Tonight Dogpatch Labs is hosting Wild Pocket's Bay Area Game Jam Workshop. Wild Pockets is one of the several new Dogpatch Labs residents moving in on May 1. Tonight's workshop is being streamed live via Ustream (embedded below) and starts at 6:30pm pst. It will be followed by a Dogpatch Labs Social Gaming evening complete with pizza and keg:
Android: "Traffic Growing at Compounded Monthly Rate of 32% per Month"
For mobile news, the best reading each month is the AdMob Mobile Metrics Report (see previous coverage here). The March 2010 report is noteworthy for a few reasons and have a consistent theme: Android has arrived: 1. Device proliferation / diversity "Two Android devices, the HTC Dream and HTC Magic, collectively represented 96% of Android traffic in September 2009. Seven months later, 11 devices represented 96% of Android traffic in the AdMob network."
2. Manufacturer diversity
"Motorola was the leading Android manufacturer with 44% share of traffic in March 2010 due to the success of the Droid and CLIQ. HTC was a close second with 43% of requests, followed by Samsung with 9%."
3. Significant, compounded growth
"The Android platform has experienced significant growth in monthly traffic over the past year. Android traffic has grown at a compounded monthly growth rate of 32% per month, going from 72 million requests in March 2009 to 2.0 billion in March 2010. AdMob overall worldwide traffic for March 2010 is up 18% month over month."
4. Android's operating system share within the US is accelerating; iPhone's is declining (based on AdMob's metrics
With the iPad, Its Time to Think About Books As Apps
I have already written about how great the reading experience on the iPad is... but its even better when forward-thinking publishers / developers / authors think about book as applications. As an app, books can be richer and more dynamic as the publisher / developer is able to re-imagine the reading experience.
Over the weekend, for example, one of top 25 iPad apps was "Alice in Wonderland for the iPad":
The app costs $8.99 - about the price of a Kindle or iBook title. Interestingly, iTunes might actually be a better distribution lever than Apple's bookstore. I imagine being a top 25 application is more powerful than being a top 25 book (at least at this point).
As a product (also at this point - thanks to Apple's developer tools), the book is richer as an app. Alice in Wonderland is gorgeous: the fonts are big, the imagery is gorgeous and the book is interactive: it moves, animates, takes user input (using motion, touch, etc).
There are numerous instances where this is applicable:
- children's books: much like the Alice in Wonderland examples (see below)
- text books: think about learning anatomy, chemistry, or history interactively
- biographies: rather than a few pictures placed along the book's spine, you could interact with text for photos, video, etc
- new formats: for instance, choose your own adventures are fun in their novelty... similar formats are suddenly part fiction, part gaming, part social
3D has captivated movie audiences and enabled director's to think about film differently - and arguably more creatively - publishers and authors have a similar opportunity.
Amazon Pushes Kindle as Applications; Grows Titles by 20% in Two Months
Being squeezed by Apple's iPad and Barnes & Noble's Nook, Amazon's Kind promotion has moved from hardware to software.
Before the iPad was released, I noted how Amazon aggressively ramped Kindle promotions. The marketing seems to have shifted to platform / application: regardless of the device, Kindle can power your reading experience. Additionally, the same core messaging applies: Amazon's selection in unrivaled. As an iPad owner and iBooks user, this is resonates.
They marketed 420,000 titles on March 1 and less than two months later that number is 500,000+ - a 20% gain.
Levis Promotes Social Shopping with Social Ads
Small update from this weekend's post on Levis great Facebook / Open Graph integration: they are now actively promoting the site with Facebook premium ads. In addition to promoting the Facebook integration, they are providing free shipping for all of today's purchases. "Levi.com is new! Share your favorite jeans with the new Facebook "like" button. Free shipping any order today only."
This is the only ad creative I have seen - but I imagine something that is more colorful and more social is more likely to be clicked. It is tough to convey social AND product within the limited space, but Levi.com has captured it very well... the ads are not there yet. Nevertheless, interesting to see that the Facebook integration comes with an integrated ad campaign!
My One Major iPad Complaint: The VGA Adapter
I have glowingly written about the iPad and its potential to disrupt markets and consumer behaviors. My laptop has become less relevant to my daily life: I no longer bring it home from work and to-and-from between meetings... rather, I depend on my iPad for email, web, and even core apps like Keynote and Pages. Its terrific. ... except for the $29.00 Apple iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter. I can get over the fact that it is ridiculously overpriced (after all, most Apple components are - let alone other tools like HDMI cables). Worse than the price is that the cable:
1. only works with specific Apple-created apps (YouTube, Keynote, iTunes Videos) 2. even with those applications, it rather unusable and does NOT actually transmit what is directly on the screen
Imagining how the cable should work is relatively easy: it should transmit directly what is on the iPad's screen... whether it is for work (ie Keynote, Pages), web, or applications (ie Netflix, MLB At Bat). One of the beauties of the iPad is its portability... this is a clear weakness.
Also frustrating, there is no mention of the limited functionality on the packaging or Apple Store: "Use the iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter to connect an iPad to your television, projector, or VGA display. Then see your videos and slideshows on the big screen. The iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter connects to your iPad or iPad Dock via the dock connector and to your projector or display using the VGA adapter."
The good news is that this is a software (and likely a philosophical) issue. So it is solvable. Hopefully Apple is reading the reviews on the Apple Store (see example below) and addresses the problem:
Sending mine back because it doesn't enable mirroring.
