Facebook Adds Reminders For Upcoming TV Show Airings To Its Android App

Facebook is now a TV guide. Or, at least, if you’re using its Android app, you can now set reminders for upcoming episodes of TV shows in the U.S., on participating TV show Facebook Pages. A new version of the Android app rolls out these reminders, which seems a very obvious attempt to get members of its network to engage with and discuss broadcast TV content on Facebook as it’s happening in real-time. If you’re thinking that sounds familiar, you’d be right: Twitter has been aggressive in capitalizing on its role as a companion for live broadcast television. It’s partnering direct with TV content providers for things like a trending TV content box, a relationship with broadcasters that allows users to see snippets of live TV directly in their stream, and a Comcast partnership that triggers DVR and other activity. Twitter, which has priced its IPO and is listing publicly on the NYSE today, makes no secret of its television and live broadcast ambitions – Deb Roy, who came to Twitter through the acquisition of Bluefin Labs, argues that Twitter has an opportunity to become the social glue that binds disparate viewers around televised and other content, a connection which was lost when we started engaging in more time-shifted viewing. Facebook has been building TV partnerships, too. It recently enabled real-time conversation analysis for Dancing With The Stars, providing stats and information which was broadcast live on air, and it’s running Q&A’s with celebrities and shows, as well as employing hashtags and trending topics to, like Twitter, identify the content people on its network are most interested in. This new reminders feature seems to be another element in its overarching media strategy. A reminder of a live broadcast from Facebook does one thing: calls your attention to the social network exactly when Facebook wants you to be using it. Twitter doesn’t yet have anything that quite so blatantly invites users to participate in real-time online discussion specifically and automatically, but it also arguably doesn’t need that because of the tendency of its users to do that organically, anyway. Facebook wants to be a media property, and it wants to be real-time. It’s taking steps in that direction, but it’s also hard to say what its chances are of competing with Twitter on that scale. In either case, watching how each evolves as they pursue that goal will prove interesting, as will seeing how users react to their shifting identities.

Lime&Tonic Picks Up €1M In Angel Funding Because Apps For Affluent People Need Cash Too

Even an app for affluent people needs cash at some point. Lime&Tonic, the digital concierge app for iOS that provides personalised recommendations of "unforgettable" experiences to help users fill their social agendas, has announced that it's closed a €1 million round of angel funding. The list of backers includes VCs Julie Meyer (Ariadne Capital), Cem Sortoglu (Earlybird Capital), Daniel Lynch (3TS Capital), and Miroslav Boublik (Craig Capital), all of whom have invested in a personal capacity, along with Graham Potts, co-founder of Jobsite. The round also looks like it's been a while in the making. Meyer, for example, joined the Board and became a shareholder in Lime&Tonic back in July, while Sortoglu and Lynch were also previously named as Board members. The UK startup says it will use the new funding to further develop the Lime&Tonic product, which currently consists of a web version and iOS app only. Cheapskate Android users need not apply - for now. The Lime&Tonic app provides personalised offers of things to do, such as dining, afternoon tea and other affluent people's activities, provided by the premium merchants that Lime&Tonic works with. These include Michelin restaurants, and 5-star hotel brands. Billed as a technology play, users fill out their profile with information such as any food requirements, how they like their coffee, steak cooked, or any favourite cocktails. Lime&Tonic's algorithm then kicks in to provide those personalised recommendations, once or twice per day, powered by its database of curated experiences. In addition, Lime&Tonic shares elements of a user's profile data with its partner merchants to ensure the best possible experience. The app also has a built-in calendar to help users plan upcoming events. The service is currently available in 7 cities, including London, Dubai, Prague, Rio, Sydney, Amsterdam and Melbourne, offering 1,000+ experiences available globally from over 250 merchants. Traction-wise, Lime&Tonic says it's delivered 85,000 paying customers to-date, up from 71,000 at the end of August.

Apple Patents Bluetooth LE For Intermittent Network Sharing, Perfect For Smartwatches

