Rafe's Radar

No Terminator-style overlays in first batch of Google Glasses

You know what sucks about visiting Google? Seeing the Google Glasses but not being able to try them yourself. Thanks a lot, Vic.

But we are, slowly, learning more about this project. In particular, the prototypes that are appearing in the field, on TV, and in tantalizing interviews with online journalists are not capable of displaying the full-on, in-your-face type of augmented reality that 15 million people have seen in Google's demo video (and all the spoofs).

While Google+ chief Vic Gundotra didn't say much about the Glasses during an interview this morning, a later discussion with another spokesperson confirmed that the popular prototype model, as seen on Gundotra as well as Google X Lab founder Sebastian Thrun in a Charlie Rose interview, shows information above the wearer's usual line of sight, "about where the edge of an umbrella might be." … Read more

Facebook App Center: More showcase than store, actually

The app store model is winning the evolutionary battle for software businesses. It's how operating system manufacturers are making ongoing money, especially on mobile devices. But now Facebook, which has a social networking platform and not an operating system of its own, has figured a way to take advantage of the model.

The challenge, for a platform like Facebook, is that it has to build a store on top of these other existing stores. It is especially tricky to build on top of the Apple App store, which remains the only legitimate channel for users to get apps onto … Read more

The problem with augmented reality: Tablets and targets

Is augmented reality for real? At the annual Augmented Reality Event conference in Santa Clara, Calif., this week, marketers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and science-fiction authors (Daniel Suarez and Bruce Sterling) were all looking for ways to leverage a technology that could change the way we use computers and access data and media. Or not.

The challenge for many of the AR projects being shown and discussed at conferences like this is that to use them, you have to contort yourself around a tablet or smartphone, which becomes the window through which you see the augmented world. You might also have to … Read more

The curse of the two-faced interface

When I got my Panasonic cordless home phone system about two years ago, I was amused to discover that its voice-announce features used two different voices. The voice that reads the caller ID is female. The one that talks me through the voice-mail options is male. It's pretty clear that this is not the result of an intentional design decision, nor an homage to "Airplane," but rather, because these two systems were built separately and grafted together at the last minute. Look close enough at this phone and you can almost see the duct tape.

I thought … Read more

Evernote CEO Phil Libin talks valuations and bubbles

I'll disclose this off the top: I'm a big fan of Evernote. I like the app and use it all the time. I even pay for it. I also enjoy talking with Evernote CEO Phil Libin, who I have found to be uncommonly deliberate and transparent for a startup CEO.

With the news around Evernote lately -- the company's recent $70 million funding round and its acquisition of Penultimate -- I thought it'd be good to bring Libin back to the Reporters' Roundtable to discuss the current state of the software economy, and what Silicon Valley looks like from the startup's perspective today.

In this discussion we also talk a little about Libin's "100-year startup" talking point. We don't get too much into the company's global ambitions, though, and I do want to point out that as popular as Evernote is here in the U.S., it's also apparently very big in Japan, and, Libin hopes, will also soon be big in China (subscription to The Wall Street Journal required).

Libin is probably going to become CEO of a public company within a few years. Do you think he'll be able to keep Evernote innovating, figure out how to turn its revenue stream into a flood, and keep investors happy? Watch the video below.

Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) iTunes (640x360) Podcast RSS (MP3) Podcast RSS (640x360)… Read more

Color launches new features on Verizon only

Color, the flexible startup from Bill Nguyen, formerly of Apple and the startup Lala, is taking yet another stab at the live video-sharing market, this time with help from Verizon.

The company's updated Color app will use the carrier's high-speed network to dramatically improve the quality of the videos it takes and will be preinstalled on some Verizon phones.

It looks like a good deal for Color, which has been struggling to get the features mix and social play right. The first version, which gave users a way to see photos coming in from people in the same … Read more

Evernote acquires handwriting app Penultimate

Hot on the heels of raising a $70 million funding round, the popular note-taking service Evernote is announcing today that it has acquired Cocoa Box Design, publishers of the iPad handwriting app, Penultimate.

The Penultimate note-taking app currently has integration into Evernote: You can send pages you create in the app to a linked Evernote account. It integrates with Dropbox the same way.

Evernote CEO Phil Libin told me the app won't be changed substantially, though integration into Evernote will be made tighter. "The important thing is to not break it," Libin says. Evernote will, however, put … Read more

Evernote, like Twitter, in no rush to go public

Evernote announced yesterday that it raised $70 million in funding that it didn't need, in order to get ready for a public offering that, CEO Phil Libin hopes, is still several years away.

Libin said that the $70 million, raised from Meritech Capital, CBC Capital, and other investors, will add to the company's war chest, which previously held $96 million from rounds that the company has also barely touched.

"This more about building an infrastructure for the 100-year company," Libin said. "We're going to buy more servers and switches and capacity than we need. … Read more

Looking for the next Pinterest at a street fair

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Are we in a technology bubble? From the looks of things here, we may well be. The city that hosts Google, Evernote, and Pinterest hosted its first open-air startup festival today, attached to the annual Startup Conference. Although churros, cotton candy, and midway games were lacking, the carnival atmosphere was not.

Inside at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, next door to City Hall, 600 conference attendees listened to talks from investors like Dave McClure and panels on topics like crowdsourcing. Outside, organizer Alain Reynaud had set up a festival where, he said, he … Read more