Category: Tech news

Unfortunately for PlayStation Network and Qriocity services users, it looks like the widespread network outages will continue.

Since Sony’s PlayStation and music networks went down two days ago, there has been a fair amount of public speculation over the cause of the outage. (Largely due to Sony’s tight-lipped handling of public relations.) Many blamed vengeful gremlins loose in Sony’s server clusters and datacenters, while others immediately pointed the finger at Anonymous, the merry band of hackers that metastasized out of 4chan.

Thankfully, after 24+ hours of communication silence, Sony has updated its blog and ended the speculation. According to the electronics colossus, “an external intrusion” is responsible for the ongoing outages of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity. (It probably sounded like this at Sony headquarters. Or this.)

As to who these nefarious “intruders” are: It seems that Sony does not yet know who is responsible for the breach, or if it does, it is instead smartly spending its time sealing areas of vulnerability and trying to get the network back up and running. And though reports of PlayStation’s outage began heating up early Thursday morning, Sony reports that it in fact self-defensively shut down the Network sometime Wednesday evening.

According to the network’s blog, “An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.”

So, when I said Sony has ended all speculation, I was really only half-correct. Sony is still not naming the party responsible for the breach, so the speculation will likely continue. (Can you hear the blogosphere cheering?) Anonymous has prior beef with Sony and has attacked the company before, so it’s not surprising many blamed them for the service disruption. (You can read more about Anon’s prior grievances with Sony in yesterday’s post.)

However, AnonOps (Anonymous Operations), the group’s mouthpiece and network through which members frequently communicate, has adamantly stated via its news wing that it was not responsible for the outage. Though, it seems that this particular announcement was made prior to Sony delivering the news that the problem was in fact due to hacking. So, Anonymous pointing to Sony’s incompetence as the cause of the outages is off base. Sort of.

More likely, as Anonymous makes mention of in the announcement, the hack was perpetrated by some offshoot of the group, which is either more angry at Sony than the majority, or is more eager to get its precious “lulz”. (While I have to admit that I sometimes find myself sympathetic to some of Anonymous’ philosophical stances, it’s hard not to use words like “fundamentalist” when referring to “factions” within the group, and draw structural comparisons between black hatters and terrorists. There are obviously important distinctions here, and line-blurring, but there it is.) Or, on the other hand, we might soon be learning of an as-yet-unknown hacker entity that is making a run at Anonymous for public notoriety. Gulp.

The PlayStation Network currently has over 70 million users and is Sony’s online medium for its PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles. Both the Network, and Sony’s Qriocity music service were targeted. As stated previously, in its most recent blog post, Network spokespeople make no mention of how long the outage will continue, but it’s likely that it may take several more days to sort out. And this is after Sony posted yesterday saying that the outage may last for a “full day or two” — and after Amazon’s web and cloud services suffered from their own major outage.

At this point, the outage has lasted for over 48 hours and has become quite a disaster for Sony. (Or a “kerfuffle”, if you prefer a softer word.) Now, if this were in fact the result of denial-of-service attacks, it’s hard to place the blame entirely on Sony. Few networks can defend against large-scale DDoS attacks, which is, sadly, the point. That being said, the company has known since Wednesday night that there was an intrusion, so I find it odd that it would wait for two days to inform its users — and remove a post from its EU blog early Thursday saying that the outage is a result of “targeted behaviour by an outside party”.

All in all, the company’s public relations strategy is, at the least, very confusing. While it’s true that millions of gamers are being inconvenienced and are being forced offline, sure, it’s certainly not the end of the world. But, both for the sake of the company — and its users — a higher frequency of communication and level of transparency has to be achieved. In today’s world, a company can’t allow its official Twitter streams (@Playstation has nearly 800K followers) to go without an update for 24 hours. Especially when 70 million people are affected.

So, for everyone’s sake, I hope the Network can get up and running before this turns into the longest widespread network outage (due to hacking) in recent memory. If it isn’t already.

We will update this post over the weekend as we learn more. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Sony said in a message posted at around 8pm Saturday that the network remains down due to the fact that company is “re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure”. I imagine rebuilding its entire network is going to take some time, but in the long run, it’s probably best to do this all at once, even if it takes several more days. Best guess is that it will be back up by Monday.

Mozilla released its new Firefox 4 exactly a month ago today and within a day it had more than twice as many downloads as Internet Explorer 9 after its launch. Some where around midnight tonight the browser build will hit 100 million downloads after one month in existence, according to the Firefox download stats ticker.

What’s more impressive is that the browser has now taken over 7.94% of the worldwide browser market according to StatCounter, with Internet Explorer 8.0 at 29.99%, Firefox 3.6 at 24.43% and Chrome 10 at 15.35%.

When compared to the percentages two days after its launch it looks like Firefox 4 has taken a solid chunk out of Firefox 3.6 usage: On March 22 IE had 45% of the global market, followed by Firefox 3.6 with 30% and Chrome with 17%. Firefox 4 was at 1.95% then.

Like Erick I too had stopped using Firefox because it was so excruciatingly slow, and was pleasantly surprised at how much faster 4 was compared to 3.6 and even compared to Chrome when loading Flash-heavy sites.

