Category: Tech news

Social CRM platform vendor Attensity has issued its analysis of the sentiment expressed throughout various social media platforms about the World Cup finalists. Based on data drawn from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, video and forum sites, the startup has concluded that while Spain owns the largest share of conversations across the Web, social media users speak slightly more positive of The Netherlands.

According to Attensity, 54 percent of the total conversation about the World Cup (by English speakers) is being directed toward Spain, yet, of that total amount, only 47 percent of the chatter has been positive in sentiment. While only garnering 46 percent of the total conversation, Holland, on the other hand, has seen greater positive sentiment (53 percent).

Earlier today, Facebook acquired NextStop, a social travel recommendation service. There’s been some speculation as to why this deal went down. Is Facebook getting into the travel space? Is this about their unlaunched location offering? From what we’re hearing, it’s much more simple than that. It really just boils down to Facebook getting a few very talented people at a relatively low price.

Facebook has been on a mission to scoop up as many smart management types as possible, we’ve heard from a few sources recently — some of whom have talked directly to Facebook. That may seem obvious — after all, who wouldn’t want the best talent? But Facebook is in the unique position now to have resources to simply acquire companies in order to get these people. And that’s exactly what they’re doing, we’re told.

NextStop is just one of a few companies that Facebook has been sniffing around recently in order to bulk up the projects under Facebook Director of Product Blake Ross, we’re told. It’s well known that Ross is leading the charge on Facebook’s Questions product, but their new emphasis on local — including the upcoming Places area of the service — is likely a focus for these deals as well. The NextStop acquisition makes sense in both of those arenas.

Two of NextStop co-founders, Carl Sjogreen and Adrian Graham, are former Googlers with impressive resumes. Sjogreen led the Google Calendar team at its launch (and was heavily involved in Google Maps), while Graham launched both Google Groups and Picasa.

There are at least a few other members of the small team going over to Facebook as well, including one other former Googler. The team also had one employee who was formerly a member of the user operations team at Facebook.

But Sjogreen and Graham seem to be the keys to this deal. At Facebook, both of them will be reporting directly to Ross, we’re hearing. It’s not entirely clear yet what exactly they’ll be working on (and Facebook won’t comment). But the aforementioned projects are good guesses, as is anything Facebook is working on around events.

Facebook Questions has been pretty well covered both because the company is currently testing it with certain members and because some have dubbed it the next “killer app” of the service. But Facebook Places may end up being just as interesting.

The service, which the company has yet to confirm but we’ve previously spotted, is believed to be a big part of Facebook’s entry into the location space. We’ve heard that Facebook has a deal in place with Localeze to fill out this Places area — similar to a deal Twitter signed with the company. This may explain why Facebook was okay with NextStop releasing their own built up database of places under Creative Commons license — they don’t need that data.

Speculation aside, it’s pretty clear that the NextStop acquisition is the latest in a series of acquisitions Facebook has made to bring in high caliber talent. This dates back to Facebook’s first acquisition, Parakey, in 2007. And it includes their most high-profile buy, FriendFeed, last year. In both of those instances, Facebook hasn’t done anything with the actual product they acquired, and instead has used the talent behind them to further their own products and core team.

Just look at the roster from those two deals. The Parakey deal brought in both Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt. Both worked at Netscape before they moved on to help found Mozilla, and create the Firefox web browser. Ross, as we’ve mentioned, is now the Director of Product at Facebook. Hewitt, meanwhile, created Facebook initial mobile web app (before there were native third-party applications on the iPhone) and went on to create the company’s excellent iPhone app (though he has since moved on to other projects).

With the FriendFeed deal, Facebook picked up a number of ex-Googlers, but none more important than FriendFeed co-founders Paul Buchheit and Bret Taylor. Buchheit is often credited as being the creator of Gmail (and the Googler that coined the phrase “don’t be evil”) as well as the builder of an early prototype of AdSense (you know, that thing that makes Google all its money now). It’s not entirely clear what he’s working on at Facebook at the moment, but whatever it is, you can be sure it’s vital. Taylor, meanwhile, was the original manager behind Google Maps. He’s now Facebook’s CTO.

So that’s the creators of Firefox, the creator of Gmail, the creator of Google Maps, the creator of Google Calendar, and the creator of Google Groups and Picasa that Facebook has picked up through acquisitions. Not bad.

From what we’ve heard, Facebook got NextStop “cheap” as the company had done a couple rounds from a private investor, but never a big round. There had been some talk that they weren’t able to pull in a larger round and that’s why they went with the sale, but other sources say that’s not the case, it was just a good fit and good timing [see: update below].

Either way, Facebook is stocking up. They’re on a mission.

