Watch the Microsoft Build 2016 Day 2 Keynote Live Right Here

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Microsoft is holding its annual Build developer conference in San Francisco this week and after focusing on Windows, Xbox, HoloLens, and Cortana yesterday, the company will shine the spotlight on its cloud and developer tools today. You can watch the live stream right here.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The keynote is scheduled to start at 8:30am Pacific, 11:30am Eastern, and 5:30pm Central European Time.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Yesterday, Microsoft talked a lot about Cortana and bots, but today we’ll hear more about the tools the company uses to actually build these services. Chances are we will hear a bit more about new services on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, but also about Xamarin, the cross-platform development service the company acquired only a few weeks ago. Indeed, we heard surprisingly little about Xamarin during the Day 1 keynote, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it took center stage today.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Microsoft also yesterday said that it wanted to talk more about the Office 365 ecosystem, so we’ll probably hear more about this, too. We have a team on the ground and you can follow all of our coverage here.</span></div> </div>

Watch the Microsoft Build 2016 Day 2 Keynote Live Right Here

Microsoft is holding its annual Build developer conference in San Francisco this week and after focusing on Windows, Xbox, HoloLens, and...

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Airware Snatches $30M to Sell Complete Drones to The Fortune 500

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-t06zZ3zdaqAwZcTQUJUBrcSD3J-qf-TCrJ8vpydosZLfWvLrzqHq48WuxPxcZkE4F-r4N4MbseVmzp4027zALkE2gmqsJCLKSPRN-vWSIAZFVGk71wH_DJLNHFUdUXNTUQHdkLW0ZsHr/s1600/airware.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-t06zZ3zdaqAwZcTQUJUBrcSD3J-qf-TCrJ8vpydosZLfWvLrzqHq48WuxPxcZkE4F-r4N4MbseVmzp4027zALkE2gmqsJCLKSPRN-vWSIAZFVGk71wH_DJLNHFUdUXNTUQHdkLW0ZsHr/s320/airware.gif" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Airware used to sell drone operating systems. Now it’s swiveling to sell the whole flying kit and caboodle: drone hardware, the software to control them, and the cloud where their data goes. It discovered that big enterprise companies didn’t know how to piece together drone systems themselves, so they were slow to adapting to the tech that could save them money and keep employees out of harm’s way.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Screen Shot 2016-03-30 at 9.53.43 PMBut to sell complete drone solutions to the Fortune 500, Airware needed sales firepower. So it’s fueling this new business with $30 million in Series C funding and the addition of 20-year Cisco CEO John Chambers to its board. The round was led by Next World Capital, which specializes in helping startups expand to Europe, which is Airware’s next destination.</span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmB9nmRfsFA836ylyQ4Au_KR_t9NXK8j5YlXCUhtcsXYI2Fd0sfbOyHM3RRfNOnUkHV6eJpPLteE-cGzKkb8TuBMrf-05yHzXqNDGn-16DV6GgjpzCDHMssKMPKFtXXtDHn144kGL5Ajnk/s1600/screen-shot-2016-03-30-at-9-53-43-pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmB9nmRfsFA836ylyQ4Au_KR_t9NXK8j5YlXCUhtcsXYI2Fd0sfbOyHM3RRfNOnUkHV6eJpPLteE-cGzKkb8TuBMrf-05yHzXqNDGn-16DV6GgjpzCDHMssKMPKFtXXtDHn144kGL5Ajnk/s320/screen-shot-2016-03-30-at-9-53-43-pm.png" width="280" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“Packing up a drone and kicking it over the fence isn’t enough for these large enterprises”, Airware CEO Jonathan Downey tells me. They didn’t know exactly what to use them for, what software or hardware customizations they needed, and where to get all these pieces of the puzzle. “We’ve heard enterprises asking for a complete solution from a single provider, and we’re able to offer that solution.”</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The first of Airware’s new enterprise customers is insurance giant State Farm. It’ll be using Airware’s full-stack drones to help roof insurance claim adjusters — a tough and dangerous job that often requires employees to climb ladders or use ropes and harnesses to assess damage to houses.</span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMp16bxOrGScnHPFWKUcAE8t9qeYChKZPot0aSK2FDqGkJ_TbwNBtQEHV-pSXt3UfjnSaKsJ0742NF6sCN2sMmjIBi0-5VPIaGYtvsRsyFeFb9RsxuHyEKv7cieXpnZh8F8ThtM2uFdiAr/s1600/screen-shot-2016-03-30-at-9-51-11-pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMp16bxOrGScnHPFWKUcAE8t9qeYChKZPot0aSK2FDqGkJ_TbwNBtQEHV-pSXt3UfjnSaKsJ0742NF6sCN2sMmjIBi0-5VPIaGYtvsRsyFeFb9RsxuHyEKv7cieXpnZh8F8ThtM2uFdiAr/s320/screen-shot-2016-03-30-at-9-51-11-pm.png" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Now, Airware’s drones will be able to do a quick fly-by while running customized software for roof analysis. The drones can collect much more accurate data and footage than precariously perched humans with binoculars, handheld cameras, and pads of paper ever could. State Farm can use the data now to adjust particular claims and discover trends to make its business more efficient later. It’s also planning to employe drones for residential insurance and catastrophe response.</span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0WA98REylT1KaDPAKt5l3w1G1jJssAoS5tl5-DcUKi_RJrsryzlelfAUlgb9pLoq9nA4614d1edcwE0On77D9Oicbfk-LpJXD1NRGyppjHA0RA19d3wQE07caqPlGfdDaJockzOzxMd1d/s1600/screen-shot-2016-03-30-at-9-48-38-pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0WA98REylT1KaDPAKt5l3w1G1jJssAoS5tl5-DcUKi_RJrsryzlelfAUlgb9pLoq9nA4614d1edcwE0On77D9Oicbfk-LpJXD1NRGyppjHA0RA19d3wQE07caqPlGfdDaJockzOzxMd1d/s320/screen-shot-2016-03-30-at-9-48-38-pm.png" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Previously, Airware often had to wait until a client bought drones that it could then augment with its operating system. Now it can sell the whole package to them directly by buying the right drones straight from the manufacturers and then smartening them up with its software.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Downey likens the approach to Microsoft’s, telling me “You can think of it as [selling] Office on top of Windows.” Airware isn’t making the hardware itself, but like Microsoft’s OS and apps made IBMs useful, Airware will enhance other drones. “We’re willing to do whatever it takes  — finding a drone from off the shelf or buying one and modifying it to add a new camera or sensor, and integrating it with our software.”</span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeOD4Wm-sqaCzmf9EnrY10gipuDOR2dXmNtVEHjwjGO6rx8wBvh4YyYGsMYLBHIhfdX7KzmyxesFvw-NLT5Ve0Q2dd6EbUXnO6PzfLQAIbBT9UidPxRK-TA_87_cqBw1xC1Q063v6_jJbz/s1600/screen-shot-2016-03-30-at-9-48-04-pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeOD4Wm-sqaCzmf9EnrY10gipuDOR2dXmNtVEHjwjGO6rx8wBvh4YyYGsMYLBHIhfdX7KzmyxesFvw-NLT5Ve0Q2dd6EbUXnO6PzfLQAIbBT9UidPxRK-TA_87_cqBw1xC1Q063v6_jJbz/s320/screen-shot-2016-03-30-at-9-48-04-pm.png" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>Little Copters, Big Business</b></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The $30 million C adds to over $40 million in existing funds to make Airware one of the most well capitalized drone companies behind Chinese manufacturer DJI with its $105 million. Joining in the round are previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, plus Chambers.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The retired Cisco CEO agreed to mentor Downey, teaching him the tricks to making huge companies sign pricey contracts. Downey says getting him on the board was an “audacious ask”. But Chambers was enticed since he’s been beating his chest talking about “how do companies digitize a lot of the things they’ve been doing that were previously analog?”, Downey explains.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Other insurance companies, as well as utilities, oil & gas, and telecom giants are top targets for the duo. These enterprises typically employ expensive full-size planes and helicopters, or satellites to get the aerial footage they need, but it’s often less precise and recent than what drones can pull in. Other times, they inefficiently pay humans to drive trucks along endless oil pipelines or climb huge towers to survey infrastructure. It’s slow and risky compared to using unmanned aerial vehicles.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">That’s why Downey says Airware’s real competitor isn’t another drone company, it’s “the status quo — the manual, often dangerous way they’re doing it today.” While there are plenty of drone startups out there, most only deliver a part of the hardware, software, or service necessary.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The extra cash will also help Airware move fast when more regulatory barriers are broken down later this summer. It’s already allowed to run drones for these kinds of insurance inspections, and it helps clients comply with no-fly zones and other policies. But the government is expected to begin allowing unlicensed pilots to operate small aerial vehicles for work, which might let even more companies get off the ground.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Airware could end up making a fortune replacing jobs with its flying robots. But honestly, these jobs were never fit for humans. We don’t come equipped with wings for a reason: we shouldn’t be dangling in the air. Leave it to the drones.</span></div> </div>

