Category: Tech news

Apple has today released its environmental report for its new Mac Pro machine, which details some fairly large savings on power and raw materials. The new device also earns a gold rating from the EPEAT, but that isn’t too surprising as Apple has ‘helped’ the organization rethink how it evaluates products.

Despite that retooling, however, the new Mac Pro still puts up some impressive gains in efficiency. For one, it uses 68% less power than the previous generation Mac Pro when at idle. We looked up last year’s model and the idle consumption rates were up around 133.7w on 100v, with the new unit coming in at just 43w.

It also uses less materials over all, which isn’t too surprising given that it’s a ton smaller. The new Mac Pro uses 74% less aluminum than the previous version and the packaging consumes 82% less volume and weighs 84% less than the older version. Apple says that this lets 3x more units fit in one airline shipping container.

Our own Darrell Etherington reviewed Apple’s new machine late last month and found it an impressive and powerful beast.

The full report is here (PDF).

Gillmor Gang – Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Live recording session has concluded.find our realtime live chat here http://friendfeed.com/realtime-network/47b84c58/gillmor-gang-recording-live-today-1pm-pt. “Like” us on Facebook at Facebook.com/GillmorGang

We basically all knew this, but science just confirmed that novice drivers are easily distracted by cellphones on the road which leads, almost inevitably, to accidents. The study, conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, watched drivers as they texted, tweeted, and got into accidents. They found that as young drivers spent a few more months behind the wheel their initial skittishness turns into confidence, multi-tasking, and crashes.

According to the study, “drivers from 15 years to 20 years of age represent 6.4 percent of all motorists on the road, but account for 11.4 percent of fatalities and 14 percent of police-reported crashes resulting in injuries.”

“The true risk is probably higher than indicated,” said Feng Guo, co-author of the study.

Essentially what happens is that novice drivers begin with an excess of caution and then become distracted. By watching multiple drivers with hidden video cameras they’ve seen novices slowly become as distracted as their experienced counterparts. The co-authors, Charlie Klauer and Guo, compared a 100-car study of drivers between 18 and 72 with an 18-month study of 42 teens with little road experience. The setup included four video cameras and driving performance sensors. Data coders noted when the drivers were distracted by phone calls and texts and noted when the participants were in “crash/near-crash events.”

“In previous studies we found that crash or near-crash rates among the novice drivers were nearly four times higher than for experienced drivers,” said Klauer. “Therefore, it should not be surprising that secondary task engagement contributes to this heightened risk among novice drivers.”

Why does this matter to us technonerds? If someone could perfect the non-distracting notification/lock system, the world, I suspect, would beat a path to their door. As it stands, however, keep your eyes on the road and off your phone.

It’s not uncommon to search the Google Play app store and find a number of knock-off or “fake” apps aiming to trick unsuspecting searchers into downloading them over the real thing – especially when the app in question isn’t yet available on Android. But one developer really went out of his or her way over New Year’s to fill the Android app marketplace with a number of rip-offs of big-name startups and other tech companies, including IFTTT, Slideshare, Snapguide, Wolfram Alpha, Fiverr, Upworthy, MySpace, and more.

Many of the apps chosen are still iOS-only, making the matter worse.

Listed under the developer’s very generic name, “Premium App,” the knock-offs sometimes have a “U” following the app’s title, indicating that they’re really just a user’s guide to the service, not the real app. Many, like IFTTT, (which Premium App has ripped off twice – once as “IFTT” instead of “IFTTT” to capitalize on misspellings), are available as paid downloads ranging from $1.36 USD to $2.75 USD.

The apps were released just at the end of December, as the developer was probably hoping to capitalize on a reduced staff handling Google Play app store spam complaints over the holidays. Calling attention to the problem – as we’re doing now – will likely see the apps quickly pulled as Google reacts to the situation. (We reached out to the developer via email, but have not heard back.)

However, the fact that these apps were ever allowed in the first place – for nearly a week in some cases (at least, so far) – highlights a still ongoing problem with the Google Play review process…or rather, the lack of one. This issue has been happening for some time, too, and it’s concerning given that malware is often served up by the faked versions of popular apps. Now, whenever I’m searching for an Android app, I notice I’m always giving it a second look to make sure that I’m not being fooled. Mainstream, less savvy users are probably not as careful, which means they’re the ones getting burned.