But maybe being speedier isn’t enough to win the high stakes browser wars? On the Firefox 4 launch day, Chrome came out with its Chrome 11 beta, including support for an HTML5 speech input API (which essentially means that you’ll be able to talk to your computer).

Jeez.

Screencap: AlnAndr

Enterprise chat platform HipChat has entered the 101 Battle of the Billboards, putting up the above memetastic masterpiece on the 101 North after the Whipple exit this past Friday. For the uninitiated, the “Y U NO USE HIPCHAT?” billboard is a take off of the startup friendly Y U NO guy meme, which has already spawned at least one parody Twitter account run by YCombinator hopefuls.

Billboards on the 101 cost a whopping 30K, so companies haven’t always been so willing to use that expensive real estate to appeal to those of us used to trolling 4Chan. But the billboard creative in SF and SV has really upped the intellectual ante ever since younger startups started buying the roadside placards: “We made it because we were sick of billboards like this,” HipChat co-founder Peter Curley explains.

(Why is it always Microsoft?)

And the company’s appeal to the more internet savvy of drivers among us seems to be working, as search traffic for “HipChat” has gone up 300% since the billboard went up, according to Curley. Also, they got another TechCrunch post.

Unrelated: Here’s the HipChat “Arrington” emotion. Yes, this exists.

Image via: LaoFuSi/Reddit

We couldn’t wait any longer to announce another batch of special guests for this year’s Disrupt in NYC. We had around 80 speakers last year and we have even more this year.

We are pleased to announce that Tim Armstrong, Dennis Crowley, and Chris Dixon will all be with us on stage at Disrupt NYC. They will join the guests we announced yesterday—Charlie Rose, Ron Conway, Roelof Botha, and Arianna Huffington. As you can see, we are not messing around. We said Disrupt would be big this year and we meant it.

Tickets are still on sale and you can find the best deals here. As we said before, make sure you purchase them as soon as you can since prices will go up as we get closer to the event. We are giving away 1 free ticket each week, and our giveaway for this week started this morning at 10am PST. We will be picking the winner tomorrow, so if you want to enter make sure you do so soon!

Tim Armstrong
CEO and Chairman, AOL

Tim Armstrong was appointed CEO and Chairman of AOL in March 2009. Before becoming the CEO of AOL, Armstrong presided over Google’s North American and Latin American advertising sales and operations teams. His team provided customers with local partnerships as well as centralized sales and services. They worked with some of the world’s most widely recognized brands and advertising agencies in addition to some of the fastest growing medium-sized companies. Armstrong joined Google from Snowball.com, where he was vice president of sales and strategic partnerships. Prior to his role at Snowball.com, he served as director of integrated sales & marketing at Starwave’s and Disney’s ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures, working across the companies’ Internet, TV, radio, and print properties. He started his career by co-founding and running a newspaper based in Boston, MA, before joining IDG to launch their first consumer Internet magazine, I-Way.

Dennis Crowley
Co-founder, Foursquare

Dennis Crowley is a co-founder of Foursquare, a location-based social networking service. Previously, he co-founded Dodgeball, a network of the same nature which sold to Google in 2005. He has been named one of the “Top 35 Innovators Under 35” by MIT’s Technology Review magazine (2005) and has won the “Fast Money” bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud (2009). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MTV, Slashdot and NBC. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Chris Dixon
CEO and Co-founder, Hunch

Currently, CEO & Co-founder of Hunch. Previously, CEO & Co-founder of SiteAdvisor (acquired by McAfee). Personal investor in early-stage technology companies, including Skype, TrialPay, DocVerse, Invite Media, Gerson Lehrman Group, ScanScout, OMGPOP, BillShrink, Oddcast, Panjiva, Knewton, and a handful of other startups that are still in stealth mode.

As if my ego needed another boost.

Last month at SXSW, I had the opportunity to interview Senator Al Franken, who was speaking at the conference to discuss the importance of Net Neutrality. The interview went well (I doubt you can tell he was my first Senator), and as I walked out of the room Senator Franken slapped me on the back and said I had a bright future ahead of me.

Instead of responding with one of my famed witticisms I mumbled something about keeping my fingers crossed and went on my way, only to begin cursing myself a few moments later. One of the most level-headed members of the United States Senate had just complimented me — and I had failed to ask for it in writing. Bright future, indeed.

A week later I sent an email to Franken’s staff thanking them for helping to arrange the interview. I may have  mentioned that getting the compliment in writing would be nice, but I included a winky face to indicate that I was joking.

But it seems the members of Senator Franken’s staff could see past the winky face into my heart of hearts. Three weeks later, something special arrived at TechCrunch HQ. You’ll find it above. Can’t miss it.

So thank you, Senator Franken. I can only hope to become half the man Jason Robards was. In the mean time, you’re looking at my new resume above.

And here’s the interview for those of you who missed it.

Editor’s note: In this guest post, serial entrepreneur Nova Spivack gives Twitter some suggestions for how to make money. Spivack’s latest startup, Bottlenose, is looking at new ways to mine the Tweet stream.

I’ve been puzzling over Twitter’s recent tactical moves around their API, Ubermedia and Tweetdeck, for a few months now, and it just doesn’t add up. In fact I think Twitter’s current strategy may take them in a direction where they end up missing out on their biggest potential win.

