Back in March, on the eve of SXSW, Plancast got an iPhone app out just in time. Now, with more time to work, they've perfected it with the launch of version 2. And that's not all they've been working on.
Over the past couple of weeks, Plancast has rolled out a new site design, a new plan social invitation system, and Eventbrite integration. On top of that, they're also testing out two other new features: local plans and a recent activity feed. Each of these features make a great service even better.More
Aydin Senkut, founder of Felicis Ventures, has an enviable track record. Founded in late 2005, Felicis has made roughly 60 investments, with 16 successful exits, including Mint, Tapulous and Aardvark. As anyone in the investment community will tell you, that's not a shabby hit rate.
Senkut, a former senior manager at Google, is getting ready to deploy even more capital, with the recent birth of Felicis' first institutional fund. The $40 million war chest was 33% oversubscribed and includes institutional investors like Flag Capital and Weathergage Capital and other notable names, like Peter Thiel and Joshua Schachter. So what is Senkut buying? The super angel investor recently dropped by TechCrunch TV to share his playbook. Video ahead.
Hint: he says the next great mobile company may intersect with health care.More
Six Apart is shutting down its free blogging service, Vox, and as Mike points out this announcement is really about cleaning up for an upcoming merger with VideoEgg. With 250 million uniques worldwide spread across thousands of blogs and a growing ad business, Six Apart isn't a failure. But, like Slide and like Digg, it hasn't lived up to its promise either. And products like Vox are a big reason why: As blogging was getting more open and commenters more mean spirited, Vox was intended as a clean, well-lit place in the blogosphere. It had a great UI and some nice features like a "Question of the Day" to get reluctant new bloggers up-and-writing. But then it just sort of withered.
My takeaway from the shuttering wasn't so much "Six Apart is cleaning up for a sale" (which they are and Six Apart Japan is next) but "Good God, Six Apart! What took you so long?"More
With the launch of Ping this week in the latest update for iTunes, Apple is finally adding social elements to its software. Ping is very promising if only because of Apple's reach through iTunes to 160 million music consumers. And it will no doubt get better over time. But at launch, it is riddled with problems which stem from the fact that Apple does not know how to create social software. It is completely out of its element, and it shows.
The biggest problem I have with Ping is that it lives in iTunes. Not only does it live in iTunes, it is isolated there. iTunes is not social. It is not even on the Web. And Ping doesn't communicate with any other social networks. I can't see people's iTunes Pings in Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else. While Ping does make iTunes itself more social, the problem is that I don't live in iTunes. It is a store. I go in to buy stuff and get out as fast as I can. I am not sure Ping is going to make me want to hang out there more.More
Plex, taking over the world. Only a few days after releasing Plex/Nine and Plex for iOS, the media center announced a partnership with LG to include a version of the software on its Internet-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players. But you knew that already. Wouldn't you know it, I have here a brief video demo. Who loves ya?More
Oh my, how I love some good ol' fashion mudslinging.
"Flash Websites? There's A Phone For That."
To any ne'er-do-blog-read layman, the full page ad that Motorola just put in the New York Times might just seem oddly worded. To anyone who has even considered considering themselves a gadget geek -- or has, at least, turned on their TV anytime in the past year and a half and seen Apple's "There's An App For That" campaign -- there's no question who this one's aimed at. More
Without Sony's support ESPN ?probably would not have launched? ESPN 3D. So said Bryan Burns, Vice-President of ESPN, at IFA earlier today. Burns, talking before a reasonably crowded auditorium, reiterated ESPN's commitment to 3D sports broadcasting while fully recognizing what we've all been going on about for months now: nobody's going to buy an expensive 3D TV—have you seen the unemployment numbers of late?—when there's nearly zero 3D content to be found.More
Mike Yang, Google's Associate General Counsel, just published a post on the Google blog, informing users that the company is making its privacy policies shorter and easier to understand for non-lawyers. They are also making some other changes, but to be clear, the Mountain View company isn't altering its privacy practices as such.
