He thinks it’s a scam to make it harder for iPhone (and soon, iPad) owners to use Wi-Fi, so that they instead use 3G and run up service charges. This is nutty. The carriers — AT&T especially — really do want iPhone owners to use Wi-Fi. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is practically begging iPad users to use Wi-Fi.
PlumWillow, a to-be-launched social shopping site betting that teens will skip the mall for online—as long as online shopping is social enough—has raised a seed round led by Crossbar Capital. The site promises to “empower its members to shop together with friends, make wardrobe choices from multiple brands, design their own outfits, customize an avatar and share these choices through their social networks.”
That sounds part Fashion Playtes (which lets tweens design their own clothes and has raised $1.5 million of its own) and part ThisNext (which lets users build profile pages with their recommended purchases).
PlumWillow CEO Scott Stone’s catchy quote in the release: “Ninety-five percent of apparel bought today by teens is purchased from stores, in large part, that’s because the online shopping experience today is like the mall was 30 years ago—boring.” The site is “coming soon.”
Related
Local shopping search tool Milo.com has expanded its coverage of 50,000 retailers to allow customers to watch for local sales. Milo already offers what the company says is “real-time availability and pricing information.”
Why use Milo? Because your local big-box retailer often doesn’t have the exact same items in stock as the company’s website. For instance, Milo.com can list exactly which televisions are in stock at the Best Buy in Bangor, Maine. It’ll also tip you off that the store in Portland, a couple of hours away, has a model you might want instead.
“More than fifty percent of retail is done at big box stores,” Milo.com CEO Jack Abraham told me in a phone interview. “Outside of San Francisco and New York, a shopping trip for most people involves driving one way or the other. We can save people a lot of time, by telling them what’s in stock at their local outlets.”
Milo works better for non-clothing items like cameras, barbecue grills and TVs. When I tested it by looking for boots, I got a lot of out-of-stock notices, and not that many boots all told. Abraham says that’s because clothing retailers don’t track individual items as closely as sellers of less personalized items. Clothes come in different sizes, colors, cuts and patterns, so it’s harder for retailers to maintain a database of boots than a database of cameras.
Still, Milo’s massive database of two million-plus products makes it worth hitting before you get in the car.
Milo.com, founded in 2008, is based in Palo Alto, California. The company received a $4 million round of funding from True Ventures in November 2009.
Companies: Milo.com
People: Jack Abraham
HDI CEO admits that smaller laser 3D HDTVs could become a reality, 103-incher coming in June originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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HDI CEO admits that smaller laser 3D HDTVs could become a reality, 103-incher coming in June originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsVerizon Wireless has jettisoned its $100 mail-in rebate requirements for its Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus smartphones, possibly smoothing the way for shoppers to snap up the gadgets.
The Pre Plus is now available for $149.99 and the Pixi Plus is going for $79.99. The devices in January were introduced at $149.99 and $99.99, respectively, after a $100 mail-in rebate.
A Verizon representative did not immediately respond to questions about the action. However, the carrier told Wireless Week that there was "a brief period where we tested mail-in rebates on some phones. We have found that online customers expect instant rebates and since this is a very competitive arena in which to do business, we responded accordingly."
Verizon made the price change shortly after Palm issued a warning about its expected revenues, and after Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said in a memo to employees that Verizon's launch of the company's products was "below expectations." In the memo, which came to light late last month, Rubinstein said he and Dave Whalen, Palm's senior vice president for global sales, recently had a "very successful meeting with Verizon Wireless, where they acknowledged that their execution of our launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales."
Palm said it expects its full-year revenue to be "well below" its previous estimate of between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion.
For more:
- see this Wireless Week article
- see this IntoMobile post
Related Articles:
Palm CEO: Verizon's launch 'below expectations'
Palm cuts revenue forecast, shares plummet
Palm watching: Analysts worried about uptake at Verizon
Analyst confident about Palm-Verizon partnership
Verizon's Palm pricing: WiFi hotspot service to cost $40
Xyratex (XRTX) shares are trading sharply higher Monday morning after the storage subsystems company lifted its guidance for the fiscal first quarter ended February 28.
The company says it now expects to report revenue of $313 million to $318 million, up from previous guidance of $245 million to $285 million.
The company sees GAAP EPS of 77-87 cents, up from previous guidance of 24-52 cents.
