We don't know what the folks at Sling have in store for CES 2012 but they are finally checking items off of last years list, including announcing the launch of SlingPlayer for Google TV. Officially dubbed SlingPlayer for Logitech Revue (it works fine on the Sony hardware too) any Google TV owners can find a link to the web app under the "Spotlight" section of their menu, and only need to login to enjoy remote TV viewing. The connected device SlingPlayer experience here is similar to that of the one on the Boxee Box, however running as a web app has a few specific disadvantages. While it mapped some of the Google TV's remote functions (channel up/down, pause, FF, rew etc.) directly to the box being remotely viewed, doing a simple thing like hitting back takes you out of the webpage and app entirely without warning. One advantage over the standard Android app however is that this one's free to use, so if you have both kinds of boxes (Sling and Google) at your disposal, go ahead and try it out or check out a video preview embedded after the break.
Can you teach entrepreneurship? Bestselling author Eric Ries thinks so. He also thinks that entrepreneurship must be taught to more people if the American economy is to successfully pivot to a post-manufacturing world. According to Ries, we’ve gotten so efficient at manufacturing that even though we’re making more stuff than ever before, there are less jobs available to do it. That’s why economic survival lies in our ability to better teach the business of creativity and entrepreneurship.
Ries’ new book, The Lean Startup, has climbed to #2 on the NY Times Bestseller List, in the “Advice and Misc.” category. In the book, Ries talks about his strategies for running a successful startup, which are based on the “lean manufacturing” process that originated with Toyota.
Check out our interview with Ries for his advice on the metrics that entrepreneurs should really be paying attention to, why he thinks job titles are irrelevant in the startup world and how the lean startup model helped Instagram pivot to its present business model.
Follow Venture Studio, in association with Mashable, which is brought to you by Square1 Bank. The show is hosted by Dave Lerner, a 3x entrepreneur and angel investor. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Comedian Louis Szekely, better known as Louis C.K., is profiting handsomely from a $5 video of his latest standup routine, which he produced and distributed himself.
Instead of partnering with a studio, C.K. hired a team with six cameras to tape two of his performances at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan. He distributed the video through a website specially built for that purpose. Within 12 hours of going on sale Saturday, 50,000 people purchased the video, covering all of costs incurred for its production (around $170,000) and creation of the website ($32,000). By day four, he had sold 110,000 copies, making an additional $200,000 off the venture.
C.K. admits that $200,000 is less than what a “big company” would have paid him for rights to create the video, but the added value for the fans makes up for the difference. Had another company produced it, they would have charged $20 for a video that would have been encrypted and regionally restricted, and fans would have had to fork over their personal details for the company’s own use.
“This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again,” C.K. posted on his website Tuesday.
C.K. was also pleased to note that most people paid $5 to download the video instead of bittorrenting it, which was presumably a problem with his earlier, pricier videos. He added that he would “certainly do it again,” and if sales of this video remain strong, he’ll “continue to follow the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not overmarketing to you, and keeping as few people between you and me as possible in the transaction.”
Although C.K. has gone on the record against social media in the past, it’s difficult to imagine this venture would have been a success without it. The comedian mentioned the video many times on Twitter leading up to and following the video’s release, and he promoted it as part of an “Ask Me Anything” special on reddit on Monday, which attracted more than 9,500 comments.
Directly on the heels of an update for its newest media streamers, Roku has released its official iPhone remote app. Apparently "inspired by user feedback", it allows users to launch or rate channels, control the box with touches and swipes, and add or remove channels from their box directly from the app itself. Probably the best news about it is that it will work with all generations of Roku hardware, and can even pair to multiple boxes. Usage requires the box and iOS device be connected on the same network, and for users to sign in with their Roku account, but that's it. Hit the source link to grab the free app now, or check out a couple more screenshots in the gallery below, then let us know how it measures up to the numerous third party solutions (like DVPRemote) currently available. Roku already promised an Android version is in the works, so we'll keep an eye out for that to arrive soon.
To date, we've generally been more adept at collecting and storing data than making sense of it. The companies, individuals and governments that become the most adept at data analysis are doing more than finding the signal in the noise: They are creating a strategic capability. Sometimes, the data comes from unexpected directions. For instance, OkCupid's approach to dating with data has earned it millions of users. In the process, OkCupid has gained great insight into the dynamics of dating in the 21st century, which it then shared on its blog.
