The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Box Updates Android App With New Collaboration Features, Commenting And More
- Lookout Debuts Ad Network Detector For Mobile Apps on Android
- Support Long-Form Journalism With This Online Kickstarter Project
- Here’s What “Post-PC” Looks Like: Over Half Of Info Workers Use 3 Or More Devices At Work
- QVC Acquires Personalized E-Commerce Site For Fashion Accessories, Send The Trend
- With Many Eyeballs, All Bugs Are Shallow
- These iOS vs. Android Flame Wars Have To Stop
- Pseudonymous Mobile Messaging App Vibe Acquired By Betaworks
- NPD: Apple Still Leads Tablet Shipments, But The Fight For Second Place Rages On
- Deutsche Telekom’s VC Firm Makes Strategic Investment In Pinger
- NVIDIA Rebrands The Tegra 3′s Architecture, Wants Everyone To Now Call It A 4-Plus-1 SoC
- With New Facebook Integration, Prescreen Relaunches To Make Movie Discovery More Social
- Geolocation’s Potential Heats Up With Geoloqi’s Battery-Saving Tech
- Former McAfee CTO Debuts Stealthy Security Technology Startup CrowdStrike With $26M In Funding
- Swoop Gives Food Websites An Injection Of Local Deals
- NPD: Apple Still On Top In Mobile PC Shipments, But HP Takes The Cake In Notebooks
- Android Overtakes iOS In App Downloads In U.K., Germany, Russia. U.S. To Follow Next Month
- Along With New Look, Apps, Astrid Now Lets You Outsource Tasks To TaskRabbit
- Twilio Client iOS SDK Puts VoIP In Any App, Turning iPads Into Call Centers
- Facebook Ad Partner Experian Launches New Platform For Timeline, Sponsored Stories
| Box Updates Android App With New Collaboration Features, Commenting And More Posted: 23 Feb 2012 09:00 AM PST  Cloud storage and collaboration platform Box is debuting a updated Android app today, which has been upgraded with a number of new collaboration features as well as support for several European languages. Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie tells us this is the biggest update to the company’s Android app since launch in 2010. Besides a completely new UI, the app has been overhauled to support commenting on individual Box files from the app, and now includes the ability to invite others to view documents and files. The new app also supports multiple file downloads at once and features in-app progress notifications Box says they worked with Google directly to develop the new version of the Android app, which has now been localized in four new languages including Spanish, German, Italian and French. All users who update or download the new Box for Android app in the next month will receive 50GB of free file sharing and storage for the lifetime of their Box account. For Box, mobile is a huge growth area. The company tells us that it has seen eight times growth in total unique mobile users with Android growing at the fastest rate. And 77% of Box users access their content from six different locations and on at least three different devices.
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| Lookout Debuts Ad Network Detector For Mobile Apps on Android Posted: 23 Feb 2012 08:59 AM PST  Ever wonder what ad networks your mobile apps are running? Today, Lookout, a company that offers security services for a number of smartphone platforms, is releasing a new, free Android app that aims to provide transparency into ad networks to help you understand what's happening on your phone – from knowing what networks are on your device to understanding their capabilities. As Lookout says, sometimes apps access info for reasons that are not so obvious. As a way to further ensure users privacy, Lookout’s Ad Network Detector app will show you what information the ad networks within the apps on your phone can access. For example, some ad networks will collect information from your phone for use in more targeted advertising marketing campaigns. This app just gives you insight into what information is being used. Lookout explains that they are particularly watchful of ad networks that push out-of-app ads to the default Android notification bar, placing generically designed icons on the mobile desktop, and changing browser settings, like bookmarks or homepage. To help users understand if they had one of these ad networks on their phone, a few weeks ago Lookout released an app called the Push Ad Detector. When the Push Ad Detector identified one of those six ad networks within an app on your phone, it listed the app that had integrated the ad network. It also explained what private information an ad network could access. The Ad Detector was so popular that Lookout decided to take things a step further to include all ad network tracking. It scans the apps on your Android device for the presence of any of the 35 mainstream ad networks, including those that are capable of displaying out-of-app ads. Ad networks and exchanges that can be detected include Google’s AdMob, Burstly, GreyStripe, JumpTap, InMobi, Medialets, Millenial, MobClix, MoPub and others.
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| Support Long-Form Journalism With This Online Kickstarter Project Posted: 23 Feb 2012 08:47 AM PST  Most Kickstarter projects are some permutation of the words iPad,iPhone,case,stand,shell, and stylus. But this project is a permutation of the words long-form, journalism, and website. The project, called #MATTER, is the brainchild of Jim Giles and Bobbie Johnson and hopes to bring thoughtful, long-form journalism to the tabletweb. While I would recommend the pair set their sights on something more generally popular, like a site dedicated to hilarious stock photos of funny cats or something about the Kardashians, their noble effort needs $50,000 to fly and I suspect many of us would pay $10 not to read another exciting top ten list about which purse Jennifer Anniston used to fend off the advances of a drunk Andy Dick. The goal is pretty simple: MATTER will focus on doing one thing, and doing it exceptionally well. Every week, we will publish a single piece of top-tier long-form journalism about big issues in technology and science. That means no cheap reviews, no snarky opinion pieces, no top ten lists. Just one unmissable story. While I disagree with the denigration of “cheap” reviews and “snarky” opinion pieces (I prefer the terms “vapid” and “flatulent”), to be able to read one long, good article on a topic is going to be the new hotness soon enough once bloggers realize that most people really don’t need to know that Nikon improved the shutter speed on their garbage point and shoot. That said, I hope they’re able to maintain the momentum necessary to keep people coming back and here’s to them for trying. You can donate $10 or so and get a mention on the site or you can pay $25 to be on the “board,” which amounts to a crowdsourcing system for picking future stories. Will Matter ever put vapid and flatulent sites like this one out of business? Not by a long shot, but it’s nice to think that someone out there, somewhere, is licking the nib of their Parker and getting ready to write 10,000 words on the topic of Microsoft’s rise to prominence among diasporic Hmong communities.
