This morning, we broke the news that YouTube would be rolling out its new, streamlined Watch page to all users. The aptly named page is the all-important portion of the site where you actually watch videos (it also features comments, ratings, and related videos). At an event at YouTube headquarters this morning, three of the key people involved with the launch — Senior Product Manager Shiva Rajaraman, UI designer Julian Fumar, and engineer Igor Kofman — walked us through some of the changes in the new design, the logic behind them, and some of the early results they’ve seen.
We first saw the new Watch page in January, when the site started allowing users to opt-in to it. To test the new design, YouTube also rolled it out to around 10% of its users. Among those users, YouTube says that it has see a rise in engagement (which includes actions like ratings and leaving comments) by 7%, and an increase in the number of videos watched by 6%. → Read More
Remember the U3-X Mobility Robot from Honda we blogged about last year? Well, the auto-unicycle is still a prototype, but Honda has just released a new (and pretty interesting) promo video on its official YouTube channel. The company says the U3-X can run continuously for one hour on a single (lithium-ion) battery charge and can be recharged via a conventional 120-volt power outlet. → Read More
You can watch Steve Ballmer talking about Ford and Microsoft’s new partnership here but we’ll run a liveblog for you all here so you don’t have to whip out the headphones. Refresh this page to see updates. 10:41 – Ballmer talking about Hohm. Decreases energy costs. Automating and optimizing the process of charging your electric vehicle. → Read More
Hey, Sprint. Whatever changed recently, whoever you hired to save you from the downward spiral you’re in: keep doing it, and give that person a raise. You’ve got the EVO 4G, the first Sprint device (Sorry Palm!) I’ve heard actual, non-geeky people talking about with excitement in as long as I can remember. And now, you’ve just morphed your 30-day refund policy into the industry’s finest. → Read More
Today at the Rosewood Sandhill Hotel in Menlo Park, CA, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers hosted an event surrounding a “mobile content revolution.” The famous venture capital firm was tight-lipped about what this event would actually be about, but the speculation leading up to the event was that it may involve Apple’s new iPad, which is being launched in the U.S. on Saturday. Sure enough, it was.
Kleiner Perkins today announced the doubling (or “doubling down” as partner John Doerr put it) of its iFund to $200 million. Initially, this includes more than a dozen iPad applications due in May from portfolio companies. In March of 2008 as Apple was unveiling its iPhone SDK, Kleiner Perkins unveiled the first iFund, a $100 million fund to spur iPhone app development. → Read More
We’ve seen a steady flow of iPad accessories even since its announcement back in January but this is the first decal we’ve seen. And of course it’s the Queen of YouTube herself, Lady Gaga. Awesome → Read More
Short version: The 1080p is pretty worthless, but if I had to pick one camcorder to take on vacation, the Playsport is the easy choice. → Read More
Sometime yesterday afternoon, some new information started floating around the Kingdom of Ol’ Rumorton. “The Samsung Galaxy S… another version is coming,” whispered the trees of Rumorton, “and it’s called the Galaxy S Pro! And it has a physical keyboard!” The rumors were in a bit too shaky of a state yesterday for us to cover them; we didn’t know much about the site that claimed it, they admitted that it was hearsay, and (outside of the fan-made render above) there weren’t any pictures. Plus, who the hell listens to trees? We decided to skip it. Well, the rumor just got a whole lot more credible. → Read More
SharesPost, a private equity market that allows employees and founders to convert some of their shares into cash launched a publication platform to include reports that give greater insight into the valuations of companies like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We examined last year’s report, which estimated Facebook’s valuation between $4 to $6 million. Today’s report pegs Facebook’s valuation at around $9 billion, which is higher than last year’s number but lower than the $10 billion valuation the social network earned during its latest funding round last year. → Read More
Cisco today announced two new lines of wireless routers: the Valet series and the Linksys E-series. Both share the same design, with the only obvious differentiator being the color. The white Valet routers target the general consumer, while the black E-series is designed for “tech enthusiasts” like yours truly. → Read More
We just received an anonymous tip from someone who claims to have received an email from Yahoo which says that the company’s Google AdSense counterpart, Publisher Network, will be shut down by the company in the next 30 days. There’s some chatter about it on Twitter as well, so this looks like it’s coming from a credible source.
Apparently, publishers are being pushed to Chitika instead, which has set up this section on its website to “make the transition from Yahoo! Publisher Network as easy as possible”.
Update: it’s legit, alright. Full email after the jump. → Read More
A new analyst report from private secondary market SharesPost values Twitter at around $750 million, which is less than the $1 billion valuation it got in its last round of funding and less than the $1.5 billion valuation private shares of Twitter are trading for on SharesPost itself. The report notes that the $1 billion valuation was based on preferred shares, whereas it is looking at common shares.
The analyst report, which you can access here, comes up with an enterprise value for Twitter based on projected revenues, margins, and comparisons to other companies. Depending on the method, it comes up with a range of valuations from $656 million (by comparing Twitter’s estimated enterprise value to comparable companies) to $751 million (by estimating revenues, margins, and a discount rate). → Read More
Ha! Hold on. Let me walk around a little, calm down. Ummm… so Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, the guy who was right about the iPad because he wouldn’t shut up about it for most of the last five years, is saying there’s a “70% chance” that Apple will build a search engine. Barring thought that Apple needs to run a search engine like a fish needs to run a bicycle factory, let’s look at what he’s saying (via BusinessInsider) → Read More
WePay, a Y Combinator backed startup that aims to take the hassle out of group paying, is launching to the public today. As we wrote in our initial coverage of the payments platform, WePay is an easy way to collect, manage and spend money for groups.
WePay’s core architecture is based around a prepaid debit card system, which makes its accounts not only easy to set up but also more flexible when it comes to setting up group paying. So with PayPal, your account is tied to your name, without any way to separate the payments associated with a group. On WePay, you can create a unique, FDIC insured account for each group. While the account is still associated with your name, but you can keep each group account totally separate from your personal transactions. Group money can essentially be kept separate from any individual accounts you may have. You can also designate specific individuals to have control over accounts. → Read More
Look at it. Isn’t it beautiful? NASA says there are more than 10 million stars in that cluster, most of which are older than than our Sun. Just makes you think doesn’t it? → Read More
Paris-based Semiocast, which helps brands understand and interact with real-time Web services, has again done a study on Twitter usage. After finding that only 50% of tweets are in English, based on an analysis of 2.8 million tweets, the company has now looked at nearly five times as many Twitter messages in order to gain more insight on the increased international presence of the popular micro-sharing service.
According to an analysis of 13.5 million tweets published over the course of one week, Semiocast concluded that users located in the United States account for only thirty percent of all tweets. The next English-speaking country on the list comes in fifth, with only 6 percent of tweets analyzed originating from the United Kingdom.
Top countries are the U.S., Japan, Brazil, Indonesia and the UK, in that order. → Read More
NOT FOR KIDS! In all honesty, I don’t think the DSi XL is part of Nintendo’s standard line-up. It’s a reaction to the popularity of the Wii in retirement centers and is aimed at a much older – and much different audience – than the new 3D DS, aptly named the 3DS. Older folks who may have been put off by the DSi’s small size and “kiddie” features will be able to handle the XL just fine. → Read More
The Logitech Harmony 300 might be the last Harmony remote released for a while. It seems the Logitech has refreshed nearly the entire line with the 300 being the latest. It doesn’t offer anything new per se, but rather a simple universal remote with the Harmony magic sans LCD screen. This configuration might be kosher for some setups, but be careful if you have anything more than a cable box, TV, and DVD player. → Read More
Monetization on mobile is a huge business and ScoreLoop wants a piece of the action. ScoreLoop, a white label social platform that helps developer implement social features into their iPhone and Android apps, is entering the monetization game by providing its developers with the ability to monetize their applications. ScoreLoop will provide two primary monetization options for developers. First, they will enable virtual goods purchasing – similar to TapJoy’s virtual goods platform or Plus+ from ngmoco. Second, ScoreLoop will provide developers with a way of charging for downloadable content. For example, you could download a new theme or a new character by paying an extra $0.99. → Read More
YouTube’s video page overhaul, which the company itself says is one of the biggest redesigns in its history, is about to get noticed by a lot more people today.
A YouTube partner just forwarded us an e-mail he received from the Google company, stating that all videos will be transitioned to the newly designed page some time today. → Read More
