Win an iMac with 5k Retina display
OS X is a pretty operating system under normal circumstances. But viewed on the 5K display of the new iMac, it’s other-worldly. For a chance to look at this beauty on your desk every day, you just need to enter our giveaway. That’s right, we’re giving away a 5K iMac valued at $1,999.
The 27-inch Retina iMac has an almost unbelievable resolution of 5120×2880, but a pretty picture isn’t all it offers. Under the hood, there is a quad-core 3.3GHz i5 processor, and 8GB of RAM. In other words, it is the dream machine for any videographer, developer or photographer — not to mention a great everyday desktop for the every-day user. Better yet, it looks like a piece of art on your desk.
For your chance to win this stunning machine, you simply need to enter our giveaway. Head for the link below, hit the big green button on the giveaway page, and enter your details to claim your entry. Then, share your entry with your friends for more chances to win – you’ll get five additional entries for each friend you refer! Good luck!
➤ Enter to win the 5k Retina iMac.
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Microsoft is retiring the Modern UI version of Skype on July 7
While Windows 8 had a scarcity of touch-friendly Modern UI apps from major brands, Skype – being a Microsoft property – was certainly not excluded.
Windows 8, unfortunately did not turn out to be very popular, and now Skype is retiring the Modern UI version of the app on July 7. On that date, users of the touch-friendly version app will be transitioned over to the traditional desktop software.
Microsoft cites the imminent release of Windows 10 as a major reason for the shift. It just makes more sense to use the version of the app already optimized for mouse and keyboard (and capable of touch) than having two separate apps that essentially do the same thing – especially given the desktop and Modern UI interface are no longer separate as in Windows 8
Still, it’s a bit of a peculiar change given the Microsoft’s push for universal apps that work on all kinds of devices – it seems the company won’t force all its major apps to adopt universal design features.
Developing…
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Liveblog: Oculus VR’s June event
Facebook’s Oculus VR division has assembled press in San Francisco today to unveil… something.
Catch up with what we know in the run up to the event. Want to see how it all unfolds? Follow our liveblog below.
The event kicks off at 10am PDT/1pm EDT/6pm BST/7pm CEST/10.30 IST.
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Watch now: 7 habits of successful innovators
Innovation is a team sport.
Amy Jo Kim, co-founder of Shufflebrain, thinks that for companies to be successful, they need to work closely with their dedicated customers. She thinks successful innovators have seven habits and she shares them in her talk.
The first is that innovators should think like scientists. Small innovations start like experiments designed to answer the most important questions of the customers. The most striking pattern shared by every successful innovation is the willingness to ask the hard, important questions upfront.
Another important habit lies in recognizing the early adopters specifically for your product. They can be of a great value because they are invested in the product and are motivated to make it better. You need to learn about your customers first before you build anything. Their insights help you to shape the product.
In order to keep your customers engaged, your product needs to contribute to their skill-building. It is not only about creating badges, it is about making the player better than they were. The key is to create the feedback loop to promote learning and mastery through engaging activities.
Do you want to know all the habits? Amy also offers three shortcuts to turbo charge the customer discovery process. What are the shortcuts? Watch Amy’s talk to find out.
Watch more TNW Conference talks on TNW Video.
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Product Hunt gets its first standalone category: games
Product Hunt, which was launched in late 2013, is expanding into new ground with its first area separate from the main leaderboard.
The separation of games was teased a few weeks ago when the site launched its Game Hunt newsletter. Today, Product Hunt announced that games and technology products will live on separate leaderboards under the Product Hunt umbrella.
The new games leaderboard is reminiscent of Reddit’s independent ‘subreddits’ where users can follow their interests, but Product Hunt is betting big on the new area.
The company has hired Rush Frushtick, co-founder of game news site Polygon, to help run the new vertical and went to its community to get feedback on the gaming leaderboard along with a redesign of the site.
We asked Ryan Hoover, Product Hunt’s founder, why the company picked games for its first new vertical when there are plenty of others, like movies or music.
He told TNW that “games [are] a natural extension for us” and that there has been “an explosion of creation in the gaming industry, exacerbating the discovery problem.”
He also hinted that games aren’t the only expansion, with “other categories coming in the coming weeks.”
After collaborating with its users on the new design to get feedback and ideas, Product Hunt is launching both the dedicated games leaderboard and the updated look today.
➤ Product Hunt Games
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iOS 9 uses new tricks to squeeze more battery life out of the phone you already own
Apple touted a number of flagship features of iOS 9 during its WWDC keynote, but the company is quietly focusing on squeezing more battery life out of the phone already in your pocket.
A session for developers titled “achieving all-day battery life” pushed that app builders need to be more conscious of how their code is draining the user’s battery and introduced new features to help catch battery thirsty apps.
One significant feature of iOS 9 that Apple hadn’t mentioned previously stops your iPhone’s screen from lighting up when it’s face down on a table. Until now, the iPhone would light up for every notification, regardless whether the screen was actually viewable or not.
In iOS 9, it’s much easier to keep track of what apps are draining your battery, how long you used individual apps and what they are doing in the background with the new battery menu.
Changes in iOS 9 also improve the way phone handles app activity in the background. The OS now intelligently saves some network activity for the next time you’re on Wi-Fi and defers heavier processing to when plugged in for charging.
A new warning indicator in XCode that details the energy impact of apps under development and what activities will cause the most battery drain, to make developers more aware of what impact they’re having.
Developers are being encouraged to move away from old methods of updating information in their apps, asking them to eliminate polling and timers when looking for new data. Apple instead recommends that work be performed in batches when the user is actually using the app.
When not in use, apps should now be at “absolute idle” in iOS 9, to reduce battery power as much as possible.
Overall, Apple says that iOS 9 already performs better on existing hardware with up to one extra hour of battery life. It’s spent a lot of time optimizing system apps for energy efficiency to squeeze as much as possible out of existing hardware.
With this release, it’s pushing developers to be more considerate of how much energy they’re actually using. It’s unclear if it’ll enforce new rules on the App Store that check app efficiency, but the push could mean major improvements for how long your phone makes it through the day.
Read Next: Apple is finally fixing the reason your Mac and iPhone’s Wi-Fi sucks
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Top design training and asset deals, starting at $30
Being a designer is not just about making pretty things — it is also about making stuff that works. These courses and assets over at TNW Deals help you do that without breaking the bank.
94% off with the Immersive User Experience Bundle
One of the key attributes of any popular app is a compelling user experience. This bundle of seven courses teaches you how to optimize your designs for your users.
The 24 hours of tuition includes tracks on rapid prototyping, getting feedback on your designs with A/B testing, the use of frameworks, the theories behind many great interfaces, and how to write great copy. You can currently order the bundle for $39.
➤ The Immersive User Experience Bundle
92% off with the Train Simple Creative Cloud Mastery Bundle
Given that Adobe’s software is the professional standard for many forms of design, it makes sense to master it. The eight Adobe-authorized courses in this bundle are designed to make sure you know the fundamentals of Creative Cloud.
The list includes tracks on the graphics editors of Photoshop and Illustrator, the publishing environments of InDesign and Acrobat, the website builders Dreamweaver and Muse, and the animation studios of Flash and Edge Animate. You can get started now for $49.
➤ The Train Simple Creative Cloud Mastery Bundle
86% off with the Rapid Responsive Web Development Bundle
When designing for the web, it is vital to make your sites great to use on every size and type of screen. The tuition in this bundle shows you how to do that at speed.
The six courses cover the basic HTML and CSS skills needed to make a responsive website, along with frameworks such as Twitter Bootstrap and Zurb’s Foundation 5. You can also learn how to make a business site that is both beneficial to customers and good for revenue. The bundle is currently priced at $59.
➤ The Rapid Responsive Web Development Bundle
94% off the UI/UX Designer Bundle
If you want to concentrate on the science and theories behind good user experience design, this is the bundle for you. It includes five courses that look at how the top professionals make their products irresistible.
The topics include using analytics to improve your designs, effective user testing, the building of habit-forming interfaces, and the use of color, typefaces and layouts. In total, it is over 25 hours of insightful training, and you can currently get it for $34.
➤ The UI/UX Designer Bundle
98% off 60 website templates and WordPress themes by Flashmint
Having the skills to build from scratch is a must, but basing your design on a high quality template can speed things up. Flashmint curates a range of stylish, responsive templates and WordPress themes, and this bundle brings together 60 of the best.
