Category: Tech news

In what appears to be mostly about the talent of its founding team, LivingSocial has moved to acquire Ruby on Rails consultancy outfit InfoEther.

The social ecommerce giant, which has raised $232 million in venture capital to date and has been getting nearly as acquisitive as its rival Groupon lately, says InfoEther’s agility and expertise will enhance its ability to innovate more effectively.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

InfoEther is a leading technology consultancy shop specialized in the open-source Ruby software development language and its related Web development framework, Ruby on Rails, which is the basis of the technology upon which LivingSocial is based.

Originally founded in 2001, InfoEther is believed to be the first US-based company that generated revenue from Ruby, which was created in Japan. Since 2007, it has specialized in the Rails framework, in more than 40 client engagements internationally.

Chad Fowler, InfoEther’s CTO, comments on the acquisition thusly:

“We are thrilled to bring the energy and agility from our consulting practice into the amazingly talented LivingSocial team and help change the face of local commerce.”

LivingSocial recently acquired a majority stake in Let’s Bonus, and in 2010 picked up adventure company Urban Escapes.

The company says it expects to reach 300 markets in 2011.

As we wrote in late November, Digg’s longtime VP of Engineering John Quinn joined flash sales giant Gilt Groupe. Today, Digg is announcing his replacement—Ben Folk-Williams.

Folk-Williams was previously VP of Engineering at search and listings company Vast.com, and prior to that, led engineering at analytics startup Coremetrics, which was acquired by IBM last June.

Digg has a little bit of a shakeup at its executive level, losing its CFO and Chief Revenue Officer last Fall. And the company unfortunately succumbed to layoffs as well. It’s good to see the company adding more execs and talent.

Facebook has hired Google Corporate Development exec Amin Zoufonoun, we’ve heard from multiple sources. Zoufonoun has been with Google since 2003 and is the second most senior corp dev exec after David Lawee.

Zoufonoun will report to Vaughan Smith, Facebook’s director of corp dev.

In the location space, there’s something that has long been the missing link: a unified places database. The problem, of course, is that all the major players, Foursquare, Facebook, Google, Gowalla, Loopt, etc, have their own databases. But today Foursquare is taking the first steps towards unification — well, if the others play along.

Foursquare is launching an initiative that they’re calling the “Venues Project” or “venue harmonization coordination”. Their aim is to create the “social places database,” as co-founder Dennis Crowley calls it. “Some folks have taken a stab at this, but we think we can do it the right way,” he says.

To kick things off, Foursquare is rolling out a new set of APIs and removing restrictions on their venue APIs that they previously had in place. “Like every other API, we had pretty strict rate-limiting. We’ve removed a lot of those,” Crowley notes.

And with the new APIs, Foursquare is announcing four initial partners: The New York Times, New York Magazine, Thrillist, and MenuPages. What the partnerships mean is that when a third-party makes an API call, they’ll get the IDs for all the aforementioned partners that are working with Foursquare on this. For example, a call can return a Foursquare venue and the MenuPages information for it.

You’ll notice that none of the initial partners are other location services themselves. “It’s something that we’re going to start reaching out for after this [initial push],” Crowley says.

But for those who do play along, won’t this still just be Foursquare owning this places database? “We don’t want to own the data,” Crowley matter-of-factly says. He notes that they have about 14 million location data points, and they’ve all been crowdsourced. The only thing Foursquare is interested in storing is the ID linkups so they can match places and data. “It’s like the Rosetta Stone,” Crowley says.

Of course, it’s hard to see the two biggest players, Facebook and Google, playing along. Both have their own places databases that are tied to other services each is working on. I’m sure we’ll hear in the coming days that both are “open” to the idea, but then we’ll see no action that actually shows that.

On the other hand, Foursquare competitors like Gowalla may be open to this. The last major update to their app started linking together Gowalla places with Foursquare places and Facebook places. They’ve been doing this work on their own behind the scenes.

