AllThingsD » data http://allthingsd.com Sat, 26 May 2012 02:18:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg All Things Digital http://allthingsd.com/ 144 22 French Data Regulators to Google: How About Making Your Answers to Our Questions Universally Accessible and Useful? http://allthingsd.com/20120524/french-data-regulators-to-google-how-about-making-your-answers-to-our-questions-universally-accessible-and-useful/ http://allthingsd.com/20120524/french-data-regulators-to-google-how-about-making-your-answers-to-our-questions-universally-accessible-and-useful/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 11:02:17 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=211870 The Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), the French data-protection authority investigating Google’s new privacy policy on behalf of the European Union’s 27 member states, isn’t getting the kind of cooperation it would like from the search sovereign. And its patience with the company is wearing thin. So much so that it has publicly upbraided Google for its lack of forthrightness in responding to the agency’s questionnaires about the new policy.

In a letter to Google CEO Larry Page, CNIL head Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin said she’s reviewed Google’s response to its questions and found them to be sorely lacking — in clarity and specifics.

Answers, too.

“For a large number of questions, the elements provided do not give a precise, clear and comprehensive response to our questions,” Falque-Pierrotin wrote. “While in some cases the questions themselves may have been misunderstood or not clearly expressed, many answers merely provide illustrative examples without describing the exact [processes], procedures or systems Google actually operates.”

In other words, Google’s answers to CNIL’s questions were often incomplete or approximate. And while Falque-Pierrotin generously offers that this might be the result of poor communication, it’s hard to accept that as a legitimate explanation. At this point, the CNIL has clarified its questions to Google twice — once in writing, and a second time during the in-person meeting with Google executives that evidently preceded her letter. During that same meeting, Google was given a third version of the questionnaire, and a June 8 deadline to answer it.

Are we really to believe that Google — a company that prides itself on hiring PhDs, that once sought out cream-of-the-crop engineers with a “mind-bending” Google Labs Aptitude Test, whose mission “is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” — can’t properly answer a few questions about its privacy practices and handling of consumer data?

Because that’s about as likely as Larry Page faking his Master’s degree in computer science.

A more reasonable explanation: Google not only doesn’t want to answer these questions, it doesn’t even believe it is obligated to do so. Indeed, it essentially said as much back in April, when it specifically questioned the authority of the CNIL and the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party to even investigate it. From Google’s April 5, 2012, response to the CNIL:

1) What is the legal basis for the Working Party to act as a regulatory body, or to mandate the CNIL to conduct a regulatory review on behalf of 26 other independent DPAs?
2) What law is being applied to this review?
3) Could the Working Party explain the process being followed and the ultimate aim of the review?

Questions respectfully asked, certainly. But they clearly reflect an uncooperativeness and, more to the point, an overweening arrogance that’s so prevalent these days that it might as well be one of Google’s hallowed “10 Things We Know To Be True.” As Christian Sandvig, a researcher in communications technology and public policy at the University of Illinois, recently told the New York Times in an article on that very subject, “Google doesn’t seem to think it ever will be held accountable. And to date it hasn’t been.”

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120524/french-data-regulators-to-google-how-about-making-your-answers-to-our-questions-universally-accessible-and-useful/feed/ 0 AT&T Shuffles Resources in New York in Push for Faster Data, Fewer Dropped Calls http://allthingsd.com/20120523/att-shuffles-resources-in-new-york-in-push-for-faster-data-fewer-dropped-calls/ http://allthingsd.com/20120523/att-shuffles-resources-in-new-york-in-push-for-faster-data-fewer-dropped-calls/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 16:31:11 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=211500 Aiming to improve its service in New York City, AT&T said on Wednesday that it is shifting some of its bandwidth away from older networks and toward its newer 3G and 4G networks.

The company said it is contacting customers on its older 2G network and providing upgrade offers in an effort to get them onto one of the newer networks.

“Dedicating more capacity to our advanced wireless networks will help more of our customers in New York City have a better experience overall,” AT&T regional general manager Tom DeVito said in a statement. “By re-allocating network resources from our 2G network to support our newer, advanced networks, we’re moving capacity to support the voice and mobile internet services our customers want.”

New York and San Francisco, in particular, have long been trouble spots for AT&T customers.

AT&T has been doing a number of things to improve service in those cities and in other areas. Adding cell towers is one option, but doing so typically requires approval at the local level for each new tower. Carriers are also pursuing other new tricks, including the use of smaller cells as well as building up Wi-Fi “hot zones” to help off-load traffic.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120523/att-shuffles-resources-in-new-york-in-push-for-faster-data-fewer-dropped-calls/feed/ 0 Exclusive: Yahoo's Thompson Out; Levinsohn In; Board Settlement With Loeb Nears Completion http://allthingsd.com/20120513/exclusive-yahoos-thompson-out-levinsohn-in-board-settlement-with-loeb-nears-completion/ http://allthingsd.com/20120513/exclusive-yahoos-thompson-out-levinsohn-in-board-settlement-with-loeb-nears-completion/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 15:59:24 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=207290

Yahoo’s embattled CEO Scott Thompson (pictured here) is set to step down from his job at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, in what will be dramatic end to a controversy over a fake computer science degree that he had on his bio, according to multiple sources close to the situation.

The pair will apparently say he is departing for “personal reasons.” Sources said that Thompson will be claiming to be leaving due to a serious illness that he recently discovered he had.

But the evolving crisis — which is just over a week old — centered on his botched resume and how he handled the thorny issue is the key reason for the abrupt end to his tenure as a CEO.

Thompson’s likely replacement on an interim basis will be Yahoo’s global media head Ross Levinsohn, who most recently also ran its Americas unit, including its advertising sales.

In addition to the management upheaval, Yahoo’s board is closing in on a settlement with the man who discovered Thompson’s misstep, activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point, said sources.

The situation could change, since Yahoo’s full board still has to meet this morning to officially approve the sweeping changes at the long-troubled company.

But, if it is, this development goes a long way toward fixing some of what has been ailing Yahoo recently.

And it’ll also be a stunning victory for Loeb (pictured here), since the pugnacious hedge fund investor is set to get three board seats from a slate proposed by him as part of a proxy fight aimed at Yahoo. The new Yahoo directors will be media exec Michael Wolf and turnaround specialist Harry Wilson. Loeb’s fourth selection — former NBC head Jeff Zucker — will withdraw.

The five current Yahoo directors — who were to step down at the company’s annual meeting this summer — will leave the board effective immediately, sources said, to make way for the Third Point selections.

Finally, Yahoo’s recently added director Fred Amoroso will be named chairman of the board.

Amoroso is the director who has been conducting the investigation into the issues raised by Loeb about how the fake academic credentials got in Thompson’s public bios, as well as in Yahoo’s regulatory filings, and also the hurried circumstances around his hiring in January.

Those mysteries — read, screw-ups — might never be solved now, although Thompson made a convoluted attempt to explain it all in two awkward employee meetings at the end of last week. In those gatherings, according to numerous sources, he blamed a headhunting firm for introducing the mistake when he was being hired for a job at eBay in the mid-2000 timeframe.

That company, Heidrick and Struggles, slapped back last week with an internal memo, noting that Thompson’s claim was “verifiably not true.” Sources said that Heidrick told Yahoo’s board that it was in possession of a resume that Thompson had apparently submitted showing the inaccurate CS degree on it.

That memo, impugning Thompson’s credibility, was one of many that piled on to create an impossible situation for the Yahoo board, related to his leadership ability going forward.

Thompson had also previously issued a Yahoo statement, in which he apologized for the “distraction” caused by the problematic resume, but not for the mistake itself.

And, initially, Yahoo — under his direction — had called the borked resume an “inadvertent error.”

Such fumbling to fix the situation was among the many other issues that the board has been considering relating the ability of Thompson to remain in his job. Also of importance was the sinking morale of Yahoo employees, who had largely rejected Thompson’s excuses in the ResuMess scandal.

