AllThingsD

A Textbook Case of iPad Fun With Studying

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:40:16 +0000

As a kid, I was lucky to have a dad who was a top-notch book-cover maker, wrapping my school textbooks in brown paper bags that he transformed into precisely folded, sharp cornered, blank canvases.

But even Dad’s covers couldn’t fix everything: Some books showed their age with dog-eared pages, highlights, tears and leftover love notes. Plus, they weighed several pounds each, tugging down my JanSport backpack.

[ See post to watch video ]

This week, I tested a one-stop solution to much of that which ails textbooks: Apple’s iBooks 2. This redesigned iPad app offers enhanced educational textbooks that are, for now, focused on high-school students and cost no more than $15 each. Apple’s smallest and least expensive iPad can store roughly eight to 10 textbooks, along with other content. (High schoolers have an average of four textbooks a year, according to Apple.) The iPad itself weighs just over one pound.

These electronic textbooks include interactive materials that seem like they should’ve been available long ago: multiple-choice questions that can be answered with taps on the screen, embedded videos, dynamic diagrams that change with touch gestures and flash cards for studying important terms in a book.

The big catch is you need an iPad to read these textbooks, and schools or parents may have trouble budgeting for these devices. The least expensive iPad costs $499. Apple argues the low cost of books will offset the cost of the device.

Currently about 1,000 of the iBooks 2 books, 11 of which are textbooks, have new enhancements such as video, dynamic diagrams and study flash cards. A pinch gesture will restore a zoomed-in image to its place in a book.

Also, some people have trouble reading long passages on the iPad’s backlit screen, or find it uncomfortable to hold. In the sun, its reflective surface makes reading nearly impossible.

Currently about 1,000 books, 11 of which are textbooks, have the new iBooks 2 features. These include titles from well-known publishers like Pearson Education, Dorling Kindersley and McGraw-Hill; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books are coming in time for the start of the next school year.

But the books also include published works from teachers, experts and regular people who used Apple’s new iBooks Author app to create a book. This is a free app for Macs for creating and publishing content. User-created books are approved by Apple and then made available in the iBooks store for free or for a price.

I downloaded several of the new iBooks textbooks onto my iPad, including “Biology,” “Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life,” “Chemistry” and “Life on Earth.” I also downloaded an older AP Biology title without enhancements: Zoomed-in images weren’t in focus, and the book lacked interactive materials.

Delightful animations and gestures abound in these enhanced e-books.

Tap on any image to see it larger and tap different parts of the image to see animations, like an electromagnetic spectrum diagram in a science textbook that showed frequency and wavelength as I tapped on images of infrared lamps and lasers. A two-finger pinch returns the image to its place in the book with a playful animation.

Highlighting works in several colors and readers just hold down a finger and start dragging that finger along text to highlight.

When these books are read with the iPad held in landscape (horizontally), visuals take up large portions of the screen. But when the iPad is in portrait mode, text takes center stage, with smaller representations of each image appearing in the margins. This option to focus on reading could be a real help for kids who are easily distracted. Some titles, however, may only be readable in landscape view.

Study cards, a digital version of the 3-by-5 index cards you used to spend hours making by hand, are a huge timesaver. Every term in a book’s glossary generates its own study card. The front shows the word, and a tap on its corner flips the card to show its definition.

Even highlighting is easier and looks better in iBooks 2: It works in several colors, and rather than turning on highlighting first, readers simply hold down a finger and start dragging that finger along text to highlight. Study cards also are created for every passage you highlight.

But I found a few bugs. The new iBooks 2 app crashed several times and an Algebra 1 book froze in mid-download. The download didn’t complete because my iPad was full, but a notice about this didn’t appear, even after rebooting, until several hours later.

Apple later reported that the file I was trying to download was corrupted, and replaced the file.

And there are other curious omissions. Some parts of these books, like blank lab charts and chapter review questions, didn’t offer a built-in place to enter answers.

For that, I had to create and add a digital note in the book (using the iPad’s on-screen keyboard) or do the unthinkable—use a pencil and paper.

An Apple official said all notes are text-based and there are no current plans for finger or stylus input.

In addition to iBooks, Apple revamped its free iTunes U app, which used to be limited to audio and video lectures for higher education.

Now, iTunes U is available for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and can include all sorts of course components like the new iBooks textbooks, outlines, Web links and apps. This content is free, except for in-app materials including things like textbooks or apps. I downloaded Duke University’s “Introductory Chemistry” in iTunes U and it contained 567 videos, books, documents, apps and Web links.

If anyone can move textbooks into a new realm with interactive, smart gestures, it’s Apple. But iBooks needs to work out a few kinks before it can be used as a full replacement for physical textbooks.

Email katie.boehret@wsj.com.

Disney Profit Rises 12 Percent

William Launder and Drew FitzGerald — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:30:06 +0000

Walt Disney Co.’s fiscal first-quarter profit rose 12 percent, helped by revised contracts with broadcast affiliates and increased customer spending and attendance at its theme parks.

The company’s revenue missed analysts’ expectations amid a decline in film revenue and essentially flat advertising revenue at ESPN.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Newly Public Jive Beats the Street

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:06:47 +0000

Social enterprise software player Jive Software, whose IPO in December capped an eventful year for tech offerings, reported its first quarterly results as a public company today, and they weren’t half bad.

Sales grew by 53 percent over the year-ago period to $22.5 million, which beat the average estimate of analysts by more than $1.5 million, while Q4 billings of $36.0 million were up 40 percent. Plus, the IPO raised more than $180 million in cash.

