Startups

OtterBox, which makes the top-selling protective case for smartphones, has announced the acquisition of LifeProof for an undisclosed amount. News of the acquisition comes one day after a lawsuit filed by OtterBox against LifeProof for patent infringement was dismissed. OtterBox told the North Carolina Business Report that the acquisition was not related to the lawsuit or any settlement. Headquartered in San Diego, LifeProof also makes protective cases and accessories for smartphones and tablets. Over the next 30 days, OttberBox will beginning incorporating the LifeProof brand into OtterBox’s product lineup. More information about product availability and alignment will be available after that period. OtterBox currently has about 650 employees worldwide, while LifeProof, which was founded in 2009, employs about 250 people, who the companies say will remain in their San Diego location “for the foreseeable future.” “Our strategy is to utilize our combined brand momentum, and world-class talent to create a great customer experience that generates OtterBox brand ambassadors for life,” Thomas said in the acquisition announcement. In addition to its extremely durable smartphone cases, which are designed to withstand drops, water immersion and debris, OtterBox also makes protective coverings for other mobile devices such as tablets, as well as screen protectors and accessories. LifeProof’s cases are designed for people with very active lifestyles (or who are especially accident prone around mountains, concrete and bodies of water). Both companies’ cases performed well when they were subjected to abuse in the name of consumer research by TechCrunch during CES in January. Image credit

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 has hit 10 million channel sales one month after its release. The company announced its latest milestone today just eight days after confirming that it had shipped over 6 million units of the S4 since its international launch on April 26. According to Samsung, this is the fastest ever sell rate for any of its smartphones. The latest entry in the Galaxy series–meant as Samsung’s iPhone challenger–has sold much more quickly than its predecessors. The Galaxy S4′s milestone beats the record set by the Galaxy S3, which reached 10 million channel sales 50 days after its launch in 2012. The Galaxy S2 took five months and the Galaxy S seven months to reach the same number. (Channel sales are to wireless operators and not direct to consumers. In other words, the numbers are for units shipped.) The Galaxy S4 had to overcome inventory issues that disrupted its U.S. rollout and were attributed by the company to unexpectedly high demand for the phone. Though the Galaxy S4 is indeed selling swiftly, reinforcing Samsung’s dominance of the worldwide smartphone market, Jordan Crook noted after it hit 6 million units shipped that the iPhone is still technically a faster selling phone than any of Samsung’s Galaxy models. When the iPhone 5 launched, Apple took over 2 million pre-orders in the first 24 hours available. Furthermore, iPhone 5 pre-orders were two times the number of pre-orders seen for the iPhone 4S. Despite Apple’s recent earnings woes, consumers still love their iPhones, and Samsung VS Apple: Battle Smartphone is not over quite yet, especially as the Cupertino company prepares to launch new products this fall.

