technology

Recently, startup Cc: Betty, a nifty service that organized and managed group email threads, decided to rebrand and relaunch its service. The new product, Threadbox, was going to be streamlined and tweaked to appeal to workspace users.
Today, Threadbox is officially launching in private beta, as a more collaborative and user-friendly service. Essentially, the site aims to combine email, IM, and collaboration tools into one platform. Instead of focusing on email like Cc:Betty, Threadbox centers around collaboration in the workplace. The service organizes and logs every type of communications with clients, allows users to share documents and images, and record decisions and feedback. The new service also has the ability to serve as a project management tool, allowing users to share and track requirements and specs, then track and follow team members from start to finish.
Additionally, Threadbox aims to serve as a communications tool between employees, with the ability to gather comments, opinions, exchange feedback, share documents and media on the same page. You can add maps, files start conference calls from within the platform. And as the service’s name implies, all communications are threaded and organized according to client and subject. Threadbox still incorporates elements of Cc:Betty’s technology. You can received notifications of thread activity and reply to threads directly from your email client. It’s unclear if the service will integrate with social networks, like Twitter and Facebook.
The basic Threadbox service is free but the startup offers a premium product for $19.95 per year. Cc: Betty raised $500,000 in December of last year, and has $2 million in total funding now.
With Threadbox the startup is clearly making a play towards the work user; I’m doubt the average consumer will find the service as appealing as Cc:Betty was for personal use. But collaboration is the key word in enterprise-focused products at the moment, so Threadbox will certainly catch the wave of small to medium sized businesses which are looking to upgrade their communication platforms. However, this is a crowded space with many worthy players so the competition, which includes Yammer, Chatter, Jive, Socialtext, WizeHive, and many more products, will be tough.
Here’s a video from Threadbox that goes into more detail about the new service:

CrunchBase InformationThreadboxInformation provided by CrunchBase

I’m a sucker. It’s true. As much you guys think we rail against Apple, we’re like abused puppies, slinking back to our master’s hard ankles, shivering and awaiting praise. Why did I pre-order the iPad? Well, first I’m a gadget blogger. Second there is no certainty that mother Apple will grace us with an early review unit so I want to hedge our bets. Third? I want to see where computing is headed.
Bear with me here. Apple is not the bringer of fire to a benighted world. Far from it. In my recent writing I’ve been struck by a few parallels with Steve Jobs to Abraham Louis Breguet, a French watchmaker who lived in the 18th century. He was a mechanical genius, to be sure, but he was also a salesman. While the rest of the benighted world was sloshing around in an admixture of feces and mud in the streets of Paris and telling the time by whether the pikemen were stabbing them for being out after curfew, Breguet was selling watches that would not be out of place on the wrist (had they had straps) of a whale in Las Vegas. He invented secret anti-counterfeiting measures but made them part of the allure and not part of a DRM scheme. He designed elegant and beautiful watches in an age of rococo designs but wasn’t above creating a “subscription” watch for the masses who wanted to own a piece of the good life without paying an exorbitant sum of money. Other watchmakers were making commodities and following Breguet’s lead. That’s what’s happening here.
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The online Apple Store is currently closed. That usually means that new products are added to the store.Yesterday rumors surfaced that today we could expect new MacBook Pro’s. The rumors were later announced to be fake and the world moved on. Now the store is down so there might be some basis to those rumors after all.More logical would be that Apple is adding a large “pre-Order the iPad NOW” button to the store. The tablet will be available for pre-order today from 5:30am Pacific Time or 8:30am for those living on the east coast of the US.I never understood the need for Apple to take the whole store down during updates. I can imagine Amazon adding hundreds of products every day. What would happen if they would would take the store down every time a new book would be published?So maybe this whole “Apple Store is down” phenomena is just an invention by Apple to get us all excited and holding our breath. Another clever PR strategy? Well, it works for me.

According to BusinessWeek, internet giants Google and Facebook have been sued by a New York-based company called Wireless Ink Corp.The legal challenge is reportedly over a patent relating to software the allows people to interact with a social network using a mobile phone.Wireless Ink Corp., the owner of a site called Winksite, claim Google and Facebook are infringing US Patent No. 7,599,983 which is entitled “Method, Apparatus and System or Management of Information Content for Enhanced Accessibility over Wireless Communications Networks.”According to Wireless Ink, both Facebook Mobile and Google Buzz are using software technology that belongs to the corporation and in a complaint filed on Thursday, the company are seeking cash compensation and a court order to prevent any future use of the technology involved.The legal challenge could impact both companies as they seek to assert their dominance in mobile markets. Google are looking to integrate their products into mobile applications, especially within the Android operating system.Spokesmen from Google and Facebook have declared that the companies are currently reviewing the complaint filed against them by Wireless Ink, Facebook adding that “This suit is without merit and we will fight it vigorously,”.

