The White House today announced a major milestone in its technological history. Throughout President Obama’s term in office, the administration has been attempting to find ways to encourage citizens to voice their opinions. To do that, the White House launched its “We the People” service, a site that allows anyone to submit a petition and, if it garners enough signatures, will get a reaction from the Obama administration. This program has done pretty well, it seems — statistics released today show that more than 6 million people joined the site and engaged, with over 10 million signatures collected. With the success of “We the People”, the Obama Administration is launching its next phase — Petitions 2.0, a public application programming interface (API) that is going to be released in the “coming months”. To help prepare developers, the White House said it will be hosting an Open Data Day Hackathon on February 22 where a select group of developers will be able to get a first-hand look at the API. Peter Welsch, the White House Deputy Director of Online Platforms for the Office of Digital Strategy, says that the Petitions 2.0 API will be released in different phases. The first set of methods, Read API, will be available in March 2013, and gives access to retrieve data on petitions, signatures, and responses. The second one, Write API, will be available at a later date. It will let developers collect and submit signatures without directly sending the user to the White House website. With this API in place we’ll be able to decouple the presentation and data layers of the application and build a new, streamlined signature process. This also means that developers who reuse our code will be able to choose which database the application relies on. Between that and our continued work on a white label theme, Petitions 2.0 will be easier for others to contribute to and reuse. The launch of this new API is another attempt by the Obama Administration to further its technological chops and get more people involved in the democratic process. It isn’t that hard to believe that President Obama is a friend of technology — after all, he was the one who set up a tech field office in San Francisco during his most recent campaign, not to mention he’s hob-nobbed with many of the tech elites, like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and others during a trip to Silicon Valley. Let’s not also forget that President Obama took part in a Reddit AMA, a Google+ Hangout, and LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook town halls. “We the People” has been on a roll over the past few months, having received petitions along both sides of the spectrum — some are serious while others aren’t as much. It’s impossible to forget that late last year, a petition circulated about how the United States should build a Death Star and quickly reached the 25,000 minimum signature goal. The response from the White House was rather amusing. However, the site has also seen its share of much more serious matters, such as a gun violence petition that was posted right after the Newtown shooting which elicited a video response from President Obama, himself. Photo credit: El KEBIR LAMRANI/AFP/Getty Images
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Google updated its Platform Versions Web page for Android on Tuesday, and it would appear that the second latest version has peaked. Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) are still growing but Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) may never pass the 30 percent mark. Meanwhile, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is on over 45 percent of devices. Breaking down the numbers more specifically, 13.6 percent of Android users are now using Jelly Bean, 29.0 percent are using ICS, 1.3 percent are on Honeycomb, 45.6 are still stuck with Gingerbread, and 8.1 percent tragically still have Froyo. Here’s how that looks in graph and table form: Last month, Android hit a bunch of new milestones: Jelly Bean finally passed 10 percent share of the droid’s pie, Gingerbread fell below the 50 percent mark, and Froyo dipped below 10 percent. Compared to then, Android 4.2 has budged a minor 0.2 percentage points (from 1.2 percent to 1.4 percent) and Android 4.1 has gained a solid 3.2 percentage points (from 5.9 percent to 9.0 percent). Android 4.0 has stagnated, dropping 0.1 percentage points to 29.0 percent, suggesting it may not ever cross the 30 percent mark. Android 2.3 meanwhile is down 2.0 percentage points (from 47.6 percent to 45.6 percent) and Android 2.2 fell 0.9 percentage points (from 9.0 percent to 8.1 percent). The bigger picture is still the same though: Gingerbread (released December 2010) is first, ICS (October 2011) is second, the latest and greatest Jelly Beans (June 2012 and November 2012) are third, and Froyo (May 2010) is fourth. If ICS has indeed peaked, and we should know this for sure in the next month or two, Jelly Bean will rather quickly move up into second place. We would estimate that this will happen before the end of 2013, though Gingerbread will probably remain in first throughout. There are of course already rumors that Key Lime Pie will be out this spring. Depending on what devices launch with it, the landscape could change yet again. Either way, we’ll be watching closely. More to follow.
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Today Representative Greg Walden, current chairman of the House Communications and Technology subcommittee, introduced a piece of draft legislation that lays out a series of policy points, and regulatory perspectives on the global Internet, and the role of the United States to both foster and protect it. As The Hill notes, the United States Congress voted in both chambers against United Nations control of the Internet. As TNW reported at the time, the rare lockstep vote from both parties showed a unified front against Internet censorship by foreign bodies. Rep. Walden’s draft bill is impressive. We are going to take it point by point. Formatting and bolding are all via TNW. The full text of the bill in its original context can be found here. Given the importance of the Internet to the global economy, it is essential that the Internet remain stable, secure, and free from government control. This is a clear call, and one that concludes with a direct refutation of active government meddling in the flow of free information. Naturally, this is to be applauded. The world deserves the access to knowledge, services, commerce, and communication, the accompanying benefits to economic development, education, and health care, and the informed discussion that is the bedrock of democratic self-government that the Internet provides. Here we find a philosophical point: the Internet does more than simply allow for important economic benefits, but also helps foster self-rule, and democracy. This is precisely why autocratic governments seek to limit the Internet, it is dangerous to dictators, and other non-functional government forms. It’s heartening to see this sort of thing said out loud in the US Congress. The structure of Internet governance has profound implications for competition and trade, democratization, free expression, and access to information. No commentary needed here given the clarity of the prose. Countries have obligations to protect human rights, which are advanced by online activity as well as offline activity. The tying of human rights to Internet use, and therefore access is interesting. The United Nations declared Internet access a human right last year. The United States government has programs in place to deliver broadband connections to even its most rural areas. But more importantly, given the above text, it would be possible to view the removal of Internet access rights as an abrogation of human rights, and thus an illegal act on the international stage. The ability to innovate, develop technical capacity, grasp economic opportunities, and promote freedom of expression online is best realized in cooperation with all stakeholders. This is a defense of the Internet as it currently is. The multi-stakeholder model dividing authority over the Internet among parties such as ICANN is the status quo, and a mostly functional one. Also, the above quote directly rebuts, again, the idea of the United Nations becoming the arbiter of the Internet. It’s something that is good to repeat. Proposals have been, and will likely continue to be, put forward at international regulatory bodies that