Each of the templates comes with its full HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP files, and this pack includes a nice variety of designs. Some are industry-specific, while others are blank canvases for you to play with. All the templates come with an unlimited commercial license, and you can get the bundle now for $29.99.
➤ 60 Website Templates and WordPress Themes by Flashmint
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The next Range Rover will automatically detect and report potholes
Jaguar Land Rover is developing technology to enable its cars to identify potholes they encounter and share that data in real-time with road authorities and other vehicles.
The upcoming feature will help government agencies prioritize road repairs and enable drivers to avoid major potholes and broken manholes.
The company has devised sensors for its Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport models that profile the surface under a vehicle’s wheels and monitor changes in the suspension height to gather data about road conditions and tag it with GPS-based location information.
Jaguar Land Rover’s Global Connected Car Director Dr. Mike Bell says:
While this gives our customers a more comfortable ride, we think there is a huge opportunity to turn the information from these vehicle sensors into ‘big data’ and share it for the benefit of other road users. This could help prevent billions of pounds of vehicle damage and make road repairs more effective.
Jaguar Land Rover’s pothole alert system (click for larger image)
The company’s current technology works only when drivers actually drive over said potholes. However, it’s looking into ways to scan the road ahead of a vehicle to detect them, using a forward-facing stereo digital camera fitted on its Range Rover Evoque research vehicle.
Coventry City Council in the UK is interested in Jaguar Land Rover’s work and is investigating how the company’s pothole alert system could supply data to aid in maintaining its road network.
The research could also augment the car maker’s work developing autonomous vehicles, allowing them to avoid potholes without leaving their lanes.
➤ Jaguar Land Rover Announces Technology Research Project To Detect, Predict And Share Data On Potholes [Jaguar Land Rover Media Centre]
Read next: Apple grabbed a way of supercharging your selfies from Kodak
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What startups need to know about big business
“How can large companies stay innovative?”, “What can startups teach big business?”, “How to think like a startup”.
Whenever we talk about the differences between big beasts and startups, the emphasis often seems to fall on the strengths of the latter. Indeed, Google’s Eric Schmidt repeatedly says what keeps him awake at night is the next two-person micro-enterprise that could, one day, disrupt the big daddy.
But, whilst it is true that the behemoths of business have much to learn from up-start challengers, there is plenty the new wave can learn from their elders, too. Having seen both sides of the coin – previously, as an executive and consultant at big firms like Bloomberg and Dow Jones, and, now helping build news monitoring startup Signal – here is what I think the small fry need to know about the big kahunas.
Be thankful – big companies move like juggernauts
The larger outfits may be many times greater than you are, but recognise that your relative size – or lack of it – is actually your key competitive advantage.
When Bloomberg started in the eighties, it was of course small too, and looking to dethrone the incumbents who had failed to move with the technology of the times. For Bloomberg, that meant an advent of messaging, rather than phone and interactive analytics, with much richer data than competitors.
By the nineties while I was working at Bloomberg, the company wanted to flip its revenue model from charging per terminal to charging per user. It is rightly credited with being a large company with a simple and extremely efficient business model and well designed internal processes.
Even still, given the inherent complexity of the back-office systems, the change took six months to make work – and another eight years to move the majority of the customer base to the new model.
Rather than fret about the threat from bigger rivals, whose staff are spread over many floors, offices or countries, startup CEOs should thank their lucky stars they can make decisions quickly, just by chatting to their CTO across the desk.
Big companies are desperate to be you
Every startup wants to “scale”. But, when you reach those heights, the price of scale is rigidity. The monsters of Wall Street spend so much time and effort trying to be small and nimble, it is unreal.
At one stage at Bloomberg, I had 500 people reporting to me as head of EMEA sales. That is big business. But, so keen was the firm to act like a minnow, I still sat out on the floor with a regular desk like everyone else and had no personal assistant. Big firms all set up skunk work teams and innovation hubs in a desperate effort to be more nimble and informal.
Focusing on the user also requires an agile development schedule with new releases every two weeks, and a flat management structure to make decisions quickly and to keep improving on your company’s proprietary technology.
Startup culture has surpassed rock music as one of the coolest things you can do, and the practical advantages of being a startup set the corporate world green with envy. Never underestimate that. Enjoy your time as a small fry like we are enjoying now – when you have made it big, you will look back on these times with envy.
Their hubris is their weakness – exploit it
Big companies are not born at scale. Startup founders know growing a business takes years of blood, sweat and tears. When you make it big, it is easy to get swept up by a wave of euphoria, and that can cause many a big-time CEO to believe their company is unassailable.
That is a terrible mistake for them, but one of the strongest weapons in your arsenal. When a strong opponent’s guard is down, even the smallest of opponents can strike. So don’t fear going up against incumbents with a similar business proposition. All it takes to create a little victory is to expose their weakness at the right time.
Kodak may have been top of the camera manufacturer crowd in the 1990s, but that didn’t stop rivals making digital cameras that would eventually be its undoing. They exploited the giant’s half-hearted attempt at digital reform, leaving it playing catch-up. It was making models that had too little profit margin, leading Kodak’s CEO to declare digital a “crappy business”. Rivals’ willingness to exploit Kodak’s complacency despite its size, however, means it is now enjoying selling inkjet cartridges instead.
If you find a growing need in your target industry that is currently uncatered for by big incumbent suppliers, it’s as important to be distinctive as it is to be different. Remember, creating a new business model may be harder for a big competitor to respond to than creating new features.
The big guys can be your best friend
Large outfits don’t have to be enemies that startups either avoid or try to topple. They can also be the best partner they will ever have – for instance, as distributors or even potential acquirers.
Think about a business area you are covering but that a big beast in your space is not offering to its customers. That is a great opportunity to offer a new business line that is mutually beneficial. Mobile accessory maker Griffin has proved successful in recent years not just because it sells direct to consumers but also because it also gains distribution through Apple’s own retail channel, giving it far wider scale than it could otherwise enjoy.
Similarly, by syndicating through Bloomberg’s information services, small brokerages gain a route to customers that would otherwise have required substantial outlay. All it takes is spotting an opportunity with big business and chasing it down.
Read Next: New Google startup seeks to improve life in the big city
Image credit: Shutterstock
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Goodeed turns 20 seconds of your time into humanitarian aid
Online marketplace Goodeed is officially going global today, kicking off simultaneous campaigns in the UK, US and Germany and launching its website – www.goodeed.com.
Goodeed helps NGOs around the world by using revenues generated from its 20 second sponsored adverts to fund their work.
The aim of the company is to turn ad-watching into a priced commodity for social good so money can be raised to help NGOs without any monetary transactions taking place.
When you go onto the website, you are asked to choose the type of donation you would like to make – trees, vaccinations, or meals – then you are given a commercial to watch for a minimum of 20 seconds and that’s it.
The ad funds your donation and all you have to give is 20 seconds of your time.
Revenues generated from the ads go towards NGOs such as the UN World Food Programme, WWF, UNICEF, WeForest and more.
Goodeed was founded by 19 year old Vincent Touboul Flachaire who has said the idea came to him after reading “Building Social Business” by Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize winner).
It has been in an open beta in France since 2014 and has already amassed over 60,000 users who made over half a million donations. Interestingly, Goodeed has said that over half of its users are under 35 years old and 70 percent have never donated to a charity before.
This shows that the new model of giving your time and attention, rather than money or being stopped on the street, is appealing to a new generation.
With the amount of time we spend watching Vines and YouTube videos of cats, 20 seconds to give a meal, plant a tree or get someone a vaccination seems like little to give.
The company has said that so far, over 200,000 meals have been provided to children in Kenya with the World Food Programme; 100,000 trees have been planted in Burkina Faso and Ehiopia with WeForest, and over 180,000 donations for vaccines have been generated.
On top of that, Goodeed has collected 50,000 litres of chlorinated water for Ebola treatment centers in Sierra Leone and helped to provide dental care for 10,000 children in Cambodia.
➤ Goodeed
Read next: New Google startup seeks to improve life in the big city
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Apple grabbed a way of supercharging your selfies from Kodak
The rise of the selfie is seemingly unstoppable and Apple has been thinking about our propensity to take snaps of our own faces for a while.
