The Next Web |
- Google confirms it will shut down goal sharing service Schemer on February 7
- Beats Music streaming service launching on January 21 for $10 per month
- Windows 9 reportedly to be announced in April 2014, released in April 2015
- Why 2014 will be the year of the “Acqui-entry” in Latin America
- Make your Android device a whole lot smarter with these handy apps
| Google confirms it will shut down goal sharing service Schemer on February 7 Posted: 11 Jan 2014 12:46 PM PST  Google has confirmed it is shutting down its goal sharing service Schemer. The company says Schemer's last day will be February 7, after which all data will be permanently deleted. The iOS app has already been pulled from Apple's App Store while the Android app on Google Play hasn't been updated since October 2012. A leak late last year first suggested Schemer was next on Google's chopping block. Google Operating System posted a screenshot of an internal version of the Schemer site, which stated the following: "Schemer will be shut down on [insert date]. We had launched over a year ago to help people to do more awesome stuff, and it has been quite an adventure for us as well! However, we have come to the difficult decision to shut down Schemer. Your schemes will be available for download until [insert date]." Now the date has been filled in. If you've been using Schemer, you have less than a month to download your schemes. To do so, follow these steps:
For those who don't know, Schemer arrived in December 2011. It let users discover new things to do, share schemes with friends, and "make the most of your day." Schemer required a Google+ account but wasn't promoted by Google, which quietly stopped updating it many months ago. Google recommends two alternatives to Schemer users: the "Explore" section on Google Maps for Android and iOS for finding interesting things to do nearby and Field Trip to uncover unique things in your city. Both are great for discovery, but neither offer a goal-oriented experience. For reference, the full Schemer discontinuation announcement reads as follows:
See also – Google isn't done with location, launches Schemer in private beta and A video tour of Schemer, Google's solution for finding things to do This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Beats Music streaming service launching on January 21 for $10 per month Posted: 11 Jan 2014 11:34 AM PST  Dr. Dre's music streaming service is almost here. Beats Music, which will go up against the likes of Spotify, Rdio, Pandora and iTunes Radio, will launch on January 21. Beats Music will cost $10 a month for all-you-can-eat music, just like its competitors. AT&T is also partnering with the service to offer it bundled with smartphone plans. In addition to the $10 per month plan, AT&T will exclusively retail a family plan that provides five accounts for just $15 per month. Instead of just offering music and leaving users to discover their own tracks, Beats Music attempts to help them discover artists and albums. A feature called "right now" generates playlists based on elements in the physical world: people, locations, activities and genre. The New York Times trialled the feature by choosing "I'm at the beach & feel like pre-partying with my friends to dance-pop" which returned a playlist of the Chemical Brothers, Lady Gaga and Janet Jackson. The Beats Music app onboards users by asking what genres they're interested in and then recommends music tailored to users' tastes. After that, they're encouraged to follow artists, like/dislike tracks and pick their favorite genres so that the service can recommend new artists accurately. The company boasts that it combines musical analysis with human editors to help curate and create great playlists and recommendations for users. According to The New York Times, Beats employs music experts such as Scott Plagenhoef, the former editor of Pitchfork to help curate content and ensure that there's a human element in the playlist creation process. Beats Music will only launch in the US on January 21 for iOS, Android, Windows Phone as well as the Web. The company is also taking email addresses of those outside the US for a later launch. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Windows 9 reportedly to be announced in April 2014, released in April 2015 Posted: 11 Jan 2014 10:51 AM PST  Rumors of the next major Windows release codenamed "Threshold" have been circling for some time now, but Paul Thurott has now revealed further details on the next version of Windows. Threshold will reportedly bring a number of major changes to Windows 8, such as the return of the Start Menu and the beginning of a converged platform encompassing Windows Phone and Windows RT. The company is also working on delivering a single app store across Xbox, Windows Phone and Windows. Thurott mentions that "Threshold" will likely be titled Windows 9 to "distance the company from the Windows 8 debacle" because "Windows 8 is tanking harder than Microsoft is comfortable discussing in public." It's true that Windows 8 has struggled to gain rapid adoption; even with the major tweaks in Windows 8.1 (which is free) the company has not seen more than 25 million PCs install the update, according to Thurott. Windows 8 adoption still lags behind that of Windows 7, despite having been on the market for over a year. Traditionally, Microsoft releases a preview of an upcoming version of Windows at its BUILD conference (which will be held in April of this year). Instead of previewing a full new version of Windows this year, Thurott believes that the conference will see the release of an interim update labeled "Windows 8.1 Update 1″ alongside the release of Windows Phone 8.1. Thurott's sources believe that Windows 9 will be delivered in April 2015 with major changes that refine and develop the Modern UI interface (please, give us windowed mode for Modern apps!) as well as potentially splitting Windows into consumer and enterprise versions. Delivering Windows 9 in 2015 means that Windows 8 will have been available for almost three years and may mean that consumers will look elsewhere for tablet devices. Microsoft has its work cut out; three major platforms (Xbox, Windows Phone, Windows) will need new features this year to bring them closer as a family of products before Threshold seals the deal. Image: Joe Radle/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Why 2014 will be the year of the “Acqui-entry” in Latin America Posted: 11 Jan 2014 09:30 AM PST  Juan Pablo Cappello is an investor in more than twenty early stage companies, among them he is a co-founder of Idea.me, Urbita and the LAB Miami. Juan Pablo was a partner in Patagon.com and was named in December 2013 by Poder Magazine one of the most influential Hispanics in Science and Technology. His blog can be found at jpc.vc The Chinese Zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao, is based on a twelve-year cycle, with each year in that cycle linked to an animal sign. The Latin America venture space seems to have also followed a twelve-year cycle. 2014 is the year of the horse in the Chinese Zodiac, which seems appropriate since beginning with the current twelve-year cycle in 2009, the TechoLatino (Latin America's tech ecosystem) has been growing steadily from a trot to a gallop. TechoLatino's past four years, and what is in store for 20142010 was TechoLatino's year of the "Venture Fund" in Latin America, with the likes of Tiger Global, Accel, Redpoint, Sequoia and other international funds beginning to make investments in the region (albeit initially focused on Brazil), and Argentina/Uruguay based Kaszek Ventures raising over $80mm to make local investments. These investments generated attention for TechoLatino from the very cliquish venture world inside Silicon Valley. 2011 was TechoLatino's year of the "Accelerator/Incubator", with local early-stage accelerators like NXTP and 21212 coming into their own, 500 Startups setting up shop in Brazil and Startup Chile scaling the concept of "venture tourism" by offering $50,000 for startups to go to Chile. This flow of early stage capital enabled a generation of Latin millennial to think of "entrepreneurship" as a career path. 2012 was TechoLatino's year of the "Angel Investor" in Latin America. Prior to 2012, angel investors in Latin America usually required draconian terms in favor of the angel, with the angel gaining virtual control of the company. 2012 was the year that local and United States based angel investors began investing in earnest in Latin America, permitting startups to raise $250,000-$750,000 under convertible notes or at valuations of between $1 million and $3 million, using Silicon Valley entrepreneur friendly "series seed" terms. 2013 was TechoLatino's year of "Scale" in Latin America, whereby certain local companies showed that the high-end Latin American companies could compete on the world stage. Companies like Argentina's Globant filed its $86 million IPO on the NASDAQ, Venezuela/Miami's OpenEnglish raised over $100 million in a one year period, traffic to Argentina's Despegar grew to over 38 million visitors a year, and Brazil's NetShoes continued to exceed expectations in advance of the World Cup. 2014: The year of the Acqui-entry2014 will be remembered as the best time in a generation to have bought a venture-backed company in Latin America as an efficient way to gain entry to the quickly growing Latin America market (known as the "Acqui-entry"). The opportunity in Latin America is extraordinary and valuations generally remain very low compared to similarly situated U.S. based startups. Acqui-entry is not to be confused with "acqui-hire", which is very popular in Silicon Valley, given that hiring a capable engineer can cost upwards of $500,000. The term acqui-hire sometimes has a negative connotation as it suggests the company being acquired was bought mainly for its human talent rather than for its product. Acqui-entries into Latin America are a bit more complex. They involve the acquisition of talent and of a product, but the "secret sauce" is that provide a low-cost vehicle for entering the Latin America market and growing an international presence. The Latin market for acqui-entries is particularly attractive at the moment for three main reasons: LatAm's compelling demographics: Latin America today has over 280 million Internet users, which is more than the whole of the United States. With over 600 million consumers in Latin America, the Latin American Internet consumer market likely will mature with somewhere near 450million consumers online in the coming years. To put these figures in context, in the year 2000 there were only about 18 million Internet users in the whole of Latin America, and at such time, the US had at least seven times more Internet users than Latin America. Even more exciting than just the number of traditional online consumers, in the five-year window between 2012 and 2016, we'll see over 150 million new Internet users in Latin America thanks to the spread of basic Internet enabled smart phones. This mass influx of new consumers represents a once in a generation opportunity for international companies to access the Latin America market on the precipice of an explosion of new middle and lower middle class online consumers. The needs of those new online consumers remain desperately unmet. Latin America's regionality: Entrepreneurs in the Latin America in the past five years have done many things the wrong way (i.e., too many "copy cats" of international counterparts, raising too much money before determining the needs and desires of their consumers, and charging into Brazil without understanding the local culture). However, entrepreneurs in Latin America got one very important thing right – they understood that for almost any company to be successful in Latin America, it needs to be a regional play. Thus, almost every venture-backed company in Latin America was built from day one to be a regional company, and as such, the management teams of such companies have experience in operating in multiple markets. The ability to acquire a management team that has experience with operating in multiple markets is of huge value, as increasingly more US-based companies realize that the next great stories are going to be written by the 3 billion plus non-US-based consumers that will be connecting to the Internet in mainly emerging economies in the next five to seven years, many of which are in Latin America. Compelling low valuations: The overwhelming majority of Latin American based start-ups are facing the "valley of death". In Latin America there is still plenty of early stage capital available. There are also plenty of investors looking to invest $5mm or more in high growth companies. The so-called "valley of death" remains the "Series-A" $1-3 million raise that so many start-ups in Latin America have unsuccessfully tried to accomplish the past two years. Two years of "bootstrapping" (stringing together small financing amounts to make ends meet) has made many entrepreneurs in Latin America open to deal terms that would have been unthinkably low just a short time ago. Many Latin America based start-ups have failed to raise Series-A capital because they have been measured against their peers in the United States, which is an unfair comparison. The lesson of the past 13 years of technology enabled businesses in Latin America is that building a great, sustainable, regional tech business in Latin America takes time—a lot more time than it would take to build a similar business in the United States. For instance, both MercadoLibre and Globant took more than eight years from inception to go public. Despegar has spent the past 14 years consolidating its position in the region. Latin America is not the region of the "overnight" success. The fact that building a business in Latin America takes more time and effort than building a similar business in a developed region should not be surprising given the complexity of the myriad of exchange rate, inflation, tax, labor and political issues that every company in Latin America must address country by country. A prospective acquirer, whether a well-capitalized, venture-backed company or a strategic investor, should not care why Latin American companies are facing a financing squeeze. Prospective acquirers in the region have the luxury of being offered great values. Deal termsHow great are the deals? Actually, the terms are at present potentially staggeringly favorable for the acquirer. I would wager that least 50% of Latin American tech-enabled companies launched in the past several years would be open to being acquired for a combination of cash and equity worth between $3 million and $8 million — a paltry amount to a acquire a company like hundreds of technology companies in Latin America, with a real product, real customers, operations in several countries, revenues of $10,000 – $50,000 a month and a management team that has spent several years learning how to run a regional business. To be attractive, these types of acquisitions generally need to have a cash component, which permits the existing investors in the company being acquired a 1x-3x return on their investment. So if a typical startup raised $250,000-500,000, think that a buyer to be competitive often only has to come to the table with $750,000-$1,500,000 in cash, which is a remarkably modest investment given the opportunity. The rest of that $3-million-to-$8-million consideration may come in the form of equity in the acquirer. For the acquirer, offering its stock aligns interests and "stings" a lot less than writing a check for the full amount of the purchase price to acquire a business in a region the investor does not particularly understand. Also, that sizeable equity component provides a nice cushion if there are unexpected contingencies with the Latin company that is being acquired. ———- In short, 2014 offers a once in a generation opportunity for prospective acquirers of technology-enabled businesses in Latin America. The demographic trend indicates over 150mm consumers coming online in the region in a five-year period and valuations of local technology enabled business remain incredibility low…. for now. So 2014 is TechoLatino's year of the Acqui-Entry so its time to "Let's make a deal" and get these "acqui-entries" closed. Image credit: Shutterstock This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Make your Android device a whole lot smarter with these handy apps Posted: 11 Jan 2014 07:10 AM PST  The leap from feature phones to smartphones didn't happen overnight. Slowly but steadily, our phones grew smarter and smarter until they'd become capable enough that we could fulfil most of our computing needs on these pocket-sized devices. The onset of powerful third-party apps spurred that progress into overdrive, so much so that most of what we do on our phones these days isn't even possible on the full-size desktop computers they are derived from. In this series of two articles, I'll take a look at six Android apps that allow you to insert your own brand of customised artificial intelligence into your phone. I'll go into detail about how to set up and use each of the following apps and provide examples of real life usage scenarios to help get you started. These apps range from the very simple to the pretty complex—but