Once again I get suckered into buying an overpriced iPhone or iPad AV connector because Apple cleverly omits the fact that it only works with certain apps. Don't they realize that people buy these accessories mostly to do demos of apps, or to mirror whatever's on their device's screen? This basic scenario does not work with this adapter. I found that it only works when playing video, or if you're a developer and you write special code in your app to support an external screen. So buyer beware...
Levis + Facebook's Open Graph = Awesome Social Shopping
Facebook's F8 announcements featured prominent partner integrations with Pandora, IMDB, ESPN and Yelp... but Levi's quickly demonstrated that the Open Graph and web-wide Like functionality are highly applicable to e-commerce and social shopping. Just as Pandora uses Facebook to personalize music (artist & channel) through your social graph, Levis allows shoppers to like, view and filter products based on social input / preferences.
Shoppers can either view top products from "everyone" or specifically visit the "Friends Store": a storefront with content chosen by your Facebook friends. You can also invite friends directly to shop alongside you and provide their feedback.
Cleverly, Levis also features friends' upcoming birthdays, showcases their favorite Levis products and encourages gifting.
Adding Facebook Social Plugins
Fresh out of Facebook's F8 conference, I have added two of the announced social plugins the blog: 1. The Like Box in the right column, which features an activity stream of the latest 'liked' 2. The Like Button with faces atop each post The Like Button allows readers to like content directly from the post and see friends who have done the same... all without directly "connecting with the Facebook". Simple integration and even simpler interaction. Of course, when something is 'liked' it then makes its way into the Facebook stream; and when enough people like an item, Facebook batches the story into the feed.
Facebook makes it very easy to grab and place the code. It is a simple, configurable iframe (or FBML) and you just need to point to the correct URL:
iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fryanspoon.com&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=570&action=like&colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:570px; height:px">
Jibe Hiring VP of Technology in NYC
Jibe is hiring a VP of Technology. The job is based in New York and a great opportunity to work with leading social technologies as the fourth employee of a great startup. I blogged about why I think Jibe is an important company tackling a big market at the time of Polaris’ investment. Since that time, the company has done its private beta and is hustling towards full public launch. Especially in light of the expanded Facebook functionality announced at F8, we think the opportunity is bigger than ever.
Jibe is firing on all cylinders, and Joe, Peter, and Toby are a talented, lean, and hardworking crew to join on this mission. They’re also great guys on a personal level. The full job spec is below. Feel free to ping me with any questions before applying.
COMPANY JIBE - http://www.jibe.com
POSITION Vice President of Technology
LOCATION New York, New York
WEBSITE www.jibe.com
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
JIBE created the first “Employment Networking Platform” that opens up the social graph of both employers and job seekers to identify the most trusted & qualified candidates.
Designed to bring the power of social networking to online career search, JIBE integrates Facebook and Linkedin to enable employers and applicants to leverage the overlap of their social graphs. From previous co-workers to friends who work with a specific company, JIBE recognizes matches between these two networks as they apply to a job opportunity.
JIBE empowers employers to efficiently search and evaluate relevant candidates that are connected to other employees in their company. By creating a referral-based recruitment process it helps ensure a more satisfied employer and new employee. JIBE’s “employment networking platform” gives applicants benefits that no other job site provides, including the relevancy of job postings to their social connections and real-time status updates about their applications. This level of transparency and feedback gives job seekers the insight needed to get hired for the job they want.
REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS:
You will report to the CEO
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Your responsibilities will include:
- Recruit, support, train, mentor, motivate and lead a best of breed technology team;
- Identify, architect, develop, implement and maintain technology solutions to meet the company’s strategic business objectives;
- Implement a flexible and scalable infrastructure to support a dynamic product roadmap and prioritize deliverables;
- Implement process and procedures in software development and hardware management that speed the company’s time to market for new products;
- Clearly communicate progress and hurdles you and your team face allowing senior management to make data driven decisions
- Manage schedules, budgets and staffing for multiple simultaneous projects;
TECHNICAL & MANAGEMENT QUALIFICATIONS:
- Experience building and leading a highly motivated technical team, in a dynamic product development environment.
- In depth knowledge of Ruby, MySql, graphing databases and search solutions;
- Extensive knowledge building and managing a scalable web infrastructure;
- Experience managing consumer facing web applications and products with substantial traffic volumes and large surges;
- Extensive knowledge in build/release engineering and change management;
- Experience with iterative product development processes;
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS & EXPERIENCE:
The ideal candidate has the following characteristics:
- Business minded engineering executive, with the ability to partner with the Chief Executive Officer and executive team;
- Superior management skills with the ability to create innovative systems that serve the organization’s revenue and business objectives;
- Creative problem solver with a “can do” attitude, a passion for the intersection of media and technology and an enthusiasm for bringing innovative technology products to market;
- A business partner to the senior executive team;
- Lateral thinker with the ability to articulate a strategic decision, give clear direction to technology team and lead by example/inspiration;
- A technical innovator who can amplify product direction with sound advice and creative solutions;
- Willing and able to roll up his/her sleeves and be ‘hands on’ in the process of building and directing the technology organization;
- An excellent communicator with the ability to work effectively at all levels within the organization;
- Impeccable attention to detail and planning along with a process-driven approach towards achieving objectives.
EDUCATION
An undergraduate degree in Computer Science or equivalent is required. An advanced degree is preferred.
COMPENSATION
A competitive compensation package will be offered to the successful candidate. The compensation package will include a base, bonus and equity.
Send cover letter, resume, and work samples to: