Category: Tech news

Ex-Google UX guy Paul Adams is perhaps most known for his slideshow “The Real Life Social Network,” which highlighted the perils of having one default group for sharing and emphasized that the ideal social networking service would be designed for multiple groups. The slideshow illustrated the flaws in Facebook’s lump sum friend model and called for a social network where users could set sharing levels to correspond to the 4-6 separate relationship groups that people tend to have.

Sound familiar? Well, if this reminds you a little of Google+ Social Circles, its because Adams was a User Experience Researcher on Google social/Google+ until he left Google in December 2010. The first version of his famous “The Real Life Social Network” deck was published in April 2010, at least two months before the project started (with an even earlier version published two years ago).

While designer Andy Hertzfeld and team have been lauded for the (granted) amazing design, it’s less discussed that Hertzfeld inherited the Circles model from Adams, and simply designed the front-end user experience for it.

Poetically enough, Adams, who is now at Facebook, was asked by current Googler Chris Messina on Google+ what he thought about the service. He responded by elaborating on a tweet where he likened the experience of the Google+ launch to seeing an ex-girlfriend in public.

Adams wrote, “It was like when you first see her you have a moment where you have a niggle of regret and wonder for a split second, but that quickly passes when you remember why you broke up with her.”

Adams directed me to Facebook PR when asked for further comment on his opinion and involvement on Social Circles. I’m sure their response will be fascinating. While we wait, you can flip through the slideshow that started it all, below.

A $20 drug store watch will do if all you want is the time, but luxury watches are about more than just counting hours and minutes.

To be honest, many people buy luxury watches — generally, any watch priced at over $1,000 — because they are status symbols, planted on your wrist for all to see. They are also an investment, a finely crafted piece of bejeweled artwork to pass along to future generations. But most of all, they are pure functionality taken to the extreme, precision time-keepers tuned to split-second accuracy.

So I expected both mechanical perfection and a serious bling factor when I agreed to test the new Calibre de Cartier auto-winding watch, a $7,000 new release from the classic jeweler Cartier.

There are two notable firsts for Cartier here: this is the first watch caliber in the company’s history designed specifically for the men’s “sports” market, and it’s the first equipped with an automatic mechanical movement crafted entirely in-house at its La Chaux-de-Fonds workshop in Switzerland.

Cartier’s 1904-PS MC mechanical movement is an automatic mechanism — the watch is wound by kinetic energy, and the swing of your arm as you walk is enough to keep it ticking. But it’s particularly intricate and unique when compared to other automatic movements, and the technological standouts are numerous. It uses double barrels (most automatic watches traditionally have one), and this gives it a highly constant chronometry throughout the duration of the watch’s 48-hour power reserve. This means the watch will display time accurately and consistently for two days after you take it off your wrist, even though at that point it’s no longer getting wound by the movement of your arm. The Calibre also has a bi-directional winding system in place rather than a more conventional one-way winding of the gears. The rotor’s motion is smoothed by ceramic ball bearings instead of oil. This protects it from shock and makes trips to the repair shop less frequent. (This extra shock resistance must be where the “sports” angle comes in.)

Obviously, the accuracy and potential longevity of the inner mechanics should be the ultimate consideration as to whether or not a watch is worth the money. But let’s face it — at this price point, the thing should also look damn good.

The polished stainless steel bracelet, the understated design of the dial and the large 42mm case are all demonstratively masculine. The black dial sports a stamped contrasting white XII at 12 o’clock. There’s a small seconds counter at 6 o’clock, and the dial is topped with luminescent, sword-shaped hands. Today’s date peeks through a crescent-shaped inset. Flip it over, and some of the 186 hand-assembled components inside are visible through the crystal on the back of the exhibition case.

Our test watch’s stainless steel band came with enough links for a rich gorilla, but you can obviously remove the links to fit smaller wrists. Ours had a black dial, but it also comes in white, and there’s a lower-priced version with a leather band as well as some much-higher-priced models in various gold settings.

