Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Motorola One Vision Set to Go on Sale in India Today via Flipkart
New Space Bill to have cover for mishaps
WhatsApp sets up data storage facilities in India, braces for payments biz launch
Report: ecommerce startup Brandless has hired John Rittenhouse as CEO after Tina Sharkey resigned in March amid tensions with SoftBank, which has a 40% stake (INSIDER)
Report: ecommerce startup Brandless has hired John Rittenhouse as CEO after Tina Sharkey resigned in March amid tensions with SoftBank, which has a 40% stake — - In March, Tina Sharkey stepped down as CEO of Brandless, the direct-to-consumer retailer of “unbranded” household items.
NTWRK moves into live events
NTWRK, is a fascinating experiment in live video shopping for the iPhone set. It’s been described as a blend of QVC and Twitter and Twitch and they just got a new slice of money from investors like Drake and Live Nation to expand into physical events.
There’s been a bunch of attempts at this kind of hybrid event shopping experience, but none of them have quite hit a home run yet. NTWRK was a pretty compelling experience even at launch last year. The core experience is a live show presented only in NTWRK’s app, where guests can talk about products which become available in the app as the show airs.
There was a built in opportunity to offer limited availability streetwear and sneakers, and an audience that founder Aaron Levant knew very well from his time running ComplexCon and Agenda, two big streetwear and marketing shows.
One of the first shows starred Ben Baller and Jeff Staple, and featured a drop of a new colorway of Staple’s iconic Pigeon Dunk from Nike. I tuned in and found the experience to be compelling in its own way. The live show provided context for the product and the interface let you purchase in a couple taps of a button (the shoes sold out immediately and the app inevitably crashed from the rush of hype beasts). The stream and app have gotten more stable since then.
Since the launch, NTWRK has experimented with various product areas and promotions. The latest funding is enabling expansion back into physical events and some new angles on the NTWRK model.
After getting kicked out of high school in 10th grade, Levant went on to work in graphic design, sales and marketing for an LA streetwear brand. That led to trade show attending and eventually to Levant founding his own show, Agenda in 2003. Agenda got bigger over the next 10 years, becoming one of the biggest action sports, streetwear and lifestyle tradeshows in the world. He sold a majority of Agenda to ReeedPOP, which owns Comic Con and stayed on in a development role. Eventually, he developed other shows including ComplexCon, a smash hit culture and sneaker show in partnership with Complex.
Last year, Levant left to found NTWRK.
“That transition really happened through a conversation that I had with Jimmy Iovine in September of 2017,” Levant told me in an interview last year. “I got introduced to him by a friend. He expressed his interest in a new company for him and his son, and we had similar interests and ideas around that. That night that I met him, I went home, stayed up all night to 4:00 in the morning and wrote the entire business plan for NTWRK.”
Iovine ended up as an investor via the MSA Enterprises vehicle, along with Warner Bros. Digital Networks, LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jimmy’s son Jamie is a co-founder and Head of Fandom at NTWRK.
One of Levant’s big takeaways from his time with ComplexCon and Agenda was that the physical audiences were valuable but a digital audience is built to foster through earned media and user-generated content around these lifestyle events.
“There’s 50,000 people in the room but I think there’s probably a million people online who want to engage with those products and that content,” said Levant. “Maybe I felt a little bit like I was using my skill set and I wasn’t extracting the full value out of it because I wasn’t in the e-com or digital media business in the past. I think that was a key unlock for me, how do I do that better with a phase two of my career?”
The past few months have seen a series of high profile launches and collaborations with sneaker and streetwear people. And now, the Live Nation and Drake tie up will lead to artist-driven collections sold on NTWRK’s app, unique ticket access, promo bundles developed by NTWKR and, yes, a new live event called NTWRK Presents that will launch in Q4.
In recent months, Drake sold some of his tour merch exclusively on NTWRK.
They’ve also been running auctions for rare resell market items like Supreme guitars and sneakers.
The concept of shopping as entertainment is far from new. There’s a reason that the easy buzzphrase people attach to NTWRK is ‘QVC for millennials’. But there has yet to be a platform that has managed to pin together the right culture with the right delivery mechanism at the right time. NTWRK has a chance to do this I believe because Levant has the taste for it, but also because he’s backing into this from a place of understanding when it comes to culture.
Too many times we see the technology of the platform take center stage — a clever delivery mechanism or good design. But, fundamentally, most tech companies are absolutely crap at culture. They’re too homogenic — they do not allow for and encourage the influence of the spaces that they’re catering to.
Black Twitter made Twitter. Creators of color made Vine. Asian and Indian users dominate Whatsapp. But when there is an attempt to engage even niche cultures in commerce or monetization the lack of inclusivity and understanding causes them to just screw up over and over.
Having started with live events that existed primarily as a framework for culture to create its own moments, Levant and NTWRK are in a better position to figure this out. If you’ve ever been to an Agenda or ComplexCon you know what I mean. There’s this pungent melange of culture, music, money, rare goods and ephemeral moment creation happening. The challenge is to make that work in a digital context, of course, and then to sort of ‘re-export’ that back into event formats.