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| Here’s What “Post-PC” Looks Like: Over Half Of Info Workers Use 3 Or More Devices At Work Posted: 23 Feb 2012 08:45 AM PST  We’re on post-PC watch here lately, tracking the many warning signs that we’ve crossed the imaginary line separating PC’s heyday from that of a new landscape scattered with multiple mobile devices; it’s a place where the traditional desktop and laptop computer is seeing decreasing importance. That’s why this new Forrester report on mobile devices in the workplace caught my eye, as it highlights the disruption those devices have caused in the business world, seemingly right under the noses of I.T. Before diving into the data, the report notes that today’s I.T. departments think they have only a handful of devices out in the field: a PC and smartphone for most users, and maybe a tablet for a handful of execs. But in reality, one-half of info workers report using multiple devices, often behind I.T.’s back. Post-PC era? Sounds like it… whether I.T. is ready or not. To determine its findings, the analysts surveyed nearly 10,000 information workers and 2,300 I.T. decision makers around the world. The two groups’ responses indicated a big disconnect in terms of what those in charge of device connectivity think is happening, versus what’s actually happening. Info workers reported using 60% of all their PCs and mobile devices for both personal and business use, with only 14% used just for work, and 26% for personal purposes. The numbers indicate a further blurring of the boundaries between personal time, and time spent working. When I.T. departments were asked how many devices were used in their companies, however, only about a third reported that they issued three or more to execs. A quarter reported issuing three or more to I.T. workers, and fewer to other types of workers. But when workers themselves were asked, over half (52%) said they used three or more devices for work purposes. Uh-oh! Some of those are flying under the radar, it seems. So what kinds of devices are these? Well, one-third (33%) of all those reported to be in use were non-Microsoft, and one-quarter of them were mobile. (Forrester counts tablets as “mobile,” for what it’s worth). Explains (exclaims!) Forrester’s Frank Gillett, “Microsoft's share of OS on shipping PCs is still much more than 90% and declining only incrementally in the face of growing Apple Mac share. Microsoft's share of PCs in companies is even higher. But seen through the eyes of the workers, not I.T., Microsoft is down to about two-thrids of the devices they use to get work done.” What’s more, Microsoft’s OS share in the I.T. environment will erode over time, as multi-device use becomes more common. I.T. is slow to respond to changes here, even though they’re already underway. In fact, you could say the same thing about employees’ use of consumer-friendly cloud services, like Dropbox, iCloud, Google Apps, Box.net, and others – services which mobile makes even more accessible. In addition, although we’re hearing a lot about BYOD (“bring your own device”) programs in businesses, it’s still a trend in its very early stages from I.T.’s perspective. Employees today are bringing their own devices largely outside of BYOD programs, Gillett says. While 73% of workers pick their own phone, 53% their own laptop, 22% their own desktop, and 66% their own tablet, significant numbers of workers report paying for the devices themselves. In the case of smartphones, for example, 57% report paying the full price for the device themselves, and 48% report paying full price for their own tablet. BYOD programs, meanwhile, are still low. Only 6% of companies have BYOPC programs in place. 58% expect growth in employees bringing smartphones to work in the next 12 months, whether BYOD-supported or not. I.T.’s slowness in shifting policies to accommodate employee behavior is due to the processes which have been in place for years, including how I.T. budgets are handled, the need to streamline operations, the way device approvals have been handled, security requirements put in place for legal reasons, compliance issues, and more. Employees dictating to I.T. what they’ll be using now (thank you very much), is also such a new concept that’s it still downright laughable in some circles. Imagine! The users think they’re in control! Ha ha ha ha! Well, surprise: they are. And I.T. is in denial about it. This is only one of many examples of what the post-PC era looks like, or at the very least, what how a transition into such an era begins. And to be clear, “post-PC” doesn’t have to mean “no PC.” Maybe it’s not the best turn of phrase to describe it (R.I.P. Steve Jobs). “Post-PC” is about having more devices, and the PC is not the only one that matters.
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| QVC Acquires Personalized E-Commerce Site For Fashion Accessories, Send The Trend Posted: 23 Feb 2012 08:43 AM PST  QVC, a home shopping network and e-commerce site, has acquired Send the Trend, a recently launched e-commerce site that brings personalization to the world of fashion accessories. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Send the Trend had previously raised $3 million from Battery Ventures and Founder Collective. Send the Trend offers its customers personalized, affordable accessories such as fashion jewelry, sunglasses, scarves and more. The site takes you through a very short survey of what kind of accessories you may want, and it then provides stylist-curated customized recommendations for five different accessories for you. You can then buy any of the items for $30, with free shipping included for U.S. customers. As we’ve written in the past, Send The Trend aims to differentiate itself through curation and personalization features. Last year, the startuplaunched MyStyle, which allows you to create an online Send the Trend store filled with your favorite accessories from the site. You can upload your picture, choose the words that describe your style and Send the Trend will pre-select products based on your preferences. You can also manually add items you like to your My Style page. The startup was founded by Divya Gugnani, Mariah Chase and Project Runway winner Christian Siriano. So what does QVC want with Send The Trend? According to the company, QVC’s e-commerce could be paired with Send the Trend's use of customization and personalization. Additionally, Send the Trend will continue to operate as a separate ecommerce site. The New York Post reported a few days ago that the startup was set to be acquired by a TV company but it was unclear who the acquirer was.
