Odeo as we know it is gone. After announcing itself in February 2005, the company raised a $5 million venture financing with Charles River Ventures and a bevy of angel investors. After a private beta period, the company launched in July 2005. It’s now a little over a year later and Odeo now faces dozens of competitors, including iTunes. Founder Evan Williams has spoken publicly about the company’s mistakes, has shut down one service and has launched another. If anything, Odeo gives every indication of going sideways. Instead of a dramatic business change along with a new round of financing, Odeo has kicked out its investors and is going it alone. Evan Williams along with Biz Stone and all other current Odeo employees have created a new company called Obvious Corp. This new company has purchased the assets of Odeo, Inc. (including Odeo and Twitter) from the investors and other shareholders. Evan told me “I decided to buy the assets myself and make Odeo and Twitter part of a new entity with a new structure and new model.” The buyout price is undisclosed, but is presumably a little more than the $5 million in capital the company raised – Evan says it is “enough for the VCs and angel investors to be made whole (i.e., they get their money back), and the common shareholders (including co-founder Noah Glass) to make a modest gain.” What’s the new Model? Evan says this: Everyone I know in the web world either works for one of the Internet giants and wants to be in a startup or is in a startup that wants to be bought by an Internet giant. The grass is always greener, of course, but I believe there’s room for a different model for building and running web properties. Obvious will be a kind of product lab, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. There are many details to be figured out, but the general idea is to simply build and launch things that we want to exist in the world, with a high degree of freedom. And to do so cheaply and quickly, with self-organized teams that can leverage each other’s technology, talents, and traffic. Rather than looking to be acquired, we plan to make money from the services and share it with the people who contribute. Occasionally, it may make sense to spin things out → Read More
Of late there has been a lot of interest in virtual web worlds such as Habbo Hotel, WarCraft and Second Life, well now you can add a new name to this list Perplex City which combines the real world with the virtual world to create an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) . Today Mind Candy, the UK based developers behind the ARG (Alternative Reality Game) Perplex City, announced they had raised $7 million from Accel Partners and existing investor Index Ventures and NewMedia Spark to fund a major expansion of new products to be announced in early 2007 including the development of its second major puzzle brand aimed at a younger demographic. An ARG is a form of mystery or treasure hunt that blends real world events, websites, text messages, TV, print and a wide range of other media to create an immersive gaming experience. Mind Candy’s signature game, Perplex City, is a combination of a story, a game, and a real-life treasure hunt that revolves around the search for a missing treasure, a valuable artefact, the Receda Cube, which has been stolen from Perplex City and buried somewhere on Earth. The Perplex City Academy has launched a worldwide hunt for the Cube, using puzzle cards to gather interest and spread clues. They’ve also put up a very real reward of £100,000/$200,000. The game has proved most popular with 16 to 30 year olds and currently has tens of thousands of players from 92 different countries around the world. The investigation into the theft is still unfolding. Clues and information have been hidden in newspapers, websites, magazines, sky-writing, music CDs, phone calls, SMS messages, live events, videos, puzzles and games all over the planet. “Find out who stole the Cube and you’ll be one step closer to locating it and claiming the six-figure prize!” To join the hunt, click here. The second season of the game will be launching in early 2007 and there are currently a wide-range of new Perplex City products in development including books, video games and mobile content. Michael Smith, CEO of Mind Candy, said: “Our first game, Perplex City, has generated several million dollars in revenue and tapped into the rapidly growing popularity of both puzzles and Alternate Reality Games. Now we plan to take that to a new level by evolving our products to appeal to a larger, more mainstream audience.” Bruce Golden, General Partner → Read More