would fundamentally alter the governance and operation of the Internet. Yes. The proposals would attempt to justify increased government control over the Internet and could undermine the current multi-stakeholder model that has enabled the Internet to flourish and under which the private sector, civil society, academia, and individual users play an important role in charting its direction. Government control: bad. Multi-stakeholder: good. Keep repeating that to yourself. The proposals would diminish the freedom of expression on the Internet in favor of government control over content. This is the ‘why’ of the former statement. More government control means less free speech, directly, in this case. Given that the United States argued above that an open discussion – free speech, in other words – leads to democracy and self government, goals of this country’s leaders. The position of the United States Government has been and is to advocate for the flow of information free from government control. This standard is not always lived up to by the US government itself, but it is a fine goal for every country. This Administration and past Administrations have made a strong commitment to the multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance and the promotion of the global benefits of the Internet. Correct. And finally, the clarion call: It is the policy of the United States to promote a global Internet free from government control and to preserve and advance the successful multi-stakeholder model that governs the Internet. – Now, this bill only in fact says that the above is the view of the United States Congress if it is passed. Submitted by a Republican, it could enjoy bipartisan support in the House, given that its text appears clear of potential hang-ups. I suspect that if it can clear the House, it can pass the Senate and the President’s desk all the more easily. After the SOPA debacle just over a year ago, this bill is a dramatic improvement. Top Image Credit: Andrew Malone
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Google on Tuesday announced that it will allow Web developers to share hosted websites via Google Drive. All you have to do is store your HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files, and then share a link to your starting HTML file. In fact, Google is eating its own dog food by hosting the instructions on how to do this yourself, on Google Drive. Here’s what you have to do: Create a new folder in Drive and share it as “Public on the web.” Upload your HTML, JS & CSS files to this folder. Open the HTML file & you will see “Preview” button in the toolbar. Share the URL that looks like www.googledrive.com/host/… from the preview window and anyone can view your web page. It’s a small update, but certainly a welcome one for Web developers. If you build or design sites and need to demo your work for clients, this should be a very useful way to show off what you’ve got so far. Again, we don’t recommend using Google Drive as your main hosting service, but if you’re using Google Drive anyway for saving and sharing your files, this added functionality can’t hurt. Because the company requires that you first share your files publicly, there shouldn’t be any privacy concerns here – nobody is going to see your website before it’s finished unless you explicitly give them the link. Google’s goal here is of course to get more and more people using Google Drive over competing services. If your current cloud storage service can’t do this, I doubt you’ll switch, but you’re already using Google Drive, you may find yourself using it more than Dropbox or SkyDrive. See also – Google releases faster version of Forms with real-time collaboration, automatic saving, and more and Google releases Save to Drive extension for Chrome, adds zooming and region commenting to images
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Microsoft announced on Tuesday it has scored a big win with Verizon. The company’s Xbox 360 will be getting exclusive console rights to the carrier’s Redbox Instant service. Although Microsoft wouldn’t reveal when Redbox would be coming to Xbox, aside from saying “in the very near future,” it did reveal that current Redbox Instant beta participants will be getting access “in the coming days.” Again, timing is unclear, but you’re already a tester, you will be getting an email with a unique code to access the app on Xbox 360. For those who have an Xbox but aren’t a beta tester of Redbox, don’t worry. You can’t wait for the service to rollout more broadly, after which the Xbox app will undoubtedly follow, or if you can’t wait, you can ask for entry into the beta by visiting RedboxInstant.com. Becoming the exclusive gaming and entertainment console launch partner for Redbox Instant is really just a small piece of the larger puzzle for the Xbox 360. This console generation, Microsoft has been pushing hard to ensure that the Xbox 360 is more than just a console, a strategy that has helped it significantly in its fight with Nintendo and Sony. More to follow.
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Movile is investing $2.6 million in the Brazilian food delivery platform iFood and becoming its strategic partner, the Latin American mobile publisher announced today. This series B round will help the startup expand its mobile presence and reach the 5,000-restaurant milestone by 2014. iFood is similar to US food ordering services such as GrubHub and Seamless. It started operations in May 2011, and unveiled a R$3.1 million investment ($1.56 million) from VC firm Warehouse Investimentos in August of that year. Since then, it has gained traction in its home country, mostly in major cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Overall, it currently serves 50,000 orders a month, and lists over 1,000 restaurants in five Brazilian states. It’s worth noting that in addition to its website, iFood already has mobile apps for iOS and Android. Still, Movile hopes it can help iFood take this one step further and reach 20,000 mobile orders a month for the service by June, its head of US operations Eduardo Henrique explains: “Mobile commerce is booming in Brazil and Latin America right now. iFood is leading the mobile and online food ordering industry, and as a major distribution platform with over 40 carrier partners and 20 million mobile subscribers, we at Movile are very excited to be a part of iFood’s next phase and to see how the service can expand to mobile devices across Latin America and eventually the US.” As you may remember, Movile already followed a similar expansion path. After gaining presence all across Latin America and becoming part of South African media group Naspers, the Brazilian company is now giving a push in the US, and decided to open an office in Silicon Valley. As we reported, Latin America’s online food ordering segment has been attracting a growing number of investments. iFood’s competitors include Brazil’s Peixe Urbano, which has bought its way into food delivery, as well as Uruguayan startup PedidosYa, which is expanding across the region and is backed by London-based VC fund Atomico and by Kaszek Ventures. Image credit: Thinkstock
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Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of the Data Platform Group Ted Kummert has left the firm he joined in 1989 for the Madrona Venture Group, where he will work as a venture capitalist. Madrona Ventures, a Seattle-based VC firm is a natural fit for Kummert, given its investments into firms such as Tier 3, and Context Relevant, the latter of which works with analytics and big data. Kummert’s roles at Microsoft included working on Windows Azure Data Services, and other key data projects that had him at the center of Microsoft’s evolving push into the cloud. According to the official release, Kummert will both assist Madrona in finding new companies to invest in, and also the management of firms already in its portfolio. Citing the rising profile of Software as a Service products, the cloud, and “data analytics,” Madrona cast Kummert as a key hire. As GeekWire noted this morning, Madrona has been on something of a streak in the last year, raising a $300 million venture fund. That cash, its largest raise to date, puts a strong onus on the VC group to perform. New talent is perhaps a simple way to ensure that the firm has enough intellectual bandwidth to process deal flow to match its fund size. The obvious losing party in this is Microsoft, as Kummert will help in the funding of Seattle-based companies that will compete with it for talent, and it likely isn’t too happy to lose one of its vice presidents, most especially in this area where it is investing so heavily. For the growing startup scene in Seattle, a hardy bunch, however, this is something of a coup. TNW has learned that Satya Nadella, current head of the Server and Tools business division at Microsoft will take over Kummert’s role, managing the Data Platform Group directly. It’s not particuarly uncommon for this sort of arrangemtn to exist while the proper replacement is decided upon, and installed. Microsoft declined to provide TNW with a comment on the announcement. Top Image Credit: Bryce Edwards