At well over a quarter pound (5.3 ounces to be exact) this hulking watch felt heavy in my palm, but surprisingly not heavy at all on my wrist. The shiny, stainless steel casing and band are solid without screaming “manly,” but on my wrist, it still felt like a wholesome dose of testosterone.

I wore the Calibre to an upscale restaurant during my testing period. The chatty waitress, admiring the watch, cracked, “Is that watch big or are you just glad to see me?” She got a big tip. But seriously, the Calibre de Cartier is thick at 10mm, though it certainly isn’t as thick as other watches of this class and design. And the austere, understated look does give the impression that the wearer has refined taste. For the one month loan period when I got to wear the watch everywhere, I felt like a million bucks.

WIRED The epitome of luxury watch-making both inside and out. Hand-assembled, automatic mechanical winding system will last for generations. Simple, classic design. Dead accurate 48-hour reserve. Water resistant to 100 feet.

TIRED Your wallet will take a serious bruising. As with any intricately assembled mechanical device, pricey expert servicing is required periodically.

Photos by Jon Snyder/Wired

A $20 drug store watch will do if all you want is the time, but luxury watches are about more than just counting hours and minutes.

To be honest, many people buy luxury watches — generally, any watch priced at over $1,000 — because they are status symbols, planted on your wrist for all to see. They are also an investment, a finely crafted piece of bejeweled artwork to pass along to future generations. But most of all, they are pure functionality taken to the extreme, precision time-keepers tuned to split-second accuracy.

So I expected both mechanical perfection and a serious bling factor when I agreed to test the new Calibre de Cartier auto-winding watch, a $7,000 new release from the classic jeweler Cartier.

There are two notable firsts for Cartier here: this is the first watch caliber in the company’s history designed specifically for the men’s “sports” market, and it’s the first equipped with an automatic mechanical movement crafted entirely in-house at its La Chaux-de-Fonds workshop in Switzerland.

Cartier’s 1904-PS MC mechanical movement is an automatic mechanism — the watch is wound by kinetic energy, and the swing of your arm as you walk is enough to keep it ticking. But it’s particularly intricate and unique when compared to other automatic movements, and the technological standouts are numerous. It uses double barrels (most automatic watches traditionally have one), and this gives it a highly constant chronometry throughout the duration of the watch’s 48-hour power reserve. This means the watch will display time accurately and consistently for two days after you take it off your wrist, even though at that point it’s no longer getting wound by the movement of your arm. The Calibre also has a bi-directional winding system in place rather than a more conventional one-way winding of the gears. The rotor’s motion is smoothed by ceramic ball bearings instead of oil. This protects it from shock and makes trips to the repair shop less frequent. (This extra shock resistance must be where the “sports” angle comes in.)

Obviously, the accuracy and potential longevity of the inner mechanics should be the ultimate consideration as to whether or not a watch is worth the money. But let’s face it — at this price point, the thing should also look damn good.

The polished stainless steel bracelet, the understated design of the dial and the large 42mm case are all demonstratively masculine. The black dial sports a stamped contrasting white XII at 12 o’clock. There’s a small seconds counter at 6 o’clock, and the dial is topped with luminescent, sword-shaped hands. Today’s date peeks through a crescent-shaped inset. Flip it over, and some of the 186 hand-assembled components inside are visible through the crystal on the back of the exhibition case.

Our test watch’s stainless steel band came with enough links for a rich gorilla, but you can obviously remove the links to fit smaller wrists. Ours had a black dial, but it also comes in white, and there’s a lower-priced version with a leather band as well as some much-higher-priced models in various gold settings.

At well over a quarter pound (5.3 ounces to be exact) this hulking watch felt heavy in my palm, but surprisingly not heavy at all on my wrist. The shiny, stainless steel casing and band are solid without screaming “manly,” but on my wrist, it still felt like a wholesome dose of testosterone.

