By Andrew Liszewski It seems the guy responsible for the highest popping toaster in the world has a preoccupation with the world’s blankiest blank. He also created what he claims to be the fastest clock in the world because it displays the time down to a millionth of a second. But if you check out the […]
By Andrew Liszewski
It seems the guy responsible for the highest popping toaster in the world has a preoccupation with the world’s blankiest blank. He also created what he claims to be the fastest clock in the world because it displays the time down to a millionth of a second. But if you check out the video I’ve included below, I’m not sure if ‘display’ is the best term to use since the last few digits on the clock are nothing but a blur.
Thankfully Freddie thought to include a button that will freeze the display at the current time (the current time as of when you push the button) if you need to set your considerably less accurate watch or VCR. While it’s just a prototype at this point, as a freelancer who occasionally charges by the hour, I’m hoping that one day I’ll be able to pick one up and provide my clients with a ridiculously accurate invoice.
New startup Instinctiv launches this day and simultaneously announces a first round of angel financing. The company’s product, Instinctiv Shuffle, is an iPhone application (jailbroken iPhones only, for now), that watches your listening habits to make a smart guess about which song you’ll want to listen to next. It claims to guess your mood and […]
New startup Instinctiv launches today and simultaneously announces a first round of angel financing. The company’s product, Instinctiv Shuffle, is an iPhone application (jailbroken iPhones only, for now), that watches your listening habits to make a smart guess about which song you’ll want to listen to next. It claims to guess your mood and know exactly what you’ll want to listen to.
The company, which was founded by Justin Smithline and Peter Brodsky, has raised $750,000 from Cayuga Venture Fund, Rosetech Ventures and a group of angel investors.
This isn’t the first music-addon service for the iPhone that’s received funding. Israeli startup TuneWiki, which let’s users download song lyrics to their iPhone, was funded by Benchmark Capital earlier this year as well. Both applications should prove to be very popular once the iPhone App Store launches next month.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
We’ve had another iPhone app come out of the woodwork to give us a preview before the impending launch of Apple’s App Store (despite the company’s rumored suggestions against it). It’s nrme (near me) - a messaging system that looks to cut down on on the internet noise by constraining messages to people within a nine […]
We’ve had another iPhone app come out of the woodwork to give us a preview before the impending launch of Apple’s App Store (despite the company’s rumored recommendations against it). It’s nrme (near me) - a messaging system that looks to cut down on online noise by constraining messages to people within a nine block radius of each other. The native app will be iPhone-only, and hopes to launch near the end of July.
At first, nrme sounds like little more than a geo-aware version of Twitter, but a closer look reveals some important differences that could make nrme a very popular app for iPhone users, especially in urban areas.
Users submit short messages through an app on their phone, which are mass-broadcasted to other Nrme users within a 9 block radius. Each time a user submits a message, it is readable by everyone else in the vicinity - there is no “follow” system. And while there’s an option to intitate private chats with users, the primary function of nrme isn’t about socializing or making friends, it’s about getting the latest updates about things that are going on within walking distance.
For example, users could let each other know if a certain bar was getting over-overcrowded, or if a local store had just gotten a much-desired product in stock (iPhone 3G anyone?). The service could also be especially useful at public venues like concerts, sporting events, or conferences.
The company plans to monetize the app by including location and time based advertising at the top of the application. CEO Andrew Bennett envisions local bars and restaurants using the space to announce happy hours, or hotels offering last minute discounts.
