Author: Serkadis

Facebook (FB) unveiled Home last week, an Android software suite that transforms a handset’s home screen into a real-time graphical representation of users’ Facebook timelines. The new software has seen mixed early responses from pundits and bloggers, many of whom have expressed concerns over how Home might impact users’ privacy. Privacy concerns surrounding Facebook products are nothing new — concerns are justified, of course— and Facebook had a response to users’ worries ready to go. In a nutshell, Facebook says Home “doesn’t change anything related to your privacy settings on Facebook, and your privacy controls work the same with Home as they do everywhere else on Facebook.” Facebook’s full privacy Q&A can be found by following the source link below.

Google has reportedly cracked down on payday loan services using AdWords, which are in violation of its policies and government regulations.

TheDrum.com reports (via Search Engine Land) that Google has pulled all Moneysupermarket ads as part of the crackdown, which is the result of increasing government pressure on Google.

The publication shares a statement from a Google spokeswoman, who said, “We have a set of policies which govern what ads we do and do not allow on Google. We have strict policies for those advertising short term loans, and make it very clear that advertisers need to comply with local regulations and be transparent about their fees, implications of non-payment and collection practices. If we discover sites that are breaking this policy we will take appropriate action.”

Here’s what Google says about short-term loans in its AdWords policies:

Short-term loans are defined as secured or non-secured loans with a duration of 60 days or less. Google doesn’t allow websites for short-term loans that don’t include all of the information below (includes lenders, lead generators, and aggregators of short-term loans):

• Legitimate contact information or physical address (P.O. box addresses are not acceptable)
• Compliance with other state or local regulations related to short-term loans
• Prominent disclosure of the following on the landing page, meaning that it’s shown in the same font type, size, and color as the base text on the landing page and presented in a way that is clear and conspicuous to users:
  • APR
  • Implications of non-payment, including the following:
    • Financial implications (whether fees are charged and/or interest rates are raised)
    • Collection practices
    • Potential impact to users’ credit score
    • Renewal policy information, including if the renewal is automatic and if there are fees associated with the renewal

    Aggregators/lead generators may provide sample implications from their network to satisfy the above requirements. Implications of non-payment should be grouped together in one location on the landing page.

Google has different policies for Japan, Singapore, the UK and the US. These can all be found here.

Advertisers who have had their accounts suspended are advised to review the guidelines, remove all unacceptable content from ad text and their websites, provide users with accurate info about business, products and services, ensure that their sites contain all info required by state and local lawas, and be transparent about the products or services being promoted.

There’s a new podcast directory in town and this one has a twist: it integrates with your cloud storage accounts so you can upload and stream audio or video shows on any device with a browser. Called Podcast Gallery, the online directory uses responsive design, making it usable on smartphones, tablets and traditional computers.

I hit up the Podcast Gallery website earlier today and took it for a spin. In short: I’ll be using this for both my audio and video podcast needs going forward on all of my devices. It doesn’t hurt that I have a fair amount of storage available to me in both Dropbox and Google Drive of course. Here’s Podcast Gallery’s creator, Amit Agarwal, explaining how Podcast Gallery works:

About the only feature I see missing — and I’ve already pitched it to Agarwal — is the ability to subscribe to a show and have it automatically upload new episodes to my cloud storage.

Yes, podcast subscription is a primary feature in any podcatcher, but I still see value in Podcast Gallery. The ability to watch or hear a podcast through a browser on nearly any device is a big plus. I’ve already streamed several audio and video episodes on an iPhone 5. And the Google Drive integration is perfect for Chromebook users; you can even set the media files to be available offline so they sync to your Chrome OS device.

One potential holdup for some: to save favorite podcasts to your collection requires you to sign in via Facebook or Twitter. Some folks won’t use a service that is connected to a social network. Surprisingly, you can’t sign in with a Google account, which would actually make sense, given the Google Drive integration. Regardless, Podcast Gallery is a handy and refreshing take on podcatchers that smartly bridges mobile, desktop and the cloud.

