porch dining area allows for suburban views of Mr. Wilson’s hourly leaf-blowing demonstration, while sampling freezer-to-table fare is perfect for practicing that “Mmm, I swear it’s good” face. An outdoor above-ground pool makes enjoying the unkempt landscaping that much easier. And when it’s time to retire (like most of the permanent residents), “guest rooms” with Twin beds that “aren’t that bad” make anyone wonder how the term “bed” can be used so loosely.
True + Co’s Remote Control Bra
Online bra depot, True + Company, has released a new app today that allows you to “tap a button on your iPhone to remote control your cleavage.” Yes, it’s a Bluetooth-enabled bra “with built-in pump technology.” The “Max” setting is perfect for first dates, while “Light” allows you to take it down a notch for those more professional contexts. Check it out here.
At least once per decade (I’ve been at this evangelism thing for a long time), a potential customer will ask me1 if we have ever thought of building a cloud of mainframe computers. They recognize the benefits of cloud computing, but are reluctant to give up their Job Control Language, their decks of punched cards, their flowchart templates, and the incredible sense of job security that comes along with being the world’s oldest COBOL programmer.
In order to address this customer segment, we are launching our new Punched Card Cloud, or PC2 for short.
Beginning this spring, Seamless will launch “Deluxe Delivery” to give customers the ability to select who will deliver their food. Don’t be surprised when a supermodel gently knocks on the door, whispering, “Your food is here.” And when they say “supermodel,” they really mean …
Revision3
In the wake of G4′s recent rebranding as Esquire, Revision3 was faced with a difficult question: What is the future of media today? We’re happy to announce that the future of media today is here NOW! And it’s magazines! That’s right! Rev3 is rebranding itself as magazines. And not just any magazines… ALL MAGAZINES! Say goodbye to tech reviews, video game analysis and science news. And say hello to the paper cut free online magazine experience!
Instacart Puppies
Unlimited puppies delivered, on-demand to your doorstep? Even the most heartless and jaded among us have to enjoy that idea. Well, thanks to Instacart, you just got puppies.
A New Look For Highlight
Today, Highlight is looking to address what is clearly the most controversial part of its business: That blurry logo. In a blog post today, Highlight shared the latest incarnation of its notorious logo.
The company explains:
…You probably know that the Highlight logo is a controversial piece of design. Many designers praise it and debate its merits on Quora, while others protest its existence through comments on blog posts, subtle URLs and tool tips, and nuanced opinion pieces. It’s like visual cilantro: You either love it or it feels like soap in your eyes.
In an effort to keep the brand fresh, we’ve been hard at work on a visual redesign of the logo that we are thrilled to share with you today:
Find an elucidation of the particulars and deep design theory that went into the production of this whizbang new logo here.
Today, Hulu is announcing that it is releasing a new slate of classic TV shows, and, just in case you thought Netflix or Amazon might already be on top of it, this content is totally exclusive. Starting today, you’ll be able to binge on every episode from any season of sci-fi cult classic “Inspector Spacetime,” uber-bloody children’s series “The Itchy & Scratchy Show,” compulsively watchable “MILF Island,” and more.
According to Hulu, it also has another top-billing surprise:
In an effort to bolster our movie line-up, we’re also proud to bring you “The Rural Juror,” winner of multiple awards including “Most Unpronounceable Film” at the Cannes Film Festival and “The Daytona High School Movie Night Participation Award.”
Coursera Gets A New Course
Coursera is really stepping up its game today. Some have mocked MOOCs and online education as trivial, a passing fancy and have said that they’re “of low quality.” Well, Coursera wants to show you what’s what with the newest addition to its roster of free, online courses: Underwater Basketweaving. Yep, you haven’t lived until you’ve tried to weave wicker in the deep end during public swim.
Birchbox Gets All Meta
At long last, there’s a Birchbox for boxes. That’s right. A box of boxes. Box-ception, if you will.
Queueing Theory Lets Any App Offer A Mailbox-Like Reservation System (Even If It’s Just For Building Buzz) — This was a great one. In this post, Sarah shows that she is well-skilled in the Art of Parody. Just to break it down for you … True: This startup isn’t real, and, yes, about 200 people signed up for the beta. Possibly True: We will be teaching a class called “Sarcasm, Satire And You” for anyone audacious enough to sign up. Also, Sarah may or may not take this business idea to VCs to see if she can prove/disprove the Series A Crunch. False: This startup is real.
Facebook In Talks To Buy Bang With Friends — Even if this isn’t exactly true, I wouldn’t be surprised if Zuck/Facebook churns out a clone in the next month or so. Hey, they did it for Snapchat, and that’s just a sext-ing app, right?
Another established hardware startup is turning to Kickstarter to help fund its next wares. This time it’s the turn of Click & Grow, maker of the smart garden that lets you grow a plant indoors with little or no intervention. After selling over 50,000 units of its first device, the Palo Alto, U.S. registered company with an R&D lab in Estonia, is launching a crowdfunding campaign to get its second generation product — the Smart Herb Garden — off the ground.
Hoping to raise a minimum of $75,000, the money will be used to turn a functioning prototype into something production-ready, with a shipping date loosely pegged for September. The Smart Herb Garden builds on Click & Grow’s first product, but with several improvements following feedback from customers; namely that people want to grow more than one plant at a time and that the amount of natural light available in a person’s home is often not enough for healthy plant growth. The new improved version features a built-in LED light, as well as a change in the plant pot part of the design to make it easy to grow three different plants simultaneously, with the same ‘smart’ technology taking care of the heavy lifting. It also plugs into a power socket rather than relying on four AA batteries, while the new design negates the need for a pump or sensor.
The aim of Click & Grow’s smart garden system is to automatically provide the correct water and nutrient balance needed for indoor plants to grow. The company claims that 3 years of R&D has gone into the Smart Herb Garden, of which the core technology is the growth medium, a nanotech material engineered to “supply plant roots with the right amount of oxygen, water and nutrients at any time”. This is supported by the newly incorporated LED light. In practice, you simply insert the supplied cartridges and fill the reservoir with water. Then power the thing on and — bingo — in a matter of weeks you should see green shoots of awesomeness. If plants are your thing, of course.
“Very few can afford to launch a new product and fail”
The Smart Herb Garden starter kit will come with cartridges for basil, thyme and lemon balm. Refills will be available for various herbs, lettuce, mini tomato, chili pepper, and even strawberries, apparently.
Once it finally reaches market, the Smart Herb Garden is expected to retail for $79 but Kickstarter backers can bag it for $39 for a white model, or at the top tier, $1,000 for a “next generation interactive model”, though the latter is short on details.
As for why a VC-funded startup would choose to go down the crowdfunding route — Click & Grow has raised over €1.5 million from backers WNB and Primo Holding — founder Mattias Lepp tells TechCrunch that “for makers of novel hardware, Kickstarter is the best place to sense check your ideas before you start assembly lines”.
It’s hoped Kickstarter will enable the company to validate the market for its new product and get feedback on prices and colour options, dimensions, and the plants that people want to grow. “So I’d say it’s first and foremost a market insights platform,” he says. “And of course, the money also helps at our stage.”
For hardware companies like Click & Grow who have already had some success and raised funding, it’s not that they can’t afford to start manufacturing a new product, it’s that “very few can afford to launch a new product and fail”, says Lepp.
If you’ve ever been in a sports bar with your friends to watch a big game, you’ve likely run into the “muting” problem. While the bar may have two dozen TVs, each might be playing a different game, and there’s either too much sound or none at all. At most local restaurants, bars, airports and health clubs, you’ll find TVs muted for this very reason.
Some have opted to, say, put speakers on tables in their bars to project sound more directly, but the problem is that this puts a damper on any socializing you planned to do with your friends and fellow bar mates. Might just be me, but repeatedly yelling “WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” over the audio can detract from the viewing experience. After all, you’re really there to enjoy some quality time with friends — the thrilling play-by-play isn’t the only attraction.
Durango, Colorado-based Airborne Media is hoping to offer another solution with a new product called Audioair, which aims to turn smartphones into your own personal listening device to help unlock sound from the tens of millions of muted TVs out there. Essentially, Airborne wants to put its audio solution anywhere an un-muted TV would add to the location’s overall noise pollution — every airport, hospital, sports bar, stadium or health club in the U.S.
But how does it work, you ask? Users download Audioair’s free mobile app, which taps into the sound system (via Wi-Fi) at any Audioair subscriber location, allowing you to determine which TV you want to listen to, projecting the audio through your smartphone so you can listen from your pocket or through headphones. Airborne is currently piloting its solution at 47 sites, including sports bars, restaurants, student health facilities and even a large resort casino, and plans to be in 800 locations by the end of the third quarter.
To help get Audioair off the ground, the startup has raised $3 million in seed funding, $1 million of which is convertible debt, from a handful of local investors. But, let’s be honest, creating a personal audio channel for muted TVs has some appeal, but it could be subject to a fairly limited use case. It’s not difficult to imagine significant others and friends the world over not being particularly pleased when, in the middle of a conversation, you throw in your headphones to hear the local play-by-play.