The updates will go into effect October 3, which is 30 days from now. More
Music identification app Shazam has announced big feature updates to its iPhone and iPod touch music discovery apps.
There are now customised settings for ?tagging on start-up? make the process of identifying a music track faster, a new UI, the ability to search for ringtones and videos on iTunes and better video. You can also share tunes you find via Facebook and Twitter. Shame it doesn't own its name on Twitter then.
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Filed under: Videos, Busted!I'll tell you right away, not because I like you but so this post shows up in search results:
These balls full of orange paint are anti-theft devices. When someone robs a store, the clerk can throw the ball at the perp (or at the perp's feet) so they're easily identified after they escape.
According to the Japan Times, though they're only thrown in 7% of robberies, the balls mostly work as a deterrent, since stores prominently display them. They're so visible that foreigners in Japan often wonder what they're there for. And in the video below, the clerks act adorable as they awkwardly explain why the visiting American shouldn't try to buy those orange balls on the counter.
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In Case of Zombies, a classic Threadless t-shirt by Olly Moss.
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Here are a few other possibly related posts you might enjoy:-A T-Shirt For People Who Love Killing Zombies
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-Warning: Zombies Returning To San Francisco
-Zombies Invade San Francisco!
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Oh dear. It's not just Spaniards who won't be able to control Kinect with their voices when the peripheral launches. It's everyone who doesn't live in the US, Mexico or United Kingdom. More
The implosion of Digg is happening. It is an unstoppable conclusion to events that have been in motion since last week and will continue until the full
On August 8th, 2010, sometime in the late evening, investment banker, oil industry insider and energy advisor to President George W. Bush, Matthew Simmons, put on a pair of swimming trunks, climbed into his hot tub at his Maine home and attempted to relax after a long day?s work. By 10:00pm Simmons had been found dead, floating in the hot tub of an apparent drowning.
Storm expected to weaken as it approaches New England on Friday
Hurricane Earl Advisory No. 33 NWS TPC / National Hurricane Center Miami FL11:00 a.m. EDT Thu Sept. 02 2010
View full sizeNOAAHurricane Earl is shown southeast of the Carolina coast in this current infrared satellite image.
Dangerous Hurricane Earl heading for the Outer Banks of North Carolina, hurricane warnings issued for portions of Massachusetts.
At 11:00 a.m. EDT the eye of Hurricane Earl was located near latitude 30.9 north, longitude 74.8 west. Earl is now moving toward the north near 18 mph, 30 km/hr. A turn toward the north-northeast with an increase in forward speed is expected on Friday. On the forecast track, the center of Earl will pass near the North Carolina Outer Banks tonight, and approach southeastern New England Friday night.
Maximum sustained winds are near 140 mph, 220 km/hr, with higher gusts. Earl is a category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. No significant change in strength is expected today, but gradual weakening should begin on Friday.
Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 90 miles, 150 km, from the center, and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 230 miles, 370 km.
Estimated minimum central pressure is 932 mb, 27.52 inches.
Summary of 11:00 a.m. EDT information: Location: 30.9n 74.8w about 300 mi, 485 km s of Cape Hatteras North Carolina about 765 mi, 1230 km ssw of Nantucket Massachusetts Maximum Sustained Winds: 140 mph, 220 km/hr Present Movement: n or 355 degrees at 18 mph, 30 km/hr Minimum Central Pressure: 932 mb, 27.52 inches
Summary of watches and warnings in effect:
A hurricane warning is in effect for, * Bogue Inlet North Carolina northeastward to the North Carolina/Virginia border including the Pamlico and Albemarle sounds. * westport Massachusetts eastward around cape cod to hull including Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket Island
A hurricane watch is in effect for, * north of the North Carolina/Virginia border to Cape Henlopen Delaware.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for, * Cape Fear to west of Bogue Inlet North Carolina. * north of the North Carolina/Virginia border to Sandy Hook New Jersey, including Delaware bay south of Slaughter Beach and the Chesapeake Bay south of New Point Comfort. * the eastern portion of Long Island New York from Fire Island Inlet to Port Jefferson Harbor. * New Haven Connecticut to west of Westport Massachusetts, including Block Island.
A tropical storm watch is in effect for, * north of hull Massachusetts to Eastport Maine. * the coast of Nova Scotia from Port Maitland to Medway Harbour. * the coast of Long Island west of Fire Island Inlet and Port Jefferson Harbor.
Hazards affecting land:Winds: Tropical-storm-force winds are expected to reach the North Carolina coast within the warning area by this afternoon. Even if the center of Earl remains offshore, hurricane force winds are expected to occur in the Outer Banks by tonight. Tropical-storm- force winds will likely reach the coast from Virginia northward to New Jersey tonight or early Friday.
Storm surge:A dangerous storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 3 to 5 feet above ground level within both hurricane warning areas and the lower Chesapeake Bay. Elsewhere within the tropical storm warning area, storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 1 to 3 feet above ground level. Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.
Rainfall: Accumulations of 2 to 4 inches, with isolated maximum amounts of 6 inches, are expected over portions of eastern North Carolina including the Outer Banks. Accumulations of 1 to 2 inches are possible farther to the north along the immediate mid-Atlantic coast.
Surf: Large swells from Earl will continue to affect the Bahamas and the east coast of the United States through Friday. These swells will likely cause dangerous surf conditions and rip currents.
Wind turbines function best in wide-open spaces where they can capture airflow unobstructed by buildings or mountains. Unfortunately, these same conditions are also optimal for aircraft takeoffs and landings, creating tension between wind energy utilities and airports in a number of locations worldwide. Utility-scale wind turbines, many of which stand more than 100 meters tall, can interfere with the radar used to safely guide aircraft. [More]
Using a revolutionary new microscope, scientists can now peer into embryos and watch, in one of the world's smallest 3-D movies, as brains, eyes and other organs form. A team at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, watched zebra fish and fruit fly embryos develop under the scope for as long as 58 hours, charting the location of every cell as it danced around the embryo. This experiment would have been impossible a mere two years ago before a recent spate of innovations advanced microscopy years into the future.
When it comes to watching the inner workings of cells , fluorescence microscopy is second to none. In this technique, scientists attach fluorescent tags to cellular proteins and, by shining a laser on the cells, cause them to light up.
The ancient scourge smallpox was relegated to biowaste bin of history more than 30 years ago, the result of the world's first and only successful disease eradication programs. Since then, however, cases of monkeypox--a serious, although less severe smallpoxlike illness--have substantially increased in central Africa, according to a study published August 30 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The authors stress that better surveillance and a thorough assessment of the public health threat posed by this once-rare viral infection are needed.
"I'm concerned about monkeypox," says Don Burke director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh, who wasn't involved in the study. "It isn't going to emerge as pandemic tomorrow, but could at any time start to increase its transmission. It's worrisome. This is the type of warning siren we need to take very seriously."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report from the group working on global warming's impacts contained at least one error. "Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world (see Table 10.9) and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate," the report notes. [More]
Nature certainly has a way of one-upping the fruits of human ingenuity. Extreme astrophysical objects have long been known to accelerate the particles that make up cosmic rays to whopping energies that make the Large Hadron Collider look like a child's slingshot. The mammoth collider near Geneva, Switzerland, which resumed service in 2009 after an aborted start-up the year before, will ultimately boost protons to energies of seven trillion electron volts. Cosmic-ray protons, in comparison, have been clocked striking Earth with tens of million times as much energy; a single proton can pack as much punch as a baseball hurled at 60 miles per hour. (For the technically inclined, some cosmic rays have energies exceeding 10 20 electron volts.) [More]
Realistic stem cell therapies to replace diseased or damaged tissue may still be years away, but researchers have uncovered a promising new use for these undifferentiated cells: they can be programmed to become patient-specific laboratory models of inherited liver disease. These new tools could be useful for teasing out disease mechanisms and testing new drug therapies.
Scientists from the University of Cambridge's Institute for Medical Research obtained skin cells from 10 patients--seven who had various forms of inherited liver disease, and three healthy controls. They reprogrammed the skin cells, rejuvenating them into an embryolike state (using the four-gene approach described in 2007). The researchers then cultured these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) in a mixture of chemical factors that triggered their conversion into liver cells, which had the appearance and functional properties of native liver cells.
Plants have evolved many direct defenses against herbivores, such as thorns, slippery leaves, lethal toxins and irritating resins. But some plants also employ indirect defenses by releasing chemicals that attract the natural enemies of herbivores. When a caterpillar starts feasting on a tobacco plant, for example, the leaves waft volatile compounds that attract some predatory and parasitoid insects. These predators hunt the caterpillars and their eggs, which benefits the plant by reducing the number of its attackers. Now, researchers have uncovered a surprising secret of plants' chemical cries for help that could yield new ways to fight crop pests .
Some ants live longer than others--way longer. And the mapping of the first full genome sequences of ants helps to reveal how two ants from the same colony, and with much the same genetic material , can have such different life histories. The work may also provide insights into longevity in another social species with which ants share about one third of their genes: humans. [More]
Targeted beams of high-intensity radiation can shrink early-stage tumors with limited collateral damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The addition of robotics and image guidance systems in recent years has made these stereotactic, or directed beam, radiosurgery systems an even more versatile weapon against cancer, attacking not only brain tumors (for which they were originally designed) but also other diseases virtually anywhere in the body. [More]
Footage from seven ongoing NASA space missions provide hyper-realistic scenery for the 3-D animated film, while the voices of multiple Captain Kirks and Darth Vaders play the parts of space explorers.
When the super-Earth COROT-7b was discovered in 2009, it was heralded as the rockiest, most truly Earth-like exoplanet yet. But a new study suggests it's more like a comet.
A first look at iOS 4.1 Gold Master, the latest release of Apple's mobile operating system due out next week. A developer sent me a copy and I have it installed on my iPhone 4. Major new features are the HDR photo mode and Game Center.
Just say "no" to be being an iClone. Get a device with an open OS, lightning-fast data connectivity and a network that won't drop calls every five minutes.
Don't hit the books without getting the right gear. We've got all the kit you need from taking scrupulous notes, to working off campus, to being the most popular kid in your dorm.
The sparkle of starlight off water could be the clincher for finding oceans on extrasolar planets. And it could be observable with the tech that will be deployed in the next generation of space telescopes.
Don't you wish there was a way to take notes with a pen and upload them to your computer? And don't you wish that pen had an infrared camera, a built-in speaker and mic? There is such a thing, and it's called the Livescribe Echo Smartpen.
Things just keep getting worse for Digg. Its users are still in revolt over its new design, its site has been unreliable, it is getting called out by a former employee, and it just plain isn't as big a deal as it used to be. NEW RANK: #89
Fusion Garage, maker of the Joojoo, suffered a major set back in its lawsuit with Michael Arrington and TechCrunch. And, to top it all of, it is still Fusion Garage, maker of the Joojoo. NEW RANK: #1,732
Startup-that-isn't-a-bank-but-provides-banking-services BankSimple raised a series A from a top notch set of investors, and strikes us as a neat idea. NEW RANK: #208
Foursquare competitor Looptlanded the best check-in offer we've ever heard of: 2-for-1 plane tickets to Mexico. The deal helped Virgin America to its fifth-biggest day in sales ever. NEW RANK: #62
Twitter's authentication update broke a number of third-party apps. It sent out its announcement two days too late, without realizing what day it was. It also announced that it has registered 145 million accounts, so poor communication skills don't seem to be a dealbreaker. NEW RANK: #8
WiThings, the French startup behind the scale that lets you periodically tweet out your weight, raised $3.8 million, which makes that success of Blippy sound expected and completely undepressing. NEW RANK: #308
The world of web video is quickly evolving, and live video sites are benefiting. New data from comScore shows minutes spent on live streaming sites like UStream, Justin.tv, and Livestream are up 600% on a year over year basis.
