Category: News

FreedomPop launched its home broadband service on Wednesday, taking the freemium model it uses for mobile data to the residential broadband market. FreedomPop is offering 1 GB free of charge to any user who signs up for service and buys its $89 home WiMAX router.

Anyone who does more than check email on their home PC is surely going to use more than a single gigabyte in a 30-day spell, but as with its mobile service, FreedomPop is offering ways for users to earn more free data and selling premium data plans with bigger buckets of data. The bottom line though is heavy home broadband users aren’t going to sign up with FreedomPop – these plans aren’t designed for Netflix or file sharing  — but the virtual network operator is making a compelling case to casual data users, selling home connectivity for as little as $10 a month.

FreedomPop is offering four tiers of service, all of which tap into Clearwire’s WiMAX network available in 70 cities (as an MVNO FreedomPop resells Clearwire’s WiMAX capacity today and will soon resell Sprint LTE connections as well). The first tier costs nothing, giving customers 1 GB of monthly data with speeds throttled to under 1.5 Mbps. Every additional megabyte beyond the one-gig cap costs a cent, so going way over that cap could be a mighty expensive proposition. For instance, Streaming a 2 GB HD movie would cost you an additional $20.

But FreedomPop is being perfectly up front that this plan is meant for basic web surfing and email. In any case, the low-speed connection would prevent you from engaging in many bandwidth-sucking activities. As with its mobile service, FreedomPop allows free users to earn more data in 50 MB chunks by engaging the FreedomPop social network, using FreedomPop’s IP services and participating in promotions. It’s not yet clear if FreedomPop will allow customers to share their unused data with other home users like it allows mobile users to swap megabytes.

The next tier up is a $10 monthly plan, which ups the cap to 10 GB while keeping speeds limited to 1.5 Mbps. From there, the cap stays at 10 GB, but for $5 or $8 more a month you can boost speeds to 3 Mbps and 8 Mbps respectively. In the paid tiers, FreedomPop is charging a half-cent for every megabyte overage.

Even still, 10 GB isn’t much for a home connection. In July, my colleague Stacey Higginbotham took a detailed look at how different households consumed broadband, and found even sparse users of streaming services still consumed well over 10 GB each month, to say nothing of 1 GB. But once you turn off that multimedia spigot, usage drops considerably. Stacey interviewed one user in Atlanta who averaged 500 MB a month for three straight months when she took a hiatus from streamed video.

You might think of these of your grandparents’ home broadband plans (though in this day and ages, grandparents are becoming increasingly sophisticated in web communications tools), but FreedomPop seems to be positioning as a means of bridging digital divide, offering cheap, and even the possibility of free, service to people who normally couldn’t afford home broadband or just want minimal connectivity. There are still millions of dial-up users left in the U.S. It would be interesting to see if FreedomPop can reach them with this service.

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A pair of reports from earlier this week suggested that Apple (AAPL) plans to launch its iPhone 5S this coming August, and now a new report states that production of the next-generation Apple smartphone is currently underway. Macotakara, which has reported accurate details of unreleased Apple devices in the past, claims that Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn has completed test runs of the iPhone 5S and is now prepared to ramp up manufacturing. The report also notes that leading Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo may finally begin selling the iPhone this fall.

Heritage Group has made a strategic investment in Aviacode. Financial terms weren’t announced. Salt Lake City-based Aviacode provides remote medical coding services and software to hospitals and physician offices.

PRESS RELEASE

Heritage Group, a Nashville-based healthcare investment firm, today announced a strategic investment in Aviacode, an innovative provider of technology-enabled medical coding services and software. This investment adds to the portfolio of companies for the Heritage Healthcare Innovation Fund (HHIF) and furthers Heritage Group’s mission to fund solutions that meet the needs of its strategic investors.

Based in Salt Lake City, Aviacode provides remote medical coding services and software to hospitals and physician offices across several settings and specialties. A number of forces currently facing healthcare providers—including the looming ICD-10 transition, persistent reimbursement pressure, and a national shortage of qualified coders—have created a growing need for accurate, high-quality coding. Through its cloud-based platform, Aviacode offers access to a national network of certified coders and provides enhanced productivity, compliance and quality.

“We are very pleased to partner with Aviacode, which has developed a differentiating technology platform and built a leading medical coding operation over the last decade,” said Rock Morphis, managing director of Heritage Group. “This funding will enable Aviacode to further accelerate its record growth trajectory and increase its capacity to deliver innovative medical coding solutions to new customers. We are proud to be part of that effort.”

Heritage Group’s strategic investors represent the entire continuum of healthcare delivery, including health systems, payors, post-acute providers, and medical distributors. HHIF’s limited partner base is comprised of Amedisys, Inc., Cardinal Health, Inc., Community Health Systems, Health Care Service Corporation, Intermountain Healthcare, Iowa Health System, LifePoint Hospitals, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Trinity Health and Vanguard Health Systems.

