Comcast Customer Spends Four Hours Canceling His Account

A Comcast user named Mike posted a portion of a four hour call with the company to cancel his account. The resulting back and forth, full of long, pregnant pauses and corporate rigamarole, isn’t nearly as exciting as Ryan Block’s Kafkaesque hell but Mike’s story is about patience, perseverance, and poorly-trained customer service providers whereas Ryan’s was about insanity.

Note that the video is only 38 minutes long but that Mike has four hours more of back and forth with America’s favorite cable company. His box set is forthcoming.

From his reddit post:

 tl/dr (sort of) upon request. Basically, I called to cancel my service after already making preliminary arrangements for an install with ATT. A Comcast retention specialist then offered me what I thought was a deal too good to be true – 50mbps internet (for which I was already paying $59.99/mo) for $39.99 for 12 months. They were also going to cancel my bundled TV service since I didn’t really use it anyway.

I grudgingly accepted the offer, called ATT to cancel their install, and waited for the Comcast confirmation e-mail I was told would arrive within the hour. It did not arrive.

I called back. The 2nd rep had no record whatsoever of the deal that was made on my first call. I informed them that I had recorded the call, so on to another retention specialist, who claimed to be able to match the original deal. I, again, grudgingly agreed. At this point, I was 2 hours in & just wanted it to be over with.

After this, still no confirmation e-mail, and after doing a speed test, I saw that my internet speeds were now maxing out at less than 30mbps.

I called back.

The 3rd rep had no record at all of any of the previous calls. In fact, they showed me as being enrolled in a plan that was more expensive than the one I had originally. So…over to another retention specialist. This one offered me the 50mbps internet for the aforementioned $39.99…BUT I had to bundle it with a TV package including basic + HBO.

I finally get off the phone after almost 4 hours, my speed tests are good, a confirmation e-mail finally arrives all seems well. I go to turn on my TV…no service.

I did not include this part in the video (though I do have the recording), but I called again and was told that my original cable TV box had been de-authorized when the plan was upgraded/changed/whatever, and that I need a whole new box. They offered to either ship me one, or send a technician to my house to install a new one. I declined both of these offers, as I simply do not trust that I will not be billed for these services.

So, in short, several phone calls, several lies, several hours. Finally got working internet at the right price but the TV service is still not working, and I am so wary of rocking the boat and having them screw up my account again that I haven’t authorized them to correct the TV issue…I simply don’t trust them to not screw it up further.

Featured Image: Bryce Durbin



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2015 Is Shaping Up To Be The Key Year For Venture Capital

Eye-popping is the only word that comes close to describing the numbers we saw this year from venture finance. The valuations accelerated rapidly, with companies like Slack jumping past the billion dollar mark in less than a year of the launch of its enterprise social product. Google announced a massive $542 million round in Magic Leap in October, and just yesterday, Instacart announced that it had reached a valuation of $2 billion following a round led by Kleiner Perkins.

Even if these valuations were frightening, we could at least find solace in the equally eye-popping acquisition prices technology companies were willing to spend this year on high-flying startups. The year started with a bang following Facebook’s announcement of its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp, in what remains the highest price ever paid for a startup.

The major acquisitions never stopped either, with Facebook also purchasing Oculus, Google buying Nest Labs, and Apple obtaining Beats all in multi-billion dollar transactions. In the enterprise space, massive acquisitions were equally the norm, with SAP buying Concur in a $8.3 billion transaction, and Oracle buying Micros at $5.3 billion.

There remain lingering concerns about whether we are seeing the start of a whole new era of startup growth or the final throes of an ecosystem completely out-of-control and about to pop. That bubble question is entirely the wrong one to ask though, and that is why 2015 is going to be the most interesting year in venture capital.

To see just the start of this, take a look at Beepi, which announced that it added another $12 million in capital to its previous $60 million round. While extending a round is not uncommon, what made this round so interesting was one of the sources of those funds. AngelList, the online fundraising site, put in $2.7 million led by Gil Penchina’s syndicate, the largest investment ever made from the platform.

This is truly a new world for VCs. While AngelList’s presence has certainly not gone unnoticed in the venture world, its effect has been most immediately felt by angels themselves in seed rounds. Until now, the platform’s round sizes were simply not at a scale where early-stage investors had to spend much time considering the platform or how they might fight it competitively.

That is changing as its rounds increasingly move into the seven-digits. Many firms thrive on investments at a couple of million dollars a piece, and now these funds won’t just compete with each other, but also with every large syndicate on AngelList. That is great news to entrepreneurs, who will almost certainly gain better valuations and more control over their company, but for traditional VCs, they are going to have to find ways to adapt against this new onslaught of funding.

Even more than the early-stage changes though, growth rounds of fast-growing companies are increasingly going to be done by insiders, or more specifically, friends of the insiders. Venture capitalists are increasingly offering their limited partners the ability to invest directly into later rounds of their early-stage investments, giving them important exposure to growth while mitigating management fees. LPs have traditionally eschewed these sorts of options, preferring to back investment managers who can make these decisions on their behalf. But as startups increasingly wait to exit, the investment options for growth are simply more limited.

If I had to make a single prediction about venture capital in 2015, it is that the gulf between the very top venture capital firms and the rest of the industry will widen even more than it is today. Top firms who can organize these sorts of easy growth rounds can promise almost unlimited capital to their entrepreneurs, eliminating the bane of fundraising for founders. That’s a heck of a selling point when the term sheets come in.

While this has obvious implications for founders, the wider implications are for everyday investors. Since the 1990s, common investors have been increasingly prevented from investing in growth stocks since startups simply don’t go public as early as they used to. These issues will only compound as large managed funds increasingly become comfortable with investing directly in growth rounds. A founder will almost certainly prefer to take dollars from a handful of private investors rather than submitting to the vagaries of the stock market. That investment inequality is going to accelerate rapidly in the coming year as the tools and contracts needed to manage this capital mature.

The other issue, which Eric Kim and Chi-Hua Chien brought up in an article here recently, is that tech companies are sitting on a pile of cash, about $600 billion or so. These changes to later growth rounds also means that the returns that tech companies can potentially receive from their cash will decline if they aren’t actively investing that money in strategic growth rounds. Google’s half-billion investment into Magic Leap is just the beginning of this phenomenon.

2015 is shaping up to be one of the most interesting years for venture capital ever. We will witness the rewriting of the rules for early-stage fundraising as well as a change in the mix of capital for growth rounds that will spread out the growth of top companies far wider than before. Top Silicon Valley companies will continue to impress their incumbency status on the industry as well. While perhaps more of the same we have already started to see these past few years, 2015 will likely be the watershed year that all of these trends come together for the venture capital industry.

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On Comcast? Buy Your Own Modem.

Is your New Year’s resolution to save money? Here.

Comcast just raised their modem rental fees from $8 to $10, because apparently charging you too much for a modem costs more than it used to.

If you’re on Comcast and don’t own your modem, you’re throwing away roughly $120 a year for no reason.

I did a quick survey amongst my peers (that is, whoever was around on Facebook Messenger and the people sitting around me in this coffee shop), and 7 of the 10 (!) said they rent their modem.

Curiously, most of them own their WiFi router, but not their modem. Why? For the most part, because they “dont know what to buy”.

Here: buy this. (Note: this won’t work for people who use Comcast’s phone service.)

There was a time when buying a modem was complicated. That time ended about a decade and a half ago.

(If you’d rather pick from a huge list, here. But the one above is one that I personally use and can vouch for as being excellent.)

That modem above costs $68. If you’re paying Comcast $10 a month to rent, this modem would pay for itself in a little over half a year. Are you going to be on Comcast for 7 months? Bam! Money saved.

“But I don’t know how to set it up!”

Step 1: Plug it in.

Step 2: Call Comcast, say “I bought my own modem”, read them the serial numbers on the back of the modem. Done.

If you’re using one of Comcast’s combo modem/routers, the cost and setup will be a bit more complicated — but you should still do it. Combo modem/routers are, generally, hot garbage.

As an added bonus: if you’ve been on Comcast a while and haven’t gone out of your way to upgrade your rented modem, any DOCSIS 3.0 modem you buy (like the one above) will probably be faster and less likely to randomly break itself in a way that requires a restart.