If you are one of the people looking to be the first to pre-order Apple’s new iPad device, be prepared to get up early (you may already be if you are reading this), because the tablet is due to be available for pre-order today from 5:30am Pacific Time or 8:30am for those living on the east cost of the US.The WIFI enabled model is set to be released on the 3rd April wheras the 3G-equipped version will be available later in the month. Potential buyers will be able to log onto the Apple Store and place an order for a Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi & 3G-equipped model as well as pre-ordering over the phone.Customers have the option to have their iPad delivered to their door or reserve a device to pick it up in person at their local Apple Store.Gizmodo are reporting that if consumers pre-order over the phone, they can expect to get their iPad on the day of launch, those ordering through Apple’s website will see their devices shipped on the day of launch, no earlier.The iPad will be available with three different storage options, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Minus 3G, the iPad is priced at $499, $599 and $699; with 3G, the iPad will cost $629, $729 and $829.All models of the iPad are said to become available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.If you are from outside of the US and absolutely cannot wait until iPad pre-orders start in your country, why not read our article on how to pre-order an iPad if you are outside the US.

As you know, we’ve been a fan of Wibiya’s for some time. We were fortunate to be one of the first to test the toolbar (found at the bottom of this site) and are happy to say we still remain faithful users.Wibiya is currently a toolbar with a number of “applications” built specifically for it. Apps include recent posts, auto-translation, chat, sharing and more. Today, Wibiya is announcing a selection of new applications and an intriguing partnership with photo and video browsing tool Cooliris.First up, Cooliris integration.Websites with the Wibiya bar installed will now be able to use Cooliris Express to create custom 3D media walls, increasing user engagement on their sites while minimizing the bounce rate to YouTube, Flickr, Picasa and Facebook.The Cooliris integration is featured in three new apps:1) Photo gallery2) YouTube Video Gallery3) Facebook photo GalleryIn the settings tab of each one of the Cooliris apps that goes through the process. Users can then scroll through an infinite “3D Wall” of photos or videos without having to click between pages. Don’t just take my word for it, try out the video feature here or browse images here.So what else is new?A number of new apps that should bring a smile to anyone looking to make the most of Facebook and Twitter to generate and keep in touch with their community.New Facebook Fan Page.Fans can now post messages onto your Fan Page on Facebook,com directly from your site. This is a first and goes a long way to making the website more of a central hub.Twitter Lists application – Import your twitter lists to your website. Users will also be able to view full profiles of other users and search Twitter without leaving your website.Justin.tv application – you can now bring your live channel, archive (and soon chat) while showing when you are online and offline and number of viewers.New Real Time Chatter App (via Backtype) Bringing the latest buzz on the web to your website. Show view real time conversations about any subject from millions of blogs, social networks and more.Content Timeline application (via AllofMe) Automatically create a visual and interactive Timeline of your contentUser donation application (via PayPal) Easily add a Donate button on your website. Make it safe and convenient for your readers to support you or a specific cause.Back end Platform (being released tomorrow)- Custom Icons for any application, you can choose to have your own icons on the toolbar for each app.It’s difficult to not be taken aback by the number of “apps” making their way through various partnerships onto the bar. So many apps in fact that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to decide exactly what should be where.The good news is that we’ve been reliably informed that this Israeli startup’s ambitions are far greater than just the toolbar itself, exactly what that means remains to be seen, but with the flow of applications and ever growing number of publications using the toolbar, we can only hope being forced to choose a select number of apps becomes a thing of the past.Wibiya’s main competitor in the space is Meebo, who have a neat toolbar with some application integration but mainly a focus on chat (what they are generally known for). Meebo also seems intent on generating revenue through advertising on the bar itself, something Wibiya CEO Dror Cedar insists Wibiya is staying away from. Rather, the company plans to introduce premium features for premium publications but are happy to continue to build the product out before doing so.