If Twitter continues to go down the media company path, without incorporating their API into the plan, that could not only force a large part of their ecosystem to go elsewhere, but it could deprive them of a much larger potential infrastructure revenue opportunity, and could even end up costing them the company.

After all, Silicon Valley is littered with the  burned out wreckage of once-great media companies that failed create and keep third-party app ecosystems: AOL, Friendster, MySpace, Yahoo – to name a few. It’s very hard to maintain leadership as an online media company without an ecosystem of outside apps increasing reach, innovation, and stickiness.

In light of this, I’ve been exploring an alternate path for Twitter that leverages their API in a much bigger way, and this path appears to be a better strategy. According to my own experimental revenue  projections for Twitter, this alternative path is not only a good tactical move, but it’s a good business move because it increases Twitter’s reach, number of active users, and revenues massively.

This path fulfills the promise of Twitter as an infrastructure, without sacrificing the media company play. A media company + an infrastructure is a much stronger strategic position to be in than either on their own.

Another side-effect of this proposal is that it eliminates the need for Twitter to buy Tweetdeck, or Ubermedia. It makes the wholediscussion about the risk of Tweetdeck and Ubermedia to Twitter completely irrelevant, a non-issue, and will save Twitter $50 million in unnecessary acquisition costs.

It also eliminates the tension between Twitter and their ecosystem of third-party client apps. And it returns more revenues to everyone, especially Twitter. In the end, this could make Twitter a much bigger and more important company, and would certainly lock in their dominance of global realtime messaging and advertising.

To understand my proposal, first, what is Twitter really? Well, if history is any indication, it’s a messaging infrastructure for the Web. Let’s shelve the question of whether it’s the optimal messaging infrasture (it’s not, by a long-shot), but it works well enough for the moment.

Twitter’s APIs are a big piece of how Twitter grew so quickly: Twitter surged because of third-party developers pumping data in and out of Twitter via these APIs in all manner of apps and services, which massively extend the reach, innovation, and impact of Twitter.

Instead of abandoning their DNA and clamping down on API use and competing with their own ecosystem, my analysis shows that Twitter would do far better through a combined strategy.

In the combined strategy Twitter would continue to have a destination portal and their own official apps, but would also actively encourage – and monetize – an ecosystem of third-party apps on their APIs, including client apps that effectively competed with their destination. This competition would however not harm Twitter, it would make the ecosystem even bigger, and would deliver very significant incremental revenues to Twitter as well.

The key to the combined strategy is a new way for Twitter to monetize their API’s. Let’s call this the “freemium API” option. Here’s how it works conceptually:

Twitter would change their API terms to give third-party apps two choices: Either use the API for free but accept in-stream ads from Twitter, or pay a very nominal fee per tweet (around $0.1 per thousand tweets in or out of the API, a 10 cent CPM). Apps that opt to pay for the premium API could easily monetize with their own ads or subscriptions to more than compensate for the 10 cent CPM to Twitter, and would make money on the delta. Even if you think that’s too high, Twitter could cut that in half and still make money.

Here’s the model in a little more detail:

1. Third-party apps that don’t mind carrying Twitter’s ads could use the free API. They would be able to run their own ads outside the stream, but not inside the stream in their apps – only Twitter’s ads could appear inside the stream for the free API. These ads would come from Twitter and could even be personalized or targeted per user or topic.
2. Third-party apps that either don’t want ads at all, or don’t want Twitter’s ads, could use the premium API, pay the fee, monetize, and make money on the spread. They could monetize with their own ads or through subscription models or commerce or whatever they want. In this option, third-party apps would not be allowed to inject their own ads into the outgoing stream; instead they could display their own ads interleaved within the stream, in their user-interfaces, but these ads would not be pushed out to Twitter, they would only appear for their own users. This way Twitter would not be flooded with ads.

By launching this freemium API model, in addition to their existing portal business and their official client apps, Twitter would be able to monetize their entire ecosystem, including every third-party app. The beauty is: Twitter gets paid no matter where a user enters their network or views content; Twitter makes money from 100% of all tweets and views. It’s a vastly more scalable business model than just being a destination or media company and trying to own 100% of the user-experience.

As an experiment, I’ve run the numbers and they look good; See for yourself. Of course these numbers are based on anecdotal data, such as a rumor I heard from a credible source that Twitter’s actual revenues this year are closer to $75mm. It could add another $20 million off the bat with a freemium API strategy.

My projections simplify matters in several dimensions for the sake of convenience in sketching out the scenarios, and perhaps have growth rate and audience share assumptions that are debatable – but regardless, even if we were to tweak the model a bit, the conclusion is the same: Twitter would have a bigger audience and greater revenue growth if they included the Freemium API model and made it a priority.

Interestingly, Twitter currently licenses all of its bulk data through a third-party company, Gnip. Gnip prices their data at $0.0001/tweet or $0.1/1K tweets – exactly what I proposed in my model. Instead of that money going to Twitter, some or all of it is presently going to Gnip. This makes very little sense to me.

Why would Twitter give away their API – their platform – to an outside company, especially when at its root Twitter is an API? I think it would ultimately make more sense to take that in-house, and if I were Gnip I would be worried about that. Perhaps Gnip is an acquisition target by Twitter in the future? In fact, Gnip is a much bigger potential threat for a company like Twitter than Tweetdeck or Ubermedia are, in my opinion.