In July users spent 1.5 billion minutes watching videos on those sites. It's still much smaller than recorded web video. YouTube alone served up well over 40 billion minutes worth of video in July. But, time spent watching YouTube only grew 68%.
This is potentially bad news for the cable companies. The more people get comfortable watching streams on the web, the less they need cable. Obviously, the fare offered up on these sites isn't on par with what you get on premium stations, but if they can ever hit on a winning formula for a show or channel, people will be ready to tune in.
Then, in response to some of these complaints, he announced on Twitter that he would add some features back.
Well, that did him no good.
He was promptly ripped by ex-Digg site architect, Joe Stump, who said, "I love you man, but seriously? Upcoming has *never* been a useful feature. What's been done to make it useful?"
Rose didn't take the insult too personally. He replied, "agree 100%, this is an identical v3 feature for those that used it - better new story discovery coming.."
Stump came back at him more forcefully, saying, "Why launch this at all? You're bending to the will of a few users. Keep the crap off the site until the better version is done."
Facebook is quickly moving in on Google's search business.
It's now testing searching results ranked by "likes."
Google ranks search results based on lots of stuff – but mostly on how often pages are linked to from other highly-linked to pages.
This could, someday not too far off, end up being a serious disruption for Google.
From All Facebook: Another big upgrade from Facebook: the company is currently testing search results which display articles ranked by likes. Additionally, the results for searches now shows the results from all around the web based on two things: the number of likes and the number of friends who liked that object, most likely leveraging some of the technology shown in their recently approved patent. We first received reports of these search results showing up earlier yesterday.
It's now live for all Gmail.com users, but companies (and individuals) using Google Apps for their email can actually access the feature, too.
How?
One of your domain administrators needs to go into Google's Apps control panel and turn on a feature called "Enable pre-release features," under "Domain Settings."
Once that's turned on, Priority Inbox will become available in Gmail, in red text in the upper-right corner of your window. (It might take several minutes to activate. You may have to log out and log in for it to kick in, too.)
(If you're not using Google Apps for your company's email -- if Gmail isn't your corporate webmail -- you won't be able to access this feature at all.)
Good news New York City startups: It's never been easier to raise money to get your company off the ground.
One plugged in digital media exec told us, "If you can't get money for your startup right now, then there's something wrong with you." Other people in the scene basically confirmed this, but added a few caveats.
Chiefly, getting quality capital is as challenging as ever. And big brand name VCs aren't changing their pace of funding.
However, New York City is awash in capital for early stage startups looking for smallish (under $1 million) sized rounds. There's a lot of "hedge fund guys" looking to invest in tech startups in New York right now, says one New York investor.
"If you're a hedge fund guy you're used to billions. And when you see valuations in the millions, it seems like nothing to invest," says this investor. But he adds, the hedge fund guys don't get the technology business. Taking their money, therefore, he argues is less valuable.
Of course, he's talking his book, but he says he walked away from investing in a startup after some hedge fund guys made the valuation out of whack. The terms were more favorable for the startup, but it would have scared off later round investment, he says.
A VC we spoke with touched upon the idea of later round investment. He's seeing a lot of angel funding cash out there, but he thinks some startups are getting funding before they're ready for it, or deserve it. And when the startups go looking for a series A or B round, they might find that getting that later round is much more challenging.
One person we know who has a startup trying to raise money was floored at how easy it was to get a small slug of cash. It was basically a short phone call with a potential investor who said, "I've heard good things about you from people I trust. When you're ready for me to invest, just call me back."
The growth in early stage funds in New York is being driven by a few factors say the people we spoke with.
1. The New York tech scene is flourishing. And coverage of it is too, thus investors are interested.
2. Some of the people that had successful New York based startups in the early part of the decade are investing in New York startups now.
