The “Shark Tank” Effect On Apps

Sitting at the top of the iTunes App Store for the fourth day in a row and counting is Scholly, another one of the many mobile applications that found its way onto the national stage by way of ABC’s popular TV pitch competition Shark Tank. The show now has a history of being able to move the market when it comes to turning apps that would otherwise be also-rans into mobