Google Glass is arriving soon, with lucky Explorer program members getting their devices soonish, with units rolling off the production line right now, but you can find out right now what kind of hardware specs the gadget has thanks to a Google Glass support doc. The display is said to be equivalent to viewing a 25-inch HD display from eight feet, the camera captures 5 megapixel stills and 720p video, there’s 16GB of flash memory, of which 12GB are usable, and it has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on board. It’s kind of weird talking about what Google Glass has inside, since there’s nothing to compare it to in terms of a broader device category. Phones are easy to stack up; we know roughly what constitutes a high-end or a mid-market device at any given time, and you can check the specs of a new handset and say it’s either deficient, adequate or above average based on those standards. But with Glass, is 16GB of storage paltry or plenty? No 802.11n Wi-Fi? Do I care? So many questions. Other key specs include confirmation that it’ll use a Bone Conduction Transducer to deliver audio, which eliminates the need for earbuds, and the built-in battery should last for around a full day of use, just like your average smartphone, though shooting video and participating in Google Hangouts might be extra taxing. It also ships with a Micro USB cable and charger, and Google advises that users stick with the included adapter, instead of just any USB wall wart, for improved long-term Glass battery life. Apple sparked a trend in computing of focusing more on the experience than on the specs, and nowhere will that be more true than with Google Glass, which has precious little in the way of precedent. The software (including the MyGlass companion app for Android) will be key, but it’s still cool to see what kind of guts Google is packing into its grand Glass experiment.
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The TV remote control will not die. And that’s a good thing. Try as they might, startups have yet to provide a true remote control replacement. A dedicated remote is like a trusty pickup truck: It might not be the best looking vehicle but it gets the job done with little fuss. But even though dedicated remotes probably won’t be replaced, that doesn’t mean smartphone apps can’t supplement their existence. Harmony Ultimate, packs the standard Logitech’s Harmony brand has long turned out some of the very best universal remote controls. Their latest, the affair of hardware including a multitude of buttons, touchscreens, and easy setup through Harmony’s web-based interface. However Logitech also made this $349 system compatible with its Logitech Harmony Smartphone apps, allowing smartphones to fill in when the remote control inevitably goes AWOL. Or, if you just prefer to use a smartphone altogether, the company also just announced the $129 Logitech Harmony Smart Control, a system that puts the smartphone as the primary controller (like the old Harmony Link) but also includes a small physical remote for backup (below left). Both systems are compatible with nearly every home entertainment device ever made including game systems (besides the Xbox 360) and the Philips Hue lighting system. Using IR blasters and your home’s WiFi network, devices can be controlled from the remote or smartphone even when they’re packed away out of sight. With the rise of the smartphone, many technology pundits put the venerable remote on death watch. But it’s still here. Many smart TVs can now be controlled through a smartphone, but most cable boxes and entertainment systems require extra hardware like the Harmony Smart Control or Griffin’s Beacon. I’ve owned and tested about a dozen high-end universal remote controls starting with an original Harmony before the company was purchased by Logitech. I’ve also tried most of the iOS remotes but find using my smartphone (or tablet) clunky and not nearly as intuitive as a physical remote. A remote control, while often a mind-boggling mess of buttons, is still the best way to control a complex home entertainment system and mindlessly channel surf on lonely Saturday nights. The Harmony Ultimate will hit stores in the U.S. and Europe this month for $349. The Harmony Smart Control will drop in May for $129.
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Spring has arrived in New York City. The sun is out (besides today). The snow is finally gone. It’s time to shed the winter layers and head outside. And in the spirit of spring, we want to give one of our readers a ticket to Disrupt NY and the ultimate outdoor toy: A Parrot AR Drone 2.0. Disrupt NY kicks off later this month. The lineup is stellar and we have a new venue. The hackathon and conference will be housed in the Manhattan Center, located conveniently in midtown with plenty of access to public transit. Tickets are still available but we’re giving you a chance to win one right here. The winner of this giveaway will walk away with one ticket to Disrupt NY (valued at $2,995) and one Parrot AR Drone 2.0 ($299.95). Want a shot to win? Follow the steps below. 1) Become a fan of our TechCrunch Facebook Page: 2) Then do one of the following: Retweet this post (making sure to include the #TCDisrupt hashtag), or Leave us a comment below telling us something fun – anything! The contest will start now and ends April 22nd at 7:30pm PT. Please only tweet or comment once, or you will be disqualified. We will make sure you follow the steps above and choose our winner once the giveaway is over. Please note the winner will only receive one (1) free Disrupt ticket, and it does not include airfare or hotel. Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here sponsors@techcrunch.com.
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San Francisco-based Boreas Gear, Inc. is funding its latest product through Kickstarter, in an attempt to build a modular pack system that provides three bags in one. If you’re a bag enthusiast like myself (that might not be a real thing but I still have tons of them) then you’ll appreciate the idea of a simple system that makes it easy to covert a single frame into a daypack, waterproof bag and simple hydration/light carry bag quickly and easily. The SF-based team founded Boreas Gear in 2010, with the intent of designing packs centered around versatility and good design. Founder and Creative Director Tae Kim has a design background and grew up in Alaska, where he spent plenty of time in the great outdoors. The bootlegger is designed to be the perfect companion for a whole host of outdoor activities. Besides offering the three different pack configurations, it also boasts something called “Super-Tramp Suspension” which uses pull-straps to shift the weight carried in the pack either closer to or farther away from the back, making it possible to adjust it perfectly for either hiking or biking on the fly. If you’ve owned a specialized biking pack, then you know that the added breathing room can really come in handy, especially on longer rides. The Super-Tramp Suspension system can then be used interchangeably with three pack tops, including the Torpedo, the Hopper and the Scrimshaw. The Torpedo is a lightweight hydration pack, which can be outfitted with a water bladder to keep you from getting thirsty on long rides or trail runs without adding too much weight. The Hopper is a daypack that has plenty of room for a lunch and gear for a full day on the mountain and the Scrimshaw is a completely submersible waterproof bag, perfect for rain, snow, or use in watersports like canoeing or kayaking. The system is designed to be used either with any individual bag or with all three, and the project has already blown past its $10,000 funding goal. Boreas Gear has been designing and manufacturing packs for years now, so there’s relatively little risk in terms of the company delivering on its planned July ship date. Pledges for bags start at $65 for the frame + a single pack and range up depending on what options you’re interested in.
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I was fortunate enough to spend a solid chunk of my adolescence strapped into an ill-fitting vest and shooting lasers at friends of mine, but a group of technically minded youngsters and their mentors in southern California didn’t just want to play laser tag. No, the crew at San Diego-based ThoughtSTEM wanted to whip up a (slightly) more subtle laser tag system of their own, and they’re just about there — now they’ve kicked off a Kickstarter campaign to help bring it to market. The wearable sensor the team has cobbled together is rather neat if only because of how unobtrusive it’s meant to be. Rather than go with a traditional (and bulky) vest, ThoughtSTEM has instead put together a small PCB that’s meant to be worn under a layer of clothing so all that’s visible are the six LEDs that change colors to display your remaining hit points. For better or worse, you won’t have to lug around any plastic guns either. The sensors on the wearable unit can be triggered by any gadget that can emit infrared pulses at 38kHz, which means most of the remote controls currently cluttering up your living room will probably do the trick. That also means that with a little hackery, you could probably rig up a more traditional IR gun without too much trouble (there seems to be more than a few people who’ve already tried doing just that). Alright fine, it may lack the panache that come with some more expensive, elaborate setups, but it’s a very neat first project for a crew of savvy young students and their college-age mentors. All told, the ThoughtSTEM team is looking for $10,000 in funding to improve the design of the wearable PCBs and produce them on a larger scale, as well as put together an online storefront to sell them from. $75 will net you a fully assembled target unit, but if you’re willing to apply some of your own elbow grease you can pick up the schematics and a pre-programmed processor for $25, or a bag full of parts for $49. While the proceeds of the Kickstarter campaign will help lock down the particulars of production, ThoughtSTEM aims to funnel whatever future money they make into the program’s coffers so those SoCal mentors continue to run workshops and summer camp programs for tech-savvy middle school and high school kids.
