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Steven Sinofsky Joins Enterprise Cloud Storage Firm Box As An Official Advisor
Today enterprise cloud file and document storage company Box announced that it has brought former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky on board as an advisor. The move mater as Sinofsky has deep experience with both Microsoft Office, and SkyDrive, two products that Box competes with.
Box, which today remains storage focused, is widely expected to introduce document editing tools on top of its cloud file system. This would put it in direct contention with Office, a key profit source for Microosft, and Google’s Docs efforts.
Sinofsky departed Microsoft following the completion and shipment of Windows 8, and the Surface tablet hybrid. It remains slightly unclear to this day, but his quick trip out the door was not precisely voluntary. According to Todd Bishop of GeekWire, the pairing of Box and Sinofsky started with a Facebook message, and was consumated over bowls of pho.
Box, for now, is downplaying the Box-Microsoft war narrative. Levie, in a statement provided to Geek Wire stated that his company would “love to get closer to Microsoft,” instead of growing its competitive surface area with the rival firm.
That’s bunk, but expected bunk.
Sinofksy was a considered candidate by external parties for the CEO role at Microsoft following Ballmer’s departure. It’s safe to say that anyone who had been pulling for a Sinofsky return can lay that dream to rest. Box is increasingly maturing into the company that could mount the first credible enterprise challenge to Office’s decades’ old hegemony.
Mail Digitizing Service Outbox Opens To All San Francisco Residents
Outbox, a startup that digitizes your physical mail and makes it available on the web and via iPhone, Android, and iPad apps, says that it’s now generally available in San Francisco.
After a trial period in Austin, Outbox launched in San Francisco earlier this year, but it was a beta version of the service with a wait list — the company says there are still thousands of people on that list who should get in now that Outbox is available to anyone in the city.
In advance of today’s news, we went on a mail run with Outbox co-founder Evan Baehr and one of the company “un-postmen” Francis Sanchez. One of the misconceptions about Outbox, Baehr said, is that its users are “all nerds.” And sure, he admitted that “digital natives” are a big part of the early customer base, but he added:
We actually have a lot of different demographcis that have found things about Outbox that are interesting. So we have a lot of moms on the platform who just want to be better managers of their home communication. We’ve got a lot of travelers who are away for businesses, consultants or salespeople, and they want to be able to manage this important workflow when they’re not at their house.
And there are, naturally, privacy concerns about having a startup open up all your physical mail. Outbox tries to address those concerns with backgrounds checks on its un-postmen, shredding and recycling all the physical mail that you don’t want, and offering $1 million in identity theft insurance.
“We can lay out all the extreme measures we’ve gone through to keep your mail safe, [and] there are certain people out there that just aren’t convinced by that,” he acknowledged. “And you know what, at the end of the day, Outbox isn’t for everybody.”
Baehr suggested that the “best testament to what we can pull off” is that as far as the team is aware, Outbox has not yet had any security breaches. (In the video, it sounds like Baehr is suggesting that Outbox has processed more than 1 million pieces of mail, but a spokesperson clarified that the company has processed more than 300,000 pieces, resulting in more than 1 million images.)
The interview with Baehr and with Sanchez also illustrates some of how the processes that Outbox has put in place for collecting your mail. Those are particularly important, Baehr said, because they allow the company to keep costs down and charge customers only $7.99 a month.
Since the launch, the company also raised a $5 million Series A. As for what’s next, Baehr said Outbox is planning its launch in New York City.
Pressy Is The Customisable Hardware Button Your Android Phone Has Been Waiting For
Most physical keys have been chased off phones, thanks to the rampant rise of touchscreen technology, but here’s a Kickstarter project that wants to bring smarter kind of physical key to your phone. Pressy is a hardware button that plugs into the headphone jack of your Android phone and can be customised to trigger a range of functions.
So, for instance, if you always wanted a shortcut to snap a photo and upload it straight to a social network you could create that function in the Pressy app. Of course there are apps that can do this sort of thing, but the point about Pressy is that it’s a chunk of hardware that sits within easy reach of your fingers — thereby cutting down on the number of actions required to perform the function you’re after.
