vChatter, a video chat startup led by online dating pioneer Will Bunker, has raised $250,000 in seed funding.
The service is similar in some ways to Chatroulette, a popular site where you can randomly chat with other users. However, Chatroulette has become notorious for the frequent apperance of on-camera masturbation (something the service is trying to fix in its latest update).
vChatter says it avoids that problem by checking screenshots of the chats to make sure they’re family-friendly. It’s a Facebook app, and any obscene behavior will be tied to your Facebook identity.
The Menlo Park, Calif. startup was cofounded by Bunker (who previously cofounded dating site One-and-Only.com, which became part of Match.com when it was purchased by Ticketmaster), Hitesh Parashar, and Dan Owen. They launched the app in May, and the company says it now has 1.7 million users, who have made 15 million calls.
The funding comes from family and friends, as well as Bunker and Owen.
Companies: chatroulette, Facebook, vChatter
People: Dan Owen, Hitesh Parashar, Will Bunker
BankSimple, the not-quite-a-bank provider of front-end services for a number of treasury-focused banks, raised $2.9 million in its first round of funding. First Round Capital, IA Ventures and Village Ventures led the round.
Again, BankSimple is not a bank. It’s a provider that manages user experiences for banks. Chief executive Joshua Reich likened it to the way gift-card operators work.
The company partners with banks that are exclusively interested in the back-end parts of banking — managing treasuries and regulatory compliance — and outsource the consumer interface and customer service out to other companies.
Users of the service receive a BankSimple debit card — which allows for overdraft protection and free ATM usage. BankSimple also allows users to deposit checks with a smartphone, something USAA has done for some time now.
As payment for running its services, BankSimple receives a fraction of the income generated from the difference between each bank’s loan payment rates and savings interest rates. Reich wouldn’t disclose what percentage of the difference BankSimple receives.
BankSimple has not launched, but Reich said the company had attracted interest from 20,000 potential users. Reich also said the company had attracted interest from some banks that are interested in outsourcing their customer service, but declined to give specific names.
[Photo: alancleaver_2000]
Companies: BankSimple, USAA
People: Joshua Reich
Coda announced today their plans to roll out their all-electric sedan in Hawaii in the third quarter of 2011, positioning the car to battle the Nissan Leaf in a market that suffers from the highest gas prices in the country.
In May, Nissan singled out Hawaii as a target market –- the state will be among the first to get the Leaf next year. The Coda is set to hit the U.S. market at the end of this year, the same time the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf will arrive.
“They have a great opportunity in front of them. At least for the next 18 months to 24 months there’s going to be a very limited supply of both the Volts and Leafs, so I think there will be customers hungry for those vehicles … and would strongly consider Coda,” said John Gartner, analyst for Pike Research.
Hawaii is a prime market for electric vehicles, thanks to short driving distances and a strong commitment to renewable energy. Their current governor launched the Clean Energy Initiative, which aims towards 70 percent clean energy usage by 2030.
Hawaii is also one of the first states to partner with Better Place, a company that has brought electric vehicle infrastructure, charging stations and in some cases electric cars themselves to countries like Israel, Denmark and Australia.
The state’s deal with Better Place should yield stations where EV drivers can exchange their depleted car battery for a charged one. And with islands that are short in circumference, “range anxiety” is less of an issue.
The Coda sedan itself seats five, and the company says its lithium-ion battery system has 40 percent more usable energy than any other EV in its class, with a range of 120 miles.
Companies: Better Place, Chevrolet, Coda, Nissan
Facebook friend importing was a key feature of Apple’s new Ping social network, until discussions between the companies fell through, Facebook blocked Ping’s access to its data, and Apple removed the feature from Ping entirely — according to All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher.
When Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed off Ping at its media event yesterday, Facebook integration was clearly visible in his presentation. But when users finally got their hands on iTunes 10 and set up their Ping accounts, many were confused as to why they couldn’t import Facebook friends — instead, they were stuck with prehistoric options like searching for friends on the service, or inviting them via email.
A lucky few were able to use the Facebook friend import before Apple removed it, and a Facebook app for Ping, which handled the import duty, is still available.
Yesterday, Jobs told Swisher that “onerous terms” from Facebook led Apple abandon the feature. But it turns out the full story is even juicier: Apparently Apple did implement the feature after its negotiations fell through, which led to Facebook blocking the company from using its APIs (application programming interfaces) to get access to user data.
Normally, Facebook’s APIs are open and available to use. But in the case of services like Ping that would lead to heavy usage, Facebook requires an agreement.