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Microsoft (MSFT) reportedly has plans to unveil its next-generation Xbox video game console during a press conference in May. The new console was previously expected to be revealed during a special event in April but Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott now reports that the press conference has been pushed back to May 21st. The Verge then claimed to have independently confirmed the date in a follow-up report. Preliminary details are expected at the May 21st event and then a full unveiling will reportedly follow just a few weeks later at the E3 gaming conference in June. Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox is expected to launch ahead of the holidays this year.

Oxford University Fellow Toby Ord recently gave a Google Tech Talk called “How Many Lives Can You Save? — Taking Charity Seriously”. Google has now made the talk available for all to watch via YouTube.

It’s about an hour long, so set aside a bit of time before you begin your viewing.

Here’s the abstract:

People admire doctors and rescue workers and marvel at the possibility of saving someone’s life — something that few of us would ever achieve. And yet at the same time, we routinely hear that for a small sum of money we could save someone’s life in a developing country and this scarcely impacts our behaviour. There is an important disconnect between these two attitudes and it has serious moral implications. I will speak about the evidence which shows that we really can make a tremendous difference by giving, and then explore the moral case for giving much more than we typically do. I will then look at the great disparity in effectiveness between different charities and show how choosing *where* to give can be even more important than the decision to give in the first place.

Rumors are circulating that Google is in talks to acquire WhatsApp. The root appears to be Digital Trends, which cites “an inside source” as saying the deal was started four or five weeks ago:

While the deal started four or five weeks ago, we’ve been told that WhatsApp is “playing hardball” and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is “close to” $1 billion right now.

A billion dollars, huh?

Here’s the official description for WhatsApp:

WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia and yes, those phones can all message each other! Because WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends.

In addition to basic messaging WhatsApp users can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.

Again, this is just a rumor stemming from one unnamed source, so keep a grain of salt handy.

Google acquisitions of 2013 so far include: Channel Intelligence, DNNresearch, and Web Application Server Talaria.

The news that Google Fiber is coming to Austin, Texas has me all aflutter. But I’m the type of broadband-lovin’ fool who wants a gig for the sake of having a gig. What about those practical people out there wondering why they might sign up?

Even if my earlier arguments about innovation don’t convince you that Google Fiber could help change the broadband landscape, then here’s a chart that could help. For the practical people out there, just check out the pricing of Google Fiber today versus the pricing of the incumbent ISPs in Austin.

How much broadband costs in Austin.

Service provider	Cost
Google Fiber (gigabit broadband only)	$70 monthly
Google Fiber (gigabit + TV)	$120 monthly
Google Fiber (5 Mbps)	$300 install fee and $0 monthly
AT&T U-verse (24/6 Mbps only)	$55 with $200 install fee
AT&T U-verse (24/6 + TV)	$99 monthly with 1-year contract
AT&T U-verse (6Mbps)	$20 with $200 install fee
Time Warner Cable (50/5 Mbps package)	$79 monthly plus $20 install fee
Time Warner Cable (50/5 Mbps + TV)	$172 monthly with a $90 install fee
Time Warner Lite (3/1 Mbps)	$34 a month

Comparing pricing across telecommunications services is tough, so I assembled the highest speed internet package, the TV package that offered digital cable but none of the extra premium channels and a DVR package that provided whole home DVR as Google TV does. Time Warner Cable has a box and modem fee associated with its service. Google TV doesn’t have an equipment fee but it does have a different channel line up than the incumbents.

Looking at this, Google Fiber would be more expensive than AT&T’s services until people started using more devices and requiring more capacity. However, AT&T has a cap of 250 GB per month, and despite what the salesman told me over the phone, I’m pretty sure that I do need a 24 Mbps connection today to satisfy my family members. Still, on the eve of the Google Fiber announcement I’m tempted to switch over to AT&T while I wait for the build out.

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“Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher has passed away at the age of 87. The news was announced by her daughter, Carol Thatcher, who said she died peacefully following a stroke on Monday morning.

Buckingham Palace issued the following statement:

“The Queen was sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher. Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family.”

Current prime minister David Cameron said:

“It was with great sadness that l learned of Lady Thatcher’s death. We’ve lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton.”