And while that’s all good, on an old-school GAAP basis, Jive finished the quarter with a $12.7 million loss that was roughly twice the size of the loss in the year-ago period. While that may seem at first to be kind of a bad thing, its not. Since Jive sells subscriptions, it defers a lot of its revenue to later periods, so the revenue it does book doesn’t readily outweigh the costs it incurs to get the sales growth done. This is common with SAAS companies like Salesforce.com and NetSuite, who also tend to run net losses on a GAAP basis, but focus on their non-GAAP results, which are more indicative of the state of the business.

I talked briefly with CEO Tony Zingale about this and other things, after he finished up his conference call with analysts. A summary of our chat is below, and below that is an interesting infographic that Jive’s PR team included with the earnings release. I thought it was a nice touch, and thought I’d share it here.

AllThingsD: Tony, for those who don’t know, walk us through the key metric in your results that, in your mind, made this a good quarter for you.

Zingale: Growth. Growth in revenue. It’s further amplified in a new market where growth is the paramount metric, and of course it’s measured against a path to profitability. And we communicated that in our guidance to the analysts. But it’s all about growth. If you can’t capture market share as measured by deals with large enterprises and paying customers, then the profitability metric comes into greater play. Plus, in SAAS software companies, profitability always lags because of the ratable revenue model.

How are you finding life as the CEO of a public company? I know it’s not new for you, specifically, but it’s new with this company.

I think it is a testament to social becoming viable and real in the enterprise. You’ve been following the story for more than a year. You can’t go public without recurring, substantial growth, and the kind of customers and the kind of growth as measured by the repeatability of the model. All at the same time, you have continue to innovate, fend off the competition and deliver that value. It feels good to have cleared the bar of going public, but otherwise, it’s back to work.

Let’s talk about the competition. Are you seeing certain people out of deals where they show up against you?

We do exceptionally well we’re in a head-to-head competition, especially when we see a request for proposal. We’re seeing more of those as we go into 2012. It lends credibility to the social business space, as corporations are thinking of social software as a line item in their budgets. The competitive landscape hasn’t changed. It continues to be the large enterprise software players like Microsoft and IBM. And certainly Salesforce.com shows up when we’re competing for business in the sales department, and a little bit in the marketing department. Salesforce is very well-entrenched in these situations. But we coexist with them all the time. But the landscape hasn’t changed much. It’s competitive in the early part of the process. But when it comes to competing inside and outside the enterprise — the flexibility of our delivery model and the strength of our reference customers — the competitors tend to fall away.

What Zuckerberg Could Do With His Facebook Fortune (Comic)

Nitrozac and Snaggy — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:40:30 +0000

Here is the latest comic from our Joy of Tech friends at Geek Culture, Nitrozac and Snaggy. Joy of Tech appears three times a week in the Voices section of this site.

California Pension Fund Challenges Facebook Over Board

John Letzing and Joann S. Lublin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:25:47 +0000

A large California pension fund has challenged Facebook Inc. over what it sees as a lack of diversity on the company’s board of directors, just days after the social-networking firm filed papers to go public in a closely watched IPO.

In a letter addressed to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, California State Teachers’ Retirement System Director of Corporate Governance Anne Sheehan wrote that, “We are disappointed that the Facebook board will not have any woman members.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Microsoft Releases Its Latest Non-Windows Phone App: OneNote for Android

Ina Fried — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:45:06 +0000

Microsoft on Tuesday released OneNote for Android, the latest in a string of app releases for non-Microsoft mobile operating systems. OneNote was one of Microsoft’s first iPhone releases, and joins a growing stable of apps in the Android Market and iTunes App Store.

AMD Sales Chief Ghilardi Leaves

Arik Hesseldahl — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:34:07 +0000

The perplexing reconstruction of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices continued today with the departure of its chief sales officer, Emilio Ghilardi.

The company announced the departure just after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. CEO Rory Read will handle Ghilardi’s sales responsibilities in the interim while the search for a replacement gets underway.

Ghilardi (pictured) joined AMD in 2008 as senior VP and general manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa. The following year, he was promoted to chief sales officer.

Before AMD, he worked in Hewlett-Packard’s consumer group, running sales operations of PCs and printers in the EMEA region. And before that, he did the same thing for HP’s commercial business, also in EMEA. He joined HP in 1982, and served on the board of directors of HP Italy (I didn’t know there was such a thing!) from 2001 to 2008. Ghilardi holds a master’s degree in electronic engineering from Italy’s Politecnico di Torino.

It’s hard to know what kind of signal this move is intended to send for AMD. Last week, in a meeting with financial analysts, Read confounded the audience with statements that AMD — whose chips are fundamentally similar to those of Intel and use the same x86 technology — might pursue an “ambidextrous” strategy and incorporate technology used in chips from other companies. This has generally been interpreted as a hint that AMD might incorporate designs from the British chip outfit ARM Holdings in some future hybrid design.

ARM-based chips, as you probably know, are in most of the world’s smartphones and tablets, and for AMD to embrace that technology would be a huge shift in strategic thinking. And by huge, I mean Republicans-embracing-Socialism huge. It wasn’t so long ago that AMD was actively sponsoring a campaign to get x86 chips everywhere, including phones, though it obviously hasn’t worked out that way.

Since then, Read hasn’t really elaborated on what he meant, other than to say that future AMD chips might have a modular design that would allow bits of other types of chips, including an ARM core, to be added. Clearly some big changes are afoot at AMD.