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Instagram on Tuesday announced its 90 million users can now browse their feeds on the Web, just like they already can on their mobile devices. To check yours out, go to instagram.com and login to your account. At the time of writing, clicking on the home link doesn’t work for us at TNW. We’re sure Instagram is getting flooded with requests, however, and this will be resolved soon (this is likely a gradual rollout). Instagram says your feed on the Web works similarly to the one on your mobile phone. You can browse through the latest photos from people you follow (and get updates in realtime as they post new ones), like photos by double clicking on them or pressing the like button, and comment on them directly inline. The company even says you can shrink your browser down to a single column to make your feed “look more like your mobile feed” but somehow we doubt anyone will do that. Here’s how it looks: The move is part of the mobile company’s broader strategy of expanding to the desktop Web. Despite the gradual feature rollout for its website, however, Instagram insists that it remains a mobile-first social network. “We believe that you should be able to access Instagram on a variety of different devices, any of which may be convenient to you at a given moment – including your desktop computer or tablet,” Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom said in the announcement post today. “We do not offer the ability to upload from the web as Instagram is about producing photos on the go, in the real world, in realtime. On the other hand, Instagram for the web is focused on making the browsing experience a fast, simple and enjoyable one.” Instagram launched new profiles on the Web back in November 2012, following the basic photo pages that arrived in June 2012. Today’s announcement, however, means the social netowrk is finally offering a similar experience on mobile and destkop, at least when it comes to consumption. As mentioned, the creation process remains mobile-only, and likely will continue to be as such for a long time. See also – Instagram co-founder: “It is not our intention to sell your photos” and Instagram rolls back advertising section of Terms of Service to original, in place since 2010
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Today, social payment platform Ribbon has announced that it has raised $1.6 million in seed funding led by Draper Associates and participation from Siemer Ventures, Klout’s Chief Operating Officer Emil Michael, Naguib Sawiris, Hydros CEO Winston Ibrahim, and MicroVentures. In addition to this funding, it is releasing its latest round of service updates: in-stream payments right from within Facebook and the launch of its developer API. Company co-founder and CEO Hany Rashwan tells us Ribbon will use the money to grow the team and focus on scaling the product, both by acquiring new users and expanding to other platforms like YouTube. With respect to the first part, it has already begun recruiting, having recently brought on board Teens in Tech founder Daniel Brusilovsky and Sean Blake. Previously, the company raised $120,000 from AngelPad, Gokul Rajaram, Sierra Ventures, and InterWest Partners. If you’re not familiar with Ribbon, it’s almost a take on Bitly meets payments. Anyone can create an account on the site and list whatever it is they wish to sell. A link gets generated for each individual item and the seller can list it wherever they wish, either on their website, blog, or on social media. Where the transaction takes place is important in this next step. If a potential buyer clicks on the link in Twitter, they can complete their purchase right from within the social network — the e-commerce feel takes place within that environment. With respect to Facebook, prior to today, the action has been different. If you had an item for sale and processed it through Ribbon, someone could have potentially clicked on that link within Facebook, but it would have taken them to a shopping cart within the social network. Nothing surprising, right? Well before it was pushing the user to a Facebook app. Today, the company is launching in-stream payments so that now it will happen wherever you are. If someone posts a Ribbon-created link in a Facebook status update or Timeline post indicating something is for sale, should a buyer click on that link, it will display the shopping cart portion right within that post using an iFrame. Rashwan assures us that although you’ve entered in your credit card information into a Facebook wall post, your data is secure. He says that all transactions are handled through Ribbon’s servers. It’s important to note that the company has also employed a fraud detection unit to help avoid any unwarranted charges. The last piece of news coming from Ribbon is the release of its developer API. Something that the company says has been in high demand, the API gives third-party hackers access to its system of selling items across multiple platforms. Although announced today, it was released last week to coincide with the MHacks hackathon at the University of Michigan. Rashwan says that it hopes to improve and expand the API more in the coming weeks. Although Ribbon launched just three months ago, it has definitely been sought after. The company says artists from every sector has been using the service, including musicians, authors, programmers, designers, and movie makers. In addition, many small businesses that have typically used Etsy, eBay, and other similar services have used Ribbon to help sell their physical goods. Photo credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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Social Media Week, the global jamboree that explores how our favourite forms of conversational media perform economically, socially and culturally, returns from February 18 to 22. This time around attendees can look forward to all manner of events taking place in Copenhagen, Hamburg, Lagos, Paris, Miami, Milan, New York City, Singapore and Tokyo. In New York, the city will see the fifth edition of Social Media Week and the organisers are introducing Ideas Connected, which it describes as ‘an experiential space’ where attendees can connect with Ben Kaufman of Quirky and Alexis Ohanian of Reddit. The Ideas Connected space will also offer master classes, networking lounges, collaborative workspaces, interactive installations and a simulcast lounge for catching talks. It’s based at Social Media Week’s Global HQ. Social Media Week has also revealed that New York activities will feature four ‘Content Hubs’ with a focus on business and entrepreneurship at Bloomberg, society and social impact at 92Y Tribeca, advertising and marketing at JWT and culture and lifestyle at Hearst. Other events in the Big Apple include a session with Elle featuring a fashion startup competition, Nike exploring the running world and TIME talking about Twitter advertising and Facebook’s Open Graph. More than 100 events are planned for Social Media Week in NYC alone. Looking back over the event’s accomplishments for last year, Social Media Week 2012 saw more than 2,000 individually organised events. Last year these took place in 22 cities in 17 countries. More than 66,000 attendees were at these events and 2,400 speakers took part. Looking ahead, Social Media week has plenty of interesting participants including, Gabe Zicherman, chair of the Gamification Summit; Eli Parsier, chief executive of Upworthy; Ekaterina Walter, author of Think Like Zuck; entrepreneur Jessica Jackley, the former President of Nigeria H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo and many more. More details about the regional events and how to register can be found on the Social Media Week site.