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Move over HAPIfork. Estonian startup Jomi Interactive is cooking up a pair of smart devices that will remind people to drink more water. Or at least whatever liquid/poison of choice you put in your water bottle. The aim, says the startup, is to encourage healthy behaviour and counteract the mild dehydration we are all apparently afflicted with. No, not just hungover folk; everyone who fails to glug down the requisite 2.5-3 litres of water per day. Jomi is prototyping a device — or rather two devices — that aim to fix the problem of having plentiful water on tap but never remembering to drink enough of it (perhaps the ultimate #firstworldproblem). So far, Jomi has created design prototypes and 10 milled PCBs for developers to play around with but no final product. It’s bootstrapping development but will be launching a crowdfunding campaign to fund a production run once it has finalised hardware design and testing. The two devices it’s planning are the Jomi Band, which will be the more basic of the pair (pictured above in an early design concept render, and below right in prototype form). This will attach around a water bottle and remind the user at pre-set intervals to take a sip (presumably by flashing/beeping). The second more pro product — the Jomi Sleeve — will attach to the bottom of the bottle and, in addition to reminders, will periodically weigh the bottle, to figure out how much water is being consumed. The data will then be sent via Bluetooth to a mobile/tablet app so that pro users can geek out over graphs and charts showing their beverage consumption data (and share their relative ‘liquidity’ with friends). What specifically does the device hardware consist of? “PCB is custom built, it features an accelerometer, MCU, LEDs, and a few other bits and pieces,”  Jomi founder and CEO Andre Eistre tells TechCrunch. Although he stresses they are still at an early stage, with the hardware set to shrink — and the design to be reworked. The software will be open to other developers to hack around with it — so perhaps another app could be made to warn alcoholic beverage drinkers when they have reached a daily safe unit intake level. (Or track soft drink guzzlers’ sugar intake and chart their rising risk of Type 2 diabetes.) “Designers (from Estonian Arts Academy) are working on the next version of the design model and the design is expected to change drastically over the next few weeks,” he says. “Right now we are focusing on hardware (revision 3) and embedded software of the device… The hardware isn’t final either — it will be a lot smaller than that. Software will be open source — we want people to have fun with the device.” Eistre says Jomi will 3D-print new silicone molds for the first test batch — due to be handed out to a test group by the end of this month. After that it will be turning to Kickstarter to get the funding ball rolling for a first production run, as it continues product development. The target market for the devices are 20- to 40-year-old health conscious U.S. consumers who have  a penchant for gadgets — the sort of folk who likely own a Fitbit or Fuelband. Jomi is partnering for testing the market in Europe with bottle maker KOR water, and is hoping to get similar companies in the U.S. interested. ”Our intended target market is the U.S., where we would like to secure deals with a few larger water vessel producers, like Sigg, Gobble, CleanKanteen, CamelBak, etc,” Eistre says. It’s also making the most of Estonia’s startup-friendly environment, securing help and small bits of funding (totalling around €8,000/$10,500 to date) from a variety of domestic companies to keep development costs down. For instance, Eistre says the hardware development costs have been completely funded by local electronic design firm Hedgehog. Other Estonian companies and organisations that have kicked in free services/grants include Trinidad Consulting, 7Blaze, Velvet Creative Alliance and — quelle surprise — local water company Tallinna Vesi. Jomi is also down to the last eight (out of a starter pool of 100 original “best business ideas”) in Estonia’s “largest entrepreneurial competition” — Ajujaht (aka “brain hunt”) – which has a €50,000 prize for the winner. Jomi’s water-measuring gizmos can be put into a category (connected objects/the Internet of things) that looks set to explode over the coming years, as more everyday objects are augmented with data-generating sensors, and that data is in turn funnelled into the Internet’s matrix via smartphones and home routers.
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Do you suffer from “sore elbows, wrists and hands from having to hold small and awkward shapes?” Have you found that “products are confusing to impossible to control?” Do you know what a phthalates is and are you embarrassed by the packaging of your favorite personal massager products? Has Revel Body got a product for you. This crowdfunded project aims to make your alone time (or time spent with friends) more rewarding. The product, essentially a sonic vibrator, is designed for ladies and, presumably, men. The team, led by Robin Elenga, has created a high-frequency system for offering a better “buzz” during those moments when you’re visiting the Palms Hotel. The product offers “50 percent more power” and “400 percent vibration range” and reduces the vibrations felt in the hand and focuses those vibrations on sore muscles and/or your vagina. The product uses a resonating motor to offer a larger range of vibration speeds and sensations and it’s shaped like a tennis ball to reduce the strain on wrists and other body parts. It’s run on a rechargeable battery that connects to any USB port and offers nearly silent operation, unlike similar linear-motor-powered vibrators. Because it doesn’t exactly look like a traditional vibrator you could even put it in a place of honor on your bedside table or office desk. The vibrator comes (to your house) for a pledge of $140. You can get two for $220. They are hoping to raise $50,000 and are nearly there so they just need that extra push to get them over the edge. I suppose, given the circumstances, we should probably help them out.
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One to 1.2 million Raspberry Pi microcomputers have shipped since the device’s launch just over a year ago but where in the world are they located? While it’s impossible to say exactly where* each Pi has ended up, the vast majority of the devices sold to-date have shipped to developed nations — including the U.S. and the U.K. But the potential of the Pi as a low cost learning-focused computing platform for developing countries remains very exciting. Last week the U.K.-based Pi Foundation blogged about a volunteer group that had taken a suitcase-worth of Pis to a school in rural Cameroon where they are being used to power a computer class. At $35 apiece, and even $25 for the Model A Pi, the Pi does a lot to break down the affordability barrier to computing — although it still requires additional peripherals (screen, keyboard, mouse) to turn it into a fully fledged computer terminal. Asked about the global sales distribution of the Pi, the Foundation provided TechCrunch with some “very rough”, internal estimates of Pi sales to developing/emerging nations — and the figures (listed below) suggest that the first million+ Pi sales have overwhelmingly been powered by wealthier nations. The most Pi-populous country on the developing/emerging nations list (India) can lay claim to roughly 0.5%-0.6% of total global Pi sales to-date, according to this data. While, collectively, these listed nations make up between only 1.4% and 1.7% of total global Pi shipments. So more than 98% of the Pi pie has been sold to the world’s wealthiest countries thus far. India 6000 Indonesia 1200 Lao P.Dem.R. 600 Malaysia 3400 Philippines 500 Pakistan 100 Sri Lanka 50 Thailand 2000 Vietnam 500 Egypt 150 South Africa 2000 Tunisia 200 Zimbabwe 50 Bolivia 100 Chile 400 Colombia 20 Peru 50 There are also, of course, scores of (apparently) Pi-less developing nations that do not make this list at all. One of which – the Kingdom of Bhutan — does actually have a princely one Pi sale to its name at present, according to the Foundation. “It’s a server for Khan Academy Lite in a school, whose 64GB SD card costs more than twice what the Pi cost,” the Foundation’s Liz Upton tells TechCrunch. “We’re working on getting more out there!” It’s likely that some of the Pis shipped to developed countries have found their way to less wealthy nations – via charities and other ‘suitcase schemes’ such as the Cameroon school project mentioned above which took out 30 Pis. Or via individual buyers seeking to avoid high import tariffs that can push up the price of bulk commercial imports (such as in Brazil). But even factoring in some extra spread, there’s no doubt the Pi is predominantly disrupting the living rooms and schools of the developed world. Which, it should be noted, was the original ambition of the Pi founders — specifically they wanted to get more U.K. kids coding, following a national slump in interest in computer science education. But the Pi’s unexpected popularity has generated additional momentum for the project — and even grander geographical ambitions. “We’re weighted very strongly towards the developed world,” admits Pi founder Eben Upton, when he sends the data, but he says that this spread — or rather concentration — is something the Foundation is keen to work on. “A major challenge for us this year is to find ways of making Pi more available, and more appealing, in these [developing/emerging] markets,” he says. The Pi hardware seems to offer huge potential to the developing world — being cheaper than most mobile phones, let alone most smartphones — the other device touted as the likely first computing experience for connecting the “next billions” to the Internet. The Pi is also cheaper than another Linux-based low cost learning-focused computing project: the one laptop per child’s XO laptop. And it has an advantage over general Linux PCs or Android tablets in being conceived and supported as first and foremost a learning environment, making it well-suited to push into schools. As for low cost PCs in general, the netbook category — still more expensive than Pi — is facing extinction by 2015, according to analyst IHS iSuppli, which has put out a forecast today predicting zero netbook shipments within two years, and just 3.97 million units globally this year. As the traditional desktop PC declines, it’s great to see the rise of a new computing device that, unlike the slick consumer tablets du  jour, is intended to encourage hacking, tinkering and learning about hardware and software, rather than passive consumption of prepackaged apps — in the best tradition of the home computer. And a device which also, thanks to its tiny price-tag, has such huge disruptive potential. So here’s hoping a lot more of the next million+ Pis end up very far from home indeed. *At the time of writing, the Rastrack map, a project to get Pi-owners to report the location of their Pi and plot the owner locations on a map, was not accessible. The map is used in the feature image at the top of this post, showing a snapshot of self-reported Pi distribution in May last year
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T-Mobile is kicking off its official sales of the iPhone 5 today, marking the first time the U.S.’ fourth largest carrier has offered an Apple smartphone. Thanks to T-Mo’s new Uncarrier plans, the iPhone 5 can be had starting at just $99, with two years of $20 monthly payments to cover the balance, or for free if you’re switching from another carrier and bring a device in for trade. So far, so good, according to reports of lines forming at retail stores for a phone that’s now over six months old. BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk tweeted the photo above of a line at a location this morning, and reports on Twitter suggest that small lines are forming at various locations around the U.S. Our own intern Michael Seo said there was a small one outside the T-Mobile store near our New York offices when he came into work this morning. The appetite for the T-Mobile iPhone is good news for both Apple and the small carrier. T-Mobile’s existing potential reach only represents around 26.1 million total additional subscribers for Apple (a smaller percentage of which are realistically potential iPhone 5 buyers). That’s not a huge number in global subscriber terms, but it does give Apple room to expand its smartphone dominance in the U.S., and could provide it a late-stage bump for the iPhone 5, which is going to face increasing pressure from new competing flagship devices like the Samsung Galaxy S4. T-Mobile has consistently been left out of launch day hype surrounding the release of Apple’s iPhone, with the carrier relegated to watching from the sidelines as AT&T, Sprint and Verizon locations saw customers queue for the iPhone 5 back in September, so it’s probably very happy to see lines form with this launch. Combined, the iPhone 5 and the carrier’s new model could lure away quite a few switchers, but we’ll have to wait and see if that impacts the overall distribution of U.S. wireless customers in any significant way.