A Michigan baby’s life was saved by the insertion of a 3-D printed trachea at two months old. The newborn was diagnosed with tracheobronchomalacia, a condition in which the airways collapse, not allowing oxygen to enter the lungs. That, tragically, caused repeated heart attacks … or, as the doctors said when writing up the case study for the New England Journal of Medicine, “ventilation that was sufficient to prevent recurring cardiopulmonary arrests could not be maintained.” Doctors then printed a splint that is completely customized to the baby’s tracheal tubes, based on a “computed tomographic image of the patient’s airway.” It’s bioresorbable, made out of a material called polycaprolactone, so it will never need to be withdrawn and the baby’s body will just naturally absorb and discard the splint within three years. But by that time, doctors say, the baby’s lungs and airways will have developed enough strength to stay open by themselves. Source: New England Journal of MedicineThe 3-D printed tracheal insert being placed According to LiveScience, prior to 3-D printing lung splints were carved by hand. 3-D printed splints can be fabricated in a single day, however, and cost about a third as much. After inserting the device, doctors kept the baby on a ventilator for 21 days, until the child was discharged from hospital. One year after the surgery, no “unforeseen problems related to the splint have arisen.” Doctors’ conclusions? “This case shows that high-resolution imaging, computer-aided design, and biomaterial three-dimensional printing together can facilitate the creation of implantable devices for conditions that are anatomically specific for a given patient.” Filed under: Business, Dev, Gadgets, Health, Science

Advanced Micro Devices is launching two new families of mobile chips today for faster and more power efficient laptops. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD wants to become more competitive with its larger rival Intel, and it is doing it by creating all-in-one chips dubbed accelerated processing units (APUs) that combine graphics and processing in the same piece of silicon. Those kinds of chips have been built into the newest game consoles from Sony and Microsoft. These new chips will go into a wide range of computers, from traditional PCs to new kinds of designs. One chip, formerly code-named Temash, will be called the 2013 AMD Elite Memory APU, a quad-core chip built with a 28-nanometer manufacturing process. The chip is aimed at smaller notebook computers, tablets and hybrids, which combine a tablet and a laptop in one device. It is aimed at machines with 13-inch screens and below. A second chip is the 2013 AMD Mainstream APU, formerly code-named Kabini. That quad-core chip is a quad-core system-on-chip for entry-level and small laptops. The third chip is a low-power version of the 2013 AMD Elite Performance APU, formerly code-named Richland. It is aimed at thin laptops with high performance. “The worlds of the tablet and PC are colliding,” said John Taylor, vice president of corporate communications at AMD, in an interview with VentureBeat. “These chips will have high-performance and operate on low wattage. We are targeting both PCs and Android devices. With Windows 8 and touchscreens, there is more flexibility in the market.” “AMD is in its best position in a while with Temash, Kabini and Richland to field a differentiated offering, and doing it in time to hit the back to school selling season,” said Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “We won’t know how they do until we can see how they are assorted with OEMs and at retail, which is as vital as having a good product.” AMD has scored customer deals with big computer makers including Acer and HP. “The client market has evolved – with greater diversity in the types of mobile form factors and higher performance demands from the software – and AMD is uniquely positioned to deliver the best processors to meet the needs of mobile device users today,” said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of global business units at AMD. “As computing becomes more visual and the graphics processor can be leveraged to do other types of processing, our dedication to the software community and the APU architecture sets us apart from the competition and enables us to deliver the best user experience whether on a tablet, a hybrid device or a notebook.” The 2013 AMD Elite Mobility APU will be available as the AMD A-Series APUs. It will come with dual-core and quad-core configurations. The core, or main computing brain, will be based on the Jaguar microarchitecture, which combines an x86 central processing unit (CPU) with a Graphics Core Next AMD Radeon 8000 series graphics chip. It will have 172 percent faster CPU performance per watt of power consumed and 212 percent better graphics performance per watt than its predecessor. Computers using it will have up to 12 hours of resting battery life. AMD says it will have 45 percent longer battery life and five times the graphics performance than the closest competing chip from Intel. The 2013 AMD Mainstream APU will have either two or four Jaguar cores with the AMD Radeon 8000 series graphics. That chip will be 132 percent better in visual performance per watt and 127 percent better on productivity apps per watt, compared with previous generations. It will be 88 percent better at graphics and 33 percent better at gaming than the rival Intel chips. And the 2013 AMD Elite Performance APU will be used in top-of-the-line chips dubbed the A8 and A10. It will have 12 percent better productivity performance and 20 percent to 40 percent better visual performance than prior chips.