The USPTO has published an Apple patent application today (via AppleInsider) that could offer a glimpse at how any potential iWatch may work, in terms of gathering data from the web. The patent describes a method for sharing a network connection over Bluetooth 4.0, the low energy specification used in modern iOS devices that can provide intelligent, intermittent context-based pairing. Apple’s invention would not create a persistent hotspot in the same way that sharing via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi from your iPhone does currently; instead, it would check in periodically, seek out updates from iCloud, grab push notifications, messages, news, weather and other data and then shut down again, returning to a power conserving state. The low-power aspect is the key ingredient in this mix. Smartwatches that currently exist, including the Galaxy Gear, handle data connections via Bluetooth, too, but Apple’s patent seems designed to introduce as much power savings as is possible, while also taking any management of connection out of the user’s hands, so they don’t need to worry about when it is and isn’t active. It’s worth noting that Apple also acquired low-energy chipmaker Passif back in August, which provides it with more expertise regarding Bluetooth LE communications. Apple mentions devices that don’t themselves contain any kind of network radio in the patent, which infers, without directly calling out, wearables such as the rumored iWatch we’ve been hearing so much about. Other analyst reports and industry information suggest that an iWatch could also come with its own Wi-Fi or cellular radios on board, however, so this Bluetooth LE hotspot feature is likely just one of many possibilities Apple has worked on in its testing facilities. Of course, an iWatch is still mostly just a myth at this point, with no solid signs we’ll see one hit production any time soon. But this patent indicates that Apple is at least working on the thorniest problems associated with wearables. Battery life is a primary concern – so far, even the best-in-class smartwatches offer only a theoretical maximum of 7 days without the need for a charge, which is good but not great. The point at which wearable tech becomes generally palatable is the point at which it becomes nearly invisible to a user. Adding one more things people have to remember to plug in nightly isn’t going to set the category aflame.

Charity Targets 3D Printing's Plastic Waste Problem With Standards For An Ethical Alternative

As more 3D printers fire up and start chewing through plastic filament to extrude the objects of your dreams, more and more spools of PVC are going to be required to build our DIY future. And that means more plastic waste. Which, let's face it, we have more than enough of already. But perhaps there is a better way. U.K. charity techfortrade reckons there's room to connect up the growing demand for 3D printing, with the surfeit of waste plastic in developing countries. The core aim: less waste and better jobs - that's better jobs for humans, as well as more ethical 3D print jobs. The tech-focused charity has today launched an initiative called The Ethical Filament Foundation which will aim to partner with organisations to encourage the manufacture of “ethically produced” 3D printing filament, made from recycled plastic waste - as an alternative to the standard virgin plastic spools. The ethical element extends not just to feeding recycled waste plastic back in the 3D printer ecosystem, but to providing income stability for waste pickers in developing countries. The Foundation is working to develop a standard for this ethical filament that can be used to certify producers, who will be able to license and display its accreditation mark. A draft of the Foundation's guidelines can be be viewed on its website. The Foundation notes: This standard will ensure that social, economic and environmental requirements are met in the production of 3D printer filament. It is also hoped that this will contribute towards a general improvement in wider trading relationships with waste pickers by influencing plastic industry standards. The Ethical Filament Foundation mark will act as a quality guarantee for those companies and individual consumers wishing to purchase recycled filament. The initiative is a welcome one - that could help instigate a wider shift in 3D printer practices. We've seen individual upcycling gizmos before, such as the Filabot, but as 3D printing moves from being the pastime of the maker community to something more mainstream it's going to need more ambitious efforts to keep its dirty underbelly in check. "After realising a gap in the market for 3D printer filament made from recycled plastic, we immediately recognised the opportunity this presents to the developing world where plastic waste is in abundance,” said William Hoyle, CEO of techfortrade, in a statement. ”The 3D printing market is growing exponentially and by making the first move into ethical filament, we hope to raise awareness about the importance of this technology and the benefits it can provide to some of the poorest people in the world. Our first step is to garner support from the 3D printing community.” The Foundation has been founded by techfortrade in partnership with Dreambox Emergence which provides 3D printing units for community based manufacturing in Guatemala, and Michigan Technological University. Protoprint, which provides waste plastic recycling services in India - detailed in the below video - has signed up as the Foundation's first licensed organisation.

A Like Is Not Enough: Facebook Tests Star Ratings Displayed On Pages

Facebook is apparently testing displaying star ratings, out of a possible five in total, on Pages on the desktop version of its site, according to a reliable tip received by TechCrunch this morning. Screenshots and live testing show that Facebook has turned on the star rating display for at least a small subsection of users, providing information to network users that goes beyond the somewhat sentiment-deprived basic Like. Using a star system for place and page ratings isn’t entirely new; Facebook has been collecting star ratings from users on the desktop and via local search for quite a while now, and also seeking star ratings on content and apps via Timeline. What is new is making this information explicitly displayed on the social network itself, in a prominent place on a business or place Page. This shift, if it moves from the testing phase to general adoption, has a couple major implications for Facebook users. First, for general members, it provides an increased degree of sentiment information surrounding places and content that goes well beyond the simple off/on attribute of the Like. The Like is actually fraught with ambiguity – users employ it variously to express sympathy, solidarity, endorsement, a sign of interest or even in some cases a feeling of dislike. The number of Likes something has indicates how present it is in public consciousness, but not necessarily how people generally feel about it. Comments provide some sense of sentiment around a Page, but the five-star system threads the needle between ease-of-use, information and digestibility, compared to both the Like and text comments. And as Facebook moves to become a platform geared towards providing public information, as well as real-time interactivity around media like TV, offering more granularity around how its users feel about people, places and things makes a lot of sense. For businesses, it’s not clear yet whether displaying this rating will be optional or mandatory, but if Facebook is making a play to compete with the Yelps, Foursquares and Angie’s Lists of the world when it comes to local discovery and service recommendations, it would make sense that they are required by default. That could mean a considerable shift in how businesses use FB, with more emphasis placed on customer service versus just maintaining a presence on the network. Likes are easy, after all, but getting users to fill up that star bar will require a lot more effort and interaction. We’ve reached out to Facebook to learn more about this feature, the extent of the test and whether a wider rollout is planned, and we’ll update when we receive more information. Update: A Facebook spokesperson provided the following confirmation and info from the company: We’re extending star ratings on Facebook from mobile to desktop – to make it easier for people to discover great businesses around them. This is beneficial for both businesses and consumers. Star ratings encourage more people to rate a business, making it eligible to appear in News Feed and help others discover a business they didn’t know about previously. For businesses themselves, this also leads to greater brand awareness. As you may recall, star ratings launched in early 2012 with the introduction of Nearby on mobile. Now we’re bringing the visibility of star ratings to a more prominent spot at the top of Pages’ timeline on desktop and to the preview in News Feed.