Update: Another source is now confirming that NextStop was unable to secure VC funding. So it would definitely seem as if Facebook got the team for a good price.

[photo: flickr/popfatticus]

>

A loved one dies. You get things under control by notifying family and friends, working with a funeral home for the physical remains, and generally getting everything done that needs to get done. You may even get the obituary taken care of for the newspaper, if you still have a local newspaper. But one thing that our culture hasn’t really figured out yet is how to celebrate a past life online. At some point soon we’ll start having an awful lot of dead people around. I’m very sure Google and other search engines will start to filter for deceased people search. It won’t be long at at until we have way more dead people online than live people online.

Legacy.com has partnerships with newspapers to turn obituaries into online sites to commemorate the deceased, but they are more than a little cheesy in their cash extraction procedures. Other services like venture backed Respectance is less aggressive about getting money out of loved ones, but the site design is very dated and there’s still that leave-a-bad-taste-in-your-mouth feeling.

1000Memories launches today, a new service funded by Y Combinator that is trying to bring some dignity to the deceased online. There’s a big focus on design at 1000Memories. Here’s an example site, the great uncle of one of the founders.

Visitors are first presented with a big picture of the deceased, presumably that one image that best captured his soul and personality. From there it’s easy to navigate to your next step as a reader, and sign a guest book. You can also invite others to the page at that time.

But what makes each site really rich are the stories and pictures that loved ones add to the site. Some are silly. Others rip tears from your eyes. But it helps fill out the picture of a man, and it helps family and friends remember that man more richly. There’s also an area for projects – simple things like lighting candles for the deceased to setting up memorial funds for various causes.

Best of all the company isn’t going to charge for the sites – they just don’t think that’s the right way. They’ll develop their business model over time, perhaps creating print books of the content that is left for an individual and letting people buy these books.

They don’t need to make much per site, and it really doesn’t cost that much to keep these sites live in perpetuity. I wonder if, in a hundred and fifty or so years when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil, where I’ll end up being memorialized online. I hope it’s somewhere calm and serene like 1000Memories, and not somewhere that is just trying to gouge cash out of my family. I like this project, I hope it succeeds.

The national distraction is over. NBA star LeBron James has chosen the team he’s going to play for: the Miami Heat. Of course, this means that he won’t be returning to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers and owner Dan Gilbert is not too happy about that. And he made that very clear to everyone tonight in a scathing letter posted to the Cavs main page on NBA.com.

A letter, posted in Comic Sans.

Yes, Gilbert wrote the entire letter in probably the worst font ever to grace the computer screen. Normally a staple among six year old and grandmothers, Glibert for some reason decided to use the font to write what will undoubtedly be the most public message he will ever write. And it’s too bad, because the content of the message itself is quite good — very juicy. Gilbert’s use of quotes, capitalization, and bolded letters makes it very clear just how pissed off he is.

And that’s good because all of Cleveland (incidentally, my hometown) is pissed off tonight as well. Gilbert’s letter should give some comfort, if for nothing else that he guarantees – yes, guarantees — that the Cavs will win a championship before LeBron does. This is a city that hasn’t won any major sports championship in nearly 50 years (and that was when the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship in 1964 before there were even Super Bowls).

But again, all anyone can talk about is the damn Comic Sans faux pas. “Comic Sans” is currently a Trending Topic on Twitter thanks to the letter — just above “LeBron James”!

Thomson Reuters’ Anthony De Rosa may have summed in up best in a tweet: ”The last time I saw a letter written in Comic Sans it was a chain email containing LOLcats from my mother.”

Apparently, Gilbert doesn’t keep up too well with some of this here Internet stuff. I await a LeBron response in Wingdings.

Yahoo is outsourcing yet another product to an outside company. Tonight, Yahoo is announcing an exclusive partnership with real estate listings and search site Zillow. As part of the partnership, which will go into effect later this year, Zillow will power all for-sale listings on Yahoo Real Estate. The financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.

Zillow’s will integrate its 4 million for-sale listings on Yahoo’s real estate site, where users will still be able to search for home listings by the same parameters as on Zillow’s site, such as by geography, price and other criteria. For-sale listings placed on Zillow will automatically appear on Yahoo Real Estate.

But the partnership is more than just an outsourcing of listings. Zillow and Yahoo Real Estate will be coordinating sales efforts for the advertising network, so that advertisers who buy Showcase Ads or Featured Listings on either site will automatically have those placed on both Yahoo Real Estate and Zillow. Zillow’s Premier Agent program will be extended to Yahoo Real Estate, and current Zillow advertisers will be offered the first chance to purchase Premier Agent placement on Yahoo.

