Monday, July 2, 2012
Jelly Bean Checks You’re Actually Alive Before Unlocking Your Phone [Android]
Jelly Bean Checks You’re Actually Alive Before Unlocking Your Phone [Android]:
Google's clever little Face Unlock security feature, which lets you use your phone's camera to pull your Android mobile out of standby mode by having it recognise its master, has been updated, with the Jelly Bean version of the tool allowing users to blink at it to prove they're not a photograph. More »
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Your move: Google Nexus 7 launch could result in early August release for Amazon Kindle Fire
Your move: Google Nexus 7 launch could result in early August release for Amazon Kindle Fire: 
The impending July release of the Google Nexus 7 tablet could force Amazon to release the sequel to the Amazon Kindle Fire in October or November; according to DigiTimes, a full lamination process used by Amazon could make it harder for the table to stay at the $199.99 price level...
The impending July release of the Google Nexus 7 tablet could force Amazon to release the sequel to the Amazon Kindle Fire in October or November; according to DigiTimes, a full lamination process used by Amazon could make it harder for the table to stay at the $199.99 price level...
Apple wins injunction on U.S. Galaxy Nexus sales
Apple wins injunction on U.S. Galaxy Nexus sales:
Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction banning sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the United States. U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh made her determination on Friday evening, just two days after granting a similar injunction banning sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. The judgement prevents Samsung from selling its Galaxy Nexus Android phone or any other device that is “no more than colorably different” in the U.S., All Things D reported. Judge Koh ruled that Apple will likely be able to prove at trial that Samsung’s smartphone infringes on four Apple patents, though All Things D notes that the preliminary injunction granted on Friday related only to one Apple patent that covers “core voice and search functionality.”
Read
Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction banning sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the United States. U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh made her determination on Friday evening, just two days after granting a similar injunction banning sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. The judgement prevents Samsung from selling its Galaxy Nexus Android phone or any other device that is “no more than colorably different” in the U.S., All Things D reported. Judge Koh ruled that Apple will likely be able to prove at trial that Samsung’s smartphone infringes on four Apple patents, though All Things D notes that the preliminary injunction granted on Friday related only to one Apple patent that covers “core voice and search functionality.”
Read
NPD: Ultrabooks are saving the high-end notebook market
NPD: Ultrabooks are saving the high-end notebook market:
For people who want super-thin computers and who don’t feel like paying more than $2,000 for a Retina MacBook Pro, ultrabooks are a blessing. And according to the NPD Group, ultrabooks are helping to keep the U.S. notebook market afloat as they “are off to a fast start capturing nearly 11 percent of all $700+ Windows notebooks sales at U.S. retail through the first five months of 2012.” What’s more, ultrabooks’ share of Windows notebooks costing at least $700 has steadily climbed month by month this year, going from just over 6% in January to more than 15% in May. NPD says strong ultrabook sales are welcome news for the Windows notebook industry, which has seen overall sales of laptops costing $700 or more fall 3% through the first five months of 2012. Full press release after the jump.
For people who want super-thin computers and who don’t feel like paying more than $2,000 for a Retina MacBook Pro, ultrabooks are a blessing. And according to the NPD Group, ultrabooks are helping to keep the U.S. notebook market afloat as they “are off to a fast start capturing nearly 11 percent of all $700+ Windows notebooks sales at U.S. retail through the first five months of 2012.” What’s more, ultrabooks’ share of Windows notebooks costing at least $700 has steadily climbed month by month this year, going from just over 6% in January to more than 15% in May. NPD says strong ultrabook sales are welcome news for the Windows notebook industry, which has seen overall sales of laptops costing $700 or more fall 3% through the first five months of 2012. Full press release after the jump.
Ultrabook Propels Growth in Higher Price Point Notebooks as Overall Market Struggles
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, JUNE 28, 2012 – Ultrabook sales are off to a fast start capturing nearly 11 percent of all $700+ Windows notebooks sales at U.S. retail through the first five months of 2012 according to leading market research company The NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service. While the overall Windows market for notebook PC sales fell by 17 percent, Ultrabooks helped propel the premium market with Windows notebooks priced over $700 falling by just 3 percent, and those priced over $900 increasing 39 percent versus the prior year.
“Ultrabooks have helped establish a market for more premium-priced Windows notebooks at retail,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at The NPD Group. “The share of sales that the $700+ notebook segment represents jumped from about 12 percent in 2011 to nearly 14 percent in 2012 as a result of the solid market acceptance Ultrabooks have gained. Consumers continue to respond positively to finally being offered stylish, thinner, and more premium device offerings than ever before within the Windows ecosystem.”
This strong performance comes as Utrabook ASPs remain considerably more expensive than the market, with selling prices that averaged $927 over the first five months of 2012 and only dipping below $900, to $885, for the first time in May. While this is considerably above the Windows market price of $510 average pricing has risen by $13 since the same period in 2011, in part due to the growth in Ultrabook sales.