Airware Snatches $30M to Sell Complete Drones to The Fortune 500

Airware used to sell drone operating systems. Now it’s swiveling to sell the whole flying kit and caboodle: drone hardware, the softwa...

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Microsoft: Windows 10 Now Runs on 270M Monthly Active Devices

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXL2XiZdSbjioLVTutgPvUA5Vo31ySKK8Rl-U1m0oq_EdfhsiP0-0vuuQsnuy_7Z0Y9phGUIaieXl_-Jhk5taKi37Cy3-C95fPnOGfH5s37uRaw3ITDf7Fsr15p8xGxZH_byFexyJmr0Uc/s1600/o92a27811.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXL2XiZdSbjioLVTutgPvUA5Vo31ySKK8Rl-U1m0oq_EdfhsiP0-0vuuQsnuy_7Z0Y9phGUIaieXl_-Jhk5taKi37Cy3-C95fPnOGfH5s37uRaw3ITDf7Fsr15p8xGxZH_byFexyJmr0Uc/s320/o92a27811.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Following from the unmitigated disaster that was Windows 8, Windows 10 has been doing rather well for Microsoft. After announcing that its flagship operating system ran on 200 million monthly active devices in January, the company today used its Build keynote to announce that this number is now up to 270 million monthly active devices.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Another new number Microsoft today shared is the total number of visits to the Windows Store — the company’s equivalent to Apple’s App Store. In total, the store has now seen more than 5 billion visits, up from 3 billion in January. All of those apps and devices add up – windows users have spent more than 75 billion hours using the Windows 10 platform.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Microsoft says Windows 10 continues to outpace all of Microsoft’s previous Windows launches. It is currently seeing four times the growth rate of Windows 8 (although, to be fair, that release was met with a big fat ‘meh’ from reviewers, so most businesses never updated to it), and compared to Windows 7, the growth rate is up 145 percent.</span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIMQ77t1KZh3j6vBKXFmBBaePvWqsIgouvAEKMyWzhIfA2tQIhmvjkueCcdMmKhoSULmAskqCye8Um2Bta9G9RTjXYEV8t1KNg-mUlB3y0XooAJULgRsu-Us-t5SgvWPRbZwCyq7yyTUz/s1600/satya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIMQ77t1KZh3j6vBKXFmBBaePvWqsIgouvAEKMyWzhIfA2tQIhmvjkueCcdMmKhoSULmAskqCye8Um2Bta9G9RTjXYEV8t1KNg-mUlB3y0XooAJULgRsu-Us-t5SgvWPRbZwCyq7yyTUz/s1600/satya.jpg" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">As Microsoft also noted today, this update isn’t just coming from home users and small businesses – enterprises are also adopting Windows 10 faster than they did any other recent Windows update. In addition, the growth stems from a new generation of Windows devices, including Hololens and the Internet of Things.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Finally, Microsoft talked in detail about how it wants Windows to be the platform of choice for all developers, perhaps hinting at future announcements later in the Build conference? Watch this space…</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </div>

Microsoft: Windows 10 Now Runs on 270M Monthly Active Devices

Following from the unmitigated disaster that was Windows 8, Windows 10 has been doing rather well for Microsoft. After announcing that...