This deal feels like deja vu of two months ago, when Yahoo announced that it was outsourcing personals to Match.com. Yahoo also outsources job listings to Monster, after it sold HotJobs to the job listing service for $225 million.

Similar to the situation with Match.com a few months ago, Yahoo and Zillow have a history of working together. In 2006, Yahoo Real Estate integrated Zillow’s home valuation technology into its user experience.

But it seems that yahoo isn’t completely handing over the keys to its real estate search to ZIllow. Zillow, which launched as a mortgage marketplace in 2008, also powers rentals, which Yahoo doesn’t appear to be aggregating. For now, at least.

Still, it’s a good deal for Zillow, a startup that survived the real estate market implosion, and seems to be back on its feet. The site has seen record traffic over the past six months and has seen 1.75 million downloads of its mobile apps. In my opinion, it’s only a matter of time until Yahoo just outsources all real estate listings, including rentals, to Zillow.

The Apple TV might suddenly be part of the next big thing from Apple. We’ve heard that there’s a major retooling underway and Apple shifted some of their best people on the project. Updated hardware is likely, but new services will likely be at the forefront of the relaunch.

The latest rumor states that Apple is in contract talks to bring TV show rentals to the platform. They would probably work like the movie rentals by giving users 30-days to start playing the show after downloading and then 24-hours after starting playback until it expires. Except there’s one big difference: the shows are said to be streamed. Combine that with the rumor that iOS will power the next-gen Apple TV for a cocktail of dreams and possibilities.

Okay, the future is officially here. A few days ago, the team from Mountain View-based startup Anybots swung by TechCrunch headquarters to deliver a special new addition to our office: Anybots robot model QB, which stands around five feet tall and can zip around the office at 3.5 miles per hour on a pair of sturdy wheels. It looks like a cross between a Segway and E.T., with some optical sensors and cameras making up its ‘face’. Oh, and it’s currently being controlled by my boss, Michael Arrington, who has been using it to remotely roam the TechCrunch office to make sure we’re working hard while he’s up in Seattle. At least, that’s what he’s supposed to be doing — he’s spending most of the time gleefully running over our feet as he blinds us with a green laser beam. The future really is amazing.

In the video above, Mike takes control of QB via an internet browser to help me interview Anybots robotics engineer Daniel Casner.  And by help, I mean he shows us what happens when you drive the robot directly into a wall and repeatedly bump into Daniel in an attempt to get him to spill Anybots secrets (it didn’t work). Note that the little wire hanging down from the robot’s head is actually a microphone that’s transmitting to our camera.

The Anybots robot has been in development for years — the company was started back in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell (who is also a Y Combinator partner), and the growing team has since iterated through several models. The flagship model QB, which is slated for release this fall, will sell for $15,000 per unit. That may sound a little steep, but keep in mind that the robot can be used by multiple people, though only one can be logged in at a time. And no, we don’t get to keep this one — it’s on loan for a week.

Using the robot is actually remarkably easy: after creating account, you install a Firefox plugin and head over to the Anybots homepage, where you’ll see a list of the Anybots you’re authorized to control. Click on one, and you’re in the pilot’s seat — QB will stream a video feed of what it “sees” to your monitor, and it features a microphone and speaker so you can talk with people around the office.

Moving around is intuitive, too: the up arrow moves the robot forward, left and right arrows to the side, and so on. You can also click anywhere on the video stream to activate and point a built in laser pointer. It took Mike all of two minutes to figure out how to weave between our office desks.

Some other key stats: Anybots says that the robot lasts 6-8 hours on a single charge. When it dies or is powered off manually, a little kickstand will pop out of its rear to hold it upright. And the device only weighs 35 pounds, so it isn’t going to hurt anyone.

Those goofy ninja drawings, multicolored troll things, and birthday cakes adorning your Facebook wall are about to become collector’s items. Facebook has just announced that it is closing Facebook Gifts — a feature that launched back in early 2007 as the result of a Hackathon project and went on to seed the creation of Facebook Credits (it marked the first time Facebook users could actually pay for something). You’ll still be able to purchase gifts up through August 1st, and all the gifts you’ve received will remain on your profile and Facebook Wall after that point, but you won’t be able to buy new ones.

The explanation Facebook gives for the change is a little odd — Facebook employee Jared Morgenstern writes that it will help Facebook focus on improving other products:

Closing the Gift Shop may disappoint many of the people who have given millions of gifts, but we made the decision after careful thought about where we need to focus our product development efforts. We’ll be able to focus more on improving and enhancing products and features that people use every day, such as Photos, News Feed, Inbox, games, comments, the “Like” button and the Wall.

