Year: 2018

I have to hand it to 8BitDo. At first I thought they were just opportunistically hawking cheap hunks of plastic in an era of unparalleled nostalgia for retro games, but… well, who am I kidding? That’s exactly what they’re doing. But they’re doing it well. And these new DIY kits are the latest sign that they actually understand their most obsessive customers.

While you can of course purchase fully-formed controllers and adapters from the company that let your retro consoles ride the wireless wave of the future, not everyone is ready to part with their original hardware.

I, for example, have had my Super Nintendo for 25 years or so — its yellowing, cracked bulk and controllers, all over stains and teethmarks, compelling all my guests to make an early exit. I consider it part of my place’s unique charm, but more importantly I’m used to the way these controllers feel and look — they’re mine.

8BitDo understands me, along with the rest of the wretches out there who can’t part with the originals out of some twisted concept of loyalty or authenticity. So they’re giving us the option to replace the controllers’ aging guts with a fresh new board equipped with wireless connectivity, making it a healthy hybrid of the past and present.

If you’re the type (as I am) that worries that a modern controller will break in ways that an SNES controller would find laughable, if it could laugh, then this will likely strike your fancy. All you do is take apart your gamepad (if you can stand to do so), pull out the original PCB (and save it, of course), and pop in the new one.

You’ll be using more or less all the same parts as these famously durable controllers came with (check out this teardown). The way the buttons feel shouldn’t change at all, since the mechanical parts aren’t being replaced, just the electronics that they activate. It runs on a rechargeable battery inside that you recharge with an unfortunately proprietary cable that comes with the kit.

If you’re worried about latency… don’t be. On these old consoles, control latency is already like an order of magnitude higher than a complete wireless packet round trip, so you shouldn’t notice any lag.

You will, however, need to pick up a Bluetooth adapter if you want to use this on your original console — but if you want to use the controller with a wireless-equipped setup like your computer, it should work flawlessly.

If you buy it and don’t like it, you can just slot the original PCB back into its spot and no harm is done!

There are conversion kits for the NES and SNES, the new Classic Editions of both, and the Sega Mega Drive. At $20 each it’s hardly a big investment, and the reversible nature of the mod makes it low risk. And hey, you might learn something about that controller of yours. Or find a desiccated spider inside.

Facebook’s virtual reality arm is beginning to sell its Oculus Go headsets directly to business users with a dedicated bundle. Starting today, business users can order a business bundle with a 64GB Oculus Go headset for $299.

Oculus isn’t charging much of a premium for business users, tacking on an extra $50 for some added accessories and an extended warranty with dedicated support is probably worth that hassle.

The company currently charges $799 for its Rift business bundle — a headset system that retails for $399 on its own — though the bundle similarly includes some extra stuff. Nevertheless, it’s clear that Oculus is probably expecting to ship more volume on the Oculus Go and is alright shifting the margins a bit accordingly.

There’s a decent business opportunity here for Oculus, running multiple Rifts and PCs is such an unimaginable hassle that without several dedicated troubleshooters, it’s pretty rough to scale options quickly. With Oculus Go, functionality is a bit more limited by tracking ability but ditching Windows makes things infinitely simpler and life is better without having to slot a Samsung smartphone that often needs its own updates as well. The fact is, standalone headsets are much better suited to casual business use cases though some partners will definitely still need the power of a PC and game developers will obviously be restricted to the platforms that they’re building for.

In a rare moment of agreement, members of the House Judiciary Committee from both major political parties agreed that Facebook needed to take down Pages that bullied shooting survivors or called for more violence. The hearing regarding social media filtering practices saw policy staffers from Facebook, Google and Twitter answering questions, though Facebook absorbed the brunt of the ire. The hearing included Republican Representative Steve King ask “What about converting the large behemoth organizations that we’re talking about here into public utilities?”

The meatiest part of the hearing centered on whether social media platforms should delete accounts of conspiracy theorists and those inciting violence, rather than just removing the offending posts.

The issue has been a huge pain point for Facebook this week after giving vague answers for why it hasn’t deleted known faker Alex Jones’ Infowars Page, and tweeting that “We see Pages on both the left and the right pumping out what they consider opinion or analysis – but others call fake news.” Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management Monica Bickert today reiterated that “sharing information that is false does not violate our policies.”

As I detailed in this opinion piece, I think the right solution is to quarantine the Pages of Infowars and similar fake news, preventing their posts or shares of links to their web domain from getting any visibility in the News Feed. But deleting the Page without instances of it directly inciting violence would make Jones a martyr and strengthen his counterfactual movement. Deletion should be reserved for those that blatantly encourage acts of violence.