Plus, Airborne has to convince enough restaurants that it’s a good idea to invest in their on-premise hardware and buy another TV for their in-venue display. How does it hope to accomplish that tall order?
Airborne believes that its technology can help change the consumer experience within a multitude of these noisy environments and bridge the gap between mobile devices and customer engagement displays. So, not only does it want to provide a better audio experience for the end user, it wants to act as an interactive social networking experience and dedicated, location-based advertising network for bars, restaurants and any local venue.
The service allows users to chat with other people in the venue directly through the Audioair app, along with checking-in and adding content from their phones to the sports bar’s local network. This adds a social networking element to the end-user experience; in the meantime, Audioair allows venues to display local advertising on the user’s phone or on a 42-inch digital display that they install in the bar.
At the outset, the startup has been offering discounts on the cost of the TV (and the installations themselves) to reduce friction for early customer acquisition, but the idea is that — once/if this catches on, bars will be paying for the cost out of their own pockets.
Audioair charges a monthly fee, which will be an add-on to the fees bars are already paying to DirectTV and so on for cable, but the idea is that the product can help venues reduce the perceived (and actual cost) by helping them attract more customers who stay on the premises longer — because they can actually hear the sound of the game.
On top of that, bars can distribute on-site promotions through Audioair’s digital display and mobile app, facilitating increased spend, while engaging customers in an in-bar, interactive social and ad network.
Venues can then share in the ad revenue gained from their displays, while receiving analytics on how customers are interacting, what they’re sharing and so on. They can also disseminate the needed info publicly or privately as needed (think personalized hospital, airport alerts).
The Airborne Media founders said that they see revenue coming from three buckets — advertising, installation and licensing — with revenue initially coming from subscription and installation and advertising revenue becoming the main stream over time. As to the licensing piece, the team says that they’ve filed for eight patents on their system (which are currently pending), which could help them manufacture some defensibility for a model that could become vulnerable to competition from big players as prices on hardware continue to drop.
Audioair also tries to sweeten the deal by providing an optional on-site server to manage the local, network and cloud-based content and, by splitting a portion of the advertising revenue with the owner, the startup wants to help them cover the cost of the subscription fee and grow their own revenues over time.
The Audioair creators also believe they have a leg up on the competition because it has inked a partnership deal with one of the original commercial DirecTV installers, which has exclusive territory rights to a big chunk of real estate — from Florida to Washington, D.C. It provides DirecTV service and support to over 5,000 restaurants and will be helping Airborne make installations throughout its territory, which the founders believe will be critical to helping it expand its footprint.
Again, it seems like a niche play, but if something like this is going to work, it could be a multi-pronged approach that’s not only an audio helper but a local information and advertising system, complete with hardware support and revenue sharing. There are 38,000 sports bars and restaurants in the U.S., 28,000 health clubs and plenty of airports, casinos and college campuses where Audioair could potentially have some appeal.
If the startup is able to keep its prices from stifling those venues that are willing to give it a try — and surmount the potential “this is too complicated” reaction from local venues — while offering real value-add on the advertising side (and some better design of its mobile interface), there’s a chance Audioair could have some real legs.
Australian hardware startup and Kickstarter success story LIFX has good news for people who missed out on backing the initial project: it’s opening up a second round of pre-orders, with a new production run of 100,000 units, sold directly through its website. LIFX sold out its pre-order allotment on Kickstarter in just six days, blowing past $1M, which is 10 times its original funding target.
LIFX’s original ship date was slated for March of 2013, but as of today co-founder Andrew Birt says the first 500 units should be rolling off the line in about four weeks time with a May/June Kickstarter shipping timeframe in mind, which isn’t that much of a delay in Kickstarter time. That’s why the company has now released the video above, which shows the production prototype in action, connecting to Wi-Fi, being controlled by the remote app with light color changing features and a demo of gesture-based dimming in action.
The new second batch of LIFX bulbs is set for a September 2013 delivery date, so they’ll come after the startup fulfills its Kickstarter pledge pre-orders. All bulb types, including Edison screw, Bayonet and Downlight mounts, start at $79 (just $10 more than the original Kickstarter single-bulb price), and all have price breaks for bulk orders.
Unlike Philips Hue, LIFX bulbs don’t require a base to connect to your network, and the Edison screw and Bayonet types are rated at 900 lumens on the LIFX (around 80w), while max brightness on the Hue is just 600 lumens (roughly 50w). Philips Hue bulbs cost $20 less per unit, but you also have to buy the starter kit which includes the base to get up and running, a $199 initial investment. Of course, the ultimate test will be in performance, so we’ll have to see how LIFX compares to the generally very positive reviews the Philips Hue is garnering.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
