Hasta La Gadget!

There is less difference between our work and home devices, our tablets and our mobile phones. They are not meant for “work” or for the “home.” We just use them wherever we are. The idea of a balance or even the concept of an enterprise hardware manufacturer seems quaint.

The difference, really, is in the applications we choose to apply with these things we wear over our eyes and hold in our hands. Hardware like Google Glass and Atheer Labs 3D Augmented Reality glasses are all badass, of course.  But the data is the special sauce that makes these tools work for us. Like the smartphone, augmented reality is also something neither for work or at home. Instead it’s a layer that can be applied to our home and work life.

And now just as we saw with smartphone and tablets, examples are emerging that show how augmented reality is applying in universal ways.

For example, in the workplace the complexity of repair gets simplified when the various mechanical parts get treated as something digital. An animated wrench can be shown how to be used on a piece of heavy equipment that has also been rendered into a data object. Like smartphones, augmented reality can be used anywhere to get work done.

ResolutionTube, a TechStars Seattle startup, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding for an augmented reality app that helps the technician fix everything from a heating vent to sophisticated medical equipment. Madrona Ventures led the investment with participation from TechStars CEO David Cohen and other angel investors.

The company is targeting the field services market with a knowledge base and a smartphone app that a technician can use to fix things without needing to call a toll-free number for help. Instead, the technician can use the app to scan the serial number that connects to the ResolutionTube knowledge base. If the technician gets stuck, the app can be used to contact an expert who connects with the the technician over video. The technician uses the smartphone camera to show the expert the machinery in question. That is followed with some advice and use of a whiteboard to draw and show what the technician needs to do for the issue to get resolved.

ResolutionTube will use the funding to develop new advanced product features like as superimposing 3D models into video. The vision is to create an augmented reality experience that instructs people how to repair items simply by pointing a device at whatever needs to be fixed. Currently the app listens to the worker and the expert. It then pulls out keywords that gets stored in the knowledge base. The next step is to use natural language processing so the entire conversation can be added to the ResolutionTube information network.  The transition will help ResolutionTube answer questions more so than provide a search capability.

The company is also creating a prototype app on Google Glass. With wearables they can work and get the instructions without having to use their hands to hold a device. Companies like Vuzix have even developed their own eyewear, showing how the market is expanding for augmented reality technologies to serve a workforce that has almost universal connectivity.

Metaio provides another example for how augmented reality is changing the way people work. The company developed an augmented reality app for technicians to  do service and repair work on the Volkswagen XLI,  the company’s latest concept car. The app shows the technician how to repair the car without any prior training.

Devices now enable augmented reality in the way people have always wanted to experience it, said Occipital Co-Founder Vikas Reddy in an email interview. The company has developed Structure, a 3D sensor that customers can strap to the back of their iPads. The 3D sensor, small enough to fit in your pocket, has an SDK for developers to build consumer-facing apps that take advantage of 3D data.

The future of augmented reality is tied to devices like the iPad. But that’s just the foundation for a next generation of apps. These apps will leverage endless stores of data that will take the form of physical objects and provide people with expert knowledge that will be immediately available. This will allow us to see the world in whole new ways and forever transform how we live and work.

Jailbreak releases for new iOS products are major events. In the early years, release teams would celebrate major holidays with a new jailbreak or SIM unlock and millions of anxious users would rush for the latest software. Much has stayed the same – the excitement, the rush to jailbreak. But something has changed: jailbreaks have become big business.

Take Evasi0n, for example. After launching an iOS 7 jailbreak users found that, on computers with the language set to Chinese, the program automatically installed a program called TaiG (Tai-Gi or Tai Chi). This Chinese app store offered Chinese-language apps but a little something extra, as well: pages and pages of cracked, pirated games.

The group made “around a million dollars” in placement fees for adding TaiG to Chinese iPhones. While the actual number is currently unknown, my source explained that the rumors were true and that the fee was well within that “order of magnitude.”

The Evasi0n team, for their part, responded online to allegations that they had been paid to put pirated app stores on users’ phones.

“We are very upset that despite our agreement and review by their team, piracy was found in the store. It was not acceptable and they have been strenuously working to resolve the problem in good faith, and have removed all instances of it that we have brought to their attention,” they wrote.

“The jailbreak works and people should use it,” said Jay Freeman aka saurik, creator of Cydia, a popular “feature store” that allows users to shop for tweaks and updates to their iPhone’s OS.

“The thing that bugs me [about TaiG] is there’s tons of piracy in it. We’re not about piracy. It used to be that if you wanted to pirate you did have to jailbreak. That’s no longer the case. But people still look at us we’re those pirate assholes,” said Freeman.

Jailbreaking is a business now. Saurik himself makes a living off of having his app installed on jailbroken phones and the Evasi0n team, among others, make money selling space in their apps. In short, things have come a long way since the lone hacker spent time cracking iOS in his spare time.

What does the TaiG partnership mean? Very little, in the long run. Even George Hotz aka Geohot, a well-known early iPhone jail breaker, attempted to sell his own jailbreak technique to unidentified buyers for $350,000 to a commercial customer.