A patent, dug up by PatentYogi, outlines a plan to use facial recognition to detect who the camera is being pointed at and apply personalised settings to take account of particular features.
Effectively, you’d be able to tell your iPhone that you prefer a certain shutter speed, exposure time, sharpness, brightness or set of effects, and have those preferences applied whenever you’re grabbing a selfie or even – shock, horror – taking a picture of someone else close to you.
The name on the patent – Ken Parulski – is interesting. He was Kodak’s Chief Scientist until June 2012, so it’s clear that this 2011 filing was one of the many purchased by Apple in a raid on the troubled camera company’s patent vault.
As is always the case with patents, just because a company holds one doesn’t mean it will turn the contents into a real feature. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this function popping up in a future version of iOS.
➤ Camera having processing customized for identified persons [USPTO via PatentYogi]
Read next: The best iOS 9 features Apple didn’t mention at WWDC
Image credit: PatentYogi
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Europe launches antitrust investigation into Amazon’s ebooks business
The European Commission has launched a formal antitrust investigation into Amazons ebook business to determine if the company is abusing its powers.
The investigation is going to hone in on Amazon’s contracts with publishers, which obligate them to tell Amazon if any other retailer is offering a better deal on ebooks.
According to an EC press release, this clause raises concern because it could be reducing customer choice and hindering competition in the market.
The press release goes on to say:
Amazon has developed a successful business that offers consumers a comprehensive service, including for e-books. Our investigation does not call that into question. However, it is my duty to make sure that Amazon’s arrangements with publishers are not harmful to consumers, by preventing other e-book distributors from innovating and competing effectively with Amazon. Our investigation will show if such concerns are justified.
The investigation comes just weeks after Amazon caved to another European Commission investigation over suspected tax avoidances.
➤ Antitrust: Commission opens formal investigation into Amazon’s e-book distribution arrangements [European Commission]
Read next: 49 cyber criminals across Europe arrested over €6 million bank heist
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Here’s the first single from the unknown artist Apple loves
It was a big day for Loren Kramar on Monday. Apple bigged up the unknown singer onstage during its WWDC keynote, while introducing Apple Music’s Connect feature.
It's here… #MyLife by #LorenKramar = https://t.co/hCB7Cuu2EZ
— LOREN (@thelorenkramar) June 11, 2015
Now the singer – who I discovered actually has strong ties to Beats Music boss turned Apple music bigwig Jimmy Iovine – has released his first single on iTunes.
‘My Life’ is a delicious slice of white boy soul that suggests Eddy Cue’s prediction that Kramar is “going to be really, really huge” might not just be classic Apple hyperbole.
But what’s really interesting is that the huge platform gifted to the singer during the Apple event hasn’t translated to a great deal of interest.
He only launched his Twitter account after the event and has 452 followers at the time of writing. On Instagram he’s got a marginally more respectable 1,119.
Hopefully, Kramar’s music will gin up a little more attention from now on…
➤ ‘My Life’ – Loren Kramar [iTunes]
Read next: Who is Loren Kramar? The ‘unsigned’ artist Apple advertised has major label connections
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Run presentations from your phone with Google Slides for Android
A new version of Google’s Slides presentation app on Android includes support for the company’s Chromecast TV dongle, allowing presenters to ditch those old-school clickers and use their phone as a remote.
The updated app lets you beam your slides to a Chromecast dongle plugged into a TV or projector and control your presentation by swiping back and forth on your phone or tablet. You’ll also be able to view your notes and a handy timer privately on your device.
The latest version of Slides should arrive in Google’s Play Store soon. If you don’t want to wait, you can grab the APK installation file from APK Mirror and sideload it onto your device.
There’s no word yet on when Chromecast support will arrive for Slides on iOS. We’ve contacted Google to find out more and will update this post when we hear back.
➤ Slides [Android | iOS | via Android Police]
Read next: Google brings 4X faster browsing to Android devices in India
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Apple Music may have competitive local pricing in India
Screenshots from Apple’s Music app on a developer beta of iOS 8.4 show that the company’s streaming service could be priced at Rs. 120 ($2) per month at launch in India — allowing it a fighting chance against major rivals Rdio, Gaana and Saavn.
While the price seems ridiculously low compared to Apple Music’s $10 a month asking rate in the US, it’s likely that it’s been adjusted for purchasing power parity for users in India.
Image via Jayesh M (click for Twitter profile)
For background, Rs. 120 is also the cost of most albums on iTunes in India, as well as the monthly subscription fee for Rdio’s service in the country.
Local streaming services which have large catalogs of Indian music and a smaller selection of international content are similarly priced. Gaana charges Rs. 99 per month for its ad-supported service and Rs. 199 for ad-free playback, while Saavn’s monthly rate is Rs. 120 for its ad-free Lite plan.
The screenshots also show the availability of a Family plan that costs Rs. 180 (about $3) a month for up to six users, as well as a three-month free trial period.
It’ll be interesting to see how Apple Music fares in markets outside the US, where the playing fields are far more varied and licensing challenges are more difficult to contend with.
We’ve contacted Apple for more details and will update this post when we hear back.
Image credit: Jayesh M
Read next: Apple Music will stream at 256kbps, below the ‘industry standard’ 320kbps
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Google brings 4X faster browsing to Android devices in India
Google announced today that it’s rolling out a new feature to Android devices that will optimize Web pages so they load faster on slow 2G connections in India.
The company began field testing this feature at the end of April in Indonesia. It transcodes pages for quicker delivery on the fly when it detects that a user in on a slow connection. It appears that the method strips out Google Analytics scripts and some CSS styling.
Google claims that its new feature reduces users’ data consumption by 80 percent, speeds up page loads by four times and results in 50 percent more page views.
Android users in India will be able to experience optimized page loading over the next couple of weeks. Google is also launching this feature in Brazil soon.
➤ Faster and lighter mobile web pages in India [Google India Blog]
Read next: iOS 9 allows developers to build ad blocking extensions
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Ahead of Apple Music, Line launches its own streaming service in Japan
Messaging app Line has launched its own music streaming service in Japan, adding another hurdle to Apple’s path in its quest to win over listeners across the globe.
Line Music brings a catalog of over 1.5 million tracks from local and international artists, to Android and iOS for a monthly fee of 1,000 yen (about $8). For half the price, users can tune in for 20 hours. Line users can also send tracks and playlists from the new service to their contacts.
Line Music will available for free for its first two months. The company says it plans to expand its library to 5 million tracks by the end of 2015 and hit 30 million the next year.
The service is currently available only in Japan on mobile devices. The company says it’s working to bring Line Music to the desktop soon.
In Japan, copyright issues and listeners’ affinity for physical discs have kept foreign music services at bay. Streaming subscriptions brought in only 5 million yen ($40,660) in revenue last year.
Line could be the one to change that. It has 58 million registered users in Japan alone; its music service is partly held by Sony Music and Universal Music is slated to get on board soon.
If the company plays its cards right, it could bring streaming back into the mainstream in Japan and make a pretty penny where others have failed for years.
➤ Line Music [Android | iOS]
Read next: Line’s new Android app Popcorn Buzz lets you call up to 200 people simultaneously
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Twitch’s new Whisper feature lets two users chat privately
Twitch users can now message each other privately.
A new feature dubbed “Whisper” will let those in a Twitch chat create a secondary conversation that appears in the same window they’re currently in. You can start a private conversation by typing “/w” and the username of someone you’d like to chat with.
The two people involved in the conversation don’t even need to be in the same chat room for Whisper’s private, in-line chat to happen.
You can choose to receive whispers from any Twitch users, or from broadcasters you follow. Both users need to be online, but Twitch says it’s working on offline delivery as well as pop-out instant messaging.
➤ Psst…Hey You…Let’s Whisper [Twitch]
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New Google start-up seeks to improve life in the big city
Google is launching an independent company that will use technology to improve city life. Called Sidewalk Labs, It will be lead by Daniel L. Doctoroff, who is former New York City deputy mayor for economic development and former CEO of Bloomberg L.P.
Doctoroff conceived of the idea alongside a Google team lead by Larry Page. Sidewalk Labs is designed as an “urban innovation company” that will investigate sustainable living by curbing pollution and energy use, making transportation easier and lowering the overall cost of living for residents and businesses.
