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Social-Shopping Website OpenSky Relaunches as Full-Fledged Online Marketplace

Lauren Goode — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:00:39 +0000

OpenSky, the two-year-old e-commerce site that took a stab at social shopping by allowing members to follow celebrity and expert curators, has relaunched as a full-fledged marketplace for small businesses. Merchants can open up their own “stores” on the site for free, and can sell to OpenSky’s 2.5 million members, with OpenSky taking a commission on items sold — like Etsy, but with a social twist, more established sellers and a much smaller community of shoppers. Items listed range from cosmetics to clothing to kitchen supplies. OpenSky is based in New York and has raised nearly $50 million in venture capital funding to date.

Netflix, Redbox and More: What You Need to Know

Lauren Goode — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:00:42 +0000

Thousands of titles available, for just $8 a month! Content from major movie studios! If you listen to the marketing behind most subscription video services on the Web, you might think you’d never run out of interesting things to watch.

But before you commit to a subscription, you might want to consider whether the titles available are actually new and relevant, and how you’ll be able to access them.

I’ve had the enviable task of testing four of these streaming video services: Amazon Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Netflix, and the newly announced Redbox Instant by Verizon, which is still in beta mode and is expected to launch sometime in the next couple months.

Other Web video services might come to mind — including Apple’s iTunes and Google Play — but I focused on these four because they’re all subscription models.

[ See post to watch video ]

Below is a guide to how they stack up against one another in the U.S., but, in short: Netflix is still my go-to streaming service for newer TV shows, some new movies and a bunch of old movies (despite company stumbles and lapsed content deals that made me pause my subscription for a while last year).

Hulu Plus is better for TV shows than movies, although Hulu Plus runs ads, and newer TV shows tend to be only from ABC, Fox and NBC. Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service can be less compelling than it’s a la carte service, Amazon Instant Video; its biggest benefit is that if you’re already an Amazon Prime shipping subscriber, you can stream the Prime video for free. And Redbox Instant is the newest entrant, with the smallest number of titles. It doesn’t currently offer any TV content.

Pricing

Netflix charges $8 a month for unlimited movies and TV shows streamed through the Web. You can also get DVD mail-in service (one rental at a time) for an additional $8 a month.

Hulu Plus, the subscription-based version of Hulu, charges $8 a month for unlimited streaming.

Amazon and Redbox Instant offer both subscription video services and individual purchase options. Amazon’s subscription-based streaming video service is tied to Amazon Prime, the company’s two-day shipping service, which costs $79 a year.

So, if you’re a Prime member, you have unlimited access to the Prime Instant Video catalog at no additional cost. If you’re not a member, and you want to rent or buy one digital download, you do that through the Amazon Instant Video Store. Rentals are usually $4 or $5, and most movie purchases range from $8 (“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” for instance) to $15 (“Snow White and the Huntsman”).

Redbox Instant offers unlimited streaming for $8 per month. That also includes four DVD rental credits to redeem at any of the 42,000 Redbox kiosks across the U.S. Additionally, some of the titles can be digitally purchased and stored in your Redbox account. For example, I purchased “Eat Pray Love” for $12 through Redbox Instant.

**Popular TV Shows, Available Through Instant Streaming**
	Netflix	Amazon Prime Video	Hulu Plus	Redbox Instant
“Modern Family”	No	No	Yes	No
“30 Rock”	Yes	No	Yes	No
“Homeland”	No	No	No	No
“Breaking Bad”	Yes	No	No	No
“Glee”	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
“Downton Abbey”	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

**New (And Old) Movies, Available Through Instant Streaming**
	Netflix	Amazon Prime Video	Hulu Plus	Redbox Instant
“The Hunger Games”	No	No	No	No
“Bridesmaids”	No	No	No	No
“Moneyball”	No	No	No	No
“Lost in Translation”	Yes	No	No	No
“Titanic”	No	No	No	No
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest	No	No	No	No

Titles

Netflix won’t specify exactly how many movies and TV episodes can be streamed, except to say that it has “hundreds of thousands” of titles available through both DVDs and instant streaming. Hulu Plus subscribers can stream more than 63,000 TV episodes and 3,700 movie titles. Amazon Prime members can access around 33,000 movies and TV episodes through the subscription, with 140,000 episodes available through the entire Instant Video service. Right now, Redbox Instant only streams around 8,000 movie titles and, again, it doesn’t offer TV episodes.

Often you’ll hear things from these services like, “We carry Epix movie titles,” or “The streaming content will be available 28 days after the DVD is available.” That’s great. But what does this mean?

Some of the Netflix titles I’ve watched or browsed through recently include: “30 Rock,” “Arrested Development” and “The West Wing” and, on the movie side, “Tiny Furniture,” “Lost in Translation,” “Louis C.K.: Chewed Up,” and “Blue Valentine.” Netflix’s assortment of romantic comedies is probably enough to satisfy any Nora Ephron fan.

On Hulu Plus, you can currently watch episodes of “Modern Family,” “The Daily Show,” “Downton Abbey,” “Glee,” and many more TV shows. But Hulu Plus’s movie selection is lacking. When I clicked on the Drama genre, a bunch of skin-filled movie covers came up, like “The Wild Reporter,” which didn’t look like it was about investigative reporting.

Amazon Prime’s movie offerings were so-so. I’ve already seen “Morning Glory” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” more times than I should admit. Amazon Prime’s appealing TV offerings were mostly early seasons of newer shows, like “Downton Abbey,” “Arrested Development,” “The Closer” and “Parks and Recreation.” I also saw a fair amount of kids’ titles.

But Amazon’s non-Prime, or a la carte, offerings seemed much more inclusive than its Prime subscription service (“Men in Black 3,” “The Bourne Legacy” and “The Hunger Games” were a few newer titles).

At this early stage, Redbox Instant isn’t up to par. Again, there was “Morning Glory.” There were also a few award winners from last year, like “True Grit” and “Winter’s Bone.” Frankly, there were a lot of movies I liked 10 or 15 years ago, like “Steel Magnolias,” “Snatch” and “Flatliners.”

Quality

When it comes to online video, 1080p HD isn’t a priority for me. I’ll gladly watch old standard-definition episodes of “The West Wing” on Netflix. But, for some consumers — especially those who have spent good money on fancy TVs — the quality matters.

Netflix and Hulu Plus stream full HD (1080p) content when it’s available, whereas Redbox Instant and Amazon Prime Instant Video top off at 720p.

Mobile Apps and Devices

Streaming video is no longer just about the PC. Some of the devices you can access these services from include new “smart” TVs and Blu-ray players, Roku boxes, Apple TV, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360, to name a bunch.

Redbox Instant will be available on LG Electronics Blu-ray players and smart TVs, as well as Google TV devices, but the company hasn’t confirmed yet whether it will be on gaming consoles, Apple TV or Roku.

All of these services have iOS and Android apps optimized for mobile video watching — with the exception of Prime Instant Video, which has an iOS app but not an Android version. (You can, however, watch Amazon’s instant video offerings on the Kindle Fire tablet, technically an Android tablet.)

Most of my mobile streaming experiences have been good. I’ve watched several episodes of “30 Rock” through Netflix mobile, and parts of “Into the Wild” through Amazon Prime on mobile, without interruption. In fact, I like the look and feel of the Amazon video mobile app (as well as the TV app) a lot more than I like the desktop experience.

All four services also offer the ability to stop and start videos from one device to another. So, for example, I started watching “Stand By Me” through Redbox Instant on my PC, then picked it up where I left off on my iPhone, then went back to watching on my PC.

It’s important to keep in mind that these offerings are constantly changing, too, as content deals are made (or lapse), and as more platforms, like new mobile devices and “smart” TV set-ups, become available.

New Crop of Online Food Services Offer Everything but the Chef

Lauren Goode — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:42:12 +0000

Last week, some FreshDirect customers found themselves in a mild panic when the online grocery service suffered a two-day outage due to a renewal issue with the company’s Web domain name.