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HTC promised it would be spending more on marketing efforts to ditch the “quietly brilliant” tagline and come up with something with more pop, but it couldn’t have gone much worse than the video above. Kudos to signing on Dawson’s Creek and Internet meme star James Van Der Beek, but -1,000 for making such little use of his comedic talents in this dismal Bachelor parody. To his credit, Van Der Beek gets the only almost funny moments in the whole embarrassing affair (around the 1:50 mark) but even the under-appreciated lead from The Rules of Attraction can’t make up for what is really a desperately unfunny script based on an exceedingly painful premise. Matt recently wrote that making the perfect smartphone with The One isn’t enough for HTC – it has to nail the marketing game, which rival Samsung has actually gotten pretty good at. The One with James Van Der Beek at least indicates HTC is stepping up to the plate, but this is a big, big whiff and we’re down to the bottom of the last inning. I may actually have preferred HTC “quietly brilliant” than “loudly unfunny.”
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The freemium kids’ app party that has seen some parents left with hefty bills because of their kids’ use of games could be heading for a sticky end — at least in the U.K. The Office of Fair Trading has announced a six-month investigation into whether children are being “unfairly pressured or encouraged to pay for additional content in ‘free’ web and app-based games”. The OFT says in a press release that it cannot identify the companies that are subject to investigation but a spokesman confirmed to TechCrunch  it is contacting Apple and Google as part of this process — being the proprietors of the two largest app stores: the iTunes App Store and Google Play. Once the investigation has concluded — and if the OFT is  unhappy with what it learns and the discussions it’s had — the spokesman said it “can seek legal undertakings from court”.  Companies subsequently ignoring any court directions could face “an unlimited fine”, he added. The OFT is concerned that developers are designing children’s content to deliberately encourage kids to make payments after the initial free download/access. It’s not citing any examples or naming any problematic apps at this point but it’s not hard to find instances that are likely to have triggered the  investigation — such as the five-year-old British boy who accidentally made in-app purchases totalling £1,700 in 15 minutes playing  Zombies vs Ninja. Or the British six-year-old girl who amassed a £900 bill in half an hour on the My Little Pony app. The OFT points out that “direct exhortations” (ie strong encouragement) to children to make purchases themselves, or ask another adult to do something that results in a purchase, are unlawful under the Consumer Protection (from Unfair Trading) Regulations 2008. The sort of in-app purchases that might fall foul of the regulation could include membership, virtual currency/rewards, additional levels, faster gameplay and additional game features, it added. The OFT said it has written to companies that are offering free web or app-based games asking for information on in-game marketing to children. It is also asking for parents and consumer groups to contact it with information about “potentially misleading or commercially aggressive practices they are aware of in relation to these games”. The  spokesman said the  aim of the investigation is to get more “clarity” about the digital market for kids’ games, and the sorts of behaviours/mechanics apps are utilising, by talking to games developers, app stores, parents and consumer groups. The investigation will also specifically consider whether the full cost of games aimed at children is being made clear when they are downloaded/accessed. ”The information [gathered during the investigation] will be used to understand business practices used in this sector, to establish whether consumer protection regulations are being breached and if so what the consumer harm is,” the OFT said today, adding that it “expects to publish its next steps by October 2013″. The  spokesman stressed that the OFT hopes to be able to solve any issues uncovered through “conversations” with the various companies involved — including Apple and Google — rather than taking the court route . ”We hope this is going to be resolved by talking to the big companies,” he added. Google declined to comment on the investigation when contacted by TechCrunch. At the time of writing Apple had not responded to a request for comment. Both Google’s and Apple’s app stores require developers to sign developer agreements in order to successfully submit apps, and both have been known to remove content that violates these developer guidelines — so app stores are already in the app policing business. Google’s Play Store developer guidelines include the following (vague) stipulation, for instance, that could potentially be used to boot freemium kids’ apps that are misleading about the potential costs: Developers must not mislead users about the applications they are selling nor about any in-app services, goods, content or functionality they are selling. Apple does more policing of its store than Google, with iOS developers required to submit apps for approval prior to publication on the store. “We review all apps to ensure they are reliable, perform as expected, and are free of offensive material”, Apple notes on its developer site,  warning app makers to: “Before submitting your new or updated apps for review, check out the latest App Store Review Guidelines and Mac App Store Review Guidelines.” There are  also signs that Cupertino has been looking more closely at some of the problems posed by having kids interact with apps. Earlier this month it relocated age ratings from the bottom of app listings on its store, to the top near the title where they are easier for parents to spot. This change is likely to have been triggered by concerns about apps powered by user-generated content that can contain adult material appearing in the app store where children could find them — such as Twitter’s Vine video app — rather than specifically helping parents prevent kids making in-app purchases. Here’s the OFT’s summary of the investigation: Many children’s web- and app-based games are free to sign up to or download.  Some of those games give players the opportunity to ‘upgrade’ their free accounts through paid-for membership, providing access to parts of the game not available to non-paying players. Others encourage in-game purchases to speed up gameplay or to give access to extra game features. The OFT will look into whether those children’s games are in line with the Consumer Protection (from Unfair Trading) Regulations 2008 to ensure that any commercial practices they include are not misleading or aggressive. In particular, the OFT will consider whether children’s web- and app-based games directly encourage children to buy something or to pester their parents or other adults to buy something for them. [see note 1] The OFT will gather information on this issue for the next six months and is interested to hear from businesses operating in the market and mobile app platform operators. The OFT will also consult with relevant UK and international regulators. The OFT is also keen to hear about potentially misleading or commercially aggressive practices experienced by parents whose children play these games, and also from consumer groups with an interest in this area. note 1: The Regulations, under Annex Practice 28, prohibit advertisements from including direct exhortations to children to buy something or to ask their parents or other adults to buy something for them.