Nrme has a lot of potential, but the app still has a few kinks to work out. For one, it’s going to have to deal with the ever-present “chicken and the egg” problem - nobody will use the service if there isn’t anyone to share with in the first place. The public nature of the system also makes it susceptible to noise - envision having to browse through a random conversation between two people you don’t know, simply because you live down the street from them. To combat this, nrme will need to implement an effective way to block abusers, and a way to vote on messages so only the most informative ones will rise to the top.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoardbecause it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
CrunchGear’s Peter Ha got a opportunity to spend a day at the Dyson test labs in Malmesbury where he spoke with James Dyson about his design and engineering principles. One of his most important principles? The CEO of the company shouldn’t be able to easily break the products. Watch this hilarious/stunning/crazy video and ask yourself: […]
CrunchGear’s Peter Ha got a chance to spend a day at the Dyson test labs in Malmesbury where he spoke with James Dyson about his design and engineering principles. One of his most important principles? The CEO of the company shouldn’t be able to easily break the products. Watch this hilarious/stunning/crazy video and ask yourself: Would the average CE manufacturer beat up his or her product like this on camera? Heck, would the average web service publish their stress-testing stats?
Incidentally, memo to Mike: I think the entire CrunchNetwork team should now wear black jeans, t-shirts, and black and white trainers. It’s very fetching. Check out more Dyson coverage here
Crunch Network: MobileCrunchMobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
By Luke Anderson Everyone knows that kooky friend or relative that thinks that the government (aliens, the mafia, etc) is out to get them. If the person you know also happens to be filthy rich, you might point them in the direction of the Quantum Sleeper, which promises to bring some comfort to even the most […]
By Luke Anderson
Everyone knows that kooky friend or relative that thinks that the government (aliens, the mafia, etc) is out to get them. If the person you know also happens to be filthy rich, you might point them in the direction of the Quantum Sleeper, which promises to bring some comfort to even the most paranoid of people.
This bed creeps me out to no end. I’m not usually the claustrophobic type, but something about this bed just screams “panic” when I consider actually sleeping in one. It has a slew of optional features including 1.25″ Polycarbonate Bulletproof Plating/Shielding, Bio-Chemical Filtered Ventilation, Toiletry System, a microwave and more.
I guess if you’re really paranoid than this might be useful, however, if I’m going to spend the money on something that elaborite, I’m just going to go for a fancy underground bomb shelter or something. Oh, and as for the price, if you have to ask you can’t afford it.
By Luke Anderson I’d be willing to bet that a good many of you’ve, at some point in your life, wanted your very own KITT from Knight Rider. Seriously, who wouldn’t want a bad ass Trans Am voiced by Mr. Feeny? Since there is no actual Knight Industries Two Thousand, you can at least subsitute […]
By Luke Anderson
I’d be willing to bet that a good many of you’ve, at some point in your life, wanted your very own KITT from Knight Rider. Seriously, who wouldn’t want a bad ass Trans Am voiced by Mr. Feeny? Since there’s no actual Knight Industries Two Thousand, you can at least subsitute with a cool automobile and one of these new Knight Rider GPS.
Mio has cooked up this special Knight Rider GPS which is essentially one of their Mio systems with a few fancy decorations to make it look like something you’d see in the show. The best part (and likely the selling point for most) is the fact that you’ll be given directions by William Daniels, otherwise known as KITT himself. When you turn it on you’ll even be greeted with his voice asking “Hello Michael. Where do you want to go today?”. Look for this awesome GPS later this year for around $270.
What does Yahoo’s latest reorganization all mean, especially in light of the situation with Microsoft still being up in the air? Like yesterday’s assertive letter to shareholders defending its Google deal, Yahoo is trying to show that it is getting on with its life, thank you very much. The announcement is clearly aimed […]
What does Yahoo’s latest reorganization all mean, especially in light of the situation with Microsoft still being up in the air? Like yesterday’s assertive letter to shareholders defending its Google deal, Yahoo is trying to show that it is getting on with its life, thank you very much.
The announcement is clearly aimed at squashing any lingering hopes for a new Microsoft deal to emerge. I spoke today with Yahoo’s chief technology officer Ari Balogh, who says:
The signal you should take from this is we believe most of that is over. We need to run this for the long term. While the board was considering the Microsoft deal, it would have been foolish to do a major reorg.