The (free) Pressy app will apparently allow a range of shortcuts to be created, based on a combination of short and long presses of the Pressy key. Which all sounds great, so long as you don’t get your shortcuts mixed up — and end up turning on your flashlight instead of taking a sneaky photo, say. Or sending an SMS to your mum saying ‘I’m on my way’, instead of toggling on your Wi-Fi.
The app will also allow for app settings to be customised too, so in addition to a basic photo snapping shortcut you could set up a specifically sneaky photo shortcut that keeps the phone’s screen and flash off and kills the shutter noise. If you wanted to be really, really creepy.
What if you’re using your headphone jack for, y’know, actual headphones? Pressy’s makers have thought of that. The key can be clipped into a small keychain housing, rather than plugged into your phone — and the button on your headphones then doubles as the Pressy key, so you don’t have to fish your keys out of your pockets to trigger your shortcuts.
How much does this smart micro button cost? $17 will get you the basic Pressy. You’ll have to be pretty patient though, as it’s not due to ship til March next year. The project is at least well on its way to hitting its goal of $40,000, with more than $30,000 raised and still 46 days left to run on its funding campaign. Hardware hacking FTW.
Facebook's New Rules Change How It Treats Your Data And Who Can Access It
Today Facebook proposed a raft of changes to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Data-Use Policies, two separate documents that govern the way the company handles advertising, user data, and third-party retention of that data.
The updates are “proposals,” Facebook tells me, and so they will accept and review comments on them from its user community. However, I doubt that the company is up for much iteration. As its Chief Privacy Office Erin Egan noted in a short statement, Facebook is “proposing this update as part of a settlement in a court case relating to advertising.”
The proposals are broad and varied, so we have some ground to cover:
Ads
The rewritten section about ads is clear: “You give us permission to use your name, profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content.” In other words, Facebook can use anything you have uploaded in its advertising algorithms and systems.
This is neither surprising nor out of bounds. That Facebook would employ public information supplied by its users to generate revenue is hardly evil. Importantly, Facebook will respect your privacy choices in how it uses your content: “If you have selected a specific audience for your content or information, we will respect your choice when we use it.” Good.
Legal
Another change to the rules will be of interest to the litigious among you: Legal action against Facebook is now limited to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, or in a state court “located in San Mateo County.” The prior set of rules demanded a Santa Clara court, but the company moved its headquarters, thus requiring the change.
Data Usage
Facebook changed its data-usage rules, as well. The company now claims the right to know what sort of computer or other device you are using. So, it can tell if you are on Android or the like. This is somewhat innocuous, though Facebook does retain the right to — and this is not new — “get your GPS or other location information so we can tell you if any of your friends are nearby.” Big Facebook. That buzzing on your phone is your friend checking into the bar a block away.
Sharing Your Data
Facebook also claims the right to share your public information with others: “We may enable access to public information that has been shared through our services, or allow service providers to access information so they can help us provide service.” In other words, Facebook can vend your public information to others. Lock down whatever you really don’t want out there, folks.
Data Retention by Third Parties
When you sign up for an application, it requests access to your information, perhaps your email address or other datum. It can store that information if it wants, on its own servers, and keep it, even if you have deleted the application itself from Facebook.
Thus, what you provide to an application at the start you should presume to be theirs in perpetuity. When you delete an application, the connection is severed, but their copy — provided that they made one — remains. You can directly reach out to the company and request that your information be deleted.
However, provided that the terms of service of the third-party app or game don’t require them to do so, I don’t see how you have much standing as a single user. That information is therefore in their hands. Facebook has stern rules about how that data can be used, it should be noted. I think the language is strong. Still, I have a slight frown about this. I had never given the issue much thought, and honestly thought that applications merely accessed my information via my permission from Facebook itself — that the data was always on Facebook’s side. That is not the case.
Reason to stop using Facebook? That’s your call. Reason to stop downloading every dating app on Friday night after a few too many gin and tonics and granting them all rights to just about your entire Facebook data set? Yeah, probably.
