Condition ONE Demo from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.
Condition ONE just released its immersive video app for iPad that takes viewers inside of experiences such as the revolution in Libya, insurgency in Thailand and war-like violence on the streets of New Orleans.
Condition ONE, which won "Best in Show" at the LAUNCH 'Pad tablet conference in October, lets visual storytellers immerse their viewers into a scene. When played on the iPad, users simply tilt, pivot or swipe to view the scene from different angles. While the app doesn't offer a full 360-degree view, there is a wide enough field of view to make you feel like you're really there.
"We merge technology and creativity to push the limits of visual content and provide technology for immersive experiences on tablet devices," Condition ONE CEO Danfung Dennis tells LAUNCH via email.
Condition ONE has two viewing options: Immersive and Touch mode. Immersive mode works using the iPad's gyroscope.
[ See screen shots after the jump. ]
Watch BranchOut CEO Rick Marini on TWiST Today at 1pm PT
Rick Marini, founder and CEO of BranchOut, will be on This Week in Startups episode #205 today at 1pm PT.
Rick founded the professional networking service on Facebook in July 2010. BranchOut leverages users' Facebook relationships to help them find jobs, endorse friends and more. When users sign up for the BranchOut app, they transform their Facebook profile into a professional profile.
In October, BranchOut launched the first enterprise software product available on Facebook, RecruiterConnect, to help match recruiters with job candidates.
Before creating BranchOut, Rick founded...
Rick founded the professional networking service on Facebook in July 2010. BranchOut leverages users' Facebook relationships to help them find jobs, endorse friends and more. When users sign up for the BranchOut app, they transform their Facebook profile into a professional profile.
In October, BranchOut launched the first enterprise software product available on Facebook, RecruiterConnect, to help match recruiters with job candidates.
Before creating BranchOut, Rick founded...
Tweet Scheduling Site Buffer Now Lets You Post to Facebook, Zuckerberg Impressed
Buffer, the tool that has scheduled millions of tweets since launching in December 2010, now lets you schedule Facebook posts, and simultaneously post to Twitter, as well, to keep your profiles up-to-date with fresh content.
To date, Buffer has scheduled 2.6M+ tweets and Facebook updates. Buffer has plans to let users schedule posts on Google+ and LinkedIn as well. Now, users can add Facebook posts to their queue and have Buffer schedule it for publication at the most optimal time, using its algorithm based on research for peak times on the service. You can also post that same update to Twitter.
"Joel and I also briefly stopped by at Zuck’s office to show him the latest Buffer for Facebook...
Zynga Stock Scandal Prompts "In Defense of the Google Chef"
[ Former Google chef Charlie Ayers is now a successful restaurateur in Palo Alto. ]
We won't get into the debate around Zynga's policy of getting certain employees to give up stock options [ see the original Wall Street Journal article and the response from Fortune's Dan Primack. ]
But here's how the WSJ describes the rationale behind Zynga's intention to keep certain early employees from benefiting too much from their options: "Many in Silicon Valley cite an early-hired Google Inc. cook whose stock was worth $20 million after the firm's 2004 IPO. Zynga attempted to avoid such pitfalls. In meetings last year, Zynga executives said they didn't want a 'Google chef' situation, said a person with knowledge of the discussions."
Now a blog post entitled "In defense of the Google chef" -- a response to the WSJ article and written by early Google employee Ron Garret -- is burning up Hacker News.
Ron writes, "As someone who was there in the early days I can tell you that [chef] Charlie Ayers
Wish Apple's App Store Was Social? Try Crosswalk
We all know the App Store isn't designed for app discovery beyond what's already popular and Apple chooses to feature. Existing apps for app discovery haven't solved the problem either.
Considering how social everything else is, you should be able to see what apps your friends have downloaded/favorited, follow interesting people and share comments/reviews on apps you use as well as get relevant recommendations. And developers should be able to know more about who's downloading their apps and when as Apple doesn't offer real analytics.