“We have continued to see an improvement in demand in both our businesses and across all of our major customers,” CEO Steve Barber said in a statement. “The actions we undertook with regard to the supply chain have helped mitigate the component constraints that impacted our fourth quarter revenue within our Networked Storage Solutions business. Our upside in revenue this quarter is primarily attributable to the NSS business and reflects the shipment of fourth quarter backlog as well as incremental demand during the quarter. We are confident that the fundamentals within the markets we serve will continue to improve into our second quarter.”
XRTX is up $2.64, or 17.2%, to $17.97.
Filed under: Hybrid, Etc., Electric, Diesel
U.S. Annual Energy Outlook predicts "alternative vehicles" won't top 50% market share in 2035 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments(Editor’s note: “Ask the Attorney” is a weekly VentureBeat feature allowing start-up owners to get answers to their legal questions. Submit yours in the comments below and look for answers in the coming weeks. Author Scott Edward Walker is the founder and CEO of Walker Corporate Law Group, PLLC, a boutique corporate law firm specializing in the representation of entrepreneurs.)
Question: My two friends and I have been working on a new venture for almost a year. Our site is in beta and we actually have a few customers (it’s a subscription-based model). We’ve spoken to a lawyer about incorporating, but we don’t know how to split-up the stock. Should everyone just get one-third?
Answer: Not necessarily… The splitting of equity is a significant business decision, which must be negotiated among the founders based upon their respective contributions to date and their expectations going forward. Simply dividing the shares equally among the three of you may sound fair on its face, but it’s usually not the correct decision.
Factors you need to consider include:
The bottom line is that every venture is different, with varied contributions (past and future) by the founders. It might help to sit down with your co-founders and your lawyer and hash this issue out. As I have previously discussed, you will also need to hash out the vesting schedules, including whether any founders will vest a portion of their stock “up front” and/or whether a one-year “cliff” will be imposed on any founders.
Something else to keep in mind: When launching a venture, the first rule of thumb is to incorporate as soon as possible (when the venture has as little value as possible). Among other things, this allows you to be able to issue stock to the founders for a nominal purchase price, meaning they can share in the increased value of the company (and quickly begin the capital gains holding period).
To the extent the venture’s incorporation is delayed and its value increases (due to the meeting of certain milestones, etc.), there may be tricky tax issues with respect to the purchase price or value of the shares issued to the founders. If the company were ever audited, the IRS may take the position that the shares sold for a nominal purchase price actually had value. That would make those shares a form of compensation to the founders (particularly if the shares were issued on a date close to a financing date) and there would be taxes due on them.
As I have previously discussed, another good reason to do this is to protect against personal liability. Good luck!
Disclaimer: This “Ask the Attorney” post discusses general legal issues, but it does not constitute legal advice in any respect. No reader should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information presented herein without seeking the advice of counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. VentureBeat, the author and the author’s firm expressly disclaim all liability in respect of any actions taken or not taken based on any contents of this post.
Tags: ask the attorney, legal quesions
This morning Citysearch is unveiling a new local online ad program called “CityGrid Complete,” managed and fulfilled partly by OrangeSoda. The IAC-owned company has also invested in OrangeSoda as part of the new relationship.
I spoke last week with Citysearch CEO Jay Herratti who said that the company chose OrangeSoda because Citysearch believes it has the best SEO solution in the market. OrangeSoda has been offering SEO, paid-search and what it calls “loccal search maps optimization.”
According to the press release:
The first of its kind, CityGrid Complete is the only online advertising solution that gives local businesses the ability to reach millions of consumers monthly by building customizable content ads that are distributed across the web. In addition to content ads, CityGrid Complete includes SEO services designed to drive consumers from all the major search engines directly to their own websites. CityGrid Complete customers also receive access to an integrated web-based dashboard allowing advertisers to actively monitor and manage their campaigns, ensuring they receive the highest quality leads for their advertising budgets.
CityGrid Complete will source leads through Citysearch’s CityGrid network, which the company says has “500K paying advertisers, enhanced listings and content for 15M businesses, and reaches more than 140M unique users across 100 web and mobile sites.” OrangeSoda will be managing SEO and paid-search fulfillment. CityGrid Complete is, as the name suggests, the most complete of the Citysearch ad programs. There will be less ambitious offerings for those with smaller budgets.
