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SigFig Shows Its iOS-Owning Investors Big on AAPL, Its Android-Owning Ones Not So Big On GOOG

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 07:23 PM PST

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A study by investment analysis startup SigFig suggests that iPhone-owning investors are 20% more likely than the average investor to also own Apple stock, while investors with Androids are 25% less likely to own Google than average. This is just one startup’s limited data, so don’t get all excited and assume that this is the case worldwide. But still, it makes for an entertaining look at just how loyal those Apple fans are.

SigFig gets the data from its Wikinvest site, which tracks $20 billion in investments. More than $5 billion of the total goes their mobile phones  – not much by public market standards, but still something to look at. The company then correlates users’ investment portfolios to their mobile phone operating systems to see who is using and buying what.

From the company blog post today by SigFig data team member Andrei Kopelevich:

  • Apple mobile users are indeed fanboys through and through. More than 16% of iPhone and iPad users own Apple stock, making them 20% more likely to own Apple than our average user (12.8% of our population owns Apple). Their Apple stock ownership also outpaces Android users two to one (8.2% own Apple) and BlackBerry users (6.5%).
  • Loyalty doesn't swing both ways. For Android, we checked both device and software manufacturers and found only 4.0% of Android users own Google and less than 1% own Motorola. Those numbers are lower across the board than our general population (5.0% and 0.8%, respectively), meaning not only do Android users not show loyalty, they actually invest in Google 25% less frequently than the general population.
  • This trend continues for BlackBerry users, who are 50% less likely to invest in RIM
He goes on to wonder why there’s such a big disparity in Apple ownership, especially when Google’s stock is doing so well in the past few months, and Apple’s is (oddly) not. It’s also worth pointing out that Android users are less invested in any of the tech stocks above versus the average investor, so their lower investment in Google doesn’t necessarily mean they’re less keen on Google per se. Maybe they’re in oil?

Wikinvest, launched in June of 2010, tracks stock performance data from more than 65 brokerages within a single dashboard, analogous to consumer finance site Mint, and also contains news, graphs and other features.  It’s continuing to live on, but SigFig is busy working on a new as yet unlaunched product.

SigFig (Significant Figures) is a registered investment advisor with the SEC, and is planning to launch a new toll that will include enhancements to the exiting product but will also “analyze your holdings and transactions to recommendations so you can improve your portfolio,” spokesperson Samantha Murillo tells me. “For example, if you’re investing in an underperforming fund, or if you’re getting ripped off through fees, we’ll let you know.”

The New ZangZing Will Never Keep Your Photos Hostage

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 06:14 PM PST

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I don’t know about you, but when I hear about another photo sharing app or website, my eyes roll back into my head, and I reflexively go into “screen saver mode”. There are just way too many options. How about Shutterfly, Kodak, Flickr, Instagram, Path, Twitter (TwitPic, Yfrog), Facebook, Google+, App Trover, GLMPS, Tracks, LiveShare, OpenPhoto — just to name a few. I don’t even like photos that much.

So, when I heard about ZangZing, especially considering its name, I had the same reaction. However, back in April, Mike gave the pre-launch startup a ringing endorsement (granted, that was in comparison to Color), and Alexia backed up its private beta launch a few weeks later. So I pressed on.

It also helps that ZangZing Co-founder and CEO Joseph Ansanelli has some serious startup cred under his belt, having founded and been CEO of four startups, one of which was acquired by Apple, another merged with Kana and went public, and then Vontu, which was acquired by Symantec for $350 million in 2007.

“The world doesn’t need another Instagram-like photo streaming app and we are not that”, Ansanelli assures me. After all, photos are a huge category — Facebook sees over 250 million photos uploaded per day, and the CEO thinks there’s room for new services that redesign photo-sharing for a more traditional kind of user. And that’s ZangZing’s focus: The average photo user, not the uber adopter, people who care about ease of uploading, aggregating all their photos in one place, and privacy. Have a ton of photos on the soon-to-be-discontinued MobileMe? Ansanelli wants you to bring them to ZangZing all at once.

And this last bit is what seems most interesting to me, not so much that ZangZing is now apparently importing one photo per second (after turning on one-click import), or that 70 photos is the average album size, it’s that 50 percent of the startup’s albums are private. Google+ launched to give users social circles within social circles, a “refined” mechanism for sharing content among specific groups of people.

In fact, Google acquired Katango to help them with that very problem. It’s a big, challenging goal that may never be solved completely — but ZangZing is yet another example that consumers want to share photos, just not with everyone, and founders want to try to bring them that experience.