Thatcher was the first female prime minister of Britain, and is often associated here in the U.S. with her work with former president Ronald Reagan in the 80s.

Here’s a small sample of the conversation in the Twitterverse:

‘rampant inequality, social breakdown, City deregulation, deindustrialisation, mass unemployment’ -Thatcher’s legacy. Thoughts?

— Thomas Griffiths (@TomCamGriffiths) April 8, 2013

RIP PM Thatcher…a woman who shattered the glass ceiling for others to follow..#IronLady

— Harlan Vigil (@Vignutz01) April 8, 2013

“@lcorcoran: Margaret Thatcher has died following a stoke. Guessing a lot of people will have an opinion on this bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…” yep

— Han Irving (@NuttyHan) April 8, 2013

Pretty saddened to hear of Margaret #Thatcher‘s death, tbh. An incredible woman in anyone’s book. #theironlady

— Josh Harsant (@joshharsant) April 8, 2013

RIP Margaret #Thatcher.No doubt one of the greatest leaders this world has ever known

— Matt McRae (@Matt_McRae) April 8, 2013

Though I had no time for Thatcher and her politics she did epitomise what is missing in British politics today, great characters.

— Whitstable Cabby (@WhitstableCabby) April 8, 2013

Farewell to Britain’s Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher.

— Gerome De Villa (@signatureGerome) April 8, 2013

Interestingly, my feed is full of people respecting Thatcher’s drive, determination & patriotism, but none actually supporting her policies

— Jack Swan (@JackAlSwan) April 8, 2013

It goes without saying (as it would for pretty much any politician), the world was divided on Thatchers politics, and that continues to be evident scanning the Twitterverse for reactions to her death. There are plenty of much more disrespectful reactions out there that we’re not going to include here.

The Redwood Area Development Corporation (RADC) just posted their recent feasibility study.

There are similarities in the RADC report and others we have seen – specifically residents in town have better access to broadband than residents in small communities or living on the outskirts of communities…

While residents in Redwood Falls have access to multiple broadband providers, the residents in the smaller communities and rural areas have less access to broadband services.

The report also shows a snapshot of services available. As the MN PUC map below indicates, there are five telephone companies in the are providing services. Mediacom, MVTV Wireless, RRCNet (fixed wireless), HughesNet (satellite), Starband (satellite) and Exede Broadband (satellite) also serve portions of Redwood County. There are also a number of cellular carriers who provide data plans in the area (Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T and Straight Talk).

Currently 65 percent of the county subscribes to broadband, which is lower than the national average of 70 percent. Most who don’t find they don’t have an interest, which is what statewide and national surveys have also found.

The report goes on to provide engineering and business plan scenarios for expanding broadband in the area. Here are their final conclusions…

Conclusion

It has been the focus of this study for Redwood County is to pursue public/private partnerships, likely with the incumbent service providers. In any scenario, it is likely that the residents of Redwood County will need to contribute, in the form of taxes, in order to make development of a county-wide broadband network attractive to potential partners. Success in grant funding would also be a factor on whether the ultimate FTTH system or an FTTN/DSL system can be built.

Next Steps

1) A first step should include contacting RUS to discuss the project and available RUS loans and grants.

2) After that, meetings should be scheduled with each potential service provider partner to share the report and discuss cooperative efforts toward entering into a long term agreement.

3) Engaging the League of Minnesota Cities or other organizations that may be useful in determining the best path to choose in organizing Redwood County legally to enter into agreements with RUS and partners.

4) Engaging, local, state, and national politicians and their staff’s may be helpful in gaining support for any non-traditional track to implementing broadband in Redwood County.

Once the darling of the Android smartphone market, HTC experienced yet another quarter of missed expectations, lower revenues and meager sales. As Bloomberg notes, the company posted a first quarter net income of NT$85 million (U.S. $2.8 million); a 98 percent decrease from the year ago quarter. HTC says monthly revenue for March was NT$15.82 million; a boost of 39.69 percent from the prior month but still around half of the revenue from March 2012.