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Florida) asked about how Infowars’ claims in YouTube videos that Parkland shooting’s survivors were crisis actors squared with the company’s policy. Google’s Global Head of Public Policy and Government Relations for YouTube Juniper Downs explained that “We have a specific policy that says that if you say a well-documented violent attack didn’t happen and you use the name or image of the survivors or victims of that attack, that is a malicious attack and it violates our policy.” She noted that YouTube has a “three strikes” policy, it is “demoting low-quality content and promoting more authoritative content,” and it’s now showing boxes atop result pages for problematic searches, like “is the earth flat?” with facts to dispel conspiracies.

Facebook’s answer was much less clear. Bickert told Deutch that “We do use a strikes model. What that means is that if a Page, or profile, or group is posting content and some of that violates our polices, we always remove the violating posts at a certain point” (emphasis mine). That’s where Facebook became suddenly less transparent.

“It depends on the nature of the content that is violating our policies. At a certain point we would also remove the Page, or the profile, or the group at issue,” Bickert continued. Deutch then asked how many strikes conspiracy theorists get. Bickert noted that “crisis actors” claims violate its policy and its removes that content. “And we would continue to remove any violations from the Infowars Page.” But regarding Page-level removals, she got wishy-washy, saying, “If they posted sufficient content that it would violate our threshold, then the page would come down. The threshold varies depending on the different types of violations.”

“The threshold varies”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) gave the conservatives’ side of the same argument, citing two posts by the Facebook Page “Milkshakes Against The Republican Party” that called for violence, including one that saying “Remember the shooting at the Republican baseball game? One of those should happen every week.”

While these posts have been removed, Gaetz asked why the Page hadn’t. Bickert noted that “There’s no place for any calls for violence on Facebook.” Regarding the threshold, she did reveal that “When someone posts an image of child sexual abuse imagery their account will come down right away. There are different thresholds for different violations.” But she repeatedly refused to make a judgement call about whether the Page should be removed until she could review it with her team.

Image: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Showing surprising alignment in such a fractured political era, Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Florida said “I’m agreeing with the chairman about this and I think we arrived at the same exact same place when we were taking about at what threshold does Infowars have their Page taken down after they repeatedly denied the historical reality of massacres of children in public school.”

Facebook can’t rely on a shadowy “the threshold varies” explanation any more. It must outline exactly what types of violations incur not only post removal but strikes against their authors. Perhaps that’s something like “one strike for posts of child sexual abuse, three posts for inciting violence, five posts for bullying victims or denying documented tragedies occurred, and unlimited posts of less urgently dangerous false information.”

Whatever the specifics, Facebook needs to provide specifics. Until then, both liberals and conservatives will rightly claim that enforcement is haphazard and opaque.

For more from today’s hearing:

Researchers at Purdue University and the University of Virginia are now able to create “tiny, thin-film electronic circuits peelable from a surface,” the first step in creating an unobtrusive Internet-of-Things solution. The peelable stickers can sit flush to an object’s surface and be used as sensors or wireless communications systems.

The biggest difference between these stickers and traditional solutions is the removal of the silicon wafer that manufacturers use. Because the entire circuit is transferred right on the sticker there is no need for bulky packages and you can pull off and restick the circuits as needed.

“We could customize a sensor, stick it onto a drone, and send the drone to dangerous areas to detect gas leaks, for example,” said Chi Hwan Lee, Purdue assistant professor. From the release:

A ductile metal layer, such as nickel, inserted between the electronic film and the silicon wafer, makes the peeling possible in water. These thin-film electronics can then be trimmed and pasted onto any surface, granting that object electronic features.

Putting one of the stickers on a flower pot, for example, made that flower pot capable of sensing temperature changes that could affect the plant’s growth.

The system “prints” circuits by etching the circuit on a wafer and then placing the film over the traces. Then, with the help of a little water, the researchers can peel up the film and use it as a sticker. They published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

UPS has been quietly testing a  program that lets the shipping service deliver packages inside multi-unit homes while occupants are out. The service utilizes smart locks created by Latch, a New York-based smart lock startup that teamed with Jet late last year.

The move is clearly an attempt for UPS to stay keep up to speed with Amazon, which paved the way for this sort of in-home delivery last year via Key (which has since expanded to cars), a program that utilizes Kwisket locks and its own Cloud Cam.