Once Apple and Facebook come to an agreement, we can expect the feature to be re-enabled. Having access to Facebook is key for any budding service with a social spin, and even Apple will eventually have to come to terms with that.
Companies: Apple, Facebook
People: Steve Jobs
Startup incubators continue to spread across the country, and one of the latest is BoomStartup, a Utah-based organization that’s graduating its first class of entrepreneurs next week.
If you’re a San Francisco/Silicon Valley snob like me, Utah might not seem like a great place for an incubator. Sure, you can find companies in that area, but are there enough for an annual batch of startups? Cofounder Robb Kunz said there are — in fact, BoomStartup were about 150 applications. And of the 10 chosen companies, two have already received term sheets from investors, he said.
“I always saw the Utah is a little bit undiscovered,” Kunz said. “But there are some historical names here, like WordPerfect and Omniture.”
The system is modeled on TechStars, the Boulder-based program that recently opened an office in New York City. (Kunz said he unsuccessfully approached TechStars founder David Cohen about expanding TechStars into Utah.) The training program lasts from May to August, and BoomStartup invests about $15,000 for a 6 percent stake in each company.
What’s unique about BoomStartup’s approach, according to Kunz, is the fact that it matches up each startup with a specific investor-mentor, who they work with for the entire program. Those mentors include Omniture cofounder John Pestana.
The incubator will hold its first Demo Day, where the startups present to investors, in Park City, Utah on Sept. 10. If you’re an investor interested in attending, you can find more details here.
And here’s a list of the startups, with descriptions provided by BoomStartup.
3PointData is iTunes for business data. 3PointData creates an online marketplace where others can sell their data. In real time, buyers can stream data into their spreadsheets, databases, and web applications. Bazari is a SMS database platform that helps microfinance institutions’ field agents update customer accounts, send electronic receipts, and arrange for product delivery, all through the simple mobile phones. Case Rover is an online platform targeted at U.S. litigation support and compliance markets. It specializes in software solutions, integration, security and maintenance for companies and government agencies. Fashion Genome Project aims to be the next big thing in online clothes shopping, utilizing revolutionary technology to eliminate the pain points and unpredictable results that usually come in the process. IActionable enables any site to define and automatically award public badges and points to their users when specific actions are performed. icount is a political website that allows an individual to communicate with their elected officials. Politicians can engage with their constituents, get real feedback on legislation, and clarify positions and voting. KarmaKey is like SkyMiles for restaurants. It helps consumers simplify their wallet by replacing traditional loyalty cards with virtual cards that can be tracked, traded, redeemed and stored on a mobile device. MashWorx creates network and browser deployed applications of engagement for conventions and hotels to improve the branding experience and increase sales. O-Codes helps publishers, advertisers, and marketers measure in detail how consumers interact with their offline content via text messaging to engage customers. TaleSpring provides an online authoring system for do-it-yourself mobile publishing, with an initial focus on interactive, animated children’s books for the Apple iPad and iPhone.[image via Flickr/Alex E. Proimos]
Companies: 3PointData, Bazari, BoomStartup, Case Rover, Fashion Genome Project, IActionable, icount, KarmaKey, MashWorx, O-Codes, TaleSpring
People: Robb Kunz
Lately, the discussion about texting has mostly focused on teenagers, who now often send hundreds of text messages per day. While voice calling is still the primary use of cell phones for adults, almost three quarters of all adults in the U.S. now send and receive text messages. According to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the average adult texter sends and receives 10 messages per day, but a minority (4%) now sends more than 200 messages every day.
About 50% of all adults who use text messaging send between 1 and 10 messages, 25% send between 11 and 50 messages a day, 10% send between 50 and 200 messages. How does this compare to teenagers? According to an earlier Pew report, a smaller percentage of teenagers uses text messages (54%) than adults, but those that do use it tend to use it far more often than adults. About half of all teens in the U.S. send 50 or more text messages a day and one in three sends more than 100 messages a day.
The number of adults who use text messaging has gone up steadily over the last few years. While 65% of adults in the U.S. were sending and receiving text messages in 2009, this number is now up to 72%.
A lot of Texting is About Location Sharing
When adults use text messaging, they mostly do so to say hello and chat (34%) and to report where they are and where someone else is (24%). Given how important location is for a lot of these usage patterns, we would think that there has to be a big market for location services (like EchoEcho) that make private location sharing between cell phones easy.