Internal message boards at Yahoo lit up all last week, with staffers largely rejecting his explanations. In addition, a number of top execs and engineers approached the board calling for Thompson’s firing.

While that’s not precisely what happened here, it’s close enough to describe Thompson’s departure as inevitable.

All this change comes in the wake of a massive restructuring he was in the midst of at Yahoo, after 2,000 employee layoffs.

Thompson was pushing forward a vision of adding a much more significant data and commerce element to Yahoo’s largely ad-based business.

That is likely to be less stressed under media-focused Levinsohn, who will be essentially trying out to be the permanent CEO.

Well known in the media and advertising communities, he has worked at a number of big online efforts over many years.

According to his bio at Yahoo, where he arrived in 2010:

He previously served as the President of News Corporation’s Fox Interactive Media, where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations, strategy and acquisitions that helped transformed the company into a leader in digital media. He also held senior management positions with AltaVista, an early pioneer and leader in search, CBS Sportsline where he oversaw all content and development for the top rated sports site, and HBO where he launched and oversaw a unit developing new programming and revenue streams. Levinsohn also was the co-founder and managing director of Fuse Capital, an investment and strategic equity management firm focused on investing in and building digital media and communications companies.

Levinsohn sits on the board of Freedom Communications and the Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from The American University.

So far in my checking, Levinsohn’s resume is accurate.

More to come, obviously.

I have emails and texts and calls into everyone for comment, but apparently they are all out at a Mother’s Day brunch (except me).

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120513/exclusive-yahoos-thompson-out-levinsohn-in-board-settlement-with-loeb-nears-completion/feed/ 0 Bing and You're Modeling Every Object on the Planet http://allthingsd.com/20120511/bing-and-youre-modeling-every-object-on-the-planet/ http://allthingsd.com/20120511/bing-and-youre-modeling-every-object-on-the-planet/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 07:17:43 +0000 Voices http://allthingsd.com/?p=206863

We’re literally no longer indexing text. We’re trying to associate data that exists on the web in all forms with the physical object that spawned it in the first place.

– Bing director Stefan Weitz, in an interview with Fast Company’s E.B. Boyd

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120511/bing-and-youre-modeling-every-object-on-the-planet/feed/ 1 Flipboard CEO McCue Likely to Step Down From Twitter Board Over Potential Future Conflicts (Or Closer Cooperation) http://allthingsd.com/20120507/exclusive-flipboard-ceo-mccue-likely-to-step-down-from-twitter-board-over-potential-future-conflicts-or-closer-cooperation/ http://allthingsd.com/20120507/exclusive-flipboard-ceo-mccue-likely-to-step-down-from-twitter-board-over-potential-future-conflicts-or-closer-cooperation/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 20:37:24 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=204132

According to sources close to the situation, Flipboard co-founder and CEO Mike McCue has approached Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and co-founder Jack Dorsey about moving off the board of Twitter.

It is not clear when McCue — who became a director of the San Francisco social communications company in late 2010 — will step down, but it could come soon.

The reason, sources said, is McCue’s growing feeling that the companies are on a product collision course, with a possible troubled or perhaps more attractive result.

In other words, Flipboard will either face increasing rivalry from Twitter or will end up as a possible acquisition target for it or other companies.

“How users consume and use Twitter is a key part of its future, and that is what Flipboard does well already,” said one person with knowledge of the situation. “There is going to be an inevitable crossroads for the two companies.”

Indeed, Twitter has bought several companies that help users read and discover, such as Summify.

The goal has been to better make sense of the massive amount of data that the service produces daily; to that end, Twitter has pushed to improve its user interface design on a number of devices.

And Twitter is a big part of Flipboard’s app, which is very dependent on the tweet feed and accounts for 70 percent of its links, sources said.

Flipboard is also more of a “mobile first” company, which is where Twitter is also headed even more aggressively.

Already popular on the Apple iPad, Flipboard launched its iPhone app late last year and it is prepping a version for Google Android soon.

That’s why, in addition to being a rival, it is also an obvious acquisition target for Twitter, as well as others such as Yahoo and Microsoft.

In fact, Google already tried to buy it last year, before Flipboard did a massive $50 million fundraising round that valued it at $200 million.

Its investors include Insight Venture Partners, Comcast’s venture arm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures and a spate of well known angels, such as Dorsey, Facebook co-founder and Asana dude Dustin Moskovitz, Ron Conway, actor Ashton Kutcher and the investment company of former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin.

Co-founded by longtime entrepreneur McCue (Netscape, Tellme) and former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll, Flipboard launched to much attention in mid 2010.

Its innovative social magazine concept is attempting to make the social networking universe more accessible, consumable and, perhaps most importantly, visually arresting via its rich app.

Essentially, Flipboard pulls information from media RSS feeds and sites such as Twitter and Facebook data streams and then reassembles it in an easy-to-navigate personalized format.

Google has mounted a competitor, called Currents, as has Yahoo with its Livestand offering, neither of which have gotten much traction. In fact, sources said, Yahoo is likely to shut Livestand down completely.

There have also been a spate of other similar readers, such as Pulse and Zite.

Spokespersons for both Flipboard and Twitter politely declined comment.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120507/exclusive-flipboard-ceo-mccue-likely-to-step-down-from-twitter-board-over-potential-future-conflicts-or-closer-cooperation/feed/ 0 Yahoo Should Expect Incoming Lawsuit Lobbed by Loeb Tomorrow on CEO Hiring http://allthingsd.com/20120506/yahoo-should-expect-incoming-lawsuit-lobbed-by-loeb-tomorrow-on-ceo-hiring/ http://allthingsd.com/20120506/yahoo-should-expect-incoming-lawsuit-lobbed-by-loeb-tomorrow-on-ceo-hiring/#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 16:01:48 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=204107

On Friday, Third Point’s Dan Loeb — the activist shareholder who is waging an ever-nastier proxy battle against Yahoo — said in a letter regarding the inexplicable errors in the resume of its CEO Scott Thompson that he would take “further action” if he did not get answers.

Let me translate that for Yahoo and any other interested observers: Come Monday, the Silicon Valley Internet giant is likely to be on the receiving end of an official lawsuit demanding all the notes and records related to the hiring of Thompson.

Presumably, Loeb hopes that if he gets ahold of the material on the quick hiring of the former president of eBay’s PayPal payments unit that it will show a sloppy vetting by the board, which led to it not catching inaccurate educational information about Thompson.

Last week, Loeb discredited Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s academic credentials and credibility by showing that his bio listed a computer science degree, even though he never obtained one while at Stonehill College.

Perhaps most problematically, that data got into official regulatory filings Yahoo made.

After proven correct, Loeb than quickly lobbed in another letter, making an explicit legal threat to get the resume information:

Third Point will consider it grounds for further action if the Board does not take the following steps by Noon EDT on Monday, May 7th:

1) Publicly reveal the process by which it vetted Mr. Thompson as a potential CEO candidate. This disclosure should include the release of all minutes of any meeting at which Mr. Thompson’s candidacy was discussed and any reports or other materials upon which directors relied to evaluate Mr. Thompson’s candidacy.

2) Disclose whether any Board member, including Maynard Webb, who has long-standing ties to Mr. Thompson, and Ms. Hart, who headed the Search Committee, was aware of Mr. Thompson’s deception prior to receipt of Third Point’s letter yesterday.

3) Provide shareholders with all information regarding the director nomination process, including the so-called “skills matrix” referred to in the Company’s preliminary proxy statement, which the Board purportedly used to determine the qualifications of various candidates, including Third Point’s nominees.

How such a legal demand will be greeted by Yahoo will be interesting, especially given the tension internally. While Yahoo initially reacted to Loeb’s allegations about the inaccurate bio by saying the insertion of a computer science degree was an “inadvertent error,” the board quickly backpedaled and said it would conduct an investigation into the matter.