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Are you a sharp, keen, well-connected tech writer who loves to break news, works their contact book and takes pride in being first to a story? If so, we want to hear from you as we’re currently looking to bolster our global team with hires in San Francisco and New York City. You need to be incredibly passionate about technology, startups, entrepreneurship and Internet culture. You’ll be keen to immerse yourself in the technology scene – or indeed already be part of it. You’ll enjoy chasing up stories and the people behind them for interviews/comment. You’ll love people, events and developing relationships. You’ll be keen to learn the background to a story, thrive on the details and above all, be passionate about being first to a story. What you need to have: An unwavering passion for technology, start-ups, entrepreneurship A hunger for breaking news. The ability to write quickly and confidently. Natural attention to detail Natural drive to get to a news story first, and the story behind the story. Responsibilities: Watching out and reporting breaking news stories, anywhere on the planet – but especially in San Francisco or New York. Reviewing startups from across the planet – but particularly within San Francisco or New York. Writing thoughtful discussion posts about the International technology scene; the companies involved, influencers and everything in between. Attending events and conferences. Interviewing influencers and companies involved in the headline. Salary: Negotiable based on experience. Apply: Click here to apply. Good luck! Image credit: Thinkstock
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In today’s Daily Dose, Dell goes private in $24.4 billion acquisition, About.me splits from AOL and Amazon launches a new currency. You can catch The Daily Dose every Monday through Friday right here on The Next Web. Be sure to hit the subscription button of your choice below to get The Daily Dose as soon as it’s available. Dell goes private, as Michael Dell and Silver Lake finalize $24.4 billion acquisition. Read more About.me spins out as an independent company again, 2 years after AOL acquisition. Read more Amazon launches new ‘Coins’ virtual currency for Kindle Fire app purchases, coming to the US in May. Read more   
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File-sharing service Box has announced the creation of its Partner Network, a service that is the formalization of the company’s three major tenets of partnering: alliances, channel, and platform. The company believes that this network will enable it to extend its cloud content and collaboration service into new markets and foster its expansion in the coming year as it eyes a potential IPO. And the company appears ripe for it, especially as Box shared its annual growth numbers for 2012, of which perhaps most impressive is the 150 percent growth year-over-year. Exceptional growth in 2012 Aaron Levie, the co-founder and CEO of the company that received the Crunchie Award for “Sexiest Enterprise Startup”, said Box and its users are witnessing a transition period — from traditional computing devices to cloud services. And he believes that it’s happening “faster than anyone could have predicted.” Over the past year, Box has been riding high, with the addition of customers like Discovery Communications, Electronic Arts, Johnson Lambert LLP, McCann Worldgroup, MGM Resorts International, MRM Worldwide, NBC Sports, Netflix, Sony Music, and others. To date, more than 150,000 businesses have used the service making up part of the total customer base of over 15 million. That fact that the company has over 15 million users is something that stands out, especially when you consider how fast it grew to be that. At its annual BoxWorks conference last year, Levie announced that it had 14 million users — this was in October. Three months later, it increases by over a million. For the first time, the company is releasing information about its customer verticals, with some interesting adoption and growth in a few of them. Within the past year, Box customers within the construction and engineering space grew 103 percent, while education grew 119 percent, manufacturing increased 233 percent, and media/entertainment up 200 percent. Introducing Box Partner Network With all its growth, Box decided to create a program that would help organize its partnerships while also formalizing a plan to get developers coordinated. The result is the Box Partner Network and its made up of the company’s strategic alliances/partnerships, including its technical integrations, the Box Channel Program, and the Box Platform and API service. Whitney Bouck, Box’s Enterprise General Manager, says that Box’s Partner Network is an important tool because its partners “help bring cloud content management and sharing through Box to every company, no matter what size or industry.” Through its software integrations, the extensive customer base of reseller partners, and the reach of developers, the company feels the Partner Network will make things easier for businesses to discover and deploy its product. Last October, Box released its Box Embed product — an HTML5-based framework that tied Box in with other enterprise applications so that it appears to be one single platform. In doing so, the company signed strategic alliances with 10 major enterprise players, including Concur, Cornerstone, OnDemand, DocuSign, Eloqua, FuzeBox, Jive, NetSuite, Oracle, SugarCRM, and ZenDesk. Today, Box is adding 10 additional companies to its list. While not all of them will integrate with Box Embed, they are considered to be software integration partners. Bouck says of the 10, AtTask, Autodesk, Marketo, and Xero will be integrating directly with Box in the coming months through its API. The remaining six, Clarizen, CollabNet, Fonality, IBM Connections, TIBCO’s tibbr, and Tidemark will integrate themselves with Box Embed. Another component of the Partner Network is the addition of the Box Channel Program, which already has 50 partners signed on in the past four months, which includes CDW, Ahead, Insight, Forsythe, and SoftChoice. This Channel Program focuses on the reselling of Box’s service and there are three distinct plans: Box member, Box choice, and Box premier. Each one is focused on a specific customer base. The last component is the Box Platform and API service, which counts more than 17,000 developers, over 300 OneCloud applications, and has seen 200 percent growth in usage by third-party apps. Last December, the company released its v2 API for developers to use and usage has seemed to take off. In fact, it has become quite popular that each month, there are 1.8 billion API calls made — and that’s for more than 350 apps in the Box Apps marketplace. The road to an IPO It’s known that Box will most likely go public, but when is the question. Levie has already acknowledged that the company will go that route, especially since he doesn’t want to sell to another firm. Will it IPO this year? It’s a “long shot”, says Levie and some might think 2014 will be the year it happens. To that end, what is Box’s strategy for the next 11 months of the year? Bouck tells us that it plans on expanding globally. It launched a presence in Europe last June, and the headcount at the London-based office has already grown to 25 on the staff. The plan is to have 50 by the middle of the year and 100 by the end, with mostly sales personnel and some in marketing or support roles. Having established a foothold outside the United States, Box says that it wants to put speed on the ground to reach other countries, including France, Germany, Spain, and the Nordics. In the future, Asia and Latin America are also in sight. Photo credit: Martin Abegglen/Flickr
