Thursday, June 23, 2011
Is Nanosys’ awesome new screen technology gonna be in iPad 3? I hope so. Wow.
When Nanosys CEO Jason Hartlove pulled two iPads out of his bag and turned them on one looked like when I first saw my first Kodachrome slide while the other looked muddy and crappy in comparison (I pulled out my own iPad and saw my screen looked muddy and crappy in comparison too). The new one was clear, beautiful, stunning, with richer colors than I had ever seen on a screen before.
“Is that the new retina display?” I immediately asked him.
“No, it is not a higher resolution display.” My eyes were telling me otherwise.
“What the f*** is going on here then?” I asked him. He calmly explained what Nanosys did and why they own 400 patents on what they were showing me, which they call Quantum Dot Enhanced Film (QDEF™) . 400!
This technology is so important Economist magazine just wrote about it (and they don’t write about startups very often). Even better, it’s designed AND made in the USA! For once Silicon Valley is seeming like Silicon Valley again.
Unfortunately you can’t really see the difference in the screen very well. Why? Because you are watching this video on an old crappy Dell, or a Macintosh, or an old-style iPad.
When Nanosys starts shipping its screen technology later this year our lives will change forever.
Every screen in your life will look dull and lifeless compared to a screen with Nanosys technology in it.
Now, let’s go through the business advantages:
1. Does not take more battery life.
2. Does not increase cost.
3. Does not require a new display architecture to push out more pixels or a GPU that is four times as fast to support more pixels.
4. They can make craploads of it.
5. They have patents up the yingyang so are gonna be the only game in town for a while.
6. This company is real and funded by the best VCs in the business. They also just won best new display technology at the Society for Information Display conference a couple of weeks ago.
If you watch one video of mine, watch this one. It’s awesome tech and I can’t wait to have it in all my screens. Unfortunately we gotta wait for Steve Jobs to bet on it big time.
I can just see the iPad 3 launch. We all know Apple is going to put in a double-pixel display (my sources have been talking about that for months now) but when you see this technology you’ll know just why the next displays are so freaking good on colors, too.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Bootstrapping the CNN of tech: The story of TWiT
Bootstrapping the CNN of tech: The story of TWiT
By Janko Roettgers
It all started with boredom. Leo Laporte had a few gigs with TV and radio networks back in 2005, but his work schedule left him with nothing to do half of the month. So he started an audio podcast called This Week in Tech, also known as TWiT. He asked listeners for donations, which allowed him to hire production help and add additional shows. And then, one day, he told his then-bookkeeper Lisa Kentzell about his real goal: to become the CNN of tech.
“I said: Okay, let’s do it,” recalled Kentzell when I met her and Laporte in the TwiT cottage in Petaluma, California last week. Kentzell is now the CEO of TWiT, and the company is ready to take the next big step towards its ambitious goal in July with the move into a spacious new studio built with a 24/7 live video operation in mind.
Check out this video of Leo Laporte and Lisa Kentzell showing off their new studio:
The new space is only a couple blocks away from the old studio, but in a way, the two studios are worlds apart. The old TWiT cottage, which has been Laporte’s home base since 2005, looks like your grandma’s small old summer house taken over by a bunch of geeks. Too many geeks, actually. The 18 staffers are literally bumping into each other all the time. The new studio, on the other hand, will have multiple sets, 40 cameras, state of the art tech and lots of room for future expansion.
The move is also as sign of TWiT doubling down on live video. It’s a ambitious proposition, in part because most of its audience still thinks of TWiT as a podcast network. Kentzell told me that TWiT sees about 5 million downloads every month. Live is harder to track, she said, but still much smaller.
“The live audience isn’t here yet,” admitted Laporte. “It’s a big bet on the future.” And live is expensive: TWiT recently had to shut down the live feed of its Roku channel because of exploding bandwidth costs. However, Laporte believes that these things will eventually sort themselves out with bandwidth prices going down.
Taking a step back when things get too expensive is also a part of the TWiT way of doing business. Laporte and Kentzell thought about moving to San Francisco with the new studio, but decided to stay in Petaluma to get more bang for their buck. The company only spends as much as it can afford at any given time, and has been entirely bootstrapped from day one, declining many opportunities for outside funding. “We are very committed to bootstrapping,” said Laporte. Kentzell agreed: “We wanted to have full creative and financial control.”
Speaking of Kentzell, she’s one of the lesser-known folks on the TWiT team, but Laporte couldn’t speak more highly of her. “It really wasn’t a business until Lisa came along,” he told me. Laporte initially hired her to do his books; he soon discovered that she was outsourcing the actual bookkeeping to a whole team she managed. Impressed, he convinced her to bring some of that leadership to TWiT. Laporte credits her for doubling revenue every year in the past few years, up to the tune of $3 million in 2010.
Much of that money comes from advertising these days, which is brought in by an external sales team. Initially, TWiT was entirely donation-based, with listeners shipping in as much as $20,000 per month. The company is relying on some of that loyalty to finish its new studio, which will cost about $850,000, by selling commemorative bricks to fans. “Donations give people a feeling to be part of it,” said Laporte.
So what’s next for TWiT? 24/7 live streaming is one goal, a satellite bureau in New York is also in the cards. Laporte also wants to hire more talent and add more shows after poaching broadcaster Tom Merritt and producer Jason Howell from CNET last year. But he doesn’t believe in branching out too far. “I’m not trying to get bigger, I’m trying to serve our niche better,” he said, adding that he’s confident to have a good sense of the content that will be popular. “I really understand our audience. I am one of them.”
And as for the ambitions to become the CNN of tech, Laporte says it’s not just a numbers game. He may never reach as many simultaneous viewers as the cable channels, but he believes TWiT can be just as relevant. His team will have succeeded once “a breaking news story happens and people turn to us,” he explained. Getting there may take years, and millions of dollars that Laporte and Kentzell intend to make the old-fashioned way – through bootstrapping. Said Kentzell, “It’s a little risky, but I think it’s worthwhile.”