Sidewalk Labs intends to develop tech platforms that people can plug into for managing energy use, improving commutes and more.
Doctoroff said Sidewalk Labs’ strategy involves a combination of building and buying technology, and investing in partnerships. While Google’s investment amount is unclear at the moment, one model could be Calico, a Google-backed company started in 2013.
Last fall, Calico and AbbVie, a pharmaceutical company, announced their partnership in a research center in the San Francisco Bay Area investigating diseases of the aging, with s split investment of $500 million.
Doctoroff has plenty of experience in managing urban issues after six years of service as deputy mayor, and Google will contribute technical experience to the project.
➤ Sidewalk Labs, a Start-Up Created by Google, Has Bold Aims to Improve City Living [New York Times]
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Futuremark sets out to establish uniform VR standards
With more than a dozen virtual reality head-mounted displays at various stages of development, there has to be some objective way of discerning how well they work both on their own and in comparison to each other.
Futuremark is developing VRMark, a VR benchmark targeted to manufacturers, analysts and the press to measure performance, latency and accuracy. It will use a combination of hardware and software for the task.
VRMark will test how well a VR system does when offering high-quality experiences for content like photos, videos, games and simulations. It also will test a system’s ability to deliver consistently high frame rates in various settings. VR is especially sensitive to frame-rate variations — and a stable frame rate is critical to a good experience.
VRMark will also measure frame latency and the responsiveness and accuracy of headset sensors. Low latency is key to feeling present and avoiding motion sickness sometimes experienced in VR environments.
As part of this initiative, which will be rolled out this year, Futuremark is inviting VR manufacturers to join its Benchmark Development Program. Futuremark, in conjunction with its parent company UL, also plans to offer customers professional lab-based VR testing and verification.
VRMark is the first component of an initiative that will include developing new standards and certification programs to protect the health, safety and well-being of VR users.
The VRMark will complement the company’s analogous benchmarking programs: 3DMark and PCMark.
➤ VRMark
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Sneak peek at new Google Hangouts for Android shows improved chat interface
Google Hangouts for Android may soon see an update that offers interface improvements and revamped features.
The crew at Android Police got hold of an early version of the updated app, which may not be its final version. The most glaring change is the app now adopts much more of the Material Design language Google is pushing, with the floating ‘new conversation’ button towards the bottom right of the screen.
In a chat screen, Hangouts now looks a lot more like iMessage with its floating, rounded conversation bubbles. A new menu bar along the bottom of the message entry field replaces the paperclip icon, and allows for quick addition of pictures, emoji or a location to your messages.
Your avatar no longer shows up in the chat window, and the color scheme has been reversed; your comments are in white, while incoming messages are in green.
Sadly, the tablet version of Hangouts still doesn’t look special. It’s basically a blown-up version of the original in this early look at Hangouts 4.0 — something we hope changes ahead of release, whenever that may be.
➤ An Exclusive Early Look At Hangouts 4.0 [Android Police]
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It’s okay Apple, I understand why you felt weird talking reproductive health at WWDC
During Apple’s WWDC keynote earlier this week, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi briefly mentioned expanded support for HealthKit. One major update was targeted at female consumers – reproductive health data.
But what did that mean precisely? It was unclear, to say the least. Federighi sped past it and the audience, watching the stream and in the room, nearly missed the reference. There was no indication of what Apple will start tracking.
We know but only thanks to some digging by Selena Larson of The Daily Dot.
It’s suddenly clear why Federighi was a little squeamish. I’d feel uncomfortable talking “cervical mucus quality” with close friends, let alone a room full of developers.
Image: Selena Larson/Daily Dot
That’s not to say this isn’t important, of course. Monitoring menstrual flow and cervical mucus texture can be crucial for women trying to get pregnant.
We generally hide these conversations in public, so the bluntness of the language in HealthKit is striking. It shouldn’t feel like a taboo, but it still is.
My personal feelings may have a lot to do with my age and not being ready to procreate.
I slammed Apple on Monday for skipping so quickly over such an important update, in favor of more time talking about the App Store. But I’m as guilty. Hopefully, when iOS 9 arrives in the fall, the updated HealthKit will help us all get used to having these conversations a little more openly.
Read next: Everything Apple announced at WWDC 2015 in one handy list
Image credit: Shutterstock
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iOS 9 lets you receive iPhone calls on your Mac without being on the same WiFi network
Continuity – the ability to hand off your iPhone calls and text messages to your Mac, iPad or Apple Watch – was one of the coolest features to come with OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
It’s pretty limited, however, in that your phone and other devices need to be connected to the same WiFi network for it to work.
It looks like that’s changing with iOS 9. A T-Mobile rep informed us that an update to Continuity in iOS 9 – including the current developer beta – will let you to receive phone calls on your Apple devices even if they’re not connected to the same WiFi network as your phone.
T-Mobile says it’s the first carrier to support Continuity over a cellular network, though others are sure to follow suit suit.
9to5Mac also spotted some new settings in iOS 9 that allow you to select with specific devices can receive your phone calls, as well as an option for the new “Allow calls on other devices” feature.
As an additional benefit, T-Mobile customers can now use Continuity and the network’s WiFi calling feature at the same time; this wasn’t possible in iOS 8 due to technical difficulties.
It’s not clear, however, whether T-Mobile devices need to have WiFi calling turned on for the new Continuity support to function. We’ve contacted T-Mobile for more information and will update this post when we hear back.
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Everything we know about Oculus’ big event tomorrow
Gamers and tech enthusiasts have always been keen for virtual reality — something that seems to be perpetually on the horizon but never fully realized. Tomorrow, Oculus is taking another step toward making VR real for the masses with a pre-E-3 press extravaganza outlining the details of its new Rift VR headset.
Oculus will take the wraps off information about its consumer model from a live event in San Francisco tomorrow at 10:00 am Pacific time. It will be livestreamed via various sources, including on Oculus.com or its official Twitch channel.
In anticipation, Oculus VR has unveiled a new website and logo. Oculus Rift, which as acquired by Facebook last year for $2 billion, has been working on a VR headset since 2012.
Leaked image is a genuine prototype, but will be updated.
Anticipation has been off the charts for at least a year, fueled this week by supposed leaks of images depicting the final headset — until Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey put a stop to the rumor mill. He confirmed in a Reddit post that a barrage of photos sucked up from deep inside the Oculus VR website coding were indeed legit, but old.
According to VRFocus:
It’s been confirmed that Oculus VR is talking about input for the Oculus Rift either at this show or at E3 next week, and the images seem to reveal a remote-like controller with a circular surface at the top and Plus, Minus and Return buttons on the base. There’s also a strange wired image shown to one side of the device in one image and what looks to be a front-mounted camera on the Oculus Rift itself.
TNW has already reported that the new headset will build on the Crescent Bay prototype, featuring 3D spatial audio.
The Oculus Rift headset will be available in the first quarter of 2016. Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe told the Code Conference last month that the Rift and the PC to power it would cost some $1,500 combined. Pre-orders for the Oculus Rift consumer edition will start later this year.
The headset is already being used for more professional purposes — or more pro games, at any rate. Football players are now using the device in real-world training using Oculus Rift goggles and software created by STRIVR Labs,
Tomorrow’s event will cover a range of VR topics, including the Oculus Rift, Gear VR, and more.
TNW will be at the event tomorrow, so be sure to check out our live blog for up-to-the-minute news.
➤ Oculus VR
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Twitter now allows you to shoot and upload landscape videos
Sharing video via Twitter just got a lot better, as the social platform now allows users to shoot and share landscape videos.
Prior to this announcement, all video uploaded to Twitter had to be in portrait mode. If they were in landscape, Twitter would trim them to square.
To use the new landscape mode in the Twitter app, simply select to add a photo to your post. Select the camera icon, and click the red video button. Turn your phone sideways, and start shooting!
With this small change, it’s worth wondering how long it will be until Periscope makes a similar change and allows landscape video to be streamed via its app.
➤ Video on Twitter [Twitter]
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Reddit has banned 5 subreddits under its new guidelines to prevent harassment
In another move to eliminate trolling and hateful commentary, Reddit has banned five subreddits that violate harassment rules.
The subreddits — which all have terribly offensive names, even if you’re not the target of such vitriol — violate “rules based on their harassment of individuals”, according to Reddit. Only one of the subreddits had over 5,000 members.