But that will not be speedy enough for the aggressive Loeb — so, I expect his lawyers have been working all this weekend to prep for his next attack.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120506/yahoo-should-expect-incoming-lawsuit-lobbed-by-loeb-tomorrow-on-ceo-hiring/feed/ 0 FitBit Now Tracks Heart-Rate Data, Through Digifit App http://allthingsd.com/20120503/fitbit-now-tracks-heart-rate-data-through-digifit-app/ http://allthingsd.com/20120503/fitbit-now-tracks-heart-rate-data-through-digifit-app/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 19:22:57 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=203243 Fitbit, the popular fitness device that clips on to clothing and measures the wearer’s activity levels, is adding heart rate to the list of metrics it will support, through a partnership with the Digifit heart-rate app. When users are wearing the Fitbit and using Digifit’s app, they can now pull their cardio info into Fitbit’s online dashboard, and can merge it with data from Fitbit’s new Aria scale, as well.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120503/fitbit-now-tracks-heart-rate-data-through-digifit-app/feed/ 0 Mission Impossibly Funny: Siri Will Self-Destruct in Five Seconds (Video) http://allthingsd.com/20120429/mission-impossibly-funny-siri-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20120429/mission-impossibly-funny-siri-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds-video/#comments Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:38:50 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=201024

Here is a very clever video which imagines a new feature on iPhone 5 — the Siri voice command cracks the device if you key in the wrong password three times in a row, after doing a quick data transfer to your iTunes account.

Somehow, I don’t think this going to be in the next version of the Apple smartphone, but it’s certainly innovative, in a twisted way.

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120429/mission-impossibly-funny-siri-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds-video/feed/ 0 Man, Smartphones Just Don't Shut Up http://allthingsd.com/20120426/man-smartphones-just-dont-shut-up/ http://allthingsd.com/20120426/man-smartphones-just-dont-shut-up/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:50:57 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=200277 There’s a lot of talk about how increasingly data-hungry smartphones are threatening to overwhelm wireless networks. But it’s not just about how much data they consume.

A less talked-about issue is the fact that many smartphone apps are constantly pinging the network, like a kid asking his or her parents every few seconds, “Are we there yet?”

Only smartphone apps are even more annoying. Some ping the network as often as 2,400 times an hour. The result is network congestion and signal loss, as well as a far more rapid drain on battery life.

“Wireless signaling is a tricky topic because oftentimes it’s hidden, happening in the background without any user knowledge. But it’s growing bigger by the minute, as more users download more connected applications” said Isabelle Dumont, head of marketing at Seven Networks, which pitches a solution to help reduce the issue.

If current trends continue, the constant pinging of the network could eventually amount to 25 trillion signaling events per hour, Seven says.

The company, which has a product designed to reduce some of the noise, has put together a handy infographic on the issue, a portion of which is included below.

Update: One of the the things we were wondering was just how much difference there is among platforms, since much of Seven’s graphic seems to relate to Android.

“Whether it’s Android, iOS, or Windows Phone, they tend to be always-on, checking for content updates on a frequent basis, even if there is no content update to be delivered,” Seven said. However, there are some important things that make over-pinging a bigger issue on Android.

One, lots of apps operate all the time on Android. Also, Seven notes, “Many more apps on Android monetize through advertising, which by itself can be one cause of additional data and signaling traffic.”

Also, Google’s store allows all apps to be published, regardless of how “noisy” they are.

“By contrast, there appears to be much tighter control on the iOS side,” Seven said. “Any app on Android can operate in the background and take advantage of all services and APIs available on the operating system and the device. iOS comes with a much tighter control over which app can operate in the background and be ‘always-on.’”

As for Windows Phone, Seven said, “These devices are still in the early stage of adoption, and because of the relative low volume of applications available for Windows Phone, the signaling storm related to Windows Phone has mostly been ignored if there is one.”

In addition, as a developer reminded me in an e-mail, Windows Phone today just does a whole lot less in the background and has a different means for getting updates (pushed down vs. polling).

In some cases, such as with Skype, there are some downsides to the way apps can live in the background, but it does make them potentially far less noisy.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120426/man-smartphones-just-dont-shut-up/feed/ 0 Say It Loud: ATD Relaunches the "Voices" Section http://allthingsd.com/20120423/say-it-loud-atd-relaunches-the-voices-section/ http://allthingsd.com/20120423/say-it-loud-atd-relaunches-the-voices-section/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:04:53 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=198699

One of the least-changed parts of AllThingsD since we started this site has been our “Voices” section, which has attracted robust and ever-increasing traffic over the years.

But today Voices gets a new look as we relaunch an updated section to bring you even more writing and information from outside sources. Voices will be run by senior editor Beth Callaghan, and will offer six regular features:

Must-Reads — formerly called Voices — will be the same daily compendium of links from around the Web. These are pieces we’ve selected editorially because we think they’re worth your time. We’ve made two changes in order to clarify the nature of the content and our role in suggesting them: We’ve renamed the links “Must-Reads From Other Web Sites” and we’ve simplified them to consist merely of outbound links. The links will appear in widgets across the site and in an archive — but when you click on a headline, you’ll be taken directly to the original Web site.

Voices is now made up of exclusive op-eds and posts from outside contributors who are well-versed in AllThingsD and have unique perspectives to share. We welcome and will evaluate all such pieces, and also plan to reach out to a range of industry experts on a variety of topics. Our goal is to spur debate and also give smart and engaging content a platform on our site.

Forum is conceived as an assembly of quick opinions from four or five well-known personalities on a single issue that is in the news. Topics can range from thoughts on the possible bubble in Silicon Valley to what’s the most interesting new trend to how possible privacy regulation will impact the tech industry. We hope to elicit a lot of different opinions and insights from a wide-ranging panel of execs, academics, venture capitalists, Wall Street analysts, entrepreneurs, bloggers and more.

Eye to Eye will be even more pointed, pitting a pair of often-opposing viewpoints on a controversial topic of the week — kind of like a Spy vs. Spy, but with words. The possibilities are endless here: Was $1 billion too much for Facebook to pay for photo-sharing site Instagram? Will Yahoo’s recent restructuring work? Do you think Google Glasses is a good idea? Where will Apple’s stock be in a year?

Numbers is a weekly story told by data — sometimes scientific, sometimes irreverent, always interesting. We will be working with many top research outfits, and will also be doing a number of our own polls of readers. We love infographics, surveys and pie charts at ATD and you’re going to get a whole lot of them.

Lastly, Ten Things About Me finds answers to entertaining and informative questions aimed at prominent people in the digital realm. It’s a little like the Proust Questionnaire mixed with the kind of queries that we are well known for at our D conferences, plus a whole lot of unusual ones, so you can get to know a variety of tech and media figures in a different way. First up: Twitter and Square inventor Jack Dorsey tells us what he’d be up to if he weren’t doing what he is doing now.

The new Voices will roll out all this week. Enjoy.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120423/say-it-loud-atd-relaunches-the-voices-section/feed/ 0 FitBit's New (Non-Wearable) Device: The Wi-Fi Smart Scale http://allthingsd.com/20120423/fitbits-new-non-wearable-device-the-wi-fi-smart-scale/ http://allthingsd.com/20120423/fitbits-new-non-wearable-device-the-wi-fi-smart-scale/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:00:15 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=198754 Fitbit, maker of the popular fitness device that clips onto clothing and tracks activity and sleep patterns, is attempting to set itself apart in the increasingly crowded fitness-tech market with the introduction of a new, Wi-Fi-equipped scale. The Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale measures weight, body-fat percentage and body-mass index, and wirelessly transfers the data to users’ FitBit accounts; information from the scale is also accessible through FitBit’s iPhone and Android apps. First announced at CES earlier this year, the $129.95 scale goes on sale today on Fitbit’s Web site.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120423/fitbits-new-non-wearable-device-the-wi-fi-smart-scale/feed/ 0 Verizon Aims New Data Package at Global Travelers http://allthingsd.com/20120418/verizon-aims-new-data-package-at-global-travelers/ http://allthingsd.com/20120418/verizon-aims-new-data-package-at-global-travelers/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:00:40 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=197744 Aiming to make international cellphone use slightly less excruciatingly expensive, Verizon Wireless announced a new $25 plan that gives users 100 megabytes of data when traveling; it will be available in 120 countries.

Once users have gobbled up that allotment, they can buy another 100MB for another $25.

The rate, which is available starting April 23, is still way more than one pays for data in the U.S., but also less than one might expect to pay under previous options.

Depending on how long a customer has been with their carrier and other policies, customers may also have an option to have their phone unlocked and buy a SIM card in the country in which they are traveling. That option requires some planning and hassle, but can save even more money, especially for heavy data users.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120418/verizon-aims-new-data-package-at-global-travelers/feed/ 0 Yahoo's Q1 Earnings: New CEO Will Get Some Satisfaction! http://allthingsd.com/20120417/liveblogging-yahoos-q1-earnings-im-so-excited-and-i-just-cant-hide-it/ http://allthingsd.com/20120417/liveblogging-yahoos-q1-earnings-im-so-excited-and-i-just-cant-hide-it/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:06:33 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=197426

Yahoo turned in better-than-expected earnings today in its first quarter, and — as usual — I will be liveblogging the call with CEO Scott Thompson.

Yahoo beat Wall Street estimates in its first-quarter earnings report earlier today, with revenues of $1.08 billion and earnings of 23 cents. That’s a gain of 28 percent from a year ago in net earnings and 38 percent per diluted shares.

Earlier:
2:03 pm: We begin with a new investor relations dude, who has replaced Marta Nichols. She is now CEO Scott Thompson’s new chief of staff.

His name is Joon and he seems much more festive than Marta, who was very, very serious.

I could not be more thrilled.

Thompson comes on quickly enough and he is also pretty jaunty.

Yahoo has been “moving very fast” on a range of things. And how — this guy seems to eat Ritalin for breakfast.

But there is still a long way to go, he notes.

“I am not satisfied with the pace of top-line growth,” said Thompson, who added he would not be until Yahoo was keeping up with others like Google, which turned in a much stronger report last week.

He can’t get no satisfaction — but he will!

Thompson said one problem was still its ongoing search and advertising partnership with Microsoft. It’s still rocky in terms of monetization and more.

2:09 pm: But first, it is CFO Tim Morse’s turn to re-read the results that were just released.

I am not actually listening until he gets to the part about Thompson giving more deets soon.

Morse is teeing this up by noting that Yahoo is adding more to its bag of tricks beyond search and display, such as commerce.

This will take investments, which are core to success.

Thompson is back: “This business can and will grow going forward.”

I am holding him to that one!

He starts first by talking about Yahoo’s content business, which remains strong, but he points out the obvious: Engagement is off.

In other words, the kids love Facebook. Also Instagram. Also Tumblr.

That’s why Thompson says he told the staff of Yahoo to rethink it all when he arrived in January.

The conclusion:

“Yahoo has been doing way too much for too long and has only been doing a few thing well.”

As in, jack of all trades, master of none.

“We have to be clearer going forward about what we won’t do,” said Thompson.

2:22 pm: He goes over some specifics.

Shutting down 50 properties — Thompson does not say which, though.

Consolidating platforms.

Dedicating key teams to innovation.

Something else about being nimbler.

Data. Also data. Did I say data?

Research and development only for Yahoo-owned and -operated properties.

That is six points, which will be underscored by better execution.

Thompson has been talking about the “complex processes” that was once called peanut butter by one former exec.

Peanut butter is sticky and that’s the point.

2:26 pm: Oops, when talking about layoffs, Thompson says “PayPal” and not “people.” He used to run the eBay payments unit.

Thompson moves to the board changes — five new members and the jacking of five from previous year.

He then defends his decision to sue Facebook over patent infringement. “Facebook must do the same or change its practices,” he sad.

Thompson adds the company is in “active” talks with its Asian partners, Softbank of Japan and Alibaba of China.

And some news! Talks related to its Japanese assets have a gap in valuation, so Yahoo is focusing on the Chinese ones.

And in summation:

“We don’t have to reinvent who we are, but we do need to reinvent our experiences … We have to move and think like a growth company.”

That would be nice.

2:32 pm: Time for Q&A, in which I like to see exactly how wimpy Wall Street analysts can be in asking tough questions.

The first is asking about some strategery specifics, including whether it can get the cool $1 billion AOL just got from Microsoft.

Thompson talks about the new commerce unit, which will be co-led by someone who worked with him at PayPal. It’s not really new, since Yahoo is in that arena already.

Morse answers on intellectual property issues, noting Yahoo is happy to license its family jewels. Most tech companies use these patents as a defense, but no longer.

The next question is on morale of sales force. I can answer that! Not good!

But Morse says there is progress.

Bygones.

Morse also notes that Yahoo still has search revenue per share guarantee from Microsoft, but that he hopes it will get better before that deal runs out.

Back to Thompson. He wants better results to advertising customers.

He keeps saying “at or above the market rate.” Yahoo’s growth has been lackluster, so this would be a key victory if Thompson could pull it off.

2:39 pm: A question about mobile, which has been one of Yahoo’s most embarrassing holes of all.

Besides Facebook, the kids love those smartphones. You would not know it from Yahoo’s shoddy products.

“We need to get good real fast in mobile … and we’re not there today,” said Thompson. Actually, Yahoo was not there yesterday, either.

Note to Scott: Real fast is a good idea.

There is a question about its advertising platforms, a back-handed way of asking if it is for sale. It is.

Thompson notes that there has been a lot of evaluating, but that “we have not come to a conclusion.”

2:42 pm: A question about its revenues from its Asian assets. China’s Alibaba — which is not run by Yahoo — is doing great.

It’s kind of like being the dude who bought Apple some years ago and is now rich through no effort of his own.

Thompson addresses a question about dividends, which Apple just gave out. Yahoo will be sticking with stock buybacks, so everyone can put away those Porsche catalogs.

I am briefly distracted during some accounting questions by the new Apple ads with Zooey Deschanel. She is so adorkable, it makes me slightly queasy.

Back to Thompson, who is non-answering a question about possible acquisitions. He’s not talking, but I am sure he will be buying if he gets a transaction with Alibaba done finally.

Given the long and convoluted and always aborted deals over the years, this would be cause for much celebration if Thompson pulls it off.

(And, if he does, I pledge to buy him dinner in Boston at the restaurant of his choice!)

2:52 pm: A question of what the heck Thompson actually means when is he talking about using Yahoo’s data.

There are apparently three main places.

Personalization, which is uniquely related content, which gives him a chance to egregiously tout Boston sports teams.

Contextual advertising, which means ads you want.

And data and analysis to advertisers that will help them do a better targeting job. Oh, joy.

A search question, which I have decided to ignore, since I feel search is simply not Yahoo’s business any longer and should be sold off.

But what do I know?

Morse keeps yammering away on “better experiences for our users” by its search team.

Hey, it’s called Google. Then, Bing. And only then, Yahoo.

2:58 pm: Last question, which I missed while I was focusing on search ranting.

And with that, it’s back to the future for Yahoo. Hopefully.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120417/liveblogging-yahoos-q1-earnings-im-so-excited-and-i-just-cant-hide-it/feed/ 0 Yahoo Beats Q1 Expectations (as Expected) -- Now, Will New CEO Outline More Strategery on Investor Call? http://allthingsd.com/20120417/yahoo-beats-expectations-as-expected-now-will-new-ceo-outline-strategery-in-investor-call/ http://allthingsd.com/20120417/yahoo-beats-expectations-as-expected-now-will-new-ceo-outline-strategery-in-investor-call/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:15:24 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=197379

Yahoo beat Wall Street estimates in its first-quarter earnings report today, with revenue of $1.08 billion and earnings of 23 cents. That’s a gain of 28 percent from a year ago in net earnings and 38 percent per diluted share.