“The Heritage investment is significant to us as a company. It represents not only a financial opportunity to expand our cloud-based technology and coding solutions in the revenue cycle management markets, but also a strategic opportunity to collaborate with experts from within the Heritage limited partnership base. We are already seeing strategic value in those relationships,” said Dave Jensen, CEO of Aviacode.

Brentwood Capital Advisors served as the financial advisor to Aviacode in this transaction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About Heritage Group

Heritage Group is a Nashville-based, venture capital firm with over 25 years of experience financing, operating and advising companies at all stages. Created by a diverse group of the nation’s leading healthcare services firms, the Heritage Healthcare Innovation Fund is a $167M strategic initiative focused on investments in businesses that improve the delivery of healthcare services. For more information, go to www.heritagegroupusa.com.

About Aviacode

Aviacode is the industry leader in technology-enabled medical coding services since 1999. Aviacode’s cloud-delivered coding applications, ProCoder™ and ProAuditor™, enable professional medical coders and coding auditors to create consistent, reliable and predictable coding results and document reviews. Aviacode’s proprietary technology and workflow improves the accuracy and efficiency of medical coding, which is the process of translating clinical documentation into diagnosis and procedure codes, which is at the heart of healthcare revenue cycle. These improvements impact hospitals and physician groups profoundly through improved efficiency, increased revenue and strengthened cash flow. For more information, visit www.aviacode.com.

The post Heritage Group Invests in Aviacode appeared first on peHUB.

If you knew how to help feed the hungry — would you? Most of us would, but often we just don’t know how. So, it was difficult at first to see how General Mills, half a world away in North America, could play a meaningful role in addressing hunger in Africa. General Mills employees were already volunteering their time packing meals for African children and partnering with other organizations to build grain storage systems and dig community wells — but we believed that we could do more.

We began to think, could we share what we know — our knowledge and technical expertise as a food company — with small and growing food producers in Africa? By helping local food processors produce safer and more nutritious foods, could we help create sustainable market access and better livelihoods for millions of African farmers and their families? And, could that boost farmer incomes, strengthen food security, and increase the supply of affordable, nutritious foods in local economies?

With this in mind, we founded the nonprofit Partners in Food Solutions (PFS). The name itself describes the business model. We’ve recruited world-class companies to join our effort, including our U.S. neighbor Cargill and Dutch-based DSM. We’ve received support from bi-lateral and multi-lateral agencies, such as the World Food Program and USAID, which helps shape and guide PFS by sharing experiences, methodologies and resources through a public-private partnership formed in 2010. We’ve partnered with international NGOs, such as TechnoServe, and social investors like Root Capital. Each partner brings different expertise, but together we can accomplish far more than any of us could alone.

As a group, we saw the need to fully embrace technology in a way that would easily allow skilled volunteers to transfer their knowledge to our partners in Africa. We adopted a cloud-based platform that serves as a knowledge repository for all our work, and is specifically designed to help our food scientists and engineers seamlessly work with our African partners from 8,000 miles away. On the ground, our African partners work directly with our partner, TechnoServe.

Though some may see this work as philanthropy, we see it as creating shared value with local African businesses. For example, Nyirefami, in Tanzania, is a company that mills flour. General Mills knows flour. We’ve been in the milling business more than 140 years, and with Gold Medal, we’re still America’s leading flour brand. PFS volunteers were able to provide Nyirefami with the technical expertise needed to install a quality control lab, and improve washing and pre-drying operations. With that, Nyirefami increased their milling capacity five-fold, paving the way for the company to buy more grain from local farmers, while also earning the highest level of food certification available in Tanzania.

Veronica Banda is one impressive farmer I met recently in eastern Zambia. Veronica sells her cotton to Cargill, and her corn to COMACO, a local nonprofit that markets food to consumers while also striving to save wild animals and ecosystems. Farmers work hard, and Veronica certainly does. She also cares for her family, including several children she has taken into her home who have lost parents to HIV/AIDS. Because PFS is helping COMACO grow, creating markets for her crops, Veronica’s income is rising. Today, she not only feeds her children, she can also send them to school. (Veronica is pictured below, left, with COMACO employee Whitson Daka, center, and me on the right.)

It’s a powerful idea — and it’s playing out with more and more small companies. PFS is working with 40 food processors on more than 140 projects in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, and most recently Ethiopia — and we are looking for more. Our vision is big, and our journey is long. But I believe the role General Mills is playing is exactly the role we can play best: lending our technological expertise.

How can you apply what you do best to reduce poverty and increase economic activity in the developing world? Here are some ideas:

Leverage your core expertise. As one of the world’s largest food companies, we knew we could help African food processors and smallholder farmers by sharing our food processing expertise. Our teams work alongside our African partners to create viable, culturally-sensitive technology solutions in areas such as process, food formulation, equipment design, packaging, etc. What valuable expertise can your company share?

Enlist on-the-ground support. Our in-market partner, TechnoServe, in partnership with USAID and PEPFAR, is evaluating, hiring, and managing small, in-country teams to identify promising companies. They then help develop and implement projects that PFS volunteers can address back home. Find a quality local partner who can guide you in understanding and addressing local needs.

Embrace technology. We can do things today we couldn’t dream of five years ago. Technology is allowing us to successfully partner remotely from 8,000 miles away. We share a common technology platform with our partners, which helps us solve problems despite the challenges of varying time zones and cultural differences. Technology breaks down barriers and helps unite people with purpose. Use it.

Seek out like-minded partners. We knew we could make a greater impact if we brought on world-class partners. Be thoughtful in selecting partners who share your vision, but offer capabilities and expertise that you couldn’t provide on your own.

Engage and empower employees in leading the effort. Employees will be your engine to keep programs moving forward, while creating new approaches to solving problems. We have found that by pioneering a model that enables our employees to use their core skills to make a difference, they receive as many benefits as they contribute.

Jump in with humility and get started. Much of our success stems from our willingness to “stumble forward” and learn as we go. Be willing to think big and move quickly, albeit imperfectly.

We hope you can learn from our journey, and start a company-wide effort of your own. For us, it has proven to be some of the most gratifying work of our careers.

Please join the conversation and check back for regular updates. Follow the Scaling Social Impact insight center on Twitter @ScalingSocial and register to stay informed and give us feedback.

Innovid said it raised $11 million in Series C funding from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Genesis Partners, and T-Venture and new investor Vintage Investment Partners. The funding will enable the company to expand to new screens, including gaming consoles, connected TVs and broadcast TVs, alon with supporting its growth in video ad delivery to PCs, mobile devices and tablets.

PRESS RELEASE

Innovid Secures $11M in Series C Funding from Sequoia and Vintage Venture Partners

Latest funding positions Innovid to continue global growth and further expand its video advertising platform into new screens such as gaming consoles, connected TV, VOD and broadcast TV

New York, NY. — March 6, 2013 — Innovid, the technology platform delivering immersive video advertising anywhere, today announced that it raised $11 million in Series C funding. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Genesis Partners, and T-Venture (Deutsche Telecom) participated in the round, with a new investment from Vintage Investment Partners. This announcement comes on the heels of a global leadership position in the agency video ad serving market with 450 percent year over year growth for the company. The funding will be used to continue Innovid’s rapid global growth in video ad serving across PC, mobile and tablet, as well as expand into new screens including gaming consoles, connected TV, video on demand and broadcast TV.

“Innovid’s swift worldwide growth is indicative of the advertising industry’s need for a platform that advances TV advertising to the next stage,” said Doug Leone, General Partner of Sequoia Capital, which has funded an unprecedented number of enormously successful companies including Google, Apple, LinkedIn and Cisco. “Leveraging its proven technology and experienced team, we are confident Innovid will fulfill its vision to revolutionize the world of TV advertising.”

Innovid’s video technology platform provides brands and marketers with the tools to create, deliver, and measure video advertisements from simple pre-roll campaigns to the most complex addressable and interactive units. The company’s iRoll® formats bring alive a new dimension for digital video, adding native, interactive elements to flat pre-roll ads. Marketers can insert interactive elements in their video ads, including games, contest entries, social apps, coupons, additional video, shopping carts, store locators, and any other creative ideas to capture viewers’ curiosity and create powerful, immersive experiences for consumers.

The company’s expertise has been widely validated in the industry. In fact, Innovid was recently selected as a winner of the IAB’s Digital Video Rising Stars and will join other winners in working groups to define the final specifications of interactive video formats for the industry. In addition, Innovid’s advanced video ad server is being used by global brands like Toyota, Nissan, Chrysler, Sony Pictures, Paramount, GSK, eBay, T-Mobile, EA, and Best Buy among others.

“TV ad spending in the U.S. alone was estimated to reach $70 billion last year. Imagine the increased value of those dollars when brands add personalization, interactivity and advanced measurability to their ads,” said Zvika Netter, co-Founder and CEO of Innovid. “Our technology is the first to bridge TV and digital by bringing together the powerful visual experience of video and the full personalized and interactive capabilities of the Internet.”

The latest funding brings Innovid’s venture funding total to approximately $27.6 million. The company previously received $3 million in Series A from Genesis Partners; $4.1 million in a venture round from Genesis Partners and T-Venture; and $9.5 million in Series B from Sequoia Capital, Genesis Partners and T-Venture.

About Innovid
Innovid delivers immersive advertising anywhere. Founded in 2007, Innovid provides visionary marketers with the tools to create, deliver and measure video campaigns, in any format, on any screen, publisher or ad network. Innovid’s Ad Server was developed to address the issues specific to video ad serving and simplify the process for agencies and marketers.  Bringing a new dimension to online video, Innovid’s iRoll reimagines the possibilities for interactive engagement across multiple screens.  For more information, visit www.Innovid.com.