In the end, Evasi0n released theirs for free, heading potential for-pay jail breakers off at the pass. That they made money for adding TaiG, in fact, should be immaterial. That the TaiG app store contains pirated material, however, is another matter entirely. Now that jailbreaking is a business, people want to get paid, but not this way.

“They do good work and I think they deserve money for it,” said Freeman.

It’s the most reflective and introspective time of the year, so this week on the TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast we take a look back at the year that was and offer up our favorite gadgets.

John likes a lot of stuff, including the treadmill desk that has become a permanent fixture on the Gadgets cast, and some more broadly transformative gadgets, too. Predictably, I like Apple stuff, and also predictably, Matt Burns likes some kind of reciprocating saw or tool or whatever.

Some of the devices that come to mind can be found in our team gift guide, or on one of the other various gift guides we’ve been gifting you all season long.

So have a listen to this week’s episode of the TechCrunch John Biggs Treadmill Deskcast, featuring John Biggs in the title role, Darrell Etherington, and Matt Burns.

We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific. And feel free to check out the TechCrunch Gadgets Flipboard magazine right here.

Click here to download an MP3 of this show.
You can subscribe to the show via RSS.
Subscribe in iTunes

Intro Music by Rick Barr.

BlackBerry announced its fiscal Q3 2014 results today, and the numbers aren’t pretty. The company revealed a whopping $4.4 billion GAAP-adjusted loss for the quarter, which includes a write-down on current inventory of around $1.6 billion. It “recognized revenue” on only 1.9 million BlackBerry handsets, compared to 3.7 million in the same period a year ago, but it also claims that it sold around 4.3 million BlackBerrys through to end customers it says, of which 3.2 million were BlackBerry 7 handsets. Whichever way you look at that, it’s not good.

BlackBerry stressed the growth of Enterprise Services, Messaging, and QNX Embedded OS in auto and cloud as high points, and noted a change in corporate structure in which those are given more equal weight against its Devices unit. And as for the Devices unit, BlackBerry announced a partnership with Foxconn that will span five years and kick off with a smartphone unit designed specifically for “Indonesia and other fast-growing markets in early 2014.”

This partnership could offload the majority of BlackBerry’s hardware inventory management duties to Foxconn, and Mexico is named as another early target for devices coming out of the arrangement. Essentially, it sounds much more like BlackBerry is making Foxconn a licensee with more or less full control over its smartphone division, while it continues to work on services and software in-house. It could be a good way to offload the risk and responsibility of handset production while still selling to its remaining market strongholds.

Earnings for this quarter were dismal, and missed already bleak analyst expectations. The company is in yet another transition phase as it looks to its new CEO John Chen to help it recover from the lasting damage done by the BlackBerry 10 launch and the very poor sales of Z10 and Q10 handsets. No one expected them to do well this time around, but a $4.4 billion loss is over four times what it suffered even last quarter, so it’s clear that changes at the faltering company have just begun.

[Illustration: Bryce Durbin]

This is Quin. She’s a fully posable (and Barbie-compatible) doll that can be made on a 3D printer and snapped together. Her creators, the folks at 3DKitBash built her to prove that you can build usable, playable toys on a 3D printer. They also built her because she looks amazing.

The 3D files will cost $55 once the project funds in January and you can order her pre-printed in ABS plastic for $245. You can also order clothes and other perks from their Kickstarter page.

The pair who created Quin are Natalie Mathis and Quincy Robinson. Mathis is the Director of Institutional Advancement at a fine art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio and Robinson is a toy inventor and sculptor. He’s worked for Mattell and Hasbro and writes “If you’ve been in a toy isle at a Target or Wal-Mart, chances are, you’ve seen my work.”

“I’ve also been known to rehabilitate orphaned possums,” he said.

The team is based in Cincinatti, Ohio where they’ve seen a renaissance of sorts in the 3D-printing community. Robinson said that “there is not a 3D Printing device that you’re not a couple of handshakes away from within this modestly sized, yet very capable, city.” The city itself is using the resources of General Electric and Procter & Gamble to expand engineering education and making in this burgeoning town.

“We’re all about trying to test the boundaries of what can be achieved with desktop 3D Printing, and a doll (in my mind) is a pretty big test for good or bad,” said Robinson. “You can’t do a half-ass job and it be considered good. And if it’s not good, it’s ugly. Sculpting or printing-wise. Quin is the result of us trying to prove ourselves and present something to the current (and future) community that demonstrates where we are, and what we can expect. We as a community have the ability to create and offer easy-to-print, modular models, with lots of character, and offer lots of customization potential.”

Robinson and Mathis see Quin as more than just a toy. They expect other 3D printing enthusiasts to remix and modify her for their needs and doll fans can mod her to work with their collectable accessories.

“I really see Quin as being more of an inventing/customization platform. She can perform like a traditional fashion doll, but I hope her ability to be so many things will appeal to the creative tech savvy builders out there that need a no-mess platform to demo their thoughts on,” said Robinson.

Will Quin survive the ravages of a three-year-old in a bad mood? The team thinks she can.

“If you told me three months ago that I’d have a 3D Doll that would be as reliable as a standard Barbie and be able to stand on her own; I would have scoffed… But it’s true! A well printed Quin has the structural soundness of a Barbie with acutely sized tabs to lock legs together and snug joints to aide in poses,” said Robinson. “She’s sturdy.”