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Newsreader app Guide has announced that it raised $1 million in seed funding from several investors, including Sapient Corporation, the Knight Foundation, actor and producer Omar Epps, founder of MTV Bob Pitman, Google’s Steve Schimmel, the Hartman Trust, WAM LLC, Drew Lauter, and Jason Sanders. With the investment, the company says that it will be focus on sprucing up its product while also protecting its intellectual property. With this round of investment, Guide has attracted a group of individuals who have an interest in new technology and/or journalism. With Pitman, the company gains a resource who understands the television industry and video; Schimmel is employee #13 at Google; Omar Epps is a famous actor and producer who understands video and the entertainment space; and the Knight Foundation, a funder of journalism and media innovation is offering funds through its Knight Enterprise Fund for early-stage companies. Ben Wirz, the Knight Foundation’s director of business consulting, says that “Guide is launching a fun, new engaging format for online news that gives all publishers, from bloggers to large news companies, the ability to offer their audiences a video experience.” Founded in 2012, Guide takes any of your online news, blogs, and social streams and turns it into a video that you can watch when you don’t have time to read. In some way, it’s similar to news aggregators like Summly, Clipped, Circa, and Flipboard, but it places more focus on the news. The company believes that video has always been the big thing in news and there are often situations where people just want a visual and auditory solution to get content they want in a digestible manner. Put simply, imagine when you wake up and you wish to consume the latest news on NBC, CNN, FOX News, or perhaps right on TNW. Not only would you have to stop reading in order to go shower, cook, exercise, drive to work, or whatever else you need to do, but you won’t have time or a free hand to sit around and read the news. Guide believes it can solve this problem. We asked Freddie Laker, the company’s CEO, about whether this was similar to what Qwiki had done with Wikipedia entries. He says that it wasn’t because Qwiki’s approach to photos and audio “restricted the user experience and monetization model” Guide was pursuing. In addition, it felt its avatar technology was the key to its success. Using any site that has a compatible RSS feed, any webpage can have a video feed. Laker says that the more sources added to user profiles and as publishers begin signing up, the company hopes to rapidly increase the number of sources it actively monitors. However, it has not set any limits on the sources. Each video has its own avatar that the user can choose. While serving a functional role within the app, it also helps to establish an emotional connection to the various characters that can be chosen. At the very least, users can choose from a dog, robot, famous celebrity, and an anime character. In terms of monetization, Guide says it’ll be a combination of in-app purchases and advertising. The company says that in the future, more avatars can be chosen, but not all will be free. Additionally, if brands wish, they can purchase targeted sponsored anchors/avatars that will appear around specific content. Guide is an app that is accessible across three core devices: tablets, smart TVs and personal computers, all accessed through the browser. As the company has not launched yet, the platforms will be made available soon. Laker believes he has a unique opportunity here because the “world’s richest content source” is untapped in the video market. It says that 25 percent of the world’s   2 billion+ Internet users access a blog on a daily basis. 97 percent of all the online content has text, photos, and audio with Internet users preferring to watch video content versus reading it almost on a 2 to 1 basis. But yet, only 2 percent of all online content is in video format. Here is an introductory video about Guide: The app is officially in private alpha as of today with its public beta expected in early March. ➤ Guide Photo credit: GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty Images
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Google’s Hotel Finder service has been updated with a new feature that makes it easier to find accommodation in any city over a specific period of time. Now, when you visit google.com/hotels, you’re asked not only to search for the area you want to stay in, but also the dates that you’re planning on being there. Google then does all the hard work, bringing up its trademark maps with a dizzying number of red dots that represent its search results. The update includes a dark box, overlaid on the top left-hand corner of the map, that brings up a detailed description of the various neighborhoods when you hover over the name with your cursor. The text summary and cover photo are useful enough, but the feature becomes much more interesting once you select the neighbourhood name from the drop down. Google’s Hotel Finder then zooms into the map, applying a four-cornered box that conveys the boundaries of the neighborhood. It’s an incredibly useful way of finding out where your accommodation is in relation to key places you want to visit. With the ability to set custom areas on the map too, it means users can easily find the perfect room based solely on location parameters. The list of hotels on the left hand-side of the webpage are updated automatically based on the neighbourhood you’ve selected, and can now be filtered directly from the search box. So rather than manually navigating via the sort button, and looking at hotels in order based on price or user rating, it’s possible to just type in from the outset: “Three star hotel in Barcelona under $200 with a WiFi connection.” Last but not least, the Hotel Finder also has a new default filter along the top of the map, called ‘Brand’, which sits alongside Price, Star Rating, User Rating and Amenities. Image Credit: Rich Brooks/Flickr