By Janko Roettgers
It all started with boredom. Leo Laporte had a few gigs with TV and radio networks back in 2005, but his work schedule left him with nothing to do half of the month. So he started an audio podcast called This Week in Tech, also known as TWiT. He asked listeners for donations, which allowed him to hire production help and add additional shows. And then, one day, he told his then-bookkeeper Lisa Kentzell about his real goal: to become the CNN of tech.
“I said: Okay, let’s do it,” recalled Kentzell when I met her and Laporte in the TwiT cottage in Petaluma, California last week. Kentzell is now the CEO of TWiT, and the company is ready to take the next big step towards its ambitious goal in July with the move into a spacious new studio built with a 24/7 live video operation in mind.
Check out this video of Leo Laporte and Lisa Kentzell showing off their new studio:
The new space is only a couple blocks away from the old studio, but in a way, the two studios are worlds apart. The old TWiT cottage, which has been Laporte’s home base since 2005, looks like your grandma’s small old summer house taken over by a bunch of geeks. Too many geeks, actually. The 18 staffers are literally bumping into each other all the time. The new studio, on the other hand, will have multiple sets, 40 cameras, state of the art tech and lots of room for future expansion.
The move is also as sign of TWiT doubling down on live video. It’s a ambitious proposition, in part because most of its audience still thinks of TWiT as a podcast network. Kentzell told me that TWiT sees about 5 million downloads every month. Live is harder to track, she said, but still much smaller.
“The live audience isn’t here yet,” admitted Laporte. “It’s a big bet on the future.” And live is expensive: TWiT recently had to shut down the live feed of its Roku channel because of exploding bandwidth costs. However, Laporte believes that these things will eventually sort themselves out with bandwidth prices going down.
Taking a step back when things get too expensive is also a part of the TWiT way of doing business. Laporte and Kentzell thought about moving to San Francisco with the new studio, but decided to stay in Petaluma to get more bang for their buck. The company only spends as much as it can afford at any given time, and has been entirely bootstrapped from day one, declining many opportunities for outside funding. “We are very committed to bootstrapping,” said Laporte. Kentzell agreed: “We wanted to have full creative and financial control.”
Speaking of Kentzell, she’s one of the lesser-known folks on the TWiT team, but Laporte couldn’t speak more highly of her. “It really wasn’t a business until Lisa came along,” he told me. Laporte initially hired her to do his books; he soon discovered that she was outsourcing the actual bookkeeping to a whole team she managed. Impressed, he convinced her to bring some of that leadership to TWiT. Laporte credits her for doubling revenue every year in the past few years, up to the tune of $3 million in 2010.
Much of that money comes from advertising these days, which is brought in by an external sales team. Initially, TWiT was entirely donation-based, with listeners shipping in as much as $20,000 per month. The company is relying on some of that loyalty to finish its new studio, which will cost about $850,000, by selling commemorative bricks to fans. “Donations give people a feeling to be part of it,” said Laporte.
So what’s next for TWiT? 24/7 live streaming is one goal, a satellite bureau in New York is also in the cards. Laporte also wants to hire more talent and add more shows after poaching broadcaster Tom Merritt and producer Jason Howell from CNET last year. But he doesn’t believe in branching out too far. “I’m not trying to get bigger, I’m trying to serve our niche better,” he said, adding that he’s confident to have a good sense of the content that will be popular. “I really understand our audience. I am one of them.”
And as for the ambitions to become the CNN of tech, Laporte says it’s not just a numbers game. He may never reach as many simultaneous viewers as the cable channels, but he believes TWiT can be just as relevant. His team will have succeeded once “a breaking news story happens and people turn to us,” he explained. Getting there may take years, and millions of dollars that Laporte and Kentzell intend to make the old-fashioned way – through bootstrapping. Said Kentzell, “It’s a little risky, but I think it’s worthwhile.”
Paul Nicklen: Tales of ice-bound wonderlands
About this talk
Diving under the Antarctic ice to get close to the much-feared leopard seal, photographer Paul Nicklen found an extraordinary new friend. Share his hilarious, passionate stories of the polar wonderlands, illustrated by glorious images of the animals who live on and under the ice.
Video: A Look At High-Res 3D Laser Scanning With Makerbot’s Bre Pettis
In the olden days, when you wanted a bust made, you hired some fancy sculptor to come to your house and sit with you for hours a day until, months later, you had a handsome marble or ceramic bust. Now, however, you can get a bust made in a few minutes using laser scanners and Makerbot rapid prototyping machines. Ain’t progress wonderful?
Makerbot’s Bre Pettis invited me over to his new storefront in Brooklyn to build a bust for his upcoming New York Notables event in July. I got to join folks like Cory Doctorow and Moot (in miniature form) as we were scanned into a PC using a Polhemus laser scanner. To grab my physical details they dusted me talcum powder and then sat me down for a good two minute scan. The process was quick and painless and the results, as you see in the video below, were impressive.
We could have printed out my head in a few minutes but Bre and the gang were pretty backed up so they’re going to let me know when my tiny little head appears in their machine, ready for eventual deification by future generations.
Microsoft Looks to Mango to Make Windows Phone a Better Communicator
With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft was basically looking to get back into the smartphone conversation. With the next version, codenamed Mango, the company hopes to prove itself a social butterfly.
Improved communications, along with better Web browsing and more powerful apps, were the key focal points as the company looked to make the first major update to its revamped phone software.
On Tuesday, the company is announcing a host of new communications options that are among 500 new features that Microsoft is adding to its phone operating system in the “Mango” update due out later this year. The company is outlining the changes and sharing other details at a press event in New York that is just getting underway. (It’s being Webcast and AllThingsD has live coverage here).