Based upon their success, I wondered aloud at this year's Newsfoo whether a similar data-driven web app could be built to help citizens match themselves up with candidates:
Good comment from @digiphile in #newsfoo politics session: "We need an OkCupid for candidates"— Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly) December 04, 2011
After Tim tweeted the observation, I quickly learned two things:
Albert Sun, Daniel Bachhuber, Ashwin Shandilya and Jay Zalowitz had built exactly that app at the 2011 Times Open Hack Dayon the day I posed the question. OkCandidate is a web app that matches up a citizen with a Republican presidential candidate. (There's no comparable matching engine for Barack Obama, perhaps given that Democrats expect that the current incumbent of the White House will be the Democratic Party's nominee in 2012.) OkCandidate presents a straightforward series of questions about a wide range of core foreign and domestic issues with ratings to allow the user to rank the importance of agreeing with a given candidate. The app is open source, so if you want to try to improve the code, click on over to OkCandidate on GitHub.
ElectNext, a Philadelphia-based startup, has focused on solving this problem. The "eHarmony for voters," as TechCrunch describes it, aims to match you to your candidate. I also learned that ElectNext won the Judges' Choice Award at the 2011 Web 2.0 Expo/NY Startup Showcase. In the video below, Joanne Wilson and Mo Koyfman discuss the startup from a venture capitalist's perspective.
The politics of big data
Creating a better issue-matching engine for voters and candidates is a genuinely useful civic function. The not-so-hidden opportunity here, however, may be to gather a rich dataset from those choices in precisely the same way that OkCupid has done for dating. That's clearly part of the mindset here: "The data on individual users we don't share with anyone," ElectNext founder Keya Danenbaum told Fast Company. "But the way we foresee using all this information we're collecting is ... eventually to aggregate that and say something really interesting in a poll type of report."
How news organizations and campaigns alike collect, store and analyze data is going to matter much more. Close watchers of the intersection of politics and technology already think the Obama campaign's data crunching may help the president win re-election. As Personal Democracy Media co-founder Micah Sifry put it back in April, "it's the data, stupid."
The hottest job in today's Presidential campaigns is the Data Mining Scientist — whose job it is to sort through terabytes of data and billions of behaviors tracked in voter files, consumer databases, and site logs. They'll use the numbers to uncover hidden patterns that predict how you'll vote, if you'll pony up with a donation, and if you'll influence your friends to support a candidate.
Alistair Croll, the co-chair of the Strata Conference, thinks it's a strategic capability. "After Eisenhower, you couldn't win an election without radio," he told me at Strata, Calif., in February. "After JFK, you couldn't win an election without television. After Obama, you couldn't win an election without social networking. I predict that in 2012, you won't be able to win an election without big data."
Strata 2012 — The 2012 Strata Conference, being held Feb. 28-March 1 in Santa Clara, Calif., will offer three full days of hands-on data training and information-rich sessions. Strata brings together the people, tools, and technologies you need to make data work.Save 20% on registration with the code RADAR20
Hey Boston, Samantha Shih is onto your bad style habits. She’s been watching you comprise on style and fit in exchange for affordability – the ill-fitting dress shirts, baggy suit pants, tight jackets – and she’s not going to put up with it anymore. While Sam could easily serve as head of Boston’s fashion police, she’s here to help rather than scold. Sam is the founder and CEO of 9tailors, an affordable custom tailor whipping even the most hopeless of Boston’s fashion abusers into shape.
While on a trip to China in 2006, Sam commissioned a tailor to make her clothes, because as she puts it, she’s “quite petite,” and was fed up with buying clothes off the rack that had to be hemmed. Upon returning to Boston, she realized this city didn’t have tailors at an accessible price for young professionals like herself. Looking for a change of career, Sam decided to bring affordable custom tailoring to Boston through 9tailors in 2008.
Starting with men’s dress shirts and eventually expanding to suits and women’s shirts, 9tailors is focused on combining style, affordability and fit. “We’re seeing a lot of men who are just getting interested in clothing,” says Sam. “It’s great for Boston.” Despite starting in the middle of the recession, Sam says business has taken off because there just aren’t other custom tailors in Boston at 9tailors’ price point.
9tailors client, Micah. Photo via Channing Johnson
Sam likens the process at 9tailors to a 6-week version of Build-A-Bear. First, customers speak with a trained style consultant to discuss color preferences, where they are planning to wear the specific item and how often they’re planning on wearing it, etc. At the end of the meeting, the stylist submits an order to the tailors in China. About four to five weeks later, the client is invited in for a fitting to do further alterations, and once completed, the customer is given a 30-day “test drive” period with the garment. “We try to be as customer service friendly as possible, which requires a lot of trust for both parties,” says Sam.
