MobileCrunch |  |
- Nearing 1 Million Users, Path Stays The Course
- If You Sold Your Apple Stock Today, You’re An Idiot
- Google Promises Android 4.0 For The Nexus S, “Theoretically” For Gingerbread Devices, Too
- The Mega-Video: What’s New In Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0)?
- Google Wallet Picks Up Steam With NJ Transit Partnership
- Teach Siri To Interact With RememberTheMilk
- HTC Unveils First World Phone In The EVO Family: The EVO Design 4G
- Droid Razr To Taste Ice Cream Sandwich Update In First Half Of 2012
- HTC Remains Coy About Ice Cream Sandwich Update Schedule
| Nearing 1 Million Users, Path Stays The Course Posted: 19 Oct 2011 05:10 PM PDT  Founded by Dave Morin, the co-inventor of Facebook Connect, Sean Fanning, the co-inventor of Napster, and Dustin Mierau, the co-inventor of Macster, Path has some serious street cred when it comes to social and sharing. What’s more, there was the impressive list of investors backing the photo-sharing app in November of last year, and the sizable series A follow-on investment led by Kleiner Perkins in February. At about the same time, Google reportedly tried to buy the startup for $100 million+, to which Path collectively said “no, thank you”. The Google acquisition offer was likely a play at scooping up an impressive, design-oriented team and a high-profile former Facebooker would have been a nice addition. Yet, though Path may have been showing Zynga-like engagement early on, the question has been whether or not Path could scale and find user adoption before it ran out of money. Those questions have continued to be hurled at Path, but today CEO Dave Morin put some of the speculation to rest, announcing from the stage at The Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that the app is nearing 1 million users. For those unfamiliar, Path is designed to help people share moments from their lives in context and in small, tight circles of friends and family. Path focuses (and will only continue to do more so) on one’s “trusted relationships”, which is why users are only able to share with 150 people — at most. It’s a sharing model that many victims of Facebook’s sometimes complicated privacy settings and trend of over-sharing can get very excited about; however, Google+ is really trying to do the same thing and will provide some serious competition for Path going forward, whether the founders want to acknowledge that or not. Over the last 90 days, 3.4 billion photos have been uploaded to Google+, and Vic Gundotra and Sergey Brin both said from the stage today that Google’s social network is designed to be more like interacting socially in real life. You don’t share everything with everyone. Of course, Path is all about the mobile sharing experience. And when Path 2 arrives sometime in the not-so-distant future, you can count on the new version continuing to privilege simplicity, intimacy, and ease of sharing. On stage today, Morin said that mobile users find themselves in many moments, where they want to talk to loved ones or family members about first dates, injuries, etc., and that these kind of moments are not always appropriate for Twitter or Facebook shares. Thus, the startup wants to be the alternative path to mobile sharing. Privacy and intimacy first and foremost. But Path 2 better have some exciting new features, because Google+ will only continue to add integration with Google Apps, work in APIs, spread further across mobile, and at that point, Path may be in trouble. Path is the simple and private way to share life with close friends & family. Founded by Dave Morin, previously Co-Inventor of Platform and Connect at Facebook, Shawn Fanning, creator of Napster, and Dustin Mierau co-creator of Macster. Person: Dave Morin Companies: Facebook, Apple, Rupture, TechStars, Path, Faction Skis, SimpleGeo, Want Me Get Me, Rock Health Dave is an entrepreneur and angel investor. Today, he is the Co-Founder and CEO of Path. The simple and private way to share life with close friends and family. Previously, as an early member of the Facebook team, Dave played a variety of product, marketing, strategy, and management roles in expanding the Facebook ecosystem to over 600 million people worldwide. Most recently, Dave was a co-inventor of Facebook Connect which was created to make the Internet more social. Facebook Connect is now...
