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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Social Mapping: Game Not Over Yet

Augustine: Congrats Platial!!!

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

As Google expands their social mapping features, competitors are regrouping and refocusing. Kleiner Perkins backed Platial, headquartered in Portland, is announcing the acquisition of chief competitor Frappr this morning. Frappr co-founder Kun Gao will join Platial as part of the deal.

Platial CEO Di-Ann Eisnor says the combined companies will reach 15 million unique users per month and will store 100 million user-generated location-based points of data, including photos, videos, reviews, stories and people (see examples here and here). 25% of all distributed map widgets on the Internet will be served via the platform.

Frappr never took outside financing. Platial raised two rounds. They took $800,000 in angel funding in October 2005 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Omidyar Network, Ram Shriram, Georges Harik, Jack Dangermon, and Ron Conway. In February 2007 they raised an additional $2.6 million from Keynote Ventures, with participation from most of the previous investors.

Where did Forrester get its Twitter data?

from Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger by Robert Scoble

Peter Kim of Forrester writes on his blog “Our data shows that 6% of US online adults use Twitter regularly.”

I say bulls**t.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that many people are using Twitter.

My data shows that the regular users are between 50,000 and 300,000. A high percentage of which are outside the United States. That doesn’t come anywhere close to the numbers required for 6%.

Keep in mind that Hotmail has about 200 million users every month. Yahoo Mail says they have about 250 million worldwide users.

But, I’d love to be proved wrong. Where did this data come from? How was it collected? Does Forrester stand behind it? What’s in the report that Peter linked to (I am not a Forrester client, so don’t have access)? Does it contain other numbers that just don’t jibe with common experience?

UPDATE: Someone just Twittered me this: “Peter Kims’s source on the unique users (he says 447,000 in Aug07) is Nielsen//NetRatings.” I doubt that’s data for “regular” users, or even online adult users in the US. I could see total registered users being that high, but that’d be world-wide. Watch twittervision.com someday and you’ll see that there are lots of users outside America.

UPDATE 2: Peter Kim responded here, and says they didn’t get the data from Nielsen. I still think the survey is very flawed if it’s bringing back such numbers.

Google Phone: Our Google Phone Wishlist

from Gizmodo by Jason Chen

Although rumors of a possible Google Phone have been making the rounds really hard lately, any such phone will have to be amazing to grab enough end-user and media attention. Expectations are high, but since we're dreaming, here's our wishlist:

Tight integration with Google Apps:
• Picasa: A 2MP camera with decent color and low light performance should take a shot, and upload it directly to your Picasa web storage as a mirror. Likewise for YouTube uploads.
• Google Talk: Both IM and VoIP makes this a fancy web communicator. The carriers may not like this, but we've got a feeling Google will sell this sans carrier. Oh, and other IM client support.
• Google Video and YouTube: To at least match the iPhone, they have to have their video sites ready for mobile usage. Uploading
• Google Earth: Google Earth for 3D maps, with GPS and app integration.
• Google Docs support with full read like the ones for iPhones, Windows Mobiles and BlackBerries, but real with full editing right on the phone, and support for multiuser editing.
• Google reader for RSS.
• Product Search, including camera phone barcode reading for quick price comparisons.
• Google Transit, Google Ride finder (taxis, limos and shuttles) integrated into maps.
• Third-party Support: Allow an open platform for other people to develop for. Even a company as big as Goog can't do everything by itself, and with niche apps developed by end-users, you can service minor target segments that wouldn't otherwise be cost-effective for you to cover.
• Those apps should be native, or at least widgetized for performance reasons. Native apps just run faster. We don't mean Java apps either, because those are even worse in terms of battery usage.