Here’s how the UPS system works, according to the company,

A UPS driver taking packages to a Latch-enabled building receives a unique credential on a handheld UPS DIAD (Delivery Information Acquisition Device). The credential works only for a specific building receiving deliveries. Any time a driver uses a credential to enter a building, Latch records the entry digitally to create an audit trail that identifies the user and the time of access, establishing a secure record of the transaction.  Latch’s smart access system lets residents and others use smartphones to unlock doors throughout a building, including at the main entrance. An embedded wide-angle camera within each device captures a visual record of every interaction by a non-resident that authorized users can monitor from the Latch mobile app.

UPS is quick to note that the service only works with the building, rather than individual apartment units. The pilot system certainly makes sense for New York City, where multi-unit homes are far and way the majority. As someone who gets delivery attempt slips on a regular basis in the front of my building, I’m all in favor of this program — especially one that doesn’t give access to my actual apartment. 

The pilot started in Manhattan earlier this year and is starting to roll out into Brooklyn. Latch won’t share exact numbers with regard to units that currently have access to the technology, but a rep tells me, “Hundreds of non-doorman buildings in the New York area are able to receive smart deliveries using the Latch system.”

Scott Heiferman, Meetup CEO and cofounder, is today moving into the Chairman role at the community-building startup.

Meetup launched in 2003 with a simple goal: to give communities an easy way to meet up in real life. Since, the company has grown to 40 million members, with 320,000 Meetup groups and around 12,000 Meetups per day around the world.

Late last year, WeWork acquired Meetup for a reported $200 million. According to WeWork, thousands of Meetups were already happening in WeWork locations. Plus, WeWork has been holding its own events focused on community building, so the acquisition seemed like a natural fit.

That said, Heiferman has spent 16 years running Meetup on a day to day basis, and is ready to move into a visionary role and appoint someone else to take over leading the team and scaling the company out further. Meetup cofounder Brendan McGovern is moving on from the company, but didn’t share with TechCrunch his future plans.

In the meantime, Meetup is looking for a new CEO.

Here’s what Heiferman had to say in an email to the company:

Team,

Here’s a little summary…

Today I announced I’ll be moving into the role of Chairman at Meetup, and we’re starting the search for a new CEO. Brendan will move on from Meetup at that point.

We hired 100 people so far this year, so we want to add to Meetup’s leadership team. I’ll become Chairman to make room for a new CEO who loves the day-to-day of leading a big team to serve millions of people.

Meanwhile, I’m most obsessed with Meetup reinventing itself to help a billion people create real community in the 2020’s.

The ultimate goal of these changes is for Meetup to have much more positive impact in the world. To be great at the here-and-now. And great at the around-the-corner.

This is a big deal, I know. I care deeply about finding a CEO who will add to this team, grow us, expand us, and make us better than before; a bold move and a fresh generation of leadership.

Scott

FAQs

What’s happening?

We’re looking for a new CEO of Meetup. After we find a new CEO, I’ll move into the role of Chairman. Brendan will move on (when the new CEO comes) to pursue new adventures.

What’s Chairman; what’s CEO?

CEO leads the team and is ultimately responsible for decisions and results. Chairman is involved in strategy and vision.

Why are we looking for a new CEO?

I’ve always been open to the boldest moves to serve our mission — that’s why we joined WeWork last fall. WeWork believes in our potential and they see the incredible opportunity we have to grow and innovate to serve the next 100 million — or billion — members. But to get there, we need more attention and clarity on operational excellence. By stepping into the role of Chairman, where my primary job will be focusing on the vision of serving 10X more people, we can bring in a leader whose primary talent is larger-scale operations and methodical growth processes to complement my skills and accelerate Meetup’s growth.

When is this happening?

The search is kicking off now. It’s a top priority but it could take time to find the right person to join our team. I’m highly involved in the search – as are Shiva Rajaraman and Adam Neumann. I will remain CEO until our new CEO starts, keeping us moving toward our goals.

What are we looking for in a CEO?

It’s a very high bar. Thankfully it’s one of the best jobs in the world. A few of the key criteria:

–Huge belief in our mission and potential
–Success leading a 250+ team to significantly grow a technology product (ideally consumer marketplace/platform/network) by methodically and strategically focusing on key levers
–Operates with the integrity and authenticity that’s always been a part of Meetup

What will the process be for interviewing and selecting a new CEO?

Shiva, Adam and I are primarily involved in the search and decision. All 12 Meetup Leadteamers will interview final candidates. The new CEO will report to Shiva.

Will there be more changes the leadership team?

There aren’t any changes planned right now. But we’re always open to Changing the Company, and Meetup is going to continue evolving to have the impact we want to have in the world.