Justin Wan, a buyer for Boston University, has purchased four suits and four shirts from 9tailors and raves about his stylist: “Kathryn Walsh puts together web albums and fabric sets for me. She helps me find the solution for my needs.”
“My favorite shirts are all from 9Tailors!” raves Randall Yee, a local lawyer, who met Sam through his wife who is also in the fashion industry. “The process of getting the shirts allowed me to be more creative when it comes to my clothes.” Yee adds of using 9Tailors for his wedding party: “Sam made things feel so easy even though she had to work with eight guys of all different sizes, shapes and styles.”
Arthur Kah-Git Wong, a program manager at Akamai Technologies , turned to 9tailors after Sam tweeted him a fashion tip about pant length. “Primarily, I like my clothes to fit and you get none of that experience with off the rack clothing, especially suiting and shirts. My body type does not often jive with ready-to-wear,” he says. After ordering a custom-fit tuxedo shirt, Kah-Git Wong followed up with four dress shirts, taking the opportunity to add personal touches to his clothing. “I love being asked on the street or at a store by strangers where I got my shirt,” he says.
9tailors client, Bryan. Photo via Channing Johnson
As the holidays approach, 9tailors has created a holiday gift guide for gentlemen and is also running a shirt giveaway through Monday, December 19. For those of you looking to upgrade your wardrobe, Sam tells me lavender is the new blue, gray suits work with everything and for ladies, blazers are timeless.
In 2012, 9tailors has plans to go national, expanding to other cities, although Sam is keeping the details under wraps for now. Additionally, the company is rolling out an online shirt builder with 3D images that allows you to actually see how fabric is imposed on certain clothes – talk about revolutionizing the way you shop. “I think it’s going to be a huge success once their website upgrade takes off,” adds Wan.
Personally, I think 9tailors is just what Boston needs. If I had a dollar for every guy on the T that could look 100x better with the right pant length and a better-fitting shirt, well, then I’d be Sam.
For this event they presented a lot of their data about the demographics of TV and SocialTV. They dug into their data about which viewers are more likely to watch TV live, or time-shifted. They split up their demographics into personality types for people who chat on Twitter to friends, random strangers, or no one at all in particular. For the "Social TV Event" they had guest speakers from several older and new companies in the SocialTV space including yours truly.
Some of the cool tech companies included at the event:
Yahoo's IntoNow product that listens to the audio "fingerprint" of a TV show to find the moment in a show someone is watching.
SnappyTV which lets viewers take "clips" of the last several seconds of a show to share out to their social network.
Watchitoo: Which tries to make live online viewing of events and meetings more interactive.
Clearleap: Which enables video applications for multi-channel video programming distributors.
We all got to show off some of our the cool things our products do, but what was even more interesting were the panel discussions about how we all are addressing the SocialTV marketplace from vastly different angles.
You can see one of the panels below with the TweePLayer curated social conversation right there ready for you to add your own comments, or you can go to our Social TV Event page for any of the panels.
Apple could be ready to launch a MacBook Pro with a "Retina"-class display beginning sometime next year. A new display of unspecified size reportedly being built for Apple will have a 2880x1800 pixel resolution, according to sources speaking to DigiTimes. Although the source may seem sketchy, the claims are plausible, and such a display would be a perfect fit for Lion's little-known, resolution-doubled "HiDPI" display technology.
A 2880x1800 pixel display would have a density of about 220 pixels per inch at a 15.4" size, which is double the density of the current default 1440x900 display. Such a pixel density coincides nicely with Lion's hidden HiDPI display options, which double the number of pixels used for user interface elements. The technique is essentially identical to that used in iOS to create "Retina" graphics for the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and fourth-generation iPod touch. Such pixel doubling is also believed to be behind an upcoming iPad hardware revision with an expected 2048x1536 pixel 9.7" display, with a roughly 266ppi pixel density.
While 220ppi doesn't quite approach the 326ppi of the current iPhone "Retina" display, it would make the visible appearance of pixels difficult to distinguish at typical laptop viewing distances. A generally accepted standard of the resolving power of the human eye is that a person with 20/20 vision can just barely discern two distinct elements that are one arc minute (or 1/60 of a degree) apart. For a display with 220ppi, the individual pixels would disappear at about 15.6"; sitting up at a desk and typing, my face is about 16" away from the display of my MacBook Air.
The sources allegedly come from "upstream component suppliers" who suggest that Apple could release new MacBook Pro models as early as the second quarter of next year. And while DigiTimes does not have a good record for accuracy, this timeline does make it somewhat plausible. Apple is expected to have similar resolution displays ready for the iPad 3 in early spring, and the same technology would likely be used to make such a high-resolution display suitable for the MacBook Pro. Furthermore, Intel should be shipping its next-generation Ivy Bridge processors around the second quarter of next year. Apple will undoubtedly refresh its MacBook Pros to use the new processors, and its upgraded graphics are capable of driving such a high resolution display.
Apple's display resolutions for laptops have been slowly creeping upward, especially since the launch of revised MacBook Air models on October 2010. The 11" model has a pixel density of 135ppi, while the 13" model is 128dpi. A high resolution display option for the 15" MacBook Pro also checks in at 128ppi, while the 17" MacBook Pro measures 132ppi.
In a report sure to excite our readers, DigiTimes is saying that Apple may be readying an ultra high-resolution MacBook Pro for as early as second quarter (Q2) 2012:
Apple is likely to launch its new MacBook Pro lineup with a display resolution of 2880 by 1800 in the second quarter of 2012, setting a new round of competition for panel specifications in the notebook industry, according to sources in the upstream supply chain.
The publication cites supply chain partners as the source for the information which would double the resolution of the MacBook Pro to 2880x1800 pixels.
This new high resolution MacBook Pro would presumably be a 15" model which currently carries a native resolution of 1440x900 pixels. By doubling the resolution in each dimension, Apple would achieve four times the number of pixels and provide developers an easy way to scale existing artwork.
We've known about Apple's work to support these ultra high resolution screens, but we didn't necessarily expect them to arrive so soon. That said, support seems to be building for exactly such a thing.
Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors are known to support resolutions as high as 4096x4096. Meanwhile, Apple has already added new "HiDPI" modes in Lion that support this resolution-doubling mode. Apple has even added ultra-high resolution artwork in Lion with desktop images at 3200x2000 pixels and icons at 1024x1024 pixels.
And Apple's not the only company preparing for the possibility. Microsoft is also building in support for high dpi monitors in Windows 8.
A Q2 2012 launch would place it near what has been expected to be the arrival of a 15" MacBook Air. Based on the expected timing of that product (Q1 2012), it seems this MacBook Pro may be a different product altogether. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
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Hangman is a clever, simple bracket designed to hang flat screen TVs directly on a wall. As the go-to handyman for most of my friends and families, I have hung my fair share of flatscreen TVs and am always frustrated by the expensive, cumbersome, goofy brackets that are sold to the average Joe when he buys his TV at Best Buy or Costco.
The Hangman, unlike the alternatives, is a dead simple mount composed of two interlocking aluminum strips. Place the first strip, which includes an integral level, on the wall. Screw it into the studs or attach with heavy duty drywall anchors (both included, and these anchors are actually really cool; probably worthy of a cool tool in themselves. I work in the remodeling industry and we use these anchors all the time.). Bolt the other aluminum strip to the back of the TV using included bolts, hang the TV strip on the wall strip, attach the safety tether to prevent the TV from sliding off, attach the pegs to the lower bolt holes on the TV, and you are done. The TV can be tilted forward to allow access to cables. I installed mine with a Leviton REB behind it to hold all of the outlets and jacks completely concealed, but you could just as easily use cable ties or wire molding to drop the wires down to your components.
I like this system because it is simple and inexpensive. It hangs the TV dead level and it won't "drift" out of level when you mess with your cables. It also keeps the TV tight to the wall as the aluminum brackets are only about 1" thick. Finally, it only takes about 10-minutes to install. The downside to this style of bracket is that it only mounts the TV flat to the wall, so you lose the option to tilt it in any direction. This wasn't a problem in my house since the couch faces a flat wall.
They are available on Amazon, which I know Cool Tools prefers, but I bought mine right off the manufacturer's website. It was at my house within a couple of days. They come in medium (32" to 60") and large (47" to 65") and are set up to fit VESA mounts (Medium is 400mm, large is 400 & 600mm) which I think are the standard for all flat screens these days. They cost about 30-40 bucks depending on where you buy them. It's a lot more than it costs the Hangman folks to make, but it is still cheaper and much less frustrating than any other mount I have seen on the market.
-- Brian Durkin
Hangman Flat Screen TV Mount
400 & 600 VESA (other sizes available from manufacturer)
$30