Austin-Based Silverton Partners Raises $75 Million For Its Fourth Fund To Invest In Local Startups

Austin has seen huge growth in its startup ecosystem over the past few years, driven in part by the general low cost of living and high quality of life, along with a whole bunch of repeat entrepreneurs re-entering the startup scene and mentoring the next generation of startup founders. As a result, there are some investors who see lots of opportunity for growth in the city. Local VC firm Silverton Partners is one of those investors, and it's just raised $75 million for its fourth fund, which will be committed to investing solely in early-stage Austin startups. That includes $10 million of which was raised from local entrepreneurs and founders that the company has worked with, who wish to re-invest in the startup ecosystem. For Silverton, investing in Austin is nothing new: The firm has been putting money into local startups for the last 30 years. It's also seen a fair amount of success, with Fund III exits that include Convio, which went IPO; BlackLocus, which was acquired by Home Depot; Crimson, which was acquired by The Advisory Board Company; Hyper9, which was acquired by SolarWinds; and Javelin, which was acquired by Avago Technologies. But there are some positive changes happening lately which it feels could make Fund IV - which is the same size as its third fund - one of its best. Partner Kip McClanahan, who joined the firm in recent years for Fund III, said that the Austin tech scene has benefitted from a lot of the same trends that have driven growth in other startup ecosystems. That includes the lower-than-ever cost of getting a company off the ground. But Austin in particular is also seeing some other positive trends that should help it grow faster than some other tech ecosystems, McClanahan told me. That includes a low cost of living, relative to other major tech centers, as well as a high quality of life for those who settle there. The tech ecosystem is also benefitting from a number of newer incubators that are helping early-stage companies to establish themselves. There are also a number of repeat entrepreneurs who not only have the experience to start better companies, but help mentor newer startups just coming up. In addition to mentorship, they're putting in their own cash to help the Austin market grow. In addition to traditional LPs and university endowments, Silverton Partners Fund IV includes $10 million from 40 local entrepreneurs that the firm has worked with who wished to invest in the fund.

Pissing Money Up A Wall? Captive Media's Interactive Urinal Gets Crowdfunded

Captive Media, the UK interactive washroom startup (seriously), has raised a further £250,000 (circa $400k) in funding via the equity crowd funding platform SyndicateRoom - adding to the $700,000 it raised a year ago. It says over half of the new funding comes from professional Angels, led by Peter Cowley and Mike Ullmann, with the rest made of ordinary punters who have invested as a little as £500 a pop, in return for a total 9.4% equity. With crowd funding, it seems anybody can piss money up a wall these days. That's progress. Launched in late 2011, Captive Media works on the premise that the average 55 seconds a man stands in front of a urinal during each "visit" to a public washroom is a wasted advertising opportunity, especially since the audience is so captive. Its solution is an interactive media system installed above each urinal, which uses an infrared beam to enable simple games and quizzes to be "pee controlled". Basically, punters are asked to aim left and right as they interact with the Captive Media system, and get shown ads - sorry, engagement marketing - in return. As we've noted before, the “technology” is potentially quite clever, too, since it can be retrofitted to most urinals; nothing is installed onto the urinal itself except washable stickers to mark the interaction points, while the infrared beam takes care of the rest. It was an idea that was pitched by Captive Media on the BBC TV show Dragons' Den last September, only for the Dragons to declare themselves out. But, as is wont to happen, other investors stepped in, with Cambridge-based technology fund Martlet, and serial tech investor Mike Ullmann (chair of Prodigy Finance), going on to invest in the UK company, amongst others. Advertisers seem to like the concept, too, particularly (and unsurprisingly) drinks companies, including Heineken, Tiger, Corona, and Pepsi. Urinal loop, anyone?