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Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab is having a very poor start to the week. Thousands of Windows XP machines were cut off from the Internet late last night after an antivirus update crippled Internet access for home and business users. The update (version 8.1.0.831) killed off HTTP traffic on Windows platforms. Customers of the software took to Twitter and reported the issue on the company’s forum. A user by the name of “bradb21″ described the problem as follows: I have ~12,000 machines running KES8 and my help desk started getting calls about an hour ago saying users were having problems accessing various web sites. I did all my typical troubleshooting and was not able to find a problem and I was not having the problem on my Linux machine that I use on a daily basis. So I went over to some of my lab Windows XP machines and I was having the same problem. I was able to change a setting and tell KES to stop monitoring port 80 and then I could then access the web sites again. I turned the monitoring of port 80 back on and it broke the browser access again. I can not find any logs as to what is going on. I was able to roll the updates back in KES8 on one machine it the browser was working with port 80 being monitored…. so it seems like a bad update or something that went out. Other users confirmed the issue, noting they could not access internal (on company networks) or external (on the Internet) websites. Many noted that Windows 7 did not appear to be affected. Some users tried rolling back the update in question, others disabled the software’s Web protection, and a few manually unblocked the ports 80, 443, and any ports they may have been using for a proxy. The good news is that Kaspersky issued an update on Tuesday morning to address the problem. The bad news is that in many cases it will require user intervention: the update should install automatically but some users will have to disable the Web protection component first. For its part, Kaspersky responded in the forum about three hours after the initial post with an apology. Two hours later, the company apologized again, released the fix and accompanying instructions. The security firm asked users to first “please disable the Web AV component of your protection policy for your managed computers” and then in Security Center (or Admin Kit): Go to the Repositories section >> (Right click) Updates >> All Tasks >> Clear updates repository Go to the Repositories section >> (Right click) Updates >> Download Updates After that, users were told to “please run your group Update task for Managed Computers” and then “please re-enable your Web AV component in your protection policy.” Eventually, the company issued the following statement: The issue was caused by a database update released on 4/2/2013 at 8:52 pm (Moscow time) that resulted in the web anti-virus component in some products blocking internet access. The problem only affected x86 systems with the following products installed: Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Workstations 6.04 MP4; Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows; Kaspersky Endpoint Security 10 for Windows; Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and 2013; and Kaspersky Pure 2.0. An initial workaround, suggested immediately after the problem was identified, recommended disabling web anti-virus or rolling back updates. At 2.31am Moscow time today, the problem was fixed by a database update which has already been uploaded to public servers. Customers need to perform a database update to resolve the issue. If an affected machine updates from Admin Kit/Security Center, then updates will be downloaded automatically. If a machine updates directly from our servers, then the initial workaround should be applied first (disabling the web anti-virus component). Internet connectivity will then be restored and the customer will be able to download the most recent database update. Kaspersky Lab would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by this database update error. Actions have been taken to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future. Broken updates are issued by security companies every once in a while. The last major one was in May 2012, when Avira crippled PCs around the world by blocking critical Windows processes and third-party software. While that case was arguably more severe, the issue was also fixed with an update. Image credit:
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AlmaBox, an Argentine e-commerce company that sells monthly subscriptions of beauty and grooming products, has acqui-hired its Mexican counterpart Ploombox, the company announced today. Both AlmaBox and Ploombox are based on the same model as US-based Birchbox, which recently bought its European copycat Joliebox and inspired several other clones, such as Rocket Internet-incubated GLOSSYBOX (see our previous story). AlmaBox participated in NXTP Labs acceleration program, and recently raised a series A investment round. As for Ploombox, it is backed by Investomex and Startup Labs and Investomex, which won the best investor award at TNW Mexico Startup Awards last year. AlmaBox already operates in Argentina and Colombia, and was making plans to expand in Mexico before this deal happened. Following the acqui-hire, Ploombox founders Sofia Garcia y Danielle Aziz will run AlmaBox’s operations in Mexico, while becoming partners of AlmaBox Holding. In addition to pursuing their growth, the company plans to expand further into Spanish-speaking Latin America, starting with Chile. It’s worth noting it already has competition in that market, which Spanish player Fancybox entered a few months ago by acquiring Nina’s Box, now known as Fancybox Chile. Image credit: Thinkstock
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On the same day that the Dell announced it was going private again, news has emerged that About.me has bought itself back from AOL. Just to recap, About.me is a service that lets you create a one-page profile all about you – it can include links to social profiles and such like, but the idea is all about simplicity. About.me was co-founded by Ryan Freitas, Tony Conrad and Tim Young in October 2009, before launching to the public in December the following year. It was swiftly acquired by AOL for what was thought to be tens of millions of dollars. About.me…a startup? Now, almost exactly two years later, About.me is “becoming a startup again”, the company said in its announcement, and becoming an independent company. While full details of the buyout haven’t been revealed, Freitas and Conrad said that it was finanically backed by the management team and a group of investors “who have backed companies such as WordPress and Google.” Indeed, according to the New York Times, About.me is gearing up to announce a $5.7 million funding round this week with participation from a handful of Silicon Valley firms, including True Ventures, where Conrad is already a partner, Google Ventures, Founder Collective, CrunchFund and Ron Conway. “Our commitment is to make about.me the Web’s starting point for identity – we believe everyone will eventually have an About.me page they integrate into their email signature, add to their Twitter bio or embed in one of their blogs,” explain Freitas and Conrad. “Very few products have a legitimate shot at becoming ubiquitous and we think building About.me as an independent company is the best way to get us there.” It seems that one of the main reasons for spinning out from AOL is to get more freedom and flexibility to build features as requested from the community – on forums, Twitter, and elsewhere. “To allay any anxiety about what we’ve got planned, we’ve updated our original TOS and Privacy Policy, updated for 2013,” the co-founders continue. About.me launched a new Favorites feature last year, followed by Compliment which lets you tell someone that you love their About.me page, the way it’s written or you love the background. It then rolled out an official WordPress widget to display a user’s profile in their blog’s sidebar With this spin out, AOL will be keeping an 8% stake in About.me.
