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Wednesday, February 19, 2014
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BetGee7CAAAIvsD

USA! USA! We are now officially almost as good as Canada! Why? Because the folks at Robocoin are officially turning on the first U.S.-based Bitcoin ATM at the HandleBar in Austin, Texas.


The ATM, placed prominently in the Austin tavern, will be much like any other ATM you’ve used. You walk up, put in some money, and pull out bitcoin. Bitcoin owners will be able to sell through the machine and you will receive a receipt and an amount of BTC will be credited to your virtual wallet. The company already has ATMs in Vancouver and has shipped them to Asia, where they were briefly outlawed.


The company will turn on their ATM on Thursday, February 20, at 2pm. This ATM is just the beginning.


“Robocoin will be EVERYWHERE! We’ve just arrived in Texas and have already shipped to Seattle, Washington and Alberta, Canada,” said founder Jordan Kelley.


“Austin’s Robocoin is going to a really cool location downtown at the HandleBar. We have a bunch more shipping to amazing locations in Canada. We’re also still moving forward with Hong Kong, but we underestimated how long the international hardware certification process would take.”


The enrollment system lets you sell bitcoin using a government ID as well as biometric data which “gives Robocoin Operators full customer visibility, trackability and reporting tools to support global compliance,” said Kelley. Obviously this may dissuade some of the more paranoid BTC sellers, but that might be the point.


“Now we’re building a global infrastructure of passionate and dedicated Robocoin operators who are all fully aligned with the mission of making bitcoin safe and accessible to the masses. Robocoin is completely removing bitcoin’s barriers to entry and helping bring bitcoin into the real world,” he said.


The machines are built using “bank-grade” hardware and network security. The computer is inside a safe along with the associated cash and the servers aren’t publicly accessible from the Internet.


Getting a Robocoin installed in your business takes a little doing, though. Kelley said that owners need an official Money Transmitter License (MTL) or to register as a Money Service Business (MSB). But Kelley sees the Robocoin’s audience, 18-40 year-old early adopters, as an ideal customer for a forward-thinking coffeehouse or bodega.


Kelly is looking forward to growth and isn’t worried too much about the government.


“We’re optimistic that the government will see us as allies. Look, bitcoin is here to stay, just like the internet. We think governments will look to regulate this emerging economy and will identify and support the businesses that are prepared to play ball,” said Kelley.


[Image via TheRealADM]





6:09 AM

USA! USA! We are now officially almost as good as Canada! Why? Because the folks at Robocoin are officially turning on the first U.S.-based...

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sidecar selection

Peer-to-peer ride-sharing startup SideCar is releasing a brand new version of its app for both passengers and drivers, which will provide more flexibility for drivers and more choice for passengers. The new version of the app is being announced along with an investment by Union Square Ventures and the appointment of Fred Wilson to its board of directors.


For SideCar, the new version of its app is meant to separate it from the Ubers and Lyfts of the world. Both of those competitors have focused on trying to create a predictable price structure for their passengers, with Lyft moving from the idea of “donations” to a flat fare structure.


Ultimately, those companies have worked to simplify the process of hiring a car with concrete expectations around an estimated time of arrival, fare structure, and overall cost of a ride. Put in your location, tap your phone’s screen, and a car will be on its way to pick you up.


More Driver Flexibility, More Passenger Choice


With the latest update to its app, SideCar is taking the opposite approach, creating more flexibility in pricing for its drivers, which it believes will ultimately provide more choice for its passengers. Where Uber and Lyft have zigged, SideCar has zagged, in an effort to differentiate from the other on-demand ride apps out there.


Drivers will now be able to set more restrictions around the fares that they charge and how far they’re willing to go out of their way to pick up or drop off passengers. Those who have large vehicles with more seats, for instance, can charge a bit more than those who just have a five-seat sedan.


sidecar driver settings


But creating more driver flexibility also means enabling some to designate where they’d like to pick up and drop off. This could theoretically create a commuter or carpool use case, where a driver who’s going from somewhere near his home to his place of work might be able to discount the cost to a passenger who’s taking roughly the same trip.


On the passenger side of things, users now get to choose which drivers or cars they wish to ride in. After entering their end destination (SideCar automatically detects your start location via GPS), they’re provided a list of available drivers, which includes a photo of the car, a “bumper sticker” for the driver to provide more info about themselves, and the cost of the ride. Users can also “favorite” drivers that they’ve enjoyed riding with, and those drivers will appear at the top of their list when they’re looking for a ride.


“We worked really hard to make this easy, without too much extra thinking and with no extra button clicks,” CEO Sunil Paul told me. “I think we sliced it in a way that you get the best of both worlds.”


While some might argue that too much user choice is a bad thing, and that most passengers don’t really care who’s picking them up or taking them from place to place, Paul says that the shift in direction actually provides more certainty around how much they’re paying, along with who’s picking them up and when.