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| If You Sold Your Apple Stock Today, You’re An Idiot Posted: 19 Oct 2011 03:12 PM PDT  Before I begin, two points: 1) I do not own any Apple stock. I have absolutely no interest in whether the stock goes up or down. 2) One can make an argument that there may be other reasons to sell Apple’s stock now (namely, uncertainty following the passing of Steve Jobs), I’m simply arguing that the stock’s collapse today due to yesterday’s earnings is laughable. Watching the stock market following Apple’s Q4 earnings yesterday and into today, I’m reminded of a famous Steve Jobs quote. “If you see a stylus, they blew it.” Reworked, the quote today would be: “If you’re investing based on Apple analysts, you blew it.” Apple’s stock dropped 23.62 points today — over 5.5 percent. It went from an all-time closing high of $422 a share, to under $400 a share. Why? Again, the earnings announced yesterday. For the first time in something like 9 years, Apple failed to beat Wall Street’s expectations. But here’s the thing: those expectations were ridiculous and flawed and once again show that analysts have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to Apple. Over the past decade, Apple has routinely made analysts look foolish by destroying their estimates each and every quarter. Apple sets them up for this by giving often comically low guidance, which analysts go up a bit from, then demolishing both sets of numbers. Perhaps because of this history of foolishness, this past quarter, analysts got a bit more bullish than usual. But they didn’t take into account one very key factor. And it came back to bite them in the ass. Actually, it came back to bite Apple’s stock in the ass. That’s the ridiculous thing. The stock is being punished after a record September quarter for the company — their second best quarter ever — because the analysts were caught snoozing. But because analysts are never held accountable for anything — be it the laughable rumors they create by doing “checks” or the ridiculous thoughts on the company they spread and others pick up simply because they’re labeled “experts” and well paid — Apple takes the blame. Here’s what really happened. Apple sold fewer iPhones in Q4 than analysts were projecting. They were expecting something between 20 and 22 million, and Apple actually sold 17.07 million. Since the iPhone is Apple’s largest source of revenue and profit, this dragged down both of those numbers as well. That’s the entire reason for the “miss” — it really is that simple. Apple selling 20 to 22 million iPhones in Q4 would have been a new all-time record for the company. Analysts were undoubtedly looking for this because Apple was coming off of a record 20.24 million iPhones sold in Q3. Typically, Q3 is a weak quarter for Apple in terms of iPhone sales, but again, this Q3 saw a record. So Q4 was going to be gangbusters, right? Wrong. The problem is that Apple typically refreshes the iPhone in June or July. That’s been the case since the device first launched in 2007. This year, that did not happen. This means that normally weaker Q3 numbers remained strong because there was no new iPhone on the horizon. Inventory and sales remained high. Instead, the iPhone 4S was announced and launched in October. This means that for this year at least, the Q3 down cycle actually occurred in Q4. Further, because previous new iPhones had been launched in June or July, Q4 (Apple’s fiscal quarter, not the calendar one) has traditionally been a very strong quarter for iPhone sales. Again, that was not the case this year — in fact, it was the opposite because of the aforementioned down cycle before the upgraded model hit. Somehow analysts missed badly on this and this alone. On one hand, you want to cut them some slack because it is Apple and it’s hard to know much of anything about when and what they’re going to release. Plus they were sort of tricked by Apple breaking the typical iPhone launch tradition. But come on, this is their jobs! Everyone who follows Apple closely knew months ago that there was no new iPhone hardware coming this summer, and that it would instead launch in the fall. Then again, even those who are actually good at this forecasting screwed the pooch too. Because analysts have been so horrible with Apple throughout the years, it has given rise to amateurs (I mean that in a good way) like Horace Dediu. Dediu is normally very, very good when it comes to Apple analysis. But he screwed up badly this quarter as well. Dediu’s reasoning — which he explains himself here — is essentially the same thing I laid out above. His main problem was that because he screwed up last quarter, it tricked him into trying to correct for this quarter and led to another huge miss. He should have stuck to the simple notion that this year is a weird one for Apple because of the atypical iPhone release cycle. Okay, so that’s why everyone screwed up. But again, the big issue here is that these screw ups led to Apple’s stock collapsing today for essentially no real reason. Yes, Apple had a weaker quarter than last quarter, but that should have been expected. The fact that it was still their second-best quarter ever and saw record iPad and Mac sales is actually pretty amazing. More importantly, this “miss” led to Apple’s executives getting a bit ballsy during their earnings call yesterday and more or less promising record iPhone and iPad sale numbers in the Q1 holiday quarter. They’re actually forecasting a $37 billion quarter, which would be the company’s biggest quarter by almost $10 billion. And remember, those estimates are always comically low. It’s certainly possible that Apple could have a $40 billion quarter next quarter. That was the most important thing revealed yesterday. And that reveal should have led to the stock surging. Instead the opposite happened. And that’s why you’re an idiot if you sold your Apple stock today. Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...