So, today, about eight months since the startup went into private beta, ZangZing is launching version 2.0 of its platform with some cool new features: Namely, one-click import from the majority of photo sites and social networks, including Facebook, Flickr, MobileMe, Instagram, Dropbox, Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, etc. Just click “link”, and your photos arrive.

In this sense, ZangZing is really making a play at making it simple for users to add photos from anywhere, from a PC or Mac, Picasa Desktop, or iPhoto — giving users who feel their photos are “being held hostage” a chance to work within a more compatible platform. What’s more, you can email photos directly into a ZangZing album from any smartphone or any computer, or view photos in full-screen slideshows.

And, while Flickr has a bit of group sharing, it doesn’t work so well with one-time events, as Mike pointed out. With ZangZing, if you want to create a group album from an event, you simply upload a picture of the event through email invite your friends, and presto.

On top of this, like many file-sharing sites, ZangZing wants to add soem granularity to its privacy controls by allowing users to decide who can add, view, and download full-resolution photos. Like any good social photo repository, it allows commenting to enable chat and social interaction around particular photos, and offers both people and activity views to surface albums based on who created them or when they were created, respectively — great for photo discovery.

Furthermore, every ZangZing photo album has its own privacy setting, so that public photos are available to everyone, hidden albums let only those who know the web address view the albums, as well as invite-only albums that require sign-in. There are also a number of email settings to allow or disallow invitations, social following, confirmations, ZangZing news, etc.

And, best of all? There’s no advertising. Another important piece of the puzzle if ZangZing is to convince users already inundated with photo-sharing websites that its model has a long-term value proposition. Because it won’t be offering advertising, ZangZing offers a bit of eCommerce, as it contains a number of product options, like prints (and mounted prints), photo panels, framed photos, etc., with which users can select images from favorite albums, customize dimensions, and check out directly. If someone buys your image, you get paid.

It will be interesting to see if ZangZing goes to a freemium model to support its revenue model, but one thing’s for sure, the site is easy to navigate, is designed well, and I think it offers enough differentiation that it can become a valuable alternative to some of the legacy photo sharing options.

But I’m just one man, check it out and let us know what you think.

If Freemium Is In, Then Why Do Paid Apps Still Reign Supreme?

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 02:36 PM PST

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Earlier today, we posted on some data from Pando Networks that shows that free-to-play online games, often overlooked in the hype around social and casual games, are growing just as fast and as furiously around the globe as their counterparts. Obviously, much of this has to do with the industry’s transition from paid to freemium models — the examples of which are numerous not only in online gaming, but for web and mobile apps on the whole — and even startups and SMBs making their way in the consumer Web.

While many of us probably take the rise of freemium for granted by now, some new stats and a nifty infographic from Quixey show that we are still very much in a transitional phase. As app developers work out the best ways to monetize their free products via in-app purchases, mobile advertising, rewards, deals, offers, incentivized downloads, and so on, free apps still comprise less than half of all mobile apps — across top mobile platforms.

Of course, as you can see in Quixey’s infographic below, apps that cost $50 and above only comprise about 0.3 percent of mobile apps, whereas apps priced between $1 and $50 make up about 32.6 percent of the app population. Considering 45 percent of apps are free today, that leaves the remaining some 22 percent of apps pricing between free and $0.99. So, upwards of 54 percent of mobile apps will cost you some real, hard currency to download.

And, in conjunction with this, it’s interesting to see that 60 percent of the “most buzzed about apps” have the words “free” or “lite” in the title, which seems to point to the fact that app stores are becoming increasingly crowded and overpopulated, so the best way to reach eyeballs and attract downloads is to assure consumers that the app being presented is cheap — if not free.

If that’s not enough to tip you off to the overwhelming increase of app developers jumping into the game (along with the hike in the total number of apps), the infographic shows that the top 50 app developers only produce about 5 percent of the content in app stores. Of course, potentially part of the reason that they’re top developers is that they produce less content — or what content they do produce is of a high quality. This is where the drek comes into play, those “cr-apps” that are pumped out as if on an assembly line.

Of the hundreds of thousands of developers out there, few are having their voices heard, and it seems that overproducing and churning out apps (hence the over one million active apps now available on top mobile platforms) isn’t helping their cause, either. The infographic poses some interesting questions for app developers — and app consumers. (Especially seen in tandem with Flurry’s report earlier this week on developer adoption of Android vs. iOS.)

Check it out below and let us know what you think.



From RIM’s Conference Call: CEO Pay Cuts & Dual-Core LTE BlackBerrys

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 02:28 PM PST

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Well now, this call turned out to be much more interesting than I expected. First, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie has just announced that he and partner Mike Lazaridis will be cutting their annual salaries down to $1.

