Mobile Roadie Adds iPad...

Mobile Roadie, which allows anyone to develop and create sleek, rich media iPhone and Android apps, is launching a native iPad app creation platform and self-service mobile website product. Mobile Roadie offers a self-serve app development platform that integrates with YouTube, Brightcove, Flickr, Twitpic, Ustream, Topspin, Google News, RSS, Twitter, and Facebook. Users can build both iOS and Android apps and the company already has a presence in the UK, France, Spain, Australia, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Turkey and Japan. Now brands can create native iPad apps and fully customizable mobile websites, in addition to iPhone and Android apps. The iPad app platform included live navigation widgets which turn the main menu into a dynamic feed of streaming content; hi-res graphics layers, parallax scrolling and slideshows; and the ability to sync content with other apps. The iPad app creation platform costs brands $499 per month or $4,999 per year. The free self-service mobile website product allows any brand or small business to create a mobile-friendly site on any budget. Brands can update content in realtime, create a shortcut icon and more. The company powers more than 3,000 apps for brands of all sizes, adding more than 1,500 apps in the last nine months. Clients include Madonna, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, The Dallas Mavericks, The Miami Dolphins, The World Economic Forum, Harvard Law School, and Wynn Las Vegas.

Hack Your Housing: Chec...

So this is pretty fun. A University of California at Berkeley freshman named Derek Low uploaded a video to YouTube today of what he’s calling the “BRAD”, or the Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm. Apparently, Low set out three months ago to make “the most ridiculously automated dorm room in the school ever.” That’s a hard claim to verify, but by the looks of the results — which apparently only set Low back a few hundred dollars — I’d venture to say he has probably taken the crown. You should really just watch the video above, which is fun and well-edited, but some highlights include: Motion sensors that detect when someone enters or exits the room The ability to control things in the room such as the lights, window shades, and music via voice controls and mobile apps An emergency red “party mode” button that closes the shades, swaps out the overhead lights for flashing neon and strobe ones, and turns on dance music A quick glance at Low’s web presence shows that the BRAD is far from his only hack — he actually has an entire website he describes as “a home laboratory site which showcases the projects and experiments I’ve done in my free time,” and categories on the site include High Voltage, Lasers, Pyro, Weapons & Ballistics, Electronics, and Chemistry. In general, it’s a refreshing sign that not all young people are consumed in listening to bad pop music, playing Fantasy Football, and sexting (not that there’s anything wrong with those things, per se , but this world is not going to engineer itself.) At this point Low is still only a teenager, so it’ll be interesting to see what more he comes up with in the years ahead — and actually, whether he makes it through Cal before getting swept up in the tech hiring-pocalypse . Getting an education is important, but something tells me that there are lots of startups and larger tech companies out there that are chomping at the bit to have more people like him on their teams.

42Floors’ PDA: The War ...