He noted that in competing apps users are often told that the nearest driver is only a few minutes away — only to have another driver actually take the ride. And he said that with surge pricing, “you’re totally guessing” what the final fare will be.


driver background


New Investment From Fred Wilson


Along with the new app, SideCar is announcing that it’s raised a Series B round of financing from Union Square Ventures, which we’ve heard was around $10 million. The company actually got the funding last summer, but Paul told me that SideCar wanted to hold back on announcing the raise until the app update and shift in business plan was ready.


“A big reason for the funding was to execute on this significant shift in direction,” Paul said. “We were funded to execute and deliver on this pivot, and we didn’t think there was much to talk about until we did.”


There are a few other interesting things to point out about the funding. For one, SideCar is adding Fred Wilson to its board, which could help provide a little operational help as it seeks to expand into additional markets.


But the funding from Union Square Ventures came after it put $30 million into on-demand taxi app Hailo. Since the investments could be seen as competitive, I asked Paul why the investment firm felt comfortable investing in two companies that were both seeking to connect passengers with rides via mobile app.


“We don’t see the conflict, and neither do the folks at USV or Hailo,” Paul told me. “Where we are focused is this community-oriented marketplace, while Hailo has built its core business around the taxi market.”


(It’s probably also worth noting that SideCar’s Series B was dwarfed by Uber’s $258 million funding, which was closed around the same time. That might be another reason the company didn’t disclose it until now.)


While SideCar was the first pure ride-sharing startup to launch in the U.S., and the most aggressive to expand early on, it’s fallen behind both Uber and Lyft in the number of markets it serves. With a new app and guidance from Fred Wilson, we’ll see if it can turn things around.





6:09 AM

Peer-to-peer ride-sharing startup SideCar is releasing a brand new version of its app for both passengers and drivers, which will provide m...

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Condition One : Zero Point

Condition One has spent the last few years trying to find ways to make video more like real life. With the Oculus Rift, it might have found just the device to bring its vision of immersive experiences to life. Using the virtual reality glasses, the company is hoping to unleash a whole new way of engaging with video experiences.


The last time we checked in with Condition One, the company had built a video rendering engine for the iPad and other mobile devices that would allow filmmakers to capture and display video in 180 degrees of vision. That experience connected with the sensors in the tablet and used them to shift the video that viewers were tuning into. By doing so, users were granted a new way of watching video on the device.


But the company decided it could do more. And so, it began working on a pure, 360-degree immersive video experience. Thanks to the power of the Oculus Rift, it will be able to bring that vision to life. With that in mind, Condition One is releasing the trailer to “Zero Point,” the first in what it hopes will be a series of films that leverage the virtual reality technology.


To give viewers some idea of what’s in store, Condition One has released an interactive trailer. But the truth is, that’s a poor substitute for seeing what the company can do using the Oculus glasses. I got a demo last week to check out the experience, and it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen.


If you’re a believer that the Oculus virtual reality glasses will be perfect not just for gaming, but also for media, then Condition One’s content could be pretty appealing. The company has created a video engine, paired up with a video capture array and editing suite, that allows it to create and play back 360-degree videos.


Condition One plans to make the full-length version of Zero Point available on the Oculus SDK later this year, to be viewed on PCs connected to the VR goggles. But it hopes that the film is just the first piece of content it releases for the device.


According to Condition One founder Danfung Dennis, the company plans to continue making movies that are meant for viewing through Oculus glasses. While pricing and release date are still up in the air, Dennis said he expects that the films will cost a premium to most video content today.


Of course, it’ll take some time to see how the content world develops for VR glasses. But Condition One plans to be right at the forefront of that movement.





6:09 AM

Condition One has spent the last few years trying to find ways to make video more like real life. With the Oculus Rift , it might have foun...

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Cracking the riddle of whole home audio has been a sort of quixotic quest for most manufacturers. The only company to really pull it off, Sonos, is still well ensconced in the niche of audio obsessives and Samsung, Apple, Sony et al haven’t offered much in the way of anything. Now, hopefully, can git ‘er done.


Beep is a very simple platform for controlling music anywhere on your network. The original system, a $99 ($149 after pre-order period) box with a big dial on the front, is designed to be a dumb terminal for all of your streaming needs. It grabs music from your own collection or services like Pandora and you can also stream music from your phone. The dial controls volume and can pause the proceedings and each beep has a line out. There is no built-in amplifier for this kit, but the plan is to put Beep technology into other manufacturer’s speakers.


The team, led by ex-Googlers Daniel Conrad and Shawn Lewis, grabbed talent from Squeezebox and Pandora to make the box they always wanted. While it’s a bit underpowered right now, the pair plans on adding more features as they approach launch this spring.


As a long-time Sonos lover, I’d be really happy to see a cheaper, fully featured whole home solution. Is Beep the one? Perhaps. It comes with a great pedigree and looks amazing. The brass and silver models they showed me were very well-made and easy to use. The guys are dedicated to their cause and they have some great experience. I think it’s enough, thankfully, to help them solve the age-old riddle of how to get music to play in every room of your manse.