AMD’s statement on the departure is below:

AMD Announces Departure of Emilio Ghilardi as Senior Vice President and Chief Sales Officer

AMD President and CEO Rory Read to Serve as Interim Chief Sales Officer

SUNNYVALE, CA–(Marketwire -02/07/12)- AMD (NYSE: AMD – News) today announced the departure of Emilio Ghilardi as senior vice president and chief sales officer, effective immediately. Rory Read, AMD president and chief executive officer, will serve as interim chief sales officer while the company actively seeks a replacement.

“I’d like to thank Emilio for his contributions to the business and wish him well in his future endeavors,” said Read. “Developing relationships with our customers that are grounded in a foundation of trust through consistently delivering on our commitments is critical, and we are making progress toward that goal. AMD enters 2012 with significant momentum, and we are building upon that momentum by embracing the shifts occurring in the industry and marrying market needs with innovative technologies to become a consistent growth engine.”

Mr. Ghilardi joined AMD from Hewlett Packard in 2008.

OpenTable Stock Rises on Strong Q4 Results

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:14:08 +0000

OpenTable, which assists with making restaurant reservations online, was up nearly $3, or 6 percent, at $54.42 in after-hours trading today, based on strong quarterly results. In the fourth quarter, the San Francisco-based company reported revenue of $37.2 million, representing a 21 percent jump over the same period in 2010. Net income for the quarter totaled $7 million, or 29 cents a share. In Q4 2010, net income totaled $5.1 million, or 21 cents a share.

LinkedIn Is Acquiring Contacts Start-Up Rapportive

Liz Gannes — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:40:57 +0000

Rapportive, which makes a browser plugin that overlays Gmail with contextual information about email contacts, is being acquired by LinkedIn, sources said.

LinkedIn declined to comment, while Rapportive CEO Rahul Vohra ducked our attempts to talk to him.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said LinkedIn offered Rapportive “low teens” of millions of dollars worth of cash. The deal has not officially closed yet.

Rapportive, which is still available only for Gmail, overlays an email correspondent’s social networking accounts alongside open messages and drafts. So, for instance, you can see a person’s most recent tweet and mention it in your email to them. Or you can realize that you’re not connected on LinkedIn to a person you just had a meeting with, and rectify that.

Rapportive hasn’t publicly disclosed how many people use it, but in September, Vohra was quoted as saying Rapportive users viewed more than 65 million contacts per month. He also said at the time that the company was preparing to sell premium products.

Competitors to Rapportive include Xobni (our coverage) and Mingly (our coverage). LinkedIn also bought a somewhat similar contact management start-up called Connected last fall.

Last spring, Google introduced its own competing “People Widget” for Gmail, which Rapportive then integrated with its own product.

Rapportive raised about $1 million in 2010 from investors including Charles River Ventures, Dave McClure, Paul Buchheit, Jason Calacanis, Gary Vaynerchuk, Shervin Pishevar and Venture Hacks.

Outgoing Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock's Farewell Letter (And Other Stuff)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:11:38 +0000

Earlier today, I had reported that Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock was stepping down.

He is, and the full letter he just released saying so is below.

Bostock did not say in the missive who will be Yahoo chairman in his place. Intuit CEO Brad Smith has a full-time job, and the newly installed Weather Channel CEO David Kenny does, too. Among the current directors, that would leave Sue James, Patti Hart and newly installed Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson — or one of Yahoo’s new board members.

In the letter, Bostock outlined the departures of four board members and the addition of five more directors (two of which were just named); did a little back-patting of his recent efforts to turn Yahoo around (after presiding over the board that got the Silicon Valley Internet giant into this mess); noted that the Asian talks to sell Yahoo’s stakes there are proceeding (it’s coming!); gave Thompson a thumbs-up (go, Scott!); and delivered kudos to Jerry Yang, the co-founder who left only weeks ago.

“Working with Jerry was always a delight,” wrote Bostock.

(Me, not so much, I would guess! Bygones?)

All kidding aside, Bostock has been the subject of a lot of criticism about Yahoo’s troubles, both deserved and undeserved, most especially for the non-sale to Microsoft several years ago. Many, including activist shareholder Daniel Loeb most recently, have called for his resignation.

It has not been an easy job, to be sure, so it must be a bit of a relief for the longtime advertising exec, who serves on other prominent boards, to finally pull away from the Yahoo black hole.

So, who’s next?

One interesting line in the letter, which everyone already knew, was that none of the various bids from outside investors have passed muster.

Wrote Bostock: “We have engaged with potential investors and reviewed proposals concerning an equity investment in the Company, although at this time there have not been any proposals which have been deemed by the Committee to be attractive to our shareholders.”

Here’s the Bostock letter:

Yahoo! Releases Chairman’s Update for Shareholders

SUNNYVALE, Calif., February 7, 2012 – Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today released the following shareholder update from its Chairman Roy Bostock.
February 7, 2012

Dear Fellow Shareholders:

I write today to update you on the actions the Yahoo! board has taken, and the actions it is pursuing, to increase shareholder value and position the Company for growth. These actions result from a process I initiated about six months ago in a special meeting of the independent directors in which we analyzed the reasons why Yahoo! was not meeting either our own expectations or those of our shareholders.

The board decided then to move aggressively on three fronts to position Yahoo! for future success: one, we initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer with a vision and set of skills to lead Yahoo! into the future; two, we undertook a comprehensive strategic and structural review of the business; and three, we decided to assess the composition of the Company’s board of directors relative to its ability to enhance the prospects for Yahoo!’s future success. We have made progress on all three fronts.

