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Meet Pinterest: A Private Social Pinboard That Collects Your Online Memories (Mashable) : Technet |
- Meet Pinterest: A Private Social Pinboard That Collects Your Online Memories (Mashable)
- iTunes great for Apple, but was it for music biz? (AP)
- Obama calls for passage of jobs bill (AP)
- How Cellphones, Mobile Devices Can Be a Pain in the Neck (ContributorNetwork)
- Android App Tablet Review: TweetComb (Appolicious)
- CouchSurfing assets go to NH-based charitable fund (AP)
- Microsoft designing custom version of Silverlight for Xbox dashboard update (Digital Trends)
- Android devices battle iPhone 4S; Kindle Fire pre-orders hot up (Appolicious)
- Opinion: Could an Apple iTV really succeed? (Digital Trends)
- Opera Software CTO on apps and the future of web browsing (Appolicious)
| Meet Pinterest: A Private Social Pinboard That Collects Your Online Memories (Mashable) Posted: 07 Oct 2011 04:30 PM PDT The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Pinterest [More from Mashable: A Social News App That Exposes Everything You Read] Quick Pitch: Pinterest is a digital pinboard for things you love. Genius Idea: A bookmark that makes it easy to save photos from any webpage. [More from Mashable: 3 New Apps for Sharing Gifts, Trips & Products]
When Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann was looking for an engagement ring for his girlfriend, he turned to his own product for inspiration. He found the right one on the list of a jewelry enthusiast, and pinned it to his digital board. He also used Pinterest to help plan the wedding, keep track of potential future vacation destinations, list his family's favorite recipes and just remember images that fit the title "little things I love." This flexibility is part of Pinterest's draw. Expressing passion for a hobby is just as easy as browsing for your next purchase. But what's even more addictive about the site -- a collection of collections -- is that it's just as much about the users as it is what they've posted. "The things you collect say a lot about you, and we wanted to bring that experience online," says Silbermann. Here's how Pinterest works: Users create lists about anything and fill them with photos from around the web. They can follow other lists and users, and "repin" specific items. An Instapaper-like bookmark makes adding to a list from anywhere much easier than writing a blog post or uploading an image to a photo-sharing service. And the browser experience is ideal for the small attention spans of web readers -- almost no text, almost all pictures. Pinterest revealed Friday that it had raised a $27 million round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz. The site is still not open to the public, and users need to request an invitation to use it. Silbermann says that there are no monetization plans in the works. It's unusual for a startup in private beta to get this much attention from a top investment firm -- especially a startup with no clear path to making money. What Pinterest has is people's attention. Judging by the 4.5-star iTune rating of its iPhone app, that attention is positive. Though the company declined to reveal information about their userbase, almost 30,000 users have taken time to rate the app in the app store. That's about as many ratings as Tumblr's iPhone app -- which had a four-year head start.
Image courtesy of istockphoto, chieferu
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| iTunes great for Apple, but was it for music biz? (AP) Posted: 08 Oct 2011 01:11 PM PDT NEW YORK – When Apple rolled out iTunes for the masses in the spring of 2003, the music industry was at a point of transition — and chaos. Entering the new millennium, albums were enjoying blockbuster sales of several million units for its superstar artists, and profits were booming. Yet the threat of Napster and other forms of illegal downloading threatened to eviscerate those profits as many music fans were starting to get used to the idea that music, and loads of it, could be free. Apple's iTunes entered into that landscape with a concept that wasn't exactly new: a system where you could pay for songs online. Yet iTunes, with its simple interface, its simple concept — 99 cents per song — and revolutionary MP3 device, the iPod, made it the golden standard. The entry of Apple and its leader, Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday, into the music world was more than a success — it was a phenomenon. Today, iTunes is the largest music retailer, has redefined the listening experience and has largely become the way that music is consumed. What's less clear is how much the music industry — which is continuing to decline — has benefited. Even today, consensus is mixed. "It really did remind an entire industry, and gave a cue to even a culture beyond the industry that if you provided music in a convenient, direct way and responded to the consumers' interest and demands, they would in fact buy it, especially if it was priced appropriately," said James Diener, CEO and President of A&M/Octone Records. "It forced change in a positive way. People who are critical of what iTunes may have done perhaps have short memories and don't realize that the alternative at the time was that an enormous amount of music was leaking onto the Internet and being consumed for free," Diener added. "The alternative was to inspire people to buy music, and to go to a digital retail site. ... That was a remarkable step forward." Apple introduced iTunes in 2001, a few months before it would release the now-ubiquitous iPod (which begat the iPod Nano, the iPhone, the iPad). At the time, it was not a music store but a rip-and-burn library service only available for Mac