Oliver at MobileCrunch has posted an exclusive first look at the newly launched mobile video site Veeker. The service catches mobile video clips sent by MMS then delivers them to contacts, public and personal pages. A series of short clips can be subscribed to by RSS and feeds of clips can be played automatically in an embedded player on another site. In other words, I record video from my phone, send it through Veeker and it appears in a player on my website. YouTube does support incoming video from phones, but there’s quite a few steps that would need to be taken to reproduce the kind of functionality that Veeker promises. Critics contend that mass market extensive use of mobile video is unlikely. Obviously Veeker is a company betting otherwise. I won’t comment on the long term likelihood of widespread mobile video creation, but I will say that I am impressed by this company’s aims. Oliver goes into much greater detail about the service and the executive team is particularly significant. At least two (Roger Raderman and Alex Kelly) are guys whose previous companies have been acquired for large sums. I can’t help but compare Veeker to sites like Twitter or Dodgeball, but Oliver is thinking bigger. He’s of the belief that there are business uses of the technology. I think that with just a little imagination, a service like this could make a lot of things possible. Quite simply, Veeker makes it easy to incorporate near real-time video as one part of a whole website. Check it out over at MobileCrunch. → Read More
I had the good fortune to be invited by NMK to put together a half-day seminar on the phenomena of the new 3D worlds of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and Virtual Worlds (the main one being Second Life of course). Had I not been chairing it I would have been able to take better notes, and I will try to put something up soon about it. However, as usual there were some great bloggers in the audience and among them Alan Patrick has done a very thorough write up. We also had PaidContent and almost legendary Adam Reuters there. For myself I would say a standout development I picked out of the discussion – and there were many – was the eventual merging of Social Software networks like MySpace with Second Life. The most notable example of this – (and possibly the first) – is the ability of users in Playahead to be able to flip their profile into a Second Life avatar with all their preferences and networks intact. That, to me, is potentially very revolutionary, and I don’t use that word lightly. Imagine if people flip their MyPSace profile or even their LinkedIn or Blog into Second Life? Since Linden Labs is about to make the whole thing an open source project – while retaining control of the crucial namespace facility – we may well be able to all do this in the not too distant future. → Read More
Karel Baloun, one of the first engineers to join Facebook, recently wrote and self published a tell-all ebook on his experiences there called “Inside Facebook.” Early reviews are mixed, although I found the book to be an insightful look at a successful startup from a key insider. The language is rough and unpolished, but the content is going to be interesting to people fascinated by Silicon Valley culture. The book, in downloadable pdf format, is available for $12 ($9 for students). Baloun is also selling a printed autographed version of the pdf for $39. TechCrunch readers can read the book for free online for the next 36 hours at a special link they’ve created. Read it here. → Read More
Web 2.0 Ireland (very much worth a look) has a useful, if bald, profile of Segala, a “certificate authority in Web accessibility and mobile standards compliance”. So that’s nice. However, Segal seems to be working on a personalised mobile search engine called Search Thresher. If someone wants to give me the inside story, get in touch via the usual channels. → Read More
It’s been a big day for Web 2.0 funding announcements. This morning we posted on Series A closing at $3 million for GotVoice. Now San Diego based online video editing service Eyespot has announced closure of its own first round of funding. The funding was led by Silicon Valley firm Gabriel Venture Partners to the total tune of $3.7 million. VentureBeat appears to have broken the story. Eyespot offers drag and drop flash video editing direct to consumers and in partnership with companies like Blip.tv and Veoh. Competitor Jumpcut was acquired by Yahoo! last month. From cell phone ring tones to short video clips, online multimedia editing is clearly being bet on as the next step for the YouTube generation. Veoh has Michael Eisner and Overture’s last CEO Ted Meisel on its board. Blip.tv is the foundation of CNN’s new citizen video initiative. Partnerships like this make Eyespot look like VideoEgg, the company that provides browser based video capture to social networking sites from Bebo to Dogster. Liz Gannes reports that Eyespot also has partnerships with Lions Gate Entertainment, Current TV, Zomba/Jive, TVT, Columbia, Epic, Island Records, and Concord Records. What a list! TechCrunch UK broke a funding story today as well. Online gaming company Mind Candy has announced that it’s raised $7 million from Accel Partners, Index Ventures and NewMedia Spark. Mind Candy has created a very popular game called Perplex City. The game incorporates real world events, websites, text messages, TV, print and a wide range of other media to create an immersive gaming experience, says TechCrunch UK’s Sam Sethi. For details on the company and its plans for expansion based on this funding, see Sethi’s coverage. → Read More