More Statistics about Adult Cell Phone Usage
- 82% of adults in the U.S. own a cell phone (83% of all men, 81% of all women)
- women make slightly fewer calls with their cell phones than men
- 65% of adults say they have ever slept with their cell phone on or right next to their bed (and 90% of younger adults - who probably also use their phones as alarm clocks - say they have done so)
- 42% feel irritated when a call or text interrupts them
- 57% of adults with cell phones say that they have received unwanted or spam text messages (what exactly constitutes an "unwanted" text message isn't clear in Pew's question, however)
Logo used courtesy of Flickr user Dan Zen.
Twice an hour, an animated version of Google CEO Eric Schmidt can currently be seen giving away free ice cream to little kids in return for their private information on a 540 square foot screen hovering over New York's Times Square. The cartoon was produced by a "Inside Google," a project of the non-partisan Consumer Watchdog group, that wants to draw attention to what it perceives as Google CEO Eric Schmidt's "lack of regard for our online privacy."
Eric Schmidt is "Out of Control"
The reason for this? According to "Inside Google," Eric Schmidt is "out of control. When questioned about privacy, he has said, 'If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." Recently, he suggested children could change their names when they got older if they wanted to escape what was embarrassing and public in their online lives.'"
Do Not Track Me List
The project advocates the creation of a "Do Not Track Me" list, similar to the National Do Not Call Registry that allows users to prevent telemarketers from calling their phones. Inside Google is being supported by the Rose Foundation.
It's worth noting that Google already allows consumers to opt out of personalized advertising and Google Analytics tracking.
What do You Think?
We can't help but think that the extreme caricature of Schmidt takes away from the overall message of the video. We're also not sure that the majority of people walking around on Times Square actually know who Schmidt is.
What do you think? Are you worried about Google knowing too much about you? Do you think this video is an effective means of alerting people to the potential privacy issues online? Or is Google being singled out unfairly and the video should really feature Mark Zuckerberg?
Tip of the hat to Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land for alerting us to this video.
The Internet was in flames last week as popular social news curation site Digg.com launched the latest iteration of its platform, unleashing a groundswell of outrage and protest from a majority of the site's loyal users. A week later, Digg has begun to respond to its passionate community, making rapid changes and bug fixes as its exhausted back-end infrastructure struggles to keep up. Today I spoke with Digg's VP of Product Keval Desai about the launch, the company's reaction to the negativity from its community and how it intends to move forward into the future.
"We recognize that the launch was not as smooth as we would have hoped," Desai told ReadWriteWeb. Perhaps that is a bit of an understatement.
- Keval Desai
Stumbling Off the Starting Blocks
For last Wednesday's relaunch, Digg migrated all of its traffic over to an entirely new back-end infrastructure built from the ground up over the course of 18 months. The new system had been tested in beta for almost two months, but the preparations the site conducted for the public release apparently fell short of what was needed to handle last week's traffic surge.
"Hindsight is 20/20. We made a calculated decision to test the site in beta and then launch," Desai says. "We had a game plan and clearly it did not go smoothly. In hindsight, there are several things that could have been done better."
A few of those "several things" include a slower roll-out and a better explanation of the site's rationale, admits Desai. With many Internet sites, he explains, features are more continually released to the public, not all at once as was the case with Digg 4. Part of the reason for rewriting the back-end of the site was to allow for easier and more frequent product iterations - a practice Digg intends to implement in the future.
Turning Negative into Positive
As for the backlash from frustrated Digg users, Desai says the company is thankful for their passion.
"It's better than having no reaction," he says. "They have a right to say what they want to say, and for us it's all good feedback. We would rather not have users be frustrated, that was not a goal of ours, but we are reacting to those frustrations and making changes where they make sense while keeping our broader mission in mind."
Going Forward
That "broader mission," Desai says, includes continuing to grow the platform to provide for publishers, both large and small, as well as its users that make the site what it is. Since launching v4, Digg has seen traffic at equal or higher numbers each day, and the My News section has helped send registration numbers through the roof.
But as Desai admits, "it is still early going," and if Digg wants to continue to leverage its recent growth, it will need to more carefully and more stably iterate its product in the future.
Skype just released the latest beta version of its Skype 5 Windows client – which along with a more streamlined interface and the usual bug fixes, adds one major new feature: The ability to video chat with up to 10 people.
The internet calling service has made major leaps in its video calling technology over the past few months. At the beginning of the year, video chats were limited to two people — the same as when the service launched in 2003. In May, it released a Windows beta client that supported 5-person video chat, which I argued would help make group video chat the next killer webcam feature.