The post Innovid Raises $11M From Sequoia, Genesis, T-Venture, Vintage appeared first on peHUB.

Dan Kish talks Keystone XL with Allen West

…

Sverica International Management said Wednesday that it has acquired Dexmet Corp. Financial terms were not announced. Sverica said its third fund acquired Dexmet. Sverica International Fund III, and its parallel pool, Fund III-A, closed in 2008 with more than $272 million in committed capital. Wallingford, Conn.-Dexmet develops and makes highly engineered expanded foils and polymers used in a variety of end markets. Abacus Finance Group and Avante Mezzanine Partners provided financing for the deal.

PRESS RELEASE

Sverica International Management LLC (“Sverica”) announced today that its Fund III acquired Dexmet Corporation (“Dexmet” or the “Company”) on March 1, 2013. Dexmet develops and manufactures highly engineered expanded foils and polymers used in a variety of end markets. The Company provides solutions for a range of mission critical applications, including lightning strike protection for major composite aircraft manufacturers, anodes and cathodes for advanced battery technologies and supportive materials for filtration and automotive applications. It counts as its customers dozens of global blue chip industrial leaders.

Dexmet has established itself as the leading provider of precision expanded materials worldwide and is well-positioned for continued growth moving forward. “This partnership with Sverica comes at an exciting time for Dexmet,” stated Bob Bochman, President of Dexmet. “Sverica shares our long-term view of the considerable market opportunity for Dexmet’s products and will help us become even better strategic partners for our customers.”

Dave Finley, Managing Director at Sverica, added: “We are excited to partner with Bob Bochman and the rest of the Dexmet team. Dexmet will be a great addition to the Sverica portfolio, as the Company fits well with Sverica’s dedicated focus on niche manufacturers of specialty materials with track records of success and demonstrated growth prospects.”

Abacus Finance Group, LLC and Avante Mezzanine Partners provided financing for the transaction.

About Dexmet Corporation

Dexmet is a global leader in the development and manufacturing of highly engineered expanded foils and polymeric materials used in aerospace, battery, industrial, and other applications where precision characteristics are required. With a history dating back to 1948, Dexmet is a pioneer in the development of proprietary material expanding technology and equipment, including industry leading thinness and widths for product-specific applications. Dexmet partners and works closely with its customers to stay at the edge of new industrial technologies and applications. Dexmet is headquartered in Wallingford, Connecticut. For more information, please visit www.dexmet.com.

About Sverica International

Sverica International is a leading private equity firm that has raised over $425 million of investment capital. The firm acquires, invests in and actively builds companies that are, or could become, leaders in their industries. Since 1993 Sverica has maintained a “high touch” operating philosophy of taking an active role in portfolio companies. Sverica devotes significant internal resources to help its management teams develop and execute growth strategies. Sverica has offices in Boston and San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.sverica.com.

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The Document Foundation has released LibreOffice 4.0.1, a primarily maintenance release for its open-source office suite. Comprising word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentations, drawing and maths tools, LibreOffice 4.0.1 has one notable update, cross-platform support for its LibreOffice Impress Remote app for Android.

LibreOffice Impress Remote allows users to control Impress presentations over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi using their Android phone or tablet. Only Linux builds of LibreOffice 4.0 supported the app, but as of version 4.0.1, Windows and Mac LibreOffice users can also control presentations using the Android app.

The simplest way to use an Android phone with LibreOffice is to pair it with the target computer using Bluetooth, allowing both to be used in remote scenarios without relying on other network connections. Users can, however, connect through Wi-Fi by specifying the target computer’s IP address.

The app allows users to start the currently loaded slideshow, then control it via the volume buttons or touch-screen controls. Users can move between slides one at a time, with accompanying notes for each slide displayed on the mobile for reference. Users can also insert blank screens, plus view all slides as thumbnails for jumping quickly to different parts of the slideshow.

TDF warns that the app is still a little buggy, particularly on Windows and Mac platforms, but we found that on the whole it worked well when paired with our Mac Mini running LibreOffice 4.0.1.

As for LibreOffice 4.0.1 itself, over 100 bugs have been fixed with this release, including a significant number that caused crashes. Elsewhere there’s a fix for text rotation in shapes when exporting presentations in PPT (PowerPoint) format, plus users should now be able to format comment text and import MSDraw files without worrying that certain shape properties won’t be handled incorrectly.

Other editing fixes should ensure that conditional formatting isn’t destroyed when copying and pasting spreadsheet cells, while autofit text should no longer break superscript or subscript text in Impress. Version 4.0 was released last month, boasting a revamped API and host of new features.

LibreOffice 4.0.1 is a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux. LibreOffice Impress Remote is a free companion app for Android mobiles running Android 2.3.3 or later.

I love hardware. That’s why I want you guys to bring some of the coolest hardware projects imaginable to Disrupt NY this year. That’s why I want you guys in our Hardware Alley.

Hardware Alley is a one-day celebration of hardware startups both young and old. The goal has always been to show off amazing hardware that we have written about over the past few months, as well as a few surprises. Last Disrupt we featured the guys from Thermovape, Makerbot, and Lit Motors. This year we want to fill Disrupt NY with more amazing companies.

For more details on Disrupt head over here. We’re looking for new or even unlaunched products, as well as potential Kickstarter projects. Prototypes are fine as long as they’re amazing.

You can see the previous Hardware Alley participants here. You can sign up here. Bootstrappers can contact me directly at [email protected] if you need a break on price. Hope to see you in the alley… the Hardware Alley.

Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our amazing sponsorship team here [email protected].

Fenwick & West released a new version of its Series Seed documents on GitHub. The law firm first released its term sheet documents in 2010 and says they have been used by many startups and some Silicon Valley venture capital firms. The new documents represent Version 3.0.

PRESS RELEASE

Series Seed Funding Documents Go Open Source @ GitHub

Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs and Investors Collaborate on New Release

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Today, law firm Fenwick & West announced a new version of the Series Seed documents is being released on GitHub. Since the initial release of the Series Seed documents in 2010, they have been used by numerous startup companies including investments from many of the Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital (VC) firms. Version 3.0 of the Series Seed documents is being released on the leading open source forum, GitHub, to encourage continued collaboration.

“The most valuable assets for early stage companies are time and money,” said Ted Wang, a Fenwick lawyer and the current curator of the Series Seed documents. “Series Seed endeavors to save both for young companies by simplifying early stage funding documents, getting signoff from VC firms who have agreed to use them, and making those documents available online for free.”

“One of our core beliefs at GitHub is to open source (almost) everything: the community benefits from having more resources available and the projects benefit from having the input of the greater community,” said Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder and CEO of GitHub. “That’s what makes the Series Seed project fun to see. Fenwick is bringing open source concepts to early stage funding documents and using GitHub to encourage community participation and collaboration.”

The new release provides a modern, technology-based approach to easily use traditional financing terms in seed funding documents by providing a standard set of rights, privileges and preferences with “fill in the blank” variables. This helps entrepreneurs avoid spending time and money negotiating over standard transaction terms and more clearly highlights the key variables in these seed transactions.

The Series Seed 3.0 documents are accompanied by a blog post “for law nerds and real nerds” describing the changes to the current versions and how to use them on GitHub.

Version 3.0 uses GitHub as the primary platform for managing discussions and updates to the Series Seed documents. GitHub is currently used by engineers to post software projects and highlight their work making it an excellent platform for community comments and facilitating multiple branches of the documents.
Visit the GitHub Seed Series documents at https://github.com/seriesseed

For luddites, a Word copy is available at http://seriesseed.com

About Series Seed
The Series Seed documents are a standardized set of documents that can be quickly and easily deployed for a seed investment:  to help get a company financed properly, legally, quickly, and intelligently.

About Fenwick & West

Established in 1972, Fenwick & West is one of the nation’s premier law firms with extensive expertise in venture capital, public offerings and other corporate finance, joint ventures, M&A and strategic relationships, intellectual property, litigation and dispute resolution, taxation, antitrust and employment and labor law.

The post Fenwick & West Posts New Version Of Open Source Seed Funding Documents appeared first on peHUB.

Two years ago the blogosphere hyped the promise of an “artificial leaf,” which is a sheet that uses a catalyst to harness the sun and split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The tech was based on research from MIT spin-out Sun Catalytix, and led by MIT Professor Daniel Nocera. But it turns out the startup won’t try to commercialize the artificial leaf any time soon, and according to a report in MIT Tech Review, it has now turned to using its research to make a flow battery instead.

Flow batteries are large liquid-filled tanks that are mostly used to store energy for the power grid. A flow battery’s electrolyte is stored in two tanks that are separate from the cell itself, and the flow battery generates electricity when the liquid electrolytes, which are mixed with energy-storing materials, flow through the two sides and react with the electrodes in each side of the cell.

The idea, which has been around for decades, is to create a lower-cost battery option than, say, lithium-ion batteries. Power companies like them because the batteries are rechargeable, and can be scaled up and down by adding more tanks. Companies working on this technology include EnerVault, ZBB Energy, Prudent Energy, RedFlow, Primus Power and Deeya Energy.

Sun Catalytix tells MIT Tech Review that it hopes to have a prototype of its flow battery later this year, which it can test out with customers, and then raise more funds for additional product development at that point. The end product is supposed to be a 1 MW flow battery that can last four to six hours and fit inside a 40-foot shipping container.

It’s not uncommon for cleantech startups — or any startup — to pivot and shift their plan as they progress. The artificial leaf was in the research phase and the company realized that commercializing it would take many years and lots of money. Though, as this New Yorker article points out Nocera has a bit of a reputation for hyping his discoveries.

The problem, though, is that funds for commercializing next-gen energy technologies are very tight these days. And Sun Catalytix already received a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program, as well as a $9.5 million Series B round led by India’s Tata and including existing investor Polaris Venture Partners.