First, and most importantly, we have appointed Scott Thompson as CEO to lead our company. Scott is a capable and dynamic leader who brings the experience and expertise the Company needs to achieve robust growth and success in the marketplace. Over the coming months and years, Scott will lead an outstanding team of Yahoos to deliver engaging user experiences driven by innovative products.

Second, we have made significant progress on the comprehensive strategic review which is overseen by the board’s Transactions and Strategic Planning Committee, chaired by director Brad Smith, the CEO of Intuit. The Committee’s guiding principle has been to assess alternatives which would increase value for all Yahoo! shareholders, and the Committee has been open to any transaction or initiative that would serve this objective.

As part of this review, we have pursued a wide range of discussions with potential partners. We have engaged with potential investors and reviewed proposals concerning an equity investment in the Company, although at this time there have not been any proposals which have been deemed by the Committee to be attractive to our shareholders. We are also in active discussions with our partners in Asia regarding the possibility of restructuring our holdings in Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Japan. The complexity and unique nature of these transactions is significant. While we continue to devote significant resources to these discussions, we are not in a position at this time to provide further detail or to provide assurance that any transaction will be achieved.

Finally, the board has concluded that in order to accelerate the Company’s transformation, the combination of a new Chief Executive Officer with an enhanced team of independent directors would provide Yahoo! with the expertise and perspectives necessary to drive innovation and growth going forward. Therefore, Mr. Joshi, Mr. Kern, Mr. Wilson and I have volunteered not to stand for re-election at the next shareholders’ meeting.

Furthermore, the board today elected two highly qualified independent directors, Alfred Amoroso and Maynard Webb, Jr. Mr. Amoroso served as President and CEO of Rovi Corporation until December 2011 and, among other positions, had previously served as the President, CEO and Vice Chairman of META Group, Inc., the President and CEO of CrossWorlds Software, Inc. and as a member of the world-wide management committee of IBM Corporation. Mr. Webb, the Chairman of LiveOps, Inc., served as that company’s CEO until July 2011. Prior to that, Mr. Webb was Chief Operating Officer of eBay and Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Gateway, Inc., in addition to management, leadership and board positions at several other companies spanning his 30-year career.

The board continues its search for additional independent directors. This search is being led by director Patti Hart, CEO of International Game Technology, Inc., who chairs our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. We anticipate announcing additional directors to round out the board as soon as this process concludes.

Separately, as previously announced, Jerry Yang has resigned from the board of directors and other positions within the Company to pursue his many interests outside of Yahoo!. Working with Jerry was always a delight. He is a visionary and a pioneer who contributed enormously to Yahoo! since he co-founded the Company in 1995. He will be missed. The board thanks him deeply for his service and commitment to the Company.

Thus, following this year’s Annual Meeting a majority of Yahoo!’s directors will be new to the board this year, and all directors will have joined the board since 2010. We believe that this reconfigured board, with a fresh set of perspectives and diverse set of skills, will enable the Company to move forward even more aggressively.

It has always been a privilege for me to serve as Chairman of Yahoo!. The employees of Yahoo! remain the heart, soul, and future of the company. And with Scott Thompson leading them, they are the reason why I believe Yahoo! will create significant shareholder value over the coming years.

In September, this board moved proactively and decisively to improve the performance of the Company for the benefit of its shareholders. These actions could not have been accomplished without the support and active participation of each director on the board. For that, I thank them. And I thank them for the knowledge, expertise, talents and commitment they have brought to Yahoo!. We all take pride in the fact that we are positioning Yahoo! for success in the future. Yahoo! is an incredibly strong brand with formidable assets. I have every expectation that under Scott’s leadership, working together with the reconstituted board, the Company will thrive for many years to come.

Sincerely,
Roy Bostock
Chairman of the Board

Four Yahoo Board Members to Depart, Two New Ones Arrive and Three More on the Way (Like I Said)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:38:25 +0000

According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo will announce the impending departure of four of its longtime board members, including chairman Roy Bostock.

The others headed out the door are Hewlett-Packard exec Vyomesh Joshi, Gary Wilson and Arthur Kern.

I had reported in several previous posts that this exact group of directors was leaving, and noted in one yesterday that it was about to happen, and that new board members were also on the way.

And, presto, it is so!

(Update: Yahoo confirmed all in a letter it just released from Bostock, which I have posted separately.)

Yahoo’s two new directors are former Rovi CEO Fred Amoroso and LiveOps Chairman (and former CEO) Maynard Webb, who was once COO of eBay (pictured, left to right).

Rovi does digital entertainment technology, while LiveOps offers cloud-based enterprise solutions.

The Silicon Valley Internet giant will also be adding three more board members, said sources, but those people are not confirmed as yet.

And it is not clear who will be chairman of Yahoo’s board, either. Intuit CEO Brad Smith has a full-time job, and the newly installed Weather Channel CEO David Kenny does, too.

Sources said the news is coming after the markets close, with other updates, including: The news-free status of its ongoing strategery (the Asian deal is coming along — blah, blah, blah — but you read that here yesterday in much more detail); ladling praise on new CEO Scott Thompson (also formerly of eBay); and giving props to co-founder Jerry Yang, who stepped away from the board and from the company several weeks ago.

The moves by Yahoo are designed to thwart a possible proxy fight that might be coming from activist shareholder Daniel Loeb, who has been working on a board slate of his own.

It’s been hard for him, and also for Yahoo, to attract significant names to the board. The two new additions are solid tech execs, although certainly not high-profile appointments.