This is the latest ploy by Reddit to make the forums more user-friendly, and leans heavily on its fresh harassment policy. Instead of relying on moderators to decide what defines harrassment, Reddit created rules to determine what was offensive.
Those rules now extend beyond user commentary, and may affect hurtful subreddit threads moving forward. There are likely plenty of questionable subreddits still on the site, so it’ll be interesting to see how Reddit deals with those threads moving forward.
➤ Removing harassing subreddits [Reddit]
Read next: Twitter now lets you share a list of blocked accounts with others
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PennyOwl wants to help your kids get savvy with their finances
As mobile devices slowly take over children’s toys, allowance app PennyOwl is on a mission to help parents raise money smart kids. The app officially launches today in the US for iOS and Android and is free to download.
The aim of PennyOwl is to get children started on managing their finances the right way.
There are many pocket-money apps out there already, such as iAllowance, but PennyOwl differentiates itself by letting kids learn with real-money and its newsfeed feature.
The content shown on the newsfeed is chosen to teach kids about finances in an age-appropriate way, using examples that would appeal to them.
When you download the app, you can set up accounts for each of your children, adjust the filters to suit their individual ages and organize a regular allowance transfer.
You can choose to set out how much money your child can spend and how much should be put into savings as well.
PennyOwl gives children a level of autonomy as well by providing them with a store within the app where they can buy games, books, and toys that are all age-appropriate.
Your child choose to shop in PennyOwl’s store and you will be notified of any purchases. If your child doesn’t have enough money for something they fancy, the app will guide them through how to save up for it.
Other features of the app include the ability for your child to request cash from you in-lieu of what they’ve already saved and a Wishlist that lets parents see and share items that their child might like for birthdays or holidays.
An option to donate money to charities is being added following user feedback from early testing.
It is only available in the US at the moment but will be rolling out internationally later this year.
PennyOwl came through the Commerce.Innovated startup Accelerator after it caught the attention of Silicon Valley Bank and Mastercard. The company behind the app is currently working on a suite of tools for children to learn about finances.
➤ PennyOwl [iOS|Android]
Read next: HotelTonight announces Escape, a new feature for discovering getaways
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Advertisers on Twitter can now target you based on the types of apps on your phone
Twitter is constantly trying to make making it easier for brands to cater ads to the right audience – and now it’s using the types of apps you have installed to do so.
For example, you might have a ton of productivity apps on your phone, so a brand making brand making to-do list apps.can now more easily know to target you.
The same company might also know that people who’ve downloaded a lot productivity apps tend to use finance apps as well, so they can now choose to target their finance-related software at to them as well.
It’s worth keeping in mind Twitter already uses information on your app installs to target ads – the difference now is that brands can feed you ads based on the overarching types of app installed on devices, instead of just the specific pieces of software you’ve downloaded.
In the same vein, Twitter’s adding analytics for installed app categories in the advertiser dashboard. These are provided regardless of whether a brand has previously targeted a category before, so they can note any links between the different types of apps a user has installed.
The new type of targeting is now available to all Twitter advertisers around the world who are running mobile app campaigns on both iOS and Android.
Some users will surely take issue with advertisers knowing even more information about the way they use their mobile phones, but today’s update could mean the ads you see are actually more relevant to you.
Still, if you’d rather your app installs not be tracked, you can always disable the “Tailor Twitter based on my apps” option from the settings menu on iOS and Android.
Read next: Twitter now lets you share a list of blocked accounts with others
➤ Introducing installed app category targeting: a new way to target users and gain insights into mobile app campaigns [Twitter]
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How to launch an app in China
China represents a massive, un-ignorable opportunity for app makers across the world and has reigned as the world’s top mobile market for two years. It topped 500 million smartphone users in 2014, far surpassing the U.S.’s 163.9 million, and accounted for over 15 percnt (or $7 billion) of global mobile Internet ad spend in 2014, representing an astonishing 600 percent growth.
Despite its promise as a goldmine for mobile apps, the Chinese market has been held back by a number of factors, including regulatory barriers, device fragmentation, fraud, and low-spending customers. While many of those issues have improved significantly in the past couple years, challenges remain. As with any market, cracking the code to the top of the app charts is not easy. It requires a thoughtful approach to the unique dynamics of the market.
App makers must first understand Chinese culture, as well as its dominant billing platforms, business models, and pricing strategies. In terms of the latter two, be prepared to compete in a market that is driven by sheer user numbers. Competitors could be well funded and willing to invest tens of thousands of USD a day to incentivize downloads in order to rise to the top of the charts and grab eyeballs.
It is also hard to compete with “free.” When your competitors are not pressured to monetize, you might have to think twice about your tradeoff between monetization and monthly active users.
Behind the Great Firewall
The Android market in China is huge. According to Chinese web giant Baidu, Android has 79 percent market share. However, it is also extremely fragmented. There are more than 100 Android application stores and making your app visible is extremely difficult. With around 18 percent market share in China, the iOS market is extremely interesting, less crowded and as you may have seen on Tim Cook’s latest Apple announcement, is a growing point of interest for the company.
Instead of launching on both platforms, prioritize one that fits better with your business goals and focus on it. In my experience users on iOS tend to spend more than Android users. If your business model requires paying users – meaning it is premium or subscription-based – it is better to focus on this platform over Android.
A great way to get up to speed fast is by hiring local talent. Many companies choose a firm like iDreamSky that does all the work to bring them to China. Another option is to hire a local partner with a great understanding of the market and empower them to make decisions.
Local partners not only bring expertise, but also help overcome language barriers. Most meetings will happen in Chinese, and so it is almost impossible to run the business without local help. Evernote has gone a step further and even has a whole Chinese product team tweaking their app for the market.
Understand local concerns
In addition, make sure you don’t tackle the Chinese market without good UX and content that will inspire your audience. For example, Chinese parents are more education focused and more concerned with nearsightedness than parents in the U.S. or LatAm markets.
Addressing this concern, PlayKids launched audio books for kids that introduce English language content to children without requiring more screen time and we hired a Chinese native to lead the project. Our country manager proved vital in supporting us to understand the local culture, differences and opportunities.
After deciding on the platform you’ll focus on, think about how to advertise. There is no Facebook or Google in China, so you have to be creative when trying to get app installs. Investigate other platforms like search engines and chat apps. And while Apple operates a global model working with developers, the Android ecosystem varies considerably from country to country.
Google Play is restricted in China, which means reaching those 400 million Android users necessitates dealing with 20+ large and small Android App Stores to distribute your app. You need to rise to the top of the charts in order to get organic growth, but this requires ongoing investment with ad networks. Invest in Chinese ad networks such as Tencent DSP, Baidu DSP, where developers can market and monitor their installs.
Marketing should also entail establishing a presence on Chinese social networks and messaging apps, including QQ, WeChat and Weibo, as well as on major Chinese Youtube sites which still have 800 million monthly active users in China. A presence on these sites and apps will help engage your audience and reinforce word-of-mouth.
Also, keep in mind that chatrooms and forums, like Baidu Tieba and Zhihu, are still mainstream venues in China for people to share experiences and opinions.
Equally important as solid research and strategy before launching is what you do once you’ve launched and found traction. If you experience success in China, you will quickly find knockoff competitors building on what you did right, and more importantly, what you’ve done wrong or neglected. To have a fighting chance, you need to stay ahead of them by frequently updating.
Take Uber, for example. While the dominant player in the U.S., Uber has struggled to gain a solid foothold in China where Alibaba-backed Kuaidi Dache and Tencent-backed Didi Dache recently announced a merger that has led to them controlling 99.8% of the on-demand ride market.
This fierce competition means it is critically important to listen to local users. Uber’s competitors were able to gain so much ground so fast because they launched features that made their apps better for the local market, such as the ability to book a driver and evaluate the quality of the car, the smell, the driver, etc.
The need for speed
Speed is also critical. Chinese competitors have abundant, affordable talent and move extremely fast. This means that spending too much time planning or getting caught in year long business cycles is a mistake. Foreign publishers will have to plan early and execute swiftly. Take risks, fail fast, fix it, and start again.