I wore the Calibre to an upscale restaurant during my testing period. The chatty waitress, admiring the watch, cracked, “Is that watch big or are you just glad to see me?” She got a big tip. But seriously, the Calibre de Cartier is thick at 10mm, though it certainly isn’t as thick as other watches of this class and design. And the austere, understated look does give the impression that the wearer has refined taste. For the one month loan period when I got to wear the watch everywhere, I felt like a million bucks.

WIRED The epitome of luxury watch-making both inside and out. Hand-assembled, automatic mechanical winding system will last for generations. Simple, classic design. Dead accurate 48-hour reserve. Water resistant to 100 feet.

TIRED Your wallet will take a serious bruising. As with any intricately assembled mechanical device, pricey expert servicing is required periodically.

Photos by Jon Snyder/Wired

With many asserting that Google+ is heavily Facebook influenced, Facebook engineers Vladimir Kolesnikov, Peng Fan, Zahan Malkani, Brian Rosenthal have flipped the switch and taken inspiration from the novel Google Circles design with Circlehack, a much simpler tool to build Facebook Friend lists.

Right now the only way you can create lists on Facebook is by going to the Friends page, clicking on the Account drop down menu, then clicking on “Edit Friends” and then again on “Create a List” and a bunch of other cumbersome stuff.

It’s a mess, but crucial if you want to achieve the same granular sharing features as Google+ on Facebook (which you can do by going to “Privacy Settings,” clicking “Customize,” then under “Make this open to” click oh hell just Google it).

While Circlehack doesn’t have all the design features of Google+ e.g. the circles your friends are members of don’t glow upon hover and you can’t automatically set Groups or privacy settings within the app, it’s a start, at least for Facebook.

Well played guys, well played.

WikiLeaks and its credit card processing partner Datacell have just announced their intent to file suit in the EU against credit card companies Visa and Mastercard for blocking donations to the service last year.

In early December the two payments companies cut off all payments to the relatively quiet as of late organization, with Mastercard citing that its “rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal.” The legality of WikiLeaks itself is still a matter of debate.

However, Visa and Mastercard were not alone in withdrawing their support, as both PayPal and Amazon also pulled their services from WikiLeaks, which facilitates anonymous leaks of sensitive information including hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. WikiLeaks does not mention Amazon or PayPal in the suit.

WikiLeaks is holding that the PayPal and Visa blocks count as “anti-competitive” and violate Article 101 (1) and 102 of the EU competition laws, seeking to file a complaint in the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court. As of yet, according to the release, that complaint has not been filed.

With many asserting that Google+ is heavily Facebook influenced, Facebook engineers Vladimir Kolesnikov, Peng Fan, Zahan Malkani, Brian Rosenthal have flipped the switch and taken inspiration from the novel Google Circles design with Circlehack, a much simpler tool to build Facebook Friend lists.

Right now the only way you can create lists on Facebook is by going to the Friends page, clicking on the Account drop down menu, then clicking on “Edit Friends” and then again on “Create a List” and a bunch of other cumbersome stuff.

It’s a mess, but crucial if you want to achieve the same granular sharing features as Google+ on Facebook (which you can do by going to “Privacy Settings,” clicking “Customize,” then under “Make this open to” click oh hell just Google it).

While Circlehack doesn’t have all the design features of Google+ e.g. the circles your friends are members of don’t glow upon hover and you can’t automatically set Groups or privacy settings within the app, it’s a start, at least for Facebook.

Well played guys, well played.

Though The American Automobile Association (AAA) is only expecting a relatively marginal 2.5 percent decrease in travel over the holiday weekend compared to last year, gas prices are currently averaging $3.57 across the U.S. — an 82-cent increase from the same time last year.

In a timely piece of news for all those weekend riders out there, the social ride-sharing startup Zimride announced today that it has passed the 100 million miles-traveled mark. Since the FbFund recipient launched three years ago, travelers in the Zimride network have logged over 100 million miles and have saved over $50 million in vehicle operating expenses.

