Google Introduces Chromecast - Threatens Apple TV and RoKu with Cheaper Streaming Content

Wednesday Google announced on it's company blog a new streaming device to bring all your favorite web and video content to your TV, Chromecast.

Chromecast has several key features which will make it highly competitive even with competitors already on the market. It's cheaper with a highly affordable price point of $35, it is compatible with phones, tablets, and laptops, it can work with Netflix, Youtube, Google Play with more apps promised to come soon and developers have already been outreached to.

The ability to use Apple products along with Windows products has been sited as competitive advantage, however Apple TV is PC compatible - though alternative smart phones are not cross compatible as they are with Chromecast. With 44% of Americans using tablets, and 84% of tablet web usage on iPads it is much more important for Google to be mobile and tablet compatible with Apple than the reverse.

Apple TV allows mirroring your computer screen so you can view on your laptop screen the same thing you're seeing on your TV which Chromecast doesn't allow. Meanwhile Chromecast allows multitasking so while you can use your phone as a remote control you're also able to continue tweeting, sending emails or whatever else you'd like without it interfering with your streaming content. The lack of a direct mirror feature with the benefit of multi-tasking makes for an expected trade off with Apple having a more controlled user experience and Google offering the more typical PC user experience of greater customization.

Additionally Chromecast has announced a beta feature to allow you to use a tab within your Chrome browser to directly stream to your TV. While Apple TV allows users to use iPhoto or Picasa, if Chrome works well - that opens the door directly to all sorts of web content already available. Unlike the Apple TV model which still users the Apple Store, partner organizations and programs as a gatekeeper on content. This more open ecosystem could prove attractive to those more interested in web-series, niche content, etc. as opposed to the mainstream TV content Apple has already partnered with. (ESPN, NBA, MLB, Sky News etc...) For example Al Jazeera has a live stream one could use this feature to view even though that content isn't available to many US TV watchers.

The Chromecast device is already available for $35 on Google Play, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com and it will soon be in Best Buy stores across the U.S. In a promotion almost worth the cost of the divice (two-thirds the cost actually...) 3 months of Netflix (Valued at $23.97) is included.

Comparatively the most popular streaming devices currently are Apple TV and Roku. Apple TV costs $99, and Roku devices cost between $49.99 and $99.99 depending on the model.

Given I personally don't own a TV and already use streaming content on a desktop, laptop, tablet and phone for entertainment - I'm probably not going to be in the market for any of these devices (though my parents do own a Roku box) however I look forward to seeing how this devices challenges Apple along with the reaction of mainstream content providers to compete with the freedom of web based flexible viewing especially given the increasing rise of Netflix as a source of original content.

Aaron Swartz Continues to Make the Internet More Open

Internet Activist Aaron Swart's project with The New Yorker launched Wednesday. Strongbox lets users share information, messages, and files with writers and editors anonymously.

Months after his suicide, Internet activist Aaron Swartz continues to make the world a more open place. Wednesday the New Yorker announced the launch of a project he helped develop with them, Strongbox, a tool that allows sources to anonymously submit information, messages and evidence with writers and editors.

Strongbox uses a Tor network to protect the transportation of data by redirecting packets through a distributed anonymous network in a series of encrypted steps so no machine in the pipeline knows where the packet came from before arriving. Because any computer within the pipeline can see no more than one hop in the circuit, even a compromised path can't be used to connect the information's source and destination.

Once a user accesses Strongbox, they can upload files or send messages using a randomly generated user name. That anonymous ID can either be used only once to send information to a writer or editor, or the user if they're willing to follow up, can use the ID to access messages and questions from editors and writers who might have further questions.

Within their privacy promise regarding Strongbox they state that, "Strongbox servers are under the physical control of The New Yorker and Condé Nast in a physically and logically segregated area at a secure data center. Strongbox servers and network share no elements in common with The New Yorker or Condé Nast infrastructure."

The final step to access the files involves writers and editors downloading files onto a thumbdrive, using a separate thumbdrive with an encryption key on a laptop without a harddrive that regularly wipes its memory, and then accessing the information on that seperate machine. This allows physical air space between the network that sent the message, and the machine that actually opens the documents.

Strongbox is the first use of Aaron Swartz's Deaddrop code which he finished in the month before his suicide on January 11th of  this year. The code for Deaddrop as well as Strongbox is open source in a fitting tribute to his work.

Aaron Swartz defended the use of anonymous communication on his blog years before in 2008 saying, "In 1787, when America’s framers wanted to argue for its Constitution, they published their arguments (the Federalist Papers) anonymously. Whistleblowers have released everything from the Pentagon Papers to the Downing Street Memos. Anonymous speech is a First Amendment right."

Given the increasing usage of the Internet for everything from our daily communication, work, commerce, socializing and an ever expanding world of applications in our daily lives, digital privacy should be a huge concern. Especially after the recent compromise of the AP phone records, the importance of Strongbox offering journalists a new safer tool to protect sources is more obviously needed than before. And luckily for us, Aaron Swartz was tackling the problem before his death.