In a move that could change the way sports are broadcast via the internet, YouTube will be streaming full coverage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament starting in just under five hours.Internet search giant Google had secured full internet broadcast rights for all 60 Indian Premier League cricket matches spanning 43 days, streaming every minute of the action to audiences worldwide.The Indian Premier League has fast become of the world’s most popular sports, showcasing the biggest cricket talent and huge cash prizes. Cricket players from all over the world seek permission from their domestic teams to enter an auction where 8 separate teams or “franchises” bid for their sporting services.Visiting a designated URL, YouTube visitors will be able to watch nearly live coverage of the IPL from all over the world. US cricket fans will experience a one or two hour delay as most matches will be broadcast when the US population is sleeping.It’s an interesting contrast from the NBC coverage of the Winter Olympics. NBC came under much scrutiny for the way they broadcast some of the winter events, deciding to not to display live online footage for fear of losing a prime time television audience.YouTube, who don’t have a televisual following, will not have to worry about viewing conflicts, instead they are able to show nearly live sport in addition to post match highlights for those who missed it.Whilst YouTube have secured full broadcast rights, they have also worked out advertising deals with 8 companies including HSBC, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Airtel and HP.Adverts will not be shown during the coverage either; YouTube plans to feature some unique branding solutions including the branding of associated video content, branded YouTube pages and dedicated mastheads. Some companies are so impressed they have committed to advertising deals for the next season of the tournament too.Youtube boasts an average of 1 billion viewers daily, around 400 million of them unique. Google will be watching intently to see how casual visitors respond to the IPL coverage, identifying whether people will be comfortable watching live sports on their favourite video site.If it’s a success, you could see YouTube offering a lot more live sport. You can bet television networks will be keeping a close eye on proceedings.[Source - WSJ]

Editor’s Note: Hermione Way continues her weekly video series, highlighting the start-ups based around London’s Old Street ‘Silicon Roundabout’.WiredUK recently mapped the UK’s technology startups based around London’s answer to Silicon Valley: Old Street’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’. Sponsored by Kodak and TheNextWeb, Techfluff.tv decided to delve a little deeper into London’s startup scene and video interview ten of these companies.This week we look at Habit Industries, makers of Habit Stream – a product that allows brands to make the most of positive conversations about them on the web.The Silicon Roundabout series is filmed on a Kodak Zi8.You can watch part one of the series, featuring SongKick.com, here, part two with Alicia Navarro, founder and CEO of affiliate marketing site Skimlinks here and part three with digital agency Poke here.

Kwedit, the innovative and suddenly controversial payments platform for virtual goods, is releasing some early data.
The service lets users promise to pay later in lieu of a direct credit card payment when they want virtual currency for social games like Farmville. It’s not a legally binding promise, but users have an incentive to pay amounts owed because that allows them to get more virtual currency through the service. Users can pay by, among other methods, mailing in cash or paying at a 7-11.
When the product first launched they had no idea what percentage of promises would be repaid. Anything at all is incremental revenue to game publishers, and since the stuff they’re selling has no marginal cost (virtual currency), it’s all upside. But after nearly two months of being live, they say the repayment rate is 25.9% If you’re a credit company that would put you out of business.
But for game publishers, that’s a staggeringly attractive monetization option. Hopefully the company (or its partners) will also disclose the monetization rate as well down the road. Because right now game publishers are only able to get cash out of 1-3% of users. If they can get another few percent to pay via Kwedit, and 25% of that money is actually paid, revenue from games can double or more.
It’s controversial because Colbert made fun of it, and then the Huffington Post and CBS jumped on the bandwagon. CBS actually called it “toxic.”
Founder Danny Shader posted a long response here. But the short version is this – the criticism is ridiculous. It’s coming in one case from a competitor (the Huffington Post article was written by the CEO of a company that promotes Visa cards to teens and adults, without any sort of disclosure on the conflict). And the author of the CBS article doesn’t appear to actually understand the product and seems more concerned with getting parents all worked up.
The really scary stuff in social games was the Scamville nonsense where teens and pre-teens where being tricked into putting long term subscription charges on their parent’s cell phone and credit card bills. Kwedit isn’t even close to that kind of evil. It’s simply a very clever way of monetizing social games, and the most innovative new payments product I’ve seen in a very long while.
CrunchBase InformationKweditInformation provided by CrunchBase