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| Google Promises Android 4.0 For The Nexus S, “Theoretically” For Gingerbread Devices, Too Posted: 19 Oct 2011 11:25 AM PDT  With a few hours of Ice Cream Sandwich familiarity under our belts, the looming question in everyone’s mind is: when will the Android 4.0 update roll out to existing devices? Well, nobody knows. But after talking with a few authorities on the subject, we at least have a few hints. Google’s Android Product Manager Gabe Cohen and Android User Experience Director Matias Duarte have promised Ice Cream Sandwich for the Nexus S, and hinted that all other Android 2.3 Gingerbread devices should “theoretically” get ICS as well. Here’s the official quote: “Currently in the process for releasing Ice Cream Sandwich for Nexus S. Theoretically should work for any 2.3 device.” According to Engadget, there still isn’t a clear plan for the Nexus One. HTC has decided to rest heavily on the fence for this one, saying that they do hope to release ICS to the masses, but will have to figure a way to lay their Sense UI on top of it first. Just like Cohen and Duarte, HTC refuses to give a timeline. In my quest to dig up some answers, I decided to reach out to the big four carriers as well. T-Mobile never responded, while the rest had either no comment to give, or no information regarding the ICS update schedule. Many owners of Froyo devices purchased early this year are still waiting on Gingerbread, so hopefully the carriers and phone makers have a more efficient plan for Android 4.0. But I wouldn’t bet on it. Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps and YouTube. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing them with a rich source of information....
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| The Mega-Video: What’s New In Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0)? Posted: 19 Oct 2011 10:35 AM PDT  Sure, other sites might have footage of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.) They grabbed a Galaxy Nexus, fumbled with it for a second or two, and then shot 2-3 minutes of video with a device/interface they weren’t really familiar with. And that’s fine. But I didn’t want to do that — I wanted us to do it right. Late last night, I caught up with Android’s Engineering Director Dave Burke for an in-depth, 15 minute video showing the full array of Ice Cream Sandwich’s finest features. Want to skip around a bit? Only care about one or two features? I’ve broken down the timestamps below, so feel free to scrub the timeline. 0:00 : The Galaxy Nexus Hardware (Sections with *’s are those that are particularly awesome and absolutely worth watching even if you don’t have time for the whole thing) You might recognize this video from our hands-on impressions last night — but given just how much is really shown off here, we figured the video was worth breaking out of that wall of text. Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps and YouTube. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing them with a rich source of information.... Android is a software platform for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in Java that utilizes Google-developed software libraries, but does not support programs developed in native code. The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards...
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| Google Wallet Picks Up Steam With NJ Transit Partnership Posted: 19 Oct 2011 10:31 AM PDT  The days of scrounging in your pockets for bus fare are over, if Google and NJ Transit have anything to say about it. NJ Governor Chris Christie announced earlier today that the third largest transit system in the country has partnered with Google to bring their wireless Wallet payment system to bus routes and rail lines in the Northeast. Customers will be able to tap their Nexus S 4Gs at a handful of venues to fast-track their daily commute. So far, the list of supported locations includes ticket booths and windows at New York’s Penn Station and Newark Liberty International Airport Rail Station. Google Wallet can also be used on the 6, 43, 80, 81, 87, and 120 bus routes, with a few buses on the 126 line also packing support. It was just yesterday that Google announced a handful of new retail partners for their NFC-based payment technology, but this is Google’s first big step into the transit space. It’s a smart, if somewhat obvious move for Google. In order for Google Wallet to be the revolution in transaction handling the company hopes for, it needs to start reaching beyond retail locations. Integrating contactless payments into transit systems certainly isn’t a new concept, but it’s one that’s expected to drive NFC adoption in areas where public transport is a way of life. According to Vice President of Commerce Stephanie Tilenius, “transit has been a common element of every major successful NFC effort globally and is a critical component of Google Wallet’s success.” It definitely doesn’t hurt that must-have new handsets like Google and Samsung’s long-awaited Galaxy Nexus will ship with NFC chips onboard. As more and more manufacturers jump on the NFC bandwagon, Google Wallet stands a fighting chance at becoming the payment method of choice for the tech-savvy. On a more personal note, this comes as very welcome news to a former student of a commuter school. Dealing with lightly-creased dollar bills and finicky machines first thing in the morning often added an unneeded headache while dashing to class. Thankfully for Jersey taxpayers (myself included), the deal isn’t costing them a dime. After all, the price of execution will be well worth it if Google can prove that their payment system can handle thousands of transactions a day without a hitch.
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| Teach Siri To Interact With RememberTheMilk Posted: 19 Oct 2011 09:57 AM PDT This isn’t a new trick – and you could probably use the same technique to push reminders to any CalDAV-compliant system, but the folks at to-do list makers RememberTheMilk have gotten reminders to pop up automatically online. The trick is to add RememberTheMilk as a CalDAV account. In Settings, select Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Add a new Calendar and enter rememberthemilk.com into the server field. Then type in your login and password. Then add RememberTheMilk to your default accounts. Now, when you create a reminder, the iPhone will push the reminder to RememberTheMilk and store it locally. It’s one way to skirt Apple’s current controls over the Siri API although its usefulness is fairly limited right now.
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| HTC Unveils First World Phone In The EVO Family: The EVO Design 4G Posted: 19 Oct 2011 07:55 AM PDT  HTC has just added another phone to its line of EVO handsets, the HTC EVO Design 4G. While it can’t necessarily match the specs of its EVO 3D cousin, the EVO Design 4G does have a trick up it’s sleeve — compatibility with CDMA, HSPA and GSM networks, making it the first global phone in the EVO family. Along with global network support, the EVO Design 4G also sports a 4-inch WVGA 960×540 touchscreen, which is just a tad smaller than the EVO 4G and EVO 3D. The phone runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread powered by a Qualcomm 1.2GHz processor, though we won’t be seeing the same dual-core snappiness we did on the 3D. HTC’s Sense 3.0 UI is also alive and well on the new handset, along with a 5-megapixel rear shooter and 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. Sprint is offering the EVO Design 4G for $99 on-contract after a $50 mail-in rebate. Availability begins October 23. HTC Corp, (TAIEX: 2498) produces smartphones running the Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems for themselves and as an OEM to other manufacturers. Since launching its own brand in late 2006, the company has introduced dozens of HTC-branded products around the world. The company recently introduced the HTC diamond to compete with Apple’s iPhone. Founded in 1997 by Cher Wang, Chairwoman, and Peter Chou, President and CEO, HTC made its name as the company behind many of the... Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two wireless networks serving almost 49 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2009; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone.
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| Droid Razr To Taste Ice Cream Sandwich Update In First Half Of 2012 Posted: 19 Oct 2011 07:02 AM PDT  Motorola’s Droid Razr made quite the splash yesterday thanks in part to its impressive hardware, but the Android build that it runs seems bit quaint now thanks to Ice Cream Sandwich. No worries, though: if you pick up a Droid Razr when it ships in November, you should be getting the Android 4.0 update in early 2012. News of the Ice Cream Sandwich release window came courtesy of Alain Mutricy, Motorola Mobility’s SVP of Portfolio and Product Management. He seemed to be very forthcoming while speaking at a Berlin press conference, mentioning that Droid Razr users will receive the update sometime in Q1 2012, and that Motorola is working to get the Droid Razr’s hallmark features working in Ice Cream Sandwich. Among those features is Motocast, a nifty way to directly stream media and content from your PC to your Droid Razr. And who could forget Smart Actions, the context-sensitive app that manages device settings according to user-defined situations? The Droid Razr wouldn’t be the Droid Razr without them, so a little extra time to get things working is to be expected. It’s a bummer for those who wanted (or hoped) to see Motorola’s hardware combined with Google’s latest-and-greatest OS, but at least the Droid faithful have something to look forward to. Update: A Motorola representative has reached out to us to to clarify that ICS will make its way to US Droid Razrs sometime in the first half of 2011, and not the first quarter as originally reported.
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| HTC Remains Coy About Ice Cream Sandwich Update Schedule Posted: 19 Oct 2011 06:48 AM PDT  Google and Samsung finally unveiled Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich last night, along with its hardware counterpart the Galaxy Nexus. Since the duo pulled a fast one and announced the new goodies in Hong Kong, news made its way State side at a rather awkward hour, meaning that you are likely waking up in a new era — the era of Android 4.0. If that’s the case, well then good morning and happy Ice Cream Sandwich day! Alright, so now that you’re done celebrating, let’s talk business. I’m sure there’s one question on many of your minds right now: when will I get the ICS update? A couple handsets have already been promised Android 4.0, including the Samsung Nexus S and the freshly announced Droid RAZR. But all of you HTC phone owners out there also have an answer, albeit an incredibly vague one. According to Pocket-Lint, HTC has made the following statement regarding updates to ICS on existing handsets:
In other words, “we have no idea how long it’s going to take us to lay Sense over Android 4.0, so bear with us.” You see, one of the great downfalls of Android, as well as one of its greatest strengths, is its openness. Because any handset maker in the world can use it, and customize it with its own UI, it takes that much longer to get the OS ready for each individual handset. While some would say that HTC’s Sense interface is worth the wait, there’s a solid group of Android fans who much prefer the pure Google experience over any form of a custom UI, including MotoBlur and TouchWiz. Whether you’re from one school of thought or the other, prepare yourself for a wait. If the rate at which manufacturers released Gingerbread to existing handsets is any indication, ICS updates won’t be headed our way anytime soon. Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps and YouTube. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing them with a rich source of information.... HTC Corp, (TAIEX: 2498) produces smartphones running the Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems for themselves and as an OEM to other manufacturers. Since launching its own brand in late 2006, the company has introduced dozens of HTC-branded products around the world. The company recently introduced the HTC diamond to compete with Apple’s iPhone. Founded in 1997 by Cher Wang, Chairwoman, and Peter Chou, President and CEO, HTC made its name as the company behind many of the...
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