Zimride, co-founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer, focuses on college, university and corporate communities, allowing its users to join networks based on these communities in order to facilitate and coordinate carpooling. The startup allows the first 50 users within a network to sign up for free, at which point the community of users then has the option of singing up for a subscription.

The company then works with transportation departments and student governments at universities and large companies, charging universities, for example, $9500 a year for the service. While that may sound like a tough sell, so far participating organizations and institutions have been enthusiastic.

To this point, Zimride is also announcing its 100th client network today, which means that Zimride networks now include each of the 10 schools in the University of California system, as well as others including Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Facebook, and Intuit.

As the startup aims to build a nationwide marketplace for drivers looking to make a few extra bucks on those empty car seats during commutes and road trips by selling them to other passengers, the announcements today show the company is making progress in that direction. With gas prices remaining high, there is plenty of interest in carpooling as an effective means of cutting transportation costs.

To date, Zimride has raised $1.5 million from FLOODGATE, K9 Ventures, Keith Rabois, and more. For more stats, check out Zimride’s infographic below:

With many asserting that Google+ is heavily Facebook influenced, Facebook engineers Vladimir Kolesnikov, Peng Fan, Zahan Malkani, Brian Rosenthal have flipped the switch and taken inspiration from the novel Google Circles design with Circlehack, a much simpler tool to build Facebook Friend lists.

Right now the only way you can create lists on Facebook is by going to the Friends page, clicking on the Account drop down menu, then clicking on “Edit Friends” and then again on “Create a List” and a bunch of other cumbersome stuff.

It’s a mess, but crucial if you want to achieve the same granular sharing features as Google+ on Facebook (which you can do by going to “Privacy Settings,” clicking “Customize,” then under “Make this open to” click oh hell just Google it).

While Circlehack doesn’t have all the design features of Google+ e.g. the circles your friends are members of don’t glow upon hover and you can’t automatically set Groups or privacy settings within the app, it’s a start, at least for Facebook.

Well played guys, well played.

Though The American Automobile Association (AAA) is only expecting a relatively marginal 2.5 percent decrease in travel over the holiday weekend compared to last year, gas prices are currently averaging $3.57 across the U.S. — an 82-cent increase from the same time last year.

In a timely piece of news for all those weekend riders out there, the social ride-sharing startup Zimride announced today that it has passed the 100 million miles-traveled mark. Since the FbFund recipient launched three years ago, travelers in the Zimride network have logged over 100 million miles and have saved over $50 million in vehicle operating expenses.

Zimride, co-founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer, focuses on college, university and corporate communities, allowing its users to join networks based on these communities in order to facilitate and coordinate carpooling. The startup allows the first 50 users within a network to sign up for free, at which point the community of users then has the option of singing up for a subscription.

The company then works with transportation departments and student governments at universities and large companies, charging universities, for example, $9500 a year for the service. While that may sound like a tough sell, so far participating organizations and institutions have been enthusiastic.

To this point, Zimride is also announcing its 100th client network today, which means that Zimride networks now include each of the 10 schools in the University of California system, as well as others including Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Facebook, and Intuit.

As the startup aims to build a nationwide marketplace for drivers looking to make a few extra bucks on those empty car seats during commutes and road trips by selling them to other passengers, the announcements today show the company is making progress in that direction. With gas prices remaining high, there is plenty of interest in carpooling as an effective means of cutting transportation costs.

To date, Zimride has raised $1.5 million from FLOODGATE, K9 Ventures, Keith Rabois, and more. For more stats, check out Zimride’s infographic below:

Ex-Google UX guy Paul Adams is perhaps most known for his slideshow “The Real Life Social Network,” which highlighted the perils of having one default group for sharing and emphasized that the ideal social networking service would be designed for multiple groups. The slideshow illustrated the flaws in Facebook’s lump sum friend model and called for a social network where users could set sharing levels to correspond to the 4-6 separate relationship groups that people tend to have.

