Archive for March 4th, 2010
Steve Ballmer: Microsoft’s Future Is in the Cloud
Steve Ballmer gave a live webcast today and said that Microsoft is betting its future on the cloud. He illustrated that by saying 70% of Microsoft’s 40,000 employees are working on cloud related efforts. By next year, 90% of Microsoft employees will be working on cloud matters. Ballmer spoke at the Allen Center on the University of Washington campus. He outlined five ways Microsoft is embracing cloud computing. Sponsor These are broad, almost vague views on the market. But they do give some guidance to Microsoft’s direction: The cloud creates opportunities and responsibilities. The cloud learns and helps you learn, decide and take action. The cloud enhances your social and professional interactions. The cloud wants smarter devices. The cloud drives server advances that drive the cloud. The discussion had its most interesting points in the last 30 minutes of the presentation when the talk turned to Microsoft’s emphasis on software; maps and photos; Xbox and Windows Phone 7 Series. At one point, Ballmer said that all software will eventually be in the cloud. Is Microsoft taking risks? This statement would seem to show that perhaps the political base at Microsoft is shifting just a bit from the desktop. The maps, photos and Xbox demonstrations were captivating, showing the semantics of space in a cloud environment and how maps synthesize into 3D images. With Xbox, we were reminded of the Windows Phone 7 interface, with the use of what looks like hubs that are presented as tiles. In the demo, each tile represented a different live TV show that people can watch with their friends in a virtual, animated environment. The Cloud Wants Smart Devices: Not much in this except demonstrating Ballmer’s belief in the “Internet of Things,” where the cloud helps connect devices to undestand gestures, bringing together voice, touch, speech, all in one. It’s the future of the smart device that appears to have had had such an influence on Windows Phone 7 Series. He pointed to the mistakes Microsoft made with Windows Mobile. It was too focused on voice. The future of Windows is in the cloud. That goes for the Windows operating system and Windows Phone 7 Series. A lot of people will say Microsoft is not in the game anymore. That notion can’t be supported when you see Microsoft discussing realistic, intelligent views about the market and backing it with how the cloud applies to its products and services. Still, Microsoft is as guilty as anyone for hyping the cloud and further obfuscating what is meant by cloud computing. Really, Steve. Did you actually say “cloud in a box?” Discuss
Backupify’s CEO On Wooing Investors: "It’s Like Dating"
Here at ReadWriteStart, we’ve been following the Open Angel Forum closely as Jason Calacanis’ project moves from city to city bringing angel investors and worthy startups together in one room. The first event in Los Angeles was of particular success to Backupify , which provides backup for your online social network data, including Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Wordpress, Gmail, Basecamp and many other services. Following the event, the company raised a Series A round of $900,000 from Calacanis, Chris Sacca, First Round Capital and a few others. Sponsor Earlier this week, CEO Rob May posted his take on the process of raising funding from VCs, which he likens to dating. According to May, pitching to VCs is not about forcing your idea down their throat and convincing them why they should invest in it; if a startup and a VC are meant to be, it will be more like love at first sight. “They either like you and your idea, or they don’t. It’s like dating because your goal in dating is not to convince someone who is a bad match for you that somehow you are really a good match. That’s a recipe for divorce,” says May. “It’s really about finding the person that is naturally a good match. Same way with investors.” One thing that May did much differently than other entrepreneurs seeking funding is that he approached investors without a business plan. While he doesn’t recommend this as a solution for every startup, he does find that in his case, not having a business plan did not really hinder his efforts. “I sat in front of VCs who thought I was crazy for not having a business plan. I was asked ‘how can you run your business if you don’t have a written plan?’,” says May. “I also sat in front of VCs who said ‘glad you didn’t waste time writing a plan, because we wouldn’t read it anyway.’ It’s really more of an art, not a science.” Another less standard practice May chose to include in his presentation at the Open Angel Forum was not a special slide on his pitch deck or a certain phrase; May drank a beer while presenting. Again, he doesn’t suggest this is a solution for everyone, but he uses it as an example of how to relax and “be yourself” when pitching to VCs. They are very experienced at talking to startups and any good VC knows how to spot when you are full of hot air, and they will call you on it. “It’s never easy, not even when you have a good idea. That’s the point. That’s why so few people ever do it,” says May. “If you want to learn to raise money, the best thing to do is go try to raise money.” Photo by Flickr user apol3 . Discuss
Google Chrome Becomes Location Aware
Google just launched the latest developer version of Chrome , which now includes preliminary support for Google’s geolocation API. Google’s Geolocation API allows developers to pinpoint your computer’s location by looking at the WiFi networks around you, similar to SkyHook ‘s technology that is part of Apple’s OSX and iPhone OS. For now, this new feature is still hidden behind a command line toggle and only available in the developer builds for Windows and OSX Leopard (it doesn’t work on Snow Leopard yet). Sponsor To enable these built-in geolocation features, you have to run the browser with “–enable-geolocation.” It’s typical for Google to first hide these features behind a command line toggle before exposing them to a wider group of testers. The Chrome team also notes that the geolocation UI is still incomplete and that Chrome will forget the permissions you set. Preparing for Chrome OS? It makes sense for Google to enable geolocation for Chrome, especially given the impending release of the Chrome OS, which will also benefit from these new features. Mozilla already offers a built-in location API for Firefox and with Geosense for Windows , Windows 7 developers can now also make use of Google’s Geolocation API in their native apps. Location for Every Browser Thanks to the current efforts by most browser developers, location APIs will soon become ubiquitous and hopefully more developers will make use of them. While a number of mobile apps for the iPhone, for example, now make use of the location feature in the mobile version of Safari, only a small number of browser-based apps are currently aware of your location. While using WiFi location isn’t quite as precise as using a GPS, the precision is usually much better than relying on a user’s IP address. For more of our thoughts about location as a platform, also have a look at this post: The Era of Location-as-Platform Has Arrived . Discuss
YouTube Turns on Automatic Captioning for All Videos
YouTube may be one of the biggest success stories of the Web 2.0 era, but if you are hearing impaired, the site is only of limited value. Starting today, however, Google will begin to offer auto-captioning for all English-language videos on YouTube . Until now, only videos from a select number of YouTube’s partners were captioned using the Google’s automated speech-recognition software. Sponsor As Google notes, there will be over 700 million people who suffer from hearing impairment by 2015. As more and more content on the Web moves towards video , it’s commendable to see that Google is working to make more of this content accessible to its users. Thanks to Google’s translation technology, these captions can also be translated into over 50 different languages. It will surely take a while before this feature becomes available on all videos. After all, over 20 hours of video are now being uploaded to YouTube every minute. Whenever auto-captioning is available, however, you can simply click on the captions link underneath the video and turn the caption on. Google notes that its speech-recognition algorithms are obviously not perfect. If you spot a mistake in one of your own videos, however, you can easily download the captions and correct the error. Here are the current requirements for enabling auto-captioning on your YouTube videos: While we plan to broaden the feature to include more languages in the months to come, currently, auto-captioning is only for videos where English is spoken. Just like any speech recognition application, auto-captions require a clearly spoken audio track. Videos with background noise or a muffled voice can’t be auto-captioned. President Obama’s speech on the recent Chilean Earthquake is a good example of the kind of audio that works for auto-captions. Auto-captions aren’t perfect and just like any other transcription, the owner of the video needs to check to make sure they’re accurate. In other cases, the audio file may not be good enough to generate auto-captions. But please be patient — our speech recognition technology gets better every day. Auto-captions should be available to everyone who’s interested in using them. We’re also working to provide auto-captions for all past user uploads that fit the above mentioned requirements. If you’re having trouble enabling them for your video, please visit our Help Center: this article is for uploaders and this article is for viewers. Discuss
Philly-Based Startup Accelerator Now Accepting Summer Applications
One the interesting differences for startups on the east coast compared to the west coast is how much more compact the east coast is. For Silicon Valley, the nearest major metro cities are 400 to 800 miles away, which makes the San Francisco area much more secluded. Boston, New York, Washington D.C. and Baltimore are all within a short drive of each other, which makes the sharing of resources, talent pools and events much easier that on the west coast. Philadelphia, conveniently located between Washington D.C. and New York, is home to DreamIt Ventures , which is now accepting applications for its 2010 summer accelerator class. Sponsor Until March 22, entrepreneurs with an idea and a team can apply to receive up to $30,000 in capital as well as office space, mentoring from successful entrepreneurs and exposure to investors. The accepted groups will benefit from both the guidance of DreamIt’s newest partner, Kerry Rupp, formerly of Classmates.com , Jobster , and LexisNexis , as well as the firm’s partnership with StartL , a startup accelerator focused on education services. “Our first two classes of DreamIt companies were exceptional,” said DreamIt founding partner Mike Levinson. “We expect this year to be our best class yet. We will have more applicants than ever before, impressive new mentors and a more vibrant community of investors keeping an eye on our companies.” DreamIt’s accelerator has produced a handful of success stories in the past, including NoteHall which was featured on ABC’s prime-time television show Shark Tank where they were awarded funding. Additionally, SeatGeek , an online ticket pricing service, went on to secure over $500,000 in funding, and location-based gaming company SCVNGR has received $4 million in funding from Google Ventures and currently serves over 400 clients. According to SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch, the company “would be nowhere near where it is now without DreamIt’s help.” The three month program seems like an excellent incubator option for any east coast startup looking to secure some early funding while collaborating with fellow entrepreneurs. DreamIt also accepts applications from individual programmers and strategists looking to be paired up with a team, so the program can also help startups fill their ranks. Photo by Flickr user enfi . Discuss