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| With Many Eyeballs, All Bugs Are Shallow Posted: 23 Feb 2012 08:30 AM PST  In his seminal work The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Raymond put forward the claim that “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” He dubbed this Linus’ Law, in honor of Linux creator Linus Torvalds. It sounds like a fairly self-evident statement, but as the Wikipedia page points out the notion has its detractors. Michael Howard and David LeBlanc claim in their 2003 book Writing Secure Code “most people just don’t know what to look for.” A new report from the Coverity Scan project today indicates that a great many people do know what to look for, and open source software is at least on par — if not better than! — proprietary software with respect to software defects. The Coverity Scan project evaluated selected open source projects and a number of anonymous proprietary codebases to identify “hard-to-spot, yet potentially crash-causing defects.” The results reinforce Linus’ Law. Coverity’s Scan project began in 2006, at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The DHS noticed the increased adoption of open source projects, and wanted to meaure the overall security and quality of the code. Every year since, Coverity has run their Scan project on different selections of open source projects, including the Linux kernel, and published a report of their findings. The basic analysis of the Scan project is defect density, which is “computed by dividing the number of defects found by the size of the code base in lines of code. The advantage of using defect density is that it accounts for the differing size of software code, which makes defect density figures directly comparable among projects of differing sizes.” The defects identified were limited to "high-impact" and "medium-impact" from Coverity’s Static Analysis scanning suite, which include things like Null Pointer Dereferences, Uninitialized Variables, Memory Corruption, Error Handling, Illegal Memory Access, etc. According to Coverity, within the software industry as a whole a defect density of 1.0 is the average. As you can see from Coverity’s findings, the Linux 2.6 kernel, PHP 5.3, and PostgreSQL 9.1 all have signficantly smaller defect densities. The report provides some good analysis of the numbers, and specifically examines why the Linux kernel has a higher defect density than the other open source projects included in the scan:
It would have been easy to just run the scan and report on the numbers, but that would not have been the complete story. I’m glad to see that Coverity actually investigated the results. Coverity’s 2011 report is the first time they have directly compared open source and proprietary software. Given that the proprietary code included in Coverity’s scan was from anonymous companies, I asked for some details about the industries from which these applications were pulled, as well as how mature and complex the projects may be. According to Zack Samocha, the Scan director, the applications came from “financial services, telecommunications, medical devices, aerospace and defense, industrial automation, automotive” and more. Most of the applications have been under development for 5-10 years, and “are mature applications that are embedded into some of the world's most well known devices and critical systems. For example, software that runs MRI machines, software that runs critical power infrastructure/grid, software used in high frequency trading applications and stock exchanges, etc.” From the report:
Samocha observes that “it is noteworthy that the safety critical industries (auto, medical, aerospace, industrial, power/energy) had a lower defect density than the non safety critical industries (electronics, telco, financial services, software and internet).” The takeaways from the report are clear:
As I said, Linus’ Law in many ways seems self-evident: people who live and breathe open source software have known the truth of the statement for a long time. Coverity’s analysis provides a little objective verification, which is a good thing. Now we just need someone to update the Wikipedia entry for Linus’ Law to cite this report as a counter-argument to its detractors! image credit: IXS_1916 by acme
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| These iOS vs. Android Flame Wars Have To Stop Posted: 23 Feb 2012 08:12 AM PST  I just want to start this out by saying I love you guys. I really do. TechCrunch is lucky enough to have a really smart, well-informed readership which keeps us diligent in our reporting. You guys are also pretty hilarious, and who doesn’t enjoy a good ROFL now and then. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned through the comments section here at TechCrunch, it’s that these Android vs. iOS fanboy flame wars need to stop. How ridiculous, right? How absolutely petty and meaningless are the things we get fired up over? That’s not to say that Android and iOS and their respective hardware counterparts aren’t important. I mean, it could be loosely argued that without the hardware and software (and apps and services) that we spend our lives writing about, the Arab Spring uprisings wouldn’t have been possible. The technology itself can surely make a difference in the world, and of course you should care about that. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the fact that we’re choosing sides (and defending them with zealous rage) in an entirely meaningless war. Now, don’t get me wrong. We at TechCrunch love rivalry. We love Google vs. Microsoft, Apple vs. Samsung, Apple vs. Google, Arrington vs. Arianna, and all the other fun rivalries that spring from this, our field of technology. I honestly can’t even think what the world would look like without them. They are spokes in the ever-turning wheel of our capitalist society, and they’re entertaining as hell to watch play out. When corporations of this size duke it out in ad campaigns or in the courtroom or on store shelves, well that’s what this industry is supposed to look like. And there are other rivalries that are even more fun. The People vs. Netflix price hike was great, as was The People vs. Verizon’s $2 “convenience fee.” It is downright amazing to see a company do a 180-degree turn based on the collective voice of their customers. It’s a beautiful thing. But what’s happening with iOS vs. Android is different. Instead of seeing an epic clash between two companies, or watching a customers-vs.-company saga unfold, we’re seeing customers in Group A join sides with Company A, while Group B joins sides with Company B. Apple and Google are supposed to hate each other, but just because we use their products doesn’t mean we need to hurl hateful, meatless comments at each other. There’s a big difference between a competitive rivalry and a pointless one. Ours is pointless, and for one very good reason: Fanbois, Apple doesn’t give a damn about you. Also, Fandroids, Google doesn’t give a damn about you either. Both companies care about the “us,” but no one individual matters to this or that corporation. And here’s another truth bomb: if you don’t give any substantial reasons for why “Android is better” or “iPhone is better,” then no one else is going to make a decision based on your comment either. So I find it a little bit odd (read: crazy) that we’ve drawn such aggressive lines against each other. If anything, Android makes iOS better and iOS makes Android better. Fierce competition and rivalry is what makes everything better, but we don’t seem to be visualizing the big picture. Instead, we’re saying things like this to each other: Of course, there are plenty of comments that intelligently and constructively argue the pros and cons of each platform. These comments are the reason that all the other (^) reasonless-ly nasty comments don’t make us cry into our keyboards. They also bring up new points for future articles, which is much appreciated. When it comes down to it, though, I’m not your mom. Say what you want. I’d like to think that writing this would calm the storm and we could all start being productive human beings in a smart discussion about the value of each platform. But I doubt that will happen. So all I really want to do is zoom out a little bit. Look at the big picture. People are dying of famine, disease, war; the world is rapidly changing; economies are crumbling and elections are underway. Things are happening that are really deserving of your passion, yet here we are throwing rocks at each other over which phone is better, when it doesn’t make a damn difference anyway. It’s embarrassing and a waste of everyone’s time. I’ll leave you with one of those intelligent and constructive comments I was talking about before:
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| Pseudonymous Mobile Messaging App Vibe Acquired By Betaworks Posted: 23 Feb 2012 08:01 AM PST  Back during the heyday of #OccupyWallStreet in New York City (before winter dispersed most of the protestors there), an iPhone app called Vibe became popular among that community. It allows people to post messages, photos, and videos within a geo-fenced radius—everything from a “whisper” (visible only to people within 165 feet) to a “bellow” (visible worldwide). The messages can be set to expire and users can post with a pseudonym or link the app to their Twitter account. Other users can respond to create a threaded conversation. Vibe is the creation of Hazem Sayed, and his two-person startup was acquired by betaworks last December. Betaworks never announced the deal, but I’ve been able to confirm it. Sayed and at least one other person who worked on Vibe now work at betaworks. The deal was likely in the low six figures, with betaworks now owning a majority of Vibe. The Vibe app is intriguing. Local, pseudonymous communications on your mobile device can be very compelling in the right contexts.But the Vibe app needs some work. For one thing, if you want to see all the “vibes” pinned to amap, you have to download a separate app also created by Sayed called AskLocal. I suspect betaworks is throwing additional engineers at Vibe to improve it beyond its basic concept. Pseudonyms in social networks are coming back in vogue, and they make particular sense for apps used by protestors. There is a culture of pseudonymity on the Web which lets some people open up more than they would otherwise. And being able to shout out to people around you through your mobile phone is something that could become appealing to people other than protestors. I could see the app becoming popular at concerts,sporting events, or even just as a way to pin messages about local stores and restaurants.
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| NPD: Apple Still Leads Tablet Shipments, But The Fight For Second Place Rages On Posted: 23 Feb 2012 08:01 AM PST  Another day, another take on Amazon and Apple duking it out in the tablet market. The data comes from NPD's DisplaySearch wing, and the results don’t come as much of a shock. By their count, Apple is still sitting at the top of the heap, accounting for 59.1% of the tablets shipped in Q4 2011 while Amazon is sitting pretty in second place with 16.7% of tablet shipments under their belt. At first glance, the results seem very similar to those announced by iSuppli this time last week — the only major shift is that iSuppli has book retailer Barnes & Noble slightly ahead of Asus. NPD DisplaySearch brings up an interesting point though — while Apple's shipments grew in all of their markets, Amazon's Kindle Fire and BN's Nook Tablet are currently only available in the United States. Though they occupied third and fourth place respectively in NPD's rankings, both Samsung and Asus were bolstered by solid results from the EMEA markets (that's Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to you and me). Amazon and BN have the potential to pick up even more steam in the tablet space — and potentially throw their competitors into a tizzy — if they can cultivate an international presence. Amazon may have a tougher time than that of their rivals, as the inclusion of their Silk web browser may run afoul of European data protection laws. It seemed for a long time that if a true iPad competitor would appear, a big name like Samsung or Asus would have been behind it. With Amazon firmly ensconced in second place though, they’re quickly becoming an obstacle that these other manufacturers have to surmount before they can claim the silver medal. Takes Barnes & Noble for instance — though they’re not out to own the tablet market like Apple has, they’ve recently taken steps to compete with Amazon on their own price-conscious turf. This by itself may not have Amazon quaking in their boots, but the fact that companies like Samsung and Asus are hard on work on more robust, less expensive tablets certainly should. With the iPad 3 expected to launch sooner rather than later, Apple will likely hang on its crown for a long time to come. Still, there’s plenty of room for the rest of the tablet pack to fight for a strong second place finish, and if recent announcements are any indication, it’s going to be one hell of a fight.
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| Deutsche Telekom’s VC Firm Makes Strategic Investment In Pinger Posted: 23 Feb 2012 08:00 AM PST  For the last few years we’ve been tracking the growth of a service called Textfree, offered by San Jose-based startup Pinger. As the name implies, Textfree has a very attractive value proposition: you sign up, it gives you a free, real, telephone number, and you can send text messages and make phone calls with it free of charge — the service makes most of its money by displaying ads alongside the texts. It’s also massively popular: last month alone, users sent and received a total of 2 billion text messages, and it’s one of the most download iOS apps of all time. Even more impressive is the fact that the vast majority of their efforts have been concentrated in the US alone — Pinger is preparing to sweep across Europe this year. Pinger’s service is potentially disruptive to the telecom world, which is why it’s so notable that the company is now getting in bed with one of the biggest names in the business: it’s raised a $7.5 million funding round led by T Venture, the VC arm of international carrier giant Deutsche Telekom. T Venture’s Investment Director Bernhard Gold will be joining Pinger’s board as part of the deal. The company had raised around $11.5 million prior to this round. So why, given its disruptive nature, is Deutsche Telekom actually supporting Pinger, with plans to look for various partnership opportunities down the line? Pinger CEO Greg Woock sums it up pretty nicely: “They hate us the least”. You see, there are several popular services these days that take advantage of the rise of smartphones and VoIP — like Viber and even Skype — which essentially live ‘on top’ of the carriers, without actually using their traditional ‘minutes’ and SMS allotments (instead, they operate via data connections). The downside to these is that users can only communicate with contacts who also have the service’s client installed (or, in the case of Skype, they can pay extra to get a ‘real’ phone number). Pinger’s Textfree, in contrast, has more in common with the traditional way of doing things. Because you’re given a real phone number when you first sign up, anyone can text or call you without having to download an app themselves. And this traffic doesn’t bypass the carriers’ networks, which means they can still make some money. I spoke with Bernhard Gold, who is leading the investment. He says that at the end of the day, he’s looking to make money with the deal (in other words, this isn’t a purely strategic move), and he thinks Pinger offers a very strong value proposition. But he adds that because Pinger is operating on the carriers’ infrastructure, it stands to be strong as a partner rather than a competitor. Expect to see a number of integrations and partnerships announced in the coming year. Pinger is also testing a promising version of its service in Germany right now, which it plans to roll out more broadly in Europe this year. Because of the way carriers pay each other in Europe, offering a free texting service in Europe is a much trickier affair that it is in the US. But Pinger has figured out a way to encourage users to send and receive an equal number of messages, which negates the costs it would otherwise need to pay.
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| NVIDIA Rebrands The Tegra 3′s Architecture, Wants Everyone To Now Call It A 4-Plus-1 SoC Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:42 AM PST  Nvidia unveiled the Tegra 3 platform last year at Mobile World Congress. Since then the chip has lived its short life mostly misunderstood. You see, it’s a quad-core chip with another 500MHz companion core that handles low-power background tasks — an architecture Nvidia previously called variable symmetric multiprocessing. But that’s a mouthful and likely a bit hard to properly market to consumers. From here on out Nvidia wants the Tegra 3 to be called a 4-Plus-1 chip, m’kay? Nvidia even went as far as trademarking the new name. The fifth so-called companion core is part of the Tegra 3′s popularity. It handles less strenuous tasks while the device it powers is in standby mode. Think of it as a bench player, a sixth man if you will. It’s always ready to jump, handle a bit of defense or sink a three while a starter rests. The Tegra 3′s first birthday is coming up next week at MWC where it will no doubt be commemorated by the announcement of several high-profile smartphone and tablet announcements. There’s nothing like working on your birthday.
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| With New Facebook Integration, Prescreen Relaunches To Make Movie Discovery More Social Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:35 AM PST  So there you are, an independent filmmaker at a top film festival. Your movie is received well, gets some good buzz, but it’s six months before you secure distribution. You’re ready to release, but remember all those people eager to watch the movie six months ago? They’ve gone on to something else. The point is that independent filmmakers have a tough time with marketing and promotion; they don’t have the resources or tools to expand their outreach. Only the big Hollywood studios have the resources to drive enough cross-platform advertising to stir up buzz over their upcoming blockbusters, six months in advance. And, it goes without saying that this isn’t just limited to independent filmmakers, it’s true for musicians, artists, and many more. That’s why early ThePoint/Groupon employee Shawn Bercuson, Zoosk Co-founder John Smart, Dan Rummel, and Lee Wilson launched Prescreen last September — to bring movie lovers an easy way to discover independent films they wouldn’t otherwise and, in turn, give filmmakers, producers, and more a shot at drumming up interest in (and bringing eyeballs to) their work. Prescreen aims to provide independent filmmakers with an alternative to traditional advertising and marketing channels with an on-demand platform that borrows a page from Groupon, serving users with daily emails that feature a particular film that it thinks will strike their fancy. Users can watch trailers of wider range of movies for free, discovering new, curated content, and then purchase the content they want to watch, streaming it on-demand for up to 60 days. Today, Prescreen is getting a makeover in an attempt to boost its social credentials, relaunching with a new social movie discovery experience that features Facebook Open Graph integration. While Prescreen initially targeted independent films, Bercuson tells us that the team doesn’t want to limit Prescreen content just to movies; instead, they’re going after all long-form content, and will begin to add indie-ish stand-up comedy specials, concerts, larger budget movies, and more. Prescreen aims to continue supporting indie movies, focusing on premium content — a more targeted, socially crowdsourced version of Netflix. In the new Prescreen, users signup for free through Facebook Connect to watch free trailers and can bookmark new content with its “add to queue” button (something with which both Netflix and users of the awesome Watch It service will be familiar with) before going on to rent on-demand. And what good would having an early Groupon employee be without offering users the chance to earn rewards and discounts by sharing movies with their friends? Prescreen continues to offer social sharing discounts, as well as daily deal-type offerings when new titles are introduced on the site. With the new Facebook integration, users can now have viewed trailers or queued movies pop up in their Facebook timeline or news feed, and, if their Facebook friends have signed up, users can also view what their friends are watching. Again, it probably now goes without saying, but everyone’s on Facebook — even your cat — and social proof, or influence, has proven to be an effective way to discover new content, travel destinations, music, clothes, etc. that is relevant to you personally. The idea being, who knows you better than your friends? And who’s recommendations do you trust more than a close friend, or loved one? A stranger?! Don’t be ridiculous! Not in the Facebook Era. Thus, allowing users to see what their friends are watching helps them discover titles that are relevant to them, but it’s also a great, organic way for content producers to turn up the buzz on their work. Good old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing, viral-social-graph-style. As to monetization, beyond taking a cut of on-demand sales (the rest goes directly to the content owner), Prescreen also provides content producers with analytics and demographic info related to their content, allowing them to better target their marketing efforts. Those who offer their content exclusively to Prescreen get that stuff for free, and those who are already sharing their content on other sites pay a fee. Prescreen’s model definitely capitalizes on a growing trend among artists, which is to bypass traditional deals with big media, (like going to HBO for a comedian), and offer their content on their own site for a price they choose. This obviously also means they don’t have to deal with profit-sharing. Prescreen could become a go-to resource for artists that want to avoid contracts, losing control of their content and so on. The CEO also tells us that not only are they planning to build a dashboard for content producers (to view analytics, etc.), but they want to expand the role of content curation on the site by bringing in, say, a famous director, who gets to feature his or her favorite indie horror films for a week. This seems like a no-brainer, as it could be a big draw for viewers, and fun for the notables. Obviously, the startup wants to take advantage of the multi-billion dollar industry that is entertainment marketing. Bercuson believes that by offering Facebook integration for viral sharing and by working with content producers to place ads on the site and giving them access to views, demographics, it will be able to boost conversion and get a leg-up on Hollywood, which is still stuck in those CPM models. At least that’s the hope. By tracking views on trailers, and then comparing that to what viewers actually watch, the company will start to get a better sense of how the two correlate — how much/often intent (watching trailers) leads to making a purchase. That’s the key. They can then tweak discounts, flash deals, etc., accordingly, and marketers start to know how best to target, and when. The startup has raised $1 million in seed financing to date, from the likes of Former Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya, Ed Cluss, Auren Hoffman of Rapleaf, Saad Khan of CMEA Capital, and Bercuson himself. They’re also in the process of attempting to build out their advisory board with industry veterans, and already have Blockbuster exec Tim Wesley and IM Global Founder Stewart ford. For more on Prescreen, check them out at home here. And let us know what you think in the comments.
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| Geolocation’s Potential Heats Up With Geoloqi’s Battery-Saving Tech Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:25 AM PST  Geoloqi, a name you may know because of the mobile app that provides automatic Foursquare check-ins and geofenced reminders, is today launching its next-generation location platform as an SDK. Although previously available in API format for developers’ use, the new iOS and Android SDK makes it even easier for developers to drop in location services into their apps, whether those are consumer-facing apps, apps for government, carriers, or the enterprise. The company was founded by Amber Case and Aaron Parecki in 2010 and (awesomely) bootstrapped with hackathon winnings until last June when it received $350,000 in angel backing. But even when one of the co-founders is known as a “cyborg anthropologist,” what makes Geoloqi really interesting is the way it handles location services. That is to say, it handles location intelligently. One of the primary problems with location-tracking apps today is that they have a tendency to drain smartphones’ batteries by always running the GPS in the background, or constantly pinging cell towers. With the Geloqi SDK, however, Case explains that algorithms know when to turn the GPS on and off. For example, if an app is using geofences, it knows that the GPS doesn’t have to constantly be running unless you’re near those geofences, she says. (For the uninitiated, geofences are a new-ish, but still somewhat under-utilized technology that allows events to trigger as you’re passing by a given location. One example of a geofence could be a location-based reminder, like an alert that reminds you to buy milk when you arrive at the grocery store.) After building a sample app (the consumer-facing Geoloqi), Case says that their phone just started ringing. Enterprise, government and even carriers were interested in the technology and were inquiring about a white label version. Although the company wasn’t ready for customers, they eventually let interested parties start using a beta version of Geoloqi early last year. One such customer is TATE, Inc., a company that helps U.S. government personnel overseas, including DoD staff, contractors, and those from other agencies. With Geloqi’s carrier agnostic tech, they’re able to keep their people safe when they’re outside the U.S. using other operator networks. In addition to real-time tracking, Geoloqi’s new SDK also provides access to location-based push messages, geofences, location-based analytics (soon), hosted spatial intelligence, plus support for iOS, Android, Windows and embedded systems. Although the potential for Geloqi’s revenue possibilites lie with its carrier, government and enterprise relationships, such a technology will also help heat up the consumer app space, too, especially when plans start at $19/month (and testing is free). Geoloqi is not alone in hoping to heat up this location services market, however. Other companies, like Urban Airship for example, which acquired SimpleGeo in 2011, will also help bring location-based push messaging to mobile apps. As a potential user of such apps, watching the technology advance is exciting. To date, most of us have been hesitant to use too many GPS-enabled apps, primarily because of the battery drain issues. But if the technology can be pushed forward in a way to reduce the impact on battery life, it could become common for apps to not just remind us and alert us to things, but do so smartly. Imagine coupon and deals apps that could tell you if you’re passing by a place that has a special available, grocery shopping apps that send you your list as you walk in the store, friend-tracking apps whose reminders can be configured by proximity, news apps hyper-targeted to your neighborhood or block, and so on. More details on Geoloqi’s SDK, its pricing and support options are available on the company’s developer site here.
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| Former McAfee CTO Debuts Stealthy Security Technology Startup CrowdStrike With $26M In Funding Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:23 AM PST  George Kurtz, who was formerly the CTO of McAfee, has launched a new security technology company called CrowdStrike. The company is still in stealth mode, but has revealed a $26 million Series A investment from Warburg Pincus (Kurtz was previously an EIR at the private equity firm). Details are still minimal, but as Kurtz explains in a blog post announcing the launch, CrowdStrike is a security technology company focused on helping enterprises and governments protect their most sensitive intellectual property and national security information. CrowdStrike, which was co-founded with Dmitri Alperovitch and Gregg Marston, is trying to use big data mining to help companies and organizations battle cyber-security challenges. Considering Kurtz’s expertise, it’s not surprising that his newest venture involves security. Kurtz joined Warburg Pincus in November 2011, after resigning from McAfee. Kurtz joined McAfee in 2004 when his IT security company Foundstone was acquired by McAfee. Stay tuned for more on CrowdStrike.
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| Swoop Gives Food Websites An Injection Of Local Deals Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:18 AM PST  Swoop, a startup that’s launching today, says it’s giving food websites a new way to convince readers to stick around, and to make some money in the process. CEO Ron Elwell says Swoop’s technology can look at the text of a food website and automatically inject links to local deals when they’re relevant. So, for example, if a site includes a recipe that calls for mayonnaise, Swoop can insert a link at the mention of mayonnaise, and if the reader clicks on it, a small window will open showing any nearby deals on mayonnaise. Users can specify their zip code and which stores they’re interested in seeing deals from, and they can create shopping lists of the items they want. Elwell says Swoop will add more personalization options over time (the company tracks repeat users through cookies). You can see a Swoop-linked site here. Most of this content will be totally free for the stores — Swoop is just trying to aggregate as many local deals as it can, whether they’re pulled from the store’s website, a feed of new deals, or wherever. However, it can also include special ad links. In one example that Elwell showed me, in a recipe calling for black pepper, Swoop added a link touting the health benefits from black pepper’s antioxidants, and clicking on the link brings up an ad for a specific brand. Elwell emphasizes that these ads are a “completely closed system” — they don’t lure visitors away from your page by linking to the advertiser’s website (or to anyone else’s). There are other companies offering to insert advertising or affiliate links into online text. One of the distinctions, Elwell says, is that Swoop isn’t just trying to help publishers make money, but also to bring a “search discovery” experience to their site. After all, one of the most common things for someone to do after viewing an online recipe is to search for places where they can find the ingredients at a low price, so this should be a natural way to keep readers at a website for a longer period of time. Advertising should only be a small percentage of the links that Swoop creates. (Even though the actual execution is pretty different, listening to Elwell talk about his vision reminded me a bit of Apture, a startup that was recently acquired by Google.) For now, Swoop’s service is limited to local offers, but Elwell says it will be adding coupons, Amazon offers, and advertising in the next month or so. He also describes this as a “horizontal” technology, so the company plans to expand beyond food into other areas, like baby and beauty products. The company is looking to work with publishers large and small — for the smaller sites, the company offers a self-serve option where publishers provide a few details then receive JavaScript for their site. As for bigger publishers, the Swoop press release includes a quote from Kristine Walker, chief revenue officer at Hearst (publisher of Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan, among other magazines), who says she’s “excited about how Swoop can integrate with our existing content.” Last fall, Swoop announced a funding round US Venture Partners, Valhalla Partners, and General Catalyst. Elwell tells me the amount raised was $4.8 million.
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| NPD: Apple Still On Top In Mobile PC Shipments, But HP Takes The Cake In Notebooks Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:15 AM PST  The PC industry is in decline, unless of course you count tablets. NPD is apparently doing just that, leaving Apple in the top spot among mobile PC vendors. According to the firm, Apple shipped nearly 23.4 million mobile PCs in the fourth quarter of 2011, which is 128 percent year-over-year growth. Cupertino shipped over 62.8 million mobile PCs over the entirety of 2011, representing 132 percent year-over-year growth. Of course, these numbers include the iPad, which makes it easy to understand why the rest of the pack is so far behind. The company shipped more than 18.7 million iPads in Q4, which means that nearly 80 percent of its mobile PC shipments can be attributed to the tablet. Apple shipped 48.4 million units in 2011, up 183 percent year-over-year. This left Apple with a 26.6 percent share in the industry, and three times as many units shipped as the next mobile PC vendor in line: HP. Speaking of HP, the company shipped 8.7 million units to take a 9.9 percent share. Meanwhile, Dell, Acer, and Lenovo rounded out the top five shipping between 6 and 7 million units each, and maintaining approximately a 6 percent share of the market. But the story changes when we’re talking about notebooks. The iPad can’t do anything to help Apple there. HP, on the other hand, takes the lead on notebooks shipping 8.7 million units in Q4, representing a 15.5 percent market share. Dell trails behind with an 11.8 percent share after shipping 6.7 million units, while Acer rounds out the top three also holding an 11.8 percent share and shipping 6.6 million units. Lenovo comes in fourth with 6.1 million units shipped (a 10.8 percent market share), and Apple falls into fifth shipping 4.6 million units and taking an 8.3 percent share.
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| Android Overtakes iOS In App Downloads In U.K., Germany, Russia. U.S. To Follow Next Month Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:07 AM PST  With Android accounting for the majority of smartphones worldwide at the moment, it’s finally also starting to become the most dominant player in apps, too. Figures out today from analytics firm Xyologic note that Android now accounts for the majority of downloads in the U.K., Germany and Russia, and predicts that the U.S. will be the next to go Google in either March or April. This is a sea change from months past, when Apple – the early mover in apps – has always dominated in app download activity, despite the fact that it has been trailing other platforms in terms of users. Xyologic says that this now means that Android is dominating in nine different countries in app downloads, representing a mix of advanced and still-developing markets. In addition to the U.K., Germany and Russia, Android became the dominant platform in Czech Republic, Poland and Portugal in August 2011; it took over in Brazil in October and Spain in November. In all three markets named today, the gap between Apple and Android is fairly big: the U.K. had 90.9 million app downloads for iOS, with 99.1 million for Android. Germany saw 59.5 million app downloads for iOS and 64.9 million on Android; and Russia had 38.4 million iOS downloads with 41.9 million for Android. In terms of which apps fare the best: Xyologic says Facebook is still dominating as the most popular app in the U.K., with 1.2 million downloads, with U.K. users in general favoring non-U.K.-specific apps. Of the top 100, in fact, only seven came from the U.K. market – within those, the Sky Sports Football app from broadcaster Sky was the most popular. Perhaps because of the language issue, in Germany, there was more interest in local content, with 16 apps in the top 100 local apps. And in Russia even more so, with seven of the top 20 apps in Russian. Russia was the only country, in fact, that had a native-language app as the most popular download of all. It’s a joke collection, “Anekdoty.” What this research doesn’t point out is how many of these apps are paid versus free on each platform, and what kind of an impact that has on downloads. Interestingly, separate research from Canalys, also out today, found that on average, Android apps cost more than iOS apps. In the U.S., it would cost $374.37 to buy the top 100 paid apps on Android (working out to $3.74 per app), compared to $147 on iOS (or $1.47 per app). Moreover, in the U.S. App Store, 82 of the top 100 paid apps cost $0.99 each, while only 22 meet that price in the Android Market.
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| Along With New Look, Apps, Astrid Now Lets You Outsource Tasks To TaskRabbit Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:00 AM PST  If you’re an iPhone user, you may not be as familiar with Astrid, which has turned into one of the most popular “to-do,” list-making apps for Android. We first wrote about Astrid when it joined thirteen other startups that composed AngelPad’s second batch. Astrid’s value proposition was simple: Offer users a clean, easy-to-use interface to enable sharing and collaboration around tasks. Other services have now come along to make this a familiar service, but the goal was for groups (businesses) to be able to assign tasks to each other, and broadcast to the group when those tasks are completed. In the big picture, Astrid was conceived to be a social way to encourage friends and colleagues to help tackle your to-do list, from sending memos to buying your mom a Mother’s Day present. A year removed from AngelPad, Astrid has moved across platforms, as the startup now offers a mobile site, Android, and iOS apps, with a Windows Phone app on the way. But, what some may not know is that Astrid was started as a side-project by co-founder Tim Su, then a software engineer at Palantir Technologies. Su was joined by co-founder Jon Paris, and the two launched Astrid on the Android Market when it was still young, back in the fall of 2008. Collectively, the team were early adopters and proponents of Android, says Paris, but like so many others, they moved on to focus on building for iOS and other platforms. But, today, Astrid is officially returning to the platform on which it got its start, launching a new version of its service for Android tablets, accompanying a complete redesign for Android phones that features streamlined design and a new set of integrations aimed at helping users be more productive. More specifically, Astrid’s new app for Android tablets can be used independently, or synced with Android phones, iOS, and Astrid.com. The app is available now for the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom, and will be made available in the next week for Kindle Fire through the Amazon App Store. The goal here, Paris says, is to make the UX easy for new users to adopt and learn without disrupting the experience of those using older versions. And, to that point, the CEO tells us that Astrid has helped people complete over 30 million tasks and has racked up 3 million downloads across platforms. Yet, while Astrid is one of the most downloaded paid to-do apps in the Android Marketplace, the startup is today launching a new revenue stream via integration with TaskRabbit. Astrid has long offered users the ability to share tasks with family and friends, but, as part of its new look, users can now outsource individual to-dos to TaskRabbit, the fast-growing personal assistant that lets users list errands or tasks that needed to be completed in its marketplace. For those unfamiliar, it’s basically an on-demand delivery network for outsourced tasks. Astrid is also now offering users the ability to view suggestions/ideas through integrated search with Amazon and Google, for the simple reason that many of us start their tasks with a Google search before popping over to Amazon to make a purchase. Again, in case it’s