Herratti was asserting to me that this new offering is the most effective and comprehensive for SMBs available online. To the SMBs themselves Citysearch’s offerings may not look very different than before, but the platform, sourcing and fulfillment on the back end is going to be quite different.
It appears that Citysearch has built a way to deliver leads to its advertiser-customers that is substantially cheaper overall — without a corresponding loss in quality — than pure PPC reliance, which is the way most of these programs began.
This is also great validation for OrangeSoda, which is always mentioned as the fourth local SEM firm: ReachLocal, WebVisible, Yodle . . . and OrangeSoda.
I’ve been writing quite a bit about the evolution of the ad products that are being offered to the local market and how they’re “diversifying” into SEO, data monitoring and reputation management. The new CityGrid Compete program is another general example of that phenomenon.
_____
See this previous, related post about CityGrid.
You know I want an iPad. And I don’t just want it somewhere in April, I want it now, or at least as soon as possible!
A few days ago I tweeted out a request for help (shown on the right here). I received a few helpful replies from people who were willing to stand in line for me but also a suggestion to talk to Linda Hemerik, the CEO of US Unlocked.
Her company provides people with a local address and credit card so they can shop locally in the US. Very convenient as a lot of ecommerce sites only ship to the US. I ended up signing up at the site and have now pre-ordered and paid for my iPad!
Linda Hemerik has published a post detailing how the whole process works of pre-ordering iPads on her blog. I’m copying her blogpost here, with permission, so you too can pre-order your iPad today:
Taken from https://www.usunlocked.com/blog/?p=425
After many speculations on the exact date the Apple iPad will sell, the official news todays is that the Wifi-only version will start selling April 3rd through Apple online and authorized resellers. Pre-orders are taken from March 12th onward on the Apple website, orders will have to be collected from the Apple store on April 3rd. Can you imagine the lines snaking around the block and beyond?! The 3G version will start selling late April.
No details are known in regard to the maximum number of iPads that can be pre-ordered per person and to be collected from the store on April 3rd.
The international online shopper who wants to be a proud owner of an iPad before the device becomes available overseas (late-April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, coinciding with the release of 3G model) if even, will do best to buy the iPad through authorized dealers like B&H and MacConnection. All you need is:
- US Unlocked Card with enough balance on it
- US Unlocked shipping address
- VPN connection through Hotspot Shield
The US Unlocked Card can be applied for here by paying $10. It is a pre-paid virtual Discover debit card with your own registered US billing address. Cards are usually assigned within one business day. Once loaded with the desired amount it can be used to make online payments on websites that only accept US credit cards. The payments for card loads are done through Paypal and take 5-7 business days to clear.
To be ready to purchase the iPad on April 3rd, now is a good time to apply for the card and load it. Make sure you register your shipment on https://www.usunlocked.com/ship_it.php to receive your US Unlocked shipping address that you will use when placing the order. US Unlocked will receive your iPad on your behalf and send it to you in your home country after payment of the shipping cost
The use of a VPN connection when accessing the site where you will be purchasing the iPad, provides you with a US IP address: the finishing touch to a seamless transaction. Download the software for free: Windows Mac.
How are you getting your hands on your first iPad? Flying to the US in April? Having friends stand in line for you or are there more ways to pre-order online? Let us know in the comments…
Filling a position left open since 2008, former Novell CTO Jeffrey Jaffe has taken on the role of chief executive officer for the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).
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DAM Talk Podcast : George Knox CEO Vermosa on Enterprise Content Governance http://bit.ly/cJU7bO
[Direct Link]
Apple's CEO Steve Jobs, was spotted milling around at the big Oscars gala on Sunday night, bursting onto the scene like a human Pop Tart. Mister Jobs was captured posing for a snapshot with director Jon Chu and earlier in a Where's Waldo style group shot on the red carpet.
It was perfectly fitting to see Apple's CEO on hand at the Hollyweirdo event, knowing that the first iPad commercial would be airing during the 2010 Academy Awards.
[Photo Credit: Jon Chu]
Mister Steve Jobs was spotted milling around at the big Oscars gala on Sunday night. Captured above posing for a snapshot with director Jon Chu and earlier in a Where's Waldo style group shot on the red carpet.
It was perfectly fitting to see Apple's CEO on hand at the Hollyweirdo event, knowing that the first iPad commercial would be airing during the 2010 Academy Awards.
[Photo Credit: Wayne Sutton]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