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After a very public defense of rumors about the next Xbox’s always-on Internet requirements, a new report claims that Microsoft creative director Adam Orth is no longer with the company. In a series of Twitter posts, Orth defended the move by countering that “every device” is now constantly connected, and then delivered a low-blow when someone responded suggesting always-on connectivity might not work great for customers in rural locations, responding snidely, “Why on earth would i live there?”. According to Game Informer, which confirmed reports from unnamed sources via a call direct to Microsoft that Orth was no longer employed there (we also contacted Microsoft for official confirmation, but a spokesperson simply said ““We are not commenting further on this issue”), it’s likely that incident led to his resignation or removal. And based on Microsoft’s public apology, it likely is the case that this wasn’t the venue. But the real problem here might be that defending a decision to embrace an always-on Internet connection requirement is bound to devolve into personal arguments, since logical ones that don’t involve owning up to a simple “we want to lock down our product and better control piracy” aren’t readily available. The original report of how the next Xbox would work included a requirement that a user be connected to the Internet to even begin playing games or apps on the console, along with a 3-minute time out for a connection loss before said games or apps are suspended pending the resolution of the network connection issue. For users who have been burned by the always-on requirements of recent PC gaming titles like Diablo III and SimCity, this rumor (which Microsoft neither confirms nor denies, despite its apology) probably sounds like a total nightmare scenario. It’s not making things better that a report surfaced this week from the Verge which claims that the next Xbox will interact with your cable box, hence the need for an always-on connection. The timing of that report smacks of Microsoft trying to do some subtle damage control based on these recent leaks, without giving away anything official ahead of its own planned Xbox events, the first of which is reportedly taking place late in May. Of course, even that doesn’t justify an always-on connection requirement, not for isolated functions like single-player gaming which should have no problem running without an active connection, even if a player has to give up some features like achievements and leaderboard ranking to make that work (you know, exactly the way it works now). The problem with trying to come up with a coherent argument for why a device or game needs an always-on connection without saying those three dreaded letters (D-R-M) is that it’s impossible to do convincingly. Companies like Microsoft and EA, which have very savvy PR professionals on staff, know that trying to do so without a proper feint like a connected TV service is fruitless. Aside from strongly suggesting that the leaked info was correct, taking to Twitter also meant venturing away from the party line that always-on is value add, not consumer punishment, and that’s not something any company mulling this kind of sensitive and major change to the way it delivers services can afford.
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Samsung has confirmed the arrival of a new sub-brand within its Galaxy range of mobile devices: the Galaxy Mega expands its mini-tablet-sized-phone (aka phablet) portfolio by firing two new devices into the category, building on the momentum generated by its extant Galaxy Note line. Samsung said the Mega will be available globally — “beginning May from Europe and Russia”, adding that product availability will vary  by market and roll outs will be gradual. Here’s how Samsung describes Mega: The newest addition to the GALAXY family balances an optimal viewing experience on a 6.3-inch HD screen, yet is ultra-thin and portable enough to put into a pocket or hold in one hand. The GALAXY Mega offers a mix of popular smartphone and tablet features such as an effortless user experience, a split screen, multitasking between video and other apps and more. JK Shin, CEO of Samsung’s mobile business, added in a statement that Mega is about bringing more choice to buyers who want a portable device with a big screen. “We are aware of a great potential in the bigger screen for extensive viewing multimedia, web browsing, and more. We are excited to provide another choice to meet our consumers’ varying lifestyles, all while maintaining the high-quality features of the award-winning GALAXY series,” he said. Samsung has climbed to a position of dominance in the smartphone market by offering a hugely diverse portfolio of devices, hitting price points from low end budget to high end flagship and everything in between — so little surprise that it’s beefing up its phablet line with Mega. The company has also fuelled an industry wide trend for smartphone screen size inflation, following the introduction of the original Galaxy Note in 2011. That device had a 5.3 inch screen — which seemed massive at the time. Samsung’s latest pair of phablets push out even more, adding a full extra inch  in the case of the full HD device. Design wise, Mega does not push the boat out — sharing the same look as fellow Galaxy devices, such as Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy S4 (which packs in a 5 inch pane). Here’s the 6.3 inch Galaxy Mega: And here’s the 5.8 inch Galaxy Mega: On the specs side, the 6.3 inch Mega is the clear flagship of the pair — packing in a full HD screen, 4G/LTE connectivity and a 1.7GHz dual-core chip while the 5.8 inch Mega has a QHD display, HSPA+ and a 1.4GHz dual-core chip. There’s also a 1mm difference in thickness, with the flagship being 8mm thick vs 9mm for the Mega 5.8. Both devices run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, skinned with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. Also on board is a full contingent of Samsung software services — including the likes of Sound & Shot and Drama Shot, introduced at the launch of the Galaxy S4 — plus some new features, including: ‘S Travel’: Provides trip information, local guides and resources and more ‘Story Album’: Allows customers to create albums of daily events, keep special moments in one place using a timeline, geo-tag information and publish digital albums in hard copy  ‘Group Play’: Enables easy content sharing for up to 8 devices on the same Wi-Fi network. Samsung WatchON’: Transforms into an IR remote controller for a richer TV experience. Connect the device to your home entertainment system, and it will provide program recommendations, schedules, and even remotely control your TV.  ‘Samsung Link’: Easily streams photos, videos, notes, or music to your television, tablet or computer.  ‘S Translator’: Say or text what you need translated into the GALAXY Mega, and it will provide instant translation, using text or voice translation on applications including email, and ChatON. ‘ChatON’: Share what’s on your screen with friends to stay more connected. Updating…
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After IDC’s global device forecast last month, Gartner has published its latest report with smart devices projections for smartphones, tablets, ultramobiles and PCs from 2012 to 2017. The numbers make more grim reading for Microsoft — the company with the most to lose as old empire of the PC continues its slow decline, trumped by the price, simplicity and convenience of Android and iOS-powered mobile computing devices. “You need to own consumers in terms of mobile and tablet in order to remain relevant in this market,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. Gone are the days when Windows is the “default” option for the majority of consumers, thanks to alternatives being too technical (Linux) or too expensive (Macs), she said. “Consumers have options and consumers are choosing and Microsoft can not take that for granted that they’ll be the one to be chosen.” Gartner is projecting a 7.3% decline in the traditional desktop and laptop computer category this year, although ultramobile devices (portables running a full desktop OS such as Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet, pictured above) are expected to offset the decline slightly — so the collective drop for these two categories is projected to be 3.5%. But the real engine of growth is of course tablets, with worldwide shipments forecast to total 197 million units in 2013: a 69.8% increase on 2012 shipments of 116 million units. By 2017, Gartner expects tablets to be outshipping desktop computers and ultramobiles combined, although it does not make a specific prediction for the tipping point year for tablets. (IDC said last month that it expects tablet shipments to outstrip PCs this year, and portable PCs next year.) Over its forecast period Gartner also projects steady growth for smartphones. Overall, the total smart devices market is projected to grow 9% this year, to reach 2.4 billion units. On the breakdown of OSes, Microsoft’s loss and Google’s and Apple’s gain is clear: Android consolidates its dominance this year, pulling further away from Windows, while iOS/MacOS narrows the gap with its old computing foe. By 2017 Gartner projects a huge lead for Android, with approaching 1.5 billion device shipments (powered by Android’s dominance in the smartphone space). And while Windows (in both its desktop and phone flavours) is still forecast to be ranked second, iOS/MacOS is not far behind, with 570.9 million vs 504.1 million respectively. “If you look at the OS numbers and you look at Microsoft vs Apple vs Android, you see from a sales perspective, Microsoft is still pretty much relying on their PC core… [and not] expanding their numbers. They’re defending by shifting some of the losses that are coming from the PC onto the tablet and ultramobile but they’re not conquering,” Milanesi told TechCrunch. ”With mobility and with the shift from PCs to tablets and smartphones there are going to be implications that go beyond just the hardware side that will really impact OS and applications like Office for example.” “The role that Apple is going to play in the computing device — when you’re thinking about computing devices all the way from the smartphone to the PC — is going to be much bigger,” she added. The low price of tablets is a key factor driving their adoption, says Milanesi, but it’s not just price that’s powering the category.  