Venture capitalists have started to move away from investing in energy tech, and government funds could be tight in 2013, too. Funding could be particularly difficult for an early stage technology, where there are clear competitors that are farther ahead.

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LifeBeam is kicking off an Indiegogo campaign for a new smart cycling helmet that uses smart sensors to track your heart rate.

LifeBeam is an Israel-based startup that thus far has specialized in aerospace technology that is used to track the vital signs of fighter jet pilots and astronauts. Instead of bulky chest strap monitors, Lifebeam uses their own specialized sensors that are built into the helmet to track their heart rate and vitals.

The people behind LifeBeam then asked themselves, “What if we put that technology into a smart cycling helmet?” Thus this helmet was born.

The aptly named SMART is just that. The helmet uses Bluetooth to relay all the information the LifeBeam sensors collect instantly onto monitoring devices, fitness watches, and smartphones.

LifeBeam has little experience designing and producing bicycle helmets, of course, so it’s turned to the popular cycling gear outfit Laser Sport to handle things on that end of the business. The finished product, if LifeBeam can raise enough money, should be a pretty handsome looking cycling helmet with some very high-end sensing technology.

“We are proud to present the world’s first smart cycling helmet,” LifeBeam says in their IndieGogo video. “Our unique sensing technology, partnered with Lazer Sport helmets, create high end cycling helmets that allow continuous measurement of heart rate and motion.”

LifeBeam is seeking to raise at least $50,000, and a starting contribution of $149 will get you your very own SMART helmet. If you’re an avid cycler and this seems like something you need, you can check out their IndieGogo page here.

JR is an artist with a desire to transform our collective streets — from French public houses to Brazilian favelas. As he describes in his talk from TED2011, JR headed to the barrier wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories for his project “Face 2 Face,” JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out pasting massive portraits the size of houses on either side of the wall. The goal: to catch both sides off guard with their similarities and give them the experience of relating to the other by staring them straight in the face. JR found that people are thirsty to heal in this way — to be seen and to share a story through a simple image.

After winning the 2011 TED Prize, JR transformed his mission to a global scale with Inside Out. Through the initiative, any willing participant can send a portrait (or a series of them), and receive the images back as posters, ready to be pasted anywhere with a social purpose in mind. The purposes and messages may vary, but the images hold a common thread. These public exhibits are then documented and shared on the project’s website.

In August, Inside Out surpassed the goal of dispersing 100,000 posters. But they are hardly stopping there. Below, see images of some recent projects, pasted all around the globe — from Colombia to New Zealand.

And a bonus video action:

In the dark of night, these posters of Taiwanese youth were pasted alongside portraits of youth from Mainland China. It’s an expression of hope toward a more united future. These posters were immediately removed by the Chinese public authorities, but not before this footage of the pasting (and subsequent removal) was captured.

As disruptive innovations enter the market with faster velocity and increased firepower, entrepreneurs are finding themselves dealing sooner and more intimately with the law.

Sometimes, the innovation is just too new, creeping out consumers and lawmakers who hurriedly work to ban it. Few people remember, for example, that the day after Scottish scientists announced in 1996 the successful clone of a sheep named Dolly, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order banning the use of federal funds for cloning in the U.S and urged Congress to outlaw the technology. (Before that, it had been a subject only for science fiction novels.)

But more often the imposition of legal constraints comes indirectly, the maneuverings of incumbents caught off-guard by something dramatically better and often cheaper than their core products and services. Performing a bit of regulatory judo, they often respond to such threats by pressuring regulators who oversee their own activities to declare the innovator illegal or otherwise in violation of rules that were never designed to cover it. Internet-dispatched limousines and ride-sharing services such as Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar, for example, are dealing with such challenges on a daily basis, as trade groups press local taxicab commissions to prohibit the new services.

Incumbents also run to the courts, filing sometimes-dubious infringement lawsuits based on a yellowing sheaf of patents, copyrights, or trademarks. Implicitly, these lawsuits are often aimed not at stopping the new entrant so much as to slow it down, wasting its precious time and limited funds.

Here, think of the response of the music, film, and other mass media to the advent of digital distribution of content. Much of it, at least in the early days, might in fact have been illegal. But incumbents who continue to rely exclusively on the courts are only putting off the inevitable. The same year the music industry successfully shut down Napster, Apple launched iTunes.

One result of the uncomfortable and increasingly frequent collisions of once-separate worlds of innovation and law is that entrepreneurs now engage with lawyers much sooner in their lives. They must, if only to secure their own patents and copyright or fight off life-threatening lawsuits.

Now, more startups are even opening their own policy offices in Washington, Brussels, and other lawmaking capitals. Only four years into its existence, for example, Twitter opened a D.C. office headed up by a former senior Congressional and FCC staffer. Facebook’s D.C. office has almost 30 employees. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other Silicon Valley brand names all have their own, often extensive, government operations. For the new breed of disruptive innovators, it’s a necessary evil.