Startups do the darndest things. As you may or may not have seen, Y Combinator startup 42Floors made a bold and fairly unprecedented move today — as hiring goes, in any case. 42Floors Co-founder Jason Freedman had been following the work of UPenn sophomore Dan Shipper on Hacker News. The two had chatted a few times by phone and on Twitter, and Freedman was so impressed by the quality of Shipper’s programming, design skills, and smarts, that he decided to publicly offer the sophomore a job — via the company blog . Why? Well, first off, it was likely to turn into publicity both for Shipper and for 42Floors. So there’s that. It was also done somewhat with an ulterior motive. As Freedman says in his post, the team believes that “hiring is dead.” And he has a point: If you’re looking to hire the kind of talent that is out there actually building products, companies, etc. (and who isn’t?), those men and women likely aren’t filling out job applications. So if you want them, you have to court them. Of course, when it comes to courting, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. 42Floors went with the public, honest, flattery approach. Freedman knew what he was getting into — “it may take us three months or three years before we get Dan to join us full-time … These things take time and perseverance” — but the startup is about to announce funding. And new capital means hiring, scaling, and building. Like every other startup out there, 42Floors wants to have the best talent on staff to help them build something that’s better than the rest, but, in the industry we live in today, even with capital, the competition for top talent is fierce. And young companies can’t be competitive when it comes to salary. So, what do you do? As Freeman implies so intuitively, if you can’t compete based on wages, or equity, you compete with what you can. In the case of Freedman and 42Floors (and many others in the same boat), it’s “personal development,” it’s making it known that you value their talent, what they’re capable of, and want to help them reach their goals — while contributing to yours, of course. You have to be willing to invest more than just money in talent, and if you don’t have the money, you have to work even harder — even enjoy (gasp!) — cultivating young talent when you find it. Freedman believes there’s a war for talent out there, and he’s not wrong. Few will tell you that, with education beginning to change, with talent existing and developing in and outside of the classroom, there’s plenty of talent out there that doesn’t have a Harvard or Stanford Business School degree. And in many cases, that talent may even be superior. But, this landscape requires new ways of thinking about hiring, evaluating non-traditional talent, and convincing these men and women to come on board. Smarterer, Gild, Bullhorn Reach, Entelo, and solutions like them can’t launch (or grow) fast enough. But, as to Shipper? In a way, his deciding to drop out of UPenn and join 42Floors would have been immediate validation of Freedman’s tactics and philosophy. We caught up with Shipper today, who tells us that, although the experience was both startling and humbling, he’s not ready to join 42Floors at this point. That’s partly because, unlike his friend and UPenn classmate Wesley Zhao, who’s part of the current Y Combinator class with FamilyLeaf, Shipper isn’t ready to drop out of school. He wants to finish his education if he can. It’s also because he’s busy building a startup. Back in September, Shipper and two of his classmates founded AirtimeHQ , which they launched two months ago. Airtime, put simply, allows businesses to market their products via that valuable and oft-unused real estate: The email signature. Airtime offers users the ability to set up company-wide email signature marketing in 30 seconds, with flexibility — in that signatures change based on device, and users can optimize and modify email campaigns on the fly. Oh, along with offering integration with both Outlook and Google Apps. What’s more, Shipper says that the startup already has 200 businesses signed up and using the service, and have integrated with over quarter of a million emails. The co-founders will be staying in Philadelphia this summer when classes get out, and will be working on Airtime. Shipper says that he has no idea where the road will take them, but they want to take a shot — see if they can reach critical mass. So, simply put, he’s more focused on building and following the entrepreneurial path than joining another company — and he’s certainly not alone. The UPenn sophomore says that he’s definitely open to the idea of joining 42Floors in the future, but that it all depends on what happens with his startup. While it’s not the ideal result for 42Floors and Freedman, it’s good to see young engineers and designers just getting down to it — and building. Of course, if you’re of the same mind as Sean Parker, Shipper is (in a way) demonstrating a part of the problem. Speaking at the Techonomy Conference last November, Parker said that the industry is overcrowded with small startups. And because there’s so much capital going around, many of these find funding. Although many of those will fail in the end, in the short-term it makes for a talent drain. So this line of thinking goes, in the end, many of these entrepreneurs could have more of an impact at places like Facebook, or Twitter, but they opt instead to start their own businesses. Then, they, in turn, have trouble finding top talent as they scale because it either gets bought by Facebook for more than they can pay, or the talent, like they did themselves, goes off to found its own venture. Needless to say, what started off as a move made (in part) for free publicity, in the end becomes a catalyst for a conversation about how to address the talent drain in technology, and what startups and founders can do to help themselves get ahead in the race for talent, even if they don’t have the money or equity to win outright. As always, entrepreneurs without the big bank account have to do more with less, and find better, savvier ways to get what they need. 42Floors may not have gotten a new employee, but they at least got his attention, made their goals transparent, and in so doing got a fan — and potentially a future customer or partner. That’s smart hedging. So, perhaps, in the end, Freedman got what he wanted anyway. What do you think? For more, check out 42Floors’ full blog post here , and find Airtime here . Note to Shipper below: Dear Dan Shipper: Please join us. Consider this a job offer to work at 42Floors. Because you have never applied for this position, this may come as a little bit of a surprise. But you have known for awhile that I have been really impressed with your work. You’re only a sophomore in college, but you’ve already started several companies. You’ve taught yourself to code, and you are a maker at heart. And you have that rare gift of having a sense of style in your design work as well. AND, your blog posts that reach Hacker News are eloquent and well thought out. It would be an honor to have you join us here at 42Floors. Here is your job description: You will make gorgeous products that help entrepreneurs find their dream office. There are dozens of things we need built — you will pick what you most want to work on or come up with your own project. If you ever decide you want to go back to working on your own startup, you have my full support, and I will personally do everything I can to help you be successful as an entrepreneur. You will never be asked to sign a non-compete. You will be free to contribute to open source, free to blog about anything and everything, and never be required to submit a patent that could be used offensively. This offer has no expiration and, regardless of whether you decide to work with us, I hope to personally be there on your side in everything you do. Most sincerely, Jason Freedman Co-Founder, 42Floors

What Gaming Can Teach U...