Furthermore, once you have found traction in the market it is taking extra steps to integrate into the country, like creating a legal entity in China. This is because companies can only use Chinese servers if they have a legal entity or partner in China. When first launching, it is best to use your existing infrastructure rather than setting up a legal entity. Because it takes time for data to travel, it’s important to find creative solutions to keep things moving fast.
Similarly, if you’ve found traction it’s a very smart idea to create a Chinese-language name for you app to enable easier searching. Evernote again is an excellent example of how to do things; it now hosts its servers locally in China and has a Chinese version of its flagship app called “Yinxiangbiji” (印象笔记).
This is a good start but what strategies and tactics do you think should be used when entering China?
Read Next: Reuters’ news sites are currently blocked in China
Image credit: Shutterstock
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Twitter now lets you share a list of blocked accounts with others
Twitter is making it a lot easier to let other users know about misbehaving accounts: you can now share blocklists with other users.
To export or import the lists, you simply need to go to your blocked account setting on twitter.com, click on the advanced options menu, and select import or export from there.
It’s a particularly useful feature for communities on Twitter who may suffer from frequent harassment by the same Twitter accounts.
This way, users can simply share a list of the misbehaving accounts with others who may be victimized by the same accounts. Of course, you could achieve the same effect manually, but this is way quicker, especially for people who have blocked dozens or even hundreds of accounts.
It’s the most recent step in Twitter’s recent moves towards making its platform safer for all users. In December, it made it easier to report abusive comments, and introduced a revamped blocked-user page.
Developing…
➤ Sharing block lists to help make Twitter safer [Twitter Blog]
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Bug in iOS Mail app lets hackers send fake password collector as a pop-up notification
The next time you’re asked for log-in credentials when using an iOS device, think twice before answering. An exploit in Apple’s Mail app has been discovered, and it could pinch the very info you don’t want anyone to know.
In the stock iOS Mail app, hackers can create a pop-up that asks for various log-in credentials. It looks legitimate, and happens because the Mail app allows a line of code to load when it should be ignored, which loads remote HTML content.
That HTML code can be used to bring up a very plain password collector, which can be created using simple HTML and CSS.
The more straightforward grab would be iCloud credentials, since the code uses your email address to prompt for a password. The exploit could try to grab anything, though; Twitter log-in, Facebook password — you name it.
Developer Jan Soucek notes on GitHub that a Radar was filed on this back in January (around the time of iOS 8.1.2), but Apple has yet to address it.
The positive twist here is that this exploit is solely related to the Mail app. If you use a different email client (even if you use an iCloud email address), you probably won’t have any issues.
➤ iOS 8.3 Mail.app inject kit [GitHub]
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Disco Dog is possibly the greatest pet product ever but you can’t buy one
The dachshund in the video above is called Lolli. She’s the official model for Disco Dog, an LED vest for your pooch that can be controlled using your smartphone.
Party New York, the creative agency behind Disco Dog, just closed a successful $22,527 Kickstarter campaign to create 45 vests for a select band of backers. Bad news though! It has no plans to make more.
That means you won’t be able to dress your beloved canine up in colored lights or make use of the iPhone app which lets you choose colors and design custom patterns. There’s even a ‘lost dog’ mode that turns the LEDs into an SOS beacon.
The price for a small vest, like the one modelled by Lolli, was $300 during the crowdfunding campaign, with medium and large options priced at $350 and $400 respectively.
If you’re as sad as I am that you won’t get to see your pet dressed as a Disco Dog, please enjoy the cheerful GIF below as a small consolation.
➤ Dog Disco
Read next: Meet Grizzler, the dog Nikon turned into a photographer
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Netflix is coming to a Marriott hotel near you
Netflix could be coming to a hotel near you – Marriott today announced a partnership with Netflix to bring its shows straight to your room.
As part of the deal, guests will be able to log into their streaming accounts (or sign up for a new one) at the beginning of a stay using the Netflix app on their rooms’ televisions. Once they check out, they’ll be automatically logged out of their accounts.
Marriott’s starting with just six hotels – New York Marriott East Side, San Jose Marriott, Princeton Marriott, Newport Marriott, Dallas/Fort Worth Marriott Solana, and Bethesda Marriott Suites – but the chain plans to bring Netflix to 100 hotels by the end of the year, with the full rollout across the US completing in 2016.
It’s surprising it’s taken this long for hotels to start partnering with Netflix, as it’s likely many guests simply log into their Netflix accounts to watch shows from their computers instead actually using their TVs. Marriott even cites a report suggesting a “significant majority” of guests using TV apps are opening Netflix.
It works out well for all parties. The hotels get to add another buzzword to their amenities checklist, Netflix potentially gains new subscribers, and guests can use their hotel room’s TVs to watch Daredevil without having to fiddle with an HDMI cable or dongle. We wouldn’t be surprised to see other hotels jumping on Netflix partnerships soon.
➤ Marriott Hotels Becomes First To Offer Netflix On Guest Room Televisions [Marriott via VentureBeat]
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The WSJ is reportedly gearing up to release a paid news digest app this summer
The Wall Street Journal is reportedly gearing up to release its own digest-style news app, according to Capital.
The app will be called What’s News, after the news briefs column that adorns the paper’s front page. It will be a paid app and is designed to build up subscriber loyalty for The WSJ.
All of the content will be curated by the paper’s journalists and will offer a breakdown of important daily news stories.
Capital says the app will enter beta testing in July, before being rolled out more widely.
It’s not surprising that the company is upping its digital game following the release of NYT from The New York Times and Yahoo’s News Digest, although it is going to have some competition from Apple’s News app announced this week as well.
The WSJ declined to comment.
➤ Journal to roll out paid mobile app [Capital]
Read next: 49 cyber criminals across Europe arrested over €6 million bank heist
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Apple is finally fixing the reason your Mac and iPhone’s Wi-Fi sucks
Noticed your iPhone and Mac’s Wi-Fi weren’t so good over the last year? You’re not alone, and Apple is finally fixing it, albeit quietly.
If you’re wondering exactly what happened, there are a few moving parts. First, you need to understand what the Domain Name System (DNS) does.
Each computer on the internet has an IP address, which is like where it can be found on a street. Domain names for websites, like thenextweb.com, have an attached IP address that locates these computers. Think of a domain name as a human-readable way to get to the right IP address.
DNS servers, like the ones Google or your internet provider offers, keep a directly of domain names and their IP addresses.
When you type thenextweb.com into your Web browser, your computer requests the address from a DNS server, then takes you to the right page. It all happens without your knowledge — at least, when it works.
For the better part of twelve years, Apple used a single piece of software called “mDNSResponder” to manage much of your Mac’s networking, including this lookup process. In general, it worked flawlessly.
When OS X Yosemite rolled around in late 2014, Apple decided to rip out the trusty DNS responder and replaced it with a new process called “discoveryd.”
We don’t know the exact reason for dropping it, but the replacement appeared to be related to the new Airdrop to iPhone feature that was part of the update. Apple re-wrote the discoveryd process from the ground-up in a new language, C++.
The problems with discoveryd have been vast and unpredictable. You’ve probably run into at least one: duplicate computer names, random crashes, slow page loading, slow reconnection after sleep — the list goes on.
Apple tried on three occasions to patch out the problems, but the complaints continued to flow in. When a beta build of OS X hit 10.10.4 in May, discoveryd suddenly vanished after months with no fix.
At first, many wondered if it was an accident, but mDNSResponder had miraculously returned and has stuck around in the latest beta builds.
At WWDC we’ve learned that Apple has killed discoveryd in both iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 and mDNSResponder is back once again. When we get the updates later this year, your devices’ Wi-Fi should be a lot more reliable.
In the meantime, OS X 10.10.4, which is currently in beta, also drops discoveryd and should be available soon for download.
Apple never officially commented on why it dropped the new app (we’ve asked, again) , but the change will be a welcome one for anyone who uses its products.
Read Next: Everything Apple announced at WWDC in one handy list
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PornHub launches ‘sexploration’ crowdfunding campaign to make a smutty movie in space
PornHub, the adult video website that you’ve probably never even heard of let alone visited (right?), has launched a crowdfunding project to make a sex tape in space.
The company is looking to raise an ambitious $3.4 million on Indiegogo to get its plan off the ground and is promising ‘out of this world’ rewards – none of which include actually going into space. If the campaign reaches its goal, the shoot should blast off sometime late next year.