So far we’ve analyzed what happens if Twitter DOES take the strategy of offering a freemium API. But what happens if they DON’T? Either of two sub-optimal outcomes:

• If Twitter allows 3^rd party clients but does not monetize the API in any way – then eventually 3^rd party clients will take significant market share away from them. This is the problem they are facing with Tweetdeck and Ubermedia currently.
• If Twitter tries to stop (A) by blocking or clamping down on 3^rd party clients – it won’t work. First of all this will cause existing 3^rd party client apps to leave the Twitter network, taking large portions of high-value power-users with them. There are numerous stealth projects now underway to create alternative networks to Twitter, and sooner or later one of these will succeed. More importantly, if Twitter blocks use of their API they will cut themselves off from being a platform and infrastructure, making them vulnerable to attack by competing services (like Facebook or Google) that might be more developer friendly and that take more of a platform approach.

The conclusion of this is that it is clear, to me at least, that if Twitter turns its back on their platform and API DNA, they are missing out on what may be their most important tactical opportunity.

Being a platform and having thousands of 3^rd party apps will increase their reach, massively increase adoption and engagement, and create a much more powerful and sticky network-effect. In short, killing their own ecosystem to save their portal business would be cutting off their nose to save their face.

So what should Twitter do? Simple. They should not buy Tweetdeck or Ubermedia. There is no need to worry about Ubermedia or anyone else. They should not clamp down on their API or try to block third-party client apps.

Twitter could solve all these problems, and double the value of their business, in an instant by simply launching a freemium API, along the lines of what I’ve proposed here.

If Twitter simply embraced their API roots instead of turning against them, all their “frenemies” would become friends again, and Twitter could focus on building the best realtime ad network and messaging infrastructure in the world, instead of competing with their own channel partners.

If Twitter doesn’t do this, then mark my words, they will eventually lose their dominant role, as well as all the goodwill they currently have. And they will force the market to come up with competing solutions.

At the end of the day, without an ecosystem, Twitter’s network effect will fall apart pretty quickly. If Twitter loses their ecosystem by competing with it, they will end up in the graveyard of once-great Internet companies. I personally would not like to see that happen.

I would like to see Twitter function as an infrastructure, not merely a media company. It’s better for Twitter, it’s better for their ecosystem, and it’s better for the world. But if they fail to do that, I’ll happily embrace better solutions when they emerge.

Everyone’s favorite under-estimator of social media, Malcolm Gladwell, might get a chuckle out of Amazon’s EC2 problems this week. First, they took out Foursquare, Reddit and Quora service, as TechCrunch’s Mike Butcher reported yesterday. The disaster in the cloud also put a stop to those who would Tweet the revolution via Act.ly, a site that gets petitions going virally, online.

The site and service was still out of order as of publication. Act.ly founder Jim Gilliam said:

“We usually get several thousand activism tweets a day. That hasn’t happened for 36 hours, because of these issues with Amazon and another service provider we use, Heroku, also effected. I can’t access the data to tell you what our petition creation, retweets and general user interactions looked like last year on Earth Day, because I don’t have access right now. But the timing on something like this is a bit of a shame, really.”

According to Gilliam, petition creation and sharing tends to spike sharply around particular events, from the earthquake in Japan, to a calendar holiday like Earth Day. Act.ly petitions in the past have ranged from environmental to entertaining. They have encouraged “web citizens” to demand that phone manufacturers source materials used in their devices sustainably, or to get the EPA to regulate ostensibly harmful pesticides and food additives more carefully.

Staff members at The Young Turks, the popular political news series and site, regularly send out Act.ly petitions, and got in touch with Gilliam to vent and gripe about the Earth Day blackout.

Gilliam is also the founder of NationBuilder.com, a site that he says is not effected by the problems in the cloud.

Anyone can use Act.ly to whip up awareness and inspire problem solving around a cause, online — at least when it’s up and running.

Let me start of by reiterating how much I hate Donald Trump.

Hate is, of course, a strong word. But then again so are “liar”, “crypto-racist” and “criminally-irresponsible publicity whore”. And there can be fewer more hateful blots on the current landscape of American politics than that of Trump – looking for all the world like a pugnacious Oompa-Loompa with a comb-over – dog whistling to the racist “birther” movement in order to promote his crappy reality TV show.

And yet, for all that I despise Donald Trump and everything he represents – including his range of ties, and his Vegas hotel – there is one aspect of his recent behavior for which I need to give him unqualified credit.

For all of Donald Trump’s faults, at least he isn’t an anonymous Internet commenter.

In fact, Trump has consistently stood out in a shining contrast against those pathetic cowards who troll blogs, spewing their misspelled, abusive bile from behind a sandbag of anonymity. When Donald Trump comments on the Internet, Donald Trump comments on the Internet.

Just look at what happened when Salon’s Justin Elliot wrote a piece about how Trump could run for President and still hide his net worth. Four days later, Elliot received an email from Trump’s assistant. The subject line was unambiguous: “Message from Mr. Donald Trump.”

Attached was a scanned image of a print out of Elliot’s article, on to which Trump had hand-scrawled a reply.

