Cassie Phillipps, the executive producer of FailCon
Despite the name, the first conference on “failures” (starting, raising investments, scaling, exit…) was actually… a success!
Over 400 people showed up (up from 350 attendees last year) at the Kabuki Hotel in San Francisco to listen luminaries such as Esther Dyson, Paul Buchheit (Gmail, Friendfeed, Facebook), Jay Adelson (Digg, Revision3) or New York Times columnist David Pogue.
For next year, FailCon founder and executive producer Cassie “Cass” Phillipps plans to take, in early Fall, the FailCon concept overseas – Beijing, Paris and Buenos Ares.
“I hoping next year, pending the budget and the assistance, to do a series of international shows making them more like workshops: half day, 100 people, bring 3 speakers from here (San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley) and 3 speakers from the hosted place,” says Phillipps.
If you’re interested to help, contact Cass directly here.
AMD's Notebook Line Up for the Back to School season looks sexyer than ever!
In a private event in San Francisco, Calif., yesterday, AMD showcased the Fall fashion lineup of notebooks and desktops based on its VISION technology; mostly dual-core machines with an integrated ATI graphics chips.
AMD designed the VISION programme to simplify the PC buying experience by making it easier for consumers to choose the right computer for them based on what they want to do with the product.
“It wasn’t so long ago that if you wanted to find notebook computer with an AMD processor they were all uniformally very plain – I would hesitate to say ugly but they were plain. But now, the system OEMs (like HP, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Acer…) have put much effort into designing really pretty boxes that have AMD processors as much as they have moved to have attractive designs around the Intel-based processors… It’s clear now that AMD is now equipped to compete non only the basis of their technology but also on the base of their OEMs design,” explains Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight64.
AMD’s Vision strategy found useful in retail PC shopping
“I think it [Vision] has worked. It’s made it easier for people to go into a store and figure out what kind of computer they want. And to calibrate their own needs with the system capabilities,” adds Brookwood who finds AMD Vision most successful in retail. “The salespeople don’t get a lot of training… and the Vision programme guides people into making smart choices and not under buying or over buying… and from that standpoint I think it [Vision] had simplified the purchasing process and taken some of the mystery about multi-core and discrete GPU out of the equation. And that’s basically good.”
Gizmodo paid $5,000 for Apple's next -generation iPhone who was "forgotten" in a Silicon Valley bar!
The Apple vs. Gizmodo stand-off, also known as the “lost iPhone” saga is getting murkier by the hour.
On Friday, members of the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) Task Force raided Gizmodo’s editor Jason Chen and seized all kind of electronic equipments including several computers.
No need to resort to violence !
Surprisingly, the blogger was at the scene when the San Mateo county cops used a battering ram to break into his home.
“The blogger was there, they could have asked him for access… they didn’t have to break into the door, this wasn’t a drug bust. They didn’t need to use violence,” says analyst and former Sheriff, Rob Enderle.
REACT over-reacted ?
According to the task force’s website, REACT is a partnership of 17 local, state, and federal law-enforcement agencies headquartered in Santa Clara County. It was founded in 1997 to address new types of crime directly tied to California’s increasingly computer-oriented economy and widespread use of the Internet.
“This is an organisation that was primarly put in place to catch professional criminals. Catch from people who was stealing from one company and selling information to another one. High profile intellectual property cases like somebody breaking and stealing processors from Intel or sold something of very high value… This is not an organisation that was put in place to keep people from reporting on information,” adds Enderle.
Apple’s undue influence on REACT
“Apple certainly is the one who appears to have pushed REACT into taking this kind of response. And appears they are on their advisory board and they may have undue influence on the group. Also we may have a group that want to prove themselves in some high profile way and assure funding [especially in an election year!]… It looks really questionable.”
No charges are filed yet – against Gizmodo or the poor soul who found the phone and got the stipend – and the seized computers are supposedly left untouched until a judge figures out if REACT had the right to seize them.
Like they say, shoot first and then ask questions !
At the SF App Showcase last night, San Francisco-based game publisher PlayFirst showed its first native game ($4.99) for Apple’s iPad, Diner Dash: Grilling Green.