Yahoo declined to comment.

Here are their bios from the Rovi and LiveOps Web sites, if you want to know more:

Fred Amoroso is a member of Rovi Corporation’s Board of Directors.

Fred Amoroso is a member of Rovi Corporation’s Board of Directors. Fred Amoroso previously served as Rovi’s president and chief executive officer from July 2005 to December 2011. Prior to joining Rovi, Mr. Amoroso served as an advisor to Warburg Pincus, an investment firm from September 2004 to June 2005. From July 2002 to August 2004, Mr. Amoroso served as the president, chief executive officer and vice chairman of Meta Group, an information technology research and advisory firm. From October 1999 until its merger with IBM in January 2002, Mr. Amoroso served as president, chief executive officer and a director of CrossWorlds Software, Inc. Prior to CrossWorlds, Amoroso was a member of the world-wide management committee of IBM, was general manager of IBM Global Services Asia Pacific and held various other executive positions at IBM. Before joining IBM, Amoroso held various positions at Price Waterhouse, now PricewaterhouseCoopers, including lead technology partner.

Mr. Amoroso holds a B.S. in systems engineering and M.S. in operations research from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

As Chairman, Maynard brings almost 30 years of experience developing and leading high-growth companies to his role at LiveOps. From December 20, 2006 to July 18, 2011, Maynard was also LiveOps CEO. He joined LiveOps from eBay where he served as Chief Operating Officer. At eBay, Maynard directed engineering and technology operations, product development, customer support, trust and safety, global billing, human resources, and legal functions. Prior to eBay, Maynard was Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Gateway, Inc. He has also held management and leadership positions at Bay Networks, Quantum Corporation, Thomas-Conrad Corporation and IBM. A respected member of the Silicon Valley technology community, Maynard sits on the boards of several successful companies, including Salesforce.com, Admob and Baynote. Maynard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida Atlantic University.

Verizon Wireless Bringing Back Double Data Promotion

Ina Fried — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:18:48 +0000

Verizon Wireless plans to bring back an offer it ran earlier this year that gives new customers double the amount of data for the same price.

The “double your data” promotion, which will resume on Friday, applies to those buying a 4G LTE phone only, so iPhone buyers are out of luck, as are those who purchased a phone during the month the deal wasn’t being offered (unless they are still in their 14-day return/exchange window).

A Verizon representative confirmed the plans for the promotion and said it would be for a limited time only, though the company didn’t say how long it will run.

Verizon’s move comes as AT&T is going in the opposite direction, changing its plans in ways that will ultimately lead to higher bills for many customers. The company is offering more data in its plans, but also hiking the prices.

With the double data offer, Verizon 4G LTE customers will get 4 gigabytes of data per month for $30, as opposed to the standard 2GB.

Meanwhile, Verizon is also planning a buy one, get one free offer for the Droid Razr and Razr Maxx.

No word yet on when either carrier will offer plans that allow those with multiple devices to share a pool of data among their phones, tablets and other devices. Both AT&T and Verizon have said they are working on such offers.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile said it will offer all its phones and certain of its tablets for free with a new contract in a one-day sale this Saturday.

Facebook Buddies Up to Marketers at New York Event

Peter Kafka — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:18:11 +0000

Want to know more about Facebook’s ad plans in advance of its IPO? You may get a bit of insight at the end of the month. The social network is planning a half-day program geared toward marketers, which it will host at New York’s Museum of Natural History. Facebook says COO Sheryl Sandberg will kick off the program, which will include “inspirational breakout sessions” and a chat with an unnamed “esteemed guest.”

Why Honeywell Is Suing Nest Labs

Lauren Goode — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:04:38 +0000

Honeywell International filed a patent-infringement lawsuit on Palo Alto-based Nest Labs yesterday, alleging that Nest’s relatively new digital thermostat encroaches on Honeywell’s patented technology.

You might be thinking: A thermostat’s a thermostat … right?

In Honeywell’s view, it’s not so simple. In the complaint, filed in a U.S. district court in Minnesota, the maker of aerospace systems, consumer products and technology solutions identified seven patents it believes Nest Labs infringes on.

Honeywell is also seeking damages from Best Buy, which features and sells Nest’s product in home-energy departments around the U.S. (Best Buy also sells Honeywell programmable thermostats.)

Nest Labs was recently launched by Matt Rogers and Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive who worked on the iPod. Last fall, Nest Labs began selling the Nest Learning Thermostat, a buzzed-about, easily programmable “smart” thermostat that uses the same wheel interface as the original iPod. The device can be controlled from a user’s smartphone, tablet or Web browser, and Fadell has been quoted as saying the Nest will save users up to 30 percent off their utility bills. With Nest, the uncool thermostat suddenly became a hot item.

Nest Labs did not respond to requests for comments on the suit, except to release a statement yesterday, saying they had not yet reviewed the actual filing, and that the company will provide comment once they’ve had the opportunity to review it.

Speaking for Honeywell, Bruce Eric Anderson, the company’s director of external communications, expounded on Honeywell’s statement from yesterday, saying that intellectual property is a “part of what Honeywell is as a company. We have 20,000 engineers that come here every day and it’s about protecting those individuals. This suit is not unique,” Anderson added.

Rather than go through the filing patent by patent, here are a few of the key sticking points of the suit:

First, Honeywell points out that it commercialized the first adjustable thermostat that allowed users to sleep through the night without having to manually turn their furnaces on and off; and that it is a global leader of innovative thermostats, and created the iconic “round” thermostat that’s now featured in the Smithsonian museum collection.