Competing video chat services like Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and Google’s Gmail video chat only allow for 2-person conferences. Apple’s iChat added support for 4-person video chat in 2004, but since it’s restricted to Mac users, it hasn’t had much impact on the video chat market.
Skype has said that it plans to charge for group video chat eventually (along with other new features), but it’s free for the moment. Its Mac client will be updated to support the feature by the end of year.
As I wrote previously: While one-on-one video chat has been available to consumers since the late nineties, it took the proliferation of broadband internet access, faster computer speeds, and cheap webcam availability over the past decade to popularize it. Now webcams are integrated into practically every laptop (including bargain-priced netbooks), and we’re seeing forward-facing cameras in the iPhone 4, Evo 4G, and many other upcoming smartphones. (I argued previously that the iPhone 4 will usher in a new wave of mobile video conferencing.)
Now with 10-person video chat, Skype brings us one step closer to something that used to be relegated to science fiction.
Companies: Skype
After months of hearsay and conjecture, Samsung has finally revealed some official details on its Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab. While we still don’t have an official release date or pricing, at least it seems like the tablet will be worth the wait.
The Galaxy Tab will have a 7-inch screen (running at a 1024 by 600 pixel resolution), and the same 1-gigahertz processor and PowerVR graphics processor seen in the Samsung Galaxy S phones. We now know for sure that it will run Android 2.2 (also known by its codename “Froyo”), and will support Flash 10.1. It will also sport 512MB of ram (twice that of the iPad), a rear 3-megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video conferencing.
It will be available in 16-gigabyte and 32-gigabyte storage flavors, and both will be expandable by up to 32-gigabytes via a memory card slot. Networking-wise, it will support 802.11N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, and will be 3G equipped. Samsung lists it as a 3G HSPA connection, which will work with GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile’s in the U.S. — but there will likely be a CDMA version coming to Verizon soon, according to the carrier’s internal systems.
Even though its screen is two inches smaller than the iPad’s, the Galaxy Tab still has many compelling aspects. We won’t see cameras on the iPad until some time next year, and it will be some time before we see Flash support, if ever. The Tab also appears to be the most polished Android tablet yet — at least until we see more from the Notion Ink Adam tablet.
Samsung says the Galaxy Tab will be available in Europe in mid-September, and should hit the U.S. and other countries later this year.
Getting noticed is a challenge for everyone building apps. Join us at DiscoveryBeat 2010, and hear secrets from top industry executives about how to profit in the new cross-platform app ecosystem. The conference takes place on October 18th at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. Go here for conference details, or to apply to the “Needle in the Haystack” business contest. Early-bird tickets are available until September 15.
via Gizmodo
Companies: Samsung
The very public Dell and HP bidding war for the data storage company 3Par may finally be coming to an end. HP announced today that it increased its offer for 3Par to $33 per share — or $2.4 billion. Shortly thereafter, 3Par announced that it will accept the offer, and Dell said that it won’t revise its previous $2 billion offer, and will pull out of acquisition talks.
The news comes after an increasingly high-stakes back and forth between Dell and HP for the hand of 3Par over the past few weeks. Dell initially announced that it would buy the company for $1.15 billion, HP came back with a $1.6 billion offer, and Dell outbid it slightly with a $1.6 billion offer of its own, which 3Par accepted.
HP didn’t give up. It returned with a $1.8 billion offer, which it quickly upgraded to $2 billion. Dell matched that with a $2 billion offer of its own, which to many at the time seemed like the most the company could afford (HP reported $115 billion in 2009 revenue, compared to Dell’s $53 billion).
3Par will be forced to pay some $74 million to get out of its current agreement with Dell.
Given the increasing importance of cloud computing — in which users would rely on the internet instead of their local computer for applications and storage — having a company like 3Par in your corner would allow you to offer services in the cloud at a lower cost. That’s certainly what Dell and HP are looking for, and I suspect we’ll see further plays in this field in the coming months.
3Par has raised over $183 million since its founding in 1999, with backing by Integral Capital Partners, Alliance Bernstein, Open Field Capital, Mayfield Fund, Worldview Technology Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Van Wagoner Capital Management. It went public in 2007, even though it was losing money at the time.
Companies: 3Par, Dell, Hp
Part of the new iTunes 10 software, announced and launched yesterday, is a significant new social networking feature for iTunes called Ping. It allows you to comment on music, 'like' it a la Facebook, or rate it. Ping is also very similar to Twitter, in that you can 'follow' people and music stars. All of this happens inside of the iTunes application, either on your computer, iPhone or iPod Touch.