users. It initially was viewed with great skepticism by record companies for its ability to make digital copies of music — something the industry thought would lead to piracy. The industry had a lot to protect. It was enjoying booming sales at the turn of the last century, fueled by the success of teen sensations like Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and `N Sync. But it was just starting to feel the effects of the illegal downloading era: The top-selling album of that year, Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory," sold 4.8 million, down from 2000's top-seller, `N Sync's "No Strings Attached," which sold almost 8 million a year before. "That was at the same time we were confronting Napster, we were confronting the beginnings of the global piracy epidemic that was to come," said Jim Donio, president of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, or NARM. "At the same moment of time, we were also experiencing the biggest weekly sales of all time. It was a very odd confluence of events, because you had the harbinger of immense challenges, but at the same time, reaping the rewards of incredible record breaking physical sales. ... It was heated, it was tense." When Apple's iTunes became a full-service online music store in 2003, it offered more than 200,000 songs that could be loaded on your iPod and fully portable, all for 99 cents a download, no matter who the artist was (in recent years, it has allowed for more variation, with some singles now costing $1.29 per song). Bill Werde, editorial director at Billboard, said that while other services were available at the time, the genius of Jobs was making iTunes the ultimate consumer destination. "He created the retail experience that most people know now. He focused on the fan, he focused on the user experience, he didn't focus on rights and complicated pricing schemes. He focused just on what would be simple and what would be easy for a music fan to do, and what would be good for a music fan to experience," Werde said. "You look around today, we sell tens of millions of digital tracks each year," he continued. "Given that Apple has an 80 percent, 70 percent market share in that digital space when it comes to downloads, you really see how important Apple has become in selling music to music fans." Apple set the pricing, to the chagrin of the music industry, promoting parity for singles and albums. "If you walked into a physical record store prior to iTunes ... there was more confusion about what the value of what certain records were worth. You'd see one record that was a brand new release marked at $17.98, and then another one right next to it for $13.98, so there was a lot of clarity for iTunes," Diener said. "I think what iTunes did, which was wise on their part and difficult necessarily for the industry to appreciate at first, was they just standardized all the pricing. ... That was growing pains for the industry because they were used to having more control of the pricing of their products." Diener believes that price standardization was one of the key reasons for iTunes' success. But while iTunes was booming, the era also hastened the demise of traditional retail stores like Tower and Virgin. No longer did rabid fans need to form a line in front of a music store to get their favorite album, then play it once they got home; They could order it at home and listen instantaneously. They also didn't have the buy the whole album: iTunes ushered in the era of the singles artists. Cherry-picking songs from albums has become the norm, and some artists have complained that iTunes led to the diminishment of the album. "I don't disagree with some of that criticism," Diener said. "By unbundling the album and allowing consumers to buy songs one at a time, it changed the whole nature of consumer thinking of what is the basic unit of music — is it an album or is it a single?" But Werde says Napster and other forms of illegal downloading already had started that process in motion. "I don't think that iTunes unbundled the album, but I think Apple sort of benefited from this eco-system that certainly supported the single," he said. "Really, it's the music fan that unbundled the album, by all of these fans clearly responding to this amazing new way to experience their music. I mean, the shuffle button? I think the shuffle button may have single-handedly changed the musical horizon of 50 percent of the world." In 2010, iTunes marked the sale of its 10 billionth song. Even longtime stalwarts have come to embrace iTunes: The Beatles' catalog finally became available late last year. Paul McCartney considered Jobs a friend and called him "a great creative artist" and a music lover. Yet for all of iTunes' success, the music industry is still floundering. While sales are up slightly this year, the industry has been on a dramatic decline for the past decade, as labels have been shuttered and thousands of jobs lost as it continues to contract. While digital downloads continue to explode, overall album sales have dropped by at least half. "Steve Jobs leaves behind a little bit of a complex legacy," Werde said. "He helped create what we think of today as the legal digital music market, which is a substantial music market around the world. But at the same time, the music business in the retail space is probably worth about half of what it was worth ten years ago, so I don't know that anyone saved the music business," he said. "No one has yet solved the problem that music can still be free." ___ Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the music editor for the AP. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi |
| Obama calls for passage of jobs bill (AP) Posted: 08 Oct 2011 05:31 AM PDT WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is pushing in his weekly radio and Internet address for Senate passage of his nearly $450 billion jobs bill as senators prepare to vote Tuesday on moving to debate on the measure. Obama also asked listeners to Saturday's address to tell their senators to support the bill, which he's been lobbying for aggressively against Republican opposition since unveiling it a month ago. With the economy listless and unemployment stuck above 9 percent moving into the 2012 presidential campaign, Obama said the bill "can help guard against another downturn here in America." "But if we don't act, the opposite will be true," the president said. "There will be fewer jobs and weaker growth. So any senator out there who's thinking about voting against this jobs bill needs to explain why they would oppose something that we know would improve our economic situation." Obama's jobs plan would reduce payroll taxes on workers and employers, extend benefits to long-term unemployed people, spend money on public works projects and help states and local governments keep teachers, police officers and firefighters on the job. He proposed paying for the plan mainly by closing tax loopholes for oil and gas companies and raising taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000. Those proposals were rejected by Senate Democrats who substituted a tax on millionaires, with Obama's agreement. But with Republicans opposed to much of the new spending in the bill and to tax hikes even on millionaires, the legislation stands no chance of getting through the Republican-controlled House in its current form, even if Senate Democrats were able to muster the necessary Republican support for Senate passage. Despite the opposition Obama intends to keep pushing for the plan in an effort to show the public that Republicans are standing in the way. "The proposals in this bill are steps we have to take if we want to build an economy that lasts; if we want to be able to compete with other countries for jobs that restore a sense of security for the middle-class," Obama said. "There are too many people hurting in this country for us to simply do nothing," he said. "The economy is too fragile for us to let politics get in the way of action." Despite opposition to the overall bill, individual elements of it may well get through Congress, particularly an extension and expansion of a payroll tax cut that took effect Jan. 1. Republicans used their weekly address to criticize the plan. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., called it "nothing but a rehash of the same failed ideas he's already tried, combined with a huge tax increase." "This is a cynical political ploy that's designed not to create jobs for struggling Americans, but to save the president's own job," Thune said. He also accused Obama of promulgating excessive regulations and too much red tape, to the detriment of business. "We're calling for a regulatory time-out, an affordable energy plan, broad-based tax reform including lower rates, and policies that provide the certainty and stability our economy desperately needs," Thune said. ____ Online: Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov GOP address: http://www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress |
| How Cellphones, Mobile Devices Can Be a Pain in the Neck (ContributorNetwork) Posted: 08 Oct 2011 01:44 PM PDT Contribute content like this. Start here. My dad used to joke that years from now, humans would have much longer necks to allow for their cell phones to rest in the crevice between their ears and shoulders. He would explain that that was the only way he could foresee people maintaining their ability to multitask and to keep tabs on their technology. Of course, that was long before hands-free and Bluetooth options were available, and before text messaging was the preferred method of cell phone communication. But I think his humorous, seemingly unrealistic concern may be something that more people should consider sooner, rather than later. According to an Oct. 7 MSNBC health report, "text neck" is a legitimate condition that could affect anyone who uses some sort of handheld gadget, from a Blackberry to an e-reader to a pocket-size electronic gaming device. Because people hunch over to use these gadgets, that compromises posture and can lead to neck and shoulder pain, experts said in the report. Based on that, the concern isn't that the neck would "flop over," as my dad would put it, but that the neck gets strained from leaning forward. With a multitude of electronic communication devices out there and the ever-growing popularity of them, this seems to be something that more people need to become attuned to. A Sept. 19 study by the Pew Research Center found that 83 percent of American adults own cell phones and 73 percent of them use the texting feature on those phones. Approximately a third (31 percent) of those surveyed prefer text messaging to voice calling. The Pew study also indicated that 97 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 own a cell phone and 95 percent of those users opt to text. Parents, unless you want your teens and 20-somethings to be hunched over before you are, I would say that this is a wake-up call worth heeding. I realize that we are a technologically connected society, but that doesn't give people justification to become so obsessed with the latest high-tech gadget fad, that they inevitably feel the effects. This is a correctable problem. On the heels of the passing of Apple leader Steve Jobs, I hope that those who embrace the innovative products he and his competitors have put out take their health into consideration. Don't become another text neck victim. Wait for evolution to grow you a longer neck instead. |