Honeywell goes on to mention more recent innovations, including its Prestige 2.0 Comfort Systems and RedLINK Wireless Comfort Sytems. More on the Prestige in a bit.

In the section titled “Acts Giving Rise to the Action,” the Honeywell filing points to various features of the Nest thermostat that have been promoted by Nest Labs and Best Buy as “innovative,” including the ability to connect the device to the Internet, store private data and control the Nest remotely through a Wi-Fi connection. Honeywell also takes issue with Fadell and Rogers having said that there hasn’t been any real innovation in decades in the thermostat space, though the sources of this quote and others are unclear.

Honeywell alleges that Nest Labs does not appear to have originated the design or functionality of the Nest thermostat — and says the key functional features at the core of the device are the results of years of research and development that culminated in patents owned by Honeywell.

For example, Honeywell’s complaint says, the fact that the Nest thermometer came with a patented “question system” — “What are the lowest and highest temperatures you’d like when you are away?” — is not new. Honeywell’s Prestige thermostat, introduced in late 2008, also incorporates an “interview-based interface.”

Honeywell also says that controlling a thermostat remotely through the Internet is not a Nest Labs innovation.

Interestingly, General Electric also offers consumers — as part of a home-energy management system — the ability to remotely control a GE “smart” thermostat from a smartphone or home computer. “Connect seamlessly to your programmable thermostat to remotely adjust your home climate,” says GE’s Web page for this feature.

When I asked Anderson whether Honeywell had ever examined GE’s system, he simply said, “I don’t know. I’m not familiar with that product.”

In the filing, Honeywell also references this AllThingsD video from last November as showing evidence that Nest Labs was examining “numerous” Honeywell thermostats in its research, indicating that Nest — which it calls a “well-funded, sophisticated company” — was well aware of Honeywell’s contributions to the thermostat industry.

So, Honeywell says, it has suffered and will suffer monetary damages and irreparable harm as a result of Nest Labs’s infringements, as well as from Best Buy’s infringements by using, offering to sell and/or selling the Nest device.

Since we don’t have a more detailed response from Nest Labs yet, it’s hard to know how this will play out. It’s also unclear whether Honeywell contacted Nest Labs prior to filing the formal suit.

Ed Weisz, a senior intellectual property lawyer at the firm of Cozen O’Connor (which is not involved in the Honeywell suit), says that most cases like this one result in a settlement. However, if it is determined that there has been a patent infringement, Weisz says, Honeywell could seek an injunction — which the courts may be more likely to grant, because there’s actually a product already out on the market.

Weisz also said that, while Best Buy is enjoined in the suit, he doesn’t think the retailer will be on the hook for additional damages, as their sale of goods — even ones that might infringe on IP — will be covered by the Uniform Commercial Code.

“It’s way too premature to have any read on the merits of this,” Weisz said.

What we do know is that in Silicon Valley — and in Honeywell’s case, outside of the Valley, too — tech-patent lawsuits are hardly uncommon, especially in the smartphone and tablet market.

We’ll keep you posted as this story evolves.

Take Zap! Tech Geeks, Starved for More Battery Power, Give Themselves a Charge.

Geoffrey A. Fowler and Ian Sherr — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:49:12 +0000

Any geek can tell you that battery life hasn’t kept up with gadget innovations. But not to worry: Inventors are figuring out how to turn geeks into batteries.

While most gadget lovers hunt for empty wall sockets to charge their devices, Kevin Bartholomew just plugs his cellphone into his hip. That is where he keeps a nine-inch device looped around his belt that converts the kinetic energy of his motion into enough power to keep his devices running.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Klout Acquires Local App Blockboard

Liz Gannes — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:00:05 +0000

Social media influence scorer Klout has made its first acquisition: A local app maker called Blockboard.

The deal indicates new directions for Klout, which to date had not been particularly focused on mobile or local.

Blockboard made a neighborhood discussion board iPhone app that had only been available in its hometown of San Francisco. Its team of four had previously been at companies like Delicious and Craigslist. When I covered the company, I noted that it has more of a Twitter approach to a local social network, where competitor Nextdoor requires real identities, a la Facebook.

Klout said that Blockboard’s app would continue to be available, and that its team would work to improve Klout’s local and mobile efforts.

Klout received a rich valuation in its most recent funding round, which closed last November but was only announced in January. Blockboard, meanwhile, had raised $1 million in 2010 from Joshua Schachter, Mitch Kapor, Founder Collective and others.

Google's Worlds Collide as Chrome Browser Comes to Android (Video)

Ina Fried — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:40:46 +0000

No, hell hasn’t frozen over.

But Google has finally brought its two big platforms together, with Chrome for Android arriving on Tuesday.

There are some big caveats at first. It’s just a beta, and will only work on phones and tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich. Over time, though, Google expects Chrome to become the default (and only Google browser) in Android.

Chrome for Android brings over much from the desktop version, though not everything.

It also adds some mobile-specific stuff, including an easy way to manage tabs and the ability to preload pages it thinks you might be about to enter.

Most interesting, though, is the way it synchronizes with a desktop version of the browser. Those who opt to sync with a logged-in desktop version of Chrome can automatically take with them any open tabs they have from their PC or Mac. It’s particularly nice for those who often find themselves emailing directions or other data from one device to another.

[ See post to watch video ]

For those who want to go for the opposite experience, Chrome for Android supports an Incognito mode in which cookies, Web sites and other browser data are not saved from session to session.

The big promise of Chrome is that browsing on the phone would shift to something that people do often instead of something only done when one has to.

“We can really take a leap forward on the mobile Web,” Chrome boss Sundar Pichai said in an interview. “Previously, it is something you would do once in a while. You would hesitate.”

That Chrome would eventually come to Android isn’t a surprise. Sergey Brin predicted as much back in 2008, when the desktop browser first launched.

However, its arrival could mean stepped up competition for the other platforms when it comes to Web browsing as well as potentially a smaller market for third party Android browsers, such as Mozilla and Dolphin.

Pichai said that the company has actively been working on Chrome for Android for more than a year. The time is right, he said, thanks to some software improvements with Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as the improved hardware hitting the market from various phone makers.

There are a few differences from the desktop version. Notably, Chrome for Android doesn’t currently support plug-ins, though it does have an architecture for such support. Consistent with what Adobe said last year, though, there are no plans for Flash support.

Viral Video: Hulu's Original "Paul, the Male Matchmaker" Set to Debut

Kara Swisher — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:57:06 +0000

Here’s the trailer for Hulu’s latest original content offering about a very unusual matchmaker.

That’s irksome “Paul, the Male Matchmaker,” a 10-episode spoof series from Warner Bros. Television Group’s Studio 2.0, which will debut on the premium video service on Feb. 13.

Get it? The day before Valentine’s Day.

It’s got the same tone as Lisa Kudrow’s successful (and now on cable television’s Showtime) “Web Therapy,” with lots of well-known guest stars.

I kind of like it from the teaser here, but we’ll see:

Amazon Grew Twice as Fast as the Overall E-Commerce Market in Q4

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:27:44 +0000

Amazon’s growth of 35 percent in the fourth quarter ended up clocking in at more than twice the overall market’s growth, according to comScore, which released new data yesterday.

In the fourth quarter, comScore said, U.S. retail spending was up 14 percent — to nearly $50 billion — compared to a year ago.

Of course, Amazon’s results include international sales, as well as purchases made from mobile phones, which comScore does not track, so the comparison isn’t exactly fair.

Still, despite Amazon’s exuberant performance compared to the market as a whole, it fell short of Wall Street estimates, which had expected sales to rise by more than 40 percent from the fourth quarter in 2010.

Last week, the earnings news led to Amazon’s stock tumbling in after-hours trading by nearly 10 percent, to $175.50. Since then, the stock has partially recovered, and is currently trading at $184.74 a share.

More findings from comScore’s fourth-quarter and year-end reports:

The fourth quarter represented the ninth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth, and fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth rates.
For the entire year 2011, U.S. retail e-commerce spending reached a record $161.5 billion, marking a 13 percent increase from 2010.
The categories that grew by at least 18 percent year over year: Digital content and subscriptions, jewelry and watches, consumer electronics, toys and hobbies, and computer software.
10 days in Q4 surpassed $1 billion in online spending.
52 percent of e-commerce transactions included free shipping, representing an all-time high.

Neil Young, the Donkey and Digital Music: The Full Dive Into Media Interview (Video)

Peter Kafka — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:07 +0000

Neil Young has a long and storied career, but he didn’t want to talk about it when he came onstage at D: Dive Into Media last week. Instead, the musician was pushing his vision of the future: One where lots of people listen to really good-sounding music.

To be clear: Young isn’t complaining about today’s songs. He’s complaining about the way those songs are recorded and distributed.

There’s a colorful donkey input-output metaphor here, which Young uses to make his point. And he also has a plan to fix the problem.

But first he has to convince people there is a problem. And, as Walt Mossberg and I point out, lots of people have been buying (and stealing) music in the MP3 format that Young hates, and they don’t seem to be complaining about it.

Young says former Apple CEO Steve Jobs agreed with him, though. And now he’s looking for new allies. You can see the entire pitch here:

[ See post to watch video ]

Flingo Gets $7 Million for a Second-Screen Bet

Peter Kafka — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:00:06 +0000

More money pouring into the “second screen.” This time it’s $7 million for Flingo, via August Capital.

Flingo is best known as “the video start-up run by the guy who used to run BitTorrent.” And so far, CEO Ashwin Navin has been concentrating on building “smart TV” apps that you’ll find on sets from Samsung, LG, etc.

Now the plan is to put the new money into software that will automatically figure out what viewers are watching. That way, it can bring them more information about what’s on the screen, and/or help them tell their pals about it.

And that, theoretically, could help Navin grab a piece of the very big TV advertising pie.

But that plan puts Navin in the same place as several other “TV check-in” services, like GetGlue and Yahoo’s IntoNow. And all of them face the same really big challenge: How do you get people to use this stuff?

It’s not that people aren’t interested in telling their friends what they’re watching. It’s just that they’re already doing that, on Twitter and Facebook.

That doesn’t mean a specialized social service that works with the existing ones can’t take off — that’s one of the big takeaways from Foursquare and Instagram.

But it does mean these check-in apps have to provide something pretty great. Or the second-screen real estate is going to get claimed by folks like Mark Zuckerberg and Dick Costolo.

Viddy Scores $6M for Social Mobile Video

Liz Gannes — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:34 +0000

The category of social mobile video start-ups is going to stick around for a while, if only because it seems to keep attracting investment dollars.

But seriously, Viddy — which makes an iOS app that has attracted celebrity users like Snoop Dogg and Linkin Park, and limits video clips to 15 seconds — has now raised a $6 million Series A round led by Battery Ventures and including Greycroft Ventures and Qualcomm.