The company and media are starting to spin the story a bit, partially blaming the delayed new flagship HTC One handset. But let’s be honest: a few weeks’ delay for the new handset due to case and camera sensor component shortages aren’t what’s been slowly killing HTC’s momentum. The issues have been in the works for nearly two years: being beat by Samsung in the marketing department, investing in questionable technologies and not realizing that while consumers may complain about plastic phones from competitors, they’re still buying those devices.

To be sure, the smartphone game is one of timing and momentum. So delays of the HTC One aren’t helping the situation. But that device alone won’t instantly turn around a company that’s been free-falling for the past 18 months. The One was introduced on Feb. 19 and due out in mid to late March. Even if the phone did launch on time, it couldn’t save a bad quarter with just two weeks of sales. The next month and quarter could be negatively impacted if delays continue, but faulting delays on the prior quarter doesn’t make sense.

Here are the real issues for HTC’s challenges

So what’s the deal with HTC? The company is facing the same problems it has had for several quarters. It doesn’t have the marketing budget of a Samsung, for starters. That means it relies heavily on carriers for support and that’s risky business. Then there was the $300 million investment in Beats Audio; a nice feature that a few crave but not one that’s going to sell phones to the masses. HTC later sold back half of its interest in Beats.

Lastly, there’s the perception of how much people value well-built Android hardware. I’d argue that HTC designs and makes some of the best Android handsets. They have heft but aren’t too heavy, have few actual hardware issues and are solidly built. And there are many folks that don’t like the “plasticky” cases of competitors’ phones — I’m looking at you, Samsung.

But in the overall Android market, which is quite vast, software trumps hardware. And while I don’t intend to point at one player here, it’s Samsung’s plastic phones that are pushing the envelope faster with software. When people see unique features — think multiple apps on the screen, hovering with a finger, exceptionally good note-taking with a stylus — they can overlook something such as phone case quality.

That doesn’t mean HTC isn’t making strides in software; they are. But I’d say they’re a half-step behind Samsung’s pace and when you combine that with the other factors involved — a marketing disadvantage and brand awareness, to name a few — it’s easy to see the problem.

The HTC One will help boost revenues for the company, of that I have no doubt. But this one phone, delayed or not, won’t save or damn the company. Much of the damage has already been done. Now it’s up to HTC to react in a way that convinces people it can turn things around in the long run. For now, it’s Samsung’s galaxy and HTC is just living in it.

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It looks like Google is getting ready to launch Google Fiber in Austin, Texas. The news was leaked prematurely, as reports came out that Google was readying what was thought to be a launch event.

The invitations for the event reportedly said:

On Tuesday, April 9, at 11 a.m., the City of Austin and Google will make a very important announcement that will have a positive impact on Austinites and the future of the city. We anticipate more than 100 community leaders and elected officials to be in attendance to celebrate this announcement. The event invitation is attached for your convenience. Although we cannot share the details of the announcement with you in advance, we know readers will want to learn more, so we encourage you to join us on Tuesday.

It appears that Google prematurely posted the news on its blog, before taking it down. Engadget reports (via a tipster) that the news section on the Google Fiber “Cities” page was showing “Google Fiber’s Next Stop: Austin, Texas”.

That is currently not showing up on the page. The latest Google Fiber news at this point is the April Fools’ joke about Google Fiber Poles.

Here’s a roundup of some interesting items we came across this week in our reading of data center industry blogs.

Are You Asking the Right Questions: Standards – At the Compass Points blog, Chris Crosby looks at the devolution of industry standards: ” Failure to ask for, and receive, objective evidence of a provider’s adherence to the standards that underlie their performance claims places the customer in the position of having to make their decision based more on the sizzle rather than the steak.”

Meet DSSD, Andy Bechtolsheim’s secret chip startup – An interesting startup profile from Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOm: “For almost three years many of the creators of Sun’s Zettabyte File System have been slaving away in a Menlo Park, Calif. building trying to build a chip that would improve the performance and reliability of flash memory for high performance computing, newer data analytics and networking. Funded by Andy Bechtolsheim, the startup is called DSSD, and a recent hiring campaign plus the release of several patents offers some clues as to what this stealthy startup is about.”