fear not, enterprising mobile warrior, because I'm here to guide you every step of the way. (Regular readers of TNW may note that the apps in this list are a subset of our "40 Must-Have Android Apps for the Power User". This is by design. While the previous article only briefly summarised each app's functions, this one goes into detail about the ones that have to do with automation and includes instructions on how to set them up and use them.) First up, Gravity Screen… Gravity ScreenLet's start with Gravity Screen. Throughout the day, you take your phone out of your pocket countless times, whether it be to check your email, respond to that message you just received, dial a call or even just check the time. Isn't it bothersome to have to press that power button every time you do so and press it again before you put it back? Gravity Screen can take care of that trivial everyday annoyance for you. The way it works is that it detects when (a) your phone is either oriented upside down or placed face down; and (b) its proximity sensor is covered. If both conditions check out, it will turn off the display for you. Reverse the conditions, and voila, it will turn it back on! As long as you're willing to change your habits with regard to how you store your phone—upside down in your shirt or pants pocket and face down on flat surfaces—Gravity Screen works with 100% accuracy with the default settings and consumes minimal battery. On my phone, it does not even show up on the battery usage statistics screen.  Gravity Sensor's pocket and table sensor features enable it to automatically turn your screen on/off based on whether or not it's being used.  The permanent notification helps the app remain awake more reliably in the background and gives you a convenient way to pause its functionality. If you'd rather not keep your phone face down, there is a setting that'll allow it to detect when the phone is placed face up on a flat surface, but it consumes more battery that way and it gets annoying to have to pause the app (which you can do by tapping on its permanent notification) when you want to use the phone on a bed or table. In this mode, the app will also turn on the screen if anything accidentally passes over the proximity sensor, which annoys me no end. Other features of the app include the ability to "keep the screen on by motion". With this feature enabled, you can set your screen's timeout to a very low setting (say, fifteen seconds), but while you're actively using it, Gravity Screen will detect the tiny motions of your hand and keep the screen awake. When you place the phone on a stationary surface, it will allow the timeout to function. I found this feature to be an unnecessary waste of battery life and prefer to simply keep the timeout to a respectable two minutes, but you may want to give it a shot. The following are the Gravity Screen settings that I have arrived at after a little trial and error, and that work best for me. Feel free to use them as a guide when setting it up for your own usage:
Available for free from the Play Store, the lite version performs well and has almost all the features of the paid version, with a few minor exceptions. Like the developer himself says, "In the Pro version the screen can be turned on by motion up to 16 hours instead of 15 minutes. Also, in the Pro version the Table sensor is more accurate." I use the pro version myself and highly recommend that you pay the $1.50 upgrade fee if the free version works well for you. Read on for our next app… SpeakerPhone ExNext up is SpeakerPhone Ex. In the same vein as the previous app, SpeakerPhone Ex intends to solve one small everyday annoyance of using a phone and does it exceedingly well. Yes, your phone turns itself on when you take it out of your pocket, but why do you have to manually answer incoming calls before you bring it up to your ear? SpeakerPhone Ex makes it possible to answer incoming calls just by performing that action. Answering calls based on sensor input is risky business, so it is important that the app is reliable. In my several months' experience of using this app, I've had fewer than five times when the phone was accidentally answered before I'd intended it to. For the most part, it works great, especially if you take to stowing your phone in your pocket upside down (as you need to for using Gravity Sensor). The app is intelligently designed and the default settings are well considered. My only recommendation is that you enable the "Stop auto answer face down" setting in the "Stop When" section of the app's preferences.  SpeakerPhone Ex will automatically answer and hang up calls, and even manage the speakerphone state while a call is in progress.  The delay and touch sensor options make it harder for it to trigger accidentally in your pocket, but aren't necessary on most phones. SpeakerPhone Ex also has the ability to manage your speakerphone for you. It will automatically turn on the speakerphone if you bring the phone away from your ear during a call and silence it when you reverse that action. If you manually intervene, it will stop automatically toggling it for you for the duration of that call. There are various delay options built in to guard your privacy. I have set it to delay switching speakerphone on by 1.5 seconds, which gives me enough time to change between ears during calls and to disconnect them after I'm done without the speaker turning on. The paid version of the app adds several more features, among which is the ability to automatically hang up calls when the phone is placed face down (but it's missing a pocket detection feature, like Gravity Sensor, which would've made this particular feature significantly more handy), various call related alerts (which I don't find useful) and the ability to "fine tune the auto answer functionality, to minimize accidental answers". Again, it is well worth the $1.50 purchase. Next up, Nights Keeper… Nights KeeperMoving on from the core functionality of using a phone, there's a free app called Nights Keeper that makes it possible for you to get a good night's sleep while it manages your incoming calls, messages and other notifications for you. And when I say "manage", I mean it shuts them up until absolutely necessary, so you're only disturbed if something more important than your rest comes calling. Nights Keeper will allow you to schedule a profile that activates at a set time every night (or on days of the week you specify) and deactivates on the morning after. It will silence your phone entirely—muting all phone calls, notifications and media sounds—and turn off vibration, but will keep an eye out for urgent calls.  