Viddy CEO Brett O’Brien says his company is stronger than the competition, for a few reasons: First, Viddy’s in-app editing effects — which include 99-cent premium promotions for content from partners like the Muppets and Linkin Park — help make compelling, shareable content.

Second, the Venice, Calif.-based company is trying more of a public Twitter-like approach than a private social network, so the star users it recruits can bring in their fans.

And third, Viddy seems to have already built a pretty significant audience — with a reported 40 million video views in January.

Some of Viddy’s recently funded competitors included Mobli (where Leonardo DiCaprio is an investor), Socialcam and Klip. Also, though mobile social apps seem to be doing better than ever before, this isn’t a new category; older mobile video start-ups included Kyte.tv and Qik (bought by Skype).

Viddy, which has 10 employees, also took investment from Bessemer Ventures, Sky Dayton, Jarl Mohn and Christina Brodbeck, and is advised by Biz Stone.

Here’s a Viddy shout-out from Snoop Dogg, who is rocking a great Angry Birds hat:

Consolidating Smartphone Market Putting Pressure on Second-Tier Makers

Ina Fried — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:00:14 +0000

A lot of attention is being paid to the battle between Apple and Samsung for bragging rights atop the smartphone market. The two are neck and neck when it comes to the U.S. smartphone market.

But even more interesting, perhaps, is what is happening to the next tier of players. Both HTC and Motorola, for example, have recently issued downbeat earnings and forecasts.

Not so long ago, it appeared that the rising tide would lift all smartphone boats. HTC, in particular, was doubling sales year over year, and its growth seemed unstoppable.

But now it appears that the wave is thrashing as many as it is helping. HTC has hit a wall; plenty of other Android players, including Sony and Motorola, are struggling to keep pace with the leaders.

Both Motorola and HTC have said their strategy this year will be about putting more effort behind fewer devices. It remains to be seen what the plan is for Sony, which is in the process of taking over its cellphone joint venture with Ericsson.

As for the top of the heap, both Apple and Samsung appear to be flourishing. For the year, Samsung edged Apple in smartphone shipments, while Apple was narrowly ahead of Samsung in the fourth quarter.

Meet Spongecell, a Profitable Ad Tech Company With $10 Million in New Funding

Peter Kafka — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:00:12 +0000

You hate Web ads, or you ignore Web ads. Ah, but what if those Web ads weren’t boring old Web ads, but they danced or sang or jiggled around?

This is the pitch, more or less, for Spongecell, a start-up that helps produce “rich media” Web ads. That’s not a new idea, by any stretch, and there are plenty of competitors that do similar stuff. But last year the company’s story still attracted angel investors like Google chair Eric Schmidt.

And now the company has new funding: Tech investor/holding company Safeguard Scientifics has taken all of a $10 million B round.

The money will go to help Spongecell expand smaller product lines, like video ads, and eventually move into new ones, like mobile ads, says CEO Ben Kartzman.

Spongecell is a full-fledged “pivot”: Prior to 2008, it had raised $3 million and was trying to sell some sort of “event management” widget that Kartzman readily admits got no traction. Then it moved into ad tech, and things have been humming since. Kartzman says that last year he grossed around $10 million and cleared “seven figures” of profit.

Big picture: Smart people keep telling me that the ad tech ecosystem has too many start-ups funded with too much money, and that something has to give. But then I keep hearing about another ad tech start-up raising another round. Assume we’ll see more of these for a while.

Can There Be Another Rovio? Outfit7 Wants to Give It a Shot.

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:00:04 +0000

Outfit7 says its games on the iPhone and iPad have hit more than 300 million downloads since launching a year and a half ago.

At that size, it claims to have outpaced Rovio’s Angry Birds, which took 20 months to hit 300 million.

If you haven’t heard of Outfit7, it’s probably because it hasn’t raised any institutional venture capital, it wasn’t founded in the U.S., and much of its application usage is spread across 120 countries.

But the company’s franchise of apps called Talking Friends, which are sort of like a modern-day Neopets, is gathering a large base of users.

The characters include Talking Tom Cat, Talking Ben the Dog and Talking Harry the Hedgehog — in other words, many more brands than Angry Birds alone. Of the 14 in existence, Talking Tom Cat is the most popular, having been downloaded 100 million times.

The animals serve as a virtual pet, which responds to your touch and repeats everything that you say. You can pet him, poke him or grab his tail. A popular activity is to record videos of the pet and send them to friends.

The number of users who come back to the app is impressive, with more than 90 million monthly active users worldwide. The company also averages more than 25 million downloads per month.

Executive Chairman Narry Singh believes Rovio and Outfit7 have similar growth trajectories; and like Rovio, which was able to create a strong brand from Angry Birds, Outfit7 is angling to create brands, as well.

Today, Outfit7 has offices in Palo Alto, Calif., as well as Slovenia, Cyprus, London and Seoul, South Korea. Its apps are primarily free, but users can make in-app purchases to buy virtual goods.

The company is also announcing today that it is partnering with Iconicfuture and Digital Artists to bring branded virtual goods to Talking Tom Cat. In a testament to its international pull, the merchandise will represent six of the world’s most popular soccer clubs, from Spain, Italy, England, France and Portugal.

Of course, Outfit7 is not the first company to want to replicate Rovio’s successes.

In the end, it won’t be important which company got to 300 million downloads the fastest, but which one was able to build a more long-term and sustainable company.

When you look at it in those terms, the jury is still out on Rovio, as well.