Beyond being used both offensively and defensively with lawmakers, regulators, and litigants, legal constraints on innovation are increasingly finding their way directly into product design. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission has been using its general consumer protection powers to shape how Internet service providers do and do not make use of user-generated information and other content. (In the E.U., regulators are likewise groping to find ways to enforce more specific, but still undefined, privacy directives.) The buzzword for social media these days is “privacy by design,” a concept that unfortunately hasn’t advanced much beyond the purely rhetorical.

At the extreme are start-ups created specifically to satisfy legal loopholes, and perhaps to push them open just a little further. Think of these as “barely legal by design.” For this category, I’ve collected several recent examples of companies whose major innovation is to creatively adapt new technologies to old laws.

Perhaps the most interesting is Aereo TV, a start-up launched last year and backed by investors including former Fox Chairman and CEO Barry Diller. For as little as $8 a month or $80 a year, Aereo lets users watch and record TV programs offered by local over-the-air broadcasters and play it whenever they like over the Internet—including on their smartphones, tablets, and home computers. The service is currently available to 19 million residents in the New York metropolitan area, though the company declines to say how many it has actually signed up.

In essence, Aereo offers its customers a virtual DVR for over-the-air channels, and uses the public Internet to replay live or recorded programs on any connected device. But here’s the catch: unlike cable and satellite providers, who are required by law to pay broadcast stations for the right to retransmit their programming, Aereo is paying the stations absolutely nothing. And, the company has maintained in several preliminary courtroom appearances, it is not violating any law or FCC regulation.

How’s that? The company is delicately threading the needle — successfully so far—of several important court decisions involving copyright law. Indeed, it is little stretch to say that the company’s entire business is engineered around those decisions. To make a long story short, it does so by maintaining a tiny antenna (about the size of a dime) for each of its customers — completely unnecessary to accomplish the technical feat but a handy way to fall within the “fair use” doctrine established back when Betamax and Cablevision first posed their technology-based threats to broadcasters.

Aereo is arguing that it is no different than having your own antenna and a VCR at home. Now those are simply located remotely, and you control them through the Internet and not your television.

Not surprisingly, Aereo has been fighting legal challenges. At a recent oral argument, Judge John Gleeson, appeared skeptical of Aereo’s business model. He characterized the individual antennas as a technical “fiction” designed solely to shoehorn the Aereo service comfortably between the Betamax and Cablevision cases. “You don’t have all these little antennas because it makes any sense,” he said. “It’s a belt-and-suspenders approach to the Copyright Act.”

That’s clearly the case. But does that make it illegal? As innovation and law bump up against each other more frequently and in more awkward positions, entrepreneurs might actually be well-advised to wear both belts and suspenders, if not a few dozen other technical and legal forms of support. When a single case can make or break your business, there’s no such thing as too much innovation — or too much lawyering.

Google has just begun to roll out some significant changes to Google+ profiles that bring bigger cover photos, a whole new look for the “about” section, and a new tab for your reviews.

When you visit your profile today, you’ll see a prompt that says “Cover photos just got bigger” and asks you if you’d like to update yours now. The bigger cover photos now allow for 2120px by 1192px images.

“This way more images can be used as cover photos, and there’s more room for your selection to shine,” says Google’s Sara McKinley in a Google+ post.

Your “About” section has also received an update. It’s a completely new design that puts all of your separate pieces of information into their own color-coded cards. Each info card features its own “edit” button as well.

Lastly, a new “Reviews” tab has been added to the top of your profile alongside the ones for your +1s, YouTube videos, photos, and posts. As you would imagine, this tab houses all of your Google Local reviews.

“Highlight your favorite restaurants, or hide the tab completely via settings – it’s completely up to you,” says Google.

If you don’t see your new Google+ profile yet, be patient. Google says that it’s rolling out gradually.

It is the one year anniversary of Google Play store — or at least the renaming of the Android market. Google loves to celebrate these kinds of occasions with a sale. This one is no exception, as the company has kicked off with deals on music, books, magazines, videos and, of course, apps.

Jamie Rosenberg, the vice president of Digital Content at Google Play announced the deals today, saying that “since no birthday is complete without presents, we’re celebrating with a bunch of special offers across the store on songs, TV shows, movies and books. We’re even offering a collection of games with some fun birthday surprises created by developers”.

Of course the Android operating system maker also took a moment to pat itself on the back by letting everyone know that the Play store has more 700,000 apps and deals with all of the major music companies, movie studios and publishers to bring you the music, movies, TV shows, books and magazines.

The deals include free songs from classic artists like The Velvet Underground, free books like A Quest of Heros, purchase of the movie Kung Fu Panda (ask your kids) for $4.99, a free episode of Breaking Bad and lots more.

The sale is live right now and UK customers can even pay with their new Google Play gift cards. You can also use a credit card or have your purchase charged to your mobile phone bill. Google will take your money however you wish. Well, except cash.