I think it was only towards the end of last year that Simon Grice’s etribes-backed panel and networking event started, but it quickly became one of the handful of good places to go and “talk Web 2.0″ in London. It’s no coincidence I guess that etribes relaunched soon after mashup got going. The next mashup event is on 13th December (Wednesday), in central London. The last event was in September – which about 180 senior execs registered for – focused on ‘Digital Lifestyle Aggregators’, a long-winded phrase but a useful acronym invented to describe the user-generated content and community focus of the likes of MySpace etc. Indeed, etribes is itself a pretender to the DLA crown – and they have as good a shot at it as anything, especially in the more “consumer friendly” market. The mashup event in December, dubbed Advertising 2.0 will, as the blurb says, explore “how the online advertising, lead generation and marketing sector is rapidly evolving and adapting to new technologies and media (including high bandwidth video and audio).” In particular it’ll look at the ‘viral’ effect endemic to social networks. As Simon says: “the impact of the Internet and Web2.0 services on marketing represents probably the biggest single shift in the way products and services are ‘advertised’ and it’s taking place right now.” And who would disagree? Meanwhile Library House is organising “MediaTech 2.006: who is walking the walk?”, a one day event on November 30 at the Imax Theatre, London. The contact for it is research@libraryhouse.net (and registrants through mashup should put the code MID06 in the Fax line of the online payment/registration form). (If there seems to be demand, I may do some live blogging from one or both of these events, depending on the circumstances). → Read More
Alienware is known for building high-end gaming PCs, but don’t expect to be playing F.E.A.R or Prey or any other current 3D game on its new media center. While it features a top-notch AMD 64 FX-62 dual-core CPU, a 1,000-watt amp (yes, its own power amp) and an HDMI output for high-definition video, Alienware went with integrated graphics on this box. I know space is limited in this thing, but couldn’t you have maybe, just maybe, used a discrete mobile GPU? At least the MCE PC looks pretty damn good when compared to other MCEs out there right now. The stock hard drive is 160GB, but you can upgrade to 1.5TB, just in case you need the extra space. High-definition video output, a fast CPU and power amp all in one MCE, and all for $1,000 isn’t a bad deal at all. Alienware MCE PC: Sleek And Powerful [gizmodo] → Read More
I’m going to be honest, the PlayStation 3 looks like it can grow arms and legs and destroy my Xbox 360. It is massive. Why Sony decided to use the Spiderman font baffles me, but really, who cares? You can see the console, all the normal wiring and the highly talked about SIXAXIS controller. Check out more pictures after the jump. → Read More
I am a blogger with a lot of opinions, and because of that I’ve been involved in a number of heated discussions around journalistic integrity and ethics. Mainstream media defines journalistic integrity as a lack of financial interest in the subject matter of their reporting. I think integrity goes far beyond financial interests; in our subjective world conflicts of interest are nearly impossible to define around money alone. But the friction destruction and market efficiency qualities of the Internet are leading blogs in particicular to face a serious credibility challenge, and I believe this must be dealt with in a direct and open manner. The WOMMA guidelines are a good start, but I think more practical and far reaching advice is also needed. I also think that we need more than a set of principles. There have to be consequences when journalists stray. Chris Heuer is one of the good guys that is trying to help shape the evolution of the social media. He reached out to me a couple of weeks ago to discuss the beginning of a discussion around blogger ethics, disclosure, etc. There is an initial meeting tonight to discuss the issues around blogger and new media ethics. If you are a blogger or journalist, or just have an opinion, I will consider it a personal favor if you show up and share your thoughts. If you are a blogger, I also request that you consider writing about this and linking to Chris’ post on the subject, here. I’m hoping that this discussion leads to a framework for a disclosure policy that can be adopted by journalists and that will lead to completely transparent writing. What comes out of this meeting will likely be debated online from there, and a workable solution eventually adopted. The event is at CNET’s offices in San Francisco tonight from 6-8 pm. Read about it here. Sign up for it here. → Read More