Long story short, this is a step in the right direction towards a more unified places database, but time will tell how meaningful it is. Regardless, if Foursquare keeps adding more of these partnerships, it will make their APIs even more attractive to developers.

Crowley notes that when they first started Foursquare in 2009, no one had a good set of data to use so they had to go it alone. But now that they have all of this data and they have the APIs that a ton of developers are using, they’re think they need to take steps forward. “This is what people want. It’s coming from their feedback,” Crowley says.

As for how this year’s SXSW is going so far, “the numbers are amazing,” Crowley says. “We normally do about 2 million check-ins a day — now we’re at 2.6 million,” he notes. “Yesterday was our biggest sign up day ever,” he continues, noting that they’re also very stable and for once, their employees aren’t stressing out during the conference.

You can read more about the new initiative and APIs on Foursquare’s blog.

Group Text/Messaging is all the rage at SXSW 2011. One app in the genre that’s making its debut this week is Appconomy’s Grouped{in}. Just getting its app store approval on Friday, it surfaces with many of the features of similar apps like Beluga and GroupMe (group messaging, conference call, etc), however according to Appconomy President Brian Magierski, it has at least one unique differentiator that you can see near the end of the video below called Featured Groups. I ran into Brian at the conference and he gave me a quick demo of Grouped{in} which has been designed to help ”organize & simplify private group communication across multiple channels”.

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Google’s blogging service Blogger has been used for over half a billion blog posts (with over half a trillion words in total) to date, writes product manager Chang Kim on the Blogger Buzz blog.

Those blog posts have been read by 400 million readers across the globe, Kim adds. And according to the video below, 75 percent of traffic comes from outside the United States (the service is available in 50 languages).

Now the product is getting an overhaul, the biggest change being a more modern user interface for both the editor and the dashboard (fi-na-lly), built with Google Web Toolkit.

Google says it will be showcasing the new design of the Blogger back-end at SXSW (our coverage of the event), as well as a new content discovery feature that lets users find new content to read based on the topics of the blog they’re visiting.

The new UI is shown extensively in the video below as well, in case you’re not in Austin.

Of note: Google says it will unveil more fresh Blogger features this year – they posit that these are only the ones they’re “allowed to talk about” at this point.

Let’s call a spade a spade: Blogger has been around for a long time, but has unequivocally been losing mindshare to the likes of Tumblr, WordPress, Posterous and even services like Facebook and Twitter for content creation purposes in the past few years.

Its audience is still enormous, though, so it’s nice to see Google hasn’t forgotten its many users around the globe.

We’re looking forward to seeing how the service evolves in the course of this year.

And some pictures (from the Blogger Buzz blog post):

We heard earlier that AT&T was making calls to Japan free until between March 11 and March 31, in the wake of the devasting earthquake and tsunami in the region. Verizon is also joining in this effort and will be making calls to Japan free for most wireless and residential customers through April 10.

According to the release, all Verizon Wireless post-paid customers will receive free calling to Japan from March 11 through April 10 and will receive free text and multimedia messaging to Japan for the same time period. And Verizon Prepaid Phone Card charges for all long-distance calls placed to Japan from the United States will also be waived from March 11 until April 10. Verizon will also be providing FiOS TV customers who are not subscribed to the channel free access to TV Japan through March 17.

Like many of the carriers, Verizon also waived text message fees for text donations to non-profit organizations raising money for the earthquake and tsunami. Customers can easily make a $10 donation by simply sending a text message and may choose from 10 organizations aiding those in need in Japan.

Who do you trust most when it comes to recommendations: an algorithm or your friends? Or perhaps a mixture of machine learning and your social graph. That’s something that a lot of startups are trying to figure out right now.

LoveThis.com, which launches out of Beta today, is firmly in the social camp with its ‘black book’ of your friends’ recommendations, from websites and apps, places to eat and go, or something more practical like a good plumber. That may sound like a very general list of recommendations but the site’s premise is that your friends not only know best but also vouch for products and services all of the time, just not necessarily when you actually need those recommendations. LoveThis attempts to solve this problem of recall by encouraging users to store this info as structured and searchable data for later use.

