Author Archive
At least her seatbelt is on. (Photo: Hashgram)
The AAA is reminding drivers that they have one job when they’re behind the wheel, and it’s not taking idiotic selfies. In a press release today, the organization said that drivers should stop being distracted with obsessively taking pictures of themselves and posting them to social media because it’s stupid. Read more
You’re probably familiar with two-step verification via your mobile phone — employers are increasingly asking workers to sign in to their email accounts only after verifying their identity with a text code sent to their mobile phones.
Now there’s company that wants to use that data to assign a reputation rating to your mobile phone.
And if your phone number has a lousy rep, you might find yourself being blocked from web sites and apps that use the system.
Telesign works a bit like your credit rating: If you try to sign in to a service using a throwaway phone not normally associated with your identity, that phone number will get a high-risk rating. You might not be allowed to sign in to whatever you’re hoping to access.
Forbes described the Telesign rating system this way: “The range is 0 to 1000, with 0 being a gold iPhone and 1000 being a burner phone that’s only used to order drugs and kill people.”
Telesign, which is based in Marina del Rey, Calif., combines your phone number with your sign-in data and its own “meta-data” on your phone’s activity to ascribe a score to your phone. Wired identified one problem with the service: Although companies may block you for having the “wrong” phone number, you can’t look up your number’s rating on Telesign to see if there is a problem. “It’s something we’ve talked about, but we don’t have a way to share scores yet,” CTO Charles McColgan told the magazine.
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Few hardware companies would dream of giving up their design secrets, but for a growing niche of entrepreneurs, doing just that is a pillar of their business. The open-source hardware movement is…
Nuggety is not a search engine, but a tool to explore and search websites directly.
Nuggety has two goals: 1) Help you manage the search process for complicated searches. 2) Enable discovery and sharing of unique resources.
If you have trouble finding what you need through Google, there are few options.
Nuggety lets you declare your intent and search the best resources on any topic. Rather than scanning bad results you can discover and explore new websites.
Anyone who has ever been frustrated with Google will find Nuggety useful.
Experts on topics can build custom search lists for themselves, while novices can discover and use great websites they never would have found on their own.
Nuggety considers every website a potential search engine. By focusing on sharing and discovery at the domain level, Nuggety presents an entirely new way for users to explore the Web.
Since Nuggety gets better the more people use it, responding to user concerns is the main focus at this point.
If all the members look like these two, sign us up. (Screengrab: NautiNinja.com)
The Internet is good for a lot of things, but at the top of the list are weird sex and procrastination. A new social network for randy fetishists that combines the time-wasting capabilities of Facebook and the myriad sex offerings of your favorite porn site seems like a no-brainer.
With a moniker pulled straight from the bowels of startup-naming hell, Nauti Ninja promises to serve up a social network full of people who are open-minded and kinky. “Escape the limitations of vanilla dating when your [sic] much more wildly expressive than that,” the site counsels. Read more
Microsoft took a big step into enterprise collaboration when it acquired Yammer, and an equally big step into VoIP when it bought Skype. Now it’s taking an investment in Zula, a new startup that is offering a solution for how those two kinds of services might potentially work together. The Israel-based mobile collaboration app co-founded by Jeff Pulver, one of the original people behind Vonage and VoIP, is today announcing a seed round from Microsoft Ventures.
The two are not publicly disclosing the amount of the investment, but I understand it’s not huge. What’s more important here is the significance of Microsoft taking an interest in the product, and putting its money where its mouth is.
“Improving team collaboration on mobile devices has a huge potential for customers of all sizes,” said Rahul Sood, general manager of Microsoft Ventures, in a statement. “Zula has created a brilliant app that brings your team together in a seamless way to get more work done.” The investment from Microsoft is effectively Zula’s second seed round, with previous funding coming from OurCrowd, Kima Ventures, Gigy Levy, and others.
Putting money where Microsoft’s mouth is is part of the philosophy behind Microsoft Ventures, announced earlier this year, which is a new initiative from Microsoft that brings together its BizSpark program for free software and other resources for startups; the Microsoft Accelerator; and now also seed investments in startups to build on the investment work Microsoft was already doing through the Bing Fund. This is the second investment Microsoft Ventures is making in Israel; the first was another enterprise mobility startup called SkyGiraffe, also for an undisclosed amount.
Zula, which was first unveiled to the world in July of this year, went on to appear in the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield in San Francisco in September as the audience choice. Since then, the company tells me that it is currently onboarding “hundreds” of companies, although it is declining to disclose numbers. The app gives groups of users a secure way to create text-based conversations on a messaging platform, then initiate voice calls instantly through the platform as well as share files (integrating with Dropbox among other storage options). It is free for now, although the plan is to launch paid features in the future. The company recently launched an Android version to complement its iOS app.
The idea is to use the funding from Microsoft to further develop new features, including an HTML5 web client and – although this is not stated – a possible focus on how to bring the service to Windows platforms? “We are thrilled to have Microsoft Ventures on board with our vision. With their support, we intend to bring team communication and more advanced features for groups of all sizes. We are only getting started,” said Pulver, who co-founded Zula with Jacob Ner-David, who is now CEO. Ner-David is a serial entrepreneur and previous CEO of Delta Three.
Apple has shut down production of the iPhone 5C at a Foxconn factory in Northern China, says DigiTimes.
It’s asking Foxconn to switch that factory to iPhone 5S production instead.
What does this mean for Apple overall? We have no idea, but we’re happy to speculate…
The iPhone 5C seems like it’s nowhere near as popular as Apple had hoped.
We’ve read multiple stories about Apple cutting back production for the 5C. It seems like Apple’s decision to charge $ 550 for the phone unlocked has held demand in check.
However, it’s not all that bad since the iPhone 5S seems to be very popular. Apple generates more money, and perhaps more profit from a 5S sale than a 5C sale.
The 5C suffers from an expectations problem. Just about everyone thought the 5C was going to be Apple’s attempt to go mid-market to pump up volume. Apple apparently never planned on doing that, so people are resetting their expectations.
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Events bring people together, and people attend a given event for certain reasons. Ryan Costello, founder and CEO of Event Farm, tells us about HOVER, the company’s newest offering that gathers all…
Many people seem to have the sense that ethics are spiraling downward in business, yet most business professionals and entrepreneurs I know don’t believe they can make a difference. They don’t realize that if they don’t take an active role in the solution, they really become part of the problem.
I do believe that most business people want to do the right thing, but many just don’t have the skills to develop an unemotional ethical position, or confidence to act on their ethical beliefs, or simply are not sure how to go about making a difference in their daily actions, without jeopardizing their own career.
Most people don’t need tools to agree on the ethical problem with Lockheed bribing foreign officials to get business, but many may come to different conclusions on how safe a startup’s innovative new child car seat has to be before it is sold. If people are dying of cancer every day, how many clinical trials should be required for a new drug that clearly saves some lives?
I found some good analytical tools on how to sharpen your own ethics sense in a new book by Mark Pastin, “.” Pastin has consulted with many organizations around the world on ethics issues, and I like his practical steps to get beyond the emotion and the theoretical, to pragmatic yet ethical solutions for tough problems:
Identify the ground rules of the all parties. When a situation presents an ethical issue, look beyond the actions of individuals, groups, and organizations to uncover the ground rules of each that help explain their actions. Only then can you understand what you have to change to be a successful ethical change agent.
Reason backward to find the interests. Summarize the possible outcomes, and reason backward from each to find what interests each outcome will serve and for whom. Unstated or hidden interests are often the key to resolving ethical issues. Support outcomes that advance many interests without violating any ground rules.
Face the relevant facts. Look for facts that all parties, irrespective of their ground rules and interests, will agree upon. Then look for non-debated facts, and finally contested facts. The acid test for each fact is that if it were true, would it change your judgment as to what is right in the situation. Now you have the potential to make an ethical difference.
Stand in the shoes of affected parties. Once you understand who is affected, reduce the distance between you and them. Pick ones that differ from you the most and meet with individuals or group members. Verify or reject each interest and ground rule. You remove obstacles to the functioning of the ethics eye by bringing its objects closer.
Use the global benefit approach to rate possible outcomes. Ask which course of action produces the greatest balance of benefit over harm for all concerned. You first ask who counts, then what counts, as a benefit or harm in considering the possible outcomes. Any action with great benefits without violating ground rules could be the right one.
Real agreement in ethics only exists when what your ethics eye shows to be the right action matches what the ethic eyes of others see as the right action at the same time. Thus these steps are part of an iterative convergence process that all relevant parties must follow to reach the right solution. Pastin provides examples of this process transforming good ethics into decisive action.
It does work, but in all cases each of us has to accept at the outset that our own ethical perspective may be the one that changes in the process of seeking ethical agreement. There is no room in any business decision for hard unbending positions, with closed eyes and ears and an open mouth.
If you and I disagree about ethics, there are only three ways to reach agreement. You change your mind. I change my mind. Or we both change our minds. When you under-take a sincere process of seeking ethical agreement, two of the three options for doing so involve learning and changing your mind. But how does that differ from every other challenge where you have made a difference in moving your business forward?
Marty Zwilling
Mr. Porter (blogcdn.com)
Bitcoin licenses for sellers might become a thing that exists in New York. The state is going to soon start holding hearings about regulating the digital currency. [The Verge]
Dan Porter said ominously that he “knew it was our time” to sell OMGPop to Zynga before it was taken out back and essentially shot. [New York Times]
Over the next six months, Google is improving the blockage of child porn using technology that tags pictures and keywords as illegal. [Telegraph]
Apple is close to snapping up Israeli company PrimeSense, which developed the technology behind Kinect. [Digital Trends]
OK: “Watch Airbnb’s Chef Rap About Food at a Hackthon.” [TechCrunch]