As part of its effort to be a better communicator, Microsoft is adding support for Twitter as well as tighter integration with Facebook and an integrated conversation feature that allows chats to move between Facebook Chat, Windows Live Messenger and text message all within a single “thread.” The company is also adding an option to let users combine contacts into various groups that can be reached en masse via email or text message. On the email side, customers will now have the option to combine views from various email accounts into a single inbox as well as view messages in either standard or conversation view.
While apps are important, Microsoft is hoping to convince friends that when it comes to keeping in touch, it is better to integrate multiple modes into a single hub than to have to open a different program for each means of communication.
“Our friends aren’t apps—they are people,” Sullivan said.
That said, even with Mango, users will have to do some switching. The feature that lets discussions move from chat to text message doesn’t extend to email, while Twitter users will still need a separate program to handle more advanced tasks.
Still, Microsoft hopes integrating more options into its People hub will help the company’s products stand out from rivals. Sullivan noted that Microsoft’s research shows people spend 2.5 hours a day socializing on their phone–more time than is spent eating. “It’s pretty dramatic,” he said.
The Mango release of Windows Phone is due to show up on phones later this year. In addition to current hardware partners that are planning new phones, Mango will work on existing Windows Phone devices and will form the basis for Nokia’s first crop of Microsoft-powered phones.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Resistance to the "Arab Spring" is Futile
Resistance to the "Arab Spring" is Futile
Doha Debates: An overwhelming majority of Arabs are betting on reformist movements across the Middle East
Creator Video App Collabracam Talks iPhone Video
Kyle Hilla, speaks from his Grand Rapids, Mich. HQ about his app that aims to be a TV studio in your pocket, linking iPhones together to create a single, seamless video.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation Grants $1.5M To Turn Human Waste Into Biofuel
Two of many challenges developing countries face are unsafe water and a lack of affordable energy. With the help of a new $1.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ghana may be able to combine these lacks into an asset in the form of biodiesel.
The grant, for a “Next-Generation Urban Sanitation Facility” in the country’s capital of Accra, will turn human waste from sewage into biodiesel and methane that can be used as fuel.
The project not only produces energy from waste, but tackles a major sanitation problem common in cities that are unable to pipe sewage to treatment plants. Bacteria in sewage can easily make its way into water sources used for cooking, drinking and irrigation, leaving locals, especially children, susceptible to dying of diarrhea-related diseases such as cholera.
Columbia University’s Dr. Kartick Chandran will lead the project. In collaboration with Moses Mensah, a Chemical Engineering professor at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and Ashley Murray founder and director of Waste Enterprisers, the team will build a biorefinery to recover energy from fecal matter, turning it into a useful resource instead of something to be inconveniently discarded. When completed, the project will reduce fecal sludge in Accra’s water supply and offer an affordable energy source to its residents.
The Gates Foundation estimates that 2.5 million people, or half of the world’s developing world population, doesn’t have access to safe sanitation. Chandran is familiar with Ghana, having worked for two years as faculty advisor to the an Engineers without Borders team there.
This isn’t the first time fecal matter has been used to create energy, but it could be a step towards a brighter future for areas struggling with wastewater sanitation and high fuel costs.
Here is video of Chandran discussing some of his wastewater treatment research.
MyVoice, a Great App for the Speech-Disabled, Is Foursquare Meets Text-to-Speech
The MyVoice app offers up location-based searchable phrases and helps users easily navigate social situations.
A new GPS-enabled app will give millions of speech-disabled people a simplified way to communicate in the local tongue. MyVoice is a text-to-speech app that uses location-aware dialogue and customizable phrases to streamline the search for the perfect phrase. Additionally, because its a smartphone app, using it in social situations isn't as awkward as a proprietary device.
"Usually, people would have to navigate through a huge hierarchy of words on a traditional device in order to find these seemingly unrelated words. But using our technology, using MyVoice, they're able to very quickly get to the words that they actually need to say at that time," designer Aakash Sahney tells Canadian broadcaster CTA.
The GPS and customization is what drives the experience. As an example, at a movie theater, the app may pull up words like "tickets" or "seats," or, at a coffeeshop, users can program their regular purchases.
"It fits in really well in social situations, too. It's natural to have an iPhone in your pocket and take it out somewhere," he adds.
MyVoice plans on being a monthly service with an online, syncable web component. It will be available for $30 a month, and Aakash says it will be available next week.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
“My God, it’s full of stars!”
Plains Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.
Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly dynamicperception.com
During the month of May, I shot Milky Way timelapse in central South Dakota, when I had the time, and the weather cooperated. The biggest challhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifenge was cloudy nights and the wind. There were very few nights, when I could shoot, that were perfectly clear, and often the wind was blowing 25mph +. That made it hard to get the shots I wanted. I kept most of the shots low to the ground, so the wind wouldn't catch the setup and cause camera shake, or blow it over. I used a Stage Zero Dolly on the dolly shots and a "Milapse" mount on the panning ones.
Canon 60D and T2i
Tokina 11-16
Sigma 20mm F1.8
Tamron 17-50
Keen On… Suzanne Vega: Music, Like Oranges, Shouldn’t Be Given Away for Free (TCTV)
Question: Who is the mother of MP3?
Answer: Singer songwriter Suzanne Vega, whose iconic 1981 song “Tom’s Diner” was used by MP3 inventor Karl-Heinz Brandenberg to calibrate the standard of the revolutionary codec that would change the music industry forever.
Vega’s attitude to the music industry is pretty matrimonial too. On Wednesday, she keynoted the “CREATE: Protecting Creativity from the Ground Up” conference in Washington DC, put on by the technology and media coalition Arts and Labs (for whom, full disclosure, I consult). Not only did Vega play us an haunting intimate version of “Tom’s Diner”, but she also spoke uncompromising in favor of the artist’s right to be paid for his or her work. Arguing that if she wasn’t paid for her songs she would have to go back to being a receptionist, Vega argued that music, like oranges, shouldn’t be given away for free.