• This thing is going to be a data transfer hog while it swaps info with all Google's online services. A 3G connection that toggles on for heavy downloads and uploads, but reverts to Wi-Fi or 2G for background email checking, etc. (To save battery.)
• Push GMail and exchange server support.
• A music player that doesn't suck: It's not going to be an iPod, but it's gotta have something in terms of media features that can top Windows Mobile phones. Try Rhapsody support. Stay away from WMPlayer as a load program, please.
• Search from the home screen: Bring Google's search-centric features to your phone, letting you search contacts, the web, your emails, and every other bit of data right from your home screen, much like the Helio Ocean does.
• Hardware Keyboard: The iPhone's virtual keyboard is passable, but we still love the solid feel of a key clicking. Our favorite is HTC's slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which is great because HTC is the rumored contractor for the Google Phone's hardware.
• Touchscreen: Since it's probably going to be an HTC-made phone, a 3-inch touchscreen on par with Windows Mobile phones is the least they can do. While it would be nice to have multi-touch gestures, it's not completely necessary.
• Long Battery life: We don't mind sacrificing some portability for a battery that can last an entire day, even with heavy screen and 3G usage. Nokia's are known for optimizing battery life without sacrificing too many features, but the Google apps may be too processor intensive—especially when combined with 3G.
• Form-factor: We love the slide-out form factor that HTC usually uses, which gives us a spacious keyboard as well as a big screen on top. A Treo-like shape with keys on the front wouldn't be too bad either, but would sacrifice screen space.

Funny thing is, Helio's Ocean and Nokia's N series phones do a lot of this. The UI needs to be slicker than what either of those companies have done so far, though. (Maybe they should hire some ex-Apple software people.) Anyhow, we don't even know if this phone is real, for certain, so I'm not sweating it.

EDGE Tech intros $400 32GB DiskGO USB flash drive

from Engadget by Darren Murph

32GB USB drives are certainly not new, but considering the astronomical pricetags they tend to sport, they haven't exactly caught fire with budget-conscious gadget lovers. EDGE Tech is apparently hoping to change that by offering up its capacious 32GB DiskGO for "just" $399.95. Granted, it's not like our bargain alerts are going haywire over that figure, but we suppose it's not too unreasonable considering the alternatives. Ah well, at least you won't have to worry over this thing attracting the ever-wandering eyes of gadget thieves -- you know, considering how the unadorned exterior hides its true value and all.

[Via MobileMag]

Universal, Warner, and EMI to sell music on flash drives

from Engadget by Nilay Patel

The major record labels' ongoing fixation with physical media continues on, as Universal , EMI, and Warner have each announced plans to sell music preloaded on flash drives. Universal says the move is "aimed at the younger, 12 to 24 year olds, who no longer believe that the CD is as cool as it used to be," but that "people still want to own a physical product." Yeah, too bad that physical product is a DAP. Predictably, the $10 flash drives will cost twice as much as normal CD singles but contain additional content -- just like that ridiculous "ringle" concept we just heard about, only with more plastic and manufacturing involved. There's no word on what format the music will be in or what the DRM will be, but it's not like it really matters, since no one is going to buy these anyway. No word on when we'll see this Stateside, but UK teenagers can expect to be patronized by the record labels sometime in the next few months.

[Via Pocket-lint]

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Apple's waiting on Intel's Penryn for revamped Mac Pros? - 8 cores

from Engadget by Paul Miller

Filed under: Desktops

Apple's desktop warrior Mac Pro doesn't get half the play of Apple's laptops and iMac in the rumor mill, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of pent up love for the beastly machine. AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has a revision ready with a significant overhaul of the internals. Apparently what's holding things up is Intel's 45nm Penryn chips, which should be available around the middle of November. Of course, rumors had the Mac Pro in quite similar shape last year, with Apple holding up production for upcoming Clovertown chips. Those arrived right on time, but Apple held up the 8-core Mac for five months in anticipation of Creative Suite 3. The theories this time around are that now that demand is raging for pro machines thanks to Adobe's quite successful product, Apple's going to try to get a new high-end machine -- which could be up to 45 percent faster -- out the door as soon as possible. Rumored specs top out at dual quad-core Xeon "Harpertown" chips running up to 3.2GHz with 1600MHz bus and 12MB of L2 cache, which would be 8 cores of thunder indeed. Who knows if Intel can be shipping enough of those by the end of this year to warrant a Mac Pro release, but it seems like however it goes down, professionals are going to have a new and pricey toy from Apple before too terribly long.

LG.Philips announce 0.78-inch ultra-slim 42-inch LCD -- available March!

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

LG.Philips just announced an "ultra-slim" 42-inch Full HD 120Hz panel for 2008. Not Q4 2008 either kids, we're talking sometime before March. So what can we expect after Sharp's 1.1-inch thin 52-inch panel and Hitachi's 0.74-inch 32-incher? Something in between right? ~~Nope, 7.8-inches thick~~. Exactly, 19.8-mm or just 0.78-inches thin. According to LG.Philips, that makes it 40% thinner and 10% lighter than conventional LCD TVs which is pretty hot. It'll be CCFL backlit (not LED) though when it does hit -- that'll keep the cost down but won't do much for the contrast. The panel will be on display at FPD International in Yokohama next week where we hope to bring you a first look.

Update: Oops, major metric conversion snafu -- good thing we're not in charge of the Mars space program. It's fracking thin!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Nokia's N810 makes first appearance, drops jaws

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

We're still waiting for the press release, but that's Nokia N810 Internet Tablet in the fo' realz. Yeah, sexy is an understatement. We peeped this model in a spyshot back in July and appears to be the same lovely recently revealed by the FCC. The obvious improvement to the N800? The full QWERTY.

Gallery: Nokia's N810 makes first appearance, drops jaws (hi-res)

[Via InternetTabletTalk, thanks Noah]

Amazon one-click patent struck down

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Glyn sez, "The infamous one-click patent owned by Amazon has finally been proven invalid. The USPTO has rejected many of the broadest claims of the patent following the re-examination request by blogger Peter Calveley. You can track Peter's steps to make this happen on his blog, he sums up his efforts in his last blog post."

In a recent office action, the USPTO has rejected the claims of the Amazon.com one-click patent following the re-examination request that I filed on 16 February 2006.
My review resulted in the broadest claims of the patent being ruled invalid.
In its Office Action released 9 October 2007, the Patent Office found that the prior art I found and submitted completely anticipated the broadest claims of the patent, U.S. Patent No. 5,960,411.
I had only requested the USPTO look at claims 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21 and 22 but the Office Action rejects claims 11-26 and claims 1-5 as well!
Amazon has the opportunity to respond to the Patent Office's rejection, but third party requests for reexamination, like the one I filed, result in having the subject patent either modified or completely revoked about 2/3 of the time.

Link (Thanks, Glyn!)

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

How to: make a carbon-negative fuel

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

Alex Steffen of Worldchanging says,

My colleague Jer Faludi has written up the best overview I've yet read about how biochar/gasification systems work. Given that there is at least the theoretical potential here to create a carbon-negative energy source (that is, an energy source that over the course of normal operation actually *removes* carbon dioxide from the atmosphere), the char/gas combo has a lot of people, um, fired up.
(Though it's important to remember that when dealing with complex systems like climate, topsoil and farm subsidies, no bullet is as silver as it looks from afar.)
Snip:
"We've mentioned terra preta before: it's a human-made soil or fertilizer. "Three times richer in nitrogen and phosphorous, and twenty times the carbon of normal soils, terra preta is the legacy of ancient Amazonians who predate Western civilization." Although we don't know how it was made back then, we do know how to make it now: burn biomass (preferably agricultural waste) in a special way that pyrolisizes it, breaking down long hydrocarbon chains like cellulose into shorter, simpler molecules. These simpler molecules are more easily broken down by microbes and plants as food, and bond more easily with key nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. This is what makes terra preta such good fertilizer. Because terra preta locks so much carbon in the soil, it's also a form of carbon sequestration that doesn't involve bizarre heroics like pumping CO2 down old mine shafts."

Link

mig33: Google Talk for Its 7 Million Members

from GigaOM by Katie Fehrenbacher

In countries where international long-distance rates are high, mobile services like mig33's mobile instant messenger and VoIP calls are starting to gain a sizable user base. The Burlingame, Calif. startup, which was an eTel/GigaOM Launch Pad startup, says it has signed up more than 7 million users to date and has added several new features, including Google Talk (GOOG).