There’s some wiggle room there. (He stated “most of that is over” not “all”). But Yahoo has to act independently and shore up its resolve going into its shareholder meeting on August 1.
The main goal of the reorganization is to separate product development (all the Yahoo properties and services that consumers use) from advertising sales. It makes sense as far as it goes, but isn’t a terribly new idea. Most media companies separate the development of their content from the selling of their content. So Yahoo is acknowledging what everybody knows—that it is in fact a media company.
The products and content that it makes, though, are technology products. And that’s where Balogh’s group comes in. (As CTO, he oversees all the hardcore engineers in search and elsewhere that support, but are separate from, the new product group under Ash Patel). Balogh is standardizing technologies and development platforms across Yahoo in a major push to make Yahoo more open. Separating out product groups from the business side, he states, will “accelerate our open and social strategy” and allow good ideas to bubble up faster, even if they won’t make money in the short term.
Yahoo is also standardizing Yahoo’s internal cloud computing platform across its different properties into one consistent set of technologies. (Apparently, it is still a hodgepodge across different parts of Yahoo). Will Yahoo open up its cloud computing infrastructure to outside companies and compete with Amazon’s Web Services or Google’s App Engine? Balogh hints as much, and more:
That decision has not been made, but Yahoo will use it. One thing we will do is open it up in a different way. When we do, you will be surprised by how much we make available to the world.
It is clear that he wants to open-source parts of Yahoo’s infrastructure. He’s also making all of Yahoo’s API’s and apps work on a consistent development framework. All of this is supposed to lead to deeper engagement with developers and ultimately killer products.
And maybe it will. But Yahoo still has some bigger questions to resolve about its future. It may want to signal that it is ready to move on past its dalliance with Microsoft, but some of its biggest shareholders are not quite there yet.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoardbecause it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
New startup Instinctiv launches this day and simultaneously announces a first round of angel financing. The company’s product, Instinctiv Shuffle, is an iPhone application (jailbroken iPhones only, for now), that watches your listening habits to make a smart guess about which song you’ll want to listen to next. It claims to guess your mood and […]
New startup Instinctiv launches today and simultaneously announces a first round of angel financing. The company’s product, Instinctiv Shuffle, is an iPhone application (jailbroken iPhones only, for now), that watches your listening habits to make a smart guess about which song you’ll want to listen to next. It claims to guess your mood and know exactly what you’ll want to listen to.
The company, which was founded by Justin Smithline and Peter Brodsky, has raised $750,000 from Cayuga Venture Fund, Rosetech Ventures and a group of angel investors.
This isn’t the first music-addon service for the iPhone that’s received funding. Israeli startup TuneWiki, which let’s users download song lyrics to their iPhone, was funded by Benchmark Capital earlier this year as well. Both applications should prove to be very popular once the iPhone App Store launches next month.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Xobni, the email startup that we’ve described as “The Superplugin for Outlook”, has partnered with LinkedIn to automatically pull contact information from the popular professional network. Xobni will now draw from public profiles on the LinkedIn network, displaying information about contacts’ employers, job titles, and pictures as part of the plugin’s sidebar. Xobni’s sidebar […]
Xobni, the email startup that we’ve described as “The Superplugin for Outlook”, has partnered with LinkedIn to automatically pull contact information from the popular professional network. Xobni will now draw from public profiles on the LinkedIn network, displaying information about contacts’ employers, job titles, and pictures as part of the plugin’s sidebar.
Xobni’s sidebar helps manage Outlook email boxes by automatically threading email conversations, sorting attachments, and creating a network of related contacts within your inbox. Since its launch at TechCrunch40, the company has seen remarkable success. Earlier this year Bill Gates demoed the product at the Office Developers Conference, calling it “very, very, cool” - so cool, in fact, that Microsoft extended an offer to acquire the company for $20 million. After weeks of rumors, Xobni walked away from the deal, fearing it would just get swallowed up and forgotten in the Microsoft machine.