ReachNow can’t be described as a car-sharing service anymore. The BMW-owned division is now a ride-hailing service too, putting it in direct competition with Uber and Lyft. At least in Seattle.

ReachNow launched Tuesday a new app that combines car sharing and ride hailing using a single shared fleet of cars. The service is live in Seattle as of Tuesday. And there are plans to expand into other U.S. cities.

The app aims to be a one-stop shop for users looking for the best way to get from Point A to Point B — and each choice providing a consistent BMW brand experience. ReachNow’s car-sharing fleet is a mix of BMW i3 electric cars, BMW 3 Series, BMW X1 SAV, MINI Clubman, MINI 2-door hardtop and MINI 4-door hardtop models.

The app offers users the option to rent one of its vehicles by the minute or for multiple days. For instance, a customer could grab a BMW i3 and use it to drive to work, then use the same app to get a ride from that after-work happy-hour spot. It’s even possible the same vehicle will be used, ReachNow’s Chief Customer Officer Dr. Simon Broesamle told TechCrunch.

The ride-hailing service doesn’t operate quite the same as Uber or Lyft. ReachNow has a contract with a third party, which supplies the drivers. The company, which tested ride hailing in Seattle last year, is using data to determine the right mix of vehicles dedicated to car sharing and ride hailing throughout the day. So, the number of vehicles available for car sharing might shift to the ride-hailing network on a Saturday night, a time when more users might not want to drive.

ReachNow is waiving the sign-up fee for new members who want to try the ride-hailing service. Ride pricing has a $3.24 minimum. Rides are $2.40 per mile plus $0.40 a minute. The service doesn’t have surge pricing. For now, the service is only available in Seattle.

The new app has a few other ride-hailing features to give a more personal experience. Members can select an immediate pickup or schedule a ride up to seven days in advance. Ride-hailing customers can also select the temperature and music preferences, as well as hit a “quiet time” option, which tells the driver that the rider doesn’t want to talk. 

The ReachNow app also has a new destination bar that lets users choose their mode of transportation based on estimated time of arrival and price. If a customer picks car sharing, the destination is automatically sent to the in-car navigation.

Other changes include an option to park and keep the vehicle or to end reservations from the app. The company says it plans to roll out a pin feature to let customers start their car-sharing trip from their phone.

Members can rent a ReachNow vehicle for up to five days. The company says it plans to introduce new features that will allow customers to schedule directly from the app a car up to 30 days in advance and have the car delivered to a location of their choice.

The new car-sharing and ride-hailing app is a milestone for ReachNow, which first began talking publicly about its multi-modal strategy in November 2016.

ReachNow is a reboot of BMW’s car-sharing service called DriveNow, a joint venture between the German automaker and rental car company Sixt SE that launched in Berlin back in 2011. DriveNow has had success in Europe. But its foray into the U.S. market in 2012 didn’t go so well. The company initially launched its free-floating car-sharing service in San Francisco. But free-floating, a term that means vehicles can be picked up and left anywhere within a designated operating area, didn’t work so well with San Francisco’s parking and car-sharing regulations. The service shut down in 2015.

In 2016, it came back with a new name, software platform from RideCell and city. This time, ReachNow launched its free-floating car-sharing service in Seattle. The company expanded to Portland and New York later that year.

ReachNow has nearly 100,000 members in Seattle, Portland and New York, with a combined fleet of more than 1,000 BMW, BMW i and MINI vehicles. The company has partnered with residential buildings in New York to offer on-demand access to dedicated ReachNow vehicles that are only accessible to residents in the building.

It took Sonos more than a month, but its new home theater speaker is now available. You can buy it on Sonos’ official website for $399 (or €449 if you live in Europe). It’s also available on Amazon and other retailers.

The Beam is an affordable soundbar for your TV. This isn’t the company’s first soundbar, but it’s a better one. According to our review, its slimmer design makes it more versatile in many cases. Sometimes your TV is hanging on a wall. Or maybe you want to hide the speaker in a TV shelf.

Just like recent Sonos speakers, it features Amazon Alexa. The company also promises Google Assistant support in the future. It’s a connected speaker for the home assistant generation.

More interestingly, the Beam isn’t just a TV speaker. If you’re not using your TV, you can use it like a normal Sonos. You can pair it with other Sonos speakers, stream music using the Sonos app, Spotify Connect or AirPlay 2. You can now also use the Beam to play Audible audiobooks.

And if you switch on the TV, the speaker automatically stops the music and gives the priority to what’s playing on the TV. It’s a seamless experience that greatly improves the sound quality of your TV.