The startup's 7 million members and growing user base actually surprised me a bit — the company said it had 6 million members in July — given that its main approach is to use downloadable mobile software. Mobile clients can often be a barrier to entry when attempting to build a sizable amount of users, particularly for services that are supposed to save users money. For those that don't want to download, the company also recently added a WAP site. Other mobile callback/calling type services that offer lower-cost minutes include Jajah and Cellity.

Triple Screen Notebook: Acme Laptop Does a Three-Way, Unfolds Into Obscenely Wide Triple Screen

from Gizmodo by Charlie White

This prototype of an Acme semi-portable notebook with a huge folding three-way display was rolled out in Taipei during Taitronix Autumn 2007 that just wrapped up earlier this week. It starts out as a mild-mannered suitcase, and then unfolds into a monster laptop with a outlandishly wide screen. There is no information on the size of each of the flat panels, but from what we can see they look like they are each at least 20-inch-diagonal displays. No pricing was announced, but it'll be available sometime next year. [AVing]

Napster Dumping Client Download

from TechCrunch by Nick Gonzalez

Word is that Napster is dumping their desktop client and relaunching with a fully web based client as part of an effort to broaden their reach. Customers will be able to listen to their music over the web on any computer after signing in. The new web client will make it possible to join a slew of other online music services in creating embeddable music widgets to push their product and become accessible on web enabled devices.

However, the desktop client is only part of what's holding the company back. Napster is still a subscription-centered service, which keeps them incompatible with the leading digital music player, the iPod (not a good idea, say industry experts). Consequently Napster has lagged behind Apple's end to end iTunes system which reportedly controls 70% of the digital music market.

But the company is holding out for a glimmer of hope. Amazon has already crossed the chasm into open digital downloads. Christopher Allen, chief operating officer at Napster, forecasts that by the end of next year these DRM free MP3s will become standard. So far, only Universal Music Group and EMI Group sell music DRM free. However, with labels loving the iPod but hating the revenue split, other labels are sure to follow.

In other music news, Ars Technica is expecting iTunes to lower the price of DRM-free songs to $0.99. That's still $0.10 more per song than Amazon is charging. Note our recently article on the inevitable march of recorded music towards free.

50x Faster Than BitTorrent: I Want

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

Popout Thomas Crampton interviews Ogilvy China’s Kaiser Kuo on the current state of web development in China in the video above. It’s interesting in its entirity as they discuss the growing wave of Web 2.0 development in China, but of particular note is Kuo’s description of Chinese P2P file network Blin.cn.

Kuo claims that Blin.cn is 50 times faster than BitTorrent and when downloading the show 24 season 6 he was able to start watching it with 2.2% downloaded after only 3 minutes, and all in DVD quality.

It’s interesting to consider the broader ramifications of what Kuo is saying. His general argument is that without the artificial market restrictions imposed on P2P networks in the United States by the RIAA and the MPAA, Chinese companies have been free to innovate and are now producing superior web technology in P2P sharing, and a whole range of related industries. If you think it’s bad that China dominates the market for consumer goods, imagine that today companies in China have already created the next wave of P2P innovation and are thriving, perhaps ironically in a Communist country, with more freedoms than their American counterparts. It’s not unreasonable to consider that next year and into the future that much of what we do online may end up being based on Chinese designed technology and programming, and not good ol’ fashioned American know-how.

Indentured Servitude: AT&T Decides to Play Nice, Lets Customers Change Calling Plans Without Penalty

from Gizmodo by Charlie White

AT&T, the 800-pound gorilla of U.S mobile services, decided to pull a Verizon and let its cellphone users off the hook if they decide to change their contracts. The company says now people can get out of their indentured servitude early without having to pay a flat termination fee. Going a little bit easier on the poor souls, the quit-fines will be reduced according to how long a customer has been letting his blood be sucked by AT&T. Even more important to some users, they'll be allowed to change their level of service without extending the contract, or signing up for more abuse from the Ma Bell giant. If you happen to like AT&T and its fine, fine, cellphone service, please excuse our bile-spitting criticism. [Yahoo News]

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