Featured Image: TaxCredit/Flickr UNDER A CC BY 2.0 LICENSE



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Now With 12 Million Users, Timehop Adds Twitter Vet Jason Goldman To Its Board

It’s been a very busy few months for Timehop.

The app, which provides users with a personal “today in history” memo by surfacing their photos and social networking posts from this day one year ago or more, is closing out the year with more than 12 million registered users, half of whom, some 6 million, open the app every single day. That’s double the number of both registered and daily active users that Timehop had just five months ago, when we last checked in with the company in July.

To help advise with the growth, the company has added Jason Goldman to its board of directors. Goldman, a longtime Timehop user who has been an informal advisor to the startup’s executive team for a year, has become known in tech circles as something of a quiet secret weapon for his 12+ years of work alongside the more widely-known Evan Williams and Biz Stone as an executive and board member at Blogger, Google, Twitter, and Medium. Goldman’s experience with such products will likely come in handy as Timehop navigates rapid growth in its user base.

Jason Goldman

Taking off with the mainstream

In an interview earlier this month, I told Timehop’s CEO Jonathan Wegener that anecdotally, I’ve started to notice a surge in Timehop posts on Facebook from family members and old school friends — people well beyond the Silicon Valley and startup scene. According to him, Timehop’s ongoing growth spurt indeed has to do with the app hitting an “inflection point” in its appeal beyond its early niche of users.

“People who are super early adopters have been on Facebook since 2004 and Twitter since 2006. More mainstream people were a few years behind. Their experience on Timehop was not going to be really good until now,” Wegener said.

Timehop began in February 2011 at a Foursquare hackathon as an app called “4SquareAnd7YearsAgo.” It caught on right away with some prominent social web early adopters, but Wegener says that at the time, 60 to 70 percent of users who tried out the app didn’t have enough of a history for it to work correctly.

“Three years later, everything’s just ripening,” he said. “When we started, remember, Instagram had barely even launched yet. We’re just now getting to the point where people have years and years of digital histories. That’s always been our bet: Your digital history is growing exponentially.”

A unique engineering challenge

But all that exponential growth needs the support of especially solid infrastructure. Timehop’s staff of 18 has been focused in recent months on reinforcing its architecture to handle the growth and keep its latency down. The company has moved off of Heroku and onto Amazon’s Dynamo DB, and has rewritten its codebase in the Go programming language.

Those changes have been key, because Timehop has unique technical challenges compared to many other social-oriented apps, Wegener said. “When someone signs up for an app like Facebook, they typically have no storage needs and no data, and their requirements grow with time. On day one when someone signs up with Timehop, we have a small window of about 10 seconds to grab everything off of their social networks and shoulder all of that content.”

The road ahead

Looking ahead, Wegener says that Timehop has begun to think about how it will make money — a company like Coca-Cola could pay for a feature on the anniversary of its being founded, for instance — but for now, he says that revenue generation is likely a number of months away.

In the near-term, Timehop is hoping to build itself into a platform where users can write their digital histories across all types of services: Think flight histories, Uber rides, Runkeeper runs, and beyond. “The social networks are the low-hanging fruit for us. Your digital history is much wider than just the things that you post to Facebook and the photos on your camera.”

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Fighting Distractions Should Be Top Resolution For 2015

BING the head of Sony Pictures is talking about CLICK my friend just uploaded a photo to Face BING the wreckage of the AirAsia flight PLOP Danny, are you around for dinner? We are thinking DING Try out the new version of our app CLICK the weather today will be PING Danny, we have a brilliant idea for a startup and we are launching on Kickstarter.

BUZZ. Game over.

The first minutes after waking up are regularly the most stressful of the day, and it shouldn’t be like this. I wake up to dozens of notifications on my phone, driven by an expansive array of messaging and email apps as well as news and personal updates.

Every few months, I go through a process of cracking down on all of these sources, from retooling my settings in Notification Center to changing my email preferences on websites and apps. Yet no matter how many times I attempt to ameliorate the situation, it always seems to revert back to an unsustainable level. Worse, if I just try to ignore it all, friends, colleagues, and sources complain that I am out-of-touch since I haven’t responded to their entreaties in some arbitrarily short timeframe.

Increasingly, we are merging with our devices to become a part of them, blurring the line of who is responding to who. It used to be that I could sit and read a book for hours without even worrying about the time. Now, I can barely go more than a couple of pages without pulling my phone out of my pocket to make sure something hasn’t happened.

I know I am not the only one who is recognizing this change – it’s common fodder for dinner conversations. Yet almost everyone I talk to has already thrown in the device on the issue (so to speak), surrendering to our devices without even putting up a fight.

This is the year I stop.

Researchers investigating distractions have unequivocally shown that multitasking and interrupting our thoughts has an enormous deleterious effect on our performance. Overall productivity drops precipitously as our brain scrambles to try to keep up with the constantly changing tasks we throw at it. The real damage though isn’t just efficiency, but also the decline in deep thought and creativity that is at the core of excellent, innovative work. We all want to do our best, but what happens if the very devices we are using prevent us from doing it?

I wish personal resolve was sufficient to ensure that distractions would go away, but that simply isn’t the case. Instead, we as a society are encouraging more interactions, often with the the ridiculous hope that it will increase performance or profits.

Just take the spread of open plan workspaces, which this year was estimated to reach 70% of all offices in the United States, according to industry sources. As these offices have flourished, our productivity has done anything but, leading to a spate of articles in almost every publication about their downsides this year.

Investigators have obviously shown that performance declines in such distraction-prone environments, but that isn’t even the worse of it. These offices can also increase stress, blood pressure, sickness, and interpersonal tension. Yet, the trend only looks set to continue as managers drink the Kool-Aid of “fluid conversations” over “people behind desks actually doing work.”

Managers aren’t the only ones who want to see us distracted. Advertisers are encouraging the use of “second screens,” the use of mobile devices or tablets during television shows, often as a tool for social interaction with sites like Twitter. At first, the industry hesitated with this customer behavior, since the ads were on on the television after all. But now many see this new behavior as an opportunity to display ads throughout a show on the second screen, not just during commercial breaks.

I don’t want to be alarmist and argue that we are reaching peak human. Instead, we need to recognize the context that is distracting us, changing what we can change and advocating for what we can hopefully convince others to do.

My solutions aren’t novel, but I am going to commit to them more aggressively than I have in the past. First, I am going to seal off the first and final hours awake to be completely device-free. I am not going to respond to messages at midnight or 7am, but instead offer my mind a chance to calm down before and after the intensity of the workday.

Next, I am going to devote most of that first hour to determining exactly what work I need to accomplish today – and what I don’t need to do. Like many, I have allowed emails and messages to drive my to-do list, even though I already know what I should be doing. My days are not that unpredictable (except when a major news story breaks out, of course), and thus planning can greatly reduce stress and distractions – cutting down the length of my workday to boot.

Finally, I am developing a habit of keeping my apps closed when I am not immediately using them. My computer is more than powerful enough to reopen an app like Mail and have it downloading email within 10 seconds. I don’t need the continually streaming notifications across my desktop, nor do I need sound effects interrupting my work. Reducing proximity is the key here, and just having to click to open an app is often sufficient to avoid a 5-minute procrastination delay.

This distractions disease is afflicting all of us, degrading the work we do and hindering the kind of creative thinking that is critical for excellence. We need to protect that deep thinking, which is why I encourage all of you to make fighting distractions the new “lose weight” resolution of 2015. BEEP. If you will excuse me, a friend just posted an image of a cat, and I need to immediately respond to this.

Featured Image: smlp.co.uk/Flickr UNDER A CC BY 2.0 LICENSE



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Tesla Is Working On Robotic Snakes That Emerge From The Wall To Charge Your Car

Elon Musk is pretty much the best thing about Twitter, and today is no exception – the Tesla CEO tweeted that his electric car company is actually working on tech that would allow chargers to snake out of the wall and plug into your car automatically, eliminating the need to manually connect when you get your Model S back to your garage at night.