As Swartz said, "Here’s to anonymity — and more tools protecting it."

Google Wallet - E-Commerce Just Got Some New Competition.

Google Wallet Newest Feature Will Have E Commerce Running For Cover

Watch out PayPal, Square, VenMo, WePay, and everyone else in the mobile payment market. The 800-pound gorilla of tech is now in the ring. On Wednesday Google announced at Google I/O, their annual developer conference, a new feature named Google Wallet.

Google Wallet is elegantly simple, with a $ icon that you can click to attach a monetary transaction to an email in the same way one might attach a photo or PDF to an email. In addition you will be able to use your Google Wallet to shop in stores using your smartphone in a PIN-protected app. For those concerned about what might happen if you lose your phone, Google has thought about that too, with 100% protection for unauthorized purchases and a feature to disable the app if you lose your phone.

The fee structure of Google Wallet will likely look very familiar to you if you've ever used PayPal. With a flat fee of 2.9% per transaction (minimum $0.30), it looks very similar to PayPal's basic structure, which puts a 2.9% transaction fee on the total sale amount plus a $0.30 fee per transaction.
The feature will be rolled out over the coming months to all U.S. Gmail users over 18 years old, but users can get earlier access if friends have the feature and send money to them.

As someone who's previously used Google Ads to drive app downloads for business reasons, I'd be very excited to have Wallet integrated as it would allow Google Analytics to cover the entire pipeline from ad to purchase with no issues regarding different platforms measuring performance using differing parameters. Being able to track the profitability of every ad directly along with email marketing would be a game-changer not just for e-commerce companies, but also for mobile ad networks and the Android app marketplace.

Because this news was just announced, it's too early to see how other e-commerce startups will react now that their business model has a much bigger competitor.

Picture Credit: Google

Immigration Reform 2013: Mark Zuckerberg's Lobbying Group Has Already Lost Key Donors

Mark Zuckerburg's forays into political action aren't proving to be successful. After launching on Aprill 11, Zuckerberg's lobbying group FWD.us has managed to quickly anger allies and lose support from key donors.

As the organization defines itself, "FWD.us is an organization started by key leaders in the tech community to promote policies to keep the United States and its citizens competitive in a global economy — including comprehensive immigration reform and education reform."

While that idea has been quick to garner support from techies, the reality of how that policy has come into play has been problematic. In order to get support from key Republicans, FWD.us has already waded into other issues, putting out TV ads supporting the Keystone XL Pipeline and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge much to the anger of progressives.

Former Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) commented on FWD.us' actions, saying, "Leaders in the technology community have every right to talk about how immigration reform will benefit their businesses, but instead, FWD.us has chosen a strategy that’s condescending to voters and counterproductive to the cause of reform."

The former senator was part of a broader coalition of progressive organizers including Progressives United, MoveOn.Org, Democracy for America, CREDO, Daily Kos, The Sierra Club, The League of Conservation Voters, 350.org, and Presente.org. Although many of these organizations are allied with the cause of immigration reform, they have had their interested hurt by FWD.us's organizing tactics.

Even some FWD.us donors have left the cause, including Elon Musk and David Sacks. Musk said regarding his departure, "I agreed to support Fwd.us because there is a genuine need to reform immigration. However, this should not be done at the expense of other important causes. I have spent a lot of time fighting far larger lobbying organizations in D.C. and believe that the right way to win on a cause is to argue the merits of that cause."

In its blatant support of the Keystone XL Pipeline, FWD.us illustrates that Silicon Valley successes are not always the best qualified when it comes to policy, as they managed to not only divide both progressives and their own donors within a month of launch, but did so for a cause that the scientific community is largely against, despite FWD.us's lip service to STEM education.

In addition, the demographics of FWD.us illustrate that the Silicon Valley idea of a diverse group is rather stereotypically male-dominated. Out of their 13 listed founders, there is only one woman. Our of their 23 listed supporters, there are only four women. Despite that obvious gender gap they describe themselves as, "A diverse group of leading innovators, job creators, business owners, and founders from the tech community."

While Silicon Valley loves to talk about a meritocracy where the best product or solution wins, FWD.us looks much more like an old boys club engaging in politics as usual, and much less like an innovative solution to a tough political problem. While they repeatedly state on their Facebook page that the "the tech community is uniting around immigration reform," they lack policy specifics, can't boast any type of coalition work outside the tech community, and speak in generalities that don't indicate where they stand on rights for undocumented students (some of whom studied in the STEM fields FWD.us also supports), bi-national LGBT couples, the low income workers who support our food industry (techies gotta eat too, right?), families of immigrants (does that engineer have a mom who wants to live closer?), and more.

Maybe FWD.us will internalize these lessons and pivot to a better strategy like many of their supporters' companies, but if not Mark Zuckerburg's current work in the political arena seems to be causing more problems than it's fixing.

Originally Posted Here.