3. Wall Street types are willing to spend money on startups.
4. It's easier than ever to do a lightweight startup. You don't need much money for many web based companies. If you need less money, it's easier to get funding.
5. Companies are acquisitive again. Google has purchased 25 companies in 12 months. Facebook is acquiring at a decent clip. Even Apple is buying some companies. And there's many other companies stepping up their M&A.
Add it all together, and the city is looking quite "frothy," according to our digital media exec friend.
We asked people on the street what they think of daily deals company Groupon. Most of them hadn't heard of it. But once we explained what the company does, most of them got pretty excited. That's probably why Groupon revenues are supposedly going to reach $500 million this year. Watch above.
AOL doesn't seem to have gotten any big upfront payments from Google for its search deal.
How come?
Probably because AOL wasn't in a very good position to negotiate.
The speculation is that while CEO Tim Armstrong may have talked and even negotiated with a handful of search companies (he says it was six or seven), he only really ever had one choice…Google – the incumbant.
One source familiar with the process gave us two big reasons:
AOL has about ~4.5 million access subscribers who still generate huge amounts of cash for the company. It can't do anything to scare them away. They are very used to seeing Google search results. Can't mess with that.
The only real rival to Google for AOL search was Microsoft. But AOL couldn't do a search deal with Microsoft because it wants to sell to Microsoft. The only reason Microsoft would ever actually buy AOL is to get AOL's search business. If AOL turned itself over to Bing for a cash payment now, Microsoft would no longer have any incentive to take that step. It's that whole if-you-give-the-milk-away-no-one-will-buy-the-cow thing.
The sunlight of summer has begun it's annual transition to equinox, and we are all reviving the pulse of the work-year.
The President has returned from Martha's Vineyard to face what will surely be a challenging fall. It's mid-term election season and the mood of the voting public is downright ornery.
ODS (Obama Disappointment Syndrome) a growing wave of depression, has created a huge anti-incumbent wave. "Throw 'em all out!" seems to be the mantra of the season.
In the last couple of weeks the number of negative op-eds on the President from both sides of the aisle have grown considerably. The mildest theme seems to be "he is too smart to be in touch with the people," or "we just don't know who you are or what you really are about Mr. President." The really challenging ones drift into the inevitable issues of racism.
I have long held that the most qualified people to be in government are business folk. Not just Billionaires like Mayor Bloomberg, but anyone who has successfully run anything, been responsible for making payrolls, paying back loans, paying bills on time, navigating through good times and bad. Most important: balancing a budget. But the reality is most people who have these credentials are too smart to get sucked into the dysfunction of the public sector. Nor will they submit themselves to the relentless intrusion and scrutiny of the press. So what's the next best thing for the "beleaguered" President? Take some lessons from the guys who know how to really get things done. And who better than the best CEO in the Universe: Steve Jobs.
So Mr. President, in an effort to help you succeed, herewith is a new playbook for your consideration:
1. You have to make other people cool. Being cool got you elected because it made people feel cool electing you. But then nothing much else happened. You thought healthcare would be the cool thing but dramatically misread your audience. Steve makes millions of people cool, it is his most amazing talent. Buy an iPhone and you are cool. But if you don't have a job, you have no chance of being cool. And the Healthcare plan? No one is cool with it (outside of DC). 2. Get citizens to voluntarily pay more taxes. Apple has been doing this for years. Customers happily fork over a big premium for their products. They will even camp overnight outside an Apple store to have the privilege of doing it first. We have a huge debt problem. In Europe everyone pays a VAT (Value Added Tax). Apple has a CAT (Coolness Added Tax). Watch and learn Barack. You just have to figure out what it is the Federal Government does that's cool, or useful, or is of particular benefit to anyone.
3. Replace Congress with a Genius Bar. The current spin is that the Republicans are obstructionist. But if there are Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, how could that possibly prevent you from bringing "Change we can believe in?" The answer is that Congress just isn't smart enough. Sure these are fine, well-intentioned people but we need really super-smart folks to fix our dysfunctional system. Steve Jobs figured out that even people savvy enough to buy Apple products were going to have problems now and then, and he wasn't going to subject them to someone you'd find working at the Division of Motor Vehicles. He recruited an army of Geniuses. So why not forget about political party affiliations and just support the election of Geniuses.