Analysts had been expecting Yahoo to report revenue of $1.06 billion and earnings of 17 cents a share. But, as I reported earlier today, sources had indicated that the results would be on the upside.

Still, revenue was only up year over year by 1 percent — not exactly a great achievement, given exploding growth across the Internet industry. The real drag was the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, whose revenue was down 9 percent — which Yahoo attributed to the weak economy there — with its “contribution” down 27 percent. That region has been run by Rich Riley, who is now Yahoo’s sales lead in the U.S.

One interesting note: While display revenue was down, search revenue was up. And unique visitors to Yahoo were up 7 percent, which was lower growth than in previous quarters. The reason was declines in search and communications, with media up strongly.

Now, investors are hoping to get more clarity from new CEO Scott Thompson in a call at 2 pm PT about the overall strategy for the troubled Silicon Valley Internet giant, which just restructured its management again and also had layoffs of 2,000 employees.

Thompson has yet to articulate a specific plan beyond the broad strokes of media, commerce and data/platforms as Yahoo’s aim.

But there is a lot more to deal with and in detail, including figuring out its troubled advertising search partnership with Microsoft, the talks around selling off parts of the company’s lucrative Asian assets, Yahoo’s patent lawsuit against Facebook, how Yahoo is going to deal with activist shareholder Third Point’s possible proxy challenge and whether more layoffs beyond recent firings will be needed.

“In the first quarter, Yahoo!’s results came in at the high end of our guidance range and beat consensus on revenue and profits,” Thompson said in a statement. “We also made changes to resize the organization and establish a new leadership structure to quickly deliver the best user and advertiser experiences at scale.”

Until Thompson gives more deets on the earnings call, which I will be liveblogging, here’s Yahoo’s official press release and cool charts on the subject:

YHOO News 2012-4-17 General

YHOO_Q112EarningsPresentation

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120417/yahoo-beats-expectations-as-expected-now-will-new-ceo-outline-strategery-in-investor-call/feed/ 0 FCC Proposes $25,000 Fine on Google http://allthingsd.com/20120415/fcc-proposes-25000-fine-on-google/ http://allthingsd.com/20120415/fcc-proposes-25000-fine-on-google/#comments Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:18:27 +0000 Amy Schatz http://allthingsd.com/?p=196449 The Federal Communications Commission proposed a $25,000 fine on Google Inc., accusing the search giant of deliberately obstructing an investigation into whether the company violated federal rules when its street-mapping service collected and stored data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks in 2010.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120415/fcc-proposes-25000-fine-on-google/feed/ 0 Gnip Adds Data From Sina Weibo's 300M Users http://allthingsd.com/20120410/gnip-adds-data-from-sina-weibos-300m-users/ http://allthingsd.com/20120410/gnip-adds-data-from-sina-weibos-300m-users/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:15:48 +0000 Liz Gannes http://allthingsd.com/?p=194727 Social-data provider Gnip will provide access to updates on Sina Weibo, the Chinese microblogging service with more than 300 million registered users.

The intent is for Gnip’s social-media monitoring customers to help their own clients keep track of discussions about their brands in China, especially so they can better respond to crises and scandals as they develop.

Gnip was Twitter’s first authorized data reseller, and it also offers data streams from WordPress, Facebook, YouTube and others.

But Sina Weibo is a bit of a different challenge for the Boulder, Colo.-based company. Though a Gnip representative called the data source similar to the Twitter search API, the Sina Weibo documentation is written in Chinese.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120410/gnip-adds-data-from-sina-weibos-300m-users/feed/ 0 Location, Location, Location. http://allthingsd.com/20120406/location-location-location/ http://allthingsd.com/20120406/location-location-location/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2012 07:01:11 +0000 Bo Kim http://allthingsd.com/?p=193786

… one of the secrets that goes well beyond location is that the guy with the most data wins.

– Tim O’Reilly, in conversation with Jon Bruner of Forbes at O’Reilly Where, his company’s conference on “the business of location”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120406/location-location-location/feed/ 0 Amid Worries About Strategery, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson Tries to Soothe the Savaged Troops (Memo Time!) http://allthingsd.com/20120405/amid-worries-about-strategery-yahoo-ceo-scott-thompson-tries-to-soothe-the-savaged-troops-memo-time/ http://allthingsd.com/20120405/amid-worries-about-strategery-yahoo-ceo-scott-thompson-tries-to-soothe-the-savaged-troops-memo-time/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:13:40 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=193710

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, who has developed a tough-talk reputation within Yahoo of late, went all sweet — well, less crabby, I guess — the day after the layoffs in which 2,000 employees were fired.

After dressing down top execs the night before the cuts by telling them the bad situation was due to their poor performance as leaders, his internal letter to the troops was also a bit cut-and-dried, with the not-very-sympathetic admonishment, “change is never easy.”

Not exactly what someone who just got their pink slip — or saw a close colleague get axed — likes to hear!

Today, Thompson opted to go with the softer side of Scott, in an internal memo I obtained titled “time to move forward.” It includes a promise to deliver a real strategic plan next week at an “All Hands” meeting. (I have previously reported that he was rolling out a new structure next week.)

Yahoo’s activist shareholder Third Point admonished Thompson yesterday for not having such a plan in place before making such widespread layoffs, which shed 14 percent of the workforce from the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

“While this action was unfortunately necessary and widely expected, Third Point, Yahoo!’s largest outside shareholder, is disappointed that this round of cuts occurred before CEO Scott Thompson has articulated his strategic plan for the Company,” it wrote in a letter (embedded below). “Shareholders deserve a management team and board who have a vision and strategic plan.”

Internally, there was also a lot of grumbling over the lack of a vision before the layoffs and worries that Thompson does not have a clear path for Yahoo.

“It’s like going into war and killing a big chunk of troops right before, without a plan in place about how to win,” said one person, in a common sentiment I heard from employees. “Everyone left feels shell-shocked and with no direction.”

In recent meetings about various options, including selling off a variety of Yahoo’s businesses, the former president of eBay’s PayPal payments unit has focused on a range of ideas, especially adding more commerce and data to the mix.

Apparently, all will be revealed next week, in what Thompson called “comprehensive plans for Yahoo!’s future.”

Thompson also did a little cheerleading:

“We can do this. We will do this! One thing I’ve heard repeatedly since I got here is that everyone wants to win again…I have seen big turnarounds before, and this company has the foundation, the spirit, the backbone, and the creativity to get it done,” he wrote. “Personally, I can’t wait to get moving.”

That’s good, because shareholders and employees have been waiting a long time for any forward momentum at Yahoo.

Here’s the memo below in its entirety:

From: Scott Thompson
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 1:15 PM
To:
Subject: time to move forward…

Yahoos –

This was a tough week. Thank you all for supporting each other through a difficult time.

As hard as big changes like this can be, I was encouraged to hear support from so many of you who really understand our need to operate differently. That said, I also know many of you still have a lot of questions about where we’re headed and how fast we can get there. I shared a few thoughts in my note earlier this week and you’ll hear more at our All Hands next week.

We deliberately separated this week’s employee action from next week’s discussion of our strategy. The reason was simple: we felt it was only fair and respectful to those who are leaving and transitioning to take care of each of them before turning to our future.

Starting next week we will begin looking forward and our All Hands is just the beginning. You’ll be hearing a lot more from me and other leaders about our comprehensive plans for Yahoo!’s future. The immediate next step for all of us is to get clear on our goals, and then take action and move.

There’s a lot to do and that’s why I can’t stress enough that we all need to focus on getting stuff done. Getting stuff done is short hand for eliminating bureaucracy and barriers so we can all innovate as fast as our customers and the industry require. That’s pretty fast.