This would presumably somewhat resemble the kind of articulated robotic arms made famous by comic book villain Doctor Octopus, but less threatening and evil. The invention would appear to be driven by a desire to make the process of charging Tesla vehicles even more convenient, and also by extension more idiot-proof – you can’t forget to plug in your car when the plug is autonomous, after all.

Backwards compatibility for said tech is a nice bonus, and yet another example of how Tesla goes out of its way to bring the benefits of its advances to existing, as well as new customers. Already, Tesla has begun rolling out battery swap tech that works with existing cars, and earlier this year it introduced a warranty extension that applied backwards to existing Model S cars already shipped.

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Top drone deals of 2014

Ready for some aerial acrobatics? Grab a drone, any drone here at TNW Deals at a special price, and perform smooth flight patterns and cool stunts in your personal airspace!

Also, don’t miss our top gadget deals and top digital deals of 2014.

The Limited Edition Code Black Drone + HD Camera

Whether you’re looking to gift or buy your own first drone, there’s never been a better looking choice than the sleek Code Black Drone. Finished in stunning matte black, the Code Black Drone features beginner and expert flight modes so you can execute simple flight patterns and tricks right out of the box, and more complex maneuvers once you’ve got in some practice.

The Code Black Drone also features an on-board camera to capture footage of your flights in glorious HD quality. Fly incognito for only $89 with free shipping in the US.

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The Extreme Micro Drone 2.0 + Aerial Camera

Small enough to go indoors and out, but powerful enough to also carry its own camera, the Extreme Micro Drone 2.0 is ready for all kinds of cool stunts that you can capture as you fly. Only $74.99 with free global shipping.

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The 3DRobotics IRIS+

Looking for a professional-grade drone for killer videos? If it’s good enough for Richard Branson, it’s good enough for the rest of us. The 3DRobotics IRIS+ can follow pre-determined flight paths, follow you around by tracking your phone’s GPS signal and even fly itself in autopilot mode.

Pair it with a GoPro camera using the included mount for stunning footage. Get yours for just $750 with free shipping in the US.

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The Panther Air Drone with HD Camera

This unique quadrocopter features a light, yet durable foam body with built-in gyro stabilization for effortless stable flight and maneuvers, and a stunt mode for easy flips and tricks that even beginners can pull off.

Plus, the Panther drone includes a bottom mounted 720p HD camera to capture your incredible flights from take-off to landing. Score it for just $110 with free shipping in the US.

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NYC May Integrate Apple Pay, Bitcoin, PayPal For Parking Tickets

Given that NYC is the greatest city in the world (I’m definitely not biased), it makes sense that the Big Apple is looking to give its residents a better way to pay off their many parking tickets.

According to MarketWatch, the city of New York issues eight to ten million parking tickets each year, coming out to around $30 billion in revenue for the city. That said, the city is considering introducing Apple Pay, PayPal and Bitcoin as methods to pay parking tickets.

As it stands now, drivers are paying their tickets via mail or in person, or for the truly savvy, online. Still, that eliminates the ability to pay on mobile (mostly, because it’s a horrible experience) and it also means that drivers who pay with credit or debit are subject to a convenience fee.

Because the current process is so difficult, many drivers pay their tickets late, costing them even more money.

The city envisions a system that would allow drivers to take a quick picture of their ticket, and then choose a method of payment. However, NYC has only requested more information on the payment systems, and no official plans are in place yet.

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Samsung's Milk VR; Apple Smart Stylus Patent; Everybody Loves...Email?

From research on workplace productivity to sharing virtual reality videos, here's what you missed on Tuesday.

Topping tech headlines on Tuesday, Samsung launched an online portal, dubbed Milk VR, for users of its recently released Gear VR headset.

The new service allows people to share 360-degree, spherical videos, viewable with the Galaxy Note 4-driven virtual reality device. The South Korean tech giant is vetting applications closely to "ensure that only high-quality, registered partners can upload."

Meanwhile, a new Apple patent points to a "communicating stylus," capable of tracking its position while you're drawing or writing, then instantly beaming text and images to a digital device. The stylus can be used on any surface—from regular paper to a whiteboard—unlike similar products already on the market.

In other news, a Pew Research Center report suggested that email is still the most important digital tool for most online office workers. Tech, meanwhile, is not as big a distraction as some would presume: Of the 500+ online adults with full- or part-time jobs who were surveyed, only 7 percent believe their productivity has decreased because of tech like the Internet, email, or cell phones. About 46 percent actually feel more productive.

Be sure to check out a few other stories making headlines in the links below.

TinyPulse Raises $3.5M Led By Baseline To Help Companies Keep Tabs On Employee Happiness

A few years ago, a startup called TinyPulse launched to change the way employee reviews were done. Based on the promise of weekly, one-question surveys, the company has grown to more than 20 employees and just raised $3.5 million in Series A funding.

The funding was led by Baseline Ventures, with former eBay, Microsoft, and Starbucks executive (and Baseline founder) Steve Anderson joining the board. Also participating was Michael Dearing’s Harrison Metal, along with other investors.

TinyPulse was founded in 2012 to help companies track employee happiness and productivity within the organization. Rather than asking employees to answer a long survey or questionnaire annually or semi-annually, TinyPulse sends them an email with a single question each week.

Because the barrier to answering each one-question survey is so low, companies see relatively high response rates among employees each week, giving them the ability to instantly keep tabs on employee happiness. The answers to those questions also provide a more accurate representation of how that environment changes over time and how it compares to other employers.

In addition to answering the one question a week, employees are also able to nominate their peers for recognition each week, and also to make suggestions about how workplaces can improve. Since feedback is anonymous and immediate, employers can more readily respond to issues, rather than waiting for yearly review periods to recognize when there are problems.

As TinyPulse has added new customers, it’s also managed to collect a huge amount of data on how employees in different workplaces respond to questions each week. According to founder and CEO David Niu, the company now has more than 500 clients, which include companies like HubSpot, Deloitte, StitchFix, and Converse.

Until now, most of those clients have come to TinyPulse via word-of-mouth. But with the new funding, TinyPulse will be ramping up its sales efforts to bring more customers on board. It will also be investing in product development to add more features for its clients.

Although TinyPulse is always looking for ways to improve the experience for client, Niu says it’s important that the company stay focused on keeping the interaction with employees lightweight, easy, and approachable. At the same time, he believes there are ways to make the product more flexible and customizable for employers.

But hey, that’s what you can do when you get $3.5 million in funding after bootstrapping for two years.

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Grocery Delivery Startup Instacart Raises $210 Million More

Grocery delivery startup Instacart has raised an additional $210 million, according to an SEC filing on Monday. The filing confirms a Series C funding round reported earlier this month, which values the company at more than $2 billion.

Kleiner Perkins was expected to lead the round, although no new board members are listed in the filing. The financing comes just six months after Instacart’s last raise, which was led by Andreessen Horowitz and valued the company at $400 million. Other investors include Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Canaan Partners, along with Box CEO Aaron Levie, and Y Combinator president Sam Altman.

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The Kairos T-Band Turns Your Dumb Watch Into A Smart Watch

Another day, another wearable design. This time it’s something called the Kairos T-Band, a watch band that connects to your normal watch and enables all sorts of exciting things like step tracking and notifications. I’ve seen a few of these sorts of things over the past year – one company hid everything inside a nice leather band and didn’t include a screen – and this one has just enough going for it that it’s probably not a massive scam.

The basic band, called the ND, has no display and simply vibrates notifications and sends sensing data to your phone.

T-BAND ND (No Display) model is designed for people who want extended battery life, basic notifications (via vibrator and multi-color LED indicator), and activity (fitness/sleep), health data monitoring without the need for fancy displays or touch sensor capabilities. This is the ultimate businessmen’s smart watch, or rather a wearable device (smartband). Battery life is expected to last more than 7 days with the ND model.Features:

On board Kairos OS will be able to push notifications such as text messages, incoming calls, and also push alerts from available apps via a discreet multi-color LED indicator and/or vibrator motor. On top of having multiple sensors such as 9-axis gyroscope, accelerometer, compass and optical sensor, the ND model also gets GSR (Galvanic Skin Sensor) which detects skin temperature and sweat.

Other models will have touch sensitive displays. The $1,200 model includes a mechanical watch.

Everything pictured on the Indiegogo page is possible – curved displays, motor vibrations, and sensors included – but it’s up to the Kairos folks to put them all together. Whether or not they succeed is still in question but it’s a clever idea and a clever implementation. I expect to see more of these hitting the market this year so this won’t be the last smart band we see.

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Share Virtual Reality Vids Via Samsung's Milk VR

The new site, full of content for Samsung's Gear VR headset, is open to vetted registrants.

Samsung today launched an online portal, dubbed Milk VR, for users of its recently released Gear VR headset, which will let them share 360-degree, spherical videos viewable with the Galaxy Note 4-driven virtual reality device.

The South Korean tech giant began selling the $200 Gear VR in its own online store and through AT&T earlier this month.

Milk VR, a product of Samsung Research America, offers Gear VR users a simple grid of videos to download and view, arranged in categories labeled "Fresh," "Trending," "Action," "Planet VR," "Music," "Sports," and "VR Life."

While anybody can attempt to register to use the site for uploading video, Samsung is vetting applications pretty closely to "ensure that only high quality, registered partners can upload," the company said.

Those who do make the cut will be able to share video that meets certain specifications. All uploads must comprise a 360-degree spherical video formatted as .mp4s (standard monoscopic 360, steroscopic 360 top/bottom, and steroscopic 360 left/right are all acceptable) at native resolution with embedded audio, as well as a video thumbnail, and a preview image. Titles and descriptions of uploaded videos are also required.

Video clips uploaded to Milk VR have a 5GB size limit.

The site is currently supporting low-quality and high-quality output formats using the h.264 codec but Samsung said that in the future, h.265 may be supported for "super quality" output.

For the full rundown on submission specs, check out Samsung's content instructions at Milk VR.

Samsung also offered some suggestions for a Milk VR-ready video clip:

Ten One Design’s Mountie Clip Is Perfect For Duet’s iPad Display App

Your mobile two-screen setup just got a lot more perfect: Ten One Design has launched the Mountie, a two-sided clip that securely mounts an iPad, iPhone or any other mobile device to your MacBook or iMac’s bezel, while remaining small enough to slip into a jacket pocket or laptop case accessory compartment.

The Mountie isn’t the first gadget to do what it does, but it does appear to be among the best designed. Padded rubberized inserts mean that it’ll respect your device’s industrial design, and fit snugly regardless of what you’re trying to attach to what. A snap clamp squeezes your device to make sure it won’t fall off while you’re working, and a long vertical support strip means you won’t get the wiggle and waggle that can make using two loosely joined devices at the same time somewhat nausea inducing.

Two weeks ago, I would’ve walked right past the Mountie, despite it being named for the horse-riding national police force of my homeland. But now that Duet’s excellent secondary display app for iPad and iPhone exists, the Mountie becomes a gadget I will likely recommend (once I confirm it works as advertised, as it should, based on Ten One’s track record) for just about any Mac-happy mobile worker.

When traveling, my main productivity suck is not having multiple displays to work across, and Duet combined with the Mountie looks like a cure for all my ails. Ever since the days of the original USB-powered Mimo monitor, I’ve had a hankering for this kind of solution, but those that use USB drivers and Wi-Fi connectivity have ultimately proven unsatisfactory, or not actually portable. A 9.7-inch iPad Air, however, with a Mountie and a 15-inch Retina MacBook, may just be a new high water mark in portable productivity.

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Actually, Our Greatest Hopes Lie With Techies

For all the stories of 2014, few got the attention of the press like the tension between San Francisco residents and the rising tide of engineers and startup founders who started calling the city their home. Accused of driving up rents for apartments as well as blocking bus stops, these techies have been under constant criticism from locals who see these newcomers enjoying the city without truly engaging with its culture and society.

The roots of this conflict are deep. As our own Kim-Mai Cutler wrote in her epic report on the issue, the policy antecedents of the SF housing crisis are long, complex, interconnected, and largely impregnable to change. SF hardly reached this point in a day, and it will not solve it in a short period either. There is such a deficit of housing and office space in the city, that even with all the construction going on in South of Market and other neighborhoods of the city, it will barely make a dent in housing prices.

That’s why the average sale price for a home in the city passed the $1 million barrier for the first time this year. Compare that to the price of a decent single-engine plane like the Cessna 400, which is approximately $620,000, and you start to understand where some of the criticism against techies is coming from. Another few more startup IPOs, and residents might as well live in the skies on a new private jet just to find an affordable housing option.

It is easy to look back over the year’s events and assume that housing prices and ridiculous comparisons to luxury planes are the cause of the animosity toward our industry. But if we learned anything from the past year of blowback in San Francisco, it is that housing prices are just a small part of the problem with the technology industry and its interaction with society.

Indeed, in my very first article for TechCrunch almost a year ago, I discussed the sudden rise of hatred toward the Valley and its workers. My argument was simple: “Today’s companies are increasingly destroying the value of existing companies to create the next generation of products and services. We can argue whether the end result is a net benefit to society, but we cannot avoid the immediate impact our work has on the rest of the country anymore.”

Little did I know that 2014 would shape up to be a cataclysm between techies and almost everyone else living in this country.

As the technology industry quickly engulfs all other sectors of the economy and threatens the livelihoods of more workers, the cacophony of criticism has grown louder. As just one example, Kevin Roose attacked the rise of on-demand startups for their use of contract workers, noting that these workers receive none of the benefits of full-time employment, despite extensive regulations placed on their work by the companies.

Despite the importance of this dialog, there has been little real work done to openly engage on the problems that our startups are creating for society. The hubris of our industry has only grown with the valuations of companies like Uber and Airbnb, leading to a further distancing between the work we do and the effects we have on every person in the country, and really, the world.

What does it mean for American society if we bifurcate it into service-requesters and servants? This is a fundamental question, particularly given how much the technology we are building is shaping this outcome. Do we want this two-tier structure, or are there ways to build other technologies that can ameliorate and maybe even eliminate it?

It can be hard to experience the vitriol directed toward technology startups today yet continue to seek out root causes. But that is precisely what we must do. People aren’t angry at startups and technology, but those are among the most visible signs of the huge inequality that has grown in America over the past thirty years.

As we start into the new year and the second half of this decade, it is time to revisit these issues and reconnect with the optimistic spirit that made Silicon Valley what it is today. We don’t have to live with income inequality if we can design the right economic structures to slow its growth down and ultimately reverse it.

Just take education as an example. Outside the hype around education startups like MOOCs, there has been very little real progress on addressing the yawning gap in education outcomes in America, despite the importance of education in staying ahead of the continuous automation of jobs. The internet, despite all the regulations being placed on it, is still a wide canvas upon which to draw the future, and that is why techies are our greatest hope for a gentler, fairer society.

I am deeply optimistic about what we can accomplish. I strongly argued that algorithms have the ability to do more for worker rights than labor unions in the twenty-first century, simply because a single decision in the design of an algorithm can instantly improve the quality of life for thousands of people. That is precisely what is happening at Starbucks, which is adjusting its scheduling algorithms to go easier on parents through more consistent work shifts. The politics over these policies won’t disappear, but solving them will become simpler than before.

We are only halfway through this decade, and we have already seen some of the negatives that startups pose for workers. But with so much potential left with technology, there is no reason why the next five years have to be the same. There must be a better way, and it is my new year’s wish that we seek it out.

Featured Image: torbakhopper HE DEAD/Flickr UNDER A CC BY-ND 2.0 LICENSE



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You Could Fill Up At The Pump With Apple Pay Starting Next Year

Apple is working to expand the reach of Apple Pay, and its next major destination might be the gas pumps. Chevron’s official Twitter account revealed yesterday (via Business Insider) that the gas company is working to make Apple Pay available at its fill-up stations in the U.S. Pump payments are a key ingredient to making Apple Pay truly a convenient, complete replacement for traditional payment cards.

The Chevron account originally tweeted that they hoped to offer Apple Pay at their pumps as soon as early 2015, but then changed their tune to state that there wasn’t actually any official timeline in place, but that they were indeed working with Apple to make it happen.