Whatever else one might say about Vega’s critique of free culture and piracy, she can’t be accused of being a Luddite. As she confessed to me when I caught her on camera after her CREATE speech, she is a big fan of Twitter and particularly Facebook where she goes “eight or nine times a day”. Nor does she defend the status-quo of the old record industry. “The audience is the most important thing”, she explained the new reality of the business, telling young musicians that it’s much more important to build a loyal following than get a record deal.
Her faith in today’s digital technology to build viable new business models was echoed by a number of other speakers at CREATE. On a panel about the future of the digital economy that I moderated, for example, all the panelists agreed that the digital economy provided exciting opportunities for all creative industries in the 21st century. From Mike Fricklas, Viacom’s General Counsel to Matt Serletic, CEO of Music Mastermind to Jim Cavanagh, President of the American Society of Media Photographers to Tom Adams, Rosetta Stone CEO, everyone agreed that new streaming and anti-piracy technologies and devices offered incredibly exciting opportunities for media entrepreneurs. But, like Suzanne Vega, too, all the speakers on my panel agreed that digital content, like analog oranges, couldn’t and shouldn’t be given away for free.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Google Scaling Solar, Commits $280 Million To Finance SolarCity Installations
Google today announced a new partnership with SolarCity, committing $280 million from its coffers to finance SolarCity installations, namely solar rooftops for homes in North America.
Google Doodle
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
http://www.google.com/logos/2011/lespaul.html#tune=IAR1xrg0PodcODaAAAdYuxUy5nSNgA**
Monday, June 13, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Walt Talks About iCloud With Charlie Rose
This week, post-WWDC keynote, Charlie Rose sat Walt down to discuss the implications and impact of Steve Jobs’s iCloud announcement, and of cloud computing in general. In clip one, Walt lays out cloud computing basics. In clip two, Rose asks Walt about Jobs’s vision of the “post-PC” era.
Twenty Feet lets you know more about your social media stats
I love Twenty Feet. Every morning it sends me an email and lets me know if something weird happened in my stats for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other places. For instance, did more of my videos get favorited than usual? Did more people subscribe or unsubscribe than usual?
Here CEO Martin Seibert explains more behind what TwentyFeet does and shows off a preview of a new iPhone app coming soon.
Twimbow brings color to social media
Twimbow looks a bit like TweetDeck, but look again and you'll see a colorfully different approach! By using colors you can uncover tweets and status messages from people and brands you care about. Here Luca Filigheddu, CEO of Twimbo, shows me what it does and what his philosophy is behind social media clients.
Apple to Lodsys: Now, Youse Can’t Leave
Apple to Lodsys: Now, Youse Can’t Leave
JUNE 10, 2011 AT 1:00 PM PT
Lodsys has really stepped in it now.
Apple has filed a motion to intervene in the patent infringement lawsuits that the patent holding company has brought against seven iOS developers, a move that could add significant legal heft to their defense.
Filed in the Eastern District of Texas, the motion explains that developers who’ve been targeted by Lodsys “are individuals or small entities with far fewer resources than Apple and … lack the technical information, ability, and incentive to adequately protect Apple’s rights under its license agreement.”
So Apple would like to intervene on their behalf.
“While the Developers will likely be interested in resolving this case as quickly and inexpensively as possible, Apple’s interest is in protecting its broader license rights with respect to thousands of App developers for Apple products who may be the subject of future Lodsys lawsuits or threats.”
In other words, Lodsys, which has been harassing independent developers who lack the means to fend off its litigation, may soon find itself grappling with Apple legal, which is an ugly, ugly proposition indeed.
The situation reminds me of a scene midway through “A Bronx Tale” in which a group of bikers disrespect a local Mafia don’s bar (video below). When asked to leave, they refuse. The don walks over to the door, locks it — trapping the bikers inside, turns to them and says, “Now, youse can’t leave.” A group of heavies emerges from the back of the bar and beats the bikers senseless, while this narration runs in the background.
“I will never forget the look on their faces. All eight of them. Their faces dropped. All their courage and strength was drained right from their bodies. They had a reputation for breaking up bars, but they knew that instant, they’d made a fatal mistake. This time they walked into the wrong bar.”
If the court grants Apple’s motion to intervene, Lodsys may have just done the same.
JUNE 10, 2011 AT 1:00 PM PT
Lodsys has really stepped in it now.
Apple has filed a motion to intervene in the patent infringement lawsuits that the patent holding company has brought against seven iOS developers, a move that could add significant legal heft to their defense.
Filed in the Eastern District of Texas, the motion explains that developers who’ve been targeted by Lodsys “are individuals or small entities with far fewer resources than Apple and … lack the technical information, ability, and incentive to adequately protect Apple’s rights under its license agreement.”
So Apple would like to intervene on their behalf.
“While the Developers will likely be interested in resolving this case as quickly and inexpensively as possible, Apple’s interest is in protecting its broader license rights with respect to thousands of App developers for Apple products who may be the subject of future Lodsys lawsuits or threats.”
In other words, Lodsys, which has been harassing independent developers who lack the means to fend off its litigation, may soon find itself grappling with Apple legal, which is an ugly, ugly proposition indeed.
The situation reminds me of a scene midway through “A Bronx Tale” in which a group of bikers disrespect a local Mafia don’s bar (video below). When asked to leave, they refuse. The don walks over to the door, locks it — trapping the bikers inside, turns to them and says, “Now, youse can’t leave.” A group of heavies emerges from the back of the bar and beats the bikers senseless, while this narration runs in the background.