| Android App Tablet Review: TweetComb (Appolicious) Posted: 08 Oct 2011 03:30 PM PDT |
| CouchSurfing assets go to NH-based charitable fund (AP) Posted: 08 Oct 2011 10:23 AM PDT CONCORD, N.H. – CouchSurfing International, the social network that connects travelers with free accommodations around the world, is now a for-profit corporation, and New Hampshire stands to benefit. The company got its start in Conway, N.H., in 2003, when New Hampshire native Casey Fenton and three others co-founded couchsurfing.org to promote intercultural understanding and what they call "inspiring experiences." It operated as a nonprofit until this summer, when, after being denied federal tax-exempt charity status, it converted to a "benefit corporation," a new designation for corporations required to benefit society as well as shareholders. As part of the conversion, the company was required to put its assets into a charitable fund. The fund, administered by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, will award grants to programs that foster appreciation of different cultures. Programs that serve children and young adults will be given preference, as will New Hampshire-based projects. "We are confident that this money that is going to New Hampshire will be used to advance our mission," CEO Daniel Hoffer said in a phone interview from San Francisco, where the company is based. According to the charitable foundation, the fund will provide up to $50,000 per year to schools, nonprofit groups and communities. Projects that might meet the grant criteria include international travel programs, programs for refugee groups and the communities in which they live, classroom-based projects that use technology to connect students in different countries and projects that promote understanding between different ethnic or racial groups within a community. Hoffer would not comment on the total value of the fund, but said the cost of the corporate conversion, legal fees and the amount transferred to the fund approach $1 million. The company has raised $7.6 million in investor money. Though the company has faced some backlash from members who aren't happy with the new corporate structure, Hoffer insists that the change will make couchsurfing.org better. "The user experience is only going to improve because we now have more resources available to support our community," he said. "Ultimately, our goal is to put that money to use in facilitating the life-changing and inspiring experiences for which we are known." Couchsurfing.org has more than 3 million members, and claims to have helped arrange nearly 6 million traveler-host experiences. Members include not only people who want to travel or hosts willing to put them up, but people who volunteer to meet travelers for coffee or meals or show them around their hometowns. Safety features include a system in which users vouch for people they know and trust in real life and a verification system in which members pay a fee to have their names and addresses verified. The investor money will allow the company to hire more staff, as well as outside consultants to work on adding features to the site and creating a mobile application. While the site's core features will remain free, there are plans to add optional features for which users will be charged. |
| Microsoft designing custom version of Silverlight for Xbox dashboard update (Digital Trends) Posted: 08 Oct 2011 12:58 PM PDT
While media companies like Comcast and Verizon are anxiously awaiting the potential November 15 release of the Xbox 360 dashboard update, Microsoft's Xbox team is furiously working to create a version of Silverlight to stream content to users. According to Gigaom, the code name for the project is Lakeview and contains a variety of new actions for the Xbox 360 Kinect system including more gesture and voice controls. Microsoft is rolling out different revisions of Lakeview for third-party developers to test prior to the launch of the Fall update. Ideally, this initial framework should allow developers to build video apps for the Xbox 360 console without significant assistance from Microsoft. Microsoft recently announced new partnerships with 50 content providers around the world. Through the new dashboard update, users will be able to locate content by either typing a keyword search into the Bing search engine customized for the console or use the Kinect to search through a voice command. While several of the video services require a subscription to your current cable provider, many services require a download of the application to access movies and television shows. |
| Android devices battle iPhone 4S; Kindle Fire pre-orders hot up (Appolicious) Posted: 08 Oct 2011 10:00 AM PDT |
| Opinion: Could an Apple iTV really succeed? (Digital Trends) Posted: 08 Oct 2011 04:30 AM PDT
I'm kind of fascinated with the coverage of Steve Jobs' passing. I'll watch knowledgeable people argue that Steve was unique, crazy smart, and connected to every part of Apple including the invention of its most successful products: the iPod, iPad, and iPhone. These same people will then argue that Apple will largely be unchanged with his passing. To me, that's like arguing a diamond ring will be unchanged after the diamond is removed. However, Apple will be what it will be. Rather than talking about that anymore, let's talk about the TV Apple is rumored to be working on. I've now heard from a number of reasonably reliable sources that Apple has picked up panels and technology that would imply it is working on its own TV. Initially, thinking back at HP and Pioneer's failed TV attempts, I thought this was crazy. Now, well I still think this is crazy, but let's talk how Apple might be successful.