As the payment system already works with NFC terminals that have presence in some stores, and with a range of payment providers, Chevron and Texaco already do technically accept Apple Pay, but the at-pump payments would be a first that would make for much more convenient transactions overall. Card-based payment at the pump is a huge boon for drivers, and NFC terminals built in to the pumps would make it even easier to fuel up with Apple’s new online payment solution.

Already, Apple is expanding the reach of Apple Pay quickly, and it can lay claim to being among the most successful mobile payments initiatives in existence despite its relative youth, simply because few other offerings have really achieved much traction with the overall consumer population. Apple Pay accounted for 1 percent of digital transactions in November according to research firm ITG, which reveals it to be a strong competitor to PayPal, the only other player out there achieving much success.

Achieving critical mass for a system like Apple Pay now depends on winning retailers and various consumer-facing verticals over to Appel’s side – nothing short of omnipresent acceptance will let it do more than linger in the low single digits of digital transactions.

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Watch The New Tesla Model S P85D Destroy The Old P85 In A Drag Race

The Tesla Model S P85D packs dual electric motors and all-wheel drive. It’s basically a Porsche-killer that can transport seven people. And it utterly destroys the previous king of Teslas, the P85.

In the video above produced by Drag Times the P85D proves its worth by destroying a P85. It’s not even a race. The publication also recently took a P85D to a dyno to measure its torque, finding it packed 864 ft-lbs of torque. That’s double what’s found in a 2015 V8 Ford Mustang. But thanks to some sticky tires, all-wheel drive system and plenty of electronic controls, the P85D can clearly take advantage of that immense power as the drag race video above shows.

If anything, the sheer performance of the Tesla P85D (and even the older P85) should comfort gear heads fearing the EV revolution. Electric drivetrains can produce immense performance and excitement.

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Gmail Blocked in China; New Microsoft Browser; Stealing Fingerprints

From Google troubles in China to a new browser from Microsoft, here's what you missed on Monday.

Topping tech headlines on Monday were reports that Gmail is blocked in China.

Activity on Google's free email service dropped off significantly in the region over the weekend; a Google spokesperson said that nothing was wrong on their end. The shutdown was first reported by GreatFire.org, an organization that monitors online censorship in China, and it appears the blockade has also extended to Google Search. On Tuesday, however, the FT reported that Gmail access appeared to be returning in China.

In other news, Microsoft is reportedly working on a brand new browser for Windows 10 with an experience similar to Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome. Forget Internet Explorer 12; this will be something entirely new, according to ZDNet, which first reported the news. Expect more details at Redmond's Jan. 21 press event.

Meanwhile, the Chaos Computer Club presented at the Chaos Communication Congress (31C3) this weekend, during which Jan Krissler (known online as Starbug) outlined how he reproduced the fingerprint of Ursula von der Leyen, Germany's Federal Minister of Defense. Basically, Krissler photographed the minister during a public presentation, and was able to get high-quality snaps of her fingers as she gesticulated during her talk.

Check out other stories that made the rounds yesterday in the links below.

Apple Details A Modular Stylus That Can Capture Handwriting On Any Surface

Apple has a new patent granted by the USPTO today (via AppleInsider) that describes a new type of stylus in detail, which can capture handwriting from a user, on a variety of surfaces and with a range of writing nibs that let it also write on paper, whiteboards or even an iPad’s capacitive touchscreen.

The stylus design uses accelerometers and other motion sensors to track movement, and activates when it detects its been picked up, pressed to paper or taken out of a slot or holster for better power efficiency. It transmits data either in real-time, or in chunks at timed intervals to preserve battery life (sort of like how some fitness trackers ‘call home’ and sync occasionally with your smartphone so as not to incur the huge power draw of constant wireless connection).

In the patent, it’s described as being able to capture handwriting accurately whether the pen is used on a surface like a table, or against a wall, or even simply in air, thanks to the onboard 3D motion sensors. It can work to reflect writing in real-time on separate displays, allowing it to be used for live rough work in a classroom setting, for instance, or as a central pool of real-time meeting notes for a small group.

The patent includes details of how the stylus could be used with different nibs or pen heads to write on different materials, so that it can be used with ink in notebooks, or with graphite for pencil drawings, or with markers for whiteboards. A capacitive nib would allow it to also work as a traditional stylus for use with devices like the iPad and the iPhone.

Apple’s stylus patent is not new – it was first filed in January, 2010. The tech in the patent might provide a bit of a challenge to execute well, given that Livescribe, a company that specializes in creating exactly this type of thing, still requires additional hardware like specialized notebooks to work effectively. Still, it’s a worthwhile reminder that Apple has invested resources in this direction, especially given that we’ve heard rumors of an upcoming 12-inch version of the iPad, which is something a stylus would complement nicely.

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Flurry Finds That Apple Devices And Phablets Scored Big On Christmas

Flurry has released its annual Christmas report. Each year, the holiday sees the highest number of device activations and app installations as people open presents, and last week was no exception. What is interesting is that 51.3 percent of new devices activated were made by Apple, compared to 17.7 percent for Samsung, and 5.8 percent for Nokia.

Other smartphone makers, including Xiaomi, Huawei, and HTC, each held a less than one percent share on Christmas Day, despite holding large slices of the worldwide smartphone market. As Flurry notes, that is because their key markets are in Asia, where the holiday is not a gift-giving bonanza.

Apple’s success was driven by the iPhone 6, the number one device activated, and iPhone 6 Plus. Flurry, which compiled the report using data from the 600,000 apps it tracks, the iPhone 6 Plus was one of the top five devices activated this Christmas. In general, phablets became increasingly popular among consumers. In the week before Christmas, 13 percent of new device activations were phablets, a significant increase from 4 percent in 2013.

Flurry says that the availability of an iOS model is helping to drive phablet sales. Larger smartphones, however, have become increasingly popular over the past year. Back in January, Juniper Research estimated that phablets were expected to hit 120 million units shipped by 2018, up from the estimated 20 million phablets shipped in 2013.

Many analysts expected that growing sales of phablets would eat into tablet sales as users start depending on one mobile device instead of juggling two, and Flurry’s holiday research underscores that. Sales of tablets, as well as smaller smartphones, decreased as phablets became more popular, which means developer used to designing for palm-sized screens may have to start rethinking their work.

“App developers should take into account the fact that larger screens are becoming the primary device; it’s not just the secondary primetime tablet anymore,” Flurry noted.

Owners of new mobile devices were eager to start downloading apps. As usual, Christmas was a big day for app installs, with Flurry tracking 2.5 times the number of downloads, compared to an average day in the earlier part of December. Despite the bump, Christmas Day app installs have gradually decreased over the past few years because more people own smartphones and tablets now, so the novelty of playing with apps is beginning to wear off.

Still, this year’s spike was “a remarkable number considering the maturity of the U.S. market and the difficulty of getting recognized in app stores,” Flurry said. As usual, games and messaging apps were the most popular downloads on Christmas Day.

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Working Without Wires: How to Extend Your Wireless Network

We help you extend your wireless network when it is no longer robust enough to cover your physical area.

Your business is humming and everyone is feeling productive thanks to your office's wireless network. But maybe you are feeling some growing pains. Perhaps some parts of the office have a weak wireless signal. Or there are so many users on the wireless network that people are complaining of sluggish speeds or not being able to connect at all. It's time to grow that network.

It's easy to expand a wired network. Your network setup probably resembles something like this: a router connected to the modem provided by your ISP, such as a cable modem, DSL modem, or even a high-speed FiOS line. Once you run out of ports on the router, you can just connect a network switch to one of those ports, and then start connecting your devices through the new switch. Now you cover more devices, and if the Ethernet cable is long enough, more distance, as well.

Enlarging a wireless network is not as simple, because wireless ranges vary on a number of factors, such as walls, electronic interference from other devices, and the strength of the wireless antenna on your router. In this Working Without Wires, we show you that if you know how to set up a wireless network, you can easily extend it, too. We go over mesh networks and wireless extenders so that you can decide which option works for you.

Expand with APs

If you bought a business-class wireless router (and not a consumer-grade one), odds are the manufacturer has access points (APs) that can work with your model. These access points connect seamlessly with the original wireless router and just repeat the signal. It's your easiest step, and another reason why small businesses should make the initial investment to a business-class router instead of consumer models.