“As we head into the crucial back-to-school selling season, lower-cost Ultrabooks, some as low as $699, will be the hot form factor,” said Baker. “As we look towards the fourth quarter, the expected launch of Windows 8, a wide variety of Ultrabooks with touch screens, and convertible form factors should continue to make this class of product top of mind with the consumer as well as provide a much needed revenue boost to the entire PC ecosystem.”
The 2012 Race to the Top Fund
The 2012 Race to the Top Fund: The U.S. Department of Education and U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services
announced in April that $133 million from the
2012 Race to the Top fund will be available
for continued investments in state-level,
comprehensive early education reform.
Department of Health and Human Services
announced in April that $133 million from the
2012 Race to the Top fund will be available
for continued investments in state-level,
comprehensive early education reform.
What’s one exceptional employee worth? A lot — just ask Zuck
What’s one exceptional employee worth? A lot — just ask Zuck:
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg famously commented that a great engineer is worth a 100 average engineers (something every developer knows deep in their heart). He was talking about A-players, and in my opinion the worst thing any startup can do is accept less than the best and brightest.
Supporting rapid growth at a company requires the rapid growth of human capital. New engineers and product managers come on board to build out a company’s product. Service and support staffs expand the customer base. Settling for B-players is the same as inviting mediocrity.
Entrepreneur turned Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban once said a company should hire A-players in only core positions and pay market rates for anything non-core. We disagree. This may be true for a fully scaled company. But at the early stage, a company may not even realize what its true core is.
What is an A-Player?
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins said the highest expression of leadership is the combination of humility and will. These are traits A-players possess. Their strength of will assures motivation. They never point fingers. The ball stops with them. A-players don’t need to be micro-managed or proactively motivated. They only need to be pointed in the right direction.
Humility is often overlooked and equally important. Humble people do not seek personal credit and gladly give it to those who deserve it. They don’t engage in politics. When they voice an opinion, whatever you may think of it, you can always be sure that it is what they believe. They have no ulterior personal motives. Humility assures that a company is not overrun with attention-seeking prima donnas.
Some of the best A-players you will hire have had a failure or two but will have accomplished a lot and taken risks as part of that failure. A-players aren’t always great leaders. But that doesn’t matter. You want humble people with the will to succeed not only as executives, but as your “doers.” Startups need not just A-level strategy and A-level vision, but A-level execution.
Attracting A-Players
In Silicon Valley, the job market is very competitive, and companies such as Facebook, Google, and Zynga pay top dollar. So startups have to be clever to keep up. That means using company culture – bright, driven people working together on big things – to set themselves apart.
Last year after graduating from Y Combinator, MixRank co-founders Ilya Lichtenstein and Scott Milliken raised an angel round and set out to expand their team. At first they were unimpressed with the vast majority of the resumes. So they began to reach out into the community using Twitter, Hacker News, technical forums, and open-source mailing lists to engage talented, passionate engineers. They wanted independent thinkers with a healthy disrespect for rigid rules and authority. What attracted the “right” candidates wasn’t the money, even though they offered market-based salaries and equity, but rather the vision and culture. They were excited about the big data problems that the startup is tackling and the opportunity to have a significant impact on the technical direction of the company.
Likewise, when I took the helm at my current startup, ShopCo, and was talking about recruiting from the local university, I was told the average engineer made “X” amount. I told them I didn’t care what the average made; that I wanted to know where the five best graduates were going and how much they were being paid. Those were the five I wanted to hire.
Keeping A-Players Happy
In the 1980s, Benjamin Schneider developed the “attraction – selection – attrition” framework and the notion that organizations tend to become homogenous over time because they attract and select people who fit in. Those who don’t fit in tend to leave. The implication is that as long as a company has a somewhat homogenous group of A-players, it will remain a largely A-class organization.
But this is only part of the story. A-players need a pat on the back now and again. What’s interesting is that they only value pats on the back from other A-players. They don’t value the approval unless they respect and admire the person giving it. So developing a critical mass of A-players has an added benefit: The company tends to repel B-players and attract other A-players, reinforcing what it has built. Zappos employed this theory when it famously offered its employees $2,000 to quit under the assumption that A-players aren’t motivated by money and only B-players would take the deal.
The bottom line is this: B-players tend to be more vain and less secure. They want to be admired, regardless by whom, to make themselves feel superior. So B-players often attract other B-players and more commonly C-Players, who look up to them. In other words, A-players beget even more thoroughly A-companies and B-players eventually beget C companies.
Consider that A-Players….
Ben T. Smith IV is CEO of ShopCo, a startup focused on reinventing circular shopping with a social experience. He is also a Venture Partner at Accelerator Ventures and co-founder of MerchantCircle.com and Spoke.com. Ben blogs at btsiv.com, and you can follow him on Twitter at @bentsmithfour.
Victor Belfor is a startup advisor and investor. You can find him on Twitter at @vbelfor.
[Top image credit: nasirkhan/Shutterstock]
Filed under: VentureBeat
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg famously commented that a great engineer is worth a 100 average engineers (something every developer knows deep in their heart). He was talking about A-players, and in my opinion the worst thing any startup can do is accept less than the best and brightest.Supporting rapid growth at a company requires the rapid growth of human capital. New engineers and product managers come on board to build out a company’s product. Service and support staffs expand the customer base. Settling for B-players is the same as inviting mediocrity.
Entrepreneur turned Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban once said a company should hire A-players in only core positions and pay market rates for anything non-core. We disagree. This may be true for a fully scaled company. But at the early stage, a company may not even realize what its true core is.
What is an A-Player?
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins said the highest expression of leadership is the combination of humility and will. These are traits A-players possess. Their strength of will assures motivation. They never point fingers. The ball stops with them. A-players don’t need to be micro-managed or proactively motivated. They only need to be pointed in the right direction.
Humility is often overlooked and equally important. Humble people do not seek personal credit and gladly give it to those who deserve it. They don’t engage in politics. When they voice an opinion, whatever you may think of it, you can always be sure that it is what they believe. They have no ulterior personal motives. Humility assures that a company is not overrun with attention-seeking prima donnas.
Some of the best A-players you will hire have had a failure or two but will have accomplished a lot and taken risks as part of that failure. A-players aren’t always great leaders. But that doesn’t matter. You want humble people with the will to succeed not only as executives, but as your “doers.” Startups need not just A-level strategy and A-level vision, but A-level execution.
Attracting A-Players
In Silicon Valley, the job market is very competitive, and companies such as Facebook, Google, and Zynga pay top dollar. So startups have to be clever to keep up. That means using company culture – bright, driven people working together on big things – to set themselves apart.
Last year after graduating from Y Combinator, MixRank co-founders Ilya Lichtenstein and Scott Milliken raised an angel round and set out to expand their team. At first they were unimpressed with the vast majority of the resumes. So they began to reach out into the community using Twitter, Hacker News, technical forums, and open-source mailing lists to engage talented, passionate engineers. They wanted independent thinkers with a healthy disrespect for rigid rules and authority. What attracted the “right” candidates wasn’t the money, even though they offered market-based salaries and equity, but rather the vision and culture. They were excited about the big data problems that the startup is tackling and the opportunity to have a significant impact on the technical direction of the company.
Likewise, when I took the helm at my current startup, ShopCo, and was talking about recruiting from the local university, I was told the average engineer made “X” amount. I told them I didn’t care what the average made; that I wanted to know where the five best graduates were going and how much they were being paid. Those were the five I wanted to hire.
Keeping A-Players Happy
In the 1980s, Benjamin Schneider developed the “attraction – selection – attrition” framework and the notion that organizations tend to become homogenous over time because they attract and select people who fit in. Those who don’t fit in tend to leave. The implication is that as long as a company has a somewhat homogenous group of A-players, it will remain a largely A-class organization.
But this is only part of the story. A-players need a pat on the back now and again. What’s interesting is that they only value pats on the back from other A-players. They don’t value the approval unless they respect and admire the person giving it. So developing a critical mass of A-players has an added benefit: The company tends to repel B-players and attract other A-players, reinforcing what it has built. Zappos employed this theory when it famously offered its employees $2,000 to quit under the assumption that A-players aren’t motivated by money and only B-players would take the deal.
The bottom line is this: B-players tend to be more vain and less secure. They want to be admired, regardless by whom, to make themselves feel superior. So B-players often attract other B-players and more commonly C-Players, who look up to them. In other words, A-players beget even more thoroughly A-companies and B-players eventually beget C companies.
Consider that A-Players….
- Are not just from big name companies. They come from failed startups as well.
- Don’t only come from the top schools. But those who don’t can learn just as quickly as those who do.
- Are motivated by winning and being around other A-players.
- Are not always the smartest, but they want to win and know that learning and execution are two of the key factors to making that happen.
- Leave, but generally don’t want to. Find ways to keep them if they are aligned with your direction. If they are not aligned with the direction, they can kill you.
- Are not always motivated by recognition and financial rewards, but give them both. Then other A-players will come.
Ben T. Smith IV is CEO of ShopCo, a startup focused on reinventing circular shopping with a social experience. He is also a Venture Partner at Accelerator Ventures and co-founder of MerchantCircle.com and Spoke.com. Ben blogs at btsiv.com, and you can follow him on Twitter at @bentsmithfour.
Victor Belfor is a startup advisor and investor. You can find him on Twitter at @vbelfor.
[Top image credit: nasirkhan/Shutterstock]
Filed under: VentureBeat
Friday, June 29, 2012
Apple rumored to release upgraded iPad in summer, says paper
Apple rumored to release upgraded iPad in summer, says paper: Apple is reportedly set to launch an upgraded 9.7-inch iPad in the summer of this year with the device shipment volumes expected to increase starting September, according to a Chinese-language Apple Daily report citing sources from market watchers.
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