Did you know that the federal government can request your smartphone location data without a warrant? It happens quite often, but there’s not been much progress made in the way of legislation curtailing this particular practice. One state has had enough, however, and it intends to put a stop to it.

Slate reports that both the Texas state Senate and House have introduced bills that would amend the Texas code of criminal procedure to stop what it feels is the warrantless surveillance of its citizens. Both bills would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before requesting location data from any cellular carrier.

In even better news, the bills would require any and all carriers that operate in the state to produce annual transparency reports. These reports will detail the number of surveillance requests made, and tell citizens which agencies requested the information. For now, we only know the total number of data requests made so a list of the agencies making the requests would be valuable.

Under the proposed bills, the government wouldn’t be able to keep court orders for surveillance hidden either. The court would only have 180 days of secrecy before being forced to unseal the order and make it available to the public.

Some may be concerned over the proposed bills impact on law enforcement, but there are some exemptions in place to keep serious investigations under wraps. For starters, law enforcement can still get a court authorized surveillance order without a warrant if the situation is deemed exceptional. The court order will also remain under wraps if it being made public would hurt the investigation.

There are similar bills being proposed in Washington, such as Al Franken’s Location Privacy Protection Act of 2012, that would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant when seeking smartphone location data. Unfortunately, the bill died with the old Congress at the end of last year, but Franken will no doubt bring it up again. Even then, it has little chance to pass as too many in Washington feel that the needs of law enforcement to trample on your Fourth Amendment rights take priority over your personal privacy.

That being said, the states are the next battleground for this important issue. You can expect some opposition to show up, but the Texas legislature has a track record of defying the folks in Washington. We might even see some serious fireworks if the bills progress far enough.

Funny how little things matter to people. Today Google announced some minor changes to profile pages on its social network, which include much bigger cover photos — up to 2120 by 1192 pixels and displayed in 16:9 format. The search giant is rolling out this and other tweaks, gradually. If you don’t see them already, you will soon.

Visually, Google+ Profiles lay out information in card-like fashion, which starkly remind of those Google Now presents on smartphones and tablets. The motif is particularly striking in new tab, Reviews, which doesn’t appear in my Profile. Perhaps because I’ve written none.

“In addition to your photos, +1’s and YouTube videos, there’s now a place for all your Local reviews. Highlight your favorite restaurants, or hide the tab completely via settings — it’s completely up to you”, Sarah McKinley, Google+ product manager, explains. Reviews is checked (by default) in my settings.

Other changes include “an easier way to edit your info”, she says. “The ‘About’ tab now consists of separate cards (like Story, Places, and Links) — each with its own prominent edit link. As always: you can share specific fields with specific circles, or keep them just for you”. There are few really new features, but rather improvements to the overall appearance. Google+ looks better, and anyone who says visuals don’t matter should stay at cluttered Facebook.

I’m still exploring all the changes, and there are many nips and tucks to Profile presentation, including a new, more-pleasing, basic-info pop-up box when hovering over anyone’s picture or name in the main stream.

Google’s challenge expanding and better presenting anything on the social network is daunting. Facebook wasn’t always as complicated to use as it is today. Complication creep is an evil that accompanies new features. So far, Google has done well holding back the clutter. That said, the social network redesigns are rather frequent, particularly on mobile, where the look and feel dramatically changed more than a few times over the last 12 months.

Reaction is fairly positive. Josh Hurst: “Holy cow, the new cover photos are huge. HUGE, I say”. Thomas Aschemann: “The new profile layout looks awesome!”

“I love what they’ve done with the profile avatar and adding a new top banner for profiles”, Peg Fitzpatrick says. “They’ve cropped the avatars to a circle. This is what you see at the top in a fixed positive when you are looking at someone’s Google+ personal wall. The avatar resizes to a smaller version”.

But watch your settings. Rahul Raghavan: “The ‘Show your Google+ communities’ posts on your profile’ setting could have been automatically turned on. Mine was. So, go uncheck it if you want to, because some of you will end up getting embarrassed”. Mine is checked, but I don’t know that it wasn’t before.

I believe not. I see the option as more benefit than embarrassment. Google+ doesn’t yet provide a utility for posting to the Public stream and to Communities. That’s a feature I would find beneficial, rather than spamming people by posting the same thing both places.

Living in California means that seeing raised pickup trucks and Jeeps on the road is very common. There are loads of off-road trails, dunes and deserts here that would satisfy even the freakiest of off-road fantasies. This modified Jeep Wrangler however (seen in Rabat, Morocco) completely takes the cake as far as the most outlandish custom I’ve seen. Apparently owned by a shaikh of the Arab Emirates, this it has an extended wheelbase, what looks to be 42-inch tires and a grille that came off of a Freightliner semi-truck. Is it cool? No, no it’s not. I do however have to give the guy an A+ for effort though.

Source: Youtube.com