4. Wear the same outfit every day. I know it sounds trite but you probably have figured out it takes a lot of brain cycles to be POTUS. Why waste any time trying to pick out a slick Armani and matching tie (or arguing with the First Lady about HER selection). Steve's turtleneck and jeans thing has worked for 30 years now because it sends a simple clear message "all I care about is making insanely great products." You could be transmitting "all I care about is improving your life, making a better America."
5. You can't be afraid of pissing people off. Probably your biggest Freshman error has been to try and make everyone happy. Yes you passed a Healthcare bill but it didn't take on the tough issues (Tort reform, insurance rate controls). You decided we needed to "surge" in Afghanistan but also announced we'd only do it for a little while, so as not to over-irritate all of the antiwar constituency who voted you into office. Steve Jobs takes on the tough issues. He decided that Adobe's Flash, one of the most widely used media formats on the Internet, sucks and that was that. iPhone and iPad don't support it. So I can't view half of the stuff on the WWW on my iPad; but I still have one. Take a real stand on something President Obama and live with the fact that to be effective you are going to make some people angry. As long as there are more happy people then angry people you'll have a second term.
6. Vision without execution is nothing. We elected you because you understood how frustrated we were with DC Dysfunction. You had a vision for "not a Red America or Blue America but a United States of America." You said you would bring change to Washington. True you never said you'd make DC "Insanely Great" or "Magical" but you presented your campaign vision with compelling Jobsian conviction. Yet, the partisan aisles are wider than ever. No one seems to want to solve problems, they are just obsessed with maintaining or regaining their majority. Steve Jobs has a saying: "there are two types of people in the world: those who have shipped products and those who haven't." Steve has shipped more Innovative products over the last 30 years than any other tech executive. The lesson here? Get rid of all of the professors, policy wonks, career bureaucrats, and Chicago thugs and convince some real capitalist operational executives to come work for you (even if you hate the way we smell).
7. Build a little intrigue. Tell us something big is coming. Set a date for a big presentation. Leak a little here and there to tease. Cut all the deals behind the scenes so Congress backs you. Then get on stage and tell us all about our shiny new Healthcare Widget. We won't mind what's missing because we'll know it's just 1.0 and your bound to have a bunch of improvements next year and it will be much cheaper too. 8. Make us USA Fanboys. Right after the election it was fun to be an American again, especially while traveling abroad. Europeans in particular were not Bush fans and we took a big hit in our image. Electing you made the World feel good. But the bloom has quickly faded. No one can figure out what you really stand for. We are straddled with debt, and seem to be losing our innovative edge. We can't even give our kids a decent education. Apple went through bad times prior to Steve Job's comeback. It lost it's Mojo. But Steve returned with laser like focus. The company's back was against the wall and he put forth a simple proposition. He said they would only do two things and had to make them spectacular to survive. He thew away all of the previously bloated, PC-like Macs and introduced the first iMac and iBook. They were a hit. That led to iPod. Which led to iPhone. Which led to legions of proud Apple Fans. And most important huge financial success. All due respect President Obama, we need to focus on innovation and education. If we are not giving our children the best and nurturing our innate Yankee ingenuity, we will never create jobs and return to prosperity. It's hard to feel patriotic pride when your house is being repossessed.
9. When all else fails. Blame it on us stupid Americans. We just don't get it. We don't need to access our iTunes library on more than five computers. Calls dropping on our brand new iPhone4? We are holding it the wrong way! Go to the Genius bar and Apple will give you a rubber and show you how to practice safe iPhone4. Mr. President, Yes you can to bring change to Washington, but everyone else is going to have to want to change too. If they won't play ball, make it crystal clear that they are the morons and send them to a Genius Bar for help. Well actually looks like the voters are going to do that for you in November.