Smartphones are acting as halo devices to drive tablet adoption, thanks to users’ existing investments in apps and familiarity with the lighter weight OSes. Touch interfaces and cloud computing are also playing a role, along with the integration of Wi-Fi. While consumers in emerging markets are coming to computing from the phone, not the desktop PC — making tablets a “more natural upgrade path”, rather than the PC, she said. “Another misconception is you need a PC in order to be productive and that productivity is measured as far as you need a PC to do Excel work. Well there are an awful lot of people out there who are very productive without ever touching Excel,” added Milanesi. ”The change that touch and tablets are bringing are here. They’re not going to go away. So you better enable that transition so that people can take full advantage of it vs continue to fight it.” Windows Phone not BlackBerry in 3rd Gartner’s current forecast for 2017 pegs Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS in third place in the smartphone OS rankings behind Android and iOS — with RIM/BlackBerry languishing far behind. BlackBerry shipments will continue to decline throughout the forecast period, according to Gartner, despite its OS reboot with the QNX-based BlackBerry 10 and the launch of the first BB10 device, the Z10. “RIM is even more limited than Microsoft,” said Milanesi. “They have a limited reach as far as where that OS goes as far as devices… We see consumers are more and more looking for an OS that goes across the board. “Gone are the days that you have one product can make a company. One product can break a company but one product is no longer enough to make a company. The ecosystem the brand has is becoming much more important from a consumer choice perspective.” From that perspective, Microsoft is in a stronger position than BlackBerry, having pushed Windows 8 into the touchscreen era with its Windows Phone-style tile-based UI, while BlackBerry’s own tablet effort has had to take a back seat while it rebooted its mobile platform. “Windows Phone is going to be the third largest OS on the phone side after Android and iOS, not too distant from iOS,” Milanesi predicted, although she also noted that the gap between second and third place is a small one so Microsoft’s mobile OS could push iOS into third place. She also noted that Gartner’s device projection does not take into account a lower end iPhone, should Apple choose to launch such a product — which could shift the goal-posts again and generate more mass market momentum for the iPhone. Should Facebook or Amazon make a phone? Asked whether in the current smart mobile devices market it makes sense for Facebook or Amazon to launch their own smartphone, Milanesi gave a qualified “no”. In the case of Facebook (which is thought to be holding an Android-focused phone-related event today), she said it makes sense for the company to “enable Facebook in the best possible way” on smartphones — ergo it may therefore make sense for it to build a deep software integration that lives on a phone to deliver the desired experience. But she added: “I don’t think from a brand perspective that people will want to get a Facebook phone because of the Facebook brand. But people will want to have a deeper integration of Facebook on their phone. “Facebook want users and they want engagement — and that’s not just coming from a dedicated phone, that come from a much better application and integration of their application in the hardware.” For Amazon, which has been rumoured to be looking at building a phone, she said the case is slightly different since the focus for the ecommerce giant is not about driving engagement and gathering user data so much as  ”selling — selling content, selling merchandise, getting consumers onto their website”. “I think you do that much more on a tablet than you do on a phone,” she added. “The only way I see a phone making sense is if Amazon continues to fork from Android… where it would make sense to have a phone and a tablet [to sell consumers a connected device ecosystem] — for the same applications and so forth.” Building a phone is also less straightforward than building a tablet, noted Milanesi, since carriers enter the mix and complicate the value chain.
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LinkMe is an LED smart bracelet that connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth and displays SMS and social media updates in text that scrolls across your wrist. Smartwatches and smart bracelets promise convenience – it’s easier to glance at a device on your wrist than it is to dig out your buzzing smartphone from your tightly fitting jeans. But so far, many of them have had boring, uninspired designs. For example, the Pebble smartwatch has an amazing complement of features. But it looks plastic and boring. I’d never be caught wearing that on my wrist. LinkMe is unabashedly beautiful. It’s a single chrome ring that clips around your wrist. The smart bracelet has a curved LED display that seamlessly blends in with the rest of the device. The display streams long lines of text in red or blue letters, like one of those big news tickers in Times Square. LinkMe can display anything that be relayed in a stream of text – SMS, social media updates, flight information, personal reminders and alerts. When it isn’t displaying messages, LinkMe defaults to displaying the time, so you can easily use it as a watch. But when it comes to functionality, the Pebble outstrips LinkMe in a number of ways. With its e-ink display, the Pebble can offer multiple watch faces and display limited graphics. It also can flash multiple lines of text at once. With LinkMe, you have to wait until the message or alert finishes scrolling across the bracelet. Still, there’s just something about LinkMe that makes me want to have it around my wrist. Maybe it’s just another case of aesthetics trumping functionality. Maybe this feeling will go away if/when Apple releases a smartwatch that fuses beauty with a healthy complement of features. But for now? I’m sold. A LinkMe can be had for a $99 contribution at their KickStarter here. They’re pushing to raise $100,000 by May 5th.
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Our favorite makers in the Bay area, Xetum, have just released their new line of Kendrick watches in time for racing season. The watches, designed in California and assembled in Switzerland, are fairly unique in the watch industry as Xetum is one of the few American watch brands – besides Bathys – to make it in a very competitive marketplace. I pared down the elements on the dial to just a minimum, but made each feature bolder, from the hands, to the markings on the dial, to the numerals,” said founder Jeff Kuo. “To stay within the ‘instrument-style’ vein, I looked to automotive dashboards for inspiration. Not any one particular car or brand, but rather looking at dashboard instruments that made a strong statement, but in a subtle and nuanced way.” Xetum traditionally sells watches with an embedded leather strap so these new Kendricks are a departure. The watches feature striped NATO nylon or solid rubber straps. Watches are obviously an aged technology but Kuo has tried to bring the industry into the 21st century by selling his work online. He is, however, beginning to partner with retail stores, a move that would seem a little backward to some. However, given the hoity-toity nature of many watch shoppers, it’s obvious that opening a few industry doors can help Kuo spread the Xetum message. “We have also realized that some of our customers want to see the product in person, and we have recently stepped up our efforts to selectively work with great retail partners to provide an in-store experience that is highly complementary with our online sales. Companies such as Warby Parker have done this through pop-up shops or in-store displays, and our approach has been instead to sell with a small number of like-minded retailers to offer a physical store presence,” he said. The watches are available now and come in white, black, and light blue. The model we looked at, in blue, has a certain “faded” look to it akin to old Kodachromes and the nylon straps are much more durable than the leather models. They are, as expected, a bit on the expensive side: $995 for the NATO model. However, for the price you get an increasingly rare ETA 2824-2 inside a solid, handsome, and locally designed 40mm automatic watch.
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Adafruit, the DIY electronics website and marketplace, is espousing the popular strategy of “get em’ young” with a new live action short video series broadcast on YouTube. The series, called Circuit Playground, takes an alphabetical approach to teaching kids about the basics of circuits, components and concepts that will come in handy if the tots watching have aspirations of becoming electrical engineers, or just of building their own hobby projects at home. The inaugural episode covers amperes, the unit of measurement for electric current flowing through a circuit. The co-hosts are Adabot, an adorable robot puppet helping keep the kids entertained, and Adafruit founder Limor Fried, providing easy-to-follow, but not patronizing explanations of the concepts involved. The intro features a number of animated characters representing circuit components, and there’s even a special guest appearance from André-Marie Ampère, after whom the ampere is named, so there’s an element of science history in the mix, too. At less than 5 minutes, you also won’t have to keep your kids focused too long to take in the message. And if you’re a big kid who might not be all that well versed in the basics of circuits and electronics, you’ll probably learn something, too.