JUSTIN – I HAVE NO PROBLEM – I WOULD, IN FACT, FILE EARLY – YOU WILL BE VERY SURPRISED – BEST WISHES, [Signed] Donald Trump.

Bravo, Donald Trump, BRAVO. Apart from the shouting, his approach to Internet commenting is faultless: he keeps a civil tongue, he spells and punctuates correctly, and – most importantly – he signs off with his real name.

What’s more, as Elliot points out, this isn’t an isolated incident. Last month, Trump sent a similar print out – this time by mail and enclosing an embossed business card, to Vanity Fair editor, Graydon Carter, after writer Juli Weiner wrote an unflattering blog post about Trump’s presidential run. You can see a scan of Trump’s response here. It’s pretty amazing.

I mean, sure; printing, scrawling, scanning and sending is not the most efficient way to post a comment on the Internet. But, compared to certain other billionaires, Trump is positively Scoblerian in his rapacious embrace of new technology. (One of my favourite passages in Nicole LaPorte’s DreamWorks biopic, The Men Who Would Be King, describes how Jeffrey Katzenberg had an intern carry out Internet searches on his behalf, videotaping the results so he could watch them later.)

And, as Elliot explains, Trump even uses a billionaire equivalent of Google Alerts…

Oh, and how did Trump see my article? Is he a Salon reader? I asked his assistant, Thuy Colayco.

“You’d be surprised,” said Colayco. “Anything that gets written about him is forwarded to him.”

Oh, the super-rich: they’re just like you and me.

Kinda.

It’s finally official: Twitter has just announced on its blog that it will be moving to Market Square in SF’s Central Market neighborhood, just on the edge of the Tenderloin (one of the city’s most blighted areas). Twitter says it expects to move into the new office in mid-2012.

The announcement has been a long time coming: Twitter was engaged in much-publicized negotiations with San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors over a proposed tax break incentive that would give a six year payroll tax deferral for net new jobs (the city approved the agreement earlier this month). San Francisco typically requires businesses to pay unusual taxes on payroll (including stock options), causing Twitter, Zynga, and other tech companies to threaten to leave the city and take thousands of jobs with them. The tale is perhaps best illustrated by the goofy video below.

From the Twitter blog post:

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Mayor Ed Lee; the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (in particular Supervisor Jane Kim and Supervisor David Chiu); Jennifer Matz and Amy Cohen from the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development; Charlie Malet from Shorenstein Properties; and, everyone who worked with them for their vision, effort and perseverance in spearheading legislation that will help revitalize an area of San Francisco where office space has sat vacant for decades.

We are proud that Twitter will be among the first companies moving into the Central Market area and will be playing a role in its renewal with the city and with other businesses, arts organizations, and the numerous community organizations that have been doing hard work in the neighborhood for many years.

Can a smartphone help you train better?

Maybe — if you’re the kind of person who gets obsessed over logging every workout, tracking your pace and counting how many miles per week you’ve averaged. And if you’re that kind of person, there’s a host of apps and gadgets that can feed your mania for recording progress.

I spent months with two apps — RunKeeper and MapMyRun — getting a taste of the quantified fitness lifestyle.

While they may not be making me a better runner, I am far more aware of how much (or little) I’m actually exercising, and that alone is a strong impetus to work out more and to do it better.

The apps show how a smartphone can turn into a collection point for an array of health and fitness data, including speed, distance, elevation, heart rate and other workout metrics such as calories and cadence (the measurement of steps or pedal strokes per minute). RunKeeper has also recently added the ability to track weight and even sleep patterns, with the right accessories.

Both MapMyRun and RunKeeper work similarly. When you start a workout, you launch the app and tell it what you’re about to do — run, walk, bike or swim. The app then measures how long you’re working out, records your path if it’s able to pick up a GPS signal, and records your heart rate if you’ve got a heart rate monitor. When you’re done, you press a button and your workout gets zapped up to the cloud, where you can view it and share it.

Both are available as free downloads for Android and iPhone, but to get the most out of these apps, you’ll need to spend some dough on a few extra gadgets. A heart-rate monitor is probably the most useful addition for exercise nuts, because it can tell you if you’re actually working out at the appropriate intensity.

For Android phones with Bluetooth support, chances are good you can use a Bluetooth heart-rate monitor. I used the Polar Wearlink+ ($60), which worked just fine. It paired with the phone, and the data was immediately available in both MapMyRun and RunKeeper.

If you’ve got an iPhone, you need a different solution, because the iPhone’s Bluetooth won’t work with the Polar Bluetooth adapter. Instead, I used Wahoo Fitness’s Fisica sensor key ($80), a small white tab that plugs into the iPhone connector port on the bottom of the phone. This adapter communicates wirelessly with any sensor that uses the Ant+ protocol, including Wahoo’s own heart-rate-monitor strap ($60). The combination is more expensive than a plain Bluetooth heart-rate strap: Yet another reason for your Android-loving friends to lord it over you.

Runkeeper can also integrate with weight data from the Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale, stride data from a Wahoo Stride Sensor ($80), and sleep and activity data from a Fitbit or Zeo device. I didn’t test these sensors, but it’s comforting to know that when I want to turn even more of my life into pure, clean numbers, it will be easy to do so.