Hewlett-Packard is unveiling a small army of computers today that will use Intel’s next-generation microprocessors, code-named Haswell, for better processing without an increase in power consumption. The new products are HP’s latest bid to get its mojo back and to embrace the change wrought by tablets on the struggling PC industry. Some of the devices are already shipping, but many are still waiting on Intel’s official release of the Haswell processors, which are due in early June. The Haswell processors are built in a 22-nanometer manufacturing process that enables both faster processor speeds and low power consumption, mainly by combining graphics and processor functions on a single chip. Haswell promises twice the graphics performance of last year’s Ivy Bridge processors. Intel introduces major processors about once a year or so, and HP is using the occasion to launch a wholesale redesign of its computers. It is launching a new lineup of laptops, all-in-one computers, and desktops. All of the devices are thinner, stronger, and sleeker in design. Among the new offerings are a bunch of thinner, lighter, and faster touchscreen laptop computers. They include the HP Envy TouchSmart 14 Ultrabook, with a 3,200-by-1,800 full high-definition touchscreen display, better battery life, Intel’s Haswell, and a 10-point multitouch screen. That model will ship on June 26 for $700. Such low prices mean that Intel-based Ultrabooks will finally reach a sweet spot of good battery life, good performance, and lower prices. The HP Envy TouchSmart 15 notebook (pictured right) also has a full touchscreen with Beats Audio. it will be available on June 5 for $530. The HP Envy 17 notebook computer will come with a 17.3-inch screen, an Intel processor and Nvidia graphics. It has 2TBs of hard disk space, Beats audio, and a full-HD display. It will start selling on June 5 at $700. HP is also launching new versions of its mainstream consumer Pavilion-branded computers. The HP Pavilion TouchSmart notebook is a thin laptop with a capacitive touchscreen and 10-finger gesture support. It will sell for $400 starting on June 26. The HP Pavilion 15 notebook will have a 15.6-inch display, a 1-terabyte hard drive, and an optical drive, and it will come in a variety of colors. It will sell on June 5 starting at $430. As for desktops, HP is introducing a cool new all-in-one PC dubbed the HP Envy Rove 20. The device has a 20-inch touchscreen that you can fix at a variety of angles. You can also lay the device flat. The device also comes with a built-in battery that can last for three hours while unplugged. In other words, it’s a giant touchscreen tablet running Windows 8. The machine uses Intel integrated graphics and Haswell processors. It has an in-plane switching (IPS) panel with wide viewing angles and 10-finger multitouch. It has Beats Audio and comes installed with software including EA Monopoly, Fingertapps Jigsaw Wars Puzzle, Fingertapps Musical Instruments, and Disney Fairies. It will debut in July for an undisclosed price. HP is also launching the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 20 and 23 all-in-one PC models. These feature five-point optical touchscreens, widescreen displays, and new processors from both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. The hard drives have up to 2TBs of storage. The machines have HP TrueVision WebCams and 25GBs of free Box cloud storage for U.S. users. The 20-inch model will sell for $620 starting June 23, and the 23-inch model will sell for $750 on June 5. HP is also launching a series of new desktops. The HP Envy Phoenix 800 Desktop PC will have both Nvidia discrete graphics and Haswell processors. It will start selling on June 5 for $1,100. The HP Envy 700 Desktop PC will offer a choice of AMD processors or Haswell processors. It will be available on June 5 for $600. The HP Pavilion 500 Desktop PC will have Haswell with a choice of discrete graphics from Nvidia or AMD. It will start selling on June 5 for $49

Call it the unicorn problem: beautiful, alluring, magical, and totally non-existent. Social commerce, according to the latest Monetate e-commerce report, is almost as elusive. In fact, social media referrals represents just 1.55 percent of all traffic to major e-commerce destinations. And when that tiny trickle of traffic arrived, only .71 percent of it actually resulted in any kind of sale. Email marketing, by contrast, generates twice as much traffic as social media, and has four times the conversion rate to sales. Those are not good numbers for social. Source: MonetateConversion rates by traffic-referring sources The darling of the omnipresent social media gurus on Twitter, social commerce was supposed to totally disrupt e-commerce. And, because people trust other people’s recommendations and spend a lot of time on Facebook where they meet other people and read what they say, social commerce was supposed to be huge, turning social media influence and shares into sales and revenue. Unfortunately, there’s a problem: “The challenge for social media — and for its big brother, word of mouth marketing — is that they are inherently additive pieces of the conversion funnel, rather than causative,” Monetate’s new report states. But Monetate says that the problem isn’t in the social. It’s in how companies are using it. Loyalty isn’t about clicking on an offer, report author Mitch Joel says, it’s about building a relationship. And a relationship goes far beyond “do you want to buy this.” Which means that social is not short term, social is not transactional, and social is not the same as direct response. In other words: shocker, social media is, well, social. Taken in that context, social can still be very valuable for brands, as marketing firm Syncapse found just a few weeks ago, valuing some Facebook fans at over $1,600. But it’s the relationship that’s valuable, not the episodic communications per se. And that relationship can be very valuable. When an actual sale is made from a social referral, it’s often valuable, with the average Pinterest-referred sale clocking in at over $80, and the average Facebook and Twitter sales at about $70. Source: MonetateAverage order value by social-referred sale photo credit: zoomar via photopin cc Filed under: Business, Enterprise, Social

Following Microsoft’s 60-minute press conference yesterday, where the Xbox One was revealed to much anticipation, an unfortunate feeling of melancholy grew inside me. It was immediately and painfully clear that I am no longer Microsoft’s target audience. Instead, the company’s new key-demographic is the casual audience that has kept the Xbox 360 selling in recent years, and with this choice, the Xbox brand has transformed from a gaming system to an all-in-one entertainment device. Over the course of the hour long press conference, I slowly felt more and more out of place as if this wasn’t intended for me … as if it wasn’t a place I should or want to be. The wild ride of buzzwords and snappy features introduced us to an impressive multimedia center, one that could stream films and live television or chat to friends via Skype, but a worryingly small amount of attention was given to games. This new console will obviously be innovative in how it “Kinects” people (har har), but the question I regularly asked myself over that hour was why, as a gamer, do I care about most of this? It was frustrating to watch many big names march out and discuss features that will barely impact or improve the future of gaming. Being able to review fantasy football or basketball leagues during live matches sounds cool, but as I’m not a massive sports fan, the early sections of the press conference might as well have been white noise. Equally frustrating was how anything that did reference the gaming potential of the Xbox One did so through loose terminology, merely suggesting how this console was going to offer enhanced “experiences” or “content.” I can’t say I saw anything that could provide the innovation I was sorely hoping to see. At least some of the specs for the Xbox One were revealed: 8 CPU cores, 8GB of (non-descript) RAM, multi-channel 802.11n WiFi, and a Blu-ray drive definitely sounded good. However, instead of showing us how this technology will be put to use, such as through the numerous demonstrations during Sony’s PlayStation 4 press conference in February, we were merely presented with a handful of cinematics and teaser trailers. While the games shown looked good, the graphical fidelity wasn’t mind blowing. The visuals shown were not as ground-breaking as the HD leap from the previous generation. And sadly, the only new creative work announced, Remedy Entertainment’s Quantum Break, did so through a predominantly live-action trailer sprinkled with in-game cinematics. This teaser was severely underwhelming and didn’t provide nearly enough information — assuming the game isn’t about a little girl who makes boats collide with bridges — to create serious interest. Because nothing resembling gameplay was shown, it’s difficult to picture how each experience will feel when they’re eventually in our hands. As a result, if these new titles do nothing but improve graphics, it’s hard to feel too excited about them. Even the new Call of Duty felt a little flat. Eric Hirshberg, the chief executive of Activision, presented a lovely trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts, but I had to chuckle when Mark Rubin of Infinity Ward added, “America’s military is in disarray, and as the player, you’re the underdog fighting back against superior forces.” Not wanting to steal your thunder, Mark, but I’m pretty sure that’s the storyline of every Call of Duty since Modern Warfare 2 as well as numerous other shooters, such as Home Front. But hey, we get a really fancy looking dog so that’s innovative right? … Right? Still the most surprising element of the conference for gamers was most likely not what Microsoft did mention, but in fact what they did not. During this show Microsoft had the gaming world’s attention, now was their chance to put millions at ease regarding the worrying DRM and pre-owned rumors spiraling around this latest addition to the Xbox brand. However, rather tha

Carl Esposti is CEO of crowdsourcing advisory firm massolution. If you think that participating in crowdfunding simply means investing in smaller companies that launch games and devices on Kickstarter, think again. With crowdfunding volumes reaching $2.7 billion in 2012, it has emerged as a viable, scalable alternative to public and private finance across the globe. After surveying more than 350 active crowdfunding platforms, including IndieGoGo, CrowdCube, Symbid, and Gambitious (full site directory at crowdsourcing.org), and completing an in-depth analysis of market trends, research firm Massolution has identified five major crowdfunding developments for 2013 and beyond. 1. Niche platforms As crowdfunding platforms try to benefit from market differentiation, niche-, industry-, and sector-specific platforms are emerging. Platforms offering reward-based crowdfunding see an especially high value in serving a common niche or industry. Examples include platforms focusing on video games, recording art, performing art, real estate, food and beverage, fashion, journalism, and more. While it’s smart for a new platform to choose a specific niche simply to differentiate its service, there is another big reason why this trend is likely to prevail—it helps build a repeated crowd on the platform. Having crowdfunders visit a platform, not just because they have been invited onto a specific campaign, but because the campaigns appeal to their tastes, is extremely valuable. #2. Locavesting In her 2011 book, Locavesting, business and finance journalist Amy Cortese describes how “a revolution in local investing” is emerging and that crowfunding is boosting it. This year, we are going to see increased momentum in this revolution because many new crowdfunding platforms will actually specialize in locavesting. It’s been over a year since President Obama signed the JOBS Act, but legislation is stymied in the hands of the SEC. However, at least four states – Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia and Kansas – have taken the initiative to allow crowdfunding for business loans. Crowdfunding platform Rebirth Financial is specializing in locavesting and offers intrastate, lending-based crowdfunding. Although Rebirth’s offerings are open to anyone within state borders, successful campaigns have so far been driven by very local support – all the way down to the customer-base level. #3. Enterprise crowdfunding Large enterprises and associations have begun to look into crowdfunding and how this tool carries new potential for their companies, including raising social profiles, market testing, and spin-ins of entrepreneurial ventures. The perceived benefit is not the additional funding itself, but the democratization of specific decisions that would otherwise be made internally in the company. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) represents the interests of more than 85,000 member architects across the U.S., a sector that has been hit particularly hard by the recent financial crisis. Recently, the AIA published a report examining crowdfunding’s potential as a new source of capital for residential, commercial, and industrial infrastructure projects. Crowdfunding shows significant promise for attracting investors to smaller projects and getting them off the architect’s drawing board. In this case, crowdfunding will be used to spur community support and financing for an assortment of infrastructure ventures that would ordinarily have difficulty finding money due to their smaller size. #4. Crowdfunding economic development Major development banks and similar institutions — including The World Bank and The Inter-American Development Bank — are seeking to leverage crowdfunding for economic development. Crowdfunding’s social profile and its strong connection to micro-finance are the main drivers. Crowdfunding has historically been embraced by philanthropic ventures, especially for donation-based crowdfunding and interest-free lending. The models natura

Twitter released its two-factor authentication option today, after major media organizations were tricked into giving out their login information to hackers. Two-factor authentication is an extra form of security when logging into an account. It can come in a few different forms, but generally always involves some kind of code that users must input alongside their username and password. This code can be supplied through a mobile applications such as Google’s Authenticator app, a text message, or an a piece of hardware like RSA’s dongles. The code is often activated and deactivated in a short period of time, so that if one code is leaked out, it cannot be used in the future to access an account. Twitter has gone with the text messaged code, according to its announcement today. Text messaging covers a much larger portion of the population, as opposed to an app, which requires users to have a smartphone. Twitter warns that not all carrier may support the technology. You can turn two-factor authentication on by going to your account settings in Twitter and selecting “require a verification code.” You’ll then have to enter a phone number. After two-factor is set up, you will have to enter the code every time you log in to Twitter. A number of big-name companies have rolled out two-factor authentication as a result of hackings, including Apple. Twitter recently experience a rash of “break ins” involving the accounts of major media publications CBS, NPR, the Associated Press, and more. The Syrian Electronic Army, a pro-regime group of hackers that often attacks publications for their coverage of the conflict in Syria, has taken responsibility for the majority of these hacks. It says it usually gets access through phishing expeditions, where the group will send e-mails that look legitimate to employees of their target company asking for login credentials. In the case of the AP, a tweet about an explosion at the White House caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop one percent in a minute. PhishMe chief executive Aaron Higmee explained that consumer-facing sites actually often leave these codes active for longer than usual because consumer sites don’t like having any barriers to entry. If a hacker phished a code and it still worked, then the two-factor authentication is useless. Jim Fenton, the chief security office of OneID, also explains why two-factor authentication is breeding a false sense of security. Twitter explains that now it has the two-factor technology in place, this opens the doors to future security elements to be introduced. Image via Twitter Filed under: Security

The world’s largest streaming music service, Pandora, is finally adding some deep integration with the world’s largest social network, Facebook, giving its users a much easier way to socialize their musical activity with friends. Following on the heels of yesterday’s Pandora Premieres announcement, the new Facebook integration adds a helpful social layer to the streaming music service, and may help assure investors that Pandora is moving forward despite a grim business outlook ahead of tomorrow’s Q1 FY2014 earnings report. Previously, Pandora’s now former CEO Joe Kennedy testified at a congressional hearing that Pandora would be unable to sustain its business if music royalty rates weren’t lowered, (and it doesn’t appear the rates will drop). There’s also the matter of increased competition in smart radio services from giant tech companies with lots of money to burn. Google recently launched its own Google Play All Access streaming radio service, while Apple and Amazon are rumored to debut similar offerings later in the year. As for the new Timeline app integration, Pandora isn’t following other media companies that have provided deep integration with Facebook’s Open Graph, which allows people to see all of your activity from both the Facebook news feed and from an activity ticker. Streaming services like Spotify allow friends on Facebook to see songs you’re currently listening to, which I’ve never found very compelling. Pandora’s Facebook integration is a bit different because it focuses on adding things to your Timeline under a music section. When people are exploring your Timeline page, they’ll see a record of your songs played, favorite artists, and custom radio stations that others can then listen to. It also pops up in the Facebook news feed, but as a past event that behaves more like a news story than an activity. And determining exactly what listening activity you want people to see is pretty easy — meaning I can hide most of the random 90s slow jams that pop up. You can toggle the automatic sharing on and off as needed, which I can’t really say about the fire hose of activity offered by other music services that integrate with Facebook. Those sharing controls are also available on Pandora itself. The new Facebook Timeline integration is available across all of Pandora’s applications and platforms (iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Pandora’s website, etc.) today. Obviously, the company is committed to a more social Pandora experience, but the more interesting observation is in how it’s not at all trying to promote an increase in listening (or consuming) activity. Media companies like Spotify, Viddy, Vevo, Ustream, and others all saw a “Facebook bump” in new users and time spent on their respective services after integrating with Facebook’s open graph. But that sort of move could actually hinder Pandora’s overall business strategy. It’s already one of the largest streaming music service almost to a fault, with 200 million total registered users and over 1.49 billion hours of music listened to per month. Despite record growth, the company said it’s unable to generate revenue and grow long-term profitability without the aid of any “Facebook Bump” due to what it sees as unreasonably high music licensing fees. Those fees have forced Pandora to implement a 40-hour monthly music listening cap on users of its free, ad-supported service. Therefore it would appear that a large growth spurt would end up hurting the company’s bottom line, since its advertising revenue isn’t able to keep pace with Pandora’s operational growth and increasing music licensing costs. But preventing the service from growing and attempting to lower the amount of interaction spent on it from its most loyal would be a very backwards strategy — not that I think Pandora’s