What was a small glitch for FreshDirect might have been a prime opportunity for the newest crop of food delivery services — companies that don’t don’t deliver groceries, but instead ship boxes of pre-prepared recipe ingredients that aim to make even the busiest professionals or harried parents look like food stars.

“We want to be your sous chef,” says Simon Schmincke, chief marketing officer at HelloFresh, which is headquartered in Berlin and recently started serving parts of the U.S. “It’s a subscription model, so you don’t have to order groceries every week.”

These types of formulated meal services, like HelloFresh and Sweden-based Linas Matkasse, have been popular in parts of Europe for several years. Now they’re making their way Stateside — and showing early signs of success.

Earlier this month, HelloFresh secured $10 million in funding. Another fledgling service, Blue Apron, recently nabbed $800,000 in seed funding from a group that includes the founders of Seamless and Yipit.

Here’s how it works: Consumers sign up for weekly food-ordering options, which usually don’t exceed three prepared meals per week. The services then send subscribers an email a week ahead of time with some recipe options. The subscribers have about a day to respond to the email with their selections. The following week, the food arrives in the mail.

But, to be clear, these aren’t precooked meals; they’re boxes with the raw materials, right down to the half-cup of diced onions or a pinch of salt, along with cooking instructions.

The pricing plans range from $8 a meal from a service like FreshDish to $69 a week for three meals from HelloFresh. That might sound like a lot for just a few meals, but the minds behind the companies will argue that you’re not spending chunks of change on spice jars you’ll never use again, or on a whole bundle of cilantro that will soon turn brown and soupy in your fridge.

Some of these services are targeting different audiences. HelloFresh has partnered with Aquavit, a restaurant on New York City’s Upper East Side, to come up with recipes that will be pleasing to the foodie crowd. Blue Apron creator Matt Salzberg stresses that the company sources only high-quality food, including meats from the same wholesaler that provides for Mario Batali’s establishment Eataly. Steve Goldstein, the creator of Fresh Dish, was inspired by the challenges facing working parents, and has said that Fresh Dish is aimed at families.

Like most new ventures, these services don’t address all markets in the U.S., and can be somewhat limited. Most ship meals for two, four or six people only. Some don’t offer vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free meal options, and most don’t allow the subscriber to adjust the recipe before it ships if they’re allergic to certain ingredients (the companies say customers with food allergies can just leave out those items while preparing the meal). They also don’t ship grocery-store items, like a carton of milk or case of water.

And for frequent travelers, a food subscription may not be ideal: You’ll have to remember to pause the service or deselect meal options the week before you go. Fresh Dish says it veered away from the subscription model for that reason.

But, unlike something like FreshDirect, which requires that the customer is home to receive a delivery, these meal kits come in convenient, insulated boxes that can sit on your stoop for up to a day while you toil away at work.

The Prime Reason Why Amazon's Sales May Be Falling Behind This Holiday

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:30:56 +0000

Amazon’s ability to get orders to your door in time for the holidays may be having an unexpected consequence: Consumers are procrastinating longer than usual to buy presents online.

In a memo to investors, Wells Fargo Analyst Matt Nemer wrote that, for the first time in years, Amazon is giving some customers coupons for 10 percent off this holiday. Nemer hypothesizes that there are two logical explanations for the promotion: Either the e-commerce giant is trying to get customers active again or holiday sales are tracking below expectations.

Yesterday, comScore, which tracks online spending from computers using landline broadband connections, reported that so far this holiday, spending is up 13 percent year over year, which is below its 2012 prediction of 17 percent.

Nemer also offers a plausible explanation for why sales are slow: Procrastination. “As Amazon’s base of Prime users continues to grow, customers will be more likely to delay purchases,” he wrote.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

On Tuesday, Amazon gave customers even more reasons to wait. It announced that orders can be placed through Dec. 18 and still get free delivery in time for Christmas. In particular, Amazon Prime members, who pay $79 a year for free two-day delivery, can wait even longer. They can place orders until 7 pm ET on Dec. 21 to receive deliveries by Dec. 24. In some cases, Amazon will offer one-, two-, or even same-day delivery for a small fee.

ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said there is perhaps less urgency than there once was to make those final purchases. “What we’ve seen over the past few years is a tendency for heavy spending to continue late into the week of Green Monday (Dec. 10) and right up until Free Shipping Day, which this year falls on December 17,” he said in a release.

Quirky names have been given to several days around the holidays.

“Free Shipping Day” tends to be a widely celebrated event, with dozens of e-tailers offering to cover postage during a 24-hour period. However, the prominence of the day is wearing off as more online retailers offer free shipping year-round. On “Green Monday,” which is the second Monday of December, sales reached $1.275 billion, up 13 percent over last year, according to comScore. At that level, the day ranks as the third heaviest online spending day in 2012. So far this year, spending has totaled $29.3 billion during the first 40 days of the holiday shopping season, representing a 13 percent jump over last year.

At San Francisco’s Westfield mall, PayPal tells customers that is now accepted at a handful of retailers.

While that’s lower than what comScore was originally predicting, Hill Ferguson, PayPal’s VP of Global Product, said he’s seeing no indication that sales are falling below expectations.

In general, he said, the trend is for shopping to start earlier and end later, with the peak shopping days being closer to Christmas, rather than the more prominent heavy days, like Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) or Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving).

He attributes that shift, in part, to consumers shopping on their mobile devices. ”So much of shopping is generated by promotions, but with mobile you can make a purchase whenever or wherever you are, so people are willing to wait and not change their lives around what retailers are offering,” he said.

For instance, on Dec. 2, PayPal reported its global mobile payment volume hit a new high, exceeding its record set only six days earlier on Cyber Monday. PayPal’s parent company, eBay, saw its biggest mobile shopping day on Dec. 9.

Here’s a snapshot of the weekly trends for the past four years, showing how spending ramps up as we get closer to Christmas:

With Track Your Grub, GrubHubbers Can See Exactly Where Their Food Delivery Is

Lauren Goode — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:00:54 +0000

Ordering food through Web sites or mobile apps like GrubHub or Seamless is sinfully easy. (Sometimes, I still marvel that food arrives at my door and I didn’t even have to speak to someone.)

But it can also feel like you’re ordering from a black hole, with little insight into what’s going on behind the scenes — or when your delivery will arrive.

GrubHub has come up with a feature that lets users track their food’s progress as it is being delivered to their doors.

The feature, called Track Your Grub, joins GrubHub’s OrderHub and DeliveryHub as part of a three-step system.

Restaurants listed on GrubHub use a company-provided Android tablet to take orders via the Internet. Drivers then use the DeliveryHub app on GPS-enabled mobile devices to communicate with both the restaurant and the orderer.

Provided that the driver is using the DeliveryHub, customers should be able to see the driver moving toward them in real time, similar to the way cars are tracked in the Uber car-service app.

Along the way, GrubHubbers also receive push notifications or SMS messages updating them on the status of their delivery.

The feature is being rolled out today across iPhone and Android mobile apps. GrubHub says that some 100 restaurants in six cities (including New York, San Francisco and Boston) will have the Track Your Grub option to start.

GrubHub has also said that more than 25 percent of its total orders now come from mobile devices.

GrubHub was planning on demoing its new food-tracking feature at our D: Dive Into Mobile conference last month. Attendees were going to be able to track ordered food as it made its way onstage to Matt Maloney, GrubHub’s co-founder and CEO. Unfortunately, the conference was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy, so GrubHubbers will have to check out the food-tracking feature for themselves.

Holiday Spending Online Will Again See Double-Digit Increases

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:03:22 +0000

This holiday season’s deal-seeking shoppers in the U.S. are expected to spend $68.4 billion online, representing a 15 percent increase over 2011.

iStockphoto.com/mbortolino

“E-commerce has been on fire since its inception and it still continues to grow and outpace the overall retail economy,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst with Forrester, who studied recent trends to come up with this year’s holiday forecast. “And because e-commerce is growing so much faster, it’s taking share from the offline world. It takes more share during Q4 than the rest of the year.”