Public company Ultimate Software is acquiring French startup PeopleDoc for $300 million in cash and stock. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018. These two companies both make HR solutions.

Ultimate Software has been around for a while. It went public in 1998 and switched to a software-as-a-service solution in 2002 — this solution is called UltiPro. It lets you manage all things HR, from payroll to benefits, time management, onboarding, performance management and more.

PeopleDoc is a younger French startup that has raised over $50 million. As the name suggests, PeopleDoc lets you centralized all HR documents related to you in a single location. They can come from multiple sources and systems, they’ll all be there.

The startup has also worked on an onboarding solution and other tools to automate HR processes as much as possible. For instance, you can use PeopleDoc to communicate with the HR team and notify them of a change.

Ultimate Software has around 4,100 customers, which represent around 38 million employees. So it’s clear that the company is going after big clients. Each customer employs 9,200 people on average.

PeopleDoc has a thousand customers and serves 4 million employees. While PeopleDoc is significantly smaller than Ultimate Software, it’s a notable acquisition for the startup.

Ultimate Software says that it plans to spend $75 million in cash when the acquisition closes. PeopleDoc shareholders will receive another $50 million a year later.

Finally, Ultimate Software is spending around $175 million in stock for the rest of the acquisition. The company has been doing incredibly well on the stock market, consistently going up over the past ten years.

There are two reasons behind the acquisition. First, Ultimate Software has been mostly focused on American customers. With today’s acquisition, Ultimate Software will be able to convince new international customers, particularly in Europe.

Second, PeopleDoc will continue to operate as a subsidiary as these two companies don’t exactly do the same thing. In fact, Ultimate Software will start distributing PeopleDoc’s services to its own customers next year.

Excuse us as we mangle U.S. history (apologies to Paul Revere), but “CrunchMatch is coming! CrunchMatch is coming!

CrunchMatch is TechCrunch’s free business match-making service that connects early-stage startup founders and investors who share similar business interests and profiles. And if you bought — or plan to buy — Founder, Investor or Insiders passes to Disrupt San Francisco 2018, you get access to this awesome time-saving tool. CrunchMatch kicks off in two weeks, when you’ll receive an invitation to fill out your business profile.

CrunchMatch is an indispensable tool to have at your fingertips while you attend Disrupt SF 2018 — our biggest Disrupt event ever. We’ve moved to Moscone Center West, which provides three times the floor space. And we’ll need every square foot of it to accommodate 10,000+ attendees and the more than 1,200 exhibitors and sponsors you’ll find in Startup Alley, the show floor and the very heartbeat of Disrupt.

Here’s how CrunchMatch, powered by our partner Brella, works. If you purchase a Founder pass or a Startup Alley Exhibitor Package, you’ll receive an invitation to provide information about your early-stage startup — its tech category, funding stage, where it’s located and its current funding status.

If you purchase an Investor or an Insider pass, you’ll receive an invitation to create a profile specifying your investment categories, the funding stage you’re looking for and your preferred geographic locations. CrunchMatch takes all that information and works its algorithmic magic to match suitable founders and investors based on the profile information they provide.

The platform lets you act on its recommendations. You can send, receive, accept and decline invitations, set up appointment meetings and reserve private meeting space in our dedicated CrunchMatch lounge.

What does this mean in the real-world sense? Good question. It means you can save yourself a lot of time by not talking to the wrong people. You have three days at the show, and CrunchMatch helps you make the most of it. It’s great on-the-fly too, so if you see a promising company competing in Startup Battlefield, use CrunchMatch to help you set up a meeting within minutes.

Take it from Michael Kocan, an early-stage investor at Trend Discovery, who had this to say about his CrunchMatch experience:

“I get the most value from Disrupt at the intersection of CrunchMatch and Startup Battlefield. I can quickly schedule a meeting for later that day. I had over 35 meetings with startups that I pre-vetted using CrunchMatch, and I made a significant investment in one.”

Attendees used the CrunchMatch platform last year at Disrupt SF 2017 where it helped create more than 1,300 meetings, and we expect to triple that number at Disrupt SF 2018. That’s gonna save a whole lot of shoe leather.

Disrupt San Francisco 2018 takes place on September 5-7, and CrunchMatch can help anyone with a Founder, Investor or Insider pass navigate the show more efficiently. If you haven’t bought a ticket yet, you can buy your passes right here. If you have, good on ya! And keep your eye peeled for your profile invitation in a few weeks. We can’t wait to see you in San Francisco!