We took the new feature for a spin and came away intrigued, despite some initial flaws. We do however wonder at the overly commercial focus of Ping. Is this really about social networking, or mostly for Apple and artists to sell more music?
How to Get Ping
To access Ping, you first need to download iTunes 10 onto your computer. You'll need to also download 300+ MB worth of iPhone Software Update, to get it on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
On the computer, once you've downloaded iTunes 10 click the iTunes Store link in the sidebar. You'll see a "Get Started" link in the top right of that page (also 'Ping' appears as a menu option in the sidebar). You'll need to turn on the Ping feature and agree to Apple's privacy policy. After that, create a profile.
Note that you may encounter issues with uploading a profile photo and connecting to Facebook. However if you wait for about 10 minutes, eventually your photo will upload. We assume these are technical teething issues.
Once you have your profile set up, you're invited to follow other people and also stars like Lady Gaga and U2. This is very similar to how Twitter works, except that it's all happening inside of iTunes (on your computer or on your iPhone or iPod Touch).
Social Networking, or Prodding You to The Cash Register?
Ping isn't entirely intuitive. It took some head scratching to figure out that to actually post content, you need to be in the iTunes Store. You can't create new content from within Ping itself, although you can comment on what others have added.
To add new content to the Ping stream, you need to go to the iTunes Store and either comment on an album, 'like' it or give it a star rating.
The fact that you need to be inside the iTunes Store to create new content or like something, seems a rather cynical move to encourage people to buy more music. Why not let users search inside Ping for a song or album? Or, even better, let them right-click and comment, like or rate music from within the iTunes player?
Follow The Stars
To track - and optionally comment on - what others are doing, click on the Recent Activity feed in Ping.
Ping places more focus on feature accounts than Twitter, inviting you to "set your inner groupie free by following your favorite artists on Ping." The service comes pre-loaded with accounts for some leading pop, rock and other music acts.
These accounts don't offer much more than what the stars can already do on Facebook and Twitter. The main difference is that it's within an application where people can buy the music.
I'll Follow You (If You Share My Music Tastes)
Overall, Ping is a useful service for music fans who want to see what some of their friends are listening to. I can see this being useful for friends of mine who have similar tastes in music - for example if they 'like' a new album then I'm more likely to buy it. Also the ability for users to add which concerts they plan to go to is a useful feature.
However, Ping is probably not going to be very useful for following your friends who don't share your music tastes.
You may be a mate of mine on Facebook, but if you listen to electronica then sorry but I'm not interested in the content you're liking (and most probably vice versa for the alternative music I tend to favor).
It’s no surprise that Ge Wang, cofounder and chief technology officer of music app-maker Smule, sounds excited about Apple’s just-announced a social network for music, called Ping. But Wang said he sees greater potential in what Apple might do with Ping in the future.
For one thing, Wang said Apple should connect Ping with outside applications by offering something similar to Facebook Connect. Take Smule’s last big launch, the Glee iPhone app. Wang suggested that in addition to sharing iTunes music they’ve downloaded and that they recommend, Ping users could also share recordings of songs they made in the Glee app. In addition to feeding notifications into Ping, apps might also pull useful data from Ping about users’ music preferences.
And there’s no reason Ping has to be limited to music, Wang added. He noted that the “Ping” name isn’t specific to music, and that it “easily extends to other things.” Meanwhile, the iTunes store is now “about more than tunes.” You can also buy movies, TV shows, and, yes, apps. After Apple tests Ping with music, there’s no reason that it couldn’t use a similar recommendation system for everything else in the store. That could address an ongoing concern of app developers, who wonder how they can avoid getting lost among the app store’s 250,000 apps. (Apple is already making iPhone games more social with its Game Center, but that’s more about multiplayer support.
Not everyone shared Wang’s enthusiasm for Ping. For example, Forrester analyst Mark Mulligan wrote that the news “fell far short of expectations, or rather hopes.” Of course, another Forrester analyst was unimpressed by today upgraded version of Apple TV, so I guess it’s just a disappointing day for them.
Getting noticed is a challenge for everyone building apps. Join us at DiscoveryBeat 2010, and hear secrets from top industry executives about how to profit in the new cross-platform app ecosystem. The conference takes place on October 18th at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. Go here for conference details, or to apply to the “Needle in the Haystack” business contest. Early-bird tickets are available until September 15.
Companies: Apple, Smule
People: Ge Wang