Every time I see a photo sharing app come across the transom, the same question crosses my mind: what about trolls and porn? A game we saw yesterday, Pictorious, asks you to take pictures of items in order to get likes from friends and strangers . Additionally, sites like Pinterest have to act like Soviet censors in order to prevent dirty hot porn from taking over. The threat of someone ruining a good thing is everywhere, and in a world of socially connected apps, trolling is the norm. If you’ve played online video games recently, you’ll notice that trolling is arguably more virulent and nasty than even a Goatse pic popping up on Instagram. The folks at Penny Arcade along with some major players in the gaming industry have released a video detailing various ways to stop trolling and if you’re a community manager or programmer, it deserves a look. In short, nastiness in games happens because there are no consequences. The folks at PA say “we’ve given the school bully access to the intercom system” and the bully gets to say whatever he wants. Although many apps are barely popular enough to warrant an audience let alone trolls, this concept is still important to keep in mind. The solution is fairly simple: persistent muting and earned rights within the game. If a player is consistently mean, the other players can shut him during the entire game and, more important, the troll needs to know he’s being muted. Second, voice chat or commenting should be a privilege earned through play, not a default option. Freedom of speech be damned: this is a game, not parliament. The same can be said for trolls in social networks. Pinterest, for example, did the right thing by offering accounts only through invitation. It increases the value of the account, for one, and it ensures only friends of friends end up in the mix. Arguably, I’m kind of a jerk on Pinterest but I’ve never pinned anything nasty. I’m more likely to respect a community when I see others respecting it. Earning the right to “play” is also important. Whether you’re using Facebook or Draw Something, there should be some way to earn real control over the environment through dedication. This doesn’t mean you gamify your SoLoMo application using best-of-breed badging and Tweetstream techniques. That’s bullshit. Give people something valuable for being nice, like the ability to take part in a world-wide conversation. Our own comments, if you’ve noticed, went from massive lists of invective and slurs against mothers all over the world to a quiet conversation. Why? Because Facebook comments ensured that people had to earn the right to talk and they also were held accountable for their words. You’re less likely to say “YOU SUCK DIE IN HELL APPLEDICK” when your picture and name are above the post. Anonymous commenting has its place but not in a place that is trying to curate a positive experience. Give the video a look and take some of its advice to heart. It’s not just applicable to gaming. It’s applicable anywhere two or more people congregate and don’t want to be bothered by nihilists.

Ditto Picks Up $3 Milli...

The next big thing in fashion e-commerce is a moving target — literally. Ditto , a site that lets users upload videos of themselves to use in trying on eyeglasses, has today announced that it has picked up a $3 million in funding from a group of investors led by August Capital. Ditto’s co-founder and CEO Kate Endress says the funding will be used to further enhance the technology behind the service, and to grow the company’s own eye wear business, which resells frames from Persol, Chloe, Ray-Ban, Tag Heuer, Vera Wang and others. Endress, who is fresh out of Stanford Business School after a career in retail and finance, has joined up with two others, Sergey Surkov and Dmitry Kornilov, engineers respectively from Google and Nokia, to start the company. And that ratio says a lot about what direction the company might go in future: She says that as Ditto has staffed up, it’s kept the 2 engineers to 1 product person mix, and already has some patents pending on the tech behind the product. Why eyeglasses? “The reason we were so interested in eye wear was because we think it’s so hard to do that online,” she said. “We feel like this is the next revolution in virtual fitting.” Indeed, although it is focused now on using the product only on its own retail site, Endress says that Ditto has already been approached by other e-commerce outfits to use it elsewhere. “Certainly I believe the problem with fitting online extends beyond eye wear but we feel it is a great place to start,” she said. Ditto (sorry) the geographic focus: initially it will stay limited just to the U.S. but Endress says she thinks it’s a “global problem, and we can make buying eyeglasses fun all over the world.” In addition to being able to take 180-degree views of yourself in your new specs, Ditto has added some social elements into the mix: it allows users to post side-by-side snapshots in different glasses, and then post those pictures to Facebook for feedback from friends. For those of you visually-challenged out there, you know that glasses do not come cheap — Ditto’s range is from $110 to $1,800 — and so like others in the space Ditto is throwing in a few extras to sweeten the deal: free anti-reflective lenses and free shipping on the glasses. As part of the funding round, Howard Hartenbaum, general partner at August Capital and one of the founding investors behind Skype, is also joining the board of Ditto.