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Friday, January 31, 2014
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If you’re familiar with the ‘Bad Lip Reading of The NFL’ videos on YouTube, you might get a charge out of this hilarious mashup created by startup MeetBall. It puts the same spin on a collection of clips of VCs and founders and was created on a challenge from ex-Googler and Homebrew investor Hunter Walk. If you’re interested in seeing some of the most well-known investors, founders and VCs in the industry say things like ‘I want to smell your gum’ then this is for you.


I think this wins the internet today. Thanks MeetBall.





9:38 AM

If you’re familiar with the ‘Bad Lip Reading of The NFL’ videos on YouTube, you might get a charge out of this hilarious mashup created by ...

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purr-pebble-app

Yesterday, a new faceless “watch” called Durr that simply vibrates every five minutes got a big feature over at Verge. It’s an interesting concept, and in his article Aaron Souppouris compared the experience to that of wearing a Pebble. That inspired a Pebble developer to try to accomplish the same thing, albeit without the need for a brand new device, and the result is Purr, an app for the upcoming Pebble OS 2.0.


The Purr app mimics the Durr’s functionality exactly, vibrating the Pebble on your wrist every five minutes, and presenting nothing on the display at all. It simply deactivates the Pebble’s screen, rather than presenting any kind of watch face or any other information. The idea behind both the Purr app and the Durr watch are the same: To remind you every few minutes that time is passing, and possibly to inspire you to enjoy time more by noting that fact.


There are some key differences between both approaches, however: The Durr lacks any screen whatsoever, meaning you won’t be tempted to check your other apps or watchfaces. Plus, notifications from your phone still make it through when you’re using Purr on the Pebble, which is either an advantage or a downside depending on how committed you are to the philosophy behind the design of the Durr. Also, as Purr is in beta and running on pre-release Pebble OS 2.0 software, it currently exhibits some odd behavior; specifically, vibrations repeat a number when each five-minute period is up, and the pattern or sequence doesn’t seem to follow any rhyme or reason. These are issues that Purr developer James Brooks says he’s working on resolving, however.


A watch that’s literally constantly reminding you of time slipping through your grip, and by extension your own mortality, is a little bit of an outlier need from a gadget. But it’s a perfect early example of how Pebble’s new SDK 2.0 can unlock a lot of potential for developers. We’ve only just begun to see the value of a smartwatch as a platform, but the overall flexibility is beginning to show.





9:38 AM

Yesterday, a new faceless “watch” called Durr that simply vibrates every five minutes got a big feature over at Verge . It’s an interesting ...

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Posted by at 9:38 AM 0 comments
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Screen Shot 2014-01-30 at 11.52.07 AM

Why should college students waste their precious party days standing in line, when they can order Ramen from Amazon prime? The University of California at Davis recently inked a deal with Amazon to offer student essentials, from Calculus 101 textbooks to mac and cheese, on a new university bookstore website that gives 2% of sales back to the school.


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According to the school’s university paper, the Aggie, UC Davis was the first such partnership Amazon announced. Now officially a-go this week, UC Davis is giving Amazon the power to blanket the campus with promotion. There’s even an Amazon student ambassador


“During finals week of Fall Quarter, we had several ambassadors all over campus handing out free pizza and other goodies to fuel the students while they study,” said fourth-year political science Major, Ting Jung Lee said who is now acting as Amazon’s rep.


The discounted Amazon prime membership also seems to making the rounds on student boards:


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Students are awash with discretionary spending, which they normally spend in shops around the campus. Amazon sells most of these items and more, from dorm decorations to official t-shirts. So, it makes sense that the University wants to take a cut that they never took before with the sourranding shops.


I’ve witnessed stunts like these work in the past. Back in my college days, I used to see college co-eds in short shorts handing out Red Bull at streaking events and during finals. For brands, college students are a demographic with delightfully transparent desires and well-known spending patterns.


Amazon is aware of it’s Walmart/Godzilla reputation among struggling businesses. It attempted to partner with indie bookstore to sell it’s Kindle reading tablet, which got a mixed reception. College bookstores don’t have the same heartstrings to pluck, so it makes sense for them to partner rather than fight.


With enough momentum from the UC Davis experiment, Amazon won’t just partner with bookstores, it will be the bookstore.





9:09 AM

Why should college students waste their precious party days standing in line, when they can order Ramen from Amazon prime? The University of...

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Facebook on Thursday announced next week's launch of Paper, a free app for iOS that combines user and curated content into a personalized news medium. Users can create stories as well as receive stories based on their interests and organized into sections. Section stories are chosen by both human and machine curators. The sections cover a variety of subjects -- from sports, world news and animal pictures to business, photography and food. Section stories on all phones initially will be the same, but Facebook has said that may change in the future.


9:09 AM

Facebook on Thursday announced next week's launch of Paper, a free app for iOS that combines user and curated content into a personali...

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jeremy lacroix

Online publishing platform Issuu is announcing that it has hired Jeremy LaCroix as its head of product design and user experience.


Joe Hyrkin, who became CEO last year, told me LaCroix was particularly suited for the job given his experience with both the digital and traditional publishing worlds. LaCroix’s career includes design/art direction at The Industry Standard and Wired before becoming creative director at CBS Interactive, and then head of UX/design and product for mobile at AOL. (LaCroix left AOL, which owns TechCrunch, in October, and has since done freelance design work for Medium.)