If what you really want is a copy of the resulting video, then the cheapest tier to get that is $25. For $500, you can get a shout out that will appear on the bloopers reel, or for $1,000 you can have a chat on the phone with either of the ‘stars’ in the movie.
The most expensive pledge is $150,000 and will net you one of the two space suits used in the shoot.
Eww. Let’s hope they’ve at least been washed.
➤ Pornhub Space Program – Sexploration [Indiegogo]
Read next: Porn Time takes Popcorn Time torrent app to its natural conclusion
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Everything you know about fame is wrong and this site has the data to prove it
If you only read the mainstream press, you might think that Kim Kardashian – married to Kanye West and never out of the MailOnline’s ‘Sidebar of Shame’ – is the most famous of the brood.
But you’d be wrong. On Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube and beyond, the most followed of the bunch is the youngest, Kylie Jenner.
Today’s most most internet famous…
However, Jenner’s fame pales in comparison to the interest drawn by YouTubers, Viners and Instagram stars, whose highly-engaged fanbases follow their every move.
If you’re not a teenage girl, it’s likely you’re at best dimly aware of Nash Grier (4.6 million Twitter followers) or Cameron Dallas (4.8 million followers), but a site that’s also unlikely to be on your radar is turning their fanatical followings to its advantage.
When Famous Birthdays launched in 2012, it focused on traditional celebrities like Tom Hanks and Kobe Bryant. It’s quite literally just pages detailing celebrities birthdays and facts about them.
Soon though, its founder Evan Britton noticed something:
We saw all these names popping up that we’d never heard of. At first, I thought it was people searching for themselves.
But then we realized: They were stars from YouTube, Vine and Instagram. And there’s enormous passion behind them.
So that’s what he seized upon, turning the site into a highly-optimised, rapidly updated source for fans seeking details about their favorite Web celebrities alongside details of celebrities you’d actually consider famous.
In May this year, Famous Birthdays racked up 7.2 million unique page views, 41 percent from returning visitors.
Britton and his team take an almost worryingly fanatical approach to optimizing the site’s search engine. He told me that they have taken account of over 400 misspellings of ‘Nicki Minaj’.
Search for a YouTuber’s nickname, username or birth name and you’ll find them. The same goes for the huge range of date formats used across the world – the site is designed to handle any of them.
That obsessively tweaked search engine is seeing upwards of 5 million searches a month, giving Famous Birthdays an incredible source of data on the ups and downs of fame – online and otherwise. Britton knows the stars on top, the ones rising through the ranks and who’s racing towards uncool.
Britton explains:
When we identify an up-and-comer before the public, we contact them while they’re still approachable. We’re often the first business to contact them, even though they might have over 100,000 followers. A lot of the time they’ll tweet about being on Famous Birthdays.
The company’s ‘shout outs’ page is a gallery of faces you won’t recognize, who have more followers than you or I will ever rack up on Twitter or anywhere else.
The 37 year old obsessed with YouTube stars
Evan Britton is a 37 year old guy. He doesn’t care about the teenage stars of YouTube and Vine any more than I do. But he cares about their followings – “It’s my job to serve our audience.” – and that they’re catnip for brands: “The reason we do well with advertisers is that we have a very niche appeal.”
Today’s fame: Whether you’re the number 1 Aquarius named Brandon
Before he focused on ‘celebrity’ birthdays, he attempted to make a success of a wide range of special interest sites:
One was about railroads, one was about the Moon. Our company name was Internet Resources. I wanted to build sites that were resources for people. I realized we weren’t growing and needed to pick one site and make it my baby.
It’s a strategy that seems to be working. Britton has a team of 12 based in Santa Monica. He’s now recruiting again.
Earlier this year, he took his people to Digitour, the live event that brings fans together with their favorite Viners and YouTubers. The aim was to help them understand the intensity of the fame that surrounds these young men and women who are still rarely household names:
I wanted to show them the excitement and that this fame is not only very resilient, but very deep too.
Spending so much time thinking about this new breed of celebrity has given Britton an interesting perspective on their appeal:
It’s about the connection they have with their fans. The ones that excel are first-movers. Some have a specific niche, others just have a personality that appeals to people. Their fans think of them as friends.
We’ve had a few of them in our office, either doing Periscope interviews or just coming in for their birthdays. What’s impressed me about them is that they’re smart and they’re humble.
A lot of people have tried to do what they have and failed; they’re savvy. They have good marketing minds and understand their viewers.
Of course, that’s what the founder of Famous Birthdays would say. It’s in his interest to talk up the young stars whose fame is the engine of his site’s success. But when I put that to him, he sticks to his guns. He swears he’s genuinely impressed by them.
The social secrets of fame
For anyone trying to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to social media, Famous Birthdays is an interesting case study. Displays on the wall in its office monitor its social traffic sources and Britton says that can be very revealing:
Reddit often blows up our traffic, particularly when a YouTuber does an AMA. Facebook is more consistent. Sometimes Twitter interest rockets. That’s usually when we get a shoutout from a YouTuber or Viner with a million followers of more. Then we’ll see a huge spike.
Famous Birthdays shows what celebrity means today and where its headed. Britton puts it concisely: “The cord-cutters don’t care about Hollywood icons.”
Andy Warhol promised we’d all be famous for fifteen minutes. Now, you’re lucky if you’re famous for 15,000 page views. Online fame is a numbers game and traditional stars are losing.
Read next: The fastest-growing category of YouTube video blogs? Sneaker hauls
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Get the Mobile-First Developer’s Bundle – and pay what you want!
To turn an idea into an App Store best-seller requires coding skill. The Mobile-First Developer’s Bundle teaches you native app development from scratch, and you can pay whatever you like for it.
It comprises ten courses, which show you how to start making apps for iOS, Android and HTML5. It starts with beginner tuition for all three platforms, including how to use Apple’s efficient Swift programming language, and how to optimize your Android apps for Lollipop 5.0.
With the fundamentals out of the way, you can then learn to build games with Unity 3D, and convert any WordPress site into a native app. There are also tracks on designing for the best possible user experience, and for monetizing your apps with advertising or in-app purchases.
You can pay whatever you like to get the first two courses in the bundle; to get the rest of the courses, you simply need to beat the average price – check it out at TNW Deals.
➤ Pay What You Want: Mobile-First Developer’s Bundle
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Microsoft’s Surface Hub is ready for your conference room for $6,999 from July 1
Microsoft’s giant conference room computer, the Surface Hub, is ready for you to own and will be available to businesses from July 1 starting at $6,999.
That starting price will get you the 55″ model but you can upgrade to a massive 84″ version for the low price of $19,999.
The Surface Hub is a giant computer built into a touch-screen display that runs Windows 10 and is optimized for video calls, multitouch collaboration using OneNote and Office as a team.
It features support for multiple pens to be used onscreen at the same time and has dual cameras and microphones onboard.
Microsoft is now competing with Google’s conference room offering, a small box running Chrome but sans-screen, that retails for just $999.
➤ Microsoft Surface Hub [Surface Blog]
Read Next: Microsoft drops price of Xbox One to $349, introduces 1TB model
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6 ways to make your customer service unforgettable
It’s hard to imagine that less than a decade ago, customer service was still perceived as an organizational support function. Today, it’s evolved into an important driver for growth, engagement, and retention. If your customers get frustrated, they’ll not only churn—they’ll publicize why they’re frustrated. Thanks to the Internet, consumers have instant access to social media, review websites, and competitors.
Mess up, and you’ll find yourself under a firestorm.
Luckily, stellar customer support comes from a simple formula:
(1) care about your customers
(2) understand their needs
(3) work tirelessly to help them succeed.
In the world of business, a little empathy goes a long way. Here are six tips for taking your customer service from basic and lackluster to over-the-top unforgettable.
1 – Get rid of your scripts
Human beings like to talk to other human beings—not robots. Especially when we’re angry. We want people to listen, care, and work with us to find a resolution.
While a script might seem ‘essential’ for troubleshooting a heated situation, it will actually hold us back.
As Courtney Duhring, client service manager at Eventbrite told OPEN Forum, “People have this image of a call center as robotic and scripted.”
“That’s not what they find when they contact us. We look to individual team members to solve problems, think of best-practice advice, and show support in whatever way they think is best. Listening in on phone conversations, it’s very clear that our team members are making connections.”