“I will never forget the look on their faces. All eight of them. Their faces dropped. All their courage and strength was drained right from their bodies. They had a reputation for breaking up bars, but they knew that instant, they’d made a fatal mistake. This time they walked into the wrong bar.”
If the court grants Apple’s motion to intervene, Lodsys may have just done the same.
Big Live: fostering real-time interactions around content
Producers of online video content are always looking for ways to get their audience more involved and more engaged beyond just leaving comments. By leveraging the social network, Big Live is providing a solution that fosters real-time discussion among audiences.
"Big Live is a synchronous video platform," explains Jonathan Zakin, President, CEO & Co-Founder of Big Live. "It's a social network built around the idea of sharing experience around viewing content that you enjoy with other people. We've looked out there at the other video platforms that have basically a chat room next to a player, and they approach that problem through the player side. We approached it through the social networking side. We built a social network around that, and so as a result, you have a very immersive social experience around this content."
Big Live recently released a widget that allows content providers to embed the app into other sites or their own site using an iframe. Users can still view the content anonymously, but you must log in using Facebook Connect in order to socially interact. Once you have logged in, you can see everyone else that is also viewing that content simultaneously, you can roll your mouse over the audience and see the profile of individual audience members, and you can sort the audience members based on several criteria.
"You can sort on age, location and gender and whether or not they are Facebook friends of yours," says Zakin. "Once you do that, you can begin to interact with them in real time around that synchronous video experience either through group chat or through a one-on-one chat, so if you find somebody in the crowd that you're interested in talking to, you can take them offline and chat with them that way. We're trying to emulate going to an event, turning to the person next to you and saying, 'Hey, this is very cool.'"
Saturday, June 11, 2011
MovieClips Raises $6M To Curate And Mashup Scenes From Movies
Online movie clips site Movieclips.com has raised $6 million out of a $7 million round, according to a recent SEC filing. The startup has previously raised $3 million. We’ve confirmed the new funding with the company.
Movieclips.com, which launched in 2009, offers a clip engine with over 14,000 different clips from 1,400 titles from the libraries of 20th Century Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures. Last year, the startup also launched a new product, called Movieclips Mashups, at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, which allows anyone to make montages of two minutes clips.
Along with the studio partnerships (which is half the battle for licensing movie content), the company has also developed proprietary technology that assigns up to 1,000 points of data to every scene, making it super easy to find scenes by actor, film title, dialogue snippet, mood, director, genre, etc.
The site also launched a specialized video player and features an API developers can use to integrate Movieclips on other sites; AOL’s Moviefone actually uses the technology on its platform.
Google vs Apple: The Cool Factor [Video]
http://www.google.com/logos/2011/lespaul.html
Earlier today I was invited to do a quick guest spot on CNBC’s Power Lunch, where we discussed a question that’s fundamentally important to the future of Silicon Valley: Who is cooler, Google or Apple?
Okay, so the topic was a bit goofy. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to it: after all, public perception can play a role in how quickly products from each company get picked up by new users, which in turn can impact their bottom lines.
Tune in to hear my thoughts. Because if there’s a guy who knows cool, it’s me. Oh, and there’s an interview with the folks who made the awesome Les Paul Google Doodle gracing the search engine’s home page today. You can watch that one here:
Earlier today I was invited to do a quick guest spot on CNBC’s Power Lunch, where we discussed a question that’s fundamentally important to the future of Silicon Valley: Who is cooler, Google or Apple?
Okay, so the topic was a bit goofy. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to it: after all, public perception can play a role in how quickly products from each company get picked up by new users, which in turn can impact their bottom lines.
Tune in to hear my thoughts. Because if there’s a guy who knows cool, it’s me. Oh, and there’s an interview with the folks who made the awesome Les Paul Google Doodle gracing the search engine’s home page today. You can watch that one here:
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Google Earth, Columbia University Map Seafloor Area Bigger Than North America
Thursday marked World Oceans Day, a United Nations effort to “raise global awareness of the challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans.”
「兩岸皆中國軍」 退將登陸失言？
現在的兩岸關係，既不是敵人，也不是朋友，經濟、觀光、甚至血緣都密不可分，可是一扯到主權和尊嚴，馬上你是你、我是我，今天退役將領是否赴陸失言這個話題，再一次牽動了這條敏感的神經，編輯台時間邀請到聯合報大陸中心記者陳東旭來探究。
About : Expeditionary Learning
Expeditionary Learning from Expeditionary Learning on Vimeo.
Over the course of our 17-year history, we have grown from a small adventurous group of ten schools into a network the size of a substantial urban school district.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Wednesday Was A Good Day (Official Jawbone JAMBOX Music Video)
What would Ice Cube's "Good Day" have looked like if Cube had a SOMA loft, a fixed gear bike, and a boatload of apps? You're about to find out.
http://jawbone.com/jamchain
Inspired by Ice Cube's original: http://youtu.be/QWfbGGZE07M
Starring
Hasan Minhaj: youtube.com/hminhaj
Featuring
Ashkon: youtube.com/ashkeezy
Strawburry17: youtube.com/strawburry17
The Black Nerd: youtube.com/blacknerdcomedy
Cyr: youtube.com/cyr1216
Jimmy Wong: youtube.com/jimmy
SupRicky06: youtube.com/supricky06
KEEPtheHeat: youtube.com/keeptheheat
Asian Glow: youtube.com/asianglow
Turf Feinz: youtube.com/statussilver
Daveed Diggs: youtube.com/getacknews
Written, Produced, and Directed By:
Portal A Interactive: http://portal-a.com/
Lyrics:
Just wakin up in the morning gotta thank Jobs
I dunno but today seems kinna odd
Hella email, got no spam
All these fools straight obsessed with my instagrams
Morning fitness on the Wii, you know I do
Girls textin me as I rock a Warrior Two
JAMBOX blastin' so you know I packed it
Forgot to lock up the bike, nobody jacked it
Organic produce to my door all pre-pay
Damn. Bout to be a nice little Wednesday
CHORUS
Thirty minutes late but my game's still tight
Got a blast that the boss is at an off-site
Now it's feet up, time to chill
Angry Birds cause I always got some pigs to kill
Troubleshooting for the cuties, that's my joint
Backrubs as I re-install her PowerPoint
My deal's almost tipped, could use one more
You want in on a self-guided Segway tour?
Sixty deep for the line at the taco truck
Guess what? The intern's gonna let me cut
Going nuts on the guac, extra layer
They show respect cause they know that I'm the mayor
On a conference call and I'm feelin no stress
This thing's wireless, act like you're not impressed
Closing deals from the Valley to Bombay
Turnin' out to be a nice little Wednesday
CHORUS
Later on in the evening got it going off
Sick wine and cheese rager up in my loft
Keds so fresh, they know not to step
Don't call it plaid, it's a gingham check
Get me in the game and I'm trouble
Droppin bounce shots in and they countin double
Camera phones flash when we take the tourney
Now put your head back and move it like Bernie
Checked my hip and got a re-tweet from AK!
Gotta say it's been a nice little Wednesday
Media Contact
Katie Boysen
Jobs To Cupertino: We Want A Spaceship-Shaped, 12K Capacity Building As Our New Apple Campus
After having a banner WWDC start yesterday, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs humbly presented his idea for a new Apple campus at the Cupertino City Council today. Jobs wants to build one building that will hold 12,000 Apple employees on a former Hewlett-Packard property in the area between Tantau North Wolfe, Homestead and the 280 freeway.”It’s a little like a spaceship landed,” Jobs says. No kidding.
Jobs began the presentation referring to the fact that Apple is growing “like a weed,” and that its current campus at D’Anza and the 280 isn’t enough — fitting only about 2,800 people. Apple currently rents buildings to house its other 6,700 employees in the area. The new building will augment the current campus.
Paving the way for these plans, Apple purchased about 100 acres from Hewlett Packard in 2010 and added them to the 50 it owns adjacent. Jobs says he has corralled “some great architects … some of the best in the world” to come up with a design that will house 12,000 people in one four story high building on the property. The area is now mainly apricot orchards.
With the futuristic design Apple apparently is relying heavily on its experience building retail stores, and it will be creating one massive piece of curved glass if the proposal goes through. “There’s not a single straight piece of glass in this building,” Jobs says. The parking will be underground.
Jobs also wants the building to function as its own power source, with an “energy center” as its primary source of power (“with natural gas and other ways that are cleaner and cheaper”), using the grid as a backup.
The campus will include amenities like its own auditorium similar to Apple’s current Town Hall (“We’ve got an auditorium, cause we put on presentations, much like we did yesterday but we have to go to San Francisco to do them.”) and a cafeteria that will feed 3,000 people at one sitting.
“We do have a shot at building the best office building in the world,” Jobs told the Council members, “Architecture students will come here to see this.” Ideally Apple wants to move into the campus in 2015.
The individual members of the Cupertino City Council seemed like they were in awe the entire time the infamously charismatic Apple CEO spoke (which isn’t surprising), asking Jobs for free Wifi and iPads for constituents as well as for an Apple store that’s actually in Cupertino and not in the Valley or Los Gatos. Jobs shyly responded to the requests, “I think we bring a lot more than free Wifi.”
Key facts about the new Apple campus:
Design will include a courtyard in the middle and curved glass all the way around.
Jobs is planning on transforming an area that’s 20% landscaping to 80% landscaping by putting most of the building’s parking underground.
There are 3,700 trees in the area at the moment, Jobs has hired an arborist from Stanford to take the area up to 6,000 trees.
The plan is to build a four-story high building and four-story parking structure.
The campus will incude an energy center, and natural gas will be the primary source of power, using the grid as backup.
There will be an auditorium, fitness center and some R & D buildings.
Jobs plans a 40% increase in Apple employees going from 9,500 today to 13, 000 in 2015.
He wants to increase the campus’ space 20% from 2.6 million to 3.1 million square feet.
Landscaping will increase 60% from 3,700 to 6,000.
Surface parking will decrease 90% from 9,800 to 1,200 .
The building footprint will decrease 30% from 1.4 million to 1 million.
Cafeterias will fit 3,000 people at a sitting.
The whole building will be designed with the utmost concern for employee safety.
Apple currently has 20 buses running on bio-diesel fuel for its employees and Jobs thinks that system will work well with the new campus.
The plan for the new design will submitted asap. Jobs hopes to break ground next year and eventually move in 2015.
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Nanodot-boosted LCD
Nanodot-boosted LCD
Nanosys's Quantum Dot Enhancement Film does two things: It really boosts the color of a traditional LCD display, offering "OLED color depth without OLED power consumption and OLED price," and it proves that quantum mechanics isn't a dusty old physics concept with no real-world applications. It's been around for a while but at the Society for Information Display conference, Nanosys just showed their tech hacked into an existing iPad design to show off its powers, and revealed it's actually coming to market in a "mobile device" from a Korean firm in late 2011--is this the new screen tech for Samsung's Galaxy tablets and smartphones?
Apple WWDC 2011 Done as a Song
song-a-day one thousand... and beyond
Hi! My name is Jonathan Mann, and I've been writing, recording, producing and uploading a song a day since January 1st, 2009. On September 28th, 2011 I'll be reaching my 1000th song a day song.
It's been an incredible time in my life, full of interesting people and places and experiences.