As one confused user writes under the fake IFTT app, “Did this app really just come out today? Dec 30,2013?? The day I downloaded it? Seems unlikely. It said 2011 a minute ago. Is this app just a browser?“

But as Google explains in its Developer Distribution agreement, the company “does not undertake an obligation to monitor the Products or their content.” (Products, meaning apps.) Instead, Google may remove apps from the store when problems are brought to its attention. That means legitimate developers, in addition to their very many other tasks, have to keep an eye on Google Play to make sure no one is trying to rip them off, and then submit complaints when someone does. At times, Google will also run a massive cleanup of its app store, dealing with the situation in one fell swoop, as opposed to carefully reviewing apps one-by-one.

It’s not like Google doesn’t have staff paying attention to its app store in a more proactive manner. After all, the company was fairly quick to eject the CyanogenMod installer app, which allows users to completely modify standard Android, plus add new features. But unlike modding, fake apps aren’t an immediate threat to Google’s monetization and control over Android like CyanogenMod is, they’re only a threat to the end user’s experience, security, privacy, and…hey, wait…isn’t that enough to warrant more attention, Google?

[Thanks, tipster]

BlackBerry continues to tighten its purse strings, and even top executives and global recording stars aren’t safe – and if you’re both, you’re screwed. Alicia Keys will depart her role as “global creative director” for the smartphone, software and services provider as of January 30th, CTV News reports.

New CEO (who has dropped the “interim” from his title) John Chen has been cleaning house at BlackBerry since taking the reins, likely getting rid of executives who were too aligned with the vision of Thorsten Heins and his predecessors. Keys was a noteworthy Heins hire, and as such was probably too close to the throne to escape with her job intact.

It might also just be that Chen and the company’s new management realize that a thinly veiled PR arrangement with a celebrity whose fame arguably peaked a while ago isn’t the best use of company resources. Keys has obviously been little more than a highly paid spokesperson for the company, despite the seemingly meaty title, and coming off a quarter where it posted a $4.4 billion loss, even perceived waste isn’t something they want kicking around.

BlackBerry’s share price is up 2.91 percent in trading today, as of the time of this writing. She’s just a girl and she’s on fire.

January 2nd is unofficially Email Overload Day, a productivity black hole born from the temptress crutch of overzealous vacation responders. You will get through this. You are strong.

To help you cope, we’ll arm you with an arsenal of helpful email tips, so that you can achieve inbox zero by the end of the day without having bought a raged-induced one-way ticket to the Amazon.

Keep It Brief, Go Mobile

Mathematical fact: the less you write, the more emails you can send. Emailing as much as possible from your smartphone forces you to keep messages super-short, and the “sent from my phone” signature exploits a delightful etiquette loophole that permits messages under 3 sentences.

Some messages, will, out of evil necessity, be long enough to need their own table of contents. But, you can bet your intern’s kidney on the fact that few people will have time to read and respond to anything longer than a few sentences on Email Overload Day.

Do us all a favor, keep it short. Even if you don’t like sending emails from a phone, replacing your desktop email signature with “sent from my phone” is a little white lie that will benefit all of humanity today.

Triage

You don’t need to answer every message today, but you also don’t want important email messages to get buried in the deluge of rapid responses.

My weapon of choice for email prioritization is Mailbox, “the best email management app you’ll ever use.” With Mailbox, users can set reminders when they want an unanswered messages to re-appear in their inbox. Scheduling and archiving messages is done with a simple, yet blazing fast interface of left or right swipes of the thumb. And, because most data is downloaded onto the phone first, you don’t have to keep waiting for the server to “load” different actions.

On desktop and Android, I also like Boomerang, another prioritization app that allows users to set reminders on unanswered messages.

Or, the for app-less, most email providers let users label emails. A tag like “waiting” is a good way to keep track of archived, unanswered messages or those that can be held off for the weekend.

Schedule Emailing Times, Maximizing Cognitive Productivity

I think I’m mildly addicted to my inbox; I often check it without even thinking. Instead of wasting your day with hair-trigger rapid responses, schedule time to email. Don’t even look at your inbox outside of these times.

Personally, I’m most lucid in the mornings, so I save my one hour email block for early afternoon. I also sporadically give myself 15 minute “email breaks” as a sort of mental rest between my actual work. I save mindless emails for nighttime, when I blunt the suffering of tedious messages while re-watching House Of Cards on Netflix.

Content No-No’s

Now that you’ve got your thumbs warmed up, TED’s Chris Anderson has a few simple, effective rules for helping your lucky recipient respond efficiently

1. No need for mindless messages: “Great” ‘Cool” “Thx for ur note” aren’t usually necessary. Sometimes the best gift is silence.