Just-launched Crosswalk, built on Apple's iCloud API and requiring Facebook to log in, has created the social layer that Apple has not, making all of those things possible -- the platform for developers will launch soon and provide the company's primary revenue stream.
For app users, it's actually
Google Acquires Apture: How Long until We See AdWords in Search Pop-up Boxes?
Google has just acquired search startup Apture for an undisclosed amount and will soon integrate its search pop-up boxes into Chrome. While some have said Siri threatens Google's search dominance, this acquisition could change search as we know it.
Here's why: Apture lets you highlight any word or three-word phrase on a web page and opens a pop-up box that shows relevant news articles, content from Wikipedia, Google images and YouTube videos. Frequently highlighted words can be turned into clickable links, which also open a pop-up box with relevant content.
We're wondering how long it will take for Google to start integrating AdWords into those pop-up boxes, which would let them monetize essentially every word on a page -- and eventually nearly every web page out there.
For now, Apture only works on sites that have added the service -- more than 1B so far according to the company -- and on Safari and Firefox with the Apture extension. Google previously...
Here's why: Apture lets you highlight any word or three-word phrase on a web page and opens a pop-up box that shows relevant news articles, content from Wikipedia, Google images and YouTube videos. Frequently highlighted words can be turned into clickable links, which also open a pop-up box with relevant content.
We're wondering how long it will take for Google to start integrating AdWords into those pop-up boxes, which would let them monetize essentially every word on a page -- and eventually nearly every web page out there.
For now, Apture only works on sites that have added the service -- more than 1B so far according to the company -- and on Safari and Firefox with the Apture extension. Google previously...
Ducksboard Offers Real-time Dashboard to Manage All Your Analytics, Launching Soon
Web analytics tool Ducksboard, launching soon, provides web publishers with a highly customizable dashboard for real-time monitoring of 45 data points, including Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook.
Publishers can add widgets to monitor Foursquare check-ins, website visitors, Facebook likes, Mailchimp email campaigns and more on a single page.
Ducksboard also lets publishers have multiple dashboards to monitor more than one site or service, and offers an API for further customization.
[ See screen shots after the jump. ]
Room 77's New Hotel Booking Service Lets You Score the Perfect Room
Personalized travel search engine Room 77 has partnered with major travel booking sites like Expedia and Travelocity to now let you book rooms at 120K hotels worldwide directly through Room 77.
Room 77 leverages the data it has collected and indexed on 500K+ hotel rooms in 2.5K properties to provide travelers with details on rooms such as room category, size, bed type and elevator proximity. Travelers can also compare Room 77 prices with other online travel services, including Kayak and Orbitz, from within the site.
"In terms of price comparison, our motivation was to empower consumers with maximum transparency into pricing," Room 77 General Manager and VP of Product Kevin Fliess tells LAUNCH via email. "Where as most single supplier sites provide a 'best rate guarantee', we said 'forget that' -- let's just show the consumer all the prices from the major travel sites, and let the traveler decide where they want to book."
You can refine hotel search results by criteria, such as free Wi-Fi, breakfast, pets, neighborhood and more. For thousands of hotels, Room 77 offers insider tips the team has "Heard in the Lobby." Room 77 also provides crowdsourced reviews and ratings from travelers.
[ See screen shots and video of Room 77's presentation at the 2011 LAUNCH Conference after the jump. ]
Red Bull Gets Wings on Google+ Brand Page
In the two days since launching Google+ brand pages, Red Bull has emerged as the clear winner for coolest brand page design.
The image section of the Red Bull page features five GIF images that depict a BMX athlete doing tricks, which complements the company's description of "Red Bull Gives Wings to People and Ideas."
Still, their Facebook page is far...
The image section of the Red Bull page features five GIF images that depict a BMX athlete doing tricks, which complements the company's description of "Red Bull Gives Wings to People and Ideas."
Still, their Facebook page is far...