Ultimately, though, there's been one crucial aspect of the creative process that's been missing: Collaboration. I have a ton of really talented musical friends, many of whom I play music with regularly, but they all have jobs and, you know, lives! Because of the blisteringly fast pace of one song (with a video) every single day, it has been virtually impossible to bring other musicians into my process.
the project
With all that in mind, and to celebrate 1000 days of Song-A-Day, I'm going to invite all the musicians I know to come help me shape and create 30 songs in 30 days for the month of June. We'll have a live stream set up so you'll be able to watch as the creative process unfolds over each 24 hour period. At the end of the month, you'll be able to vote for your 10 favorite songs, and the tracks with the most votes will end up on the 1st official Song A Day album which will be released on September 28th!
the more the merrier
In addition to all the musicians who will be coming and going (including the guys from my band: Nic Kaelin, Sam Douglass, Norman Famous, David Douglas and Eric Yeargan) there will be 4 core team members who will be with me all-day every-day, helping me with the nuts and bolts of recording, arranging and producing. They are as follows:
Nick Krill and Thomas Hughes (of The Spinto Band) will travel to Berkeley from their homes in Delaware. Nick is an amazing guitar player and a great recording engineer. Thomas is a wonderful multi-instrumentalist; with whom I have a long history of collaboration. My friend Matt Payne (of the Glowing Stars) is also a multi-instrumentalist and a wonderful producer and arranger. Liam McCormick (of The Family Crest) is going to write string arrangements for the songs.
Salesforce Invests In Video Messaging Startup (And Skype Rival) VSee
VSee, a video collaboration service provider, has received a capital injection from Salesforce, TechCrunch has learned. The amount was not disclosed, but we’ve been informed that the investment amounted to ‘multiple millions of dollars’.
Coinciding with the investment announcement, the company today announced the upcoming release of ‘One-Click Collaboration’, which it calls a ‘no install experience’ that instantly starts a rich video collaboration session between distributed users.
VSee offers a service that supports multiparty video calling, application/desktop sharing and file transfers over the Web. See video below for a demo.
The startup’s CEO, Milton Chen, says this concept of ‘One-click Collaboration’ combines the scalability and performance of p2p approaches such as Skype with the no-install simplicity of web technologies like Flash, overcoming the limitations of both.
The service will be released for general availability in July 2011.
The company says it already provides services to more than 6,000 enterprises worldwide, including Shell, Intel, Primerica, U.S. Navy SEALs and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
It currently only runs on Windows XP, Vista, and 7.
VSee was founded in 2008 following Chen’s human-computer interaction PhD research at Stanford University. Aside from Salesforce, In-Q-Tel has invested in the business.
Also worth noting: Chen is one of the authors of the XMPP video standard.
Earlier this year, Salesforce announced that it had acquired DimDim, a web conferencing service, for $31 million in cash.
NASA | Aquarius Climate
Sea surface salinity has a massive influence on Earth's climate. With Aquarius, scientists will have a new way to measure that influence in a consistent way. With its unprecedented accurate and consistent salinity measurements, Aquarius will help climate modelers to better understand the ocean-atmosphere processes that are changing Earth's climate.
NASA | Aquarius Water Cycle
Scientists need a breadth of information to understand the ocean's processes. That's where Aquarius comes in: the sensor will use advanced technologies to give NASA its first space-based measurements of sea surface salinity, helping scientists to improve predictions of future climate trends and events.
This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?10709
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Apple - Introducing iOS 5
Get a closer look at a few of the over 200 features that make iOS 5 the best update yet for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Monday, June 06, 2011
Is This iOS 5? Dunno, But It’s Likely The Right Idea
Could it be? Is this it? iOS 5?! I honestly have absolutely no clue. But it certainly seems like it at least could have the right idea.
Tomorrow morning, Apple is set to preview iOS 5 for the first time during the WWDC keynote. It’s likely that developers will get access to the initial build as well, so they can start working on updating their apps to take advantage of all the new features/functionality. But some select developers are believed to have already seen iOS 5 (notably those who are likely to present on stage tomorrow). And while not a lot has leaked out, we have heard a few things supposedly coming: widgets, Twitter integration, and revamped notifications.
The last two are particularly interesting given the image above. Again, no clue if it’s actually real or not, but the idea might be right. Notifications that come down from the top bar could be how Apple ends up doing things in iOS 5. After all, this would mimic already existing functionality — when tethering, a blue strip appears along the top; when on the phone, it’s a green strip. Might notifications (or at least Twitter notifications) produce a gray strip?
If so, when clicked on, what happens? Does it launch the Twitter app? Or are you taken to a notifications page to show you all the notifications you’ve missed? Or does it actually copy the Android idea, where you pull down this menu to display all your notifications?
This concept isn’t quite as slick as some of the mock-ups we’ve seen over the past couple of years. Nor is it as slick as some of the jailbroken ones — which actually led to a new Apple hire. But again, it does fit in with the current iOS workflow. That may or may not matter at all. Regardless, this way of doing things would be much better than the current pop-up method for Push Notifications.
Before you go yelling “fake” on the obvious things, a couple notes. First of all, yes, 11:54 PM is in the future — in the United States. But if the Weather app is to be believed, this is clearly a European version of iOS (note the 23 degrees Celsius in the icon instead of 72 degree Fahrenheit as you would see in the U.S.). Second, the Camera app icon is totally different, and looks a little odd being all-black, but who knows, maybe it’s changing. The icons are in the “correct” default order. Finally, if the talk of deep Twitter integration into iOS 5 is to be believed (we heard a bit, others have heard a bit more), it’s entirely possible that these new-style Twitter notifications could be working in iOS 5 right out of the box.
But again, who knows — no one outside of a handful of people before tomorrow morning. Well, and the guy below.
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Outside Aperture: fan made epilogue to Portal
"Outside Aperture," an eight-minute fan-made epilogue to the wonderful game Portal, created by EisenFeuer. It's pretty adorable, and there's cake.