Apple's successesApple's biggest successes have been with products people carry in unsaturated markets. When the iPod came out the MP3 player market was tiny, largely because most of the products were, well, junk. Apple blew up that market and took the majority of share by being the first to sell an end-to-end solution, and by blocking HP's entry (HP had a similar solution, but I won't tell that story again here).With the iPhone, smartphones were a small fraction of the market, and it was dominated by the BlackBerry, a business-focused product that required a specialized server to work properly. Microsoft was in the market, but its device was saddled with a browser that was an embarrassment, and a user interface that, well, looked a lot like Windows. Apple entered with a better end-to-end solution, app stores, and a vastly easier to use and more capable offering. Again, Apple exploded the market and took a large chunk of it. The only reason Apple doesn't continue to dominate is because the carriers don't like the deals they have to cut with Apple to get its products, and so the majority have been pushing Android-based phones instead. The iPad was more similar to the iPod in that it entered a tablet market dominated by Windows tablets, which were expensive, heavy, had poor battery life and a touch experience that sucked. Apple's product was cheaper, lighter, had better battery life, and a better user experience. Again, Apple exploded the market and was the big beneficiary in it. Apple̢۪s success formula appears to be to take an underperforming market, fix the solution (not just the hardware), and reap the majority of the benefits.
The TV marketNow let's look at the TV market. This is a saturated market. People don't just have one, but often they have several TVs in the home and TVs have a useful life of around eight years. The market has commoditized around current flat-screen technology, and both smart TVs and 3D TVs have been struggling to penetrate.But, in a way, this is similar to the MP3 market, which had underneath it products like the Sony Walkman which played tapes or CDs. People are watching more programing on demand and getting more and more off the Web. This could be the equivalent of the then-new MP3 market, suggesting a similar approach could work here. In other words, doing for the smart TV what Apple did with the iPod and iPad. Adding programming, apps (likely mostly games), and an unmatched user experience. Like the iPad, Apple they could then subsidize (take a slimmer margin on) the TV and still both provide a better experience and maintain high margins. The money would come from licensing accessories, or skimming a portion of the profit on sold apps and content, which is mostly pure profit.
Don't forget about StarbucksGiven the high risk and lack of success for Apple TV (which is arguably the best in its class today) I still am doubtful Apple will take this risk. But I also know Steve Jobs hated TV, and he is gone now, so it is far more likely than it was while he was still there.One final example is Starbucks. Before Starbucks, coffee was sold by pretty much everyone, and from anywhere from a quarter to seventy five cents. It was the definition of a saturated market. Starbucks entered with a European-inspired product and connected it to status. As much as it pains me, I have a Starbucks coffee most mornings (I didn't even like coffee before this). However there is one thing all of these successes have in common: They were products you carried and people saw you with. They gave personal status. Things that go into the home are seen by far fewer people, and don't have the same status associated with them. Yes color TVs and flat screens, when they first came out, were considered a status symbols but they don't have the impact of an iPhone or iPad. I think if Apple can find a way to address this and still do for the TV what they did for the iPod and iPad, it could actually be an even bigger success. Given the risk, I still doubt Apple will do it, but I don't doubt that it could be done. We'll see, because I likely would have said the same thing about the iPad, given the lack of success for the Windows tablet. Steve Jobs' Apple was defined by a little bit of crazy, crazy smart, and crazy lucky. We'll see if the new Apple has a little of the right crazy in it.
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| Opera Software CTO on apps and the future of web browsing (Appolicious) Posted: 08 Oct 2011 06:00 AM PDT |
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