5:54 AM

Cracking the riddle of whole home audio has been a sort of quixotic quest for most manufacturers. The only company to really pull it off, So...

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Samsung is taking a completely different approach to its next-generation Galaxy Gear smartwatch, according to a new report from USA Today – that means eschewing Android altogether on the on-device OS. The Galaxy Gear launched last year ran Android, Google’s mobile OS, but that piece of wearable tech didn’t light any fires under consumers or critics, so why not go back to the drawing board?


To replace Android as the OS for its new smartwatch, Samsung is said to be using Tizen, its in-house mobile OS that appears to be nearing release on its first Samsung smartphone device. USA Today reports that ian HTML5 version of Tizen will ship with the new Galaxy Gear, and that both will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress this month in Barcelona.


Samsung is hosting an event at MWC called ‘Unpacked5′ February 24, where it seems likely to unveil its next Galaxy S flagship device. There’s also a chance we’ll see the Gear at the show, as has been reported previously by other outlets.


Tizen on the smartwatch would be a significant shift for Samsung, but moving to an HTML5-based platform on the device might make it easier for developers to craft simple partner apps for software resident on the phones themselves, and it could also help with things like improving battery life. Qualcomm’s Toq smartwatch, for instance, runs a “lightweight” OS that contributes to its five days of battery life, vs. around two days at best for the Galaxy Gear.


Another reason Samsung is eschewing Android for this generation of smartwatch, according to USA Today, is to keep more control over the device and platform in its own hands. The company’s Tizen efforts seemed stalled for a long time, but Samsung recently signed up a score of new high-profile partners. Investing in Tizen on the Gear probably can’t hurt that device’s chances – with wearables, there’s little reason yet for any consumer to choose one platform over another, and the initial version of the Galaxy Gear didn’t sell enough to create anything like lock-in for existing users.


Hopefully this next Gear isn’t just the same device with Tizen subbing in for Android, and the new watch offers many more improvements besides. In any case, if rumors are true, we should find out either way next week.





5:53 AM

Samsung is taking a completely different approach to its next-generation Galaxy Gear smartwatch, according to a new report from USA Today –...

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Tom Fuelling

Online and mobile advertising company OpenX is announcing the appointment of Tom Fuelling as its new chief financial officer.


Fuelling (pictured) previously served as CFO at Hulu for six years, starting in 2007. The streaming video site announced last fall that Fuelling was departing and would be replaced by Disney’s Elaine Paul, following the appointment of new CEO Mike Hopkins.


Fuelling has also served as CFO for Ascent Media Network Services, ARTISTdirect, and Village Roadshow Pictures, among others. He told me that OpenX was a good fit in several ways, including “the entrepreneurial nature of its team” and the fact that it’s bringing “positive, disruptive” change to the ad industry.


The hiring of a new CFO, particularly for a venture-backed company that’s doing well, can be a sign of plans for an IPO. (After all, Fuelling helped ARTISTdirect go public.) When I asked OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan about whether that was a possibility, he gave the (fairly common) answer that he’s focused on “building a company” and doesn’t want to “put the cart in front of the horse” by treating any kind of financing as the end goal.


“Look, companies like ours access the capital markets — that happens in a variety of ways, and it usually leads to public markets at some state,” Cadogan said. “Part of the reason Tom is here is to make sure that we are structured from a financial part of view so that all our options are in front.”


Fuelling added that he sees some “low hanging fruit” when it comes to improving and growing the company’s financial side: “Sometimes the business success gets ahead of some of the processes that underlie it.”


OpenX’s technology supports real-time bidding and ad serving, and the company says that 65 percent of comScore 100 publishers participate in its ad exchange. It continues to expand its offerings, for example with the acquisition of JumpTime and the subsequent launch of its revenue intelligence product.


Cadogan suggested that we’re at “an inflection point” at the end of the first cycle in programmatic ad-buying. with a wider array of possible formats and business models coming up next. He compared it to products like cars and sunglasses, saying that they started out with a few standard models, but now, “You can make your own sunglasses, and you can pretty much configure your own cars.”


Fuelling is replacing Rick J. Gombos as OpenX’s CFO.





5:39 AM

Online and mobile advertising company OpenX is announcing the appointment of Tom Fuelling as its new chief financial officer. Fuelling (pic...

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The nascent wearable devices market so far has focused more on function than on form, but Tuesday brought word of a company that aims to change all that. Specifically, Cuff unveiled a new assortment of safety-focused fashion wearables its founders call technology "you'd actually want to wear." At the heart of Cuff's fashion-conscious collection is a tiny component called the "CuffLinc" -- a diminutive wireless device that can be removed and tucked into any of several accompanying accessories in the Cuff lineup.


5:09 AM

The nascent wearable devices market so far has focused more on function than on form, but Tuesday brought word of a company that aims to c...

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