Sound familiar? Well, if this reminds you a little of Google+ Social Circles, its because Adams was a User Experience Researcher on Google social/Google+ until he left Google in December 2010. The first version of his famous “The Real Life Social Network” deck was published in April 2010, at least two months before the project started (with an even earlier version published two years ago).

While designer Andy Hertzfeld and team have been lauded for the (granted) amazing design, it’s less discussed that Hertzfeld inherited the Circles model from Adams, and simply designed the front-end user experience for it.

Poetically enough, Adams, who is now at Facebook, was asked by current Googler Chris Messina on Google+ what he thought about the service. He responded by elaborating on a tweet where he likened the experience of the Google+ launch to seeing an ex-girlfriend in public.

Adams wrote, “It was like when you first see her you have a moment where you have a niggle of regret and wonder for a split second, but that quickly passes when you remember why you broke up with her.”

Adams directed me to Facebook PR when asked for further comment on his opinion and involvement on Social Circles. I’m sure their response will be fascinating. While we wait, you can flip through the slideshow that started it all, below.

While the debate as to whether group buying as whole is a viable business model rages on post-Groupon S-1, there’s no doubt that these social deal things keep sprouting up — Yesterday someone introduced themselves to me as the CEO of a Groupon for moms (and yes I thought it was a good idea).

We’ve got Groupons for techies, a Groupon for Jews, what will there be a Groupon for next!? Wait, please don’t answer that.

Still it makes sense that people would want a piece of the action, as the size of the market in the US is estimated at $2.7 billion in 2012 (up from $1.1 billion last year).  And to give you a sense of some of the players and their relative size, the folks at Flowtown have revised their original infographic to reflect the social buying boom.

What can we tell from the above? Well first of all that space is nascent and so are its physics; First movers aren’t necessarily rewarded. Woot, which was founded in 2004, currently has over 1.4 million unique monthly visits versus dominant player Groupon’s (which was founded in 2008 and pivoted to the model) 29.1 million. Mercata, which isn’t even on the graph, was shut down in 2001.

Current second runner up LivingSocial is around half the size of Groupon, at 14.3 million unique monthly visits, with 301 US cities to Groupon’s 182. Yeah that’s about 5% of the US population visiting the site monthly; Enjoy your teeth whitening guys!

Though The American Automobile Association (AAA) is only expecting a relatively marginal 2.5 percent decrease in travel over the holiday weekend compared to last year, gas prices are currently averaging $3.57 across the U.S. — an 82-cent increase from the same time last year.

In a timely piece of news for all those weekend riders out there, the social ride-sharing startup Zimride announced today that it has passed the 100 million miles-traveled mark. Since the FbFund recipient launched three years ago, travelers in the Zimride network have logged over 100 million miles and have saved over $50 million in vehicle operating expenses.

Zimride, co-founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer, focuses on college, university and corporate communities, allowing its users to join networks based on these communities in order to facilitate and coordinate carpooling. The startup allows the first 50 users within a network to sign up for free, at which point the community of users then has the option of singing up for a subscription.

The company then works with transportation departments and student governments at universities and large companies, charging universities, for example, $9500 a year for the service. While that may sound like a tough sell, so far participating organizations and institutions have been enthusiastic.

To this point, Zimride is also announcing its 100th client network today, which means that Zimride networks now include each of the 10 schools in the University of California system, as well as others including Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Facebook, and Intuit.

As the startup aims to build a nationwide marketplace for drivers looking to make a few extra bucks on those empty car seats during commutes and road trips by selling them to other passengers, the announcements today show the company is making progress in that direction. With gas prices remaining high, there is plenty of interest in carpooling as an effective means of cutting transportation costs.

To date, Zimride has raised $1.5 million from FLOODGATE, K9 Ventures, Keith Rabois, and more. For more stats, check out Zimride’s infographic below:

Ex-Google UX guy Paul Adams is perhaps most known for his slideshow “The Real Life Social Network,” which highlighted the perils of having one default group for sharing and emphasized that the ideal social networking service would be designed for multiple groups. The slideshow illustrated the flaws in Facebook’s lump sum friend model and called for a social network where users could set sharing levels to correspond to the 4-6 separate relationship groups that people tend to have.