Wireless Extenders

If APs are not in your future, you can look at a wireless extender. These devices are designed to grab an existing wireless signal and repeat it. Many models just plug into the electric outlet on the wall, making them easy to deploy throughout your space. Because it is repeating the signal, it needs to be well within range of the original wireless router, but because it amplifies the connection further, it extends your coverage area. They are generally not as robust as APs, but work pretty well if you are just trying to extend the network to the back area of the office or another room. They won't help you if you trying to increase the number of users, though.

Some wireless extenders will just repeat the same wireless SSID, and others will show up on the network as a different SSID. When setting up the extender, just check the options. The extended SSID won't be handling any of the network functions, such as DHCP, but will just pass the traffic directly to the original router. Just a note that when you are shopping for an extender, try to match the specs: if you have a dual-band router, get a dual-band extender.

Before setting up an extender, configure your original router to a fixed channel instead of the default auto (you will see this option on the router's configuration interface, in the section for wireless). You will also need to know the security type of your wireless network. If you are still using WEP, I highly recommend (insist) that you switch to a better protection scheme such as WPA2 at this time.

Using a Spare as an Extender

If you happen to have a spare wireless router (perhaps an older model) lying around, you can repurpose it as an extender. You need to first assign a channel on your main router (instead of auto, remember?) and make a note of the security type. Check also, for its DHCP range. You can find this under DHCP, where it displays a range like 192.168.XXX.XXX to 192.168.xxx.xxx (or 10.xxx.xxx.xxx to 10.xxx.xxx.xxx). Set up the new router, which is now the slave router (to the original, which is the master router), by connecting it directly to a PC and accessing the router's configuration interface.

Just set it up as you would a regular wireless network, except assign a fixed IP address that is legitimate, but far enough that your master router will never assign the address to another device. So if your DHCP range is 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.49, then assign 192.168.1.50 to the router. It's still a valid address, but not one the DHCP server will use. If you are using MAC filtering on your network, you can just assign the slave router's MAC address to a specific IP address, and specify that during setup.

Make sure to turn off DHCP on the slave router's interface...your master router is the only who should be handling all network functions. You should be able to assign the same SSID to the router to seamlessly broadcast your wireless signal.

If your router is one of those models locked down so that this method doesn't work, consider installing the open source firmware dd-wrt or Tomato. Installing a firmware on the router isn't as scary as it sounds, and the administrator interface afterwards doesn't look too different from the router interface you are already used to.

Mesh Networking

Mesh networks are powerful and you may have heard them in relation to municipal networks and other large-scale networks. They create multiple connections between devices and routers, so that if one network segment fails, other devices continue to work. They are more expensive to deploy, but Meraki (now Cisco) and Ruckus Wireless are among a handful of companies with SMB-friendly products. Meraki in particular is really easy, as it lets you deploy and manage the access points through a cloud portal. If you anticipate growing your business rapidly, making the investment to mesh will pay off.

Your wireless network is an important part of your network infrastructure. Make sure you are thinking to the future as you expand and grow.

For more, check out previous Working Without Wires columns:

The top gadget deals of 2014

We’ve had a bunch of awesome gadgets for work and play on sale this year at TNW Deals — and now we’ve rounded up the best of them all in one place.

Get your hands on these deals before the new year rolls in!

Limefuel LP200x 20,000 mAh Dual USB Battery Pack

Never run out of charge on your mobile devices again, with the all-powerful Limefuel LP200X USB Battery Pack. With 20,000mAh of juice and two ports in a pocket-sized lightweight body, you can charge your phone and tablet simultaneously wherever you go.

Stash the LP200X in your purse, jacket, or backpack and you’ll always have power for your devices when you need it most. Get it now for only $34.99 with free shipping in the continental US.

➤ Get this deal now

TOCCs Wireless Feather Buds

Out for a run or on your way to work? Don’t let troublesome headphone cables slow you down. The TOCCs Feather Buds headphones let you enjoy your favorite tunes as you go about your day with total flexibility. Pair them with any Bluetooth device and enjoy your music wirelessly up to 30ft away — and use the in-built remote and mic to control audio playback and take calls at the touch of a button!

Jam out and answer calls, tangle-free, for only $24.99.

➤ Get this deal now

TRNDlabs Active Wrap Headphones

Tired of replacing your easily damaged headphones whose wires are always in your way? Try the SPBEAT9 Active Wrap Headphones on for size instead. Designed for maximum comfort and durability, these headphones fit snugly and do away with obstructing wires to offer you distraction-free listening experience when you’re out running, working out or commuting.

The lightweight Active Wrap Headphones also feature noise-canceling technology, an 8-hour battery and a built-in mic for calls — making it perfect to wear and use all through your busy day. Get yours now for over half off, at just $24 including free international shipping!

➤ Get this deal now

NES30 Controller

Whether you still love classic games from your childhood or want to get an edge in today’s modern mobile titles, the NES30 Controller lets you play like you mean it — with a retro 80s vibe. Detailed to look just like the original NES gamepad from the finish to the button feel, the NES30 is ready for action on Android and iOS devices, Nintendo Wii, and even Mac and PC desktops across all your beloved games and emulators.

Play your favorites and even team up with a friend using a second controller. Get yours now for just $29.99, including free international shipping!

➤ Get this deal now

The Bluetooth Shower Speaker

Quiet showers are no fun. Take your favorite tunes with you into your shower with the Bluetooth Shower Speaker from TRNDlabs. With a rechargeable battery, a suction cup to easily attach to just about any surface, playback/call control buttons and a range of 10m, this speaker’s ready to party.

Get the Bluetooth Shower Speaker for only $34.99 and kick out the jams in your shower, or at your next pool party or beach blowout.

➤ Get this deal now

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Xiaomi Confirms It Raised $1.1B At $45B Valuation

Xiaomi, the fast-growing Chinese hardware company best known for its low-cost smartphones, confirmed today that has raised $1.1 billion in new funding at a valuation of $45 billion. In a Facebook post, Xiaomi co-founder and president Bin Lin said the round was raised from investors including All-Stars Investment, DST, GIC, Hopu Fund, and Yunfeng Capital.

“This is an affirmation of Xiaomi’s stellar results in the four years, and heralds in a new phase for the company,” said Lin, adding that Xiaomi will unveil a new flagship device next month (reportedly a new smartphone that will make its first appearance at CES).

Xiaomi’s latest round was first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week. Its present valuation of $45 million is a significant increase over its previous valuation of $10 billion in August 2013, which Xiaomi director Hans Tung confirmed after its last funding announcement.

The company will likely use the capital to increase sales of its smartphones in its key growth markets of India, Southeast Asia, Brazil, and Mexico. In 2013, Xiaomi said it sold about 19 million phones, a number it hopes will more than double to 40 million units by the end of this year. In October, the company became the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor by shipment volume, according to both Strategy Analytics and IDC.

Featured Image: Xiaomi



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Gmail Now Even More Inaccessible In China

China has made it increasingly difficult to use Google services, including Gmail, this year. Now Gmail users are blocked from a workaround that allowed them to access their emails through third-party services.

Previously, people could still download messages through apps like Apple Mail and Microsoft Outlook, which use POP, SMAP, and IMAP. Now it appears that these servers have also have been blocked by China’s Great Firewall. This means users in China will only be able to access Gmail through a VPN service.

Google’s own Transparency Report shows a dramatic drop-off in traffic to Gmail from China that started on Friday. A Google spokesperson for Asia said “we’ve checked and there’s nothing wrong on our end.”

While Google has been subject to censorship since launching Google.cn in 2006, China has recently imposed even stricter limitations on its services. In June, before the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, China blocked several Google sites, including Google+, Gchat, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive.

Featured Image: Shutterstock



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Pinterest Will Open Promoted Pins To All Advertisers Following Success Of Beta Program

After years of questions about how it will make revenue, Pinterest roadmap to monetization is becoming more clear. The company announced today that its Promoted Pins, which it made available in beta to certain brands eight months ago, have performed “just as good and sometimes better than organic Pins” and it will make the program available to all advertisers on January 1.