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Back in 2010, our own John Biggs rightly described Parrot’s AR.Drone as ” the coolest thing [he had] seen in a long, long time.” Since then, Parrot has launched the AR.Drone 2.0 and while it’s still a very cool gadget, quadcopters have come a very long way since 2010. Last month, the folks at DJI, who mostly specialize in developing unmanned aerial systems for commercial use, sent me one of their consumer-oriented and GPS-enabled DJI Phantoms to review. Most quadcopters are aimed at hobbyists and take a good amount of assembly and at least some experience with flying remote-controlled aircraft. The Phantom, which has a list price of $849 but currently retails for about $680, comes mostly pre-assembled and is extremely easy to fly, thanks to its built-in compass and GPS module. Thanks to having GPS built-in, the drone always knows where it is in relation to you. So depending on the mode you are flying in, every input you give will always be interpreted in relation to you and not in relation to where the front of the aircraft is (here’s a video that explains how this works). The other cool thing about the GPS mode is that the drone can hover in position even if it’s windy. It’ll just auto-correct for the wind, thanks to its built-in autopilot (you probably want to turn this mode off when you are trying to take a video, however, as the constant corrections will show up in your videos). This autopilot also kicks in if the Phantom loses its connection with you remote control if it flies out of reach or your remote runs out of battery, the drone itself is very low on battery, or because you turn it off to see if the autopilot actually works. Once the failsafe mode kicks in, the drone will simply fly up to 60 feet, fly back to where it first took off and land. I actually tried this and it worked surprisingly well. The drone touched down just about 3 feet from where I launched it. When you spent $700 on the drone and another $300 or so on a GoPro 3 Silver, that’s a nice feature to have. The Phantom is a clear step up from something like the AR.Drone. Its communication distance is just under 1,000 feet and a maximum horizontal speed of about 32 feet per second and a descent speed of close to 20 feet per second. That’s fast and feels even faster if you are just learning how to fly it. These specs show that this isn’t just a toy but can actually be used for some pretty impressive aerial photography. Indeed, since the Phantom launched earlier this year, a whole ecosystem has sprung up around it that provides owners with everything from improved propellers to cases and multi-axis camera gimbals. A gimbal, by the way, isn’t a must, but if you want to take really stable videos without the so-called “jello” effect (here’s a pretty extreme example of that), both a gimbal and some well-balanced after-market rotors will surely help. Here is a video I took with the Phantom and a GoPro 3 White over the weekend: The Phantom’s battery lasts just under 15 minutes, so you probably want to buy at least a second one, given that the package only includes a single 2,200mAh battery and a charger. If you decide to get one of these, by the way, make sure you read the instructions and watch this series of videos before you turn it on. The Phantom may look like a toy and is easy to fly, but this is a pretty high-end piece of technology and there are a few things you need to know and do before your first flight. With the 2013 NAB Show just around the corner, it’s a fair bet that DJI will announce a few new products in the coming days and we’ll make sure to keep a close eye on this company.
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The big winners in the three-month period ending in February in terms of smartphone share globally and in the U.S. were Android and Windows Phone, according to Kantar Worldpanel, with BlackBerry experiencing significant declines in consumer interest and iOS remaining fairly level in most markets. The bad news for BlackBerry is that it saw its smartphone OS share decline even in the U.K., where it launched BB10 and its new hardware at the end of January. Windows Phone isn’t really posing a threat to iOS or Android, which continue to dominate smartphone share is all markets, but it is starting to pull away from BlackBerry and Symbian when it comes to making a strong showing as a third place contender. In the U.S., Windows accounted for 4.1 percent of smartphone sales in the three-month period ending February 2013, up from 2.7 percent for the year-ago quarter. BlackBerry, by contrast, represented only 0.7 percent of smartphone sales in the U.S. according to Kantar, down from 3.6 percent during the same time in 2012. In the U.K., BlackBerry slid from 16.8 percent of all smartphone sales in the three-month period ending in February last year, to just 5.1 percent of sales for the same span in 2013. That’s a drop of 11.u7 percentage points, during a period that included a full month of BB10 device sales. BlackBerry itself claimed 1 million devices shipped for its most recent fiscal quarter, which included BB10 launches in Canada and the U.K., but when pressed about how much of that represented actual sales, execs hedged and noted that it was “sort of” closer to between two-thirds and three-quarters of that 1 million figure on its investor conference call. Android’s performance has likewise been strong, with big increases in many markets, including Great Britain, Germany, and Mexico. And while iOS remains relatively stable, with either small slides or gains across the board, it isn’t losing significant ground to the competition in any market: Android is eating space given up by legacy players like Symbian, which in most cases is dropping share quicker than BlackBerry. BlackBerry has the most to lose, however, since Symbian is no longer being actively developed. We’ll see if the gradual worldwide rollout of BB10 can reverse some of the losses being reported by Kantar in the coming months.
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UK startup DuoFertility is tackling a really tough problem: infertility. The company has built a sensor-plus-service business to predict the most fertile days of women who are having difficulty conceiving to improve the chances of conception — hence its tagline: “assisted natural conception”. There is no invasive technology involved, just a lot of number crunching. The startup’s approach sits somewhere in the middle of the competition in this space. It argues its technology is more sophisticated than more basic over-the-counter physical products such as home urine tests or body-basal-thermometers (which are also cheaper than DuoFertility’s offering), as the data captured by its wearable sensor is more accurate. Data is also sent back to DuoFertility staff for monitoring and reviewing – so it’s being looked at by specialist staff using bespoke algorithms rather than generalised models. On the other hand, the product is cheaper than a cycle of artificial insemination — and much cheaper than IVF. It’s also nowhere near as invasive as either of those alternatives. DuoFertility costs £495 with unlimited support vs around £800 for a cycle of artificial insemination (including drugs and tests) and around £4,5000 for a cycle of IVF, says CEO and co-founder Shamus Husheer. “It is this combination of both automated analysis and expert review of this data that sets us apart from anything else out there, and probably to a large extent explains why our pregnancy rates are so high for patients who are well past buying something off the shelf at the pharmacy,” he says “The really surprising thing is that, for only a relatively small increment in cost over the [more basic, competitor] at-home devices, DuoFertility gives a vastly higher pregnancy rate than artificial insemination, and even matches or exceeds that of IVF.” Success is a little difficult to measure, however, as a variety of factors have to be considered – as Husheer explains: “Although 80% of normally fertile women will get pregnant within their first year of trying to conceive, infertile couples (those who have been trying for more than two years) have only about a 12% chance of getting pregnant over a year. Therefore simply saying x% of patients will get pregnant is meaningless (or worse, misleading) – this does not however prevent some less scrupulous clinics and products from doing exactly this. “Therefore we publish our success rate data only on these ‘difficult cases’ of infertile patients, and specifically those who have qualified for or already been through IVF. We then break this data down by both female age and time trying for a baby, which are the most important factors in determining success rate. A peer-reviewed scientific paper on exactly this was published at the end of 2011, demonstrating a pregnancy rate that was higher than that from a cycle of IVF for every age group under 45 (the rates themselves ranging from over 40% to less than 15%).” The Technology So what exactly does DuoFertility’s technology do? The product consists of a wearable sensor, worn inside an adhesive patch so it remains attached day and night, which logs the woman’s “body temperature and movement thousands of times a day and night to calculate deep sleep core temperature”, plus a reader unit which receives the data from the sensor via a modified version of RFID. The reader calculates likely future fertility — based on “all of the information it has seen about you to date” (users can enter “a range of different parameters on the reader, from menstruation to ovulation pain to illness”). The reader connects to a PC via USB to display past and near future fertility charts. Additional data can then be added by the user, such as medical or home test results and notes for DuoFertility’s staff to read. And all the data is automatically transferred to DuoFertility’s servers in Cambridge, U.K. for analysis and expert review. “We use all of the data for each individual woman, and all of the thousands of others that we’re monitoring, to work out exactly which algorithms work for the woman most similar to this one,” says Husheer. “That allows us to dramatically improve the prediction of fertility, but also allows us to identify a range of underlying issues that may be preventing conception. There are of course many cases where the data does not perfectly fit any existing model, and so these cases are escalated to human fertility experts for review and, if necessary, a discussion with the patient or their doctor.” DuoFertility aims to identify the 42-78 hour monthly window when couples should be trying to conceive — and says that by continually monitoring women it can pick up on signs that a particular cycle is similar or different to a previous cycle, as well as compare a cycle to similar cycles in its database. “Basically, there is zero point in providing a prediction of ovulation down to the minute, if in fact it is five days wrong. Far better to give couples a realistic assessment of when they are likely to be fertile, and update this as we get more data. This means that for some couples ‘the goalposts move’ – they can quite literally see our algorithms updating the prediction when they connect to our servers. And if we recalculate something at our server, and they haven’t connected recently so might miss the newly calculated critical moment – we send an email or give them a call. That call has resulted in more than one baby,” adds Husheer. Of course not every couple will be able to get pregnant — even after using the product for a long time — so customer relationship management is a “pretty critical” component of the business. Raising false hope is certainly not part of DuoFertility’s business model, says Husheer — although he notes that for couples who can’t afford IVF, continuing to use DuoFertility despite poor “absolute chances” may be their best hope. ”We find that being absolutely crystal clear about this often makes for a difficult but ultimately necessary and productive conversation with the couple,” he says. The startup also offers refunds to new users if it believes it won’t be able to help them, and reviews users after four to five months (and regularly after that) to ensure continued use still makes sense for them. Starting up The idea for Duofertility was conceived during Husheer’s PhD research at Cambridge University. The link is indirect, since his research was actually building instruments for particle accelerators. “I realised that several of the instrumental techniques we used could be applied to human physiology, and specifically to monitoring fertility,” he tells TechCrunch.  