According to Forbes, both men currently receive $1,175,664 per year. While they don’t appear to receive annual bonuses, they both receive restricted stock awards, although the terms under which those stocks can vest are unknown. The news will likely be welcomed by distraught stockholders, but don’t expect Mike and Jim to suffer too much.

Mr. Lazaridis also took the opportunity to speak about the future of BlackBerry smartphones. In order to keep up with other manufacturers, Lazaridis said that RIM has chosen to run with a dual-core LTE-capable chipset for first BlackBerry 10 devices. Finally BlackBerry fans will have a device that’s at least mildly competitive, but they’ll have to wait even longer than expected for it.

The downside to the situation is that the particular chipset RIM hopes to use won’t be available until the middle of 2012. Astute readers may remember that the first BB10-powered devices were expected to ship around June of next year, but Lazaridis concedes that the launch window will instead come toward “the latter part of 2012.” Ouch.

Developing…

RIM’s Rough Ride Reflected In Q3 Earnings

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 02:02 PM PST

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RIM has just released their Q3 earnings, and the figures are about as rough as we expected: the Waterloo-based company pulled in $5.2 billion during the past quarter — a considerable bump over their Q2 performance, but still a 6% drop year-over-year.

Nearly 80% of the company’s revenue came from hardware sales, with RIM shipping 14.1 million BlackBerry handsets during the quarter. As expected, performance of the company’s beleaguered PlayBook wasn’t up to snuff yet again. The company only shipped around 150,000 of their ailing PlayBook tablets this quarter, down from nearly 200,000 shipped in Q2. To be honest, it’s a bit of surprise that they sold that many, although the company has been getting aggressive with PlayBook price cuts and promotions.

Ever the optimists, RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis kept up a hopeful tone while they commented on the company’s financials.

“Despite the challenges faced in the third quarter, the BlackBerry subscriber base grew to almost 75 million customers around the world,” they said in a recent release. “RIM continues to have strong technology, unique service capabilities and a large installed base of customers, and we are more determined than ever to capitalize on our strengths to overcome the recent execution challenges surrounding product launches and the resulting financial performance.”

While I have to give them props for essentially acknowledging that the PlayBook was/is a flop, it’s not the only problem that RIM has had to face in recent months. There was of course the multi-day outage that struck users across the globe, not to mention the naming snafu they encountered when trying to brand their new OS.

RIM expects this next quarter to be even grimmer: they forecast revenues of between $4.6 and $4.9 billion, and they expect to ship between 11 and 12 million BlackBerrys. The company’s earnings conference call is about to kick off, and we’ll be sure you keep you updated with any new details.

UPDATE: RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will only draw a yearly salary of $1, effective immediately.

Galaxy Nexus Gets Launch-Day OTA Update To Squash A Few Bugs

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 01:51 PM PST

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The Galaxy Nexus has been on sale here in the U.S. for mere hours, and it’s already getting its first refresh. But reports are bound to come in over the next week or so, but it looks as though Google had a few things that still needed fixing upon release.

In Android 4.0.2 build ICL53F, you’ll see improvements to your 3G/4G connection, your Wifi connection (including automatic reconnection to already-saved networks) and mobile hotspot enhancements.

The lock screen will also get some “visual improvements,” along with some special effect enhancements for the front-facing shooter. If you already own a Galaxy Nexus, you may have seen this error message: "data was disconnected due to roaming". That was a mistake, and will no longer appear once the update is complete. And if you were having trouble opening up certain mail attachments, that issue is done for, as well.

You may have also noticed that the G-Nex supports DivX. This latest update will remove support for DivX, though Verizon promises that support will come back in a future update. Verizon also mentions improved volume during Google Navigation’s turn-by-turn directions.

If the update hasn’t already been pushed straight to your device, it’s worth hitting up the Settings tab and checking for updates manually.

Here’s the full scoop on everything included in the update, and happy Galaxy Nexus day, everyone!

[via Droid-Life]

Postmates Launches Courier Delivery Service To San Francisco

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 12:11 PM PST

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Postmates is sort of like a modern version of the taxi dispatching software that Twitter creator Jack Dorsey had worked on as a kid. Except it’s available for businesses and consumers today in San Francisco, if you download its iPhone app (here).

It lets you place an order for a delivery, notifies nearby couriers and bike messengers, then one of them accepts and picks up the package and brings it to you. Then you’ll get an email with a link that lets you track the delivery as it makes its way to you. Pricing is based on the item being delivered, distance, and other factors. It’s obviously also a lot like Uber.