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Task Management App Asana Raises $50M at $600M Valuation Led by YC’s Sam Altman

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVprrJAHkdKYqHlOultIPkI6Aip2Xln4rj-AlOrF2FjopUkY1BCbRh4xXfk08NVMrsnDM3h1nZMzbzvaZr_h-dsy9EbkIoDRhjHEmpjNqaY66Li54lyuf43ZtExAul9AmJMLfZ18DOkC3/s1600/asana-main-product-image.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVprrJAHkdKYqHlOultIPkI6Aip2Xln4rj-AlOrF2FjopUkY1BCbRh4xXfk08NVMrsnDM3h1nZMzbzvaZr_h-dsy9EbkIoDRhjHEmpjNqaY66Li54lyuf43ZtExAul9AmJMLfZ18DOkC3/s320/asana-main-product-image.png" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Asana, an enterprise app that lets people set and track projects and other goals, has hit a goal of its own: today, the company is announcing that it has raised $50 million. The Series C round — led by Y-Combinator’s Sam Altman — values the company at $600 million, the company tells me.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">As a bit of context, Asana last raised $28 million in 2012; that Series B was at a $280 million valuation, according to our sources.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Co-founded in 2009 by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and early FB employee Justin Rosenstein out of the belief, in their own words, that “every team in the world is capable of accomplishing bigger goals, and that software could help empower them to drive work forward with more ease, clarity, and accountability,” the company will be using the funds to continue building out Asana’s functionality (more on that below) and also expand its customer base internationally (it’s largely a US-based list of clients today).</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Asana today has 13,000 paying businesses as customers, up from 10,000 in September, and over 140,000 businesses using the product overall adding some 10,000 every month. The company has both free and premium tiers, with the latter charged at $8.33 per member per month for groups above 15, and for more features.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Moskovitz and Rosenstein say that for the past four years, annual recurring revenue has been “more than doubling”, and that the company is on track to profitability in the next few years. “This fundraising is the fuel we need to get to the next stage, and to accelerate the fulfillment of our mission,” the founders note.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">In addition to Altman (who said he has wanted to invest in the company “for a long time”) this round includes a long list of other very high-profile backers — a testament both to the founders’ own pedigrees but also Asana’s place as one of the more respected and used startups in the productivity/enterprise apps space.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">They include 8VC (Joe Lonsdale’s new VC firm post Formation 8); Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund (which led Asana’s Series B); Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan (respectively CEOs of Facebook and The Primary School); Tony Hsieh (Zappos’ CEO and Vegas visionary); Andrew Mason (Detour CEO and Groupon co-founder); Adam D’Angelo of Quora; Aditya Agarwal and Ruchi Sanghvi; Eric Ries (Lean Startup author); Roger McNamee (Elevation Partners’ founder); and Moskovitz and Rosenstein themselves.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The two point out that these investors’ businesses are Asana users, and the individuals use it, too, with some funny side notes. Dropbox VP Aditya Agarwal and Dropbox alum Ruchi Sanghvi “use Asana to manage their domesticity”; and Mason’s fervour, meanwhile, is so strong that he “makes us look lukewarn on this whole Asana thing.”</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">As more businesses move their work processes online — creating documents and other data in apps like Quip or Google Docs or Microsoft through; communicating with each other (think Slack or Yammer) — productivity apps are having a moment right now. Just last week, BetterWorks — another platform that helps workers set and manage tasks and goals — announced a Series B of $20 million.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Indeed, in addition to BetterWorks and Asana itself, there are others like Basecamp, Wrike and Trello all offering ways to boost productivity and help organize so-called knowledge workers (essentially, those tied to keyboards or screens to get their jobs done). That makes for a competitive landscape but also a sign of how there is a ripe opportunity to do more.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">For its part, Asana has been testing a beta of a product called Track Anything, which sounds like a dashboard-style product that will let people automatically signal to colleagues jobs for completing tasks without them having to do the legwork. In a working world where we are forever multitasking and may be more intent on getting things done rather than ticking and updating progress reports to let people know that we have, adding in automation seems to be an essential development. This is a challenge that others are tackling, too. BetterWorks is building integrations with whatever software use most, which in turn communicates our progress on a task in the background.</span></div> </div>

Task Management App Asana Raises $50M at $600M Valuation Led by YC’s Sam Altman

Asana, an enterprise app that lets people set and track projects and other goals, has hit a goal of its own: today, the company is ann...