2. Quash Open-Minded Messages: Collectively, let us ban the word “thoughts?” from email. Instead, ask a few, short pointed questions. If your recipient has other ideas, they’ll share. Open-ended questions are too mentally unwieldy

3. Separate Subjects, Separate Thread: Repeat, do not invite people to your birthday party on an email thread about a business contract. Each email should all be one general theme.

4. Slash CC’s: For reasons that scientists may never know, newly cc’d recipients often feel the need to unload every idea they’ve had in the shower in the text of their first message. If you CC someone, please make sure it’s necessary. If you’re new to a CC, sometimes silence is the best path to enlightenment.

5. Not All Messages Need A Body: I often send messages with just an email header. “Here at the bar”, “I’m headed to NYC, drinks monday @ 8?” all fit without a body.

6. No Header Teasers: Longer subject headers with context help your recipient prioritize your message. Your message isn’t Star Wars 7, it doesn’t need a teaser headline.

7. When In Doubt, Don’t Ask For A Call: You know what’s great about email? I never have to talk about the weather for the first 10 sentences of an email. Phone calls are laborious. When in doubt, handle it all over email. I often encourage recipients to tell me what they need over email, or at least give them the option: “happy to continue convo by email.”

Overflow-Proof Your Mailbox

If you’re a Gmail user, Priority Inbox is a gift from the digital gods. The optional Priority Inbox feature algorithmically tags messages that are important, and filters chain messages and spam into a separate folder. It takes about a week to learn your habits, but, now, for the most part, I only deal with important messages that are directed to me.

For non-Gmail users, set up a separate email account for websites. I have an entirely separate account for any website or group that could possibly sell my email to a marketer or give it out to a stranger. Rarely will I ever enter my personal email on a website. Whether I’m buying plane tickets, responding to an e-invite, giving money to a charity, joining a sports team, or signing up for a new app–they all go to the same email account.

Ok. You can do this, Champ. You will reclaim this week with your sanity intact. Stretch your thumbs, put on your brevity hat, and, crank up some heart-thumping euro-techno beats. You are an email machine.

[Illustration: Bryce Durbin]

There are a number of startups seeking to make our financial lives better, whether it be Simple helping users set budgets and goals or BillGuard to make them aware of fraudulent charges that show up on their credit cards. Then there’s Coin, which wants to create a sort of “one card to rule them all” solution to the problem of sifting through all our credit and debit cards.

The early response to Coin has been pretty overwhelming, with the company reaching its initial pre-order goal shortly after it went online. It’s kept pre-orders open since then, and you can still order a Coin for $50 plus $5 shipping on the company’s website.

We got an early look at one of the electronic card’s prototypes and spoke with founder Kanishk Parashar, who showed us how Coin works. The card has a screen to see which card you’re using, a button to switch between cards, a dynamic stripe to actually make purchases, and a Bluetooth low energy chip to sync with your mobile phone.

The whole company’s premise is to simplify and improve people’s lives, and they will begin shipping hopefully this summer.

Tune in Sunday for our live coverage of CES and then later, on Tuesday, Hardware Battlefield where you can see 15 great hardware startups compete head to head for a top prize of $50,000 and recognition as one of the top hardware startups of 2014. This project has been months in the making and there will be plenty of fun and surprises – as well as all of our regular CES coverage from our live team on the show floor.

But best of all, TechCrunch is pleased to announce that the amazing Martha Stewart – lifestyle queen and Maker guru –will serve as a hardware startups judge at Hardware Battlefield at CES. We are thrilled that the inimitable creator, designer, entrepreneur, and founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia will be sharing her expertise in product creation and brand building. We are delighted and honored to be teaming with Martha for this exciting event.

You can see the entire schedule right here and you’ll be able to watch the show and all our coverage live right here on TechCrunch. This is shaping up to be the most exciting CES ever and we want you to join us.

You can keep up to date on news coming out of the show by visiting our special Hardware Battlefield page and you can tweet at us using the #cescrunch hashtag. We’ll be doing some great giveaways, lots of live roaming, and the competition will be hot and heavy in our booth outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Are you in Las Vegas and don’t have tickets to CES? Come by anyway! We’ll have space for an audience to watch the competition and who knows – maybe you can join us next year with your amazing product!