In the report, Mulpuru concluded that the number of online shoppers in the U.S. will grow a modest 3 percent, but that the average shopper will spend $419 online this holiday, a 12 percent boost over 2011.

Overall, if spending does increase 15 percent this holiday, the rate of increase will be flat compared to the prior year, but the gains are still very impressive given the much larger base (see chart below). It also points to the fact that e-commerce still makes up only a small fraction of overall retail spending.

There are three factors driving consumers to spend more online this year:

Online vs. offline: Customers would rather shop online to take advantage of the sales and to avoid crowds.
Mobile commerce: Smartphones and tablets will likely make up 40 percent or more of traffic to a retailer’s site on the major shopping days as consumers get offers sent to them by email and check them out wherever they are. Still, conversion rates are fairly low, Mulpuru said.
The economy: Overall, holiday retail estimates are extremely positive and consumer confidence scores hit a six-month high in October.

Still, the trend largely benefits online-only retailers, like Amazon, which means that physical retailers must come up with a plan to keep consumers coming to the stores or their Web sites.

Target and Best Buy are two of the big-box retailers that have committed to matching online prices to prevent “showrooming,” where people scan barcodes in the store to find better deals for the same product online. PayPal is also supporting price matching for customers who use the payment provider to make purchases. And Walmart is experimenting with same-day delivery in some markets to fuel its online transactions.

Mulpuru said she wasn’t sure if stunts like that would move the needle, but agreed that “the biggest reason why Amazon is gaining share is because of price, free shipping and doing it quickly.” She said Amazon is willing to subsidize those costs and to spend more to acquire and retain those customers. However, she said, there is some backlash from manufacturers. Companies like Samsung and Sony have started a universal price protection program, where they guarantee the same price no matter where you shop.

“That’s been long overdue,” she said. “There’s been a lot of monkeying around with what’s the right price. With mobile, price is transparent. Up until now, the manufacturer hasn’t had to enforce pricing.”

TrueCar CEO: Disrupting the Car-Buying Process Nearly Drove It Out of Business (Video)

Tricia Duryee — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 16:00:22 +0000

Many companies believe they can disrupt an existing offline business by offering consumers lower prices over the Internet.

It’s a playbook that Amazon has used for years, and more recently, companies like Warby Parker have been getting recognition for offering prescription glasses online for hundreds of dollars less than brick-and-mortar stores.

But Scott Painter, TrueCar’s founder and CEO, says he knows what it’s like to drive prices too low.

The company started off providing leads to dealers that were willing to offer the lowest prices on a car. While great for customers, it often meant a loss for the dealer. At first, Painter wasn’t terribly concerned, adding that he has always been interested in “sticking it to the man.” But after learning the hard lesson that the dealers were his partners — and there’s actually not that many of them in the U.S. — he altered the business to be more dealership-friendly. Today, it operates more as an intelligent Kelly Blue Book service that provides pricing transparency to customers by tracking all car sales in the U.S. TrueCar collects a flat rate from the dealer when one of its customers buys a car.

Up until last year, the Santa Monica, Calif., company was profitable; revenue was doubling every year for seven straight years. But in late 2011 everything changed. A nationwide advertising campaign, highlighting customers who saved thousands of dollars on their car purchases, got car dealerships to wake up to the fact that TrueCar’s service was resulting in cars being sold at a loss.

What happened next nearly buried the company.

Within 90 days, TrueCar’s dealer network had shrunk by one-third to about 3,200 dealers, and it went from making a profit to losing $40 million in the first six months of 2012. Due to requests by industry trade associations, regulators started looking into whether TrueCar’s methods violated consumer protection laws, and in many cases it was found guilty, requiring it to tweak its operations in several states. ”We were on death’s door,” Painter admits.

While the company’s old model was very profitable, he now says it wasn’t going to pencil out in the long term. It created a situation in which dealers were blindly competing on price. “It wasn’t sustainable,” he said. He’s since restructured the business to focus on providing price transparency by tracking and publishing data based on actual car sales.

As you can see from the video below, Painter can talk about the company’s dreariest days with a sense of detachment, a sign that the worst is already behind him. It helps that, since last year, TrueCar has raised $50 million in additional financing as a buffer while it pulls off the transformation. Painter said dealers are starting to sign up for its services again and he expects the company to be cash flow positive by the end of the year.

Additionally, it is planning a new — much less controversial — advertising campaign that will kick off on Nov. 15.

[ See post to watch video ]

Breaking Down Apple's Retail Distribution Strategy

John Paczkowski — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:55:48 +0000

Apple’s stores are among the most successful brick-and-mortar shops around, generating more revenue per square foot than any other retailer in the United States, including Tiffany.

During the company’s last earnings call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said Apple’s 372 stores collectively generated $4.1 billion in revenue. That’s a vast sum, and one that might lead you to believe that Apple sells most of its gear through its own stores. But that’s not the case, according to a new study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).

Between December of 2011 and August of 2012, CIRP surveyed 1,227 U.S. consumers who purchased an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and found that while Apple Stores sold by far the most Macs and iPads during the period, they didn’t sell nearly as many iPhones as the company’s retail partners.

In the U.S., Apple’s retail stores, along with the company’s online storefront, sold 47 percent of the Macs and 40 percent of the iPads purchased by the survey sample during December 2011 and August 2012. But they only sold 21 percent of the iPhones. AT&T and Verizon stores both sold more than Apple, with 28 percent and 26 percent shares of sales, respectively. And Best Buy and Amazon (via fulfillments) together sold nearly as many iPads as Apple itself.

“Apple has around 250 stores in the U.S., while Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile total 1,300, and AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon have over 5,000 combined,” CIRP partner Mike Levin told AllThingsD. “Clearly, the Apple stores are much more productive on a per-unit basis, but their relatively low store count keeps them reliant on the carriers and Best Buy, not to mention Walmart, Target and others, for the vast majority of their retail sales.”

Ultimately, Apple’s retail partners are as critical to the company’s success as its own stores. Sure, the typical Apple Store might cater to 17,000 visitors per week, but that foot traffic translates to a smaller-than-expected share of the company’s overall business. As CIRP co-founder Josh Lowitz told AllThingsD, “Everyone who lives in an Apple Store city thinks that is where everything happens, but you can’t sell 40 million plus iPhones in a year through just 250 stores.”

StudyHall Offers New Site for Collaborative Course Work (And Books!)

Lauren Goode — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:03:35 +0000

A new course management site, StudyHall, is looking to take current standard Blackboard to school.

But StudyHall, which launches today, is taking a populist approach with its system: Students only, no professors allowed.

StudyHall users can create Facebook-like profiles with pictures of themselves and a list of groups and interests. The site, which is free to join, suggests potential buddies both on campus and at other schools that students might want to link up with.

Unlike Facebook, StudyHall’s goal is to focus less on social and more on academics, with digital notebooks indicating which courses users are taking and which books they’re using.

There’s a designated Notes section, in which users can post their class notes and control who they’d like to share them with; and, naturally, users can schedule a Study Hall — a collaborative online work session.

StudyHall is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Ben Winter and Ross Blankenship, who have received around $500,000 in early funding from a group of undisclosed investors.

Winter and Blankenship envision StudyHall becoming a peer-to-peer book-selling market as well, with StudyHall getting a small percentage of each transaction made.

While StudyHall has officially launched, it’s currently not available to any and all college students. Winter and Blankenship have been trying to get the word out through campus officials and orientation leaders, and say they hope to roll the site out by mid-September to five (elite) schools: Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Middlebury and Cornell.

It’s hardly the first company to try to offer an alternative to Blackboard. And it could face some interesting hurdles as it looks to grow.

Blackboard first launched in 1997, and for the past decade or so has been the leading Web site for students and teachers to access coursework and share notes. Its legacy product, Blackboard Learn, is currently used by more than 3,200 colleges and universities across the U.S., the company says, and has a large international footprint, as well.

After Blackboard went private last year, it began to focus on growth through acquisition — most recently by buying Moodlerooms — and has made some inroads in the K-12 market.

Blackboard also introduced mobile apps across all platforms, seeing that more and more students were using iPads and smartphones as study tools.

An example of a StudyHall profile.

StudyHall currently doesn’t have any mobile apps to offer, but says both iOS and Android apps are in the works.

More importantly, Blackboard is set up through client agreements with institutions, which then make Blackboard available to professors and students at the course level. Basically, where Blackboard is available, it’s got the administrative seal of approval, whereas StudyHall is looking to eschew the administrative process by making the site a destination for students only.

“We want StudyHall to be a place where students can post, ‘Hey, did you understand what the professor was saying today?’ or ‘Did anyone take good notes? I was hungover and missed class,’ without repercussion,” Winter said in an interview.

Winter and Blankenship concede that a legitimate concern is StudyHall becoming a forum for cheating, and that some administrators they’ve met with bristle at the words “collaborative” and “student-only” for that reason.

“We’re going to be very proactive removing content that’s flagged as fraudulent, and if a school reached out to us looking for a digital footprint of a student accused of cheating, we would, in a controlled manner, help them with that issue,” Winter said.

He also pointed out that the academic property of universities — which includes syllabi — can’t be uploaded to StudyHall, and that such restrictions will be clearly marked to students.

Videogame Distribution Shifting Online, Even for TV-Tethered Consoles

Tricia Duryee — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 22:36:06 +0000

Internet-enabled devices such as phones, tablets and computers are making it insanely easy for consumers to discover and play new videogames.

And it’s that kind of online connectivity that is expected to drive the next wave of growth on the consoles.

In a new report, market research firm DFC Intelligence said it believes console sales will regain some momentum in 2014 and 2015 as new systems from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony hit the market.

As a result, DFC is estimating that by 2017, 39 percent of console game revenue will be via online distribution and online revenue sources.

Nintendo is the first of the hardware makers to announce plans for its next console, which is expected to hit this holiday season. The Wii U will come with features encouraging consumers to connect online, including video chat and Miiverse, a social network where avatars walk around a virtual plaza. With Miiverse, game players will be able to post their thoughts in speech bubbles that appear over their heads with text or drawings — sort of like a status update on Twitter or Facebook.

With existing consoles, players often have the option of downloading new content for games, but typically the original game was purchased on a disk and didn’t require an Internet connection. Sony and Microsoft have not yet announced their plans, but both are expected to eventually release new hardware that will be more connected to the Internet than ever before.

Other companies — like Amazon, Valve’s Steam and Electronic Arts — are also in various stages of offering digital distribution channels.

Despite reports of a soft console market over the past year, DFC is still forecasting the industry to grow over the next five years to $82 billion in 2017 from $67 billion in 2012.

In addition to new consoles fueling some of this growth, the research firm said, the increase is thanks to PC and mobile gaming. Worldwide revenue from online games will reach $35 billion in 2017, up 84 percent from 2011, and PC game revenue is expected to pass $25 billion in 2017, up from about $20 billion in 2012.

Outsourcing Chores to Strangers Online

Lauren Goode — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:00:13 +0000

I recently returned home from several days of work-related travel to mountains of mail, unpaid bills, heaps of laundry and an apartment piled with boxes, thanks to a roommate moving out.

It was just the impetus I needed to finally try Web services that help people find other people to do their onerous chores. These fast-growing online communities are made up of part-time or unemployed workers, creative types who work job to job and students looking to fill their gaps in time and simultaneously fill their wallets.

So, over the past week, I posted a dozen different chores across three Web sites. You may have heard of TaskRabbit, one of the largest services, with more than 4,000 “Rabbits” — people hired to run errands — in 10 U.S. cities. I tested this service along with a new competitor, Done, which adds a philanthropic twist to task completion; I also tried out Agent Anything, which dispatches college students to do your dirty work for you.

[ See post to watch video ]

By the end of the week, I had used Done the most out of all three, and felt that its beautifully designed site and professional-looking profiles for Doers made it stand out from the pack. However, Done just launched in March, so it’s currently limited to around 200 Doers in and around New York City, and is still working on creating a mobile app. Agent Anything is also limited to the New York area, and its mobile apps are in the works. Among the three, only TaskRabbit has an app, for iPhone.

I also had a positive experience with TaskRabbit, and found the Rabbits to be fast responders. My least-favorite service was Agent Anything. While I like the idea of helping college students find work, the site’s bare-bones profiles of workers made me hesitant to hire anyone.

Different tasks cost different amounts. If you type in what you’d like done, the sites suggest a ballpark price. In order to make money, these services tack an extra percentage onto your payment. TaskRabbit, on average, tacks on an 18 percent service fee; Done charges 10 percent, and Agent Anything’s markups vary. A $10 mission payment might end up costing $12.50, while a $100 mission might cost you $110.

The first task I posted was a trip to Goodwill to drop off a pile of clothes and other items for donation. I initially targeted a Rabbit who had gotten excellent reviews from other customers. But she wasn’t available, so then I posted the job to all Rabbits, and within a couple hours I had a handful of offers.

I ended up hiring a person named Brian through TaskRabbit — he could work within my time frame, was willing to run errands around the city in the pouring rain, had good reviews and included a couple pictures of his dog in his profile. (Could a person with a dog still turn out to be dangerous? Sure, but the pictures added a reassuringly personal touch.)

Brian made the trip to Goodwill, brought me back a receipt, and indicated through his account that he was finished. I then received an email asking to submit payment. The whole process was pretty painless.

The next task: Hiring someone to clean my apartment, which was a mess of moving boxes and not-so-cute dust bunnies. My proposed fee was slightly higher than TaskRabbit’s suggested fee of $60. Within a day, I had several offers from all three sites; some people said they’d do it for a lot less, others said they’d clean for up to $100. Since this task involved having someone in my apartment for a couple hours, I spent the equivalent amount of time perusing profiles.

I ended up choosing someone from Done — a Fashion Institute of Technology student who managed to make rubber cleaning gloves look fashionable. This is where Done’s profiles really stood out compared to the other sites. Its large photos, clearly defined areas of specialization and personal details about the Doers gave me a sense of confidence about who I was hiring.

Unlike TaskRabbit, Done doesn’t allow you to add tips when you pay, but the company says it’s working on adding a tipping function.

Also, Done says that for every task completed, the company makes a donation through Unicef. But aside from this statement on its site, there was no indication during my transactions that my payment was indirectly going to charity. Done says that by the end of July it will note the specific Unicef gift being donated on the user’s receipt.

One of the last tasks I sought help for was something I’d normally do myself: Dropping off laundry and finding a couple bottles of inexpensive wine to bring to a friend’s place that weekend. But I was curious to see how quickly someone else could get it done in the middle of the day.

I ended up going with Danny from Done — a self-described “liberal arts dork and orchestra nerd” — because he could get to the job in about a half hour. There was an interested Rabbit that I likely would have given the job to first, but I was using the TaskRabbit mobile app at the time, and the app wouldn’t let me answer a question she had asked. By the time I was able to correspond with her, the Doer had already bid on the job.

But $20 was a high price to pay someone for running those errands, because it turns out that both the wine store and laundromat offer free delivery. For these kinds of local tasks, I wouldn’t outsource again.

Since Done and Agent Anything haven’t yet expanded nationwide, I also posted a couple of long-distance jobs, like a ride to suburban New Jersey from Manhattan to see how far the workers were willing to go. An Agent responded immediately and asked a good question — whether I’d need a return ride — but I couldn’t see which Agent was posing the question. A TaskRabbit bid on the job a few minutes later, but proposed a higher fee.

A legitimate concern for the person posting the tasks is how the workers on these sites are vetted. TaskRabbit says it uses a multi-step vetting process that includes background checks and video interviews, while Done verifies through in-person interviews, and uses a company called HireRight for background checks.

Also, once you accept a person’s offer to complete your task, more information — such as a direct phone number or a personal email address — is provided, so you can get in touch with the person directly beforehand and try to get a sense of who they are. I either spoke on the phone with or had a few personal email exchanges with each of the people I hired.

Agent Anything doesn’t screen its Agents aside from verifying, through their email address, that they’re affiliated with a college or university. Also, the Agent profiles only include one small photo. Agent Anything says it is considering expanding the profiles.

My experiences with Done and TaskRabbit were positive, overall, and I’d likely use them again if I was in a jam, especially Done. I’d also be inclined to hire the same people again. But Agent Anything needs to require its Agents to build fuller profiles, and all three services could afford to focus on mobile applications, especially with competing services popping up that offer on-the-go task services.

Hollywood Facial Animation Tech Comes to Sony PC-Based Games

Lauren Goode — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:29:22 +0000

Motion sensor technology isn’t exactly a new thing; neither is facial recognition technology, although both are still being fine-tuned in their various consumer use cases.

But precise animation technology is usually reserved for Hollywood movie making. Think of movie stars standing against a green screen, wearing special suits with buttons on them while their movements are recorded and translated to an animated character. Now, add that to your PC games, with a little help from a Web camera.

At the E3 video game convention in Los Angeles this week, Sony Online Entertainment has been showing off technology that makes an animated character on screen mimic a gamer’s facial expressions.

In a demo, SOE showed how an animated frog on a PC screen talks, yawns, nods its head and raises its eyebrows exactly as the gamer is doing so. Voice-altering technology also changes your voice to suit your character’s.

“SOEmote” is targeted at the thousands of MMO, or massive multi-player online, gamers who are looking to convey emotion and add personal expression — and in some cases, mask their voices — to the other players they’re communicating with through the games.

Sony licensed the technology from a California-based company called Image Metrics. The voice-altering tech comes from Vivox.

This feature is in its earliest stages and is expected to be available this month. To start, SOEmote only works with one title, the eight-year-old EverQuest II, though Sony says it plans to add SOEmote to all of its online games. And the SOEmote tech suffers from the same problem we’ve seen with other motion sensor and gesture recognition tech: When someone else walks by your screen, the sensors sometimes pick up on that movement, interrupting the intended effect.

For an idea of how it works, check out this video below:

[ See post to watch video ]

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Microsoft Unloads the Latest for Xbox: Shooters, Sports and Songs

Lauren Goode — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:18:33 +0000

In just a few minutes, Microsoft will take the stage at this week’s E3 videogame conference in downtown Los Angeles.

The software maker first introduced its Xbox 360 gaming console seven years ago, and it hasn’t been refreshed since — the longest console cycle for any company in the videogame industry. Still, it’s not really expected that we’ll see brand new hardware at today’s event.

What we will be keeping an eye on: More news surrounding upcoming software titles, including Forza Horizon, the highly-anticipated Halo 4 game. Also expect to see some key software partners taking the stage alongside Microsoft.

And in recent months, Microsoft has been expanding its media and entertainment offerings through the console, with recent data showing more people are watching Web stuff on Microsoft’s machine than on the iPad, iPhone or any Android machine, anywhere. Also, Xbox Live users are now watching more movies and TV and listening to music than gamers are using it to play online games.

Will Microsoft dare to stray from the traditional gaming talk to introduce more media apps for Xbox?

We’ll find out shortly.

9:20 am: People are still climbing into their seats at USC’s Galen Center, where my AllThingsD colleague Tricia Duryee and I will be providing live updates. It’s a nearly full house.

For all the gaming fans unable to make the show in person, here’s a shot of the entrance to the event.

Because we haven’t heard enough of Gotye lately, “Somebody That I Used to Know” is now playing overhead.

9:30 am: And we begin! Microsoft kicks off the event with a dramatic starship/military/world domination montage.

9:32 am: It’s Halo 4. Cheers from the crowd.

I missed the memo about bringing earplugs. We’re still in the middle of an intense, electrifying game of Halo 4, being played out on the big screen.

The Galen Center is dark, with smartphone screens dotting the crowd.

Halo 4, for those who don’t know, drops on November 6 of this year.

9:38 am: Microsoft’s Xbox Director Don Mattrick takes the stage, saying Xbox is now the number-one-selling console worldwide.

9:41 am: And now, another videogame montage. More combat scenes, brutal killings.

It’s Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell Blacklist, which was leaked ahead of this event.

Blacklist features single-player co-op and spies vs. mercs. It ships spring of 2013. Expect to see more at the Ubisoft event later today.

9:47 am: Now Andrew Wilson from EA Sports takes the stage. He’s talking about FIFA 13. (There are 13 of them?)

FIFA 13 will utilize voice recognition technology and will be available around the world this coming fall.

9:49 am: Joe Montana is here — promoting Madden 13.

Madden NFL 13 will also use voice commands. Montana says he’s excited to give the game a go, as it makes him feel like he’s “back on the field again.”

He starts using the voice command feature on stage. It’s kind of fun to see Joe Montana calling plays to a console.

Fittingly, he’s calling a 49ers game. Wonder what he thinks about Alex Smith’s performance (on Madden NFL 13, of course).

The game hits stores on August 28th.

9:52 am: Mythical creatures and impossibly realistic computer-generated humans appear in this next little montage.

Then head of Microsoft Studios, Phil Spencer, walks out.

9:54 am: He teases Forza! But first, a trailer to the Gears of War saga.

9:55 am: Now Forza. Forget Nuremberg: This Forza game is set on the open road.

Fancy sports cars are veering off the road, hitting trees, speeding off.

Forza Horizon hits the market on October 23.

9:57 am: Now we hear from Yusuf Mehdi, senior VP of Microsoft’s Online Audience Business Group. We’re seeing more Xbox voice command functions, with a focus on the media apps from Hulu, Netflix, etc.

He’s speaking in Spanish to Xbox, calling up foreign-language apps, showing how the Xbox can be used for entertainment around the world.

Paramount movies, Nickelodeon, Machinima and Univision are new content partners. Machinima gets the loudest applause — not surprisingly. This is a gaming crowd.

Now, on to sports.

The NBA is coming to Xbox, Mehdi says. NBA League Pass will give access to hundreds of games.

NHL Game Center Live is coming to Xbox, too.

ESPN on Xbox is about to get even better, he continues. Xbox already carries some ESPN content, but now: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNU. Mehdi mentions that SportsCenter, Mike & Mike, all live and all in HD, are coming to Xbox 360.

Other set-top boxes, like Roku, already have deals for MLB content, as well as NBA League Pass and NHL Game Center live, by the way. And in almost all cases, consumers still have to pay for those packages or monthly access passes.

But the ESPN deal is notable. What’s still unclear is what the payment structure will be for this cable content. (AllThingsD’s Tricia Duryee has more on this in her write-up here.)

10:03 am: A video montage shows high-fiving bros on couches watching this awesome sports content via Xbox.

10:04 am: Now, a new streaming music service: Xbox Music, available on the console, tablets and phones.

Last fall, it was reported that Microsoft’s earlier music device and service, Zune, was finally, officially dead. Let’s see if the new service sticks.

10:06 am: Here’s Stefan Olander, Vice President of Digital Sport at Nike. He’s the Viking-looking guy who’s been promoting the Nike+ FuelBand in recent months.

He’s walking through Nike+ Kinect training, showing how the Kinect sensor will recognize your fitness movements while the new program calculates your movements and your NikeFuel score. NikeFuel, for those who don’t know, is Nike’s new currency for energy exerted during a work out.

Marc Whitten, head of Xbox Live, comes out after the Nike+ Kinect video.

So far, this event is heavy on teases, light on details.

10:12 am: He introduces Xbox SmartGlass, which sounds not unlike AirPlay. He can start a movie on his tablet (Windows 8, naturally) and pick it up where he left off on his TV at home.

The tablet becomes a device for contextual information about the movie, he says.

10:15 am: With Xbox SmartGlass, the tablet acts as a kind of enhancement controller for games as well. We’re seeing how a gamer can pause Halo 4, check his tablet for the specifications of the gun he’s using, then resume the game on the TV. (Update: The app will be available on iOS and Android as well as Windows mobile platforms.)

10:17 am: Internet Explorer is coming to Xbox this year.

He demonstrates how a movie can be watched through an IE Web page on TV, via the Xbox.

Now, we’re looking at an interactive auto Web page, via IE on Xbox.

The Xbox SmartGlass app on a tablet is controlling the Web page navigation.

Whitten emphasizes that SmartGlass works with the devices you already own: Xbox, TV, tablet, smartphone, etc. Unclear on which operating systems, though. (Update: SmartGlass will work on iOS and Android in addition to Windows mobile devices.)

10:22 am: Now two guys from Crystal Dynamics, creators of Tomb Raider, take the stage.

Lara Croft looking as fierce as ever in this clip.

10:27 am: Microsoft’s Phil Spencer is now back onstage.

Here come the world premiere exclusive titles, he says:

First, from Signal Studios, the creators of Toy Soldiers, the miniature army game that came out a couple years ago and will be featured in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Store: Their new game is called Ascend New Gods.

Second, from Twisted Pixel, there’s a Kinect game from the director of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” called Matter.

10:32 am: Now, a preview of Resident Evil 6, the franchise even some hardcore gamers admit to being afraid of playing by themselves.

This one looks like a Michael Bay movie on steroids.

(With zombies.)

10:37 am: Now, a much tamer presentation of Wreckateer from Alex Ruiz.

Wreckateer’s coming to Xbox Live this summer, she says.

10:39 am: Next! A dramatic rendition of a South Park video game. Yes, really. Laughs.

The Stick of Truth comes out March 5. And now a surprise visit from Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

They immediately poke fun at the idea of the interconnected, multi-device game-player, asking, how many of you want to play a game that’s connected to your tablet that’s also connected to your oven while you’re sitting in the refrigerator?

But really: We wanted to create a game where people feel like they’re in South Park, they say.

10:43 am: And just as quickly as they entered, they’re off, joking about procrastinating on creating the game as they do everything else.

10:44 am: Next up, Dance Central 3. AllThingsD’s Tricia Duryee is getting excited next to me. I think she’s even dancing in her seat.

Whoa — and we’ve got Usher on stage, singing and showing off his moves. (You, too, can dance like Usher if you play Dance Central 3!)

10:48 am: Usher wraps, to applause.

Don Mattrick up again.

He makes a joke about “ushering in” entertainment.

Groans.

10:50 am: Now, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. All new content will launch first on Xbox 360.

One thing that sets this version of the popular first-person shooter game apart from its earlier software counterparts: This one is set in the future, around a 21st Century Cold War, while the others have focused on historical battles and wars.

Gamers can preorder it now, the game’s Web site says. Xbox 360 is already listed as a console partner on the game’s official Web site, alongside Sony’s PlayStation 3, and the game will be playable on PCs.

10:58 am: The future looks bleak in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, for the record.

The first-person shooter can also steer a floating, futuristic military sky-vehicle around the apocalyptic game stage.

11:05 am: That’s a wrap. Some main takeaways: As expected, we didn’t see new hardware, but that was about as likely as us seeing a new iPhone prototype at D10 last week.

We got more glimpses and details surrounding key software franchises like Halo 4 and Forza Horizon, as well as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Dance Central 3. Plus: The South Park game, which will likely generate some buzz. Will Cartman and the gang translate well to the gaming screen?

And the Nike+ Kinect integration might lure some Nintendo Wii users who have been using the console for fitness-related activities.

The most interesting announcement is probably SmartGlass, and how that will impact both the gaming and entertainment experience in the “connected home” — at least, those with Xboxes.

On to the next E3 event!

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Are You "Always Addressable"?

Beth Callaghan — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:04:18 +0000

A recently completed study from Forrester Research says a lot about the persistence of your online habits. Senior Analyst Melissa Parrish describes the “Always Addressable Customer” as someone who “owns and uses at least 3 connected devices, goes online multiple times per day, and goes online from at least 3 physical locations like home, work or school, and in the park.”

Currently, 37 percent of all adults online in the United States today qualify, and it is probably no huge surprise that the greatest concentration occurs among what Forrester terms Generation Y and Generation Z, those between the ages of 18 and 31. But one of the more interesting tidbits here (besides the fact that Forrester describes those between 46 and 55 as “Young Boomers”) is that Generation X will be mostly Addressable by the end of the year — an increase of more than 6 percent.

Chart/data courtesy of Forrester Research

Millions of Americans Dial Up Travel Plans From the Phone

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:43:03 +0000

While total spending on online travel continues to grow, it is the mobile travel market that has everyone excited.

In a report released today, eMarketer estimates that 16 million Americans will book travel from their mobile devices this year, increasing 33 percent from 12 million in 2011. Even more people — roughly 37.8 million — will use their phones to research travel this year.

It’s no wonder that big online travel agencies, like Priceline and Expedia, are quickly expanding into mobile. One common mobile strategy is to build an app that gives deep discounts to people who book a hotel room from their phone for the same night.

Travelers who may not have access to a computer are an obvious market for hotel information, flights, maps, reviews and other services.

EMarketer said despite mobile’s rapid growth, total spending on online travel is growing more slowly than overall online retail sales. This year, online travel spending is set to increase 11 percent to $120 billion in the U.S.

But clearly all the trends spell bad news for travel agents and physical travel agencies. EMarketer expects a majority of Internet users to research and book via the Web.

Internet-Only Bonobos Gets Cash and Rack Space From Nordstrom

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:54:33 +0000

Bonobos, the New York-based online clothing brand, says it has closed $16.4 million in new funding from Nordstrom and that it will start selling its pants at the high-end department store.

The partnership and funding is a huge vote of confidence for the brand, which up until today only existed on the Internet.

If you haven’t seen the ads and don’t already know, Bonobos is known for “better-fitting” men’s pants, and while I’ve heard many men say it’s true, it’s apparently hard to explain why — sort of like why the company is named after a kind of over-sexed chimpanzee. Wait, maybe it’s not that difficult to understand. Ahem.

To be sure, the company has a large selection of nice pants.

Bonobos said the round of funding was led by Nordstrom, along with full participation from existing investors, such as Accel Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

In a statement, Andy Dunn, founder and CEO of Bonobos, said “We understand there are people who still want to touch and feel clothing before they purchase. We realized we needed help expanding beyond our web-only roots.”

Since launching in 2007, Bonobos has expanded to offer a full clothing line for men. Beginning in April, Nordstrom will carry the top two product lines of Bonobos, including chinos and cotton trousers. The brand will launch at 20 of Nordstrom’s stores and within the Men’s Shop on Nordstrom.com.

“Our investment with Bonobos will enable Nordstrom to participate in the young company’s phenomenal growth, and we look forward to what we can learn from each other as we build the business together,” said Jamie Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Direct.

Last March, Nordstrom acquired HauteLook, an online retailer that offers flash sales.

Like Bonobos, several venture-backed companies have cropped up over the past couple of years that encourage men to shop more online, such as Indochino, J. Hilburn and TrunkClub. In December 2010, Bonobos raised $18.5 million.

To Mitt: Here's Your Digital Etch A Sketch

Lauren Goode — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:29:03 +0000

A remark made by one of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s advisers has sent online shoppers — and investors — into an Etch A Sketch frenzy.

In case you’ve missed the sandstorm, Eric Fehrnstrom, a top Romney adviser, said on Wednesday that if Romney wins the GOP nomination, the campaign will “hit a reset button” to take on President Obama in the fall.

Fehrnstrom then added, “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again.”

While Romney’s rivals have pounced on the comment — Newt Gingrich’s camp has even created a SketchyRomney app — Etch A Sketch fans have pounced on the venerable toy, buying it in droves on Amazon.com.

Politico reports that sales of the 1950’s relic shot up more than 2,000 percent on the e-commerce site, while Ohio Art Company, the maker of Etch A Sketch, saw its stock hit a 52-week high yesterday, before closing at $9.65, more than double its Wednesday closing price of $4.

Here at AllThingsD, we say: Why go for the plastic version, when you can play with a digital Etch A Sketch on your mobile appendages?

That’s right: Campaign platforms, errant Twitpics, awkward remarks — all erased with the shake of an iPad.

It’s a politician’s best friend.

For iPhone, there’s Etch A Sketch Premium, from Freeze Tag, Inc., a company that makes casual games for mobile devices and personal computers. It costs just 99 cents (or about 0.000001309367724577594 percent of the $75,609,012 Romney has raised to date).

Unlike the physical Etch A Sketch, users of this app can change the color of the toy’s frame, choose from a color palette when drawing, use predrawn shapes or a background (like Hangman), and share their drawings with friends via email, Facebook or a photo album. As with the original Etch A Sketch, you simply shake it to erase it.

But a smartphone screen is just too small for this kind of app, and the knobs of the Etch A Sketch appear to be cut off at the bottom. You can use your finger to draw, but that seems like Etch A Sketch sacrilege.

Fortunately, there’s an iPad app from the same company. This one costs $2.99, and is the real deal.

The Draw Something addicts out there can share their Etch A Sketch iPad drawings with friends over Wi-Fi. Or, users can draw alone, add photos from a photo album, use colorful stamps, share through Facebook and even access an iPod song library to set sketches to a soundtrack … like, maybe a campaign soundtrack?

For Android devices, there’s a free version of Freeze Tag’s Etch A Sketch with ads; and a 99-cent version without. There’s also the 99-cent Etch-a-Doodle app, which replicates the Etch A Sketch experience.

Those who would rather pay a more visible homage to Etch a Sketch can check out these retro red covers for mobile devices.

And if you’re feeling really ambitious, you can attempt to make a Kinect-a-Sketch, as these guys did, as seen in the video below:

(Photo courtesy of Flickr/The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis)

Textbook Renter Chegg Raises $25 Million

Peter Kafka — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:50:01 +0000

Chegg, the on- and off-line textbook rental service, has raised $25 million in an inside round. A PR rep for the company says the money will be used for the “growth of the business and is lead by existing investors.” Chegg says insiders aren’t selling shares in conjunction with the raise.

Big Fish Scoops Up Mobile Casino-Game Maker Self Aware Games

Lauren Goode — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:02:02 +0000

Casual-gaming company Big Fish has acquired mobile social game developer Self Aware Games, makers of Card Ave: Casino, and its parent company, Social Concepts, in a cash-equity deal of an undisclosed amount. The acquisition comes as more gaming companies are exploring opportunities in gambling-themed games and U.S. states weigh the legalization of Internet gambling. Seattle-based Big Fish, which has more than 2,500 games in its catalog and 45 million game downloads per month, saw revenue north of $180 million in 2011, the company said.

Kodak Selling Online Photo Business to Shutterfly for $23 Million

Lauren Goode — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 22:15:23 +0000

On the heels of filing for bankruptcy and saying it would stop making cameras, Eastman Kodak said today it would sell its Kodak Gallery online photo services business to Shutterfly for $23.8 million. Users’ photos will be transferred to Shutterfly’s site.

Boku Takes "Pay Any Way You Want" Approach With Mobile Payments

Lauren Goode — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:30:04 +0000

In case you missed the memo, mobile payments are heating up. Some companies believe the future of paying for something involves the usage of near field communication (NFC) technology, which enables payments through one tap of your credit card or smartphone. Some have created hardware that plugs into your smartphone to enable credit card swiping. Still others believe the geolocation services of your smartphone can tell a merchant when you’re in the vicinity and thus allow for payment.

Boku is a company that has been focused on partnering with wireless carriers for online buying and direct billing through wireless accounts — until now. Earlier today, the San Francisco-based company said it’s taking a more holistic approach to mobile payments, through its new Boku Accounts.

Boku’s new approach is three-pronged, Boku’s co-founder and vice president Ron Hirson said. To start, it’s a white-label mobile payment account for a Boku customer, issued by a mobile network operator (carrier), that allows the subscriber to see how much they’ve spent at certain venues, set up a budget, and most important, pay for things.

Secondly, Boku-friendly businesses can now offer discounts to customers with a Boku-equipped phone. The coupons and deals are meant to be a seamless experience — for example, a Boku Accounts customer may go to pay for something and the merchant’s discount should be automatically applied, without the customer having to fumble for coupons or show evidence of the deal on their phone.

Lastly, Boku Accounts includes a PayPass sticker from MasterCard, which works as both a magnetic stripe and an NFC strip, so users can stick it on the back of their phones and pay for something in-store with the sticker.

Online, Boku account holders can pay for things with their carrier-issued account; on mobile, Boku works on iPhone and Android phones, as well as on simpler feature phones.

In some ways, what Boku is doing to enable offline, in-store purchasing is similar to PayPal’s efforts to establish itself at point-of-sale systems in stores. Late last year, the eBay-owned online payments giant began testing new payment options at Home Depot that allowed PayPal employees to purchase things by entering in their PayPal account numbers at a special terminal or by using a PayPal credit card. In January, the company said it plans to roll out this service to more than 2,000 Home Depot stores across the U.S. by March.

In the case of PayPal, new offline payment options are posing a potential threat to traditional credit card companies, such as Visa and MasterCard, as PayPal has the ability to undercut the fees that merchants pay to accept the traditional networks’ cards. Visa’s global head of product recently criticized PayPal’s new in-store options, pointing out what he believed were data security threats.

But Boku is actually working with MasterCard, since it’s using a MasterCard magstripe. Many customers would probably still find it easier to tap their MasterCard-stickered smartphones against a credit card terminal than to enter a mobile phone number tied to a payments account. And Boku says the advantage of this system is that merchants don’t have to “re-terminalize” — install an entirely new payment terminal — in order to accept Boku payments.

Boku launched in June 2009, has a footprint in 66 counties, and works with more than 240 carriers worldwide to power payments through wireless phones. The company has raised more than $40 million in funding to date from investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark Capital, Khosla Ventures and others. It has been speculated that the company could be an acquisition target, but Boku declined to say whether it has been in talks with potential buyers. Another one of its competitors, Zong, was acquired by eBay last July for $240 million.

Citi: Positive Trends Ahead for E-Commerce

Lauren Goode — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:50:59 +0000

According to a brief from comScore, total U.S. online spending in January — including retail and travel — grew 13 percent year over year to $23 billion, compared to 11 percent in December. Both months were pointing slightly downward from fourth-quarter online spending, which saw 14 percent year-over-year growth, but Citi analyst Mark Mahaney said in a note that he sees overall positive trends ahead in e-commerce, with the possibility of seeing pre-recession 20 percent growth rates. Key segments contributing to January’s overall growth included online sales of computer software, jewelry and watches, and home electronics.

My So-Called Social Super Bowl

Lauren Goode — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:19:46 +0000

I am, by many measures, a digital enthusiast. I write almost exclusively for online media as part of my job, and in my Twitter profile, cop to being a 140-character addict.

But during last night’s super-media-saturated Super Bowl, I somehow managed to ignore digital media.