Our users want fun, informative, engaging experiences on all screens that they feel were designed just for them. Advertisers want it to be much easier to work with us and they want measurable ROI on their spending. We can do all that. But we won’t win by talking about the opportunity. We’ll win by putting our customers first, creating high-quality experiences, and iterating on them quickly. Great user and advertiser experiences are what will ignite excitement around our brand and get us growing again.

You’ll receive the official invite to our All Hands shortly and we want to know what’s on your mind in advance. If you have questions before we meet next week, please check Backyard for information and answers to your questions. If you don’t see the answers, please post questions on Backyard, or you can email questions directly to the leadership team.

We can do this. We will do this! One thing I’ve heard repeatedly since I got here is that everyone wants to win again. There is so much passion for Yahoo! — for what it was and for what we all believe it can be. Even after all you’ve been through, there’s a hard core crew of Yahoos who believe in this company and in its ability to thrive. I have seen big turnarounds before, and this company has the foundation, the spirit, the backbone, and the creativity to get it done.

Personally, I can’t wait to get moving.

Scott

And here’s the Third Point letter from yesterday:

TP April 4 Statement

Finally, here is a video of a “Reporters’ Roundtable” I did last week on CNET:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120405/amid-worries-about-strategery-yahoo-ceo-scott-thompson-tries-to-soothe-the-savaged-troops-memo-time/feed/ 0 Mobile Data Use Surging, but Tablets Largely a Wi-Fi-Only Affair http://allthingsd.com/20120320/mobile-data-use-surging-but-tablets-largely-a-wi-fi-only-affair/ http://allthingsd.com/20120320/mobile-data-use-surging-but-tablets-largely-a-wi-fi-only-affair/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:00:57 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=188039 Even when tablet buyers opt for a device with the ability to use a cellular network, most are opting to use the device only on Wi-Fi.

In a report released on Monday, analyst Chetan Sharma said that 90 percent of tablets are using Wi-Fi, even though some of those are capable of using a cellular connection. As a result, carriers are a less important factor when it comes to tablet sales.

One key reason is that U.S. carriers don’t allow users to share a data plan with other devices, something that Sharma said should change this year. Those that offer such shared data plans will fare better than those that stick to a plan for each device, Sharma said.

One of the interesting things to watch will be how the mix shifts with the new iPad, which is capable of using high-speed LTE networks and — when enabled by the carrier — of acting as a wireless hotspot. Both AT&T and Verizon said they saw impressive initial sales for the device, with Apple saying it has sold three million new iPads in its first weekend. Apple didn’t say how many were of the Wi-Fi-only variety and how many purchasers paid the extra $130 for a cellular-equipped model.

While tablets may not be gobbling up much cellular data, smartphones sure are. Sharma said that the U.S. cellphone market generated $67 billion in revenue from data, making up 39 percent of overall revenue. Fourth-quarter data revenue alone was $18.6 billion, up 4 percent sequentially and 19 percent from the prior year.

However, monthly revenue per customer — a key industry metric — is tailing off. Data continues to grow, but is no longer offsetting the decline in voice revenue. The U.S. industry saw average monthly revenue per customer drop by 43 cents, as a 52-cent per customer gain in data was more than offset by a 96-cent per customer decline in voice.

Smartphones continue to dominate sales, accounting for two-thirds of sales in the fourth quarter and 80 percent of sales to traditional contract customers.

Some other interesting tidbits from Sharma’s report:

Patents
According to Sharma, IBM had the lead when it comes to U.S. mobile patent filings, followed by Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, Qualcomm, LG, Ericsson, Panasonic, Broadcom and RIM. Other big names include Nokia at No. 12, Intel at No. 13, Apple at No. 16, Motorola at No. 21 and Google at No. 23. Among the carriers, Sprint had the most patents granted, with 323 awarded last year.

Predictions
Sharma forecast that mobile data revenue in the U.S. will total $80 billion this year, up from $67 billion in 2011. Additionally, he said he sees the amount of money generated by mobile data passing the amount of revenue from mobile calling in early 2013.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120320/mobile-data-use-surging-but-tablets-largely-a-wi-fi-only-affair/feed/ 0 Getting Into (Data-Tracking) Gear With Nike+ FuelBand http://allthingsd.com/20120319/getting-into-data-tracking-gear-with-nike-fuelband/ http://allthingsd.com/20120319/getting-into-data-tracking-gear-with-nike-fuelband/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:00:08 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=187478 Despite the fact that I’m a writer, which conjures up images of long days glued to the desk, I consider myself to be pretty active, and I try to maintain momentum by working out regularly. So I’ve been intrigued by the newest wave of wearable health and fitness products meant to track daily activity levels.

This week, I’ve been testing the $149 Nike+ FuelBand, as well as BodyMedia’s $199 Fit Link armband, with varying results.

The Nike+ FuelBand generated a lot of buzz when it was introduced in January. It’s currently sold out, aside from availability at a couple Nike retail stores in New York City. Otherwise, interested customers have to sign up on Nike’s Web site to be notified of the next shipment batch.

In my five-day test of the Nike+ FuelBand, I liked its design, ease of use, and overall coolness quotient. But I didn’t always find the “Fuel” metric — Nike’s new way of calculating exertion levels — to be super useful. On the flip side, while I wouldn’t give BodyMedia’s armband any design awards, it tracked more of the kind of data I’m interested in.


The Fuelband is a plastic wristband with a smooth, rubbery coating that measures a wearer’s steps, calories burned and Fuel levels, and then syncs the data with an app on your iPhone. It also acts as a watch. The FuelBand comes in three sizes. After adjusting the fit using a small insert that comes in the packaging, I eventually forgot I was wearing mine, aside from some minor annoyances, like when it tapped against my laptop.


[ See post to watch video ]

The wristband’s display of LED lights really stand out, and garnered enthusiastic responses when people noticed it. There’s a single button on the band, for toggling between functions. A USB connector at one end of the FuelBand is used for charging the device and for syncing data through a computer.

Nike estimates that the battery will last up to four days without needing a charge, factoring in several “sync” sessions a day. In my test, the FuelBand went almost exactly four days without needing a charge, though this was skewed slightly because I plugged the FuelBand into my computer at one point to sync the data online, which automatically prompted more charging.

After registering my band online, entering in my height and weight, and setting my daily Fuel goal at around 3,000, I downloaded the free Nike+ FuelBand app from the App Store (the app is currently only available for iPhone). Syncing the FuelBand with the iPhone app was easy and took just about 10 seconds with a good Bluetooth connection.

On the main page of the app, the data appears in a circle with a giant Fuel score in the middle, but I could also view my activity in a linear graph. While the band only shows the number of steps taken, the app displays distance in miles, which was helpful. I found myself wishing the band would display distance in miles.

Nike+ FuelBand App

The Fuel number is drawn from a table created by Nike’s team of researchers, which studied various activities — for example, walking, running, playing tennis, etc. — and the levels of oxygen needed during those activities. While Fuel factors in your movement, it doesn’t factor in your height, weight, or body mass index. It’s meant to be a universal currency for everyone using the FuelBand.

For the most part, my Fuel levels were in line with my activity levels, but there were some aspects of Fuel I thought were sort of bogus. My Fuel level on Monday was hundreds of points higher than the next day’s level, even though I went for a two-mile run on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I lifted some light weights for about 30 minutes, which netted me 207 Fuel points, and then jogged for 20 minutes, which nearly tripled my Fuel score. But then I sat on a plane for 4.5 hours, so I didn’t reach my goal of 3,000 Fuel points for that day. 

On Thursday, I worked out twice, which is not a regular occurrence for me, but I did this for the sake of testing activity bands. Both workouts were aerobic, and lasted around 35 minutes. And yet I still didn’t hit my Fuel goal that day.

One explanation for this, according to Nike, might be that I was more consistently active on days I didn’t exercise, like Monday (which would make sense, because I was running around the South by Southwest festival in Austin that day). In the Nike Fuel world, one great hour of exercise isn’t supposed to make up for 17 hours of inactivity.