The service has been in closed beta with 50 or so businesses in the past months, with 1000 deliveries so far (check out this section of its site for more details on that). The first 100 readers here can get a $20 discount by using the following discount code: TECHCRUNCH. It was also a TechCrunch Disrupt finalist.

The company, which was just founded in May, is also announcing a new round of $800,000 in funding from investors including Crosslink Capital, which follows a previous round of $750,000.

Cofounder Bastian Lehmann tells me that the focus so far is local businesses, any company that wants to access its API, and consumers. While it’s looking at expanding to other cities in the next year, likely including New York and Los Angeles, it’s also looking at more sparsely populated areas, like suburbs. So far it’s been recruiting experienced couriers, but in those areas it could bring in less experienced people, he says.

Here’s a visualization of the deliveries so far, with red being the heaviest usage. Looks like there are a lot of exports to the other parts of the Bay.

PapayaMobile Launches “The Games Academy,” An Accelerator For Mobile, Social Game Developers

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 11:49 AM PST

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Mobile games network PapayaMobile is launching a new accelerator for mobile, social game developers called “The Games Academy,” which will kick off in Q1 2012. Like most accelerators, Papaya will be providing developers with office space, support from a team of industry veterans, legal advice and an opportunity to pitch VC’s.

However, there won’t be any seed capital provided, nor is the company taking an equity stake in the startups who join. Instead, Papaya only requires the teams use its Social Game Engine in their game’s development. Then at the end of the program, a “winning” team will be awarded with a grand prize of 100,000 guaranteed downloads.

That’s right – this isn’t your typical accelerator, The Games Academy is also a competition. While everyone benefits from the mentorship, training, the Academy’s QA lab, office space (in the Parisoma Innovations Loft located in SOMA), as well as access to legal and VC’s, only one company gets the big, big boost: 100,000 downloads.

PapayaMobile’s Justin Mauldin says that the company feels comfortable that it can push that much traffic to the winning app with its promotions, but if need be, it can buy incentivized installs from someone like TapJoy to fulfill the promise.

As for the instructors, PapayaMobile has lined up some notable experts to start: David “dc” Collier, President of Tokyo-based Pikkle and formerly the Business Creator for Namco Web&Mobile in Tokyo; Joel Breton; producer of Bomberman Live, Unreal, Duke Nukem, and Pirates of the Caribbean; John Szeder, VP of Engineering at hi5, previously from Digital Chocolate; Mark Wallace, lecturer in the Games Dept. at the Academy of Art University and formerly Conversation Manager for Second Life; and Charlie Huenergardt, also from the Academy of Art Univ., a 15-year veteran who has worked at Sega, Sony, 3DO, EA, Pirate Games, Crystal Dynamics, Shaba Games, and Page 44.

The program will run for four months and will include both classroom-style training and individual attention.

Says PapayaMobile CEO Si Shen, The Games Academy is a move made in direct response to a market that has been over-saturated by game investment funds.

“At the end of the day, money is only half of the equation,” she says. “Creating, marketing, and distributing successful social games that monetize well on mobile involves many different approaches. We intend to share our knowledge and bring about a shift in the industry."

Partnering in the launch is Patrick Chung, Managing Director at SK Telecom Ventures, who will be advising teams on funding and how to launch their games in various markets. Game development community Design3 will offer The Games Academy's syllabus and materials online for teams who wish to participate virtually.  And non-profit Applications for Good will be seeding one of the development teams to create apps that serve a public purpose.

Applications are open now for interested developers and will be up year-round. Going forward, The Games Academy expects to host three cycles per year.

Facebook Timeline For Mobile Web and Android Lets You Access Apps But Not Privacy Controls

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 11:07 AM PST

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Facebook this morning rolled out Timeline to the entire world, and now you can access some of its features from Facebook for Android 1.8.1 and the HTML5 mobile site m.facebook.com. The mobile version lets you scroll through Timeline posts, browse Photos, and check out reports of third-party app activity and sometimes open the apps themselves. Mobile Timeline does not include the Activity Log where you can change the privacy settings of their posts. With photos displayed at the full width of the screen, mobile Timeline looks beautiful, and the interface isn’t overly cluttered with controls better suited for the web.

While there’s no word on the release of Timeline support for the Facebook for iPhone app, iOS and most other smart phone users can get to Timeline via m.facebook.com. If a Third-party Open Graph apps has a mobile version, in some cases it can be opened from Timeline.  For example, mobile Timeline displays reports of your most listened to Spotify songs. If tapped, a Spotify mobile site loads which can then launch your native Spotify app where you can listen to that song.