It makes sense for Facebook to trim away products that are adding clutter to the site, but these are pure profit and it’s hard to imagine they were draining too many resources. That said, Facebook has continued to evolve the feature since it launched, with the addition of celebrity gifts and the ability to gift Lala songs last year (the Lala feature was disabled after the music company was acquired by Apple).

This also can’t be good news for RealGifts and the various eCard vendors that Facebook offered as part of its Gifts selection.

If you still need your gift-giving fix, Facebook suggests third-party applications like Birthday Cards, Hallmark, Pieces of Flair, and someecards.

Product: Polarized Sunglasses

Manufacturer: Roundup:

Wired Rating: 0

When you’re fishing or biking or driving (really anytime you’re outdoors) you’d do well to strap on a set of sunglasses with polarized lenses. These optics are designed to filter glare from notoriously reflective surfaces like water, asphalt and sand. The best ones are capable multitaskers, winnowing harsh photons without distorting colors, all while looking effortlessly cool.

Ray-Ban 8041 Aviator Titanium

There’s a reason why pilots, cops and your dad have been wearing aviators for years. They look tough and provide Secret Service-level protection for your eyes. Ray-Ban’s model 8041 amps things up by adding polarized lenses and titanium frames to the equation. Bright, overhead retina-searing sunlight? Filtered handily without a hint of color distortion. In our water tests, the lenses drastically cut glare, even when the surface became choppy. And the titanium frames are a revelation for the accident-prone. We repeatedly sat on, dropped and haphazardly tossed the frames without seeing them get bent out of shape. Best of all the specs look good on everyone. An assortment of folks in the Wired office modeled the 8041s; some with enormous heads, others with mighty shocks of hair, and folks with slim, angular faces. Without exception, everyone looked awesome wearing aviators, despite not being jet-jockeys or police. (We did have a few dads.)

WIRED Frames are the ideal mix of ruggedness and style. Look good on everyone regardless of head size or face shape. Titanium frames sits snugly on your face and never get uncomfortable. Kills virtually all glare dead.

TIRED Lenses not as tough as frames — they scratched like a pissed off tabby. Tough to keep clean; oily residue built up faster than a beach along the gulf coast.

$215, ray-ban.com

Persol PO2979S

For style, you can’t beat a pair of tortoise-shell Persols. (Just ask this guy.) The lenses handily eliminate aquatic glare, but they really distinguished themselves behind the wheel: The Persols distilled the reflection from asphalt better than any other model we tested. The lenses are tough, too — a series of drops onto concrete and sand didn’t leave a single mark on the optics. The frames however are a bit hefty and often slid off our tester’s nose when his proboscis got sweaty. Still, when you look almost as cool as McQueen these are the most minor of quibbles.

WIRED Cooler than the surface of Neptune. Earned top marks in driving performance. Lenses resist damage like +2 armor.

TIRED Thick, heavy frames slide off face fairly easily (unless you have a Cyrano De Bergerac sized schnozzle). Collects dirt and grime faster than a hobo with poor hygiene.

$255, persol.com/usa

Oakley Polarized Frogskins

The Frogskins may look retro but they’re the lightest and most comfortable of all the shades we tested. We took them rafting (class 3 rapids, what?!) and they stayed secure despite some nasty drops, hard bumps, and one unplanned trip over the side of the vessel. They’re not bad at filtering out glare either with a subtle amber tint and very little color distortion. We really only have two slight gripes: 1) These frames are so lithe we often forgot we were wearing them in the first place. 2) The white Oakley logo that mars the side of each arm is hopelessly garish. Sorry guys, if we wanted to advertise that badly we’d go to work for Wieden+Kennedy.

WIRED Lenses and frames so light (1 ounce!), you swear they’re filled with helium. Metal-free joints lend an uncomplicated, casual feel. Quite possibly the best-looking design Oakley carries. Barely a hint of color distortion.

TIRED Enormous Oakley logo is seriously gauche, despite ’80s-era typeface. So little mass, some say they feel cheap.

$140, oakley.com

Zeal Optics Zyaa

Does looking like Bono from the Zooropa era sound like a smart look to go for? Then you might want to reach for a pair of the Zyaas. While the large, wrap-arounds actually did a fairly decent job of eliminating water-reflected glare; color filtration is not exactly stellar. Looking at the world through these glasses yielded a brownish-pink hue that is almost gut wrenching after long exposures. While extremely light (1.3 ounces) the Zyaas are also cheap in terms of construction and cost. But if you’re looking to get polarized at a low price, there are a lot worse choices than these specs.

WIRED Supremely light and quite comfy. Stays securely fastened to face no matter what crazy-ass (white-water rafting, mountain biking) conditions you put them in. Can you argue with that price? No. No you can’t.

TIRED A bit ridiculous looking on most people. Huge “Z” adorning each arm screams gelled hair and tribal tats. Color filtration is more warped than Lindsay Lohan’s legal defense.

$100, zealoptics.com

Product: Droid X

Manufacturer: Motorola

Wired Rating: 8

It’s only been eight months since the original Droid hit like a wrecking ball. Now, the mother of all (Lucas-licensed) droids is upon us with the July 15 arrival of the feature-packed Droid X.*

At 5 x 2.6 x .04 inches, the X is unapologetically large and more Sticky Fingers than svelte when pocketed. Otherwise, Motorola wisely kept the handset remarkably thin and relatively streamlined. Paired with its spacious 4.3-inch, 854 x 480 LCD touchscreen, it’s clear the Droid X was carefully crafted with a visually dense, touch-driven experience in mind.

In fact, it’s this attention to presentation that allows the X to truly shine. Navigating the phone is a surprisingly immersive experience, due to an uncannily fast 1-GHz Texas Instruments processor and 512 MB of RAM. In reality, the X’s hardware shaves just fractions of a second off the Droid/Eris/Nexus One response times, but it makes huge impact in the long run. When switching apps, you feel like the device is actively responding to commands rather than merely processing them.

Naturally, this sweetens the X’s cache of capabilities. Watching movies from the Blockbuster app, playing games from the Android Market, and even streaming music from Pandora is fast, effortless and best of all, free of lag. With a few clicks through the menu, we converted the phone into a 3G hot spot for up to 5 devices — which is the welcome feature du jour thanks to the HTC EVO and Palm Pre.

Motorola managed to cram three microphones into this beast: Two for noise-canceling purposes and one for regular squawking. This arrangement produced a surprising degree of call clarity while navigating San Francisco’s urban jungle of perpetual construction sites, gusts of wind and horn-happy motorists. An increased degree of warmth in the audio could’ve pushed the X into all-star status, but the pragmatism of good old-fashioned clarity was more than enough to get by.

Speaking of just getting by, the handset’s 8-megapixel camera is underwhelming for still pictures. What’s worse is the process of snapping pics woefully relies on a hard press of a physical button, which screwed with image clarity. However, the X’s pairing of solid video chops (720p video at 24 fps!) with high-def output (mini-HDMI!) makes for the quite the saving grace.

All this power, acumen and flair isn’t for everyone, though. At its core, the X is designed for a large, splashy, multimedia-heavy experience. Its size disqualifies it from any smartphone quick-draw contests (we permanently left it out-of-pocket for sanity’s sake), and its occasionally power-hungry features make it a bad idea to stray far from an electric outlet. That said, even this phone’s most plain vanilla features (e.g., phone calls) are simple, lightning quick, and well implemented. If you can handle the phone’s immense size, you’ll be treated to one of the finest Android devices available anywhere.

WIRED Incredibly capable and dapper take on the multimedia phone. Standard battery endures a full day of regular web/video/phone use. Dual camera LEDs make for an awesome flashlight. Sports more connections than Ari Gold: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, GPS and FM. Storage aplenty with 8 GB of on-board memory and included 16-GB card. Charges off mini-USB. DLNA ready for sharing pics, audio and video between compatible devices.

TIRED Call quality aside, it still feels like a TrapperKeeper against your face. No status light while charging. Movie downloads from Blockbuster are slooow and not viewable on the big screen in HDMI. Flimsy camera button and volume rocker. That mini-HMDI cord will cost you extra. Can’t realistically run a 3G hot spot unless you have POW-AH.

*Mother of all Droids … for now. The Droid 2 is due out later this year with more to follow.

Product: River Shoes

Manufacturer: Roundup:

Wired Rating: 0

Cold water. Hot sun. Sharp rocks. Slick docks. These obstacles mean nothing when traversing bodies of water with a good set of river shoes. The best ones will offer protection up top, and security below to keep you stepping, wet or dry.

New Balance SM921

If you want to make fast tracks across wet terrain, this lightweight low-impact river runner will add some serious twinkle to your toes. These kicks clocks in at a mere 11.3 ounces, and features a stable, running shoe-style sole with solid yet lightweight lugs that provide ample traction without stacking on grams. A quick-pull lacing system lets you enter and exit easily, and keeps the shoe secure on the foot so it won’t rub and cause blisters when wet. The mesh upper is flexible and light, and moves like a second layer of skin. We loved this shoe on a 5K run along the beach for crashing in and out of surf, and it was also our favorite for trail running.

But while it makes a great runner, its true calling is the life aquatic. Eight large holes along the sole evacuate water just about as quickly as it comes in. Likewise, a perforated rubber insole moves water through quickly without absorbing it along the way. Even better, not only does it let water escape, but sand and fine particulate matter also passes out of the shoe, rather than piling up in the toe or heel. When scrambling over wet rocks and wood, we kept a steady footing and were never in jeopardy of slipping. We were also pleasantly surprised to find that the mesh upper does a fantastic job keeping dry sand out, another reason we loved this shoe for athletic adventures around the water’s edge. Finally, the shoe dried extremely quickly in all circumstances, both in direct sun, and at home in a dark closet.

However, the SM921 did strike a couple of sour notes. While the quick-pull lacing system meant the shoes went on easily, it also meant the shoe sometimes slipped off the foot occasionally. When we tried trudging our way through deep mud, for example, we had to work to keep the shoe on our foot, and our heel came fully out multiple times. For the same reasons, small pebbles and other debris can come in around the ankle. And while the lightweight construction is great for fleet-footed excursions, it also means that the shoe doesn’t offer much stability against turning an ankle, or smashing your toes against the rocks. You’ll also feel sharp edges underfoot.

These are minor quibbles though. Overall, this shoe is an excellent choice for those who will be frequently moving back and forth from wet to dry and want something that provides freedom of movement, top of the foot protection, and underfoot traction.

WIRED Evacuates mud and sand like the Nile River. Dries exceptionally fast. Extremely lightweight and low impact, almost feels like being barefoot. Best beach runner we’ve ever sprinted across the sands in.

TIRED Comes off of foot waaay too easily. Pebbles and other debris get a free pass into shoe.

$90, newbalance.com

Keen Cimarron II

When it comes to all-around wet-and-dry performance, we were blown away by the versatile Cimarron II. The 12.1-ounce shoe is lightweight, and secures nicely via quick-pull laces. Loops on the tongue and heel help you get the shoe on and off quickly. Thick multidirectional lugs provide nice traction. And the webbed mesh upper provided both protection, and a degree of warmth in cold water. It all stacked up to a shoe that did just about everything well.

As a hiker, the Keen’s sturdy sole with protection for toes and heel proved stable and secure; we navigated rocky off-trail sections with peace of mind and without having to focus on our feet. It even made a passable trail runner that we logged a beach-side 5K in without any discomfort. In the water, it handled slick surfaces exceptionally well, and was also solid on sharp rocks thanks to a very rigid sole. We were also pleased with its performance in the mud, where it stayed on our feet even after sinking completely below the surface into the muck. While our heel did come up in the back end of the shoe, it never came out.

Yet we did have a few nits to pick out of these kicks. It did a fine job keeping out small pebbles and debris, but it did allow quite a bit of sand and smaller particulate matter in. And because silt is not easily flushed out, it tended to collect in the toebox, which was uncomfortable. Also, if you do manage to get a small pebble in there, you’ll have to take your shoes off to get it out again. Finally, while it does shed excess water, it doesn’t dry quickly. It was much slower to dry — both indoors and out — than the other two shoes we tested along side it. The wet upper combined with the collected sand rubbed our skin, but not in a good way.
The bottom line is that the Cimarron II is a very solid well-rounded performer. It wasn’t the best at anything, but it was pretty great at just about everything we threw at it. For a combination rafting and hiking shoe, it was aces.

WIRED Stuck to slippery rocks like a starfish. Heavy-duty toe and heel will keep your feet from getting stubbed out. First rate trail shoe; handled hiking and scrambling across rocks as well as it did water.

TIRED Tends to collect silt and sand. Very slow to dry, our feet stayed soggy in these suckers all day.

$100, keenfootwear.com

Teva Avator SR

While most river shoes are simply wetware versions of athletic shoes, the Teva Avator resemble work boots. The neoprene upper extends above the ankle, and it secures by means of a Velcro closure, plus two adjustable straps. Thick padding at the ankle and a stiff rubberized cup in the rear behind the heel offer some protection to keep your ankle from turning. Likewise, a stiff toe cup will keep you from totaling your toes on underwater rocks or other jagged edges. The hard sole was ace for stepping on sharp rocks and uncertain terrain, providing a secure platform that even stood up to a light stabbing from a Swiss Army knife.

And yet this work boot is very much a submersible shoe. Vents by the toe and heel allow water to escape, while the neoprene not only dries quickly, but it also keeps your feet relatively warm in cold river or ocean water. The adjustable straps stay closed no matter how turbulent the water, or what you wedge your foot in below its surface. Even when we plunged this shoe calf-deep in the mud, it never budged. Seriously, you’re more likely to have a beaver gnaw your foot off than you are to lose it in the water. Likewise, the ankle-high closure keeps out not only H2O but also dirt, grime and even fine sand. We were also surprised at how quickly the shoe dried. Although it has much more material than the New Balance 921 or Keen Cimarron II that we tested simultaneously, it was the first to dry in cool indoor conditions. It is, however, slow to drain, and in the sun it retained water longer than the others.

While we’re mostly positive on this kicker, but the shoe isn’t much of an athletic performer. The rigid ankle makes running and scrambling in it awkward, while the largely flat sole tends to become caked in sand and mud, and slips repeatedly on slick rocks and wet wood. It was also quite hot. While the neoprene upper is great for those moments when your dogs are sunk in chilly river water, in the sun they can get quite hot (and more than a little slimy).

Overall, we were impressed with the Avator, but it seems best suited to occasional splashes and is more of a workhorse than a thoroughbred.

WIRED More secure than a 64-character password; this shoe will not accidentally come off your foot. Exceptionally stable, great for walking through water where one can’t see below the surface. Neoprene upper kept our toes toasty. Dries quickly.

TIRED Banana peel-slick soles slid off algae-covered rocks like a fried egg off oiled Teflon. Slow to drain.

$90, teva.com

Product: CJ3B

Manufacturer: Icon Motors

Wired Rating: 8

Back when records were state of the art, the pre-Jeep Willys CJ3B was king of the jungle trail. Unfortunately, its skills haven’t held up as well as its looks. Loving its style but not its capabilities, Icon Motors produced an aesthetically faithful update.

OK, update may be understating it. Severely.

Icon acquired a few old CJs and laser-scanned all of their surfaces, generating a 3-D model of the 70-year-old vehicle. Then, they pressed new body panels out of modern steel (the old Willys was made of wartime metals that aren’t as tough as modern stuff) and coated it all in a Teflon-polyurethane powdercoat that we couldn’t scratch despite hurling the truck at trees instead of around them.

While the outside looks just like an old Willys, a 1940s mechanic would never recognize the undercarriage. The new, mandrel-bent frame is designed to accommodate a fully independent suspension, instead of the old leaf springs. The Chevy-sourced 4-cylinder engine makes 205 horsepower, but gets 23 mpg.

The 4WD system is adapted from a 2010 model-year Jeep: It’s more advanced, and, as an added bonus, owners won’t have to scour eBay for antique replacement parts when they get overambitious in the off-road park.

And while a 1950s 3B tops out at around 50 mph on the highway, we throttled the Icon down L.A. freeways upwards of 80. Then, when we hit the Miller Jeep Trail, we switched into 4WD low and went way beyond our comfort zone without seeing the Icon balk. With 24 inches of wheel travel, it can scurry over boulders, romp rutted trails, and negotiate inclines that would make a Hummer run screaming for a pedicure.

WIRED Every light is LED—from the dashboard to the headlamps. At just 64 inches wide, it’s narrow and capable enough to tackle trails that Jeeps aren’t technically allowed on. Just try to scratch the paint: We drove through a big-ass thorn bush and wiped away the evidence with a rag. Attracts more thumbs-ups than the Colosseum. Only 83 grand.

TIRED Only 83 grand?! Just like the old CJs, high-beam switch is next to the clutch. (They moved that for a reason.) Shifter feels sloppy, er, retro. Seat belts were a little janky, prone to locking up even in the rare moments when we had the Icon sitting level.

AdSafe Media, a brand verification platform, has raised $7.25 Million in Series B funding, led by Atlas Venture with participation from existing investors Founder Collective and others participating.

Launched in May 2009, AdSafe Media uses algorithmic modeling and human verification to rate and verify the brand safety of content on commercially supported Web pages via a proprietary system. The rating then allow advertisers to properly place display advertising campaigns of sites.

AdSafe plans to open its Content Rating API late this year to integrate with real-
time-bidding and demand-side ad platforms, giving advertisers information and data about the brand safety of every impression available for purchase.

The company recently released a report that provided an analysis of the key display advertising brand safety metrics and industry insights, which shows that 47% of traffic was served by exchanges, real-time-bidding (RTB) or demand-side (DSP) platforms. According to the report, premium brand advertisers seem to be shifting a larger percentage of their display adverting spending to exchanges, RTB and DSP platforms because of increased media efficiency and broader reach afforded by these channels.

AsSafe faces competition from DoubleVerify, AdXpose and others.

WakeMate’s quest to help you kiss your groggy mornings goodbye continues. The Y Combinator-funded startup has become something of a poster child for the mantra “Hardware is hard” — when the company debuted its gadget in November, it promised to start shipping devices the following January. That didn’t happen, and the company didn’t have a concrete date for when the first batch might ship. A few units shipped in April, but the company wouldn’t say how many, so it probably wasn’t a very encouraging figure. Now, it looks like there may finally be a light at the end of the tunnel.

WakeMate has posted an update to its blog that indicates that it’s optimistic about having a large chunk of orders out close to the end of the month (though it sounds like that may slip a bit). From their post:

A lot has happened since April, besides what we’ve shown on the blog. To highlight, we’ve:
Lined up a local manufacturing partner for faster turnaround
Designed and implemented a new board layout that gives vastly improved Bluetooth performance as well as battery life
Sourced all parts for said board
Designed and prototyped a new wristband, currently in its final production revision
Expanded and improved phone support
Iterated on the Analytics site, making it more useful and eye-catching
Dealt with regulation, Apple approval, packaging, etc.

So where does this leave us in terms of shipping by the end of July? We remain optimistic—if we don’t make it by month’s end, we’ll definitely get close. We’re addressing a couple minor snags but the hard problems have been solved and it’s now a matter of urging the gears of industry to turn more quickly; something they’re not accustomed to doing. In April, we felt it extremely conservative to say we’d be shipping by July 30th; as any new company can tell you, things never happen the way you think they will and we were no exception.

WakeMate’s product consists of a $50 wristband that you wear while you’re sleeping, which can analyze your sleeping patterns and wake you up at the opportune time so that you can beat morning grogginess (also see the pricier Zeo Sleep Coach and Fitbit, which can track your sleep but doesn’t have the wake-up alarm). Data from the wristband is relayed to your phone — WakeMate is developing companion applications for the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. WakeMate’s delays have resulted in plenty of frustrated users, in part because WakeMate collected a five dollar downpayment for its pre-orders.

Last week, we noted that Best Buy was looking into firing the employee that made the hilarious EVO versus iPhone 4 video (and the rebuttal video). The employee, 25-year-old Brian Maupin, was placed on suspension as Best Buy decided what they wanted to do. Today brings some good news: they’ve decided not to fire Maupin. But Maupin has decided not to return to work just yet, as he’s not sure he’s comfortable with the situation.

In their statement about the situation (below), Best Buy humorously refers to Maupin as “the aspiring film-maker.” The company notes that they took their time coming to a decision about what to do because they wanted to ensure they were maintaing a supportive environment for employees, while also making sure employees couldn’t openly disparage customers, vendor partners, and other employees.

Best Buy says that three video in particular caught their attention, and that those videos have now been taken down. What’s interesting here is that the three videos apparently don’t include the two most popular ones. Maupin originally told us that there were a “couple other videos” on his account that did reference Best Buy in a comical manner and that he took those down immediately when the company asked. He said they were also asking him to take down the more popular videos, but he refused to do that, as they don’t mention Best Buy in any way (but do mention brands Best Buy carries).

But Best Buy is now apparently doing a 180 on what they initially told Maupin. Now, they’re indicating they only cared about the other videos in question (which, again, mentioned Best Buy specifically). But that wasn’t the case last week, according to Maupin. “According to the statement BBY issued, the videos they were offended over are gone, but 2 of them they took issue with are up, so maybe they’ve realized those two don’t mention Best Buy or maybe they’re just settling, considering the spotlight on them,” Maupin tells us.

Undoubtedly, without the two popular videos, which now have nearly 4 million views combined on YouTube, none of this would have been brought to Best Buy’s attention in the first place.

At the end of their statement, Best Buy notes that Maupin is scheduled to return to work on Friday. Unfortunately, they apparently didn’t clear that with Maupin himself. “I’m not planning on returning to work — immediately, anyway. Honestly, I don’t know how I could return considering some of the things that were said to me and not have a lot of awkwardness on the job. I’m looking at possible jobs in graphic art — nothing definite yet, but I’m searching,” he tells us.

Below, find Best Buy’s full statement on the matter and then Maupin’s official one. And, of course, the videos below that.

Best Buy:

We have completed our investigation into the videos created and posted by Brian Maupin, the aspiring film-maker and Best Buy employee.  This is an important situation for us because it involved balancing our social media guidelines with a commitment to creating a supportive environment for our employees.  It’s important to note that our investigation involved three videos that were posted in late June because they were openly disparaging of our employees, our customers and our vendor partners.  Our investigation is over, and these videos are no longer on the web.  Contrary to rumors, Brian has not been fired, and is scheduled to return to his job at Best Buy this Friday

Maupin:

Right now I’m planning on taking a leave of absence so I may survey my current career plans and the future. I’m not sure if it would be comfortable returning to Best Buy considering the circumstances, but I will definitely consider all options