The partnership with LinkedIn makes Xobni even more useful. It’s too bad Xobni users are still limited to Outlook and Microsoft Windows (though there’s a web-based version for Yahoo Mail on the way). Hey guys, where’s the Mac Mail version? Seriously.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunchMobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
In a letter to shareholders that reminds me of the saying “why purchase the cow when you can get the milk for free,” Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang explain why it selected a search deal with Google over Microsoft. For the record, we agree - given a choice between the Google […]
In a letter to shareholders that reminds me of the saying “why purchase the cow when you can get the milk for free,” Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yangexplain why it chose a search deal with Google over Microsoft.
For the record, we concur - given a choice between the Google and Microsoft search deals, Google’s was better, even with the steep fees if Yahoo chooses to sell itself to a competitor later. But the Microsoft deal would permanently hobble Yahoo, the cash flow upside wasn’t sweet enough.
But here’s what’s really going on: Yahoo doesn’t really want the Google deal, either, as evidenced by their effort to sell to Microsoft just before signing the deal two weeks ago. The deal was designed to get the stock market to chill out (it did the opposite), and to spur Microsoft back to the table to talk full buyout again.
There’s more going on here as well - this letter sends a new message to the market (as does the fact that Yahoo has not announced the reorganization yet). More on that in post coming up. But for now, a clear message is being sent to Microsoft: If they want Yahoo’s search milk, they’re going to have to buy the cow.
Dear Fellow Stockholders:
We are writing to update you on the latest developments here at Yahoo!, including our recently announced commercial agreement with Google and the outcome of our discussions with Microsoft regarding a potential transaction.
On June 12, we announced a non-exclusive agreement with Google that we expect will generate approximately $250 to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow for Yahoo! in the first twelve months following implementation. This cash flow will enhance our profitability as well as help support achievement of our key strategic objectives. Combined with continuing advances in our own search capability, the agreement is an important step in our efforts to capitalize on the high-growth on the web advertising opportunities where we’re ideal positioned to compete successfully and create more value.
Let us explain why we find this new agreement so exciting.
The Yahoo!-Google Agreement is Financially Attractive and Strikes the Right Strategic Balance.
Under the agreement with Google, Yahoo! will continue to provide algorithmic and sponsored search results, but now will also have the ability to run sponsored search ads supplied by Google alongside Yahoo!’s search results. Advertisers will pay Google directly for each click on Google paid search results appearing on Yahoo!. Google will then pay us a fee (in industry jargon, traffic acquisition cost) based on revenue realized from click-throughs on ads supplied to Yahoo! by Google.
This carefully structured agreement strikes the right strategic balance, enhancing our financial results while advancing our strategic objectives of being the “starting point” for the most users on the Internet and offering such compelling value that advertisers will see us as the “must buy” in online advertising.
One of our key strategies for achieving these objectives is to capitalize on the increasing convergence of search and display advertising, where we are especially well positioned to compete and succeed. We have already accelerated our efforts to strengthen our presence in display through a variety of initiatives and acquisitions in current months. Our new commercial agreement with Google enhances our ability to pursue this strategy.
Another key strategy is to open our platform to other developers to optimize monetization for our advertisers and publishers and provide the best experience for our users. We see this agreement as a natural extension of the efforts we have already made toward an open marketplace.
The Google agreement is non-exclusive and provides strategic and operational flexibility for Yahoo!. It allows Yahoo! to use Google’s services in those areas where Google monetizes our inventory more effectively but also permits us to continue to use our own search technology in areas where we believe we’re most competitive. The net result is that the agreement helps us accelerate one of our strategic aims–closing the monetization gap. At the same time, it grants Yahoo! to continue to compete aggressively in search and display advertising.
Importantly, the agreement does not prevent Yahoo! from pursuing other alternatives that could increase stockholder value. Because the agreement can be terminated by either celebration upon a change in control, it wouldn’t preclude a transaction with Microsoft or any other potential acquiror in the future.