Facebook integrated some smart design into mobile Timeline. When showing photo albums, 4 thumbnails are displayed at a time, but you can swipe to view additional thumbnails. You can similarly swipe through Timeline Views to select to see someone’s Friends, Likes, Photos, or Subscribers. Overlaid controls let you edit your cover. Places posts on mobile Timeline do not link to  the Google Maps website or app, and instead launches a Bing Maps mobile site.

The fact that Timelines’s Activity Log privacy controls can’t be accessed is a controversial decision. You only have the ability to delete or hide existing posts by holding down on a post, but can’t alter who can see them. Yes, the privacy selector and featuring controls may have appeared cramped. But a large portion of the world uses Facebook primarily through mobile devices. To make their historical content more easily accessible without giving them all the the controls to manage it could cause issues for some without a full-sized computer.

It took Facebook several years to add access to overarching privacy settings to its mobile interfaces. We’re checking with Facebook about whether mobile access to the Activity Log is on the way. Until then, mobile Timeline is a great way to view Facebook content, even if you can’t control exactly who sees yours.

Magisto’s “Magic” Video Editing Tool Coming To iOS (But It’s Not Done Yet)

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 10:55 AM PST

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I don’t often cover announcements that such-and-such application is in the works for iOS, as it tends to be better for everyone if we just wait and cover the actual launch. There’s some confusion surrounding one this morning, though, with a solid number of sites reporting that it’s gone live — when in reality, it’s not scheduled to hit for a few weeks. Figured I’d clear things up.

Magisto, the cloud-based auto-magic video editing tool that raised $5.5m and found a partner in YouTube back in September, began showing off their upcoming iOS app today. It is not, however, available as of yet.

For those who haven’t dabbled with it yet (you can find the web version here), Magisto is actually rather nifty. You upload your clips, give it a soundtrack, pick a title, and Magisto uses a whole bunch of fancy AI to analyze for things like speech, movement, and music beats, and automatically takes a stab at editing it into something worth sharing. It’ll even sync things up with the music and throw in a bunch of fancy transitions, fully convincing your family that you’re the next Roger Deakins.

Here’s a sample of the kind of thing that Magisto throws together:

I’ve been playing with an early build of the iOS app off and on for a few days now. While it definitely needs a bit more love (it’s still a Beta, after all), it does what it promises. You pick your clips (or shoot new ones), and it begins uploading them on the fly. Once you’ve finalized, you’re presented with a status bar indicating how much longer it’ll be until all of the automatic editing magic is done, or you can exit the app and go about your business until the push notification comes in alerting you that your scene is ready.

Alas, the confusion caused by a handful of blogs reporting that it launched today is sending people searching, but it’s not live yet. From what I’m hearing, the company is aiming to submit this week (hopefully before the App Store team goes on vacation early next week), with a launch sometime around CES in early January.

PocketCloud Explore Lets You Search Your Android, PC & Mac At Once

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 09:18 AM PST

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Wyse Technology is launching a new app for Android users today called Wyse PocketCloud Explore, which will allow you to search for files you have stored on any phone, tablet, PC or Mac. The app works in conjunction with a software client installed on your computer, so you can perform universal file searches, then view the files, rename them, move them into folders, share them or download them to your device.

The software lets you perform unlimited copying and moving of video, image and audio files between your Windows or Mac computer and your Android device. Meanwhile, other files types can be opened or edited in your preferred Android application (e.g., QuickOffice). You can also choose to email the file via Android’s email client.

PocketCloud is somewhat of an attack on cloud storage products like Dropbox or Box.net, which provide you with a set amount of free online storage, but then charge you when you need more. Instead, this app appeals more to the host-it-yourself crowd, since there’s only the one-time fee of $4.99 and no monthly service charges.

That said, hosting your files in the cloud may be pricier, but it’s often more secure. Unless you regularly backup, your computer is a single point-of-failure for your most valuable documents, while cloud storage providers have multiple copies of files spanned across servers which are backed up religiously.

But for $5, PocketCloud Explore is not a bad app to have on hand in case of a file emergency. Wyse also offers a full version of PocketCloud that provides remote access to your computer (iOS and Android). You can grab Explore from the Android Market here.

Samsung Galaxy Note LTE Headed For AT&T Next Year

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 08:46 AM PST

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If you’re the type of person who looks at a Galaxy Nexus and wonders why it couldn’t be even bigger, then Samsung just might have a treat meant for you. According to PocketNow, Samsung will be bringing an LTE-capable version of Samsung’s Galaxy Note to AT&T early next year.

The Note, if you haven’t seen it before, is bound to strain a few pockets with its 5.3-inch Super AMOLED HD display. As you may be able to tell by the name, the Note’s big screen makes it a solid choice for avid note jotters, as does the included “S Pen” stylus.

