Archive for March 24th, 2010
Test Shows: iPhone Touchscreen Still the Best
If the future is all about touchscreen interfaces, then performance of the screen in registering where it’s been touched is pretty important. International design firm Moto ran a robotic finger test on 6 leading touchscreen smart phones to see how well they registered a robot’s loving touch. Some of the phones did remarkably poorly, like the BlackBerry Storm and the Motorola Droid. The iPhone, Google Nexus One and HTC Droid Eris all did quite well. Check out the video below to see the tests and marvel at the apparent differences between touchscreens and their performances. Sponsor Robot Touchscreen Analysis from MOTO Development Group on Vimeo . As Sadat Karim writes on Neowin , “Hope is not lost though, as Moto Labs concludes that they do expect these problems to be remedied in the future as touchscreens mature and gain further traction in the industry. Commitment and competition will ultimately deliver seamless touch experiences for all consumers over time, since phone makers are continuously perfecting their products.” To see touchscreen hardware nerds duke it out over the test, check out the Moto Labs blog . How about you, readers? Have you felt the difference in performance across some of these handsets? See also: User Interfaces Rapidly Adjusting to Information Overload Discuss
"Super Angel" Firm Maples Investments Rebrands as FLOODGATE
Silicon Valley angel investor Mike Maples Jr., known for his early investments in Digg and Twitter , announced recently that his firm Maples Investments has rebranded as FLOODGATE in an effort to fulfill his experiment of becoming a “super angel” firm. The term “super angel” mostly speaks for itself: instead of carefully picking a few select companies to invest in each year, super angels broadly place more money in a larger number of early-stage startups. Sponsor By making the shift from Maples Investments to FLOODGATE, Maples is jumping into the super angel game with both feet in attempts to take the firm to “the next level.” He hopes that the creation of FLOODGATE will “address a big gap in venture capital” between seed level angel investments and larger rounds from traditional VC firms. According to the newly rebranded homepage, the super angel strategy is a response the growing number of startups, the falling number of IPOs, and the rising level of VC investments – all of which make finding early-stage funding more difficult. Additionally, the site offers that super angel investments can provide more exit options. “If a business raises a small amount of initial capital, then exceeds its early milestones and decides to swing for the fences, it can then raise a larger sum at a higher price, while preserving ownership,” the site says. “If the business is not ready for rapid growth, it preserves the option for an exit at around $50 million, while still delivering a high return for investors. This dual-track model is less available to companies that raise large amounts of money early.” Are we witnessing the birth of a new branch of venture capital? It is interesting to consider the gap that Maples is attempting to fill; smaller individual seed level angel investments at one end, and the hundreds of millions of dollars that VC firms have been known to invest at times. It certainly seems that there is an opportunity for endowed individuals to invest at a higher level than a typical angel would, but at the same time there are smaller VC firms that focus smaller investments on young companies. Can super angels sit in the space between angels and firms that target smaller amounts at early-stage startups? Will more of the larger firms begin to invest smaller amounts instead of waiting for the companies worthy of a nine-figure investment? Will angels start investing more of their own money closer to super angel levels? Is FLOODGATE’s method of casting a wide net in hopes of catching one or big fish a wise choice? Will their approach put pressure on other angels to invest more or at a higher level? It is unclear what, if anything, will happen, but what is clear is that FLOODGATE plans to push more money into the early-stage startup market, which is great news for the entrepreneurs out there looking for funding. Let us know how you feel about the idea of super angels and their effects on the VC industry in the comments below. Discuss
Dell: Build Your Own Cloud
In growing technology markets, the rate of innovation increases as the technologies become more accessible. That’s what is most significant about the announcement from Dell today that it is now offering servers, loaded and ready to go. The servers are designed with the power and optimized for customers that wish to create their own cloud-based infrastructures, be they public or private services. For instance, this might include customers that provide high performance computing (HPC), SaaS or wish to build their own public or private cloud. Sponsor Dell’s Mark Cathcart puts it this way: “Perhaps significantly, one of the more important parts of this set of announcements are the turnkey cloud solutions comprised of pre-tested, pre-assembled and fully-supported hardware, software and services enabling customers easily and quickly to deploy and manage cloud infrastructures with confidence, taking much of the guesswork out of building and running efficient private and public clouds. This is a key theme of our “Efficient Enterprise” Strategy and best value solutions.” Of interest is Microsoft’s involvement with Dell. The two will work together on the Windows Azure platform. Microsoft will continue to invest in Dell hardware for Windows Azure infrastructure. The new push is focused on mid to