RedLaser, the barcode scanning mobile app that eBay acquired from Occipital in June 2010, is nearing a significant milestone—nine million total downloads of its iPhone and Android apps. That’s up from 2 million downloads at the time of the acquisitions, which is nearly a 350% increase in downloads.

RedLaser’s barcode scanning technology allows users to comparison shop on the go. Anyone can scan a barcode on an item at a store and then automatically access any eBay listings and local availability (courtesy of Milo) of the product on the marketplace. Sellers can also use the scanning technology to scan and item and list the product in very little time. RedLaser’s technology was also integrated into eBay’s dedicated iPhone and Android apps.

eBay also added QR Code scanning to RedLaser last Fall, and the apps are currently seeing 4,000 Quick Response code scans per day.

eBay says that more than half of RedLaser scans are in the U.S., followed by the U.K. at 20 percent. And the top five U.S. regions using RedLaser are New York City, New Jersey, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area and Houston.

Additionally, RedLaser licenses its barcode scanning technology, and eBay is reporting that RedLaser licensees has doubled to 150 since June 2010 and includes Coupons.com, The Knot and Shopkick.

For eBay, mobile has been a huge strategy and the company is revealing that all of its family of apps (including eBay, RedLaser, Half.com and more) have seen more than 33 million combined app downloads.

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Mobile media company Neomobile has acquired Onebip, a company that provides mobile payment solutions to online game publishers, social networks and ecommerce companies.

The Italian group says the acquisition of Onebip will enhance its offering to international merchants, particularly coupled with its strong mobile carrier relationships throughout Europe and Latin America.

Financial details on the transaction were not disclosed but we’ve learned Onebip’s co-founders, Diego Mortillaro and Marko Maras, will remain on board.

Betting on sports is one of the most popular forms of gambling in the world. And for good reason. Unlike more traditional gambling, people often have feelings about the teams and stars they’re betting on. Both the money-making and the fan aspect are also what help drive fantasy sports. And StarStreet thinks they can tap into what people like about both with a different approach.

But don’t call it “betting”, founder Jeremy Levine is quick to note. These are “investments”, not “bets”.

One of last year’s TechStars graduates, we first noted StarStreet last June. What they’ve built is a stock market system for sports that uses real money. The first market was for the NFL, but it temporarily closes down when that season is over. So now they offer a NBA market. And beginning today they’re offering a MLB Market and a NCAA March Madness Market.

Oh, and StarStreet is getting some money of their own to help pay for the new features.

SV Angel and Jarr Capital have led a seed round of funding for the company, with angels Don McLagan, Andrew Blachman, Ben Littauer participating. It’s probably an easy investment — not bet — for these guys to make since StarStreet has a clear road to start making money. They take a 4 percent cut on the sale side of every trade (but there are no fees to buy, and no fees for depositing and withdrawing money from the system).

Others have tried this sports stock market idea before and it hasn’t worked. Notably, OneSeason lasted for, well, one season. But StarStreet believes their model will actually work because it’s a zero-sum market. With StarStreet, the total value of each sports’ market is constrained from the time of players’ “IPOs” until their “retirements” at the end of the season. (And IPO’s occur as a blind yankee auction, so everyone has a shot at getting a piece.)

In terms of legality, again, StarStreet is about investing and not gambling. “It is a game of skill (not chance) that does not depend on a single end outcome or result (like a bet does),” Levine says, noting that they’ve had plenty of lawyers vet the idea.

In fact, the non-gambling issue is why StarStreet’s NCAA market will only be for play money, and not real money. First of all, they can’t use the names of amateur athletes because unlike professional athletes, their names are not in the public domain. So that means you have to invest in teams, but because of the way the tournament works, some teams get eliminated before others and the money invested in them returns to the pool — that gets a little too close to gambling, Levine says.

Levine won’t say how much money they’re bringing in from the NBA market yet (the initial NFL market was done without their fee to test things out). He will say that engagement numbers are high though. “About 25 percent of the traders are active every single day, over 50 percent almost every single week since we launched real money,” Levine says.

Travel search engine Kayak is making an interesting move today. The site is now allowing users to make hotel bookings directly through the company’s website. Kayak is partnering with Travelocity to power the hotel booking feature.

So previously, if you wanted to book a hotel using Kayak’s search engine, you would click through to the hotel or partner site to book the reservation. Kayak would receive a affiliate fee from the transaction but the actual booking would be made outside of the search engine.

Now, you can make the reservation within the Kayak platform, similar to the experience of making a hotel booking through Expedia (although you’ll still be able to book via the hotel or other sites as well). Travelocity will process the transactions and provide customer service on a white label basis. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The feature was previously released in a limited beta and will be available on its website and iPhone application in the coming weeks.

Of course, Kayak will now compete with Expedia, Orbitz and others for travel booking. Also, it doesn’t appear that Kayak will be extending the same functionality for airline bookings for now.

It’s a strategic move on Kayak’s part, and represents the company’s move beyond just being a search engine to becoming a full-fledged bookings site. As the company prepares for a public offering, Kayak is looking to create more lasting revenue and bookings within the site could bring the company more direct sales. Kayak also recently struck a deal with Microsoft Bing, to integrate its travel search results into the search engine.

All the high-end phones coming out these days match up pretty closely on features. So how about something totally different — a phone that doubles as the guts for a full-sized laptop?

The Motorola Atrix is a 4G Android phone for AT&T that performs well enough on its own, but it’s also available with one crazy-unique accessory: a laptop-shaped dock. There’s no additional processing power in the laptop, but with the phone piggybacking on the laptop’s rear hinge, your tiny device instantly gains a much more human-sized interface: a big keyboard and a big screen.

It turns out this is better in concept than in execution, and the dock is a bit too expensive for most, but we give Motorola points for going against the grain.

First, the phone. The Atrix is one of the nicest Android phones I’ve used. As a piece of hardware, it’s marvelous. The back is thin plastic, which may turn some off, but I found the weight and feel to be just about perfect. The screen could be bigger, but at 4 inches, it’s certainly big enough. The image is bright and sharp. And it’s Gorilla Glass, so it has a pleasing feel. Perhaps most importantly, the Atrix passes the pocket test — it’s comfortable in my front pocket and my keys couldn’t scratch it up.

There are two cameras, of course, with a 5-megapixel sensor and an LED flash on the back. The quality of photos and HD videos is only OK, not spectacular but about as nice as others in this generation of smartphones.

The sleep/wake button is at the very top-center of the phone, and — this is very cool — it doubles as a fingerprint sensor. To my surprise, it actually works quite well. You can set it up to unlock the screen with a swipe of your left or right index finger, and most of the time, it recognized me on the first swipe. I passed it around to friends every change I got, and nobody else could unlock it.

Inside, there’s a 1 GHz dual core processor, which supplies some serious brawn. Scrolling through apps and web pages is very fast, and with very few exceptions, the response time for the pinch-to-zoom and double-tap-to-zoom interactions is the fastest I’ve seen on an Android phone. I installed mobile Firefox, and even though the pre-release browser is sluggish on other phones, it was snappy on the Atrix. Video playback is flawless. It’s only running Froyo (Android 2.2), so you’ll have to wait for that Gingerbread update.

Motorola has loaded its Motoblur skin on top of Android, and it adds some nice customizable conveniences like the ability to see recent messages and social updates inside little widgets on the phone’s desktop. You can also set up one-tap tweeting, automated photo publishing, quick access to media playlists and a stack of favorite contacts. Motoblur does bake the social experience into the phone on a deep level, so you can kill the widgets if the social web isn’t your bag.

Now, about that HSPA+ 4G radio: Your results will obviously vary depending on where you live and the availability of 4G in your neck of the woods, but even here in San Francisco where our AT&T network is notoriously sucktastic, I got data speeds noticeably faster than my iPhone 4. It also held calls better — no drops! — and calls connected in just a few seconds. I took it with me on a trip north into the wilds of Marin county, and even in places where the iPhone 4 and other AT&T 3G phones couldn’t get a signal, the Atrix showed two bars and had no problem completing calls or sending and receiving data.