Pinterest claims that brands who participated in the Promoted Pins beta program saw a 30 percent increase in “earned media”—or the amount of people who save a Promoted Pin to one of the boards. Promoted Pins are repinned an average of 11 times, the same as a normal pin made by one of the site’s users. Furthermore, Promoted Pins continued to get more pins in the month after a campaign, or a 5 percent increase in earned media.

Once the Promoted Pins program rolls out, Pinterest says advertisers will have access to more ad formats and advanced targeting. In addition, it’s also launched the Pinstitute, a twee name for a program that will show advertisers how to leverage Promoted Pins through workshops and webinars.

The Pinstitute follows the launch of Pinterest’s analytic dashboard in August, which lets advertisers track how their pins performed and how much content is being pinned from their sites through Pinterest’s Pin It buttons.

Pinterest has been focused on monetizing its site since raising an impressive $225 million Series E in October 2013, which valued the company at $3.8 billion. At that time, Pinterest said one of the key uses of the capital would be to continue development of monetization, which it first began testing around the same time it closed its Series E, into a global program.

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‘The Interview’ Nets $15 Million In Online Sales During Opening Four Days

Sony has revealed that The Interview has earned $15 million in consumer spending via rentals and purchases across online platforms in its first four days of online availability. A source with knowledge of the matter confirms that the overwhelming majority of these sales occurred through Google Play and YouTube Movies, meaning Google’s ability to rally and offer up its media stores as sales platforms helped considerably with Sony’s ability to get eyeballs on the gross-out buddy comedy that sparked international incidents and terrorism fears.

The Interview’s opening performance online has already helped it become the number one online film of all time for Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony released the film beginning at 1 PM ET on Christmas Eve day, via Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft’s Xbox Movies and SeeTheInterview.com. It has been streamed more than 2 million times already since being made available, according to Sony.

While The Interview was cited as the reason behind the massive hack that sent Sony Pictures essentially back to the stone age, thus far it doesn’t appear that there has been any retaliation from the original hacker group for its eventual release. Sony’s PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live, were both taken down over the past few days beginning on Christmas, but that seems an unrelated move, instead performed by hacker group Lizard Squad mainly “for the lulz,” per the group’s official social media presence.

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Russian Startup Livemap Lands $300K Grant For Its Motorcycle Helmet With Built-In Navigation

As we’re coming up on the next Consumer Electronics Show, I got an update from one of the companies that participated in TechCrunch’s Hardware Battlefield at the last CES — Russian startup Livemap.

The Livemap team is working to create motorcycle helmets with voice control and GPS navigation directly in your field of vision — so while you’re riding, you can see directions in your helmet display without having to fiddle with another device or look away from the road. (Back in January, the Livemap team demonstrated an early version of their display, which was transparent enough to show a map without obscuring the road ahead.)

CEO Andrew Artishchev told me via email that most of the past year has been spent building the pre-production prototype of Livemap’s optics. Those optics will be built entirely of aspheric lenses, allowing the helmet to, in his words, be “smaller and lighter and sometimes cheaper than the multi-lens design.” He added that the other big focus has been creating a design that will keep the optics costs down.

Now Livemap plans to unveil its prototype in the spring, and to start sales this summer in its first market, the United States.

To help create the prototype, Livemap has also received a grant of 14.7 million rubles from the Russian Ministry of Science. (That’s a little under $300,000 in U.S. dollars.). If you’re fluent in Russian or don’t mind using Google Translate, you can read more about the grant here.

Artishchev also commented on the emergence of a new competitor, Skully, which he dismissed as “only part of Google Glass.”

“The product called Skully P1 is, in short words, like Google Glass put into a helmet — with all its disadvantages like tiny screen, low saturation and contrast, low resolution,” he added.

Featured Image: Livemap



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How Many Millions Should I Take From My Startup?

Dear Danny, I am a young founder currently finishing a fundraising process and have multiple term sheets at absurd valuations with no expectation of offering board seats. I am trying to find ways to distinguish between these offers, and I recently heard that some of my best friends are using VCs like ATMs, and taking millions off the table through secondary offerings. I only fly first class, but this secondary sounds premium. I was wondering if I can take millions off with my term sheet, and how many millions I should take? ~ Company Builder*

Company Builder, I congratulate you on developing your startup to the level where venture capitalists are willing to offer you obscene valuations with no hope of access to your board of directors. I understand getting to 100,000 users these days can be challenging, and I congratulate you on your tenacity to reach this special threshold.

As you heard from your friends, but far more likely from the media since it is unlikely you have many friends, venture capitalists are “fighting like drunken sailors” to get money into your startup, and that of your very own pocket. Through a device known as a secondary sale, you can put up some of your very own hard-earned equity in a fundraise process, and sell your shares at the round price.

Contrary to the beliefs of many (most notably anti-tech protestors in San Francisco), such secondary sales are actually in the best interests of the founder and the investor when done properly.

It’s all about incentives. When your startup is just starting out, your equity is worth less than the paper it is printed on. So there is very little threat of you giving up the business for an acquisition offer. Any offer is probably going to be too small to change your mind about building a company, and in fact, any offer will likely validate your beliefs that what you are doing is right (even though your cocky confidence probably doesn’t require any further validation).

But as your startup matures and finds success, turning down valuation offers becomes more and more difficult for even the most cocksure founder. It can be easy to ignore Google’s entreaties when they offer you $100,000 for your company (i.e. the starting salary for engineers at Google), but it is significantly more difficult to refuse when that number has another four zeros behind it.

That is where the conflict can brew between you and your investors. Your investors, particularly your later-stage investors, need you to push all the way to a massive exit in order to return any capital off of their previously ridiculous valuation. You, on the other hand, would probably be willing to accept a handsome payday of hundreds of millions of dollars.

To discourage you from selling early, venture capitalists will offer you secondary to align your interests together. By giving you some money up front, you don’t feel the same pressure to sell early to make a buck, and can instead concentrate on building a massive and sustainable business.

At its best, the secondary offered is commensurate with the remaining gains of a company. If you own, say, 25% of a company valued at a billion dollars, a couple of million or even $50 million in secondary is really not going to change the fact that a huge amount of money is still held up in paper equity. The kind of ambitious founders who can build such a valuable company rarely just quit when they get their first taste of cash.

Contrary to some of the analysis floating around, such secondary sales are hardly uncommon, and are in fact a typical consideration in later growth rounds where there is real concern that a young founder will be willing to charge through attractive acquisition offers in search of the big payday. In fact, unless a founder has had previously success in building a company (and getting wealthy from it), most later-stage VCs would be concerned if a founder never took secondary.

As you might have noticed, I have talked mostly about later-stage investors, while you, Company Builder, are running an early-stage company. Secondary in early-stage rounds is seemingly becoming more common for the most competitive deals, as we have seen with founders at Whisper and Secret. Here we have a bit more incentive conflict than we otherwise should.

If secondary is being offered earlier, there would certainly be an increasing incentive for a founder to quickly build notoriety and attention instead of a product, run around Sand Hill Road with open hands to receive term sheets, and quickly secure a multimillion dollar payday before anyone is the wiser. To my knowledge, such activities have so far been rare, but there is a serious risk for the ecosystem if millions are being offered before a product has even shown sustainability.

Ultimately, only you can decide what is right for your company and your own personal finances. Remember, this secondary isn’t free – it’s equity in your company that you are sacrificing for today dollars. If you are massively successful and grow the next Facebook, today dollars are going to look like a pittance compared to tomorrow dollars when your equity value has shot up. As long as you can pay the mortgage, I say, move forward.

*This email is fictional. I hope.

Featured Image: Lisa Brewster/Flickr UNDER A CC BY-SA 2.0 LICENSE



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After Alleged Rape In New Delhi, Uber Lays Out Additional Safety Measures In India

Following an incident in which one of its drivers allegedly raped a female passenger in New Delhi, ride-hailing company Uber has announced additional safety measures it is taking in India. Those precautions were announced ahead of a hearing that the local Transport Department will be having on Monday to determine whether Uber and other mobile transportation services should be allowed to operate there.

Last month, Uber came under scrutiny in New Delhi after a driver for the service was arrested and charged with rape. While the company said it was cooperating with local authorities following the incident, its service was quickly banned by the local government, along with other similar apps. As a result, Uber suspended its service there while reviewing its operations in the market.