“I think that, as I’ve said countless times, physical events have a huge organic digital ripple, but we needed the digital platform to already be established and scalable before we implemented the physical events, to have an effect on the larger digital platform,” Levant says about moving NTWRK into an IRL context. “In my previous roles, I spent 15 years really focusing on the physical experiential events and towards the end of my career doing that I came to the realization I was doing it backwards.”
I don’t necessarily think that this model’s going to work for everybody. I think Levant and co have a unique skill of bringing people together and I think the celebrity thing is a strong overall angle – right down to the investors.
“Obviously Drake is an icon that has massive influence over all of pop culture and I think there are few people in that category of him that can capture consumer’s imagination,” says Levant. “I couldn’t think of someone better than him to be involved with our company.”
There are other angles too, though, that still have the same thing at the core. NTWRK is creating this engaged audience and theyr’e giving them value and then offering them a very on-the-face, honest transaction: “Look, here’s this thing. If you buy it, we benefit. Thanks, peace.”
That kind of interaction model is foreign to media because of this idea that advertising is the only gain and the only way to build that monetary relationship. I think people are going to start to get wise to that but they still are very resistant.
“We were out there, talking to every brand and every agency in the world and it’s really interesting to watch who gets it and who’s totally confused,” said Levant when we spoke about the launch. “It’s really fun to have these conversations because people are just like, ‘Wait, what are you doing?’
They have a really hard time grasping it and they don’t know who we should talk to. Should we be talking to the media buying team? Should we be talking to the wholesale team? Should we talk to the PR team? I’m like, ‘No, we’re talking to everybody.””
“Companies tend to divide their business up into these silos, these business units and these internal categories and they usually don’t collaborate and play well together and when you get these big, global organizations, their head’s spinning because they don’t know who we should talk to because no one’s done this one-to-one yet.”
Right now as I write this I’m watching Bobby Hundreds talk live about his memoir This is Not A T-Shirt — while selling a bundle that includes the book and, yes, a t-shirt. Hundreds (Bobby Kim), built a streetwear brand when it was definitely not a thing to build a streetwear brand.
The bundle runs $50. I’m thinking about buying it.
Mark Zuckerberg says weak US response to 2016 Russian election interference sent a signal to the world, and similar activity has increased from Iran and others (Salvador Rodriguez/CNBC)
Mark Zuckerberg says weak US response to 2016 Russian election interference sent a signal to the world, and similar activity has increased from Iran and others — KEY POINTS — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the U.S.'s weak response to 2016 Russian election interference has inspired …
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Vivo AR Glasses with Jovi digital assistant announced at MWC Shanghai
Mobile World Congress Shanghai is underway right now and Vivo has made a bunch of announcements at the event, including its Super FlashCharge 120W fast charging, IQOO 5G phone and the Vivo AR Glasses.
The augmented reality glasses from Vivo come with support for the company’s Jovi digital assistant. They feature two 720p screens in each eye and offer 6 degrees of freedom. The AR glasses connect to a phone and at the MWC Shanghai showfloor, Vivo showcased how the AR glasses work in tandem with a customised IQOO gaming smartphone.
Further, the Vivo AR glasses feature three cameras - two depth sensors and one RGB sensor. They connect to a smartphone using a USB Type-C port. To interact with the device, users can either select options with their eyes, which works a little slow right now, or they can use the phone to type, select, etc. while looking at the screen within the glasses.
The Vivo AR glasses can be used to play Augmented Reality games or watch 3D videos.
Vivo says that the AR Glasses are currently in prototype stage and the company has not yet announced any price or availability details for the same
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MediaTek Helio P65 processor with Arm G52-class GPU launched
With an aim to deliver “big performance,” “big cameras,” and “great gaming” Taiwanese semiconductor company MediaTek has launched the Helio P65 processor. The company says that chipset mixes big Arm core performance and a new Arm G52-class GPU that delivers up to 25 percent gaming faster performance versus competitors that use older generation cores. The P65 incorporates a pair of Arm Cortex-A75 CPUs operating up to 2GHz, and six Cortex-A55 processors. MediaTek says it has also separated the audio channels for voice commands and calls from media and games for better quality.
When it comes to the AI-performance, MediaTek claims that the Helio P65 chipset’s performance has been improved 2X compared to the previous generation mainstream Helio series. It also says that the processor offers up to 30 percent faster performance versus direct competitor SoCs in AI-camera tasks such as object recognition (Google Lens), Smart Photo Album, scene detection and segmentation with background removal, and single or dual camera Bokeh shots.
In the camera department, the MediaTek Helio P65 enables dual camera systems up to 16MP+16MP with flexibility for wide/tele lenses. “Alternatively, brands can go super-sized and use a single 48MP, 4-cell camera as a key differentiator. A new, secure ISP design means facial recognition actions such as smartphone unlocking are ultra-fast, highly accurate and add a new layer of security,” the company said.