Nights Keeper will start its profile at a scheduled time each day and screen all but your most urgent calls for you.  It displays a permanent notification while a profile is active, so you can turn it off manually if you wake up early. If you get a call from someone, it will automatically screen it and send them a text message of your choosing. But if they keep calling you repeatedly, it will eventually allow them to get through. You can configure how many screenings one has to go through before the phone will ring (it's set to two missed calls on my phone) and set up a whitelist of contacts who can always get through to you on the first try. Other features of the app include the ability to reduce brightness, turn off auto sync, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and your mobile network at night and re-enable them in the morning, but I find myself having no use for them. There are also a bunch of other settings you can configure and a widget you can use to quickly activate the night profile at any time irrespective of the set schedule. Next: Shush! Ringer Restorer… Shush!Perhaps the simplest app on this list is Shush!, but it is also the most universally useful. You may or may not find the other apps here simple enough or relevant enough for you, but pretty much every Android user would benefit from having Shush installed. When you go to a hospital or a movie and silence your phone, you never have to remember to turn it back on again after you leave. Shush throws up a simple dialog asking you how much time you need the phone to be silenced for when you flip that switch and you can either tap on a button to silence it indefinitely or set it to any time in fifteen-minute increments.  The simple preferences screen of Shush allows you to change the highlight colour and turn it on or off.  Shush pops up when you put the phone into silent or vibrate mode and allows you to set a timer on when it expires. When silenced, it will show up as an ongoing notification, letting you know at what time the silent period ends. At any point, you can tap on the notification to restore the original volume of your phone. The only bug with the app is that it never restores the vibration setting and I've contacted the developer to try to get it fixed. Besides that, Shush is an excellent app and can be yours for the low price of free. ➤ Shush! Next: Unlock with WiFi Unlock with WiFiGiven the volume of sensitive data we store on our smartphones, it is essential that they be impenetrable if they fall into the wrong hands—and yet, no one wants to sacrifice convenience on the altar of security. The solution is provided by Unlock With WiFi, an Android app that keeps your device protected against unauthorised access by a PIN lock, but gets rid of it when it isn't necessary. Unlock With Wifi maintains a list of trusted WiFi networks and automatically removes your PIN lock when your Android device is connected to them. Step out of your home or office and it promptly re-enables the authentication screen, so your data is protected if the phone falls into the wrong hands. Once you install the app, it'll ask for device administrator privileges, which it needs to work its magic. After you grant that, you can no longer uninstall the app until you revoke that permission. For this reason, if you ever wish to uninstall it, you should do so from within the app itself.  Unlock With WiFi automatically unlocks your phone on trusted wireless networks.  It includes options to automatically toggle Auto Sync, Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi. Add your favoured wireless networks to its list and set up a PIN lock to get started. The app uses the standard Android lock screen, so you do not lose any functionality on that front, but you cannot change the PIN code from the system settings app anymore. Unlock with WiFi also gives you options to automatically turn off WiFi when you leave a trusted network and turn on Bluetooth, GPS and other settings. I found no use for those features, but the core feature itself is worth the $4.00 price of entry. Unfortunately, Unlock With WiFi does not work with Bluetooth and does not support the face and pattern unlock features, but on the positive side, it does not need a rooted device to function either. Also, it does need you to enter your PIN code once when you enter trusted wireless zones before the lock screen is removed. Give the free four-day trial version a run before you jump in with both feet. For those keeping count, that's five out of the six apps I'd promised at the beginning. The sixth app in the list deserves an article all its own and we'll be posting that soon. In the meantime, try playing around with the apps above and feel free to chime in with your questions, suggestions and thoughts in the comments below. Image credit: NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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