Uber has long touted its trust and safety features, which typically include background and driver checks, as well as transparency into driver and passenger accounts and a two-sided rating system. But as others have pointed out, it’s not enough for Uber to rely simply on government records to ensure the driving and criminal records of its drivers are clean in some international markets. For instance, as Sriram Krishnan wrote after the incident in New Delhi, “Anyone who has spent any amount of time in India would know that background checks just don’t work and a certificate from the cops is just paperwork.”

In response, Uber has laid out additional measures it is taking to ensure passenger safety in the India market. That includes having all of its drivers reviewed again to ensure they have “authentic and valid police verification,” as well as hiring local “safety exerts” to detect fraud and to develop more effective screening methods for its drivers.

In addition to more advanced driver screening, Uber also says it is rolling out a local incident response team to resolve critical issues there. It is also adding a ShareMyETA button to the app, rolling it out first in India to allow passengers to send trip details to loved ones.

The measures were announced ahead of a hearing that the Delhi Transportation Department is holding on Monday to determine whether the service can resume in that market, according to the blog post.

Of course, Delhi is just one market where Uber is facing challenges from the local government. It recently come under fire in Portland, where it agreed to suspend service for three months while the legality of ride-sharing services are reviewed there. Regulators in Taiwan and Chinese city Chongqing are also reviewing the legality of its service, and in South Korea Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was indicted on charges of operating the service illegally in that market.

Meanwhile, the company has faced trust and safety concerns following a series of incidents in other markets. A driver for Uber in Boston was also charged with rape earlier this month. That incident follows the beating of an Uber passenger with a hammer in San Francisco, and an off-duty Uber driver being charged with vehicular manslaughter after striking and killing a 6-year old child last year.

Those incidents, combined with Uber’s fast rate of hiring — CEO Kalanick said the company was creating 50,000 jobs a month globally in September — have led some regulators to look more closely into the company’s screening and on-boarding processes. Earlier this month, the District Attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles filed suit against the company for claims it made about the quality of its background checks.

As a result, Uber has committed to investing more in customer safety around the world. But some of those investments — most prominently its ShareMyETA button — will roll out in India first.

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When Will Your Phone Replace Your Keys And Wallet?

When I leave my home, I check that I have three things: keys, wallet, phone. How long will it be until the first two are obsolete? My wallet has only three things I actually need: credit cards, cash, ID. Any American with an iPhone 6 has already obsoleted credit cards, courtesy of Apple Pay. Any Kenyan, Senegalese, etc. with a phone has long obsoleted cash, courtesy of M-Pesa, Orange Money, etc.

As for ID, well, if you’re in Iowa, just wait: “Iowans will soon be able to use a mobile app on their smartphones as their official driver’s license … sometime in 2015.” Can the other 49 states be far behind? Well, yes. But will they be? I doubt it. Expect a profusion of government ID apps sometime over the next few years.

In America, cash is still the real sticking point for wallet replacement. Maybe, if we’re lucky, Coinbase, ChangeTip, and other Bitcoin startups will eventually drag America up to near-equivalence with African e-cash. I certainly wouldn’t expecting American banks and carriers to do it.

What about keys? Already set. KwikSet’s Kevo locks (I would link to their site, but there’s an incredibly annoying autoplaying video with audio on their home page, so forget it) let you use Bluetooth LE to open your home. Lockitron (which has a much nicer home page, go click on them instead) does much the same. Both also let you send temporary e-keys to guests, a very cool feature not available for physical locks.

So in principle, if you live in Iowa, and don’t much use cash, then as soon as next year, you can buy one of those electronic locks and get rid of your keys and wallet forever…

…but you probably won’t. Because if you ask me, the real obstacle barring key/wallet replacement isn’t apps; it’s redundancy. Lose your phone today, and you can still pay for a ride home and let yourself in. But if your phone doubles as your key and your wallet, then if/when it’s lost or stolen, you are suddenly screwed beyond belief.

Especially since most online services are moving to two-factor authorization, in which the second factor is … a code sent to your phone. Which in turn is much more vulnerable than your keys or wallet. You don’t spend half your waking time waving the latter two around.

So: I predict that within the next 2-3 years, many of you will be able to replace your keys and wallet with your phone — but few if you will actually do so, until and unless the redundancy problem is solved.

Various solutions do immediately occur, but all are imperfect. The ability to temporary download your phone’s authorizations/settings onto a new/borrowed phone? Maybe, but that sounds like a key-management security nightmare to me. (Private encryption key, not physical door-opening key.) Temporary authorization for a friend or trusted service who can take you home and open your door? Again, not without its own flaws.

Oh yes. And remember: unless you own a Blackphone, you don’t control your phone. Its manufacturer does, its carrier does, and whoever wrote its OS does, but you probably don’t have root on its main microprocessor, and you definitely don’t have root on its baseband processor or its SIM card. Do you really want your every financial transaction, your entire legal identity, and your access to your own home to be dictated by a device controlled not by you, but by multiple separate mega-conglomerates? With absolutely no fallback to dumb incorruptible brute-force real-world entities such as steel keys and $50 bills?

I too would like to leave my home with only my phone and leave my keys and wallet in the past where they belong. But it seems like before we do that en masse, we need to solve the same problems that seem to be erupting everywhere else around our world, both online and offline: redundancy, security, and trust.

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Thumb Typing Is Changing Our Brains

Smartphones are changing us, at least according to researchers at the Institute of Neuroinformatics of the University of Zurich. It seems that as we moved from phones with buttons – Blackberrys and even feature phones – the parts of our brain associated with the thumbs are changing thanks to increased screen typing activity.

In short, when we use smartphones our brains show more activity in the parts associated with the thumb – not a surprising thing – but this reaction only happened in users of touchscreen phones. From the release:

Ghosh was also able to demonstrate that the frequency of Smartphone usage influences cortical activity. The more the Smartphone had been used in the previous ten days, the greater the signal in the brain. This correlation was the strongest, i.e. proportional, in the area that represented the thumb.

The scientists studied “37 right-handed people, of whom 26 were touchscreen Smartphone users and 11 users of old cellphones.” They found that cortical brain activity in the area associated with thumb control was higher in the touchscreen users. This actually points to similar findings in violinists whose brains change as they get better at the instrument.

Does this mean you’ll get a super brain if you keep tapping away on your iPhone? Probably not, but it does sound like what we tap affects how we think.

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Apparently The Bitcoin Bowl Is A Real Thing That’s Happening Right Now

When I first heard about the Bitcoin Bowl, I assumed it was a joke, or maybe a weird startup publicity stunt. It turns out that yes, the Bitcoin Bowl is promoting BitPay, a Bitcoin-processing startup — but it’s also real college football game that’s underway as I write this on Friday evening.

Yes, one day you’ll be able to tell your kids about the very first Bitcoin-sponsored football game. And I’m guessing they’ll just roll their eyes at you, either because this kind of thing has become ubiquitous, or because they have no freaking idea what Bitcoin is.

Anyway, here in the present, I’ve been following some of the conversation around the game via the #bitcoinbowl hashtag, which presents a nice mix of sports commentary and Bitcoin jokes. I also checked out the official website for, ahem, the “Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl,” which mostly looks like your run-of-the-mill college football website, while also featuring videos explaining both Bitcoin and Bitpay.

The aim, presumably, is to introduce a mainstream audience to Bitcoin, but I like the idea that the reverse could be true, with at least handful of Bitcoin fans checking out college football for the first time. See, for example, this post on Bitcoin news website Coin Telegraph that explains the game to people who are watching even though they “don’t know anything about the teams and players.” (Personally, I’m mystified by both Bitcoin and football, so I’m sitting this one out.)

This is the first Bitcoin-related sponsorship of a televised US sporting event, but as The Wall Street Journal noted when the four-year deal with ESPn Events was announced in June, Dogecoin sponsored a NASCAR event earlier this year.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think there’s inherently giggle-inducing about the phrase Bitcoin Bowl — but no moreso than the game’s previous moniker, “Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl.” Anyway, it looks like BitPay (which I hear has great taste in event sponsorships) succeeded in getting people talking.

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