Without scripts, we’re more present and in-the-moment. We can feel what our customers are feeling, and even if we might not have immediate answers, we can figure out what we need to find them.
2 – Acknowledge your customer’s’ needs
People like to feel heard. One of the best ways for customer-facing teams to make an impact is to always reiterate their customers’ asks.
One sentence – “let me repeat what you said to make sure that I understand” – is the ultimate sign that we’re listening and that we care. The best way to acknowledge that we’re on the same page as our customers is to take a step back and verbalize that we’re present.
It’s a simple way to make an impact with every conversation.
3 – Make customer service an organization-wide priority
One of the biggest mistakes companies make is to isolate customer service to just one team or department. The fact is, however, every employee needs to be a customer champion.
At Adobe, for instance, engineering teams take turns commandeering the company’s live chat software. As Charlie Scheinost, engineering manager at Adobe, explains in this talk for the 2014 Lean Startup Conference, the opportunity to interface with customers is invaluable—by interfacing with customers through live chat conversations, product development teams can see common pain points first-hand.
The end result is that solutions are more closely tailored to their customers’ needs.
4 – Smile and stay confident
A positive attitude is a force of nature—especially during heated moments.
When we’re angry, we often forget to see the silver lining: that there are solutions and alternative options available. To ensure that conversations remain constructive, we need to redirect our energy.
Smiles are contagious, and we can lighten tough situations when we exude positive energy. Even when customers aren’t with us face-to-face, they can sense that positive energy.
When we’re confident, we’re better positioned to guide our customers and keep conversations constructive.
5 – Preempt problems
The best way to keep customers engaged, happy, and successful is to prevent problems before they have a chance to happen.
Through digital analytics, it’s possible to see where customers are having trouble – common points of friction and areas of drop-offs. Follow-up conversations can illuminate the reasons behind these trends, along with opportunities for potential solutions.
We can use technology to identify pain points before they have a chance to materialize. We can then reach out to our customers and reaffirm that we’re noticing, listening, and interested in their feedback.
By staying in tune and empathizing with their needs, we help our customers succeed before they have a chance to fail.
6 – Learn
With every failed moment comes an opportunity to learn. Even the most well-intentioned and empathetic organizations make mistakes—which is perfectly alright as long as we’re always learning and growing.
Never let a mistake crush your team’s morale. Instead, take a step back, analyze the reason behind the failed relationship, and make your next customer experience better.
Value-driven companies will always find more customers. That’s why we need to learn from our mistakes and always make the next experience better. Rather than dwelling on the past, our minds will be in-the-moment, to better support the customers in front of us now.
Final thoughts
The secret to stellar customer service is no secret at all. It’s a sense of empathy and empowerment that starts with positioning our customers at the center of our organizations.
Customer success is every team’s responsibility—not just the employees responsible for commanding call centers and phone lines.
Stay rational, have a heart, smile, and get everyone in your company working together to help your customers find the best path forward. When you’re genuine and always looking to improve, your brand will be unforgettable.
Read Next: 8 things your customer support teams should never say
Image credit: Shutterstock
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HotelTonight announces Escape, a new feature for discovering getaways
HotelTonight announced its latest addition to the service today – Escape – a feature that highlights the best getaway deals for ‘tonight’ or the weekend ahead.
While the app has always provided offers on hotel rates, the new feature showcases getaways in places you might not necessarily have searched for.
Escape makes it easier for people to plan a break at the last minute that are cheaper than usual because of the timing. It also gives you the flexibility to hold off in cases where something like the weather might be a factor to consider.
You can search for your getaways in two sections – Tonight and This Weekend.
Tonight, as the name suggests, will show you offers that are within your commuting range. Someone in London might see a deal for Brighton or if you’re in San Francisco, you might see an offer in Marin County. All of the deals are up to 30 percent off as well.
This Weekend shows getaways for the Friday through Sunday ahead. These getaways will include slighly further away locations, but none that would consume the break with travelling time. People in New York might see a deal for Philadelphia or Washington, for example.
As well as introducing the new getaway feature, HotelTonight is updating and expanding its GeoRates (formerly Rate Drop and Bonus Rate). GeoRates give discounts of up to 70 percent on the already discounted deals available, and will now be highlighted in green and indicated with a GeoRate logo as well.
From today, GeoRates will show after midday when you’re near a hotel for same-day bookings and even steeper discounts will apply if it’s after 6pm. And if you are in a place like an airport or train station, where hotels would hope to get bookings from, you will also see GeoRates appear in the app.
➤ HotelTonight [iOS | Android]
Read next: Here’s how Apple Music could win against Spotify
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How 5 companies created a culture of innovation
Some businesses make innovation look easy. While most of us are struggling to find the right idea, certain brands (you know who you are, Apple, and yes, we’re jealous of you) seem to have everything together—steady streams of new products, never-before-seen branding concepts, and serious creative magic.
The untold story behind today’s most innovative brands, however, is what happens behind the scenes. While success stories are plentiful, what most people don’t see is the amount of trial, error, and learning that goes into setting up workflows, empowering employees, and figuring out initiatives to prioritize. Regardless of whether you’re a part of an established company or two-person startup, the task of bringing new ideas to market is hard.
Success with building an innovative culture boils down to one simple and completely ‘unsexy’ (at least to most of us) word: process. The following videos will show you what that process looks like for five very different companies.
1 – How Adobe Funded 1,000 Experiments
TLDR: Innovation requires a level playing field to succeed.
With a 20-year-career as a serial innovator, entrepreneur, and founder, Mark Randall has fielded over a dozen products which combined have sold over a million units and generated over $100 million. As an inventor, he holds 10 U.S. patents.
As VP of creativity at Adobe, Randall has taken on the challenge of creating a culture that supports experimentation. In this talk, you’ll learn how the software giant funds every single employee-nominated product idea—no questions asked.
2 – How Etsy Drives Continuous Change at Scale
TLDR: By taking smaller steps, organizations can minimize risks associated with making a change and allow innovation opportunities to emerge.
Innovation is a process of continuous learning and improvement. As we learn more about our customers, target markets, and even our own capabilities, we become equipped to offer solutions—and to improve upon the solutions that we’ve already brought to market.
In this talk, Etsy’s senior engineering manager, John Goulah explains how small, frequent, and continuous changes to the production website enable Etsy to iterate quickly and experiment with new features rapidly. You’ll learn how to minimize risk in introducing new ideas by taking smaller steps forward.
3 – How One Founder Built a Culture that Outsmarts Perfection
TLDR: If we want our teams to feel empowered, we need to focus on what we do as much as what we say.
While founders have a tolerance for failure, most employees don’t. The thought of putting a ‘perfect track record’ in jeopardy for a ‘business experiment’ can feel daunting. That’s why Seppo Helava, co-founder and creative director at gaming startup Wonderspark, takes careful steps to ensure that his teams feel empowered.
In this talk, Helava shares some of the lessons that he’s learned in creating a culture that celebrates, mitigates, and thrives upon risk.
4 – How Intercom Jumpstarts Its Product Strategy
TLDR: Innovation isn’t about the idea–it’s about how that idea stands as a product.
In organizations of any size, one of the biggest challenges to innovating is simply getting started. Even when we have a strong understanding of our customers and what needs are going unmet, it can be challenging to put our ideas to paper.
In this talk, Intercom co-founder Des Traynor explains how organizations can define cohesive product strategies and put their ideas into action.
5 – How Comcast Runs Its Innovation Center
TLDR: Bureaucracy forces us to become more strategic, empathetic, and laser-focused.
Established companies often have innovation teams dedicated to developing new products and new markets. But even those can be attacked by what Preston Smalley of Comcast calls the ‘antibodies’ of big companies.
Bureaucracy may feel like an adversary, but it can actually become our best asset. Why? Because it forces us to connect the dots between established processes and new opportunities. By walking the line between these two worlds, through innovation, we bring new initiatives closer to our businesses.
Final thoughts
Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship are, by definition, risky business. If you’re struggling to make your team more ‘innovative,’ remember that you are not alone. We’re all in this together, and through a process that enables learning, we’ll be inspired to grow.
Read Next: Watch now: The DNA of innovation
Image credit: Shutterstock
This post first appeared on Lean Startup.
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