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Quora’s First Acquisition is Arab Spring Instigator’s Q&A Site Parlio

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-g2npQ9Pyr0NsleaRWmF78EutjAxK-JBoqrWS6mUH_NmUzg3481_-diiuKBs4hqmhlCPWhuBTN_aArNCpzIlkrvklqzbz3bwff2SmpFIPOVVdxuezEJYgl-cNyEi1OI4T5LdHLZIUdcy6/s1600/parlio2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-g2npQ9Pyr0NsleaRWmF78EutjAxK-JBoqrWS6mUH_NmUzg3481_-diiuKBs4hqmhlCPWhuBTN_aArNCpzIlkrvklqzbz3bwff2SmpFIPOVVdxuezEJYgl-cNyEi1OI4T5LdHLZIUdcy6/s320/parlio2.png" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“Ex-con” isn’t normally something you find on a founder’s resume. But Google employee Wael Ghonim went to jail for sparking the Egyptian Revolution. Now he might be wearing some golden handcuffs instead, as his startup Parlio just became Quora‘s first acquisition.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Parlio’s goal was to spread knowledge — a similar objective to Quora. But rather than focusing on canonical answers like its acquirer, Parlio sought to host civil discussions that let people hear both sides of an argument and come to their own conclusions.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Parlio also hosts dedicated Q&As with experts and public figures similar to Quora’s new AMA-like Writing Sessions. Ghonim explains the motive behind Parlio, saying “We were concerned about how today’s social media experiences are designed to favor broadcasting over engagement, posts over discussions and shallow comments over deep conversations.”</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Now Ghonim and the rest of his founding team will be joining Quora. Users won’t be able to post on Parlio any more starting today, but all published content will live on, and may be republished on Quora. Members can download their content for the next 30 days.</span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2kn0DbWPMPkBtZv5Uqv18culAVS8_wSZhzLtO9a-eSgn85OaD10JG587iEP9TwTEVx7nbpJBX9L9slI7QZNiwABBODgvfutw1e3xZk-Lmw4U_sh0QKZCOoNMaHZmJPMqx78ltp8ETMO0k/s1600/parlio-screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2kn0DbWPMPkBtZv5Uqv18culAVS8_wSZhzLtO9a-eSgn85OaD10JG587iEP9TwTEVx7nbpJBX9L9slI7QZNiwABBODgvfutw1e3xZk-Lmw4U_sh0QKZCOoNMaHZmJPMqx78ltp8ETMO0k/s320/parlio-screenshot.png" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Ghonim entered the spotlight in 2011 after using social media to call fellow Egyptians to protest in the streets. He’d previously started a Facebook Page called “We Are All Khaled Saeed” in support of a man tortured to death by the nation’s police. After using the Page to organize rallies against President Hosni Mubarak, he was secretly imprisoned, and became a hero to the movement upon his release.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Back in the US, Ghonim founded Parlio in 2014 with $1.68 million in seed funding from Betaworks, Founder Collective, Marissa Mayer, Wesley Chan, and other angels. Parlio has lit up recently with discussion of the presidential election, the refugee debate, ISIS, and Cuba.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">You can watch an interview with Ghonim and TechCrunch’s Sarah Buhr below.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Parlio’s team could help Quora figure out how to encourage participation from people who might not necessarily have definitive answers to its questions. Making Quora more approachable for the average web surfer could boost view time and help Quora earn revenue once it starts showing ads. Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo commented that “We think Parlio has enabled great conversations with experts and fits well with our mission to share and grow the world’s knowledge.”</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Many wrote off Quora as a nerdy, niche knowledge base. Small potatoes. But it’s proven to be the little startup that could. The upvotable question and answer app just hit 100 million monthly unique visitors and is finally preparing to earn some revenue through advertising after 7 years of riding its venture capital. Now Quora will have the talent needed to keep it fresh and bustling with discourse, and avoid becoming some dusty encyclopedia.</span></div> </div>

Quora’s First Acquisition is Arab Spring Instigator’s Q&A Site Parlio

“Ex-con” isn’t normally something you find on a founder’s resume. But Google employee Wael Ghonim went to jail for sparking the Egypti...

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A Rant About Why Snapchat 2.0 is No Disappearing Teen Fad

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXKw0U6iASygEJ6GmwDPBGX7LmVRLU4b8ACmajg-9SvlnIbDs893Akc8ipWjLh_sCQiJgqNpwbtstNw4Lpgod9cqVrQ3MATsy40Elc0qAXn12d_hZG-BddmgMe9A-j4uE1e1UA_W85rLCj/s1600/snapcode.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXKw0U6iASygEJ6GmwDPBGX7LmVRLU4b8ACmajg-9SvlnIbDs893Akc8ipWjLh_sCQiJgqNpwbtstNw4Lpgod9cqVrQ3MATsy40Elc0qAXn12d_hZG-BddmgMe9A-j4uE1e1UA_W85rLCj/s320/snapcode.png" width="294" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Ignore Snapchat at your own peril. It’s a lot more than sexts and ephemeral photos. Today’s Chat 2.0 update makes Snapchat a competitor to your phone itself. What started as an app for horny high school kids has blossomed into the most vibrant communication platform on the market.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Watch my video rant above to see why Snapchat suddenly got a lot more important, see a demo of the new features, and learn why it won’t be disrupted easily.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">If you can’t watch the video, here’s the transcript:</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Snapchat is social media bedrock. Competitors can’t dig deeper than its full-screen omni-sharing. It does everything, simply, with as little interface chrome clutter as possible. That’s why it’s time for everyone to wake up and realize Snapchat isn’t going to disappear quickly. In fact, photos that self-destruct in 10 seconds aren’t even the point of Snapchat anymore.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">With today’s launch of Chat 2.0, Snapchat wants to be your phone. Here’s a list of the new features:</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Snapchat Stories now auto-advance, so when you get to the end of watching a friend’s Story or swipe left, the next Story in your list starts playing for easy lean-back watching</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Over 200 Stickers are now available in private chat, and ones related to text you’ve typed like “love you” or “hungry” are instantly surfaced when you press the Stickers button.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Video Notes in Chat let you record and send a quick 10-second max thumbnail-sized GIF-like loop so you can react with your face</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Audio Notes work similarly, allowing you to send short voice snippets</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Video or Audio Call someone even if you aren’t already text chatting, which makes Snapchat into more of a phone</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Send multiple photos at a time in chat, an dmark them up with Snapchat’s text, drawing, and filter tools first</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Send camera roll photos during a Video or Audio Call and they’ll be translucently overlaid on the screen</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Toggle on the fly between Video and Audio Calls, Video and Audio notes, stickers, and text as your environment or intentions change</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Social media creates a window through which your friends can watch your life. Yet most social networks weren’t designed that way, because phones, screen sizes, cameras, and mobile network connections weren’t good enough to build a crystal-clear portal.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">With all its text, Twitter is like peering through a crack in a fence. There are lots of cracks next to each other, but none let you see the full story. Facebook is mostly blank space. It’s like a tiny jail-cell window surrounded by concrete. Instagram was the closest thing we had. Like a quaint living room window, you can only see the clean and pretty part they want you to see.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Snapchat is the floor-to-ceiling window observation deck into someone’s life. It sees every type of communication humans have invented: video, audio, text, symbols, and drawings. Beyond virtual reality and 360 video — both tough to capture or watch on the go — it’s difficult to imagine where social media evolves from here.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So if you’ve been holding out or keeping quiet, it’s time to get serious. Snapchat’s here to stay.</span></div> </div>

A Rant About Why Snapchat 2.0 is No Disappearing Teen Fad

Ignore Snapchat at your own peril. It’s a lot more than sexts and ephemeral photos. Today’s Chat 2.0 update makes Snapchat a competito...

Read more »