5 Ways to Fool-Proof Your Data Backup Strategy – At the RagingWire Enterprise blog, Jerry Gilreath shares tips on backup: “In honor of World Backup Day, I’d like to give you five points, of advice. These are by no means complete. They’re just common-sense notes from the perspective of someone that has been in the thick of it.”

Honey, I Positively Pressurized the Hot Aisle! – Aisle containment is an extremely effective efficiency strategy. But it pays to get the right expertise, as Data Centers Unclouded notes in looking at a project that didn’t: “The end result was a hi tech-looking pod that looked like a duck, walked like a duck…. but it didn’t quack like a duck.”

Cutting Confusion over Open System Software in the Data Center – At the Schneider Electric blog, Damien Wells looks at the various meanings of open: “With the use of data center management software and DCIM on the rise, the requirement for applications to be Open System is increasing. However, there has been some confusion in the use of terminology, especially between Open System Software and Open Source Software which has also confused the specific benefits that each type presents for the end user.”

Struggling smartphone vendor HTC (2498) on Monday said that expects to report its lowest quarterly profit on record for the first quarter of 2013 as the full impact of the delayed HTC One launch finally takes shape. The Taiwan-based vendor reported unaudited earnings for Q1 2013, during which net profit totalled just $2.8 million, down a shocking 98% year-over-year, on $1.4 billion in sales. HTC pointed to the delayed release of its flagship HTC One smartphone as the cause of its catastrophic quarter. The company stated earlier that it had trouble sourcing certain components for the phone, resulting in delays. The One will now launch later this month and go head-to-head with Samsung’s (005930) Galaxy S4, sales of which are expected to total 20 million units during the phone’s first two months of availability.

Heading into the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2013 trade show this week, Fusion-io (FIO) announced that the ioFX workstation acceleration platform is now available with 1.6 TB of capacity, in addition to the original 420 GB form factor. The high capacity ioFX is ideal for video editing and computer assisted design (CAD),

“Digital production is undergoing a resolution revolution as production moves to 4K and beyond, while production budgets and deadlines continue to tighten,” said Vincent Brisebois, Fusion-io Director of Visual Computing.  ”To overcome these opposing forces, the Fusion ioFX can help digital artists efficiently deliver creative work faster, even when faced with the most demanding production requirements. Fusion-io is proud to collaborate with industry leading software developers and hardware companies to deliver breakthrough acceleration for the tools used by professional artists worldwide.”

Targeted at artists who compose, edit, playback and finish digital content, the ioFX is also ideal for encoding, transcoding, particle simulations and working with large amounts of cached data. The 1.6 TB ioFX connects via PCI Express, and significantly improves workstation application performance.  Fusion-io has worked closely with the industry’s leading entertainment hardware and software providers to optimize the ioFX for visual effects production.

“NVIDIA GPUs provide powerful performance to professional workstations, which is further boosted with the ioFX high speed memory platform,” said Greg Estes, industry executive, media and entertainment, NVIDIA. “ioFX dramatically increases the amount of high-resolution content that can be sent to NVIDIA Quadro graphics boards for processing at extremely high speeds, enabling better artist interactivity and, ultimately, better client satisfaction for our customers.”

“From accelerating 3D painting in MARI, to reviewing shots in HIERO, to compositing in NUKE, Fusion ioFX adds powerful acceleration that can significantly enhance our applications,” said Bruno Nicoletti, Head of Technology and Founder at The Foundry. “All of our software is designed to remove as many technical barriers from production as possible, and Fusion-io acceleration takes that one step further with the ioFX integrated into artist workstations. As the amount of data artists work with in today’s highresolution formats continues to increase, the ioFX can help creatives spendmore time manipulating their work with much more interactivity than before.”

Fusion ioMemory products such as the ioFX also include Fusion ioSphere remote monitoring and management software, allowing IT teams to monitor and manage all Fusion-io solutions deployed throughout a studio from a single interface.  The 1.6 TB Fusion ioFX will be available in summer 2013, and will be on display at NAB 2013, at a number of leading Fusion-io software and hardware Technology Alliance Program member booths.