We’ve talked a lot this week about the so-called “Location War” brewing at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas starting tomorrow. That war will happen, but actually, there are likely to be a lot of winners because a few of the location-based services should be able to leverage the exposure to gain usage after the conference. Those with real bloodlust should probably be watching another war: AT&T versus everyone in Austin on their network.
AT&T’s struggles to stay up last year are well-documented. CNN recently ran a piece about how AT&T hopes to avoid a similar fate this year. But actually, “struggles” is way too kind of a word. If you were at SXSW last year and happened to be on AT&T’s network — like, say, if you had an iPhone, like many festival-goers did — it was an absolute nightmare. You couldn’t make a call. You couldn’t send a text. Data? Ha. At a few points early on I seriously wondered if I had forgotten to pay my bill and AT&T had simply shut my phone off — except that it was happening to everyone.
AT&T has a funny word for the failure, they like to say “unprecedented.” As in, the usage of its network was at level previously unseen as a strong percentage of the over 10,000 festival goers (just the interactive part) were using iPhones. Well guess what? Word is that is year, there will be some 15,000 people there for the interactive part. As Samual L. Jackson’s character, Mr. Arnold, says in Jurassic Park, “Hold on to your butts.”
I’m leaving for Austin tomorrow and I’m terrified of what the AT&T situation will be when I get there. So much so, that I have a back-up plan (which Sprint sent me just in time to test out during SXSW after reading some of my rants against AT&T). With attendance up as much as 50% from the previous year, the number of iPhones in use is sure to be through the roof as well. Did I mention that just about every location-based service known to man is launching an app at the event and hoping every single one of those 15,000 people use it all the time? And based on the early signs, they intend to.
You’ll remember that after Mr. Arnold says the above line in the movie, he’s savagely ripped limb from limb by a velociraptor.
But there may be hope for AT&T. They’re clearly well aware of the failure last year, and did try to solve the issue to minimal effect towards the end of the conference. I asked a company representative what they’re planning to do this year, and they have a plan of attack.
Much of what they sent me is fairly technical, but basically, they now have a system around the Austin Convention Center (where SXSW takes place) that’s the equivalent of 8 cell sites, with 50 antenna nodes to cover the whole venue. Also, they’ve greatly expanded network capacity, moving from one radio network carrier to three, boosting the spectrum available for phones to use. They also say they’ve expanded the capacity of the so-called “high quality” 850 MHz spectrum, which works better indoors because those signals can go through walls easier. They also have the new HSPA 7.2 software installed at all of the 3G cell towers now. But don’t be confused: that doesn’t mean their network has been upgraded to 7.2 Mbit/s speeds (sadly, at the peak, it’s still half that in almost all of the country), it just means that the upgraded software is in place and should be more reliable and efficient.
But there’s more. AT&T has brought in two Cells on Wheels (the so-called COWS that they brought in to help last year), and also a third rooftop temporary cell site. Each of these are equipped with both 3G and WiFi networks to help alleviate overall network strain. AT&T says these three cells are placed in optimal positions around the city of Austin where they expect the most strain.
All of that sounds great, but I’m still terrified. Why? Because I live in San Francisco. AT&T has know for months that the network is awful here, and while there have been baby steps taken to improve it in some areas, more often than not, it’s still awful. Take tonight, for example. So if AT&T knows it’s bad here, but still can’t seem to fix it, why should I believe Austin will be any different? I don’t. I’ll just have to hope I’m wrong.
Or I’ll have to kick back, relax, and take joy in the bloodbath as iPhones are magically turned into glistening bricks being hurled in anger left and right. As I boot up the Sprint Hotspot, of course.

[photo: universal pictures]

The official Foursquare account just sent out a tweet letting everyone know that today is already the service’s biggest day ever. This is interesting since it’s actually the day before the SXSW conference kicks off in Austin, Texas.
According to the tweet, Foursquare broke 275,000 check-ins (the previous record, set last Friday) for the day “hours ago.” This means they’re very likely well past 300,000 now and perhaps even higher. To put that in some perspective, just a month ago, Foursquare set a record with 1.2 million check-ins for the entire week. And that was double was it was the month prior. At today’s rate, Foursquare would be doing well over 2 million check-ins a week.
Today happens to be the first birthday of Foursquare, so they shared some numbers earlier. The service now has over 500,000 users, they’ve given out over 1 million badges, there are over 1.4 million venues in the system, with over 1,200 specials available. And in total, there have been some 15.5 million check-ins. But that was before today’s record numbers.
While there are well over a dozen location-based services launching something at SXSW, the main two competitors vying for users’ time are expected to be Foursquare and Austin-native Gowalla. For its part, Gowalla noted that it was “Amazing to watch the Gowalla action on the eve of SXSW. AMAAAAAAZING!,” earlier today. Both recently revamped their websites, and both yesterday launched their new iPhone apps. And judging from the Vicarious.ly data provided by SimpleGeo, both are absolutely on fire right now and could go nuclear this weekend.
Update: Gowalla has a range of just about every possible venue you can imagine for SXSW and so far (again, the day before the conference), they’ve seen 352 check-ins at the SXSW Badge Pick-Up alone.
CrunchBase InformationFoursquareGowallaInformation provided by CrunchBase

International journalist advocate body Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) has put Australia on an “under surveillance” list of countries with increasingly rigorous control over Internet information flows.The addition puts Australia in company with South Korea, Malaysia, Turkey and several other countries in a group that sits just below RSF’s “Internet Enemies” list, which hosts 12 of the usual suspects including Iran, North Korea, Burma and China.Australia’s inclusion is based on the following:Under the guise of fighting child pornography, the government wants to set up a filtering system never before seen in a democracy. The State of South Australia has passed a law prohibiting online anonymity in an electoral context.With Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey joining the calls for the Internet Filter to be stopped and now an International reporting organisation joining the cause too, it’s starting to feel like the No Clean Feed message is getting some real heavyweights behind it.Hopefully, this is just one more step on the path to making the Government understand the proposed filtering system needs to be reviewed as a matter of urgency.