Instagram Needs Editing Tools to Make New 60-Second Videos Tolerable

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEige6M8LAT2vl01VGtOZPax37zSQrBbAl0vF4OlHotiXwzuJIT_cxNP7q0SV9e3wjD_GVJ0u5nzNXn3SqCFBZE1tUvrOZTvFYFOZ45QZ0O4vm3lNuP9gOQyKK0LuguSQ4ay6ofsqYWZFs0W/s1600/instagram-video-editing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEige6M8LAT2vl01VGtOZPax37zSQrBbAl0vF4OlHotiXwzuJIT_cxNP7q0SV9e3wjD_GVJ0u5nzNXn3SqCFBZE1tUvrOZTvFYFOZ45QZ0O4vm3lNuP9gOQyKK0LuguSQ4ay6ofsqYWZFs0W/s320/instagram-video-editing.jpg" width="179" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Most people are terrible at shooting video. Any longer than 15-seconds and it will probably be boring. That’s why Instagram capped videos at a quarter-minute when it launched the feature in 2013. Yet today it extended the length to 60 seconds for user-shot or uploaded videos.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">That’s why I have a hunch that Facebook and Instagram are preparing to launch a more powerful set of video editing tools so that you can make minute-long clips that are actually interesting.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Instagram Video EditingWhile some worried that videos would be interruptive and clumsy in the sleek Instagram photo feed, people have warmed up to them. Instagram says video viewing time grew 40% in just the last 6 months.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Meanwhile, Instagram started to make some solid revenue on video ads that it launched in 2014. First they were 15-seconds. Then 30 starting in September, then 60 as of last month. But since they were so much longer than user videos, they might have felt unnatural to watch. Letting users post minute-long videos could make the longer ads blend in better.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Basically, people like video in Instagram, and longer user-generated videos make it easier for Instagram to make money on the medium. So how does Instagram make people want to watch each other’s 60-second videos? My bet is by finally offering some of the video editing tools found elsewhere.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">As of right now, all you can do to edit a video in Instagram is add multiple clips, trim the lengths, add a filter, toggle sound or stabilization, and select a cover frame. The list of popular editing features it lacks is lonnnnnnng:</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Stories that combine videos and photos (Snapchat)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Split-screen collages with multiple videos (Editing apps)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Soundtracks (Vine, YouTube)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Sync-to-beat for creating audio loops (Vine)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Add drawing, text, or stickers to videos (Snapchat)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Stylized templates (iMovie)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Video effects like slow-mo or reverse (Snapchat)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Reordering clips (Editing apps)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Transitions between clips (iMovie)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Recording video while your device is playing audio (Snapchat)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Lipsyncing (Dubsmash)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Audio envelopes for variable volume and fade-outs (iMovie)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Ghost outlines of your previous clip to line up shots (Vine)</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">These tools could inspire people to go beyond the “point, shoot, pan, done” amateur clips you see today, and become true instavideographers. These more polished reels could hold people’s attention when more dopamine-inducing photos are just a flick away.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Instagram could potentially release video editing tools as a side app, adding to its wildly popular roster that includes Hyperlapse for timelapses, Layout for collages, and Boomerang for GIFs. That would keep the core app clean and give the tools plenty of room to breathe in their own space.</span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIKG3kUZGuyxeoOhMXWO-Sd2OULfrQndNb0PiSyoOGKxJlQcL4dfdisgEySNWj0TKRFEpYy5fvoPl17ic-f7YEKvZcX0HAkPIlDAFJRGwTu0XGRVyAY-buL7qhZ-6fSum1I8AQMcSa9DSO/s1600/facebook-sign-89.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIKG3kUZGuyxeoOhMXWO-Sd2OULfrQndNb0PiSyoOGKxJlQcL4dfdisgEySNWj0TKRFEpYy5fvoPl17ic-f7YEKvZcX0HAkPIlDAFJRGwTu0XGRVyAY-buL7qhZ-6fSum1I8AQMcSa9DSO/s320/facebook-sign-89.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Alternatively, it could bury them in the main Instagram app. That’s what Instagram did when it released granular photo editing tools beyond its normal filters so you could adjust contrast, warmth, shadow, tilt shift in more.. They all got rolled up and hidden away behind the wrench icon to not distract or slow down novice photo sharers</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Honestly, Facebook needs these tools even more than Instagram. It’s embarrassingly outdated. Facebook’s video tool doesn’t even allow multi-shot tap-to-record, filters, stabilization, or cover images. The video experience has hardly evolved in the 2.5 years since I first called Facebook out for being obsolete. That’s despite video viewing becoming insanely popular on Facebook, growing an order of magnitude to over 8 billion video views per day in the same time period.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Everyone seems to know mobile video is the future, especially Facebook and Instagram’s users. If the social giant wants us to watch longer and longer clips, it needs to let us spice them up.</span></div> </div>

Instagram Needs Editing Tools to Make New 60-Second Videos Tolerable

Most people are terrible at shooting video. Any longer than 15-seconds and it will probably be boring. That’s why Instagram capped vid...

Read more »