The MediaTek Helio P65 includes hardware accelerators including a depth engine that enables “professional-grade” Depth of Field (Bokeh) effects, Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) and Rolling Shutter Compensation (RSC) technology. The RSC helps in mitigating warped (‘jello effect’) video when capturing ultra-fast action (up to 240fps) or panning shots. MediaTek claims that it has incorporated a Camera Control Unit (CCU) that enables Instant AE for fast focusing exposure adjustment when environmental lighting conditions change suddenly.
“We’ve created our most accurate GNSS & positioning engine ever. Its upgraded inertial navigation engine compensates when indoors, underground or driving through tunnels. With the ability to understand its orientation and direction, the P65 can be placed or held in any position – separating orientation from inertial readings when GNSS is unavailable,” the company added.
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Xiaomi Mi Beard Trimmer with self-sharpening blades, IPX7 rating launched for Rs 1,199 in India
Popular for its smartphones and accessories, Chinese tech brand Xiaomi has now launched the Mi Beard Trimmer for Rs 1,199 in India. The trimmer is the latest addition to its lifestyle product portfolio in the country. The company highlights that the trimmer has rounded blades for skin-friendly performance, which apparently means that the rounded blade design avoids any cuts while the product is being used. Xiaomi also claims that the device is equipped with an advanced self-sharpening feature.
The Chinese tech giant says that the trimmer has 40 length settings with 0.5mm precision. It ships with two combs: one with 0.5mm to 10mm setting, and other with 10.5mm to 20mm setting. There is also a dial that lets users set the speed of the trimmer blades. Xiaomi claims that the blades can reach up to 6000 oscillations per min to deliver accurate cuts and shape of the beard. The trimmer supports 5V adapter and is equipped with an LED battery indicator.
When it comes to the battery, Xiaomi says that the trimmer can be fully charged in 2 hours and can deliver up to a run time of 90 minutes (1.5 hours) on a full charge. The company says that if you charge the trimmer for 5 minutes, you can get 10 minutes of run-time. In fact, the Mi Beard Trimmer can be used in two ways: Cordless or Corded. So when you are in a rush, you can simply plug it and use it.
Since its comes with an IPX7 rating, it can be washed easily. If you are a frequent traveller, Mi trimmer has another trick in its bag. It comes with a travel lock function which keeps the trimmer from getting switched on unintentionally. In the box, users will also get a travel pouch to prevent damage while travelling. The product is now available, and users can go to Mi.com to grab one.
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Bill Gates says his "greatest mistake" was Microsoft losing the platform opportunity to Android on mobile, in an interview at VC firm Village Global (Ron Amadeo/Ars Technica)
Bill Gates says his “greatest mistake” was Microsoft losing the platform opportunity to Android on mobile, in an interview at VC firm Village Global — Gates calls Microsoft's smartphones failure a “$400 billion” loss. — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently gave …
Ford-backed Argo AI will invest $15M over five years in a center for self-driving car research at Carnegie Mellon University (Kirsten Korosec/TechCrunch)
Ford-backed Argo AI will invest $15M over five years in a center for self-driving car research at Carnegie Mellon University — Argo AI will invest $15 million over five years to create a center for autonomous vehicle research at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the latest efforts …
Boeing is going to work with Kitty Hawk on flying cars and safety
Kitty Hawk, the flying car company backed by Google’s Larry Page and led by Udacity co-founder Sebastian Thrun, has struck a deal with aerospace giant Boeing.
The terms of the strategic partnership are vague. But it appears the two companies will collaborate on urban air mobility, particularly around safety and how autonomous and piloted vehicles will co-exist.
Kitty Hawk’s portfolio of vehicles includes Cora, a two-person air taxi, and Flyer, a vehicle for personalized flight. The partnership is focused on the fully electric, self-piloting flying taxi Cora, according to the announcement.
“Working with a company like Kitty Hawk brings us closer to our goal of safely advancing the future of mobility,” said Steve Nordlund, vice president and general manager of Boeing NeXt, an organization within the company focused on next-generation transport.
Thrun, who founded X, Google’s moonshot factory, also co-founded Kitty Hawk. The company is based in Mountain View, Calif., however much of its testing occurs in New Zealand. Last year, Kitty Hawk took the wraps off of Cora, a vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can take off like a helicopter and fly like a plane.
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Anthropic cuts its list of unauthorized secondary market sellers from eight to four after the initial notice caused panic and pushback from investors (Yazhou Sun/Bloomberg)
Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg : Anthropic cuts its list of unauthorized secondary market sellers from eight to four after the initial notice cau...
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Sohee Kim / Bloomberg : South Korean authorities are investigating a data leak at e-commerce giant Coupang that exposed ~33.7M accounts; ...
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The first project we remember working on together was drawing scenes from the picture books that our mom brought with her when she immigrate...