Sound familiar? Well, if this reminds you a little of Google+ Social Circles, its because Adams was a User Experience Researcher on Google social/Google+ until he left Google in December 2010. The first version of his famous “The Real Life Social Network” deck was published in April 2010, at least two months before the project started (with an even earlier version published two years ago).

While designer Andy Hertzfeld and team have been lauded for the (granted) amazing design, it’s less discussed that Hertzfeld inherited the Circles model from Adams, and simply designed the front-end user experience for it.

Poetically enough, Adams, who is now at Facebook, was asked by current Googler Chris Messina on Google+ what he thought about the service. He responded by elaborating on a tweet where he likened the experience of the Google+ launch to seeing an ex-girlfriend in public.

Adams wrote, “It was like when you first see her you have a moment where you have a niggle of regret and wonder for a split second, but that quickly passes when you remember why you broke up with her.”

Adams directed me to Facebook PR when asked for further comment on his opinion and involvement on Social Circles. I’m sure their response will be fascinating. While we wait, you can flip through the slideshow that started it all, below.

The IPO window is now wide open, with everyone from Zynga to Groupon rushing towards it. Nobody knows how long that window will stay open (rule of thumb is 18 months), so better go public while you can. But today’s IPO filing from Zynga came particularly fast. According to one source, the actual writing of the 150+ page S-1 document was one of the fastest documentation processes for an IPO of this size, only taking two to three weeks.

CEO Mark Pincus abruptly cancelled a planned appearance at the D9 conference at the beginning of June, adding to speculation that was when Zynga decided internally to go ahead with the IPO. The three-week period referenced above was the time between what is known as the first “org meeting” with bankers and the final document filed today.

Zynga’s financials are strong, so they could really get the IPO process anytime they want. But there is definitely a sense that the urgency level picked up all of a sudden.

One theory—and it is only a theory at this point—is that Facebook may be moving up its own internal IPO schedule. It just added Reed Hastings to its board, and there is speculation that it may have already kicked off its internal process to get ready for an IPO. This would still be very early stages, but it would include getting its financial reporting in order if it hasn’t done so already and starting the board process to get it to sign off on looking for investment bankers.

If Zynga caught whiff that Facebook was starting to take actual steps towards an IPO, it might want to get out ahead for several reasons. One is that it has a good chance at becoming the most sought-after new Internet stock. (It’s financials are much cleaner than Groupon’s). But that position will be short-lived and will last only until Facebook itself IPOs. In the interim, Zynga’s stock will suck up a lot of the demand for publicly-traded Internet growth stories.

Another reason is that if the Facebook IPO is as well-received as everyone thinks it will be, Zynga could benefit from an expansion of its PE multiple (and stock price) just as a halo effect. All Internet stocks could do well when Facebook goes public, but you have to be public in order to benefit from that.

Or maybe Facebook has nothing to do with it, and CEO Mark Pincus just wanted to get the filing out before the 4th of July holiday. What do you think?

Photo credit: Flickr/Garry

WikiLeaks and its credit card processing partner Datacell have just announced their intent to file suit in the EU against credit card companies Visa and Mastercard for blocking donations to the service last year.

In early December the two payments companies cut off all payments to the relatively quiet as of late organization, with Mastercard citing that its “rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal.” The legality of WikiLeaks itself is still a matter of debate.

However, Visa and Mastercard were not alone in withdrawing their support, as both PayPal and Amazon also pulled their services from WikiLeaks, which facilitates anonymous leaks of sensitive information including hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. WikiLeaks does not mention Amazon or PayPal in the suit.

WikiLeaks is holding that the PayPal and Visa blocks count as “anti-competitive” and violate Article 101 (1) and 102 of the EU competition laws, seeking to file a complaint in the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court. As of yet, according to the release, that complaint has not been filed.