Google’s VP9 video codec is getting a major boost today. While Mozilla, Google’s own Chrome browser and a few video players like FFmpeg started supporting VP9 over the course of the last year, what was mostly missing from Google’s ecosystem for this highly efficient video codec was hardware support. As Google announced today, however, virtually all major hardware vendors will soon support VP9 natively in their products and allow Google’s YouTube to stream HD content up to 4K directly to computers, TVs and mobile devices.

These new hardware partners include ARM, Broadcom, Intel, LG, Marvell, MediaTek, Nvidia, Panasonic, Philips, Qualcomm, RealTek, Samsung, Sigma, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba.

As Francisco Varela, Google’s global director for platform partnerships told me, we should see native support for VP9 in TVs and Blu-ray players in many of the 2015 models of these manufacturers, and computers and mobile devices will also start supporting it over the course of 2014. For most laptops and high-end mobile devices, hardware support is optional, as they can use a software decoder. For the best results, though – and the longest battery life – hardware support is necessary. Virtually all of these manufacturers already offer this support for H.264.

Google argues that encoding videos with VP9 results in about 50% bandwidth savings compared to its older VP8 codec or the H.264 standard.

As Varela told me, support for VP9 on YouTube means that videos will start faster (there’s less data to move, after all), though it will take a while before the site has converted all videos to VP9. While the new codec will make streaming at any resolution faster, HD – and especially 4K video – will see the biggest benefits. For 4K, Varela argues, more efficient codecs are “absolutely necessary.” While 3D obviously didn’t go the way the industry wanted, he believes 4K will be adopted very quickly, especially as prices for both 4K screens and cameras drop to more reasonable levels over the next few years.

Signing up industry partners, he argued, was pretty easy, given that VP9 is unencumbered by complicated licensing issues. Google is also making the codec available for free, while hardware and software vendors who want to use the H.264 standard have to pay a licensing fee to MPEG LA (which then distributes it to the various patent holders).

LG, Panasonic and Sony will demonstrate YouTube in 4K at CES this year and YouTube says that it has been working with a number of video creators to get them to record in 4K as well.

Google has been struggling to get others to adopt its WebP image format, which is based on the same technology as the VP8 and 9 codecs. VP9, however, seems to have struck a chord with hardware manufacturers. Google is mostly interested in having them support it in order to deliver a better YouTube experience, but in the long run, other video sites will also profit from the company’s work in getting the format adopted by OEMs.

If you’re interested in the technical details surrounding VP9, here is Google’s I/O session from 2013 that covers the topic in more detail:

This morning, online advertising network Chikita released a short report detailing the changes it saw in the tablet space after Christmas compared to the period directly before. The report shows a small decline in Apple’s tablet dominance, strong momentum for Amazon, and perhaps surprisingly, second highest in-class growth for Microsoft’s Surface line of devices.

What Chikita found is that Microsoft’s Surface tablets picked up 0.5% usage share in the United States and Canadian tablet markets during the post-Christmas period. Assuming that more consumer-friendly tablets are gifted in the holiday period than business-facing devices, we can assume that Microsoft moved more Surface 2 devices than Surface Pro 2 devices at Christmas.

This data therefore affirms the other market indications that the Surface 2 tablet hybrid is selling well.

Why are we looking so closely for data of this sort? The simple answer is that the Surface project remains so nascent, and yet so important for Microsoft’s future as an OEM and platform (that thing called Windows) that we need to track its pulse as closely as possible.

Microsoft will provide us with a single Surface figure when it reports its calendar fourth quarter earnings: revenue. But that blunt statistic will only get us so far. That Microsoft picked up 0.5% usage share in the period to land at 2.3% indicates that as a percentage of its total share, this holiday was big for it, even if its total share gain pales compared to Apple’s dominance.

Amazon picked up 0.6% usage share in the period, on what Chikita calls the Kindle Fire’s “remarkable run to the top of the Android tablet marketplace.” Amazon ended the period with 9.4% usage share.

Usage share of course is not directly commensurate with market share.

With the help of Amazon, Android continues to outpace Windows handily, but there was a minor change of the guards that is worth nothing:

Microsoft’s Surface lineup also continued its impressive year end run. Surface users generated more tablet traffic than all Google Nexus tablet users following the holiday, making Microsoft the fourth-largest source of continental tablet Web traffic should it maintain the lion’s share of this latest share growth.

Of course, Nexus devices are only one part of the Android tablet ecosystem.

Looking at the above broadly, innovation by partners is helping keep Android growing, while Windows claws market share from tablet leaders. That Apple is shedding minor share in the face of the twin challenge is not surprising.