Once the data’s in the cloud, you can view reports, of course, and also share it with your friends, either to boast about your accomplishments or to encourage one another to keep going — or maybe a little of both. And you can start to analyze trends: For instance, I log more miles on Saturdays than I do on Tuesdays. And I’m faster on my lunchtime runs than my early-morning, pre-breakfast runs.

Of the two services, Runkeeper has a cleaner, easier-to-read interface on both smartphones and its website. Runkeeper also offers voice prompts, which can tell you how far and how fast you’ve gone at various intervals.

Apart from the voice prompts, MapMyRun matches Runkeeper feature-for-feature, but I found it harder to navigate, and the website offers fewer options for slicing and dicing the data. It’s also got more advertisements in both the app and on the website (though you can pay to make the ads go away).

Both apps have free versions, but to make the most of both apps, you’ll need to pay something. Runkeeper offers “Runkeeper Elite” subscriptions for $5 per month or $20 per year. They offer real-time run tracking (so your friends can keep an eye on you as you run — including during races) and a wider variety of charts to analyze your performance trends.

MapMyRun offers various paid options ranging from $6 per month to $20 per month (or $30 to $100 per year), which give you access to additional advanced training charts and reports, and also eliminate ads from the interface.

After using both apps for months (in Runkeeper’s case, I’ve used it for years) am I a better runner? Probably, but it’s not because the data has given me superhuman self-coaching abilities. Rather it’s that the mere act of measuring my activity has made me pay more attention to it.

If I were a more serious runner or had a definite exercise goal like losing weight, these apps and gadgets would give me a valuable edge. As it is, they help me stay on track — and for now, that seems to be just what I need.

Photo by Jim Merithew

Most wristwatches come in two basic temperaments: the tried and true, hassle-free type; and the too-clever-for-their-own-good troublemakers that are tougher to read than Finnegan’s Wake.

In that sense, Skywatch’s Black & White chronograph has a split personality. The stark black face and white hands of the main dial are the picture of clarity. But not so with the chrono, which causes a lot of squinting.

The designers must have thought it would be cool to trump function and use black paint for the markings on the black inset dials. The result is a black hole of Swiss inscrutability. Even in bright sunlight, the chrono hands are difficult to read against the black dials. Although the photo-luminescent graphics on the hands help in dark settings — as when you’re 100 meters underwater or locked in the trunk of a speeding BMW — only the hands illuminate, not the dial numbers.

At least everything about the Swiss-made watch is outwardly attractive — the simple design, the shiny porcelain unidirectional bezel, the black sailcloth strap with a nubuck leather lining — and the 3-ounce weight is pleasing, especially since the 44-mm-diameter steel watch looks a lot heavier than it actually is.

If you’re a junkie for a superclean design, the Black & White Skywatch provides a good fix, and if you want a watch that displays the time clearly, this model’s primary display certainly provides that. But if you want a crisply marked chronograph, look to other Skywatch models. There are plenty to choose from: Most of them have clearly delineated dials, though a few are even harder to read than this one.

All the other Skywatch models we checked out are handsome and, like ours, feel solid on your wrist. They are also a very good value for battery-powered Swiss timekeepers.

And that’s the truth in black and white.

WIRED Well-contrasted display on a well-constructed Swiss-made watch. Feels sturdy on your wrist. Watch’s 3-ounce weight belies its bulk. Easy to operate.

TIRED Chronograph functions are nearly impossible to read because of black-on-black design. Sailcloth wrist strap fits like a stiff new pair of shoes until you break it in.

The Spot Ajax is the quietest bike I’ve ever been on. During one test ride, I found myself cutting through a deserted parking lot away from traffic. The only sound the bike made — and this was while pedaling — was the squeak of the tires against the asphalt. If the matte-black Ajax looks stealthy, it’s even more so once you ride it.

Though materials and build play a part in the Ajax’s silent operation, the main reasons are the 8-speed internal hub and belt drive at the heart of the bike’s derailleur-free drivetrain. Single-speed elitists are easy to dismiss. But their off-putting hipsterism is rooted in one undeniable truth: Taking derailleurs out of the picture makes things a whole lot simpler and more reliable.

Of course, taking gears out of the picture can make riding a lot less fun, if not downright miserable for those in hilly areas. Multigeared internal hubs like the Shimano Alfine 8 featured on the Ajax hit the best of both worlds.

All gearing is internal, meaning no derailleurs to break, bend, or fall out of tune. Internal hubs even let you shift gears without pedaling — a godsend for urban commuters who forget to downshift before stopping at red lights.

With the Ajax, Spot takes the simplicity and dependability further by replacing the chain with a belt, like the ones found on automotive engines. In fact, Gates, the maker of Spot’s belt-drive system, is primarily a parts supplier for the auto industry.

The durable belts, made from layers of polyurethane, rubber and carbon-fiber strands, don’t need lubrication, either. So there’s no risk of showing up for work with grease stains on your chinos.

The Ajax’s distinctive, swoopy looks and great handling are thanks to Spot product manager Sky Yeager, a veteran bike designer who previously worked for Swobo and Bianchi and created their best-known urban bikes.

Though the Ajax comes spec’d with backswept mustache bars, Yeager gave it a nimble geometry more in line with cyclocross bikes — all the better for darting in and out of traffic. The mustache bars are plenty stable and comfortable, but more aggressive urban riders will want to swap in a road-bike-style drop bar, which would probably be more in line with the frame’s aesthetics, anyway.

The molded aluminum frame is married to a carbon-fiber fork, which mutes a bit of road vibration and helps quiet the rattling typical of most aluminum frames. Stopping power comes from Shimano mechanical disk brakes, which are not as pleasantly plush and modulated as hydraulic discs but they are simpler and less expensive. For city riding, they were all the brake I needed, even on the 28-percent-grade decent that is part of my morning commute.

Tabs and bolt holes molded into the fork allow for direct mounting of the front brake caliper, rather than relying on extra bolts and hardware. Touches like this, plus the butted aluminum frame, keep weight for the entire bike down to a very respectable 26 pounds.

The Ajax comes with mounts for fenders and panniers, both things I would likely add, though they would mar the bike’s stripped-down look.

Not included with the Ajax, however, are reflectors. Not exactly, anyway. Instead of bolting slabs of cheap, unsightly plastic to the wheels, Spot has spec’d the Ajax with WTB tires that have reflective whitewalls. They pop in headlights as well as any standard reflector but disappear in the daylight.

But the most ingenious feature of the bike has to be the rear dropout. Belt drives require precise tension to work correctly. Change a flat on your rear wheel, and you might need to go to a shop familiar with belt drives to get everything working again.

To remedy this, Spot created a new dropout that attaches to the bike on a small pivot. There are two other bolts on the dropout, one for adjusting belt tension and another for locking everything into place. Tension is set at the factory, and the vertical dropout allows the user to remove the rear wheel without ever changing the tension setting.

It might seem like a small thing, but it helps keep the Ajax running smoothly without frequent visits to the bike shop. It’s those small things that make the Ajax such a pleasure to ride.

WIRED Distinctive, urban-inspired looks with anodized, matte-black finish. Almost as quiet in motion as it is standing still. No-lube drive train means no grease on your pants. Carbon belt should outlast a standard chain. Built-in reflectivity on the tires, so no dorky reflectors on the spokes.

TIRED Mustache bars are not for everyone. Relatively narrow platform on the pedals increases risk of foot shooting off the side; most riders, especially those with a wider stance, will want bigger ones. The parts and tech may justify the price, but this is still a lot to pay for a city bike.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired

FiveFinger shoes made by Vibram, the poster children of the barefoot-running movement, are as close as you can get to running in your bare feet without having to worry about hookworms and broken glass.

One of the company’s newest offerings, the Bikila LS, is designed specifically for the barefoot runner. Named after Abebe Bikila, who ran barefoot and took the gold medal in the marathon in the 1960 Olympics, the Bikila LS sports a few features added specifically for distance runners.

The outsole is beefed up with extra padding on high-impact areas like the heel and forefoot to soften the impact of running on concrete, and Vibram has added cushioning in the cuff and the shoe’s topline to reduce irritation and pressure on longer runs.

A drawstring closure secures the shoe, which is a distinct departure from the Velcro closures on every other FiveFinger shoe. It makes a big difference — the shoe’s cuff opens up wider for easier entry, and the lacing draws the middle of the shoe up around the midfoot. It makes the shoe fit even more snugly than previous FiveFinger shoes I’ve worn. It’s easily the most glovelike iteration of the Five Fingers family. They’re also the most comfortable — the soft interior lining and padding make them feel great for just walking around town, as long as you don’t mind the occasional pointing and staring.

Purists may balk at the phrase “more padding,” but believe me, it’s incremental. While the padding does a bit to absorb the shock from running in what amounts to your bare feet, the modular pod design of the outsole ensures a full range of motion in the sole, and you still feel every bit of each step. During test runs on pavement, I could feel the contours of the road as my toes splayed out and I felt every single rock that I stepped on.

There’s little margin for error. The occasional heel strike was a jarring event, and after about half a mile, I had settled into a proper forefoot strike. Running up hills actually felt much better than doing so in regular running shoes, as the neutral heel made it easier to stay up on my toes and charge uphill.

The padding takes some of the sting out of pounding pavement in your bare feet, but don’t go all out if you’re not used to running in barefoot-style shoes. It’s best to start with short distances and work your way up into longer distances. Be prepared for some sore calves and arches.

Usually, if you’re wearing toe shoes, subtlety isn’t high on your list of priorities, but the Bikila LS’s styling is about as subtle as toe shoes get. My pair’s black body with gray details drew much less attention than, say the blue camouflage styling of the last pair of Vibrams we tested. That said, you’re still going to draw some stares during your run. I mean, come on — they’re toe shoes.

WIRED Great fit, thanks to the new speed-lace design. Easier to get on and off. Interior is soft and comfortable.

TIRED Lack of sole cushioning can be painful. Silly-looking, and definitely not for the insecure.

Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired.com

My phone is about as integrated into my life as my left temporal lobe. I’m not going running without it.

That’s why the H2O Audio Amphibx Fit Armband ($60) is a boon for technophile exercise-junkies like me. Sure, it’s ugly, and its large size dwarfs my skinny arms. But with my phone tucked inside, I can go running in rain, sleet, hail or any other ridiculous elements without fear of water damage. I can even go swimming with my Precious — something even Sméagol would envy.