HP Z Workstations feature Fusion ioFX

Fusion-io also announced that it is collaborating with global workstation leader HP to integrate the Fusion ioFX into the award-winning HP Z820, Z620 and Z420 Workstations. Additionally, professionals interested in adding the Fusion ioFX to their current HP Workstation can purchase the ioFX as a custom integration component.   The new solution will integrate the Fusion ioFX into the powerful HP Z Workstations with Intel Xeon processors. The architecture is designed to deliver an industry-leading platform for digital content creation applications by moving beyond the performance limitations and bottlenecks of traditional systems.

“I consider HP one of the best engineering companies in the world, so I’m thrilled to see HP and Fusion-io working together to advance workstation computing architectures,” said Steve Wozniak, Fusion-io Chief Scientist. “The Fusion ioFX brings the intelligence of the Fusion-io approach to HP’s incredible workstations, adding even more powerful application performance to the precision engineering HP is known for around the world.”

“HP is the workstation industry leader, and our customers demand to be the first to get cutting edge solutions that deliver performance, reliability and innovation,” said Jeff Wood, vice president of product management, Commercial Solutions Business Unit, HP. “Providing the Fusion ioFX in our high-end HP Z Workstations will offer customers improved performance to tackle their most challenging projects faster.”

 

DUBLIN, Ireland – In the rainy western suburbs of Dublin, the cloud draws near the earth, filling the halls of data centers for the world’s largest cloud computing services. This city has emerged as a primary hub for server farms supporting the growth of cloud services across Europe, as Microsoft, Google and Amazon build powerful facilities with halls packed with servers and storage.

Dublin is unique amongst major European data center hubs in that its appeal is based on climate, rather than connectivity. While the thriving data center communities in London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt are built atop network intersections in key business cities, Dublin has become one of the world’s favored locations for free cooling – the use of fresh air to cool servers. It is a prime example of how free cooling is giving rise to clusters of energy-efficient facilities in cool climates.

The free cooling revolution was unleashed by a simple realization – servers are much sturdier than were previously imaged. After many years of housing servers in digital meat lockers, research by Intel and Google (among others) demonstrated that IT gear can function in warmer environments with only a fractional increase in hardware failures.

This has led to a shift in thinking about how to design and build data centers, which has allowed the industry’s largest players to slash millions of dollars from their electricity bills by using fresh air to cool their armadas of servers, rather than power-intensive air conditioners and chillers.

In Europe, Dublin has been the chief beneficiary of this trend, boasting an ideal climate in which the temperature virtually never exceeds the upper ranges for using fresh air to cool the data center. The growing interest in free cooling has helped Dublin build upon its status as a technology destination for major U.S. technology companies. Both Microsoft and Google have more than 2,500 workers in development hubs and office operations in Dublin. In recent weeks both Facebook and Yahoo have announced plans to add hundreds of employees at new offices in Dublin.

• In late 2008, Amazon announced that it had expanded its cloud computing services to Dublin, adding a European region for its EC2 compute service. By 2010, Amazon’s Dublin cloud hub was experiencing robust growth, and has continued to acquire land in the Dublin  area for future expansion of its cloud operations.
• In 2009, Microsoft opened its Dublin data center, investing $500 million in the 550,000 square foot facility, which effectively functions as a large air handler, moving fresh air through the facility to cool servers. In 2012 Microsoft added a second phase, investing another $150 million to add of 13 megawatts  of power capacity.
• In 2012, Google opened a  €75 million data center in Dublin’s Profile Park. Like the Microsoft facility, the Google data center is optimized to use fresh air to cool tens of thousands of servers.

These technology  titans have boosted the existing data center ecosystem in Dublin, home to at least 13 data centers for providers such as Digital Realty Trust, Interxion, TelecityGroup and SunGard.

The expansion of the data center sector has been welcome news for the Irish economy, which hs been hit hard by the economic downturn that began in the fall of 2008.

“Our technological infrastructure is rapidly improving and cloud computing is one area where our climate gives us advantages,” said Minister Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. “The Government will build on announcements like this with more ambitious policies to take advantage of this potential and contribute to our recovery.”

The designers at startup Misfit Wearables had a goal to make their wearable health gadget so beautiful that customers might keep it on even if it was completely broken. The company’s quarter-sized Shine gizmo — made from aerospace-grade aluminum, lined with a halo of LEDs, and fitted with a variety of accessories for the wrist, neck, and body — is supposed to reach its first 5,000 crowd-funder customers in early June, whereby we’ll see if the pint-sized device is as beloved by its customers as it is by its creators.

But the story of year and half-old, venture capital-backed Misfit isn’t just a tale about a startup building a coveted Apple-inspired gadget. Though it is that — the company was founded on the day that Steve Jobs died, “Misfit” is a tribute to Jobs and Apple’s ads to think differently, and one of the company’s co-founders is Apple’s former CEO John Sculley (who was instrumental in pushing out Jobs in the 80′s).

Misfit has emerged at the intersection of a few key trends in 2013 that are shaping wearable computing, data, and design. These trends include the emergence of next-generation more mainstream wearables, the development of the lean hardware movement that is using crowd-funding to experiment, the collection of data that uses narrative and emotion to create an impact, and, most importantly, the introduction of a new type of user interface, which Misfit CEO Sonny Vu has coined as “the glanceable UI.”

Next-gen wearables

Accelerometers and sensors have been around for years. One of the pioneers of the space, Fitbit, is already a five-year-old company. Back in 2008, it was novel to just have a device that could track your movements, count your steps and calories, and sync with your laptop of smart phone.

But in 2013 the hardware for wearable devices has become a commodity, and the success of companies creating wearable computing will depend on the design of the device, the functionality of the software, and how the software and the gadget work together to provide value to the user’s life.

Misfit is part of this second wave of design-centric wearable computing. “We’re very focused on the packaging,” Vu tells me with a smile during an interview last week at Misfit’s modest office in Daly City, California. Misfit was founded by Vu, Sculley, and Sridhar Iyengar, who was a co-founder with Vu at his former company AgaMatrix. AgaMatrix created the first FDA-approved glucose meter to work with the iPhone, giving Vu and Iyengar years of rare experience building wearable devices.

While crowd-funding helped fund Misfit’s first run of the Shine, Misfit is actually backed by some of the most well-known investors in the Valley, including Founders Fund, and Khosla Ventures. Along with its team in Daly City, it has a group of software developers in Vietnam, and makes it gadget in Japan and South Korea.

Think differently

For Misfit, design innovation has been fundamental to creating its hardware. The company doesn’t use words like sensors, or accelerometers on its website, and are trying to look far beyond the niche, early-adopter “quantified self” community.

The first aspect of their design innovation is in the materials. While most wearables on the market are made of rubber or plastic, Misfit’s Shine is almost completely made out of metal –a first in the industry. The metal is part of what makes the device so beautiful and also gives the feeling of value to the user. The metal also makes it very durable; the Shine is fully water proof.

There are reasons why competitors haven’t used metal for pint-sized wearables. The Shine might look awesome, but it takes four different factories just to make the various pieces of the shell and the metal also has created some usability restrictions. The Shine has to be placed directly onto (actually touching) the face of the mobile phone to sync it; the wireless wouldn’t penetrate out of the metal casing without that.

“The next time I think of doing an entirely metal product, someone shoot me,” laughs Vu.

Steve Jobs also famously went to great lengths for hardware design, like the iPhone’s unscratchable glass screen, and the handle on top of the original iMac.

Another unusual design element that Misfit deemed necessary is that the Shine isn’t chargeable. It’s got a coin battery, which lasts 4 to 6 months, before it needs to be replaced. Pretty much every other wearable on the market is chargeable and requires weekly, or even daily, charging. “We had an almost religious belief that wearables should not be charged. You don’t charge the buttons on your jacket, or the backpack on your back,” says Vu.

The decision to make it not chargeable also delivered usability restrictions, namely power management. The Shine needed bright LED lights on its display, the LEDs needed to shine through the metal casing, and the battery had to run the processor and keep time for up to 6 months. Pairing it with a wireless charging dock would have been far easier and would have enabled far more functionality.

A third counter-intuitive design choice is that the Shine is a circle, but uses an inverted edge to connect with various accessories — there’s a sports and leather wristband accessory, a magnet-clip for clothing, and a necklace that hangs it from your neck. Vu says that quintessential form choice will make the Shine more accessible for people’s various needs.

For example, many women won’t put anything on their wrist, which means wrist-only devices like the FuelBand or Jawbone’s UP are neglecting a good portion of potential users. From a business perspective, accessories can also add substantially to margins, which, for Misfit, could be tight given the Shine is a higher-end device made of all-metal but trying to hit the price point of the Fitbit.

These types of design decisions have created a device that is substantially different from Misfit’s larger and older competitors. Vu says before founding the company and designing the Shine, the team read every single negative review of the Fitbit, the Nike Fuelband, and the Jawbone products.

Glanceable UI

Beyond the hardware, Misfit is also innovating around the UI and how the user experiences feedback from the Shine. The design team made the decision to remove a digital screen interface entirely and replace it with a halo of tiny LED lights. They also removed an on/off button. Part of the reason they made these changes was because of the power management issue — there’s no way the device could power a brightly-lit screen and not be a chargeable device.

But the move was also a decision to increasingly move in the direction of what Vu calls a “glanceable UI.” Designers have for years been focused on UIs for the laptop and cell phone screens, but are more recently just beginning to create interfaces for the very quick glance that is needed for a wearable device.

The Shine takes what the Nike Fuelband started with its colored-LED display and basically pairs it down. Shine users can check to see how complete the circle of lights is around the gizmo to determine if they’re meeting their daily fitness goal. By briefly touching the center of the Shine, the lights can quickly configure into a clock to tell the time, meaning the Shine is also a smart watch, too.

If you hear wearable designers and developers talk about user experience, they’ll commonly talk about truncating content. Google’s Glass advocate Timothy Jordan explained recently at SXSW that an app built for Glass, like the New York Times app, has to show enough of a snippet of information to be conveyed in just a look. The New York Times Glass app shows headlines and images, but not full articles.

Likewise, health and body information on a wearable device like the Shine should be able to be conveyed in a second or two. The cell phone app that syncs with the Shine, houses the rest of the functionality.

Glanceable UI is about creating a second-worth of meaning out of important and impactful data. Whether that’s a moment to convey how well you’re doing toward your daily fitness goal or a single blinking light to encourage more movement. As Om wrote recently, as data becomes the world’s currency, data without emotion, empathy or narrative is meaningless. Wearable gadgets can track as much data as they want, but if the user isn’t exposed to the data in a way that impacts their lives, and in a time frame that they can work with, then the device has failed.

Getting to market

Some of Misfit’s design decisions were controversial even within the company, which is why Misfit decided to test out to see if customers would be interested in a metal, non-rechargeable, no-screen, wearable gadget. Turns out, at least on Indiegogo, they are. The company raised over $800,000 from almost 8,000 funders who wanted to buy the Shine early.

Crowd-funding was a way for Misfit to experiment. It’s actually gotten millions from traditional Valley investors to launch its products more commercially. But crowd-funding is becoming a common way for the so-called lean hardware movement to operate. Hardware innovation was front and center at SXSW this year.

Misfit is shipping its first 5,000 Shines to customers in early June and another 7,000 or 8,000 in the second half of June. Shortly after that the Shine will go on sale at retail outlets for around the same price point as the Fitbit, which is around $99.

The Shine is only Misfit’s first product, which Vu calls Product Zero. They’re also working on a device called Mars, or Project One, which will be launched early next year. On the topic of Mars, Vu would only say that it would be a wearable but that has a longer battery, makes more use of data, and has a different material and different shape.

While Misfit is just a young company, and has yet to deliver its gadgets to its first customers, it’s operating at that the intersection of some of the Valley’s most interesting trends, including the power of design, the next-generation of more mainstream wearables, the importance of impactful data, and a coming era that will feature the glanceable UI.

I look forward to hearing about the first Shine users’ experiences this Summer. In November we’ll be talking more about these issues of design, connectedness and experience at our third annual RoadMap event in San Francisco. Tickets will go on sale this Summer, but you can sign up to be one of the first to access tickets.

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