“We [PlayFirst] are considered a leader in making games for women. And the way we do that is we create really emotionally engaging games. What that means is that we’re out there just making simple match 3 puzzle games or these sort mind numbing time waster game,” explains Chris Williams, the director for mobile and console at PlayFirst.
Diner Dash has been downloaded over 500 million times (over 5-years) on PCs and Macs, and 5 million downloads for the iPhone/iPod touch version for which users spend on average 20-25 minutes per session.
iPad game required extensive custom design
For the iPad, the 100+ employee startup started from scratch and had to do a lot of extra work to customise the game for the new Apple device, like full multi-touch support, gestures and both orientation support.
“It’s a very different device… the larger screen, the assets need to be higher resolution, multi-touch… It was quite complex. It took a bunch of people, certainly more people that we have making our iPhone games. A solid 6-weeks to make this game,” adds Williams.
But unlike for other platforms, PlayFirst’s biggest challenge in developing the game for the iPad, was the lack of device!
“We spent 46 days working with cardboard cut-outs and the [iPad] simulator, hoping that it was going to play well on the device… That being said, Apple has a great simulator and we were able to replicate the experience. We were able to simulate the multi-touch and gestures and all those things. Now that we released it, we played it on the device and we’re very pleased with the result.”
SF App Showcase organiser, Seth Socolow (left) and event moderator Ben Parr of Mashable.com
Larger and more organised than “meetups” but more casual than larger run conferences, SF AppShow was started by boot-strapped mobile app publisher SF App Studio, to help fellow developers market their mobile apps.
SF AppShow is one those popular “micro-events” that are mushrooming in and around San Francisco, Calif. SF New Tech being another one.
“We needed a venue like this so app developer can come, show off their stuff to a lot of people in person, as well using social media and live video streaming to get this out to a much larger audience,” said Seth Socolow, the co-founder of SF App Studio and the event’s organiser.
Ben Parr of Mashable.com was hosting last night’s event where the following 6 new and upcoming mobile apps were showcased:
So far, most of the apps showed at these events focus on the iPhone and more recently the iPad. But curiously, no Android apps yet!
“We actually haven’t seen any applications of native Android apps yet. It kind of surprised me. I would have expected by now we would. I think still there aren’t many people making any real money on Android but it’s going to come. It’s just taking a little while longer,” adds Socolow.
Visible Energy UFOEnergy iPad application remotely monitors and controls appliances over Wi-Fi or the Web
New and innovative home energy management applications for the iPad, turns the Apple tablet into a versatile home control device!
Control4 and Visible Energy are the first startups to release an iPad application that lets you monitor and control your the electricity usage in your home, right from the Apple tablet.
I’ve met this week with Visible Energy CEO and founder, Marco Graziano, for a test drive of the EnergyUFO iPad application that left me impressed in how simple it was to remotely control – over the Web or Wi-Fi – the company’s smart powerstrip, the EnergyUFO Power Center.
“With EnergyUFO you can monitor in real-time the electricity usage of all your smart Wi-Fi powerstrips, remotely switch on or off and an appliance connected to one of the smart electrical outlet or schedule its daily use. With this granular view of electricity usage, users can finally see how their power is being used, which will help them reduce their power consumption, and thus save money,” explains Graziano.
The Palo Atlo, Calif.-startup expects to ship its Wi-Fi smart powerstrips in the second half of this year. The powerstrips will come with either one smart outlet (Visible Energy Monostrip) or four (EnergyUFO Power Center).
Pricing starts at about $99, versus several thousands of dollars or more for the Control4 solution that requires a professional installation.
“Unlike Control4, we’re targeting the mass market, no professional installation required. Our vision is that, the more people use our smart powerstrip technology, the more they will conserve energy, save money, and save our planet.”
ad:tech this year was all about social. How to advertise on the social Web effectively and use the power of networks for brands to spread their marketing message.
The most popular and interactive method is through Twitter and there are now two companies in addition to Twitter that will allow a company or organization to sponsor tweets.
Twitter announced last week at Chirp, their first developer conference and on their blog, promoted tweets. Some smaller companies in the Twitter ecosystem have been working on how to get brand messages and ads on users’ streams without being spam like some earlier iterations of advertising on the platform.
140proof and IZEA are two companies at ad:tech that are making it easier to gauge ROI, make sure the campaign is FTC compliant, and targeting the advertising based on semantic analysis. Interestingly, both said at the end of the interview when asked about Twitter’s own foray into advertising that it is a validation of the ad concept on the Twitter platform but that ultimately their offering is slightly different.
In the video below taken by reporter Chia Hwu at the show, CEO of 140proof, Jon Elvekrog talks about how his company allows the ad to be clearly labeled, FTC compliant and is a fully functional tweet, capable of being retweeted, replied to and adds to the conversation. In addition, 140proof gives brands the option to target their audience with their proprietary algorithms.
In the following video also taken by reporter Chia Hwu, IZEA’s Joe Vaugh, Director of Sales talks about advertising on Twitter, blogs and how IZEA can help track metrics across the social web.
Check out my easy guide to Twitter for a quick and easy explanation of the basic terms in this post.
This was really the first time I sat down and listened to Huffington, who talked about issues ranging from politics, new media and blogging, the U.S. economy, the war in terror and more.
Follows are video snippets of the most inspiring parts of this intelligent and imaginative salon conversation.
There were probably more people attending the MacWorld 2010 Media Reception than in any other session at the show. The food and drinks perhaps!
On the eve of the opening of MacWorld 2010, the organisers (IDG Expo) set up a small press reception at the show’s press centre to show off some of the companies that will exhibit at the show.
There were actually more press/bloggers/analysts than I expected, probably close to 100 – food and booze always work!
But no familiar faces though, aside perhaps from my friend Sam Whitmore, founder of the Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey (SWMS) and a regular emcee at PRSA Silicon Valley’s events.
This "lonely" table had products from Doxie (scanner), Shure (sound isolating earphones), BlueMic (Yeti USB microphone)... but nobody to really talk about them: useless!
Among the few companies present at the press reception we met with Buffalo, CarMD, Tap11 and Verbatim.
A bunch of other companies (Doxie, BlueMic, Shure…) didn’t even bother to send their staff to answer questions from the press but instead, let an unprepared PR person from Schwartz PR (apparently too busy texting on his Blackberry anyway) to fill out the void.
Buffalo shows dock for iPhone and USB disk drives
CarMD releases Mac version of car diagnostic software
Nvidia's claims that Intel's next-generation netbook platform dubbed Pine Trail can't play Flash HD content or Blue-ray movies and mainstream games
At a meeting in San Francisco today, I sat down with Nvidia’s director of marketing David Ragones for an update on the company’s netbook solution, ION, unveiled a year ago.
Although ION is about a year old, Nvidia claims that last year’s ION is still 5 to 10 times faster than Intel’s next-generation netbook platform, dubbed Pine Trail and available in next year’s netbooks.
“Intel hasn’t closed the gap. So they’re now coming out with their next-generation but the media performance is still relatively poor”, says Ragones.
And we’ll have more on Pine Trail tomorrow after a media briefing Intel is hosting, also in downtown San Francisco (yes that’s the week!), where the chipmaker will probably show some Pine Trail equipped netbooks and hopefully some performance numbers.
Until then, we’ll have to take Nvidia’s words for it.
Despite positioning ION at the premium segment of the netbook market ($399 and above), Nvidia claims that as much as 100 netbook models equipped with its graphics chip.
“ION energises the Intel Atom processor. It’s perfect if what you want to do is view HD content, play mainstream games and do simple image and video editing tasks”, adds Ragones that used the Sims video game to prove his point. “Sims 3 is the number 1 top selling game in the world, and this is a game you can only run on an ION netbook.”
Follows a video excerpts of my conversation with Ragones.
Can anyone @IBM fix the WiFi network at #IOD11 ? It's been terrible for the past 2 days and everybody I talked just can't stand it anymore 4 months ago
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