Vizury, a Bangalore-based ad retargeting startup, is in talks with investors to raise an additional $20 million by March this year, with existing backer Inventus leading the round, according to sources familiar with the company.

The Series C investment is being done reportedly at a $60 – $70 million valuation — perhaps low-sounding to a Silicon Valley ear, but a typical figure for an ad tech company of this size in India. As a point of comparison, rival Criteo is currently valued at $1.86 billion.

The financing will be used to expand aggressively in China and Japan, Vizury’s co-founder Chetan Kulkarni said in an interview.

Kulkarni would not share current revenue details for Vizury, but he said the company helps generate $300-$400 million in annual sales for its customers including Virgin Airlines and Chinese e-commerce company Yintai. Vizury is likely to raise one more round before it goes public, expected in about a year’s time.

Vizury has already raised $11 million in funding, including a $9 million Series B round in October 2012 from Nokia Growth Partners, Ojas Venture Partners and Inventus Capital Partners. The startup had raised Series A funding of $2 million from Ojas Venture Partners and Inventus in November 2010.

This upcoming Series C round will likely be the last but one round of funding for Vizury before it lists on an exchange in about an year’s time.

Vizury is among a bunch of fast growing Indian adtech companies such as InMobi and Komli Media that are beginning to take on global rivals including Google.

Companies such as Criteo and Vizury are seeing huge growth in business from e-commerce customers who want to woo back their online visitors. These startups target ads at people who visit e-commerce sites but move on before buying anything. Retargeting means that when they visit other sites, they will continue to see ads for products from those e-commerce sites. Vizury’s online ad platform now counts around 500 million monthly users.

While online advertising continues to grow, there is an increasing emphasis on more sophisticated technology to make sure that the investments being made in it are providing the best returns, by making sure to match ads better with people who will be most receptive to them.

InMobi showed signs of its ambitions to go beyond just being a mobile ad network when it acquired Overlay Media in January last year to improve ad personalization, after raising some $200 million from SoftBank. Komli Media has raised around $97 million in funding so far from investors including Norwest Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

“We’ll invest in building local products for markets like China, because that’s the only way it can become a billion dollar market,” Kulkarni told Techcrunch. China currently contributes around 20% of Vizury’s business, but Kulkarni aims to make the country contribute nearly half of its total revenue within next few years.

Vizury, which also counts Chinese online travel agency Ctrip among its top clients, currently generates annual revenues of about $20 million, according to one of the potential investors. The startup’s closest rival is French ad retargeting company Criteo, which raised $251 million after its IPO on NASDAQ last year.

Kulkarni of Vizury, who co-founded the startup along with Gourav Chindlur and Vikram Nayak in December 2008, said he will evaluate options to IPO in about 18 months.

“We could consider a listing in Hong Kong apart from the U.S., especially given Vizury’s growth ambitions in Asia,” he said.

Vizury, and other adtech startups are also betting on a growing base of mobile users in markets such as China, India and Japan. India’s online marketplace Snapdeal, which is backed by eBay, is seeing mobile users account for over 30% of its total traffic. Around 20% of the traffic that visits Flipkart, India’s biggest e-commerce site, comes from mobile devices.

“Despite this growth in mobile traffic, the key question is how much of this actually converts into sales. And that’s where we are seeing divergent trends–sales conversions on mobile are lower in India when compared with those in China for instance,” Kulkarni said.

Wearables is a word that can make one weary in the sphere of online tech journalism. It’s been a buzzword for at least a year now, and many are predicting 2014 could be its breakout year. Tech you wear isn’t new, but many more people are throwing their hats in the ring with new products, many of which will be on display at CES. The problem: None of those playing in this space have yet demonstrated that they’ve got something most people are willing to add to their existing wardrobe.

At CES, wearables will be featured prominently. Pebble, Kiwi Wearables, MYO, Lumo, Fitbit, Qualcomm, MetaWatch and more will all have booths at the show and likely product news, too. There’s an entire zone dedicated to wrist-borne gadgets, and we’ll no doubt see a slew of face-based devices in the vein of Google Glass, too.

But what I’m looking for from any of the companies during the Consumer Electronics Show is a device that gets the “Consumer” part of that equation exactly right, and delivers an experience people will be glad to go out of their way to actually wear – and not for a fortnight, but for a long, long time, until something better that fits the same need comes along.

Gadgets don’t interest general consumers by virtue of their potential or their value as objects unto themselves, they appeal because of their use value, and because they answer a specific question consumers have of “How I can I do x, y or z?” They gain mass adoption and traction when they can provide the best possible answer to that question, and when they can do those things consistently and reliably with a minimum of frustration and a maximum of joy.