The Yahoo!-Google Agreement Does More for Stockholder Value than Microsoft’s Search-Only Hybrid Proposal.
We also want to update you on the conclusion to our discussions with Microsoft regarding a potential transaction. As we explained in our last letter, our board and management held numerous meetings and conversations with Microsoft about its proposal to acquire Yahoo!, both before and after Microsoft withdrew that proposal on May 3. On June 8, our Chairman, Roy Bostock, other independent board members, and members of Yahoo!’s management team again met in person with Microsoft representatives. At that meeting, Microsoft said unequivocally that it has no interest in acquiring all of Yahoo!, even at the price range Microsoft had previously recommended.
Microsoft did propose an alternative transaction. Rather than acquire our whole company as it had been proposing for months, Microsoft now proposed to acquire only our search business for $1 billion and a share of future search advertising revenue. This proposal also included an $8 billion investment in Yahoo! but required Yahoo! to commit to a 10-year exclusive arrangement that would have made us dependent on Microsoft for all of our search business. It would also have given Microsoft veto rights on certain future Yahoo! actions, including a sale of Yahoo!. Our board of directors and management made a great effort–and conducted in depth negotiations–to elicit a feasible proposal from Microsoft that made strategic and financial sense for Yahoo!, but without success.
While Microsoft’s search-only hybrid proposal may have been helpful to Microsoft, our board and management concluded it would have had a significant adverse impact on Yahoo! strategically, leaving the Company without the operational control of search assets and technology we view as critical to our objective of becoming a leader in the converging search and display advertising business. The board and its advisers also carefully studied the financial impact of Microsoft’s proposal and concluded that it would have provided no meaningful improvement to our operating cash flow. In short, this proposal would have generated substantially less value for Yahoo! stockholders than Microsoft has recommended.
Based on all the key factors–strengthening our competitiveness, protecting our strategic position, generating attractive financial returns–the Google agreement is far superior than Microsoft’s search-only hybrid proposal. That’s why we moved forward with it.
Your Current Board of Directors Has the Knowledge, Experience and Commitment to Ideal Represent Your Interests and Maximize Stockholder Value.
The events of current weeks underscore the fact that your board of directors is far better qualified to represent your interests in the effort to maximize stockholder value than the slate put forward by Carl Icahn.
Based on Mr. Icahn’s narrow agenda, it seems highly unlikely that either he or his slate would bring added value to Yahoo!. Think about the following:
– Mr. Icahn put forward his slate so as to sell Yahoo! to Microsoft, although he’d no knowledge of the sustained efforts made by your current board and management to determine whether Microsoft was willing to engage in a transaction that would provide appropriate value and certainty of achieving that value. On June 8, Microsoft once again made it perfectly clear that it is not currently interested in acquiring Yahoo!. — Mr. Icahn publicly opposed any alternative form of transaction with Microsoft. Your board and management, after thorough and deliberate negotiations and evaluation, separately concluded on its own that the substitute hybrid deal proposed by Microsoft was, indeed, not in the best interests of the Company or its stockholders. — Mr. Icahn urged, as an substitute to a Microsoft transaction, that Yahoo! find a way to partner with Google that would not preclude a transaction with Microsoft in the future. We’ve done exactly that through the commercial agreement with Google we announced on June 12.
Simply put, you can choose to vote for a slate of nominees with no articulated plan for the future of Yahoo!–and who now have essentially no substitute agenda to offer you–or you can select to vote for your existing board of directors which has the independence, experience, knowledge and commitment to navigate the Company through the rapidly-changing Internet environment, execute on our strategic objectives and deliver value for Yahoo! and its stockholders.
It is time for Yahoo! to turn its undivided attention to implementing its key strategies, and we therefore urge you to reject Mr. Icahn’s slate and his ill-defined agenda.
We strongly urge you to vote your WHITE Proxy Card today for your current board of directors.
We look forward to sharing our progress with you as we move forward and we thank you for your support.
Entries (RSS)