This wasn’t intentional (and it was very unlike our previous Footballmer dual-liveblog extravaganza, during which I balanced a laptop with a smartphone with 3-D glasses). The original plan was to watch the game at home and simultaneously monitor my multiple feeds. During the pregame festivities, I even used Foursquare to gauge how many people had already checked into a Boston-themed bar in downtown Manhattan.

Then a friend called and urged me to join him at a neighborhood bar. I brought along a tablet, its interface dotted with Super Bowl-related apps, on which I could keep an eye on the online stream. My Twitter app was open on my smartphone, and I eagerly awaited the smart and sassy commentary from the Twitterverse.

But once the game started, something happened. I decided to actually watch the game on TV and converse with the people around me. My phone was at hand, of course, in the event that someone might call or email with news, but I didn’t check my many apps.

I also paid attention to the commercials — even the ones I’d already seen on the Internet — and listened for the reactions of my fellow viewers.

By the end of the night, I had tweeted exactly once.

Apparently, my digital defection put me in the vast minority: My AllThingsD colleague Peter Kafka reports that social media commentary last night increased sixfold from the previous year’s Super Bowl broadcast. There were so many tweets flying at the end of the game that a new record for simultaneous Twitter messages was set; in television ratings, Super Bowl XLVI turned out to be the most-watched program in TV, with 111.3 million viewers.

But last night — even without reading updates on Facebook or Twitter — I sensed that the Audi “Vampire Party” ad was likely a winner, that people liked the idea of a slingshot-bound baby snatching a bag of Doritos, and that the newest Go Daddy commercial didn’t exactly resonate. According to data from the CNBC/Collective Intellect Super Sunday Ad Tracker, Doritos ads captured 15.8 percent of all engaged consumers, and the Go Daddy ad was deemed “offensive.”

Anecdotally, people like dogs. Also, Ferris Bueller triggers nostalgia in some, even if they could care less about Honda’s CR-V. And all you need to do is talk to people to get a feel for this. According to Hulu, “The Bark Side” and “Matthew’s Day Off” were the most-liked ads of the game.

Some people thought Madonna’s half-time “Vogue”-ing was impressive; others felt it was arthritic. This was later supported by postgame social media analysis from Networked Insights. But everyone I saw was glued to it, nonetheless — TiVo says so, too.

I knew that Tom Brady’s performance would be a hot topic of discussion, and that New Yorkers were pumped about the Giants’ victory, not because of Facebook status updates, but because when I walked through midtown after the game ended, the whoops and cheers could be heard for blocks.

Fortunately, I was not bound by my job to liveblog, tweet, tumble, update, text, post, buzz, pin or ping about the the big game. (AllThingsD’s Ina Fried, however, did an excellent job of liveblogging the Super Bowl for us.)

I’m sure if, say, CNBC’s Darren Rovell said, “I decided not to report on the game and just watch instead!” his bosses might have a different reaction than mine would. Not only that, but a strong voice in the field of sports business reporting would be sorely missed.

I doubt mine was missed all that much last night.

Generally, I enjoy monitoring — and contributing to — Twitter feeds while I watch live TV. I used Twitter while I watched the most recent State of the Union address. I followed along while the news of Osama bin Laden’s death was unfolding. And I chimed in during last year’s Academy Awards and March Madness games. I think the people I follow on Twitter are some of the brightest in the biz, so to speak, and I usually glean some good insights by following their tweets.

Unaccountably, last night, I just didn’t. And it ended up being the same game it would have been if I had been engaged in social media. I’m wondering if I didn’t even have a bit more fun because I communicated face to face instead of reflexively checking my little screens.

Even though I immediately returned to the social media water cooler this morning, enjoying a social Super Bowl in the old-fashioned sense of the term seems a good reminder that we don’t always need to be connected to feel connected.

(Image credit: Rickshaw_Man) | Flickr

A Look at Walmart's Plans for Making Commerce High-Tech (Video)

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:20 +0000

Walmart is typically associated with its everyday low prices, not with technology.

But the mega-retailer is trying to change that by building a tech center in San Bruno, Calif., just south of San Francisco, which houses Walmart.com and a growing team of researchers.

The mission of @WalmartLabs is to study how mobile and social platforms are changing commerce, and how the line is increasingly blurring between online and offline shopping.

The lab, which now has a headcount of around 200, was founded about a year ago, when the Bentonville, Ark.-based company purchased Bay Area start-up Kosmix.

In an interview last week, SVP of global e-commerce Anand Rajaraman, who founded Kosmix along with Venky Harinarayan, said the group has had near-autonomy in trying out several experiments, some of which you might have thought would be taboo for such a large physical retailer.

For instance, the team rolled out Shopycat over the holidays on Facebook, which recommended gifts based on a friend’s interests.

The notable part was that the gifts did not necessarily come only from Walmart, but other retailers, as well. “It was the first time we sent traffic to a non-Walmart site,” Rajaraman said. “But if we want to be a place to find gifts, we thought the right thing to do was to include other retailers.”

More recently, the lab launched a contest called “Get on the Shelf,” which allowed small businesses to submit a video featuring a product they had invented. Starting on March 7, visitors to GetOntheShelf.com will be able to vote on those products they think deserve shelf space. Among the submissions is a product called “the Catcher,” which, as it implies, can be used to catch your dog’s poop before it hits the ground.

In the interview video below, Rajaraman also addresses another unfavorable topic among large brick-and-mortars — the shift from buying offline to online. It is a trend that Walmart’s big Internet competitor, Amazon, is benefiting from.

Today, retailers are fighting hard not to become showrooms, places where consumers go to decide what to buy before then making the purchase online. But Rajaraman suggested that maybe the concept can be embraced, and physical locations will indeed become showrooms, where shoppers pick up items that were ordered online, or try out products that are ultimately shipped to their homes.

And perhaps Rajaraman will help invent the technology that will make it all happen.

[ See post to watch video ]

Visa Places Bet on New Approach to Payments With Rare Investment in TrialPay

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:00:11 +0000

Visa, Greylock’s Reid Hoffman and others are pouring $40 million into TrialPay, which helps companies like Facebook, Gap and Fandango increase sales through the use of incentives.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company tries to boost online companies’ revenue by placing targeted promotions and offering incentives at the point of checkout.

It’s a bit similar to how grocery stores try to boost sales by strategically placing tabloid magazines, gum and candy bars at the register to spur last-minute impulse buys.

Instead, TrialPay makes last-minute offers to give people incentive to make a purchase when they are on the fence.

As an example, TrialPay’s CEO Alex Rampell said that when people visit Fandango’s site, they may get an offer for a free movie ticket if they sign up for Netflix. Or, in a Zynga game, you might be offered a virtual bouquet for free, in return for purchasing real flowers on Valentine’s Day.

Visa’s participation in the investment, which is being announced later this morning, is rare. Over the years, the payments company has made a few acquisitions, including PlaySpan, CyberSource and Fundamo, but Visa’s only investment in recent memory was in payments darling Square, which allows anyone to accept payments using a cellphone.

Rampell said that with Visa’s help, TrialPay will be able to expand to offline merchants from working exclusively with online retailers, by giving it a way to track if a person visited a store and made a purchase.

“The question is, how do we send traffic to Starbucks or McDonald’s or any other offline merchant?” Rampell said. “We already have access to people online who are buying or thinking about buying something. It would be great if we could could give you 20 virtual coins if you shopped at McDonald’s. But how do we close that redemption loop?”

Today, TrialPay, which has 130 employees, reaches more than 70 million monthly active users worldwide. In 2011, Rampell said, revenues more than doubled; he declined to offer specifics.

Rampell also declined to provide details about potential partnerships with Visa. Visa also declined to comment.

Investors in the company’s fourth round included new investors Greylock Partners, Visa Inc., T. Rowe Price, DAG Ventures, DFJ Growth and QuestMark Partners. Existing investors also participated. To date, it has raised roughly $70 million.

For more of Rampell’s opinions on how the payments space will evolve, check out his Web 2.0 speech from October: