Let’s go MeeGo: open-source OS is on track for its comeback

Jolla, the company resurrecting the MeeGo mobile OS, has announced $260 million in funding and plans to reveal its first phone soon.

In July, ambitious Finnish startup Jolla announced it had adopted the abandoned — by Nokia, at least — operating system MeeGo, and would be designing and developing new smartphones based around it.

Jolla’s seriousness was proven by the members of its team, the majority of whom worked on MeeGo with Nokia, and therefore were both personally and professionally attached to the project from the start. MeeGo has plenty of fans around the world too, thanks primarily to the Nokia N9, the one and so-far only MeeGo smartphone to be released.

That could all change very soon though, as Jolla has announced that it has raised 200 million euros/$260 million in funding, and that its first smartphone is almost ready for its public debut.

Details on the funding are sketchy, with Jolla saying only that it has formed an alliance with “leading players in the industry,” and that a data center to host the OS’s cloud services and infrastructure will be setup through Cyberport in Hong Kong. This is an important point, as Jolla plans to aggressively target the Asian and Chinese market, calling China a “game changer in the technology industry,” adding how it wants to create the “third smartphone ecosystem in China,” after Android and iOS.

Jolla’s MeeGo OS has a codename too, Sailfish, and it will make its first appearance very soon. Jussi Hurmola, Jolla’s CEO, called the OS “more open than Google Android regarding apps and service development,” and said in a tweet that now the ecosystem support system is in place, the company “is very close to announce the date for the device launch.” Speaking to Lightreading.com, Hurmola said that the launch dates for the hardware would be decided later this week.

International availability promised

International fans of MeeGo shouldn’t despair at this apparent focus on Asia, as a tweet from Jolla’s official Twitter account stated that Sailfish is “definitely not for China only.”

As for the first phone, if Jolla listens to those who voted in its poll to find out the preferred form factor for the debut device, it’ll be a touchscreen QWERTY slider. Of the just over 3,000 people who voted, 47-percent chose it, despite — or perhaps because of — the design having fallen from mainstream grace over the past few years. The phone announced is almost certainly going to be a pre-release device though, as Sailboat isn’t going to be available for licensing until early 2013.

Speculating on whether Jolla has a meaningful future ahead of it is almost impossible at this stage, particularly without a look at the Sailboat OS and the phone on which it will first appear. Concentrating on rapidly developing markets — in this case China — is a solid tactic, and something which other companies looking to re-invent themselves are also doing.

Competition is fierce though, with ZTE already adopting Mozilla’s Firefox OS, and the Alibaba Group pledging to invest $200 million per month into its Aliyun mobile OS. Jolla has certainly got some hard work ahead if it wants that coveted third position in the market.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Changing Cities: A Lottery that Helps Save the World

As a Ph.D. at Stanford University, Molly Morse came up with an innovative way to make biodegradable plastic. She felt like she had a world-changing idea, but needed the funding to make the idea a reality.

She just got a big boost to making that happen.

As part of the Clinton Initiative in New York on Sept. 23,  Molly Morse and her company Mango Materials took home the 2012 Postcode Lottery’s Green Challenge, beating out more than 500 entries of projects aiming to reduce C02 emissions entered in the world’s largest environmental innovation prize.  Thanks to the Postcode Lottery, Morse now has $630,000 to do help rid the world of petroleum based plastic.

Her process utilizes bacteria to turn methane into a biodegradable plastic, a material that can be used for almost anything made of plastic, which in today’s world is almost anything. After use, Morse’s plastic offers a better alternative to petroleum based plastic, because it can be sent to a landfill or digester and and turned back into biodegradable plastic without adding any CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

“Thanks to this generous prize, soon consumers will be able to buy goods from biodegradable plastic at an affordable price,” Morse said at the event. “And that’s going to be so much better for the environment. Our bioplastic is an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional plastic, which piles up in nature and garbage dumps.”

Two runners-up Dan Weddepohl of Peerbyand Nick Garritsen of CarbonScape also received prizes of $128,520 a piece for their ideas.

CarbonScape uses fast, efficient microwave technology to transform waste biomass, such as timber residue, into high-grede materials that replace carbon. One such innovation Weddepohl has created is a new greener type of steel, which, if utiized on a large scale, has the potential to decrease CO2 emissions by 2.5 percent.

Peerby, Garritsen’s idea, is a product sharing app. His app and website allow consumers to rent goods to nearby people utilizing smartphones and Facebook, connecting people and helping to negotiate deals.

These three ideas represent a slew of startups being pushed forward by the  the Postcode Lottery, an innovative lottery program that funds ideas that make the world a better place.

The Postcode Lottery: Where Proceeds Go to Help Make the World a Better Place

For more than two decades, the Dutch have been running the Postcode lottery, which supports charities in the Netherlands and abroad. Since its launch in 1989, it has grown to become the third largest charitable organization worldwide.

The way it works, 50 percent of each 2 euro ticket sold, goes to fund charities, which adds up to billions of dollars for 253 charities worldwide working on everything from Brad Pitt’s Make it Right Foundation, which builds green in New Orleans and elsewhere, to programs that fund health and research, support of children, the environment and cultural issues. The organizers say it is an alternative to a tax encouraging citizens to engage in civic behavior.

In 2011, lotteries in the United States brought in $56 billion — 25 percent, or about $14 billion, went back to the states for government services such as education and senior programs, 60 percent goes to prize winners and 15 percent to retailers. The Dutch Postcode Lottery sets itself apart by funding individual entrepreneurs.

“We like encouraging people to take matters into their own hand and create a better world and we also like to encourage entrepreneurship,” Marieke Van Schaik managing director of the Dutch Postcode Lottery told ABC News. “I think it’s wonderful that we can help, and can inspire other people to do something like this.”

Taking the Postcode Lotto Global

The Dutch aren’t stopping in the Netherlands; recently they have established lotteries in Sweden and Great Britain. With a new initiative to establish Postcode Lotteries in as many countries as possible, the aim is to help as many innovators and charitable organizations as they can make the world a little bit better through a lotto ticket.

“The Postcode Lottery is the best thing I have ever seen to involve ordinary people in charitable work.  A whole community can win and it must be a great feeling to be a part of it,” said President Bill Clinton, an international ambassador for the Postcode Lotteries.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Changing Cities: A Lottery the Helps Save the World

As a Ph.D. at Stanford University, Molly Morse came up with an innovative way to make biodegradable plastic. She felt like she had a world-changing idea, but needed the funding to make the idea a reality.

She just got a big boost to making that happen.

As part of the Clinton Initiative in New York on Sept. 23,  Molly Morse and her company Mango Materials took home the 2012 Postcode Lottery’s Green Challenge, beating out more than 500 entries of projects aiming to reduce C02 emissions entered in the world’s largest environmental innovation prize.  Thanks to the Postcode Lottery, Morse now has $630,000 to do help rid the world of petroleum based plastic.

Her process utilizes bacteria to turn methane into a biodegradable plastic, a material that can be used for almost anything made of plastic, which in today’s world is almost anything. After use, Morse’s plastic offers a better alternative to petroleum based plastic, because it can be sent to a landfill or digester and and turned back into biodegradable plastic without adding any CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

“Thanks to this generous prize, soon consumers will be able to buy goods from biodegradable plastic at an affordable price,” Morse said at the event. “And that’s going to be so much better for the environment. Our bioplastic is an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional plastic, which piles up in nature and garbage dumps.”

Two runners-up Dan Weddepohl of Peerbyand Nick Garritsen of CarbonScape also received prizes of $128,520 a piece for their ideas.

CarbonScape uses fast, efficient microwave technology to transform waste biomass, such as timber residue, into high-grede materials that replace carbon. One such innovation Weddepohl has created is a new greener type of steel, which, if utiized on a large scale, has the potential to decrease CO2 emissions by 2.5 percent.

Peerby, Garritsen’s idea, is a product sharing app. His app and website allow consumers to rent goods to nearby people utilizing smartphones and Facebook, connecting people and helping to negotiate deals.

These three ideas represent a slew of startups being pushed forward by the  the Postcode Lottery, an innovative lottery program that funds ideas that make the world a better place.

The Postcode Lottery: Where Proceeds Go to Help Make the World a Better Place

For more than two decades, the Dutch have been running the Postcode lottery, which supports charities in the Netherlands and abroad. Since its launch in 1989, it has grown to become the third largest charitable organization worldwide.

The way it works, 50 percent of each 2 euro ticket sold, goes to fund charities, which adds up to billions of dollars for 253 charities worldwide working on everything from Brad Pitt’s Make it Right Foundation, which builds green in New Orleans and elsewhere, to programs that fund health and research, support of children, the environment and cultural issues. The organizers say it is an alternative to a tax encouraging citizens to engage in civic behavior.

In 2011, lotteries in the United States brought in $56 billion — 25 percent, or about $14 billion, went back to the states for government services such as education and senior programs, 60 percent goes to prize winners and 15 percent to retailers. The Dutch Postcode Lottery sets itself apart by funding individual entrepreneurs.

“We like encouraging people to take matters into their own hand and create a better world and we also like to encourage entrepreneurship,” Marieke Van Schaik managing director of the Dutch Postcode Lottery told ABC News. “I think it’s wonderful that we can help, and can inspire other people to do something like this.”

Taking the Postcode Lotto Global

The Dutch aren’t stopping in the Netherlands; recently they have established lotteries in Sweden and Great Britain. With a new initiative to establish Postcode Lotteries in as many countries as possible, the aim is to help as many innovators and charitable organizations as they can make the world a little bit better through a lotto ticket.

“The Postcode Lottery is the best thing I have ever seen to involve ordinary people in charitable work.  A whole community can win and it must be a great feeling to be a part of it,” said for President Bill Clinton, an international ambassador for the Postcode Lotteries.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Hands on with App.net, the pay-for Twitter disruption platform

In the wake of Twitter's harsh words for outside developers, App.net managed to surpass its funding goals and launch an alpha service. Check out our first impressions.

The Dalton Caldwell blog post-inspired App.net has been hatching plans to take on Twitter with its pay-for model for weeks now. At last report, the platform was well short of its $500k goal, but over the last week, the hype and interest was enough to tip App.net over the edge ahead of its deadline.

“Thank you for believing,” Caldwell wrote on Saturday. “I know in my heart that what made join.app.net succeed was your willingness and openness to give App.net the benefit of the doubt, to read our github documentation, to ask to participate in the alpha, to write blogposts in our support. Thank you.”

Now, the alpha version is up and running.

Interface

App.net’s interface is, to summarize, bare bones. You have a mere four landing pages you can check out: Your personal stream (posts from those you’re following), your posts, mentions, and the global feed. It’s certainly more sparse than Twitter, both in what and how you navigate, and its looks. While you have a Facebook-like profile page complete with a personal picture and cover photo, the rest of the site is quite stark.

And front and center, in big, bold, plain type, is a export tool for grabbing all of your App.net-posted data.

Actions

There’s a lot of work to be done, clearly, so plenty is going to fall onto the “what’s missing” list, but that’s to be expected. That said, let’s dive in.

Instead of 140 characters, you get 256. You can reply to other people’s posts (which a small handful are referring to as “appdates”), but there are no “retweet” or favorite options. You can select and view individual posts for backlinking purposes, which is incredibly helpful when using content for news breaking reference. 

It can probably go without saying that multimedia features like sharing photos and videos haven’t been added to App.net, but the developer community is so enthused about the platform that the building is coming fast and furious.

In development

Which brings us to a quick note on all the building that’s happening around App.net. Much of the reason for starting App.net in the first place revolved around how platforms exist and interact with their third-party developer ecosystems. Twitter’s continued distancing between itself and outside developers was a big part of the inspiration. So it’s only fitting that much of the discussion on the alpha site revolves around the third-party community.

Web and mobile apps are in the works, as are desktop and browser extensions. You can check out the in-progress catalogue over at Github. And there are a few fun tools already at your disposal, like this app that finds your Twitter friends already using App.net, and this one that shows an endless stream of posts as they’re published, in real time.

Users

There are a few problems that come with alternative social networks. The main one, of course, is building the userbase. As it can be assumed, Twitter’s numbers are far great than App.net’s… obviously. And the fact that there’s no native way to find people can make diving in a little intimidating. You’re just sort of thrown in the mess, although you can use the aforementioned tool that helps you find Twitter users you know using the application to help out.

The other intimidating thing about jumping into App.net is the community – or rather, it can be intimidating. Think about the type of people interested in paying at least $50 to start using a real-time communication application – so yes, it’s pretty tech-oriented. There’s a lot of developer-speak and a lot of App.net-speak. It’s pretty narrow.

To be fair, this means that the obnoxious drivel that Twitter often dissolves to hasn’t hit the site (at least not yet). It’s a relief not to be flooded with constant celebrity news and pictures of food, if we’re being honest.

The other element that hasn’t invaded App.net (again, yet) are spambots. The price gate is certainly helping, as is its just-launched status, although there’s no chance the platform will be able to remain spam free. Regardless, it definitely shouldn’t dissolve into the massive cesspool of fake users that has engulfed Twitter’s basement.

Conclusion

App.net is ambitious and exciting, but it’s not a solid bet quite yet. There are also already rumors that there will be a free tier of App.net, and I’d certainly suggest waiting until we hear more on that.

As it stands, it’s interesting to be part of the early crew. And if you ever wished you could have been a part of the early Twitter machine and all the user-sourced development that happened way back when, then ante up that $50 and come on in. Otherwise, wait until there’s more outside app integration and native built-in controls.

The larger question, of course, is, does App.net stand a chance? It’s hard to say yes — but given Twitter’s fickle heart these does, it actually seems possible. I don’t want to beat a dead horse here, but Twitter isn’t the company that it used to be; its priorities are shifting. We can criticize and yell about it, but it Twitter wants to go ahead and be a media company — and it’s in a really good position to do that. It’s frustrated for many of its core users, but it’s still Twitter’s perogitive.

That means the timing is right: We have this brief moment where real-time communication is important and popular and where the largest player to date appears to be creating some market space. Paying for apps is a hard hurdle to cross, but it could deliver us from many of the issues our social networks have trapped us into. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com