By connecting to Facebook and Twitter, FuelBand wearers can share and compare Fuel scores. I liked the competition it created with other friends who were sharing their scores and I liked the reactions I got from the Twitterverse; to me, that was the best part of Fuel, and I could see why this would be motivating for users.

Nike+ FuelBand

BodyMedia Fit Link

Fitbit Ultra
Form Factor Wristband Armband Dongle, clips to clothing or wristband
Measures Movement/Steps, Activity Levels, Calories Burned, Nike “Fuel” Movement/Steps, Activity Levels, Calories Burned and Consumed, Heat Flux, Skin Temperature, Sleep Efficiency Movement/Steps, Activity Levels, Calories Burned and Consumed, Sleep Patterns, “Flower Power”
Estimated Battery Life Up to 4 Days Up to 4 Days 5 to 7 days
Mobile App Yes, iPhone only Yes, iPhone and Android Yes, iPhone only
Waterproof Water-resistant, but shouldn’t be submerged Water-resistant, but shouldn’t be submerged Water-resistant, but shouldn’t be submerged
Price $149 $199, plus $6.95 a month for data-tracking $99.95



For comprehensive data tracking, I actually found the BodyMedia Fit Link armband to be more useful than the FuelBand. 

Like Nike’s device, and the Fitbit, the Link armband measures steps and overall movement, but also uses sensors to detect changes in the skin’s surface temperature. So, while it doesn’t measure heart rate (the beauty of this new wave of fitness bands is that many of them don’t use heart-rate straps), it measures the body’s reaction to changes in heart rate, according to BodyMedia CEO Christine Robins.

I also liked that BodyMedia’s product incorporated weight goals, my caloric intake as well as output, and my sleep patterns, through a comprehensive online dashboard. Access to these advanced analytics online will cost users $6.95 a month, after a few free-trial months.


One night, I slept wearing both the FuelBand and the BodyMedia band. The FuelBand, which isn’t supposed to measure sleep patterns, only showed that my activity level had flatlined. The BodyMedia band, on the other hand, recorded how many hours and minutes I was actually sleeping, out of the total time that I was lying down, and calculated my sleep efficiency based on that.



The BodyMedia Fit Link band has its own drawbacks. There’s no display of information on the band itself, and it’s hard to forget you’re wearing it. It’s a bigger band that fastens to your arm, whereas the FuelBand feels like a thick bracelet. The armband also costs more than the FuelBand, and in my experience, syncing my Link armband to my iPhone was problematic. The company plans to release a new app, due this spring, that allows for better Bluetooth syncing, so users can update their BodyFit iPhone app and Web accounts at the same time.


For users looking for an activity-tracking wristband that tells you when and how much you moved throughout the day, the Nike+ FuelBand may work. But for serious weight-trackers or people looking to track segmented workouts, a product like a BodyMedia band or even a Nike+ SportsWatch would probably be a better fit.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120319/getting-into-data-tracking-gear-with-nike-fuelband/feed/ 4 Exclusive: BermanBraun Buys Most of Shelby Bonnie's Whiskey Media http://allthingsd.com/20120315/exclusive-bermanbraun-buys-most-of-shelby-bonnies-whiskey-media/ http://allthingsd.com/20120315/exclusive-bermanbraun-buys-most-of-shelby-bonnies-whiskey-media/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:30:32 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=186692

In a deal that was just signed, longtime Silicon Valley exec Shelby Bonnie has sold his social publishing start-up, Whiskey Media, to Santa Monica-based entertainment and interactive production company BermanBraun.

As part of the deal, BermanBraun will get three key sites of San Francisco-based Whiskey, including video entertainment-focused Screened, tech-testing site Tested, and Anime Vice, which covers anime and manga comics. It will also acquire Whiskey’s content-publishing platform.

Two other sites owned by Whiskey — games-oriented Giant Bomb and comic-book database Comic Vine — will be sold to another media company, which is rumored to be CBS Interactive.

Heaped on top of the niche content, aimed at passionate fans, Whiskey mixes in a lot of social networking, as well as user-generated content, along with its professional fare.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

But the major reason for the acquisition is that BermanBraun — which also makes popular sites for large portals such as Microsoft’s MSN (the Wonderwall celebrity site and Glo, aimed at the women’s lifestyle arena) and AOL (upcoming sites on weather, men and pets) — needs to be able to scale its online content production. The Whiskey platform should be able to allow it to more easily grow and create new sites more quickly, as well as mine data across them.

“With the addition of Whiskey’s first rate team and powerful, state of the art publishing, data and social tools platform, we will be able to further enhance our user experience and engagement, and provide our advertising partners with unparalleled data insights,” said Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman, who run BermanBraun, in a statement. “One of the other great parts of this acquisition is that we will have Shelby Bonnie in our lives. We have enormous respect for Shelby personally and professionally, and his insights, relationships and acumen will be invaluable to us.”

Bonnie, who was once CEO of CNET, which he helped found, added: “I have had the pleasure of knowing both Lloyd and Gail for years and they are two incredibly high integrity people who bring passion and creativity to the interactive space. As we see a dramatic changes in the whole media landscape, success will demand new skills and talents. BermanBraun’s content skills and vision joined with the Whiskey platform will create a combination that I believe is without equal. I couldn’t be more excited for the combination.”

Here is a video interview I did with Bonnie in mid-2010 about Whiskey:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120315/exclusive-bermanbraun-buys-most-of-shelby-bonnies-whiskey-media/feed/ 0 CEO Thompson Tells Yahoos "Real Change Is Coming" (It's Exclusive Internal Memo Time!) http://allthingsd.com/20120315/ceo-thompson-tells-yahoos-real-change-is-coming-its-exclusive-internal-memo-time/ http://allthingsd.com/20120315/ceo-thompson-tells-yahoos-real-change-is-coming-its-exclusive-internal-memo-time/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:06:10 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=186523

It began: “Yahoos: A lot has happened since I last talked to you.”

You can say that again!

Yesterday, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson sent out an email to the troops in what appears to be an attempt to soothe the company, which has been under a lot of stress, including more high-level exec departures, board changes and more. More importantly, the Silicon Valley Internet giant is nervously waiting for a restructuring expected to hit within weeks, and also has been unnnerved by Thompson’s aggressive legal attack on one of its key partners, social networking site Facebook.

Unfortunately, the memo didn’t say much, except vaguely but definitively referencing that even more tumult was coming.

After noting that he had been making a “deep dive” into the company after getting there at the beginning of the year, Thompson said that he was focused on “what makes Yahoo special and what doesn’t work.”

The plan then? To get the company to be “aggressive and lean forward,” because “real change is coming.”

Rut-roh.

(In a related move, but not noted in the memo — which several sources said was linked to all the uncertainty around the expected restructuring and also high costs — Thompson also cancelled Yahoo’s annual global sales meeting, which was to be held for about 1,300 advertising staffers in Florida later in the month.)

“We are moving as fast with real urgency to move back to Yahoo playing offense once again,” said the Thompson memo, which was read to me by several sources, because of increased worries about the company once again hunting for leakers.

(Apparently, like his predecessor before him did unsuccessfully early in her tenure, Thompson is on a yet another pointless hunt for those who talk to outsiders. Memo to Scott: Yahoo is an online media company and not a pay-for-that-used-iPad-on-eBay outfit and the peeps there like to share.)

Back to the memo action. “Were are fundamentally rethinking every part of our business and looking at all options to put maximum effort where we can succeed,” wrote Thompson. “I’m putting tons of pressure on my leadership team … so we can move faster and more deliberately.”

He added — and the bolding is his — “the changes we make will not be incremental ones. We will make bold, fundamental changes to what we do and how we do it.”

After properly freaking the Yahoo staff out — with everyone trying to grok exactly what that meant in terms of their jobs — Thompson then went into three core things the company was going to focus on under his rule (more bolding!):

“1) Focusing intently on those parts of the business that have a competitive advantage.

2) Liberating all of us to work faster and make better decisions.