Issuu was actually founded in 2006, before the current wave of mobile and tablet publishing, but unsurprisingly, Hyrkin said its focus has been shifting increasingly to mobile. The company recently updated its Android app, and he said, “We’re not going to be only Android-based for that much longer.”


Other goals include improving publisher monetization — Hyrkin said Issuu already helps publishers make money by allowing them to supplementing their print ads with additional digital content, and by allowing them to link to online stores, but he added, “This year we’re starting to put together what I hope are innovative and very creative advertising opportunities.”


The company says it sees 5 billion page views across 15 million magazines, catalogs, and newspapers each month.


“The common perception is that magazines are in a death spiral,” LaCroix said in the release about his hiring. “I disagree. In fact I’d argue there have never been more publications being produced in human history. The problem today is distribution and Issuu provides a truly unique and compelling method for content to find people.”





8:54 AM

Online publishing platform Issuu is announcing that it has hired Jeremy LaCroix as its head of product design and user experience. Joe Hyrk...

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Late last year, a couple of venture firms sought to invest in LEAP Motion’s gesture control technology by helping developers to build businesses around it with an accelerator. Today, the LEAP Axlr8r is opening for business and announcing the first 10 participating companies in the program.


LEAP Motion has built an $80 hardware device that allows any user to control what’s happening on their computer through an interface that tracks the movement of their hands. It’s had more than 70,000 developers sign up to test out and build apps for the device, but few actual apps have been launched so far.


The LEAP Axlr8r seeks to change that by taking LEAP Motion’s technology to the next level. With backing from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, as well as SOSVentures, the firm behind hardware accelerator HAXLR8R, the incubator sought out startups doing interesting things with the next-generation gesture control platform.


Like other incubators, LEAP Axlr8r provides participating companies with a small amount of funding — in this case, $25,000 — and puts them through a three-month program that is designed to refine the products and services they’re seeking to build. Housed near LEAP Motion headquarters in San Francisco, those companies will have access to the engineers who built LEAP Motion technology, as well as a number of mentors who can help with other aspects of the design process.


The whole thing ends in a Demo Day on May 9th. We’ll be tracking their progress and are looking forward to seeing what they release. The first 10 companies participating in the accelerator include:



  • MotionSavvy – Giving voice to the deaf and hard-of-hearing through real-time American Sign Language translation

  • Diplopia – Restoring depth perception for the 5% of the population affected by amblyopia (lazy eye) through virtual reality computer games using Oculus Rift and Leap Motion

  • Sterile Air – Creating the “Operating System” to enable a computerized, sterile surgical OR

  • LivePainter – Enabling real-time DJ-ing and VJ-ing as performance art via live web collaboration

  • Ten Ton Raygun – Gamifying physical rehabilitation therapy for Stroke and other injuries to make rehab fun, quicker, and measurable

  • Mirror Training – Making robots an extension of your own body using Leap Motion and video. A DARPA spinoff revolutionizing robotic arm control with a natural user interface and visual feedback for the user

  • GetVu – Creating a next-gen augmented reality platform that mixes computer vision with human vision in a wearable device

  • Illuminator 4D – Easily create interactive, holographic environments for retail, and in-home usage

  • Crispy Driven Pixels – Reinventing 2D and 3D creative software through a new, natural user interface

  • Paralagames – Improving hand-eye coordination through games controlled by the hand





8:23 AM

Late last year, a couple of venture firms sought to invest in LEAP Motion’s gesture control technology by helping developers to build busine...

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miggo

A new Kickstarter project takes a useful thing and makes it even more useful, by offering a strap that not only carries your DSLR but also protects it when not in use. It’s the perfect way to minimize your equipment when you’re out shooting on a trip and don’t need your full camera bag and gear, and it’s so deceptively simple, it’s a wonder it doesn’t already exist.


The Miggo strap is designed by Israel-based industrial designer Ohad Cohen, who was a founder of professional camera bag maker Kata, which remains one of the leading makers of bags for pros and hobbyists. Cohen was the first product designer at Kata, then later was in charge of R&D, so he knows a thing or two about creating camera gear.


Miggo is designed around the philosophy that while there’s plenty of interest in photography since the advent of smartphones, people avoid high-quality cameras and gear because of the convenience factor of using their mobile devices. To alleviate that, the Miggo combines a sling strap to secure your camera with a wrap that protects it when not in use. It also comes in a grip variety for those who prefer tying their camera to their wrist to prevent drops. Both versions quickly tie around both camera lens and body to provide a secure protective layer, which then allows you to chuck the camera into a shoulder bag or backpack along with all your other stuff, instead of having to use a segmented, padded camera bag designed specifically for protecting gear.


fb044804d872f797657d290d29adb3c5_largeIt has a tripod mount adapter built-in so you don’t have to remove it to take time-lapse or other stabilized shots, and there are versions for both standard DSLRs and smaller-bodies compact mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras, like Sony’s NEX series. Early backers can pre-order for $30 while supplies last, at which time it goes up to $35 for the Grip + Wrap or $40 for the Strap + Wrap.


I’m so tired of lugging my 70-lb. bag of camera gear around airports that this seems like a very appealing option when I don’t feel like I’ll need my entire kit. The company anticipates shipping the Miggo by June of this year, and development has progressed to the point where prototypes are essentially ready to ship (once a proper production line is established). Miggo hits the sweet spot between affordability, convenience and smart design, so it’s very likely they’ll reach their modest $20,000 goal quickly.





8:23 AM

A new Kickstarter project takes a useful thing and makes it even more useful, by offering a strap that not only carries your DSLR but also p...

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