unclear, what Astrid is trying to do here is match to-dos and tasks with products and services that help get them done, a la TaskRabbit and Amazon. Paris says that he thinks this can be a win-win for both eCommerce retailers (and startups like TaskRabbit), as Astrid’s users are inherently people with full plates, looking to manage their tasks and lighten the loads. And eCommerce sites now get the benefit of getting traffic from people that are more likely to buy. In the case of TaskRabbit, for every user that ends up purchasing help on the site, for every transaction, Astrid takes a cut. Paris — and he’s not alone — believes that the to-do list space is understandably a potential goldmine for purchase intent, something that has been supported by the interest around Pinterest and its related monetization path. Clearly Gmail set the stage for crawling what is considered personal and sensitive information (your inbox) and matching it to related ads. Astrid is basically doing the same, serving up related ads when you search within the app for products/services that help you check off your tasks, but the CEO says that he understands the personal nature of to-dos, so users can turn off this new feature. Although not totally analogous, given what happened to Path, transparency in these situations is definitely advisable. As to what’s next, Paris mentioned that they are working with TaskRabbit to provide additional features around outsourcing your task list. A lot of people don’t know which of their tasks to outsource to other people, so the team is expecting to offer the ability for its users to post their task lists on TaskRabbit and let other users flag all the items that they can help with. Beyond that, the startup is also considering adding a premium version of the service, and is embarking on its mission to raise its Series A. (It raised a seed round back in July of last year from Google Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and a few angel investors.) As the collaborative economy heats up, and startups like TaskRabbit gain traction, it behooves services like Astrid to take group collaboration and task assigning outside its own walls, to the marketplaces that specialize in that kind of commerce. That can potentially be a lucrative relationship for both parties, though that remains to be seen. Along with a refreshed look for Android, adding subtasks to its service is another bonus. And, hey, now the 10 people that have Android tabs get to use Astrid 4.0, too. (Just kidding.) For more on Astrid, check it out at home here.
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| Twilio Client iOS SDK Puts VoIP In Any App, Turning iPads Into Call Centers Posted: 23 Feb 2012 06:59 AM PST  Cheap international calls, mobile gaming with simultaneous voice chat, distributed call centers. Developers can create these and more with Twilio’s voice client iOS SDK that launches publicly today. The software development kit allows any iOS app to send and receive voice calls over 3G or Wi-Fi for a fraction of the price of traditional calling. I was actually briefed by Twilio over an iOS conference call app powered by the SDK (very cool), but the real fun begins when developers start surprising us with VoIP apps too crazy or disruptive to predict. Twilio’s iOS SDK is such a doorway to innovation because it makes voice calling affordable for a much wider range of users. Traditional voice calls in the US cost 2 cents per minute, and in Europe can cost as much as 14 cents per minute. VoIP calls made through Twilio iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch SDK apps cost just 1/4 cent per line per minute, which developers can shoulder or pass on to their users. Apps can call any standard or Twilio number and be instantly connected. If users want friends to be able to recognize them through caller ID when they reach out through an app, they can verify their number. The Twilio client for web browsers was released in late June, but the iOS SDK’s product manager Thomas Schiavone tells me “that got a lot of mobile devs saying ‘what about me?’” The iOS SDK has been in beta testing for the last few months. In the meantime, Twilio raised a $17 million Series C round, and began expanding its web voice API across Europe. Here are the first types of apps you can expect to see built on the Twilio iOS SDK:
Twilio-powered apps could undercut today’s call center solutions — an industry where enterprises spend billions a year on expensive hardware and voice calling. Existing clients like Salesforce and eBay could use Twilio-powered apps to slash call center overhead A new wave of Android telecom apps won’t be far behind. Twilio is launching the beta of its Android voice client SDK today as well, and next will beef up its native mobile app APIs with SMS and video functionality.
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| Facebook Ad Partner Experian Launches New Platform For Timeline, Sponsored Stories Posted: 23 Feb 2012 06:51 AM PST  As we approach the date for Facebook's meet-up with brands and marketers in New York, here’s another development in the world of Facebook that points to growing sophistication around social advertising. Techlightenment, a division of Experian and Facebook's first partner when it launched APIs for ads in 2010, has now upgraded its Alchemy platform to work more closely with Facebook's Timeline and Sponsored Stories features, a move that also puts the platform in position for any future advertising developments that Facebook has in store. Alchemy's MD, Will Ashton, tells us that it has already migrated all of its current clients — around 200 major brands and agencies internationally — to the new platform, and today it is opening it up for business to newcomers. The platform has been designed to work with the newer advertising features that Facebook has been adding to the network, and, by many expectations, will be expanding even further — potentially into areas like mobile — possibly as soon as the end of this month. Social media marketing is a still-nascent area of digital advertising, but it is one that is growing quickly, not least because of Facebook. According to figures from Econsultancy, 70 percent of marketers say they plan to increase their budgets for social media in 2012. But that number could be dented by the fact that at the moment 40 percent of those investing in social advertising have not been able to measure the effect of that ad spend well enough. That is where Alchemy "2" comes in: the company says that some of the features include the ability to create "thousands" of customized Facebook ads in 30 minutes, with real-time feedback on how the campaign is performing with users; and the ability to be flexible with budgets based on how that campaign is performing in new features like the Timeline. The killer statistic for signing on to advertise in the new formats, though, seems to be this: Ashton claims that brands that have launched campaigns through Sponsored Stories have seen twice as much engagement (that is, more click-throughs) from users than ads that "run on the right side of the screen." It helps that they are in your line of sight, of course, but equally important, says Ashton, is that the rise of Sponsored Stories has made marketers more aware of what they should be doing to get users to respond. "It's about harmonizing ad strategies with content," he says. Ashton acknowledges that as a partner to Facebook, his company may know a little more about what the social network might do next, but he would not be drawn out on what that might be. However, he's firmly of the belief that if mobile is a part, brands will come running: "Within Facebook's user base, a lot are using mobile," he pointed out. Facebook itself noted in the S-1 that around 425 million of its 845 million monthly users are accessing on mobile. "Advertisers are naturally interested in what will happen there."
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