Web based voice mail management system GotVoice announced today morning that it closed a first round of funding with $3 million from Ignition Partners, Second Avenue Partners and Cedar Grove Investments. One representative from each fund will join the GotVoice board. GotVoice converts your voice mail to MP3 format and sends it to you via email. The company is working on a beta feature that will alow users to compose voice mail messages through the browser and deliver them to a list of recipients simultaneously. Michael Arrington reviewed GotVoice in June. He gave it a generally mixed review but said that he really liked the conversion to MP3 format. I’ve tried the service myself and had the dreadful misfortune of owning one of very few phones the company says do not work well with the system. I don’t feel a strong need for this function in the first place. Chris Pirillo loves GotVoice and interviewed the company’s CEO in January. We wrote about another web management tool for telephony called GrandCentral in our coverage of DEMO. That service offers far more functionality in a complex leverage of VOIP, but if simplicity is what you seek then GotVoice might work well for you. Other companies funded by Ignition Partners include Jobster, Judy’s Book and Melodio. Second Avenue Partners has invested in NewsVine, among other companies. → Read More
WARNING: Do not click on the movie above. You will be subjected to a tossle-headed Chinese man brushing his teeth for 2 minutes. This is not a drill. Exclusive Video: Hasbro Tooth Tunes MP3 Toothbrush [Gizmodo] → Read More
I was locked in an unforgiving contract through the RAZR-fad so thankfully, unlike Gavin, I was never swept in the fray. Despite never owning one, it was impossible not to notice the now-ubiquitous-phone. Even in New Orleans, it’s everywhere. I don’t think I can leave the house without laying eyes on one. The funny thing that was always apparent to me, was that the RAZR was an inferior product to Samsung’s A900—the Blade. Sure the RAZR came first, trailblazing the field of slim and sexy in cell phones, but who cares? Samsung did it better. → Read More
Our favorite American retailer Wal-Mart has rolled back the price of the PlayStation 3 to $299, allowing all gamers to experience the “play beyond” gaming of the PlayStation 3. Just kidding, but hey, we can’t blame Wal-Mart for this mishap, someone must’ve taken a look at the price tag of the PS3 and said, “Well that just can’t be right!” and corrected it. To whomever that was, thank you for assuming that $600 for a console is absurd. Too bad when it goes up again, it will remind us that we won’t be able to eat for a few months if we buy the console. Wal-Mart Rolls Back PlayStation 3 [you newb] → Read More
So I was at Starbucks the other day and while standing in line, trying to avoid eye contact from girls (they have cooties), when I saw this stare beaming back at me from a shelf. I guess it’s supposed to be a ghost, but the similarities are apparent. Clearly Starbucks ripped off Squid Vicious and differentiated him by simply adding an extra eye. Well, we’re on to your Starbucks. We’ll be waiting on that royalty check… → Read More
, is now available at T-Mobile’s website for $199 after a $50 mail-in rebate. We hate mail-in rebates. Anyway, for those T-Mo fans waiting for a QWERTY alternative to the Treo, today is your day. The Windows Mobile-sporting, WiFi enabled smartphone should also be in stock at your local T-Mobile store. T-Mobile Dash [T-Mobile] → Read More
“Better late than never is” what my mother always used to say, as I brought home another last place ranking in my track and field events. Evidently Sprint execs think the same way, evidenced by them finally get the Motorola RAZR V3m in their lineups. The phone, like all previous incarnations on Verizon, has Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, EV-DO and a gigantic $290 price tag. Seriously? Luckily there’s a $150 “instant savings” and a $90 mail-in rebate to knock it down to $50. If we were you, we’d stick around for some Moto KRZR or Moto RIZR action instead of spending our hard earned fifty dollars on this grandpa. Product Page [Sprint via Engadget Mobile] → Read More
you won’t get a Wii, but that doesn’t matter. At least you’ll have tried. Various scans of the 2006 version of the annual huge holiday catalog for Toys R Us known as “The Big Book” have surfaced online, with one detail that’s attracting the most attention — the book has a page devoted to the Wii that says pre-orders are available. The book, set to be released in this Sunday’s paper, says “Reserve Wii Now.” Toys R Us opens up pre-orders for Wii this Sunday [TGDaily] Catalog Scan [GoNintendo] → Read More
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