Hallelujah! Facebook News Feed Now Lets You See Recent Stories First
[ Screen shot courtesy of Inside Facebook. ]Facebook is rolling out an update to its news feed to let users have more control over what they see at the top of their stream, according to the Facebook blog.
Now, instead of being forced to view "Top Stories" first, which many users did not like, you can now use the Sort function to see most recent stories first.
"You can also continue to view highlighted stories first, followed by recent stories, like what you see today," Facebook's Mark Tonkelowitz writes on the Facebook blog. "If you don't have the updates to News Feed yet...
Google Copies Facebook Badges and Icons Pixel for Pixel
Now that Google+ pages are out, Google is promoting its Google+ badges and icons for "growing an audience" from any site without having to leave it. These badges, which come in two sizes and the icons in three, are an exact copy of Facebook's badges -- and Google does not care.
Facebook copied 90% of what Google+ has done. These include circles (Facebook's improved "friend lists"), hangouts (integration with Skype isn't nearly as robust, however), larger photos, and the ability to take game notifications out of your stream.
Google is now doing to Facebook what Facebook has done to everyone else in the social space. For example, Facebook added
Does Twitter's Activity Feed Violate Facebook's Patents?
You might remember that about 18 months ago -- in February of 2010 -- there was a flurry of news around Facebook patenting the concept of a news feed.
It created a mini bruhaha because of prior act involving Friendster, LinkedIn and Tribe.net in 2003, regarding the Friendster-owned "Six Degrees" patent, which places restrictions on constructing social networks. Plaxo, the company co-founded by former President of Facebook Sean Parker, now owns that patent.
With Twitter launching an activity feed we wonder if this is an issue or not. LAUNCH has contacted both Facebook and Twitter and will update this story if we receive a response.
Facebook's News Feed patent abstract states, "Updates to landing pages of users in an online social network are fed from external sources so that...
How Will Facebook Compete with This? Google Lets You 'LIKE' Images
Google lets you +1 just about anything on the web, from news articles to search results, and now, Google Images.
When browsing Google Images, simply hover over an image and a +1 icon will appear.
Let's say you want to share with friend a cute puppy you found, now you can easily +1 it to share. When your friend searches for images of puppies, he or she will be able to see any images you have recommended. Your recommendations will also appear in the +1 tab of your Google+ profile, which is required in order to +1 content.
[ See screen shots after the jump. ]
Ironic: Creepy App About Dangers of Facebook #1 Fastest Growing App on Platform, 3.5M New Users in Past Week
The creepy horror app Take This Lollipop, which shows just how much of your personal information is collected and stored by Facebook, is currently the fastest growing application on Facebook, according to All Facebook statistics.
Take This Lollipop is essentially a horror film where you are the victim. The app has 9M monthly active users, 470K daily active users and weekly growth of 3.5M users.
“When you see your personal information in an environment where you normally wouldn’t, it creates a strong emotional response,” director and creator of the app, Jason Zada, told The New York Times. “It’s tied into the fears about privacy and personal info that we have now that we live online.”
Facebook has received a lot of heat for its privacy policy in regards to...
Take This Lollipop is essentially a horror film where you are the victim. The app has 9M monthly active users, 470K daily active users and weekly growth of 3.5M users.
“When you see your personal information in an environment where you normally wouldn’t, it creates a strong emotional response,” director and creator of the app, Jason Zada, told The New York Times. “It’s tied into the fears about privacy and personal info that we have now that we live online.”
Facebook has received a lot of heat for its privacy policy in regards to...
Coach's Eye Sells Sports Video Analysis App for $0.99, Others Sell Service for $3K
Mobile sports video analysis tools continue to emerge with the launch of Coach's Eye, an iOS app that provides an easy way for coaches to record and review an athlete's performance.