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The changes confirm that Facebook wants to use your data as much as possible to generate advertising incomes, and that other parties want as much access to your data as possible. If you feel a creeping sensation on the back of your neck, recall that privacy is evolving, and what cooly irks you today is something that would have made you hopping mad five years ago. Our tolerance for sharing is constantly expanding, not receding.
A section-by-section teardown of the changes can be found here in case you want to get into the weeds.
Top Image Credit: Acid Pix
Introducing Disrupt Office Hours Where You Can Meet TC Writers And Editors
There will be a very special booth at this year’s Disrupt conference in San Francisco – the Office Hours HQ where TC writers and editors will field your questions, look at your pitches, and chat on all things entrepreneurial. Darrell will also be there if you want to discuss Canada.
Office hours, at least for the first day, will exist on a first-in-first-out basis. We will man (and woman) the booth from 10am until 6pm and writers and editors will change on the hour. You can either pick your favorite writer and go over and chat or you can simply show up and talk. We’re ready and willing to hear all comers.
Do you have a pitch? Pare it down to about five minutes and be ready to show off your slides, iPad demos, and the like. We expect to have a full house and should be an interesting experiment. If things get too crowded we will schedule timeslots on the second and third days.
We’re excited to offer this fun opportunity and we hope to see you at Office Hours. Below is the full schedule.
Monday
- 10:00 — John Biggs & Greg Kumparak
- 11:00 — Alex Williams & Chris Velazco
- 12:00 — Darrell Etherington & Natasha Lomas
- 1:00 — Frederic Lardinois & Sarah Perez
- 2:00 — Stephanie Yang & Ryan Lawler
- 3:00 — Romain Dillet & Billy Gallagher
- 4:00 — Mike Butcher & Josh Constine
- 5:00 — Ingrid Lunden & Anthony Ha
Tuesday
- 10:00 — Rip Empson & Kim-Mai Cutler
- 11:00 – Stephanie Yang & Frederic Lardinois
- 12:00 — Natasha Lomas & Eliza Brooke
- 1:00 — Anthony Ha & Romain Dillet
- 2:00 — Chris Velazco & Ryan Lawler
- 3:00 — Billy Gallahger & Stephanie Yang
- 4:00 – Alex Wilhelm & Greg Ferenstein
- 5:00 — Sarah Perez & Alex Williams
Wednesday
- 10:00 — Greg Ferenstein & Anthony Ha
- 11:00 — John Biggs & Greg Kumparak
- 12:00 — Matthew Panzarino & Alex Wilhelm
- 1:00 — Darrell Etherington & Chris Velazco
- 2:00 — Stephanie Yang & Rip Empson
(staffing and times are subject to change)
U.S. Losing Ground In Mobile App Market
If mobile apps are the post-PC era’s software industry, the U.S. may be losing its edge. According to new findings from mobile analytics firm Flurry released this morning, the U.S. isn’t leading in the creation of mobile applications, having slipped from 45 percent of worldwide app market share in 2011, to 36 percent in 2013, in terms of where apps are being built. Positioned against what the software industry looked like in 2008, where U.S. businesses produced around 68 percent of software units sold, it’s clear that the mobile app industry is one that’s becoming truly global in nature.
The U.S. app market does have something going for it, however – the apps it puts out are more engaging, and include more users, the report also found. When weighing apps by total time, taking into account user numbers and engagement, the U.S. still leads, though its percentage here as well has dropped from 75 percent to 70 percent from 2011 to 2013.
In addition, the picture changes somewhat when apps are examined by where they’re used. In the U.S., for example, 59 percent of app usage takes place within apps built domestically, while in China, 64 percent does. But in the U.K. and Brazil, domestic app usage is 13 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
“U.S. made apps only account for 16 percent of total time spent in apps in China,” writes Flurry’s Simon Khalaf, noting also that the size and growth rate of the Chinese app market will soon push U.S.-built apps’ portion of the Chinese app market even lower.
The concern here is that U.S. developers have been slow to think about localization efforts, having ridden the app wave so far resting on the fact that English is one of the world’s more dominant languages. Some other countries, meanwhile, have had a head start in terms of globalizing their mobile applications, the report finds. Developers in Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria, and Slovenia have been taking advantage of the localization opportunities, for instance. There are also many worldwide app hit makers outside the U.S., including Finland’s Rovio (Angry Birds), Russian Zepto Labs (Cut the Rope) and Australian Half Brick Studios (Fruit Ninja).
The cost of producing apps is still relatively inexpensive which helps contribute to the increasing globalization of the app market, along with the ease of distribution offered by app stores. But, says Flurry, the cost of promotion is rising. In related news, Fiksu also noted today that user acquisition costs in the U.S. reached their highest level since 2011, rising to $1.80 in July, up 20 percent from $1.50 in June, making the month the most expensive since December 2011.
Facebook’s mobile app advertising platform is partially responsible by driving up competition, while deep-pocketed buyers are increasing, forcing the littler guys to spend more to keep up. The big-name publishers are now dominating the tops of the app store charts, making it harder for newcomers to reach the top 250, potentially turning the app stores into winner-takes-all markets. And by the looks of Flurry’s findings, many of those winners won’t be based in the U.S.
No Check In Required: Foursquare Starts Rolling Out ‘Proactive' Push Recommendations On Android
Foursquare has been defining its app beyond the “check in” for a while now, with the addition of things like more fleshed-out personal profiles, more detailed recommendations, and the like.
Today, the company is starting a gradual roll out of a new version of the Foursquare app for Android that marks its biggest move into a “post-check-in” experience yet: A feature that will ping phones with personalized recommendations based on a user’s targeted physical location, without needing them to check in at all.
With the new Foursquare, when you walk into a cafe you’ve never visited before, it may buzz your phone to let you know that people who visit there rave about the breakfast burritos. In a bar, you might be pinged with a tip that you don’t need to put quarters in the pinball machine to use it, because it’s broken (very sneaky.) And, in line with Foursquare’s recent focus on generating revenue, you might also get a buzz on your phone about merchant promotions — though Foursquare founder and CEO Dennis Crowley vows that “you won’t see a lot of that.”
It’s a new try at the same type of function provided by the the opt-in “Radar” feature that Foursquare started rolling out on iOS to less than stellar results back in 2011. In an interview this week, Dennis Crowley said that while this type of experience has always been Foursquare’s ultimate goal, Radar suffered by being a bit ahead of its time:
“Radar was supposed to represent the vision of the company: A service that, as you walk around the city and the world, lets you know things you wouldn’t have known otherwise. But the [mobile phone] battery life wasn’t there, geo-fencing technology wasn’t sophisticated enough, and on our end we didn’t always have enough data. Over the last 10 months or so, we’ve been working on making this happen again, with devices we have now.”
The new and improved push recommendation feature purportedly only increases battery drain by about 0.7 percent per hour — or, “the equivalent of about a 20-minute game of Angry Birds” over the course of a day.
The new version of Foursquare with passive notifications is starting to roll out very slowly, and on Android first — around 2,000 Foursquare users on Android will be given access today. This is apparently taking advantage of new developer tools released by Google this past May that allow apps to gradually deploy new apps to alpha and beta users on the Android platform. An iOS rollout will follow in the months ahead — it seems that Foursquare may be waiting to launch it with the upcoming iOS 7 operating system.
Crowley says that if all goes well, the new Foursquare will be launched to all users on all platforms by the year’s end. He says that the messages will be a mix of user-generated recommendations and promotions from locations, and that users will be able to dial up for dial down the number of push notifications they receive, depending on their preferences.
But what’s clear is that this kind of experience is the future of what Foursquare will be. “There’s no product name for it this time. It’s not ‘Radar.’ We had an internal codename, but now, this is just Foursquare.”
vrAse Is A Wearable Smartphone Case That Makes Your Face A Virtual Reality Play-Zone
The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset isn’t even available for consumers to buy yet but here comes the cut-price competition… While the Rift development kit will set you back $300 — and still requires a PC to do the gaming horse-work — vrAse, a soon-to-be-launched-on-Kickstarter project, is approaching virtual reality from another direction. It wants to turn your existing smartphone into a pair of wearable virtual reality/3D specs. And do so for as little as £48/$75.
Since high-end smartphones are powerful computers in their own right, and come furnished with cameras front and back, why not just stick your phone right on your face, right? Provided you don’t mind looking like Mr Phone Face, of course. vrAse is one part Oculus Rift, one part Google Glass, one part sci-fi ski goggles — with gaming, 3D movie-watching and augmented reality use-cases envisaged by its creators, assuming they can get developers to make the apps to go with their goggles.
At launch there’s clearly not going to be a lot of ready to rock apps but they say they will offer demo content to show off vrAse’s AR and 3D gaming capabilities. Plus, any movies already made for 3D can also be downloaded or streamed in Side by Side format (SBS) for viewing on vrAse. And films and games can also apparently be converted to SBS for viewing on the device.
vrAse is effectively a toughened smartphone case, attached to a pair of wearable goggles. Your existing smartphone slides inside the case so you’re looking directly at its screen through vrAse’s dual lenses — which generate the 3D/immersion effect. And that’s pretty much it. Compatible smartphones at launch are the iPhone 5, HTC One, Xperia Z, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 2. In future the creators say they will make it compatible with any smartphone.
How immersive will vrAse be? That’s the key question. And the answer will depend (in part) on the smartphone screen you’re pairing it with. The higher the screen res, the better looking the picture will presumably be. Beyond that, vrAse’s creators aren’t going into detail about what sort of field of vision to expect from vrAse so it’s hard to say how it will stack up against the likes of Oculus Rift. It is looking considerably cheaper to buy, however, so set your expectations accordingly.
vrAse’s makers are hoping to raise £55,000 via Kickstarter. If they hit their target they’re aiming to ship to backers in February. Their crowdfunding campaign kicks off on Saturday.
Alexander Ljung Joins The Speaker Line-Up At Disrupt Europe In October
Our major conference is coming to Europe. Disrupt Europe will be in late October, and will be held in Berlin. Therefore it’s only right that we include some of the biggest names in that startup scene, and we’ll be progressively announcing our speaker line-up over the next few weeks. We have already announced an amazing number already – some of the biggest names from the Valley and Europe – and today we’re adding to that with one of Europe’s hottest entrepreneurs, Alexander Ljung, co-founder of Soundcloud.
Alexander is co-founder and CEO of Soundcloud, the audio platform that enables anybody to upload, record, promote and share their sounds on the web. Since its launch in 2008, Alexander has been responsible for all aspects of the site’s strategic vision and business development. Under his leadership, Soundcloud has quickly gained a reputation for being the number one platform available for audio creators to share, broadcast, track and promote their sounds.
Ljung has also become a sometime investor, backing Loopcam and Tripbirds most recently as an Angel. He also picked up the award for Best International Startup this year at The Crunchies. Your can check out his personal Soundcloud channel here.
Meanwhile, let us remind you that we’ll also have a Startup Alley during Disrupt, where companies can show of there wares to potential investors and partners.
To get an idea of it check out these videos from one of the days at our most recent Disrupt event, in New York, or this video with clips from other Alleys past.
Disrupt Europe will take place from October 26-29 (Hackathon on 26-27; Main Event on 28-29) and there is lots more info here.
If you would like information on sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here sponsors@techcrunch.com or get more info here.
Quip, Ex-Facebook CTO Bret Taylor's New Word Processing App, Now Supports French, German, Italian And Spanish
Quip, the mobile-first iOS and Android word processing app, spent many months in stealth mode as its creators, Bret Taylor (ex-Facebook CTO) and Kevin Gibbs (father of Google Apps Engine) built and polished the app for a debut at the end of July. But when it’s come to international expansion, the developers have wasted little time. Today, Quip is announcing its first moves into international markets, specifically Europe, with native language support extended to French, German, Italian and Spanish. Taylor tells TechCrunch that they expect to add several more languages, with a specific focus on Chinese, “as quickly as possible.” The markets where mobile is rapidly becoming the primary platform for people to go online are a key target for Quip.
(As background, for those who are not familiar with Quip, Josh gives a great overview and review of it here. The essence is that this is an app bucks against the literal and figurative impulse for desktop virtualization on mobile devices, and instead rethinks how phones and tablets can be used better than computers with keyboards to create, edit and collaborate on texts. That means online and offline synchronization; and a lot more interactivity, with the ability to turn notes into lists and eventually to send push notifications to users for specific document alerts.)
Somewhat uniquely in a market that seems to dictate a dichotomy in app development, Quip is aimed at both enterprises and consumers, with consumer usage free and $12 per user per month for businesses. It is available as a desktop app, an iOS app and (in preview) as an Android app.
On the occasion of the international debut, I took the opportunity to ask Taylor a little bit about how the first three weeks of the product launch has been, and about what the company’s future plans will be.
He says that the consumer aspect of the business model may not drive revenues in the way that the enterprise channel does, but what it does it provide a “feedback loop”. “What we are trying to do is have consumer product credibility with that feedback loop,” he told me. “We want it to feel like that and fast and simple not be bloated with features you don’t use.” And this, he says, goes directly into why Quip is targeting international users so quickly.
These are the markets where mobile is, perhaps, even more essential than it is in markets like the U.S., since in countries like China the smartphone or tablet is often the only device a consumer has to get online. Launching quickly in these markets is about getting responses from users in all the markets where it would like to grow, as early as possible, so that this can be used in product development. “We plan on localizing in a number of languages,” he told me.
Interestingly, this may see some changes in the product sooner rather than later. So far, Taylor says the pattern with Quip has been that people are using the desktop version to compose their documents, and then using smartphone or tablet devices to edit them. In markets where there may not be so many devices with keyboards, Quip may end up needing to make input on smaller and touchscreen devices significantly easier.
“So far what we’ve seen is that composition is still happening on laptops rather than other platforms,” he says. “Messaging is happening on phones. People will see and reach out on phones. Tablets are growing rapidly.”
He also notes that the most common requests so far are for more functionality to highlight and comment on parts of a document. “A lot of the people who are using and sending us feedback have asked about the mobile and collaboration features. The most common feature request is the ability to highlight and comment on parts of the document and also push notifications.”
One area that he believes will be especially interesting to see evolve is how people use the ability for offline support. For Quip users in developed markets, he says, “They like the idea of using Quip in an airplane for offline support. But in the developing world where internet connectivity can be very spotty, you can edit and use a document whenever you want; then when you can get online it gets synchronized. We still have a lot of learn to how it gets adopted.”
UniKey Founder Talks About The Future Of Access Control Ahead Of October Ship Date
The UniKey Kevo has been a hot topic for the past year, its touch-triggered unlocking amazing the likes of investors, TV shows and retailers alike. The auto-lock system first appeared on an episode of “Shark Tank”, and shortly thereafter received a round of funding which brings the company’s total to $2.75 million.
We caught up with UniKey founder Phil Dumas at the ff Venture Capital office (FFVC is one of UniKey’s investors) to chat about the device being a pre-order and how to deal with competition.
But first, let’s clear up what exactly the UniKey Kevo does just in case you missed it. The Kevo uses Bluetooth 4.0 to identify you before unlocking your door, just with a touch. Unlike Lockitron, which can allow users to remotely lock and unlock their door, Kevo doesn’t support that function but rather focuses on proximity and convenience. Kevo users never have to reach in their pocket or wallet.
The company has a partnership with Kwikset, one of the largest lock manufacturers in the U.S. so that installation is quick and easy.
“We’re not the first company to unlock a door with a phone,” said Dumas. “But we are the first company to make the experience so much better than a traditional key. All you have to do is touch the lock.”
But what if you lose your phone? Well, Kevo is set up to let you log in through the web app or on a different device to gain access. Each Kevo also comes with a fob, with extra fobs available for $25 each.
Eventually, Unikey will move into other spaces, including automotive, air travel, professional settings, etc. to ensure that, one day, you’ll be able to throw out all your keys. There is also potential for Unikey to partner with home control and home automation companies in order to trigger certain events in the home based on a door locking or unlocking.
For now, however, the company is getting through its pre-order phase. If you’re interested in the $219 Kevo, you can pre-order at Amazon, Newegg, Home Depot, and Build.com. Shipping begins in October.
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