Husheer (pictured right, with fellow co-founder Oriane Chausiaux) and a group of fellow graduate students – “scientists and medics”, some with PhDs in infertility – then got together and entered a university business plan competition in 2006, going on to win £20,000. The money funded a prototype and the filing of the first patent. “By mid 2007 we had brilliant data and several local Angel investors telling us to hurry up and graduate so that they could fund the project,” says Husheer. “Just 18 months and less than £1 million later, DuoFertility had been through design, development, trials, medical approvals and sold to the first customer.” The first DuoFertility was bought in May 2009, although Husheer says the first pregnancy was “actually somewhat before that” — during early trials. “Sales really stepped up when DuoFertility was stocked by the largest UK pharmacy chain, Boots, in 2011 as the result of our participating in a reality-TV show hunting for innovative new products for the major retailers,” he adds. Further funding came via the competition route, after DuoFertility won Qualcomm’s European QPrize in 2011. That in turn led to attention from Qualcomm’s venture capital arm. Husheer says the company has now raised a little over £2 million in funding from three Angel investor groups and from Qualcomm Ventures. Growing In The U.S. DuoFertility’s next big step will be raising its profile in the U.S. — by targeting key national medical conferences such as the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in May, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in October to properly enter the market. Husheer notes the company “recently achieved FDA clearance”, and although U.S. users can buy the device via DuoFertility’s website and be supported in using it, he says the business needs to spend time introducing the product to the medical community to make doctors aware of it and ensure they are happy to recommend it. “We have a small team on the ground in the U.S., calling on doctors in New York and California to introduce the product and make sure that DuoFertility fits into the way that they practice medicine. Over the next few months we will be hiring several more commercially focused people, both for activities directed at the medical community and the consumer — so any [TechCrunch] readers with experience in bringing similar technologies to market in the US should drop me a line,” says Husheer. “From a regulatory perspective we are clear to sell anywhere in the E.U. or U.S., and in several countries that accept their medical clearances (e.g. South Africa and many Arab states). As a company selling on the Internet it will be no surprise that we have patients in almost all of these places – in fact we now have babies on every continent except Antarctica. That said, our primary focus is the U.K. and U.S.,” he adds. Part of the issue with the U.S. market is that, for legal reasons, DuoFertility is not allowed to provide medical advice to the patient directly — but must work through the patient’s doctor. “This means their doctor is preferably included ‘in the loop’ from the beginning, however if the patient just uses DuoFertility without a doctor we can refer to a doctor we work with in their city if they need one,” Husheer adds. DuoFertility has more than 30 staff at present, working shifts to ensure U.S. timezones are covered. The number of staff is likely to rise over the next year — especially if the company  replicates its U.K. fertility centre on U.S. soil so that American couples can be monitored by staff in the same timezone. The company broke even in 2011 but has been ploughing investment into ramping up for the U.S. market so, overall, the business has not been profitable recently but Husheer says that’s all part of its growth plans: “Our investors seem to be very happy with this strategy, as everyone can see that the US will be the major market for us.”
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I want a black and white computer, and I don’t want it out of sheer, wanton weirdness. I actually think it’s a good idea. Here’s why. A huge, huge proportion of the content we consume every day is text. And, for many, an equal proportion of what they work with is text — be it code, email, or published content like this. For the consumption and creation of text, a monochrome display is all that is necessary, and in some ways even superior to a color one. Pixels on an LCD like the one on which you’re probably reading this are made up of dots or sub-pixels — usually one red, one green, and one blue. The transistor matrix changes the opacity of a sub-pixel of a given color, and by working together they can create millions of hues and shades. But they work (with a few exceptions such as sub-pixel font smoothing and pentile layouts) only as triads, meaning a display with a resolution of 5760 by 3240 addressable dots has just 1920×1080 addressable pixels. (This is the reason why simply desaturating the image does not improve the resolution.) If the iPad were monochrome, it would have nearly 800 pixels per inch Consequently, if you were to remove the color filters, each sub-pixel would become a pixel — all only able to show shades of grey, of course, but pixels nonetheless, and far more of them than there were before. Result: extremely high spatial resolution, far beyond the so-called “retina” point, even at close range. If the iPad were monochrome, it would have nearly 800 pixels per inch. That’s beyond even glossy magazine levels of sharpness, a dream for rendering type. It would also be brighter, or put another way, would require less backlight, since the removal of the filters allows far more light to pass through. That saves battery. Also saving battery is the reduced amount of graphics processing power and RAM necessary to store and alter the screen state, and so on. Small things, but not insignificant. It would, of course, retain all of the other benefits of a modern, connected device, remaining as responsive and powerful as any other laptop or tablet, just minus the color. Logistically speaking, adapting existing content would not be that problematic (“time-shifting” apps and other extractors already do this). And it’s more than a glorified e-reader: the limitations of that type of hardware are lethal to many of the methods in which we are now accustomed to finding, consuming, and creating content (to say nothing of the screen quality). Why black and white? Well, why color? But what the hell is the point, you ask, if it’s not in color? The web is in color. The world is in color! Your Instagram feed won’t be quite as striking in greyscale, it’s true. Rich media wasn’t designed for monochrome, and shouldn’t be forced into it. It demands color, and deserves it. Obviously you wouldn’t want to browse Reddit or edit video on a monochrome display. But if something does not require color, it seems pointless to provide it, especially when doing so has real drawbacks. You’ve seen the apps that prevent procrastination, or make the user focus on a task, by blocking out distractions and the like. At some times, we want a tool that does one thing, and at other times, we want a tool that does others. That’s why computers are so great: They can switch between, say, text-focused work mode and image-focused movie mode in an instant. They’re like Swiss Army knives: a corkscrew one minute and a can opener the next. But, as I tried to suggest in my previous column, if you tend to open a lot of wine bottles and very few cans, wouldn’t you prefer that you had a dedicated wine opener, without a bunch of other tools attached? That it can’t open a can is tragic, but more than made up for by its facility in its chosen task. There will always be a place for the essential alone I believe some people would not only be unperturbed by an inability to watch videos or what have you — in fact, they may prefer it. We already have different computing tools for different purposes, and we don’t demand that they all do everything — I have a laptop so I can write, as I am at the present, while enjoying some fresh air and coffee. I have a desktop for games and heavy productivity. I have an iPad for this, and an e-reader for that, and a phone for this, and a camera for that. What’s one more, especially when it would be, I believe, quite good at what it does, even if that’s “only” working with text? There’s also a less practical, more aesthetic reason I would enjoy a black and white device. The content we consume and the ways we navigate it have become loud and colorful, and to me it does not appear that this profusion of saturation has been accompanied by a corresponding subtlety of design. The eruption of capabilities has made many lose touch with the beauty of austerity, and what’s billed as “minimalism” rarely is. There is a set of qualities that sets that starkness apart, and while we have always enjoyed ornamentation, there has always been (and will be for the foreseeable future) a place and purpose for the essential alone. On that note, I think it would be an interesting experiment, and highly beneficial one, to attempt to rebuild, say, Facebook or an OS, without any color at all. When you subtract color cues like green for yes and red for no, or implicit boundaries based not on contrast and flow but on different coloration, the problem of presenting and consuming the information concerned is totally changed. Perhaps one would learn better the fundamentals of layout, flow, proportion, and so on, and that would inform the color world as well. I read a lot, and I write for a living. I want a specialized tool for doing those things, just as a logger would want an axe instead of a big knife, or a runner a good pair of shoes instead of slippers. In the end, I like the idea of a black-and-white device and interface for many of the reasons I like black-and-white photography. It’s different, and has different strengths, and both requires and provides a different perspective. For me, that’s enough to at least want it on the table.