medium-sized businesses. These are companies that face increasing data demands that can overcome a company’s infrastructure. According to a post on Venture Beat , IDC estimates that companies store 500 billion gigabytes of data today and that will double every 18 months. People are communicating via their smart phones and portable devices in addition to the work done in the office. With a spike, a company can find itself with its network down. The new servers also represent a new generation of hardware that is designed to save on power consumption and cooling, major costs associated with data centers. According to Dell, the PowerEdge C-Series servers come in three basic models: PowerEdge C1100: This is a high-memory, power-efficient, cluster-optimized compute node server PowerEdge C2100: High performance data analytics, cloud compute platform and cloud storage server PowerEdge C6100: 4-node cloud and cluster optimized shared infrastructure server The servers run on Intel’s quad-core Xeon 5500 and six-core Xeon 5600 processors. Discuss
Apple’s App Store Still Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction, Android Close Second
The arrival of Apple’s App Store in 2008 changed the marketplace for mobile developers and mobile carriers alike. The App Store changed the perception of what an app store for mobile devices should look like and started a new arms race among mobile carriers and handset manufacturers. According to a new survey by market research firm Nielsen , however, Apple is still ahead of its competitors. Apple’s customers install more applications on their device than users of any other platform and Apple’s customers are also more satisfied with Apple’s app store than the users of any other app store. Sponsor Apps Installed Per Device iPhone users have installed an average of 37 applications on their devices – more than the users on any other smartphone platform – while Blackberry users only use 10 apps on their phones. Android users have around 22 apps on their phones, followed by Palm users (14) and Windows Mobile users (13). Unsurprisingly, feature phone users don’t install a lot of apps on their devices. Only 12% of cell phone users with feature phones downloaded an app in the last 30 days. In contrast to this, about 46% of smartphone owners installed an app in the last month. App Stores With regards to the popularity of different app stores, Nielsen’s data isn’t that interesting, as most users don’t really have a choice. Apple’s App Store is the most used mobile app store and has captured 25% of the market, followed by Blackberry’s App World Store (16%). Carrier stores run by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are also still very popular and have a market share between 8% (T-Mobile) and 15% (Verizon). The Android Market only had about a 2% market share by the end of 2009, but given the small number of devices on the market at that time, this number will surely grow in 2010 as more device manufactures add Android devices to their lineup. Customer Satisfaction When it comes to customer satisfaction, Apple’s App Store and the Android Market are far ahead of their competitors. 84% of Apple’s users are satisfied with the user experience in the iTunes store and 81% of Android users are happy about their experience. All the other stores, however, still have a lot of catching up to do. In Nielsen’s survey, the Windows Marketplace ranked the lowest (56%), followed by the Blackberry App World store (58%). Discuss
Healthcare Reform is a Cloud: Interview with Matthew Holt & Richard MacManus
It’s a sunny afternoon in San Francisco and health care is in the air. I’m sitting at the the Peet’s in the SF Ferry Building eating a vegan ginger cookie and waiting for Matthew Holt, founder of The Health Care Blog and the leader of Health 2.0 conference to show up for an interview. He arrives wearing shorts and a Health 2.0 t-shirt, and has his dog with him. He tells me he jogged to our location on the bay from Health 2.0 headquarters seven minutes away. It’s a beautiful day – and here in the United States, the health care reform bill just passed. ReadWriteWeb’s founder and leader, Richard MacManus, joins us, and we dive into a conversation on the revolution underway in cloud, mobile, and social health tools. By the end of the day, we were left with one question: Will health care reform build a health Internet, or will entrepreneurs do it because they can? Sponsor A Brief History One nice thing about profiling the thoughts of bloggers is that they leave a trail to track them down. Here are a few of Holt’s social and technology posts on The HealthCareBlog : A new campaign against childhood obesity Aneesh Chopra on txting in Haiti PatientsLikeMe buys ReliefInSite Here are a few of MacManus’ posts at ReadWriteWeb that track to health care: McKinsey: Get Ready For Sensor-Driven Business Models iPhone Apps For The Masses: Health & Fitness Health 2.0 Through the Eyes of a Diabetic – One Year Later Health Care Reform is like Ice Skating in San Francisco A phenomenon I see every year in San Francisco in December is the setup of the ice-skating rink. Palm trees and skaters. For children and adults alike, it’s a way dream about a past and present, whether real or fiction. And, yet, while good for humanity, something about it doesn’t quite hold the spirit of the pristine pond and cabin by the lake. We know, even though the ice is icy, generators are pumping along the edges. It’s not quite pristine, and it’s not quite ours. That’s how health care reform feels – a victory indeed – but for some reason not a personal win. Somehow, reform feels artificial and hard to grasp. A small part inside of me wants to scream out, “is there an app for that”? Is it One Big Health Cloud? To get the conversation started, I asked Holt and Macmanus, “What is your take on cloud computing for healthcare?” Holt asked in return, with a grin, “What exactly is the cloud? Is it a thing, or is it a collection of services that are connected together?” We discussed this question in practical terms Holt : “Here’s a question: Will Salesforce’s cloud be merged with other organizations’ contacts, and will we have shared controls? Is that the difference between cloud computing and SAAS?” We came back to our business, blogging. Blog software like Moveable Type (RWW) and WordPress (The Health Care Blog) generate common feeds in simple formats (RSS) that can be used and mashed up in all sorts of ways. But, that doesn’t mean that MT and Wordpress themselves are hot swappable, as there are controls, widgets, and other tools that are optimized in the application layer. Perhaps, in this way, EHR (Electronic Health Record) systems can be thought of as a blogs, where people are the categories, and events are the posts. If so, what is needed for health care information exchange is a basic feed for key members of the exchange: doctors, patients, pharmacies that connects new systems on top of it. For health care exchange, connecting patients is so much more than connecting infrastructure, platforms or software. Like all good software, it’s about finding the shortcut. We should endeavor to find, build, and monetize the simplest exchange that will drive the future generations of meaningful interoperability. As we spoke, a light turned on. Is Health Part of the Internet of Things? Macmanus : “Health devices are one of my favorite use cases for the Internet of Things. Let’s take the example of a blood pressure monitor. It’s a portable device that augments your life and well being, and the promise of connecting to other things and streams is real”. Holt : ” …and look at these devices closer – we see they are intelligent, self adjusting, and include feedback loops and reminders. Thse devices are starting to connect to the Internet and to people.” “And what about the Wii,” he continued. “The Mii is already virtual me, and the WiiFit is compelling and network enabled”. All of us noted that Nike’s work in this area is inspiring – from ease of use to business model implications, there is something great going on with the Nike + sensor and the company’s broader ambitions. We realized that technology has already started a revolution in health – and it’s getting traction. Macmanus : “I’m fresh from SXSW and have location on my mind. We heard that FourSquare is at work on a next-generation feature on websites, where checking in will connect virtual and real worlds. Also, with innovations like self-tagging StickyBits and Microsoft Tag floating around, real-world augmentation is starting to take form and connect with the Internet world.” Holt : “UPC tag scanners, such as mobile phone bar code readers like ScanAvert connect real world things to facts about them, such as ingredient and nutrition information.” We were reminded of the Quantified Self movement. This is a meetup that has growing momentum in the SF Bay Area and around the country. It is a place where self-reporters get together and share war stories. Organized by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, it combines what’s on the cutting edge and our overwhelming fascination of creating a digital diary through logging data about oneself. And, best of all, the meetings focus on “What did you learn about yourself,” which focuses the meetup on us, not just technologies or business models. We learn that our motivations matter. Let’s Run it All on Amazon and Get Scale The tools are ready, entrepreneurs are on board, and we all believe that the cloud is here. But, what about the data? That is a tougher question, and a familiar storyline of permissions, identity, matching, EDI, XML – it’s enough to make you sick considering all of the potential work to align it all. In the spirit of the shortcut, the three of us came up with an idea: What if instead of connecting all of the hospitals, instead we connected every person in the U.S.? What if we would each have a server in the cloud, tuned to receive and share our own health transactions? This health server on the network would run software to receive files, add streams and connect devices under our direct control. The three of us did a bit of back of napkin work and believe that we could outsource the entire thing to Amazon for about US $1 billion yearly. This would cover server fees and data access for every American to have their own instance of server optimized for transmitting health information Here’s our math: 300 million people [multiplied by base fee of $30.00 per year multiplied by the .1 concurrent utilization rate. Build a cloud architecture that reduces the cost by 10 times by leveraging computing systems that spin up on demand and therefore dramatically reduce physical costs. We think this type of math, however crude (and perhaps wrong), is worth thinking about as we spin up the servers for health care reform. We’re Convinced: People Eat, Sleep, Pirouette, Take Pills By the end of our conversation, Macmanus, Holt and I were left with an invigorating idea about the new health care reform: It isn’t a thing, it’s a moment in time. Innovations for health care are already springing out of the Web and will thrive on their own merits, so the job of health care reform technology should be to instigate this innovation, stat. What would you do if offered a fixed bid contract for $1 billion annually to build a new health cloud for America? Who would you bring along to get the work done? Photo credit: abhijittembhekar Discuss