Friday, June 03, 2011
Adam Bosworth Unveils Keas, The Game That Keeps You Healthy
After two years in stealth, Adam Bosworth is finally ready to start talking about his health startup Keas. Keas is not a Mint for health, although it began that way. Bosworth, who previously launched Google Health at Google and before that was known as the father of XML at Microsoft, founded Keas two years ago with $10 million from Ignition Partners and Atlas Venture. He thought he would build a Mint for health, but discovered that people don’t want to measure their health. So instead, he turned it into a game.
Keas is a game that keeps you healthy. You pick three goals a week, which can range from exercise to eating more fruits and vegetables to reducing stress. You get points for accomplishing your goals and for taking health quizes. If your company signs up for it, you can get rewards as well, including cash (HR departments are willing to pay for programs that will keep employees healthy and productive).
Bosworth came by the TCTV studios in New York City earlier this week for an interview, which you can watch above. He already has 10 companies including Quest Diagnostics and Novartis with about 1,000 employees each testing out the system in a private beta. But it is now public, and you can play here.
One of the key differences between Keas and something like Virgin Health is that Keas is inherently social. You join a team of your co-workers and everyone has to achieve goals together in order to level up in the game, so that encourages players to support each other.
Keas also takes a completely different approach than Google Health, which Bosworth helped to start. I asked Bosworth why Google Health never really took off. His answer in the video clip below is that Google Health never asked, “What could they do that people would want?” Instead. “they basically offerd a placeto store data.” People don’t want to store data, they want to have fun.
Guy Creates Smaller Version of Real Life Android-Powered Labyrinth in Under a Day [Video]
Google came to I/O this year with a life-sized Labyrinth game controlled with nothing but a Motorola XOOM. We were pretty awed by it and excited to see what else would be done with the Android Open Accessory ADK. The first, outside of the official demos we saw at Google I/O, seems to be a clone of that Labyrinth game, except it’s a million times smaller and uses a phone ( Nexus One instead of a tablet.
The engineer said he started the project – hardware, software and all – at 7pm and was finished at 5am. That’s exactly the type of turn-around developers like to hear when it comes to creating prototypes ahead of a deadline. We’re not sure how long it’d take to develop a more robust and advanced system, but hobbyist and beginners should rest easy knowing that it’s easy to get started with. (The engineer stated that his only prior experience with Android was a “Hello World” application using the demokit and accelerometer samples from the web.) Check the video out above. [Thanks Tipster!]
Thursday, June 02, 2011
TEDxVancouver - Jack Horner - The Shape-Shifting Skulls of Dinosaurs
"The Shape-Shifting Skulls of Dinosaurs" will focus on our latest discoveries concerning how dinosaur skulls changed as they grew to adult hood, and why it is that some dinosaur species are actually juvenile growth stages of other species. I will illustrate how it is that scientists got it wrong to begin with, and how we figured it all out. The talk will concern field work, studies in morphology, and osteohistology (the microscopic study of bone)
Jack has published more than 170 professional papers, 9 popular books, and more than 100 popular articles. His book Digging Dinosaurs was described by New Scientist Magazine as one of the 250 most important science books of the 20th Century. Jack also directs the largest dinosaur field research program in the world. He was the technical advisor for Steven Spielberg on all of the Jurassic Park movies, and has worked with National Geographic, and The Discovery Channel on numerous dinosaur specials.
Jack is the Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies, and Regent's Professor of Paleontology at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. He is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution, and an Honorary Research Fellow with the Natural History Museum in London.
About TEDx, x=independently organize event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-
organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.
At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep
discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized
events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event.
The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but
individual TEDx events are self-organized.*
(*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Microsoft Windows 8 for Tablets - Detailed Demonstration
A detailed demonstration of the new Microsoft Windows 8 for tablets at Computex 2011 in Taipei
HP May License webOS
At the D9 conference today, Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker says the company is planning to make it available to its partners to provide mobility services to their customers
Andrew Mason Demos Groupon Now
Onstage at D9, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason demos Groupon Now, which is location-based offers that consumers use instantly, and talks about how it's different than what Google announced yesterday with Offers.
Fanhattan Demo
Fanhattan, formerly known as Vuze, is a cloud-based app trying to aggregate the Web's many scattered video sources into a single location.
Square CEO Jack Dorsey
Kara Swisher jokes that he's the James Franco of the Internet, but given that he's CEO of Square and Product Chief at Twitter, the joke isn't too far from reality. Here he talk to Kara about how he spends his time
Jonathan Kaplan on the Death of Flip
Jonathan Kaplan, creator of the popular Flip camera, doesn't know why Cisco bought his company and then abruptly shut it down.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop flew several thousand miles to get to D9, but jet lag is probably the least of the ailments plaguing him. He sat down with Walt Mossberg to talk about Nokia's ailing stock price, trying to catch up in the smartphone race, and the company's relationship with Microsoft.
Alibaba CEO Jack Ma
Alibaba's CEO Jack Ma tried hard not to turn his entire interview at the D Conference to be all about the company's ongoing negotiations with Yahoo about the fate of Alipay. He talked with Kara Swisher about Groupon, Yahoo, and advice for Carol Bartz.
Google's Eric Schmidt
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt kicked off the D9 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. In this highlight reel he talks with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher about the "Gang of Four," his biggest regret from his tenure as CEO, and his unique retirement plans, among other things.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Marc Andreessen on Browsers, the Bubble and Silicon Valley History
Marc Andreessen helped kick off the first Web wave, and now he’s as deep in the second one as you can possibly get. And he speaks very, very quickly. Here’s a condensed version of his wide-ranging chat with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher from the D9 conference.
BlueStacks runs Android OS and apps on Windows PCs
BlueStacks runs Android OS and apps on Windows PCs with instant switch between Android and Windows - no reboot is required. End consumers can now enjoy their favorite Android apps on Windows PCs. Android apps can appear either as icons on the Windows desktop, or within a full-blown Android environment.
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