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It’s approaching three years since I emailed and got a reply from the late Steve Jobs. The topic of my caffeine-fueled missive that sunny day in June 2010 was the industry’s move towards touch-based interfaces and, specifically, Apple’s one-size-fits-all approach regarding the iPhone’s lack of a physical QWERTY keyboard. I have a disability that can make touch and other physically demanding interfaces more challenging, I explained to Jobs, and whereas the mouse-driven GUI that he helped usher in with the Macintosh had inadvertently put me on a level playing field, were touch to ever become the dominant mode of input, it had the potential to turn that world upside down. “That’s obviously a bit dramatic”, I wrote on TechCrunch at the time. “There will always be lots of different products on the market, but it’s a possibility nonetheless.” Fast forward to 2013 and what was only a possibility has all but become a reality. Survey the mobile landscape and it’s filled with people fondling their giant slabs of touch, happily typing away on glass. At this point I know I’ll likely get ripped apart in the comments. In the battle of the physical vs virtual QWERTY, the market has spoken, they’ll say, and those who don’t favour touch are squarely out of touch. And sadly, the evidence is heavily stacked on their side of the argument. Survey the mobile landscape and it’s filled with people fondling their giant slabs of touch, happily typing away on glass In the first few years of the iPhone’s existence, a ton of hybrid physical QWERTY/touch smartphones from competitors entered the market, ready to differentiate themselves from Apple by talking up their superior typing experience. But they failed to stop the Cupertino juggernaught. Typing on glass, while not ideal, was good enough. Arguably it wasn’t until Android OEMs ditched their, largely, clunky slide-out keyboards and wholesale copied and then supersized Apple’s all touch form-factor, did they begin to turn back the tide. Meanwhile, continues the argument, the likes of Nokia fell by the wayside, plagued by an antiquated user interface that, in a desperate and confused attempt to respond to the market, tried and failed to crowbar in touch before the company finally jumped onto Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, sans physical QWERTY. Furthermore, BlackBerry, which seemingly built its whole business off the back of its physical QWERTY-touting credentials, chose to release its first comeback device as the BB10-powered Z10, another all touch grey slab, rather than the Q10, which combines touch with a physical QWERTY in the best BlackBerry candybar tradition. It’s also been suggested that the Canadian handset maker may even view the Q10’s hybrid approach as a way to wean its traditional customers off a physical keyboard entirely, a gateway device if you will. So yes, putting aside the fact that the market can only speak to what is put in front of it — I can’t recall a single candybar QWERTY powered by Android that was anything more than a mid-tier or low end device — it would seem that the market has indeed spoken. But it may not have had the final word yet. That’s if — and it’s a big if — the BlackBerry Q10, when it finally hits the market next month, surprises everybody and sells in sufficient numbers to smash through the totalitarian all touch screen. And just like the Mac had ensured before it, for this hack and others like me, 2013 won’t be like 1984 after all.
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I love my tiny little Mazda, but I’ll be honest — I still don’t completely understand how it works. That’s never really bothered me before (I’d much rather geek out over a phone or something) but a Kickstarter project from a small team in Boston has me itching to pay more attention to what’s really going on under the hood. Long story short, Dash combines a Bluetooth 4.0-enabled dongle that plugs into your car’s on-board diagnostics port with an iPhone app that gives you up-to-date information how on your car is holding up. Yes, I know that probably sounds very familiar. We’ve seen a few startups tapping into that particular port recently — Carvoyant inked deals with local auto dealers to more broadly distribute its always-on diagnostics and tracking gadget earlier this year, and Y Combinator-backed Automatic got plenty of attention for taking a similar concept and combining it with an awfully handsome iPhone app interface. Dash’s approach seems to resemble the latter slightly more than the former, but at their core they’re all trying to accomplish the same mission: to improve the driving experience by shining light on data that wasn’t always easily accessible. So should you consider Dash over something like the ultra-slick Automatic when both devices are both slated to cost around $69? That all comes down to how you feel about the little tricks that set Dash apart from the oft-hyped California startup’s service. In addition to tracking fuel usage, passing along notifications when your car’s components have gone awry and letting people locate their cars on a map, Dash users can use their smartphone as a secondary display of sorts for realtime information like current speed, engine RPM, and fuel economy. The big idea behind latter is that you’ll be able to find an environmentally-friendly sweet spot while cruising along, though chances are you’ve already got some sort of indicator telling you how fuel-efficient your driving is if you’re driving a more recent car. Still, since U.S. cars from as far back as 1996 have ODB ports there are plenty of drivers who could stand to benefit from this sort of info. Oh, and a side note: if Dash appeals to you because your car’s built-in speedometer and tachometer don’t work, you should really get that taken care of first. In case you were hoping to bring your social fixation into your car too, all that driving data can be automatically uploaded to an associated online Dash account. From there people can compare their own metrics to their fellow Dash users and pick up on best practices for squeezing optimal performance out of their rides (sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a way to mock them mercilessly for driving like your grandmother). What’s more, users can also record and share in-car video with speed and engine information overlaid on top of it, well, just because. Those of you looking to make your iPhone an extension of your car have to consider that the Dash still seems like a long way from fruition. At time of writing the team’s Kickstarter campaign has raised just over $15,000 from backers, and is ultimately shooting to top $750,000 before May 11. Should the Dash team meet that lofty goal though, they hope to get the first batch of dongles out sometime this June — just in time for summer roadtrip season. Sadly, just like with Automatic, Android users will have to wait until later in the year to get their mobile car diagnostics on.
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I’ve long believed that touchscreens leave a certain something to be desired when it comes to playing games, and if a new (and very curious) report holds true, Apple may feel the same way. According to PocketGamer.biz’s Jon Jordan, Apple has been meeting with developers on-site at this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to talk about a forthcoming Apple game controller. Jordan’s multiple developer sources claim that the Cupertino company has booked a meeting room under an assumed name to talk about the game-centric device, though they weren’t able to shed any light on what the thing will look like or when it will actually see the light of day. That said, Apple is expected to hold an iPad-centric event in April so it’s possible that this controller may be officially unveiled in just a few weeks. At first glance, the prospect of Apple churning out a game controller of all things seems downright silly, but after chewing on it for a while the notion doesn’t seem quite as outlandish. You’d be hard-pressed to think of OS X as prominent a platform for gaming as Windows is (though some big-league developers are working to change that), but iOS plays home to a staggering number of games and it’s not inconceivable to think that Apple would want to enhance the sorts of gaming experiences available to iPhone, iPod and iPad users. As such, a game controller seems like the sort of thing that Apple would agonize over getting right, and it appears that Apple may have been doing just that. In the site’s 2012 review of the 3rd generation iPad, AnandTech’s Anand Lal Shimpi and Vivek Gowri let slip a tantalizing tidbit when discussing the iPad’s faculty as a gaming machine: ”I know of an internal Apple project to bring a physical controller to market, but whether or not it will ever see the light of day remains to be seen,” the review reads. What’s more Apple has been seen bulking itself up with patents that relate to a potential gaming push for at least a few years now. This patent from 2008 describes an accessory that wraps around a portable electronic device with touchscreen (sound familiar?) and includes a standard D-Pad and button, while this one spotted in 2012 takes a slightly different approach. Either way, these patents plus the AnandTech comments make it rather clear that Apple has been mulling over a physical game controller (or something like it) and it may be time for those ambitions to come to fruition. I’ve reached out to Apple for comment, and will update if/when they respond. (Also, here’s hoping it looks nothing like the Pippin controller pictured above.)
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This week on the TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast we celebrate episode number two of everyone’s favorite audio file! We also talk about 3D printing, the Ouya console, and the Facebook Fone AKA the FF. This week we are joined by our quiet intern, Michael Seo. We are slowly by surely working the kinks out of this process, so bear with us. However, we invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3pm Eastern and appreciate all those who listened to our inaugural effort last week. 17,000 listens is nothing to sneeze at and we sincerely love you for putting up with us. Click here to download an MP3 of this show. You can subscribe to the show via RSS. Subscribe in iTunes Intro Music by Rick Barr.
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