Asking people to introduce new gadgets into their lives is a big ask – people are used to devices delivering at the very least a small amount of frustration and added complication to their existing load, thanks to tech support and troubleshooting that happens with even the best-designed devices. And even the low barrier of just having to plug one more thing into an outlet at night or during the day will turn off a huge number of potential buyers – unless the benefit you get by doing so is demonstrated amply and clearly.

I’m not convinced anyone so far has done that. Google is continually skirting the line between inciting privacy wonks to decry Glass and demonstrating its appeal to the skydiver set; Pebble is making a case to information addicts, but has been slow to extoll the virtues of its smartwatch as a more versatile platform. Activity trackers of all sorts have done a good job appealing to a particular niche of consumers, but I’m still left asking “now what” and it’s not a question answered by the emerging crop of second-generation devices.

The annual show in Las Vegas presents the perfect opportunity for these companies to actually show regular folks why they need, or should at least want, wearable tech. A few will be trying to do just that on our Hardware Battlefield stage, in fact. But the bar is high, and it’ll take more than just a slightly different take on what’s already out there to make wearables really take off in 2014.

Don’t use this smartphone breathalyzer to decide whether you’re okay to drive.

The fine folks at AdDuplex have provided Paul Thurrott with an early look at their final Windows Phone market data for 2013, giving us in the public a final look at the key statistics of Microsoft’s smartphone platform’s OEM and device makeup.

The figures are much as they have been all year, only more so. Nokia continues to control the lion’s share of Windows Phone hardware, ending the month up a few points at 92.1 percent (this is a calculation of usage share, tracked through AdDuplex’s network). And the Lumia 520 handset continues to dominate its brethren, with a new high of 39.3 percent share. And that Windows Phone 8 grew against the now-fading Windows 7.x system, with record relative market share of 78.3 percent.

Windows Phone’s 2013, if you had to put it into basic trends, would be that Nokia cleaned up, and its Lumia 520 was the weapon of choice.

Thurrott well describes the current low-ending of Windows Phone (bolding original):

Almost no high-end phones are popular. Worldwide, only the Lumia 920 makes the top 10 list for usage among all Windows Phone handsets, and if you look just at Windows Phone 8 handsets, only two high-end devices make the list: The Lumia 920 and the 925. In the US, there are three: The Lumia 920, 928, and 1020. All the rest are new low-end devices or old devices. The Lumia 1520 phablet doesn’t appear anywhere in this report.

What this means is that the sales momentum that Windows Phone has comes at the cost of per-unit revenue. Margin pressure increases at lower price points. The list of sacrifices that had to be made to produce the Lumia 520 is not small.

So, as we tally what could be the final month in which Nokia rules Windows Phone, it’s important to note that rising unit volume has come at a cost. The Lumia 1020 is a hit among a subset of the technology elite, but perhaps few else.

Can you build a mobile empire on predominantly low-end phones? Apple managed the opposite, so perhaps this, too, is possible.

Teckler is a site where users get a share of the revenue for the articles, photos, and other media that they post. And with the recent launch of the Teckler iPhone app, users will be able to post from their phone too.

When I discussed the platform with founder and CEO Claudio Gandelman (previously the Latin American president for Match.com), he pitched it as a way for people who don’t have a website or blog of their own to share interesting content, particularly in areas where they have expertise. The site (and the quality of the content) seems pretty broad, covering topics like medicine, love/romance, and technology.

Probably the most attention-grabbing thing about Teckler, however, is the fact that anyone can post and start getting a share of ad revenue — users are supposed to get 70 percent of the money from the ads that running alongside their content (they can cash out after an audit period and once there’s more than 50 cents in their account).

How much money can they make? Well, this is actually popular discussion topic on Teckler itself. The company says that since its launch in June, it has paid out $20,000 total — so, not a tiny amount of money, but it probably hasn’t changed anyone’s life either … The company also says that contributors aren’t the only ones reading the site — they only account for 2 percent of Teckler’s 9 million monthly uniques.

Gandelman also told me that even though the company itself is based in Brazil, its biggest audience is in the United States.

As for the new iOS app, he said it’s really optimized around two of the big things people like to do on their phones — browsing content and taking photos. So naturally, the app allows you to read Teckler content and post photos. The company plans to add the ability to write posts from your phone as well.

“I believe that in six months mobile will be bigger than the web for us,” Gandelman added.