The final lesson is that passion and persistence against all adversity will pay off. After all of the adoration bestowed during the campaign, it must be horrible to have to endure the current spate of negative press. But hey, Steve was summarily thrown out of his own company, thrashed around for a bunch of years trying to get NeXT to be something. Perhaps it was a dose of humility that helped polish his edges a bit but he never lost his passion or focus. His return and turnaround of Apple is now epic. And the story is really just beginning. So President Barack Obama, can you turn it around and become an epic President? One for the history books? Take a lesson from Apple. It's all about Jobs.
It's been nearly a month since Demand filed its S1, and I promised you all a longer look after my initial posting. Here are some thoughts now that I've had a chance to digest the document. A caveat: I know Demand CEO Richard Rosenblatt well, and consider him a friend. And one of his investors, Oak, is an investor in my company, Federated Media. However, neither Oak nor Richard participated in the preparation of this post.
The letter expresses support for the president?s proposed strategy for NASA and criticizes cuts contained in a NASA authorization bill now before the House.
The lab of Stephen A. Kells, a University of Minnesota entomologist. Bedbugs are not known to transmit disease.Ask experts why bedbugs disappeared for 40 years, why they came back, why they don?t spread disease, and you hear one answer: ?Good question.?
Dr. Donald A. Redelmeier is an internist-researcher in Toronto.Dr. Donald A. Redelmeier?s work has debunked preconceived notions and revealed some deep truths about the predictors of longevity, the organization of health care and the workings of the medical mind.
NASA's five-segment solid rocket development motor in its test stand at ATK in Promontory, Utah.NASA is revisiting the question of what rocket to build next and whether solid motors will be part of it.
Dr. William Hamilton believed that helping your relatives could spread your genes faster.A team of prominent evolutionary biologists at Harvard is trying to demolish the theory that helping your relatives can spread your genes faster than having children of your own.
This week we made the most of your external hard drives, cleaned out our laptops before turning them in to IT, put together the ultimate exercise playlist, and more. More »
Netflix lets its staff take as many vacation days as they want, and they can take them whenever they want, and according to news site The Telegraph, it works. Now we're wondering: How much vacation time do you get every year? More »
If you need to edit some video away from your home, free web-based video editor JayCut will likely get your project going, whether you need simple cutting and pasting or text, transitions, and impromptu audio recording. More »
OK, maybe not "dogs" plural, but the (regular size) creator of this tiny grill, made from an Altoids Sours tin, says it can cook a small hamburger or a single hot dog, cut down to size, with ease. Awwww. More »
Android: If you prefer to use your Android as hands-free as possible, Taskos is a voice-driven to-do list manager that supports contexts, alarms, dialer integration and more. More »
Whether you're trying to increase your security at an internet café, tunnel your way to your home computer from your cubicle, or leave no trace on your friend's borrowed computer, a flash drive turned portable privacy toolkit is invaluable. More »
Still hotter than you'd like this late in the summer? We're serving out scoops of your favorite productivity ice cream in this week's open thread. More »
You want to transfer a file to a friend but IM transfer has failed, it's too big for email, or somebody is behind a firewall. Head over to Dushare where you can transfer peer-to-peer via browser, as fast as you can upload. More »
Back in March, on the eve of SXSW, 
Ping - 
Six Apart is shutting down its free blogging service, Vox, and as Mike 
With the 
Oh my, how I love some good ol' fashion mudslinging.
"Flash Websites? There's A Phone For That."
To any ne'er-do-blog-read layman, the full page ad that Motorola just put in the New York Times might just seem oddly worded. To anyone who has even considered considering themselves a gadget geek -- or has, at least, turned on their TV anytime in the past year and a half and seen Apple's "There's An App For That" campaign -- there's no question who this one's aimed at. 
Without 
Mike Yang, Google's Associate General Counsel, just 
Music identification app 
New York City education technology startup 
Good news New York City startups: It's never been easier to raise money to get your company off the ground.