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Social news and entertainment website Reddit has been told today that its use of advertisements meets the new ‘acceptable ads’ guidelines drawn up by the Adblock Plus open-source project. The ruling means that all of Reddit’s adverts will be whitelisted on the service – a free ad-blocking tool that has been downloaded more than 200 million times worldwide – automatically. It’s available at the moment for Chrome, Firefox and Opera on the desktop, as well as the Android browser via the Google Play store. By default it blocks adverts on all websites, YouTube videos and browser-based games, except for those that meet its ‘acceptable ads’ guidelines. However, it’s also possible for users to toggle this so that all advertisements are blanked without exception. “We hate annoying and disruptive ads as much as everyone else, and we’ve always had limits on the type of ads we accept at Reddit,” Erik Martin, General Manager of Reddit said. “We respect our community and we’re serious about not displaying obnoxious ads.” It’s fair to say that most Internet users will want to block online advertisements altogether. However, the team behind Adblock Plus has emphasized that it’s important to try to support websites that are running advertisements in a sensible, intelligent way. Provided enough users choose to unblock the acceptable ads, other websites will want to meet the Adblock Plus guidelines too, thereby improving users’ general online experience. “Without this feature we run the danger that increasing Adblock Plus usage will make small websites unsustainable,” a passage in the ‘acceptable ads’ guidelines reads. So what ads are being acknowledged as acceptable? Well, Adblock Plus has issued the full requirements on their website, but they include: Static advertisements only (no animations, sounds or similar) Preferably text only, no attention-grabbing images Ads should never obscure page content (e.g. require user to click a button to close the ad before viewing the page). For pages featuring a text that the user will be reading, the ads should not be placed in the middle of the text where they interrupt the reading flow. Instead, they can be placed above the text content, below it or on the sides. Same rule applies to search result pages, paid search results cannot be mixed with organic results. Advertising should be clearly marked as such with the word “Advertising” or its equivalent, it should be distinguishable from the page content (via a border and/or different background color). Adblock Plus was launched for Android in November last year, following a release on the Opera browser just weeks before. We’ve also published a full explanation of how to block all online advertisements by default with Adblock Plus. Image Credit: Eva Blue/Flickr
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Apple’s iPad has entered 2013 dominating once again, owning over four-fifths of Web traffic in January for the US and Canada. Rounding out the top three were Amazon’s Kindle Fire at 7.7 percent and Samsung’s line of Galaxy tablets at 3.9 percent. The latest figures come from Chitika Insights, which says it surveyed a sample of hundreds of millions of impressions from its advertising network between January 19 and January 27, 2013. The results paint a very one-side market of tablets, at least when it comes to Web browsing: Chitika recently reported iPad’s Web usage share fell dramatically over the holidays as competition from Amazon, Samsung, Google, and Microsoft moved in. It would appear Apple’s tablet line has recovered slightly to 81 percent, but it’s still down a notable 5 percentage points from the 86 percent Web share it held just a couple of months ago. At the time, we noted the Apple iPad would likely decline in traffic simply because it has such a large Web share already, but the drop was still significant. A steady loss is to be expected as more and more tablets, especially significantly cheaper ones, flood the market. Yet as you can see, the holiday dip was a temporary one (data from December 1 to January 27): Apple aside, it would appear Amazon’s tablet is the biggest winner, and it’s not only at Apple’s expense. During the holidays, the company’s device gained over 3 percentage points, and we now see that wasn’t just a blip due to new owners of the Kindle Fire using their tablets more: the device has grabbed another 0.2 percentage points since. Over the coming months, we’ll be watching to see if Amazon and Samsung will continue to chip away at Apple’s Web share in North America. At the same time, Google’s Nexus tablets (at a measly 1.4 percent) and Microsoft’s Surface line (at just 0.4 percent) will likely also grow their Web presence. If you’re a developer looking to keep your site working on tablets, it soon won’t be enough to just be iPad-compatible. Image credit: AFP/Getty Images
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After opening 51 retail stores in 2012, just after Christmas Microsoft announced the locations for the first six in 2013, in San Antonio; Miami; Beachwood, Ohio; San Francisco; Salt Lake City and St. Louis. Now, the computing giant is looking to make further inroads into the retail space with another five stores penciled in for launch by this summer. Earlier today, Jonathan Adashek, General Manager, Communications and Strategy, Sales & Marketing Services Group at Microsoft, announced the following five locations: Natick Mall, Natick, Massachusetts; Ala Moana Center, Honolulu, Hawaii; Pioneer Place, Portland, Oregon; The Somerset Collection, Troy, Michigan and Woodfield Mall, Schaumburg, Illinois. Though the majority of Microsoft’s stores are in the US, it did open its first international stores last year – in Edmonton, Burnaby, Vancouver, and Toronto. And its first foray outside of North America will be in Europe, as the first UK store is coming to London next month. Adashek added that more information on the grand opening events for the upcoming Honolulu, Portland, Troy and Schaumburg launches be available shortly.
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The long-rumored deal to take Dell private has finally come to fruition, with founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake completing a $24.4 billion acquisition. The transaction price represents a massive retreat from the private markets for the popular PC OEM. Microsoft, meanwhile, also participated in the deal with a $2 billion loan. The computing giant said in a statement: “Microsoft is committed to the long term success of the entire PC ecosystem and invests heavily in a variety of ways to build that ecosystem for the future. “We’re in an industry that is constantly evolving. As always, we will continue to look for opportunities to support partners who are committed to innovating and driving business for their devices and services built on the Microsoft platform.” The move represents a price of $13.65 per share, though Dell – just late last year – traded for less than $9 a share. In a press release issued today however, the company announced that that the final share price works out at a premium of 25 percent, when compared with its closing share price of $10.88 on January 11, the last trading day before rumors of a deal were first published. It’s also worth noting here that Michael Dell first approached the company’s Board of Directors in August last year, expressing an interest in taking the company private. In the wake of this deal, he will continue to run the company both as chairman and CEO. He currently owns 14 percent of Dell’s common shares, but will retain an equity investment in the firm by injecting these into the new private company. Dell himself also made a cash investment. Dell reinvented? Dell, in need of the flexibility to remake itself, will have long latitude out of sight as a private firm. Microsoft’s presence in the deal is certainly notable too, even if it only loaned a fraction of the funds. Its $2 billion ‘investment’ will likely give it sway as one of its key PC manufacturing partners; and if it can help guide Dell to build machines that fit its new operating system, that code itself might sell at a higher rate. TNW first reported the possibility of a deal in mid-Janurary, a day which saw Dell shares shoot up by 15%. When Microsoft’s participation in the deal became known, it was originally tipped to be in the $3 billion range. Interestingly, the terms of today’s merger include a “go-shop” period, which will allow other companies or interested parties to enter negotiations with Dell and offer alternative proposals – this period will last for 45 days. A Special Committee, led by the company’s lead director Alex Mandl, will be in charge of these “go-shop” talks and could enter a new deal with any person or group that submits a better proposal during this period. “The Special Committee and its advisors conducted a disciplined and independent process intended to ensure the best outcome for shareholders. Importantly, the go-shop process provides a real opportunity to determine if there are alternatives superior to the present offer from Mr. Dell and Silver Lake,” explains Mandl. “I believe this transaction will open an exciting new chapter for Dell, our customers and team members,” adds Michael Dell. “We can deliver immediate value to stockholders, while we continue the execution of our long-term strategy and focus on delivering best-in-class solutions to our customers as a private enterprise. Dell has made solid progress executing this strategy over the past four years, but we recognize that it will still take more time, investment and patience, and I believe our efforts will be better supported by partnering with Silver Lake in our shared vision.” Dell will still be headquartered in Rock Round, Texas following the merger agreement. Top Image Credit: Jerry Luo
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Intent on helping app developers gain more money from their Appstore submissions, Amazon today announced the launch of ‘Amazon Coins,’ a new virtual currency that will allow Kindle Fire owners to purchase apps, games and make in-app purchases on their tablet when it becomes available in May. The virtual currency will launch in the US only to begin with, providing customers with two choices to buy apps or make purchases from within the app. While Amazon previously only allowed credit cards to be associated with a Kindle Fire device, users will also be able to pay using Coins, which plays into the hands of parents who wish to keep a tab on how much their kids are spending. Amazon says when the virtual currency launches, it will provide customers will “tens of milions of dollars’ worth” of free Amazon Coins to spend on apps in its Amazon Appstore, while developers will see nothing change in terms of revenue sharing or work needed to adapt their apps. Android developers not yet publishing apps on the Amazon Appstore will have until April 25 to submit titles, in order for them to be ready when Kindle Fire customers get their hands on the new Coins currency. With some developers already seeing revenues per user higher than on Google Play and other Android platforms, the new virtual currency could see parents become more willing to let their children purchase in-app items, making Amazon’s platform one that developers can’t afford not to be a part of.
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If you like to dabble a little bit in the poker world, you’re probably more than familiar with that feeling of regret when you play a bad hand you knew you shouldn’t have played. Discipline is an imperative quality in any good poker player, and goes some way towards stacking ‘luck’ in your favor. But with potentially hundreds, or even thousands, of hands dealt in any given game, how do you go about learning from you mistakes? Particularly if there’s beer involved, it can be easy to forget all those bad moves you made. That’s where Poker Postgame wants to help, an iOS app that lets you ‘record’ your every move on the poker table. Now, by ‘record’, we’re not talking about video or audio, it’s more of a note-taking app to enable you to recall the exact sequence of events – hands, bets, folds, raises, and everything in between. Granted, this will likely only appeal to the more serious players, but poker and, more specifically, Texas hold ‘em, has soared in popularity in recent times, fueled by the easy access to online casinos. There’s a certainly a market for this type of app. How it works First up, it’s worth noting that Poker Postgame works in landscape only, which probably makes sense given the layout. When you first launch the app, you’ll be asked to create a new hand. You can include the names of people you’re playing with, and the number of chips (‘stack size’). You can then add each player’s hand, and the table cards (flop, turn and river), as the cards are flipped. And you can record the intricacies of each hand, including betting patterns such as raises and ‘all-ins’. While there are other note-taking apps out there, such as PokerLiveNotes, Poker Live Tracker, Poker Notebook and Poker Track, Poker Postgame is a worthy addition to the table, with a nice ‘visual’ design and layout. It features a custom Poker-centric keyboard that makes it easy to enter card details, and bets can be recorded with a deft swipe of the finger. The app creators say that they set out to streamline the note-taking process, meaning that players can record information in the order they actually remember it. Indeed, it features shorthand notations such as ‘Rag’ for a duff card, and ‘Raindbow’ for multi-suit flops. “Our recall of events isn’t always chronological, so Postgame allows players to record details in the order they remember them,” the company behind the app says. “[Other similar apps] have all taken a list-based approach to laying out the players and betting information. We didn’t think that was the right way to go. Instead, we came up with the grid-based approach where you can act on any player at a time. We found this really speeds up the entry of a hand. You spend a lot less time navigating in the app and more time filling out the details.” Indeed, if you’re an aspiring poker player looking to analyze your game and make improvements, then this might just be worth the $1.99 pricetag. ➤ Poker Postgame | iOS Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service
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Skype users in Russia can now buy additional credit for making calls worldwide using their mobile phone, thanks to a direct operator billing service being offered by Mach. Users can now buy Skype Credit at any time through a browser-based transaction which the firm describes as “secure, seamless and convenient.” The credit is then billed to the user as part of their monthly bill, if they’re on a contract, or instantly if they have a pre-paid account with their carrier. The service will be launched in the U.S. and Canada “soon”, and offer the exact same prices as any other Skype Credit payment methods, such as the Auto-Recharge feature for credit or debit cards found on the Skype website. The roll out is a significant step towards challenging the conventional method of making phone calls. If users can top up their Skype Credit on the go, it means that it’s possible to make calls to any other telephone number – landline or mobile – without giving a dime to the operator. Of course, due to the nature of Skype the user still needs a stable Internet connection – however, provided the pricing is right, Microsoft’s voice over IP service could be a game-changer for both contract and pay-as-you-go customers. Along with text-based messenger apps that rely on Internet connectivity, such as Line, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, users are increasingly moving away from the traditional method of sending texts and making phone calls. Mach is a provider of cloud-based, managed communications services for monetizing mobile data, and also simplifies the way that networks work together and protect revenues independently. Through a partnership with payvia – a mobile and online payments company – Mach has been able to connect its direct billing gateway with U.S. mobile operators, completing the final link to get the new payment option up and running. The firm already has links with leading mobile operators in Canada and Russia, which is why they’ve been chosen as the first regions to receive the new payment method. In a press release issued today, Skype said direct operator billing would be launched in additional countries throughout the year, and also added as a payment option for Skype users purchasing credit through a browser on their desktop PC. Carrier billing via Mach was announced for Skype last September, following an existing deal with Microsoft that allowed them to provide a similar service for apps in the Windows Marketplace. Image Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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