The app, created by TechSmith, lets coaches record video to capture the athlete's movement, review the video in slow motion, draw circles or squares to point out errors, add audio critiques and more. The app works for most sports, like baseball, soccer and yoga, as well as for unique uses like teaching proper chopstick technique (video below). Coaches and chopstick masters can also import footage from Dropbox via email to mark the video within the app.
"It's very well designed, looks great; the best part is that it validates our vision of...
The app, created by TechSmith, lets coaches record video to capture the athlete's movement, review the video in slow motion, draw circles or squares to point out errors, add audio critiques and more. The app works for most sports, like baseball, soccer and yoga, as well as for unique uses like teaching proper chopstick technique (video below). Coaches and chopstick masters can also import footage from Dropbox via email to mark the video within the app.
"It's very well designed, looks great; the best part is that it validates our vision of...
Sweet: Tweet Directly from Hacker News with New Chrome Extension
We can't live without Hacker News (you probably can't either), but its lack of features can be frustrating. Go figure why developers have made alternate interfaces and Chrome extensions to improve the experience.
The newest Chrome extension adds tiny "tweet" links to the right of the comments in both the listing view and the discussion view [ see below ] so you can tweet an article without copying/pasting.
The tweet includes the article headline and the link to the original -- not HN -- so if you want to promote the HN discussion of your piece, you still have an extra step.
Developer/entrepreneur Wesley Zhao wrote the code...
Apple Sends iOS 5.0.1 to End Users, Update Should Improve Battery Life, Activation Issues and More
Apple's AppleSeed program has started sending iOS 5.0.1 to select users, as well as to developers, to test the battery life, activation issues and multi-tasking on the original iPad. Apple expects to release the update to all users within the next few weeks [ h/t 9to5Mac ].
"A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices," the program states," the internal memo states. "...Apple has found a few bugs in iOS 5 affecting battery life and Apple will release a software update to address those in a few weeks."
In addition to improving battery life, the update should fix activation issues, multitasking gestures on the original iPad, and resolves bugs with documents in the Cloud. When iOS 5 first launched, users reported brick phones following installation, in addition to activation issues.
[ See screen shots after the jump. ]
Chris Sacca Deletes Klout Account, Tweets "Conversations Are Better When No One Is Keeping Score"
Angel investor Chris Sacca has deleted his Klout account, which indeed is no longer active although the Klout extension for Chrome still shows he has a score of 70.
Chris's reason for deleting his account, as he explained in a tweet: "Conversations are better when no one is keeping score." He followed up with a zinger: "Dance like no one's watching. Sing like no one's listening. Tweet like no algorithm is coldly deciding your social worth."
Klout made it easier for people to delete their accounts just last week and recently adjusted its algorithm and made the reasons for score changes more transparent; some people's scores dropped as a result.
Chris's first tweet prompted SimpleGeo founder Matt Galligan to respond, "I'll be...
Finally: Twitter Begins Rolling Out Real-time Activity Streams
Twitter seems to be slowly rolling out its new real-time Activity and @Username streams after introducing the tabs back in August.
The Activity stream is very similar to the Facebook News Feed, as it lets users keep track of what their friends or followers are doing across the network by showing their favorites, follows, retweets, mentions and more.
Additionally, instead of the @Mentions, you can now navigate to @Username to see mentions, retweets, new followers and posts that users have marked as a favorite.
[ See screen shots after the jump. ]
Facebook's Open Graph Boosts Growth at Spotify, 4M More Users since f8
Facebook developers for music services such as Spotify, Earbits, MOG, Rdio and Slacker, have already benefited from the Open Graph since f8, which lets them heavily integrate a social experience into their apps.
"Since f8, people have shared their listening activity more than 1.5 billion times with their friends using the music apps that have integrated the Open Graph," Facebook's Casey Maloney Rosales Muller writes on the Developer blog. "As a result, some of our biggest music developers have more than doubled their active users, while earlier-stage startups and services starting with a smaller base have seen anywhere between a 2-10x increase in active users."
Here are the highlights: Since f8, Spotify added 4M users, Earbits saw...