Coupled with a pair of H2O Audio’s Surge 2G headphones ($50), which are also waterproof, I can listen to music anywhere I choose to run, splash or ride.

The Amphibx armband is essentially a sealed, clear plastic pouch attached to a beefy fabric-fastener strap. On the back there’s a double-latching hatch with a gasket. Pop your phone inside, clip the latches down and the gasket seals all water out. It also seals air inside, so your phone gets to ride along with a bubble of air, which helps it float should it become detached.

You can still work your phone’s controls and use its touchscreen through the pouch, although it’s a bit more awkward than before.

To use headphones, you connect the armband’s internal plug to your device before sealing it inside, then close up the pouch. Afterward, you can plug your earbuds or headphones (regular or waterproof) into the armband’s external headphone port, making an electrical connection without compromising the waterproofing.

I tested the Amphibx armband and Surge 2G headphones in a variety of conditions, from jogging on a hot and sweaty California afternoon to running through chilly, blowing Seattle rain. I took it in the shower and on 1-mile pool lap swims. I used it with an iPhone 4 as well as a Motorola Defy. Neither phone ever saw a drop of water, except for the random few drops that fell on them as I was reopening the case after a workout.

The case is big enough to hold the well-endowed HTC Evo, although it’s a bit of a squeeze once you connect the internal headphone plug. You can also can fit a credit card or a $20 bill inside along with the phone.

The Surge 2G headphones performed just fine while running, with decent sound and a rugged design that made them relatively easy to deal with while exercising. However, I was not able to get the headphones to stay in while swimming. It might be that my ears are unusually-shaped, but they kept floating out in the water, even when I’d jammed them well inside my outer ear. Switching to different tips (several sizes are included) didn’t help much.

Still, for running and other sport activities in wet environments short of total immersion, the H2O Audio combination works well. Whether you just want to take music with you, can’t stand being out of touch or are using your phone to track your workouts, these two are a pricey but practical pair of accessories.

WIRED Waterproof to 12 feet: Good enough for surfing! Wide fabric-fastener strap keeps armband on even when severely buffeted. Easy to adjust.

TIRED Plastic sticks to touchscreens, making removal slow. Harder to work touchscreen controls through the plastic. Plastic adds glare in bright sunlight. Size will make your arms look even skinnier, you nerd.

Photos by Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Trail runners encounter more obstacles than the average pavement runner. We deal with bruising rocks and slick mud all too often, and hungry predators await us at every switchback. Thus, trail-running shoes tend to offer extra sole and toe protection, more aggressive tread, and an overall heavier weight. (You’re on your own with the predators.)

But this added protection goes directly in opposition to the burgeoning minimalist running-shoe trend, which advocates thinner soles and lighter shoes for a more barefoot-like running experience. Keen’s A86 TR trail shoe finds a happy middle ground between the two, by bringing a lighter weight and more-minimal profile to trail running.

The Keens have an airy mesh upper that helps the shoe stay light (a svelte 8.5 ounces for my size 10.5 dogs) and allows excess heat and moisture to escape during warm-weather runs. The mesh is so airy, in fact, that when you hold it up to the light, you can see through it.

I loved these runners the second I put them on. The shoe’s upper wrapped snugly around my feet, but was stretchy enough to feel supportive rather than restrictive. The footbed is just soft enough to be comfortable without sacrificing tactile sensation. The polyurethane midsole is also noticeably soft.

The cushioning feels great just walking around, riding the line between pillowy and supportive. Running on trail, the footbed allowed my foot to flex and bend naturally, and the cushioning left my foot feeling protected enough for me to pick up the pace. And when I really pushed it, the shoes were hugely responsive.

The most notable (and most commented-on) feature is the off-center lacing, which starts at the top of the foot at the tongue, but takes a slight turn out, then suddenly veers toward the big toe at about the halfway point of the shoe. Other than drawing attention to itself, the off-camber lacing actually serves a purpose — it follows the contour of the foot, creating a seam that follows the foot’s natural seam as it flexes. It helps the shoe to mimic exactly how the foot moves, improving the fit and eliminating blister-causing wrinkles in the material.

The 3-mm multidirectional lugs on the outsole don’t look overly aggressive, but they maintain traction on loose dirt and gravel, and they even held firm when I was whipping around some muddy downhill switchbacks.

You can’t have everything, though. The shoe’s light weight and soft feel come with a price: There’s no rock plate. If you step on an especially pointy rock, you’re going to feel it. And you’re going to swear.

Also, the coloring is a bit … aggressive. Believe it or not, the black, blue, and yellow pair I tested are the least eye-gouging color scheme Keen offers in this shoe model.

As a minimalist trail shoe, it rides the line perfectly between a traditional shoe and a barefoot runner. The low heel (with a 4-mm drop) and flexible sole allow for a wide range of motion, but the soft midsole provides the cushioning that a barefoot shoe doesn’t. And it just might be the most comfortable running shoe I’ve ever worn, trail or otherwise.

WIRED Extremely comfortable and lightweight, especially for a more-rugged trail shoe. Nice balance between barefoot style and more-supportive runner. Good traction on trails.

TIRED Color scheme isn’t for the faint of heart. Protection here is minimal.

Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired.com