Because AT&T will be getting the recently announced LTE variant, PocketNow mentions that the U.S. model will sport a Qualcomm SoC instead, specifically the dual-core 1.5GHz MSM8660 chipset. On paper, it looks like the Qualcomm chipset is just a hair faster than the 1.4GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor as seen in the standard Galaxy Note, but we’ll see if there’s any noticeable difference (hint: there probably won’t be).

From what we’ve seen in the past, the Note will probably ship with Gingerbread installed, unless Samsung manages to finish up their work on their Ice Sandwich update before they push this thing onto store shelves. Either way, prepare to play with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI all over again.

Disruptive Payments Network Dwolla Now Provides Users With Instant Access To Cash

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 08:30 AM PST

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Today, online and mobile payments platform Dwolla is launching what may be one of its biggest features yet: instant access to cash. Via the new opt-in setting called “Dwolla Instant,” users will be able to immediately deposit and send cash without the usual wait times associated with the mobile payment platform – typically a few days.

To use Dwolla Instant, users must first enroll in the service, which requires a monthly $3 participation fee. This fee will begin from the day you switch on Dwolla Instant, but can be turned off  and on at will, without penalty. Once enabled, you can then send  money to a friend, pay a merchant, or deposit funds instantly. You’ll tell Dwolla what the funding source is for that initial transaction, and that will then be tied to your “Instant Balance.”

Immediately afterwards, Dwolla will allow you to make the payment via your linked bank account (Dwolla’s preferred funding source). Alternately, you can choose to “pay Dwolla back later,” if need be. That’s similar to how a credit card would work, but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper. The late fee for  the “pay Dwolla back” option is only $5.00. And Dwolla works hard to make sure you don’t forget, with notifications and reminders, unlike credit card companies who thrive off late payments.

The reason why the fee is so low is because Dwolla makes its money elsewhere. It charges $0.25 per transaction, except for transactions under $10, which recently became free.

According to Dwolla CEO, Ben Milne, the reason why high fees exist in credit card networks has to do with legacy issues – the hardware, the infrastructure, and the resources needed to fight the rampant fraud associated with having your 16-digit card number just out there in the world, everywhere. “Creating a new network is the only way to keep the fees out,” he explains. “And Dwolla is the first payment network built in 30-odd years.”

For those who have a hard time understanding exactly where Dwolla fits in the crowded mobile payments market where services like Square, Venmo, Google Wallet and PayPal get all the press, the difference is this: Dwolla is primarily a payments network, not a tool for enabling payments through the existing credit card network. In other words, it’s not like a Square or Google Wallet, for example, which allow you to link a credit card to your account. It is the card. Except there’s no card. In fact, if Square wanted to, it could integrate Dwolla as just another payment option into its own solution, if it wanted to. Google could as well. Or anyone.

As to whether Dwolla’s ready for that, Mine says not now. “It’s too early,” he says. “We can provide more value in terms of partnerships. And everybody is on board for building a long-term play.” (Which, you know, is the best thing to say if you secretly want to be acquired, right?)

We should point out that Dwolla isn’t just some outsider startup (it’s in Iowa!) going it alone. The company is backed by The Members Group, a financial services organization providing credit card processing, payment solutions, prepaid cards, consulting and more. So they sort of know what they’re doing over there. And weren’t you kind of getting sick of PayPal anyway?

As for Dwolla Instant, it goes live today on the Dwolla website and will roll out to Dwolla’s mobile apps on iPhone and Android shortly thereafter.

How Uber Is Launching In Its Newest City, Washington, DC

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST

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My girlfriend: We’re late. We need to get a cab to the [Thanksgiving] dinner.

Me: I just talked to the cab company and they’re going to take forever. I’m trying Uber.

Her: There’s no Uber in DC.

Me [checks app]: Oh, look, there is! The car will be here in 10 minutes. 

And that’s how I discovered that Uber is launching in Washington, DC. Today, it’s announcing to the capital that it’s ready for business, having spent the last month recruiting drivers, testing routes and everything else that goes into opening up in a new area. I recently talked to Rachel Holt, who’s leading Uber DC, to get some more details about how the company has worked out this expansion.

The first step is to figure out what the local market is looking for. DC is looking like a good target.

Yes, politicians have their own taxpayer-supported livery services, but DC also has the highest concentration of people with secondary degrees. Between the better-paid government employees, contractors, law offices, lobbyists, universities, and the emerging tech scene, “there are a lot of people who want a better experience,” Holt explains.

But unlike most cities (such as San Francisco), DC doesn’t artificially restrict the number of cabs, so getting them isn’t as big of a problem. However, the cars also tend to be run down, and service isn’t always great. And the thing about DC is that it’s a city of people who wear suits (also unlike SF). Uber’s black sedan-limos are providing cars to match.

DC also has some local issues that Uber can take advantage of. Cabs charge you extra for each additional stop, for example. The district is also stuck between two states and numerous counties, and many cab companies only serve some of them. If you’re downtown in the afternoon, you might have trouble getting a cab out to your home in the suburbs. Uber can ignore those constraints.

The company’s local team is also busy juicing demand by doing things like event sponsorships, and outreach to local businesses. An out-of-the-way restaurant, for example, might want to tell its patrons about Uber so they can rest assured about getting home when they’re done enjoying the wine list.

Of course, Uber’s real magic is software. It has also been refining how it expands to each new city. ”Every minute and every day we’re collecting more and more data on where people are opening our app to figure out where biggest areas of demand are,” Holt says. That’s why we’ve needed a little runway ahead of a public launch.”

Charts and heat map visualizations show how the app is being used, that the company then uses to match peak demand areas at specific times. It looks at specific pieces of data like app opens, people who get cars, and people who can’t, and the number of minutes that it takes for cars to arrive.

The other factor is operations. Uber has been recruiting local people, including independent operators and small companies, to be on call for the service. It has already won many of them over, judging by the ones I’ve talked to in SF, and the one who drove us on Thanksgiving. Its pay structure is a flat fee that includes a generous tip. The software can calculate optimal coverage areas to reduce driving. And the software also cuts out dispatch operators, who sometimes play favorites with drivers at other cab companies.

While Uber is a luxury service, it’s also a good example of how a software startup can break into new physical-world markets and solve long-standing problems. It forces incumbents to try to improve, and shows other startups how they can go after similar types of problems. It’s this visceral impact that helped convince Shervin Pishevar, son of an immigrant cab driver in DC, to co-lead the company’s new $32 million round of funding last week.

The company is planning on expanding by two cities a month around the world. It also just launched in Paris, and is already available in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York, and Boston.

StackMob’s Mobile App Platform Is Now Publicly Available

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 07:59 AM PST

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StackMob, a backend service provider for mobile, is today publicly launching its mobile app platform, after having been in private beta for a good part of the year. The company, often described as a “Heroku for mobile” is a fully hosted platform that allows developers to address all the backend needs for their mobile apps including OAuth and social service integration (e.g., Twitter, Facebook), storage solutions, advertising, push notifications, analytics, API creation and more.

The company closed its Series A round of $7.5 million this spring, led by Trinity Ventures with StackMob's existing investors, Harrison Metal and Baseline Ventures, participating. With the additional funding in tow, StackMob was able to expand to a second platform beyond iOS this October, when it launched its Android SDK. But at the time, StackMob was still in private beta testing.

Since its Series A, StackMob has seen 60% month-over-month grow in apps created using the platforms. Customers now include Fortune 50 hotels, banks and consumer products companies. StackMob has also signed up a top 20 mobile game which makes over 3 million API calls per day.

Now available publicly, StackMob is introducing two categories of pricing, with three subcategories each. The “Starter” category, meant for smaller app makers, ranges from free to $29. Pro pricing packages, meanwhile, go from $399 to $2,999. Pro packages have access to all StackMob features, including advanced REST API creation and management, push notifications, social integration, custom code and analytics. Custom packages are also available.

Interested developers can sign up for StackMob here.

U.S. Teens Triple Data Usage

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 07:28 AM PST

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Nielsen is reporting today that teens have more than tripled mobile data consumption and also continue to hold top spot as the most engaged mobile messaging segment.

The report states that "In the third quarter of 2011, teens age 13-17 used an average of 320 MB of data per month on their phones, increasing 256 percent over last year and growing at a rate faster than any other age group".

While this deluge of data consumption seems immense, messaging still remains the largest teen behavior in the mobile space, with the number of SMS/MMS messages reaching 3,417 per teen. Let me just say that again…3,417 texts per teen—seven messages per waking hour, according to the study. Um, WOW!

Marketers out there surely have their eye on this segment for a plethora of mobile marketing opportunities, or should. No doubt this channel is a credible and immensely important way to reach a generation that thinks texting is faster than making a phone call.

[via Nielsen Wire]

Ski Lift Ticket Retailer Liftopia Goes Live On iPhone

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 06:42 AM PST

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San Francisco-based Liftopia, an online retailer of lift tickets and mountain resort activities, is launching its iPhone app today. The app’s title is quite the mouthful: “Liftopia Ski Reports, Snow Conditions and Ultimate Lift Ticket Deal Engine App.” Whoa! So there’s the news, I guess – it’s all in the app’s name.

Oh you want more info? OK.

The new app, available for iPhone and iPod Touch, lets skiers and snowboarders browse and buy deals on lift tickets and other mountain activities in advance just like Liftopia’s website does. Upon launch, the app taps into your current location to instantly pull up nearby deals. You can also browse through deals in your favorite regions or search deals by date. Whe you’re ready to purchase, you can buy the tickets directly from the app itself.

All your activity in the app is synced back to the Liftopia.com website, too, so if you prefer to shop online, you can just use the app to access your tickets on the go instead of having to print out and carry vouchers with you to the resort. Handy.

Other features in the app include the ability to check conditions and weather reports, get directions to the lifts, store resorts as “favorites,” set up deal alerts and more.

Liftopia now offers over 75,000 deals at more than 150 ski areas which are up to 80% off ticket window prices. Current partners include Aspen/Snowmass, Park City, Mount Snow, Sun Valley, Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows and others. The startup recently raised $1.3 million in funding from First Round Capital and others, bringing its total raise to nearly $3 million.

Seriously, though, what’s with the app title? App Store SEO?

Verizon’s $300 Galaxy Nexus Price Tag Too High? Check Out These Deals

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 06:18 AM PST

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When Verizon officially revealed the Galaxy Nexus last night, some of you were surprised to see it sport such a high price tag. Thanks to Verizon’s apparent change in pricing policy, all of their new flagship 4G phones are hovering at around $299. Now if you absolutely have to have a Galaxy Nexus today (something I’m currently debating myself), Verizon stores are likely to be your first thought, but chances are you won’t be alone in your quest.

However, there are bargains to be found if you’re willing to dig a little, and are a few that may make buying a Nexus easier to swallow.

Fry’s Electronics: East Coast Galaxy fans need not apply, but you can snag a Galaxy Nexus from Fry’s for $219 with a new contract, and $249 for an upgrade/contract extension. Not shabby at all, and assuming you live near one, you may be able to enjoy a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich today.

Wirefly: These guys sport the same deal as Fry’s (not a surprise since their online wireless storefronts are powered by the same company), but the units themselves will apparently ship in a few days. Not a bad choice if you live in the middle of nowhere.

AmazonWireless: They’re offering a pretty solid discount on the Nexus for new customers looking to ink a Verizon contract – the device itself will set you back $199. Upgraders will need to shell out an extra $50, but the addition of free two-day shipping should offset the pain a bit. The Nexii are currently backordered, but with any luck that’ll clear up soon.

Let’s Talk: If you’re willing to head off the beaten path, these guys have the Galaxy Nexus for $229 with a new contract and $249 with an upgrade. However, Vlad at The Verge points out that there’s an additional $75 coupon code that can be thrown into the mix, bringing prices down to $154 and $174, respectively. The code (which is “$75VZN” by the way) combined with free overnight shipping makes this the deal to beat.

Once you’ve nabbed your Nexus (and hopefully saved a little money in the process) you can finally play with Ice Cream Sandwich proper — and by that, I mean sing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” with attractive women.



LG’s Optimus LTE Android Phone Goes On Sale In Japan

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 05:49 AM PST

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Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo has introduced LG’s awesome Optimus Android phone in Japan yesterday. It’s compatible to Docomo’s 4G service Xi and follows the launch of the handset in Korea and North America.

The Docomo version comes equipped with NFC and a digital TV tuner for Japanese users wanting to watch 1seg channels on the 4.5-inch, 1280×720 IPS display. LG did not build in an infrared connection, however (which many Japanese mobile subscribers got used to on their feature phones).

It also features other Docomo-specific bells and whistles, like access to the docomo market (the carrier’s Android marketplace), or the so-called “Palette UI” (an interface designed by Docomo for their Android phones). LG also manufactured a version in red, which is only available in Japan (in addition to the black version).

I had the chance to try the Optimus out in Tokyo (where I live) today, and the LTE connection was – not a big surprise – super-fast (see below).

Grand Theft Auto III Lands In The App Store, Android Market

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 05:37 AM PST

Grand Theft Auto III: Tenth Anniversay Edition

If stealing cars, running people over, and being an all-around gangster is your idea of fun, I come bearing good tidings of great joy this holiday season. Grand Theft Auto III: 10th Anniversary Edition has made its way to your phone courtesy of Rockstar Games.

Launched back in 2001, Grand Theft Auto III has been one of the most popular games of the last decade.

Available on both iOS and Android, the game is just as fun on a 4-inch screen as it is on the big screen. Not all Android devices are compatible, but you can find a list here on RockStar’s page.

The app is available in the Apple App Store and Android Market now for $4.99.