3) Thinking really creatively about how to build new businesses that leverage our trusted relationships with users.”

Those will be applied, wrote Thompson, to five key parts of Yahoo: Its core business (such as the homepage and news); platforms (such as its cloud services and Yahoo Publishing Platform); data (which Thompson said was the “single most underrated, underappreciated and underused asset, also calling it a “cornerstone for the next generation” of Yahoo); international; and an amorphous thing he called “our future.”

About that, Thompson said Yahoo would “go beyond simply protecting our core assets … we will more than just tweak what we have today … to innovate, acquire and disrupt outside our core.”

Then, without giving any specifics at all, he noted that it’s as “important to know what we’ll do as how,” before launching into three “core principles” for the company, which were all in bold caps (this dude loves punctuating, which I can appreciate!).

They are:

“LISTEN, UNDERSTAND AND PUT THE CUSTOMER FIRST.

MOVE WITH SPEED IN EVERYTHING WE DO.

GET STUFF DONE.”

(Thompson also underlined “listen,” as well as bolding it, in an orgy of key-shifting.)

“I learned early in my career that innovative concepts without execution are of no value,” he then said, in a classic business-bromide tone. “The Yahoo of the future has to be the organization that consistently surprises the world by how much we get done and deliver to our customers.”

The letter did reference the patent-infringement lawsuit with Facebook at the very end.

“I want to point out that this lawsuit has one simple purpose: Protecting valuable assets of the company and its shareholders,” Thompson wrote. “Others have respected and have licensed our valuable innovations and Facebook must too.”

Thompson ended by noting that “my door is open.” It will be interesting to see who has the guts to walk through it today.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120315/ceo-thompson-tells-yahoos-real-change-is-coming-its-exclusive-internal-memo-time/feed/ 0 How Jimmy Fallon Uses the Nike FuelBand (It's Naughty, of Course) http://allthingsd.com/20120311/how-jimmy-fallon-uses-the-nike-fuelband/ http://allthingsd.com/20120311/how-jimmy-fallon-uses-the-nike-fuelband/#comments Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:07:56 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=183294 The fitness and gaming industries are getting more and more serious about gathering data about their customers. But that doesn’t mean comedian Jimmy Fallon isn’t going to poke fun at them.

Moderating a SXSW panel today called “Digital Sport: Know More, Do More,” Fallon asked a group of execs, as well as gold medal-winning Olympic athlete Allyson Felix, why data gathering is becoming increasingly important in sports and gaming.

After introducing himself as a lover of technology, as evidenced by his impressive Twitter following, Fallon shook his wrist up and down emphatically to try to boost his Nike Fuel, the new currency by which Nike measures activity for FuelBand.

“That’s why 12-year-old boys have higher Fuel levels,” Fallon quipped, to a series of laughs and groans from the audience.

“Really, Nike+ is pretty cool,” Fallon added. “There’s this one loop I used to walk around my house that I thought was two miles — and it turns out it’s only one mile.”

Nike’s vice president of digital sport, Stefan Olander, said Nike’s foray into digital data tracking through its gear has taken a practice previously known only to elite athletes and made it available to everyone. Nike used to be a product company, he said, but with Nike+ and the FuelBand, it’s becoming more of a service company. By offering data tracking, “you’re offering a service, too,” Olander said.

“Two million EA games have been played in the last month alone,” said Andrew Wilson, executive vice president and head of sports for Electronic Arts. By gathering data on that activity, “it’s like crowdsourcing for how to make a better game.”

“It used to be that we’d make a game and present it,” Wilson added. “Now we just present the components of the game and continue to build it out based on the conversation from the online community.”

In recent years, the market for wearable fitness tech for casual athletes has grown rapidly. See our earlier coverage of devices like the Fitbit, Jawbone UP and Nike FuelBand to get a sense of how some of these devices work. According to a report last year from ABI Research, wearable wireless sensors for fitness and well-being are expected to surpass 80 million devices by 2016, eclipsing the wireless sensor markers for professional and home health-care monitoring.

Fallon asked Nike’s Olander what his power workout song was. “Eye of the Tiger,” someone in the audience correctly guessed.

At the end of the panel, an attendee challenged Fallon to a race down the aisles of the room, which Fallon gamely agreed to. Sadly, the results were masked by the crowds in the aisles and at the back of the hall.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120311/how-jimmy-fallon-uses-the-nike-fuelband/feed/ 3 U.S. Videogame Sales Sank Deeper in February http://allthingsd.com/20120309/u-s-videogame-sales-sank-deeper-in-february/ http://allthingsd.com/20120309/u-s-videogame-sales-sank-deeper-in-february/#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:00:14 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=182376 In February, U.S. retail sales of videogames fell 20 percent from a year ago, according to market research group NPD.

Despite some industry gains from January to February, overall sales totaled $1.06 million last month, down from $1.33 billion year over year; software sales fell 23 percent to $464 million, and hardware sales dropped 18 percent to $381.4 million.

February’s best-selling software title was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, from Activision Blizzard.

While most hardware platforms posted declines year over year, “all current-generation platforms improved sales over January 2012 by more than 50 percent,” NPD said in a note.

A consistent bright spot has been the Microsoft Xbox, which was the best-selling hardware platform for the seventh month in a row. Some 426,000 Xbox units were sold in February, marking the 12th consecutive month Xbox has held more than 40 percent of the current-generation console market share.

And all eyes were on the Sony PlayStation Vita handheld gaming device, which came to market in late February. Only four days of retail sales for the PS Vita were included in this reporting period, but the device gave overall hardware unit sales a month-over-month boost. Not including the PS Vita, hardware unit sales increased by 62 percent over January, NPD said; with PS Vita sales included, the increase was 87 percent.

“More than 1.2 million PS Vita units have been sold globally since launch,” Patrick Seybold, senior director of communications at Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in a statement. “Customer satisfaction rates are very high and momentum will continue as gamers get their hands on a deep lineup of blockbuster titles that take advantage of PS Vita’s unique features, including cross-platform play with the PlayStation 3.”

In January, the videogame industry saw a double-digit decline in physical software sales, as my colleague Tricia Duryee reports, following a number of noteworthy game launches ahead of the holiday season.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120309/u-s-videogame-sales-sank-deeper-in-february/feed/ 3 Exclusive: Yahoo Labs Head Raghavan Departing to Google http://allthingsd.com/20120304/exclusive-yahoo-labs-head-raghavan-departing-to-google/ http://allthingsd.com/20120304/exclusive-yahoo-labs-head-raghavan-departing-to-google/#comments Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:40:27 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=180301

Prabhakar Raghavan, the well-respected head of Yahoo’s Labs unit and also recently its head of strategy, is leaving the company to take a job at Google.

The departure comes ahead of what will be very deep cuts in his division, which is in charge of long-term research at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, said sources, and is spread all over the country. More researchers at Yahoo — which is a very well-respected group — are also expected to go too and will be the subject of fervent recruiting interest by companies such as Google and Facebook.

Yahoo confirmed the move after I made an inquiry about it this morning.

In a statement, the company said:

“Yahoo! thanks Prabhakar Raghavan for his dedication and contributions to Yahoo! for the past 7 years. We wish him well in his next endeavor. Ash Munshi, CTO, will assume leadership for Y! Labs.”

It is unclear what Raghavan’s new role at Google is.

But, as head of Yahoo Labs, Raghavan’s research arena has been extensive, encompassing everything from data mining to algorithms to search.

He is also a consulting professor of computer science at Stanford University. According to his bio, Raghavan has “co-authored two textbooks, on randomized algorithms and on information retrieval.”

The Berkeley PhD had been CTO at Verity and had held a number of jobs at IBM Research.

More to the point, he was very well respected within the company, which seems to be curtailing its commitment to research as it attempts to turn itself around under the new leadership of CEO Scott Thompson.

Raghavan had been made head of strategy under former CEO Carol Bartz, who was fired.

He has been at Yahoo seven years.

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