The Atrix can also be used as a mobile hotspot, which works exactly as advertised, though AT&T tacks on an additional $20 monthly fee to your data plan. To access a piece of functionality that’s built into the phone, that’s super weak.

We did our standard battery run-down test — playing a video on a loop with the brightness cranked and all the radios on — and the Atrix lasted a little over six hours. It was the same when slaved to an HDTV via the phone’s HDMI port. Just making calls, browsing the web, using apps and talking to some Bluetooth speakers, it lasts well into the second day without needing a recharge.

So here you have a solid phone that’s well worth the price: $200 with a 2-year contract, $600 on its own.

There are a few docks available — a multimedia dock, the big laptop dock and an automotive dock (which we didn’t test).

The multimedia dock seems superfluous. It has an HDMI port and USB ports for a keyboard, but you get an HDMI cable with the phone, and you can just as easily use a Bluetooth keyboard, so really, the dock mostly just props your phone up while it charges. It does come with a remote you can use to browse your multimedia when you have the Atrix connected to an HDTV, but you can also use the phone’s touchscreen. The dock costs $130, or you can buy a version that comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse — both of which are quite nice — for $190.

The laptop dock is more exciting, but it’s $600 — or $500 if you take advantage of the Atrix’s launch promotion, which requires you to buy the phone and the dock together and sign up for the top-tier $45 monthly data plan.

Whether or not that’s a good deal depends on how you work, what sort of software you require, and what you like to carry when you travel.

Think Volvo and you think utilitarian automobiles that shuttle you from point A to point B safely, reliably and indefinitely.

For all their virtues — pathological obsession with safety comes to mind, as does anvil-like durability – Volvos aren’t exciting. They’re cars only soccer moms, Vermonters and tweed-jacketed professors can love.

It’s a stereotype, of course. One that overlooks the company’s hot rod “R” models, among other things. But it is sufficiently pervasive that the Swedes have had enough. They’re billing the all-new S60 as “the naughty Volvo,” a technological marvel equally adept at hauling kids and hauling ass.

And Volvo certainly isn’t just blowing hot air. The S60 T6 we drove has the most powerful engine Volvo’s ever produced, a 300-horsepower 3.0-liter turbocharged six with a boatload of torque. Stomp it and you’ll hit 60 mph in 5.8 seconds. Triple digits follow quickly. The engine is a joy; it revs smoothly, accelerates briskly and sounds sporty.

The six-speed slushbox is equally nice. You can’t get a proper manual, dammit, but running through the gears in “sport” mode is a close approximation. Power hits the ground through all four wheels; torque vectoring and a traction control system with body-lean-angle sensors help keep all but the most inept drivers out of trouble.

The standard “dynamic” suspension is taut enough to make a winding road entertaining but supple enough for commuting hell. You don’t forget that this is a 3,900 pound car when you’re pushing it hard, but the S60 is remarkably agile. There’s a softer “touring” setup if you don’t know a chicane from a Chiclet, and $750 buys the “FOUR-C” adjustable suspension. Steering response is adjustable — light, normal and heavy — but superfluous. “Normal” is ideal.

In keeping with the car’s sportiness, the S60’s styling is muscular, with a coupe-like silhouette. It’s a bit bigger in every dimension than its predecessor, but the short overhangs, 18-inch wheels and taut lines hide the added length and girth. This is a Volvo, so of course it’s packed with enough safety features to make even Ralph Nader smile — provided you spring for the $2,100 “technology package.” Most notable is the world’s first application of what Volvo calls “pedestrian detection with full auto brake.” Cameras and radar at both ends tell you when you’re about to run someone down. Ignore the warning and the car stops itself. Volvo says it will avoid collisions at up to 22 mph, but we couldn’t find anyone willing to help us prove that.

Other electronic nannies tell you when some jerk is riding your bumper — or when you’re the jerk riding someone’s bumper. The S60 also tells you when you’ve wandered out of your lane, and when someone’s wandered into your blind spot. But our favorite feature was “adaptive cruise control with queue assist.” Beyond adjusting your speed to account for changing traffic conditions — a common feature — Volvo’s system essentially drives the car for you in stop-and-go traffic. The car creeps forward when the guy ahead of you does, then stops. It’s brilliant.

There’s still more tech inside. The $2,700 multimedia package includes navi with real-time traffic info, a rear-view camera and a 650-watt surround sound audio that isn’t as loud as you’d expect. Spend another $1,600 and the kids can watch DVDs (or just buy them iPads for far less). The interior is tastefully and comfortably appointed with an upscale look and feel.

All in all, the S60 offers the solid engineering, sturdy construction and leading-edge safety synonymous with Volvo and a healthy dose of sportiness in a car as naughty as it is nice.

WIRED Reasonably swift and relatively sporty performance in a car that’s safer than putting your money in T-bills.

TIRED Somewhat sedate styling. Some of the tech — adjustable suspension, adjustable steering response – seems superfluous. Soft plastic dashboard is out of place in an otherwise upscale interior. World’s slowest rear defroster.

Top photo: Jim Merithew/Wired. Other photos courtesy Volvo.

Everything about Logitech’s new solar-powered keyboard screams “green” — except maybe its black and white case. Constructed of PVC-free plastic, packed in recyclable packaging with no included paper manual, and using only available light to power itself, it’s as friendly to the environment as a piece of computer hardware is likely to get.

Two solar panels at the top of the keyboard work to keep the internal battery charged, even in low indoor ambient light. When I took it out of the box, the battery was more than 50 percent charged after spending just 15 minutes in direct sunlight. After dark, the light from a 100-watt overhead bulb was able maintain the charge. The thing is anorexic when it comes to power consumption — Logitech says the keyboard will stay charged for three months in total darkness.

A free downloadable Solar App (Windows-only), which you can activate by the touch of a dedicated key, brings up an on-screen lux meter. It shows how much power is left before you’ll need more light, and it tells you what kind of power you’re drawing from the currently available light source. The same “check light” key also has a tiny indicator above it that glows red or green depending on whether a charge is needed.

Beyond those wins, the streamlined, one-third-of-an-inch-thick keyboard also happens to be extremely comfortable to type on. The keys are chiclet-style and concave, and you get a resilient key feedback that’s not mushy or too firm. If the minimalist, flat design is ergonomically uncomfortable for you, the two belly-side kickstand legs pop open to add a slope if desired.

Like other Logitech input devices, the Solar Keyboard comes with a tiny Unifying USB receiver, Logitech’s proprietary wireless controller. The little nub is tiny enough that you never need to remove it from your notebook, and it can connect up to five other Logitech Unifying-ready mice and keyboards without the hassle of multiple receivers.

The top row has the typical Function keys, but like the F1 to F12 keys on most other keyboards, these do double duty. When combined with an Fn key (like those found on notebooks) they can be programmed to launch your browser, e-mail client, web shortcuts, calculators and desktop widgets, or control media playback and system volume.

But for just the convenience — make that luxury — of not having to hassle with changing batteries in a wireless device, Logitech’s solar keyboard is a worthy consideration. Especially since typing on it is as smooth as buttah. All the other features are merely gravy.

Gravy of the vegetarian, organic, good-for-you-and-the-Earth variety, but gravy nonetheless.

WIRED All you need is some sunshine. No battery hassles or sudden lost connections. Sleek, nearly flat design doesn’t hog desktop real estate. Mini-USB transceiver can connect additional Logitech input devices.

TIRED While flat slab design looks cool, typing on it may be uncomfortable for some (kickstand legs help). Keeping with the “green” theme, there’s no paper manual and the setup info on the box is minimal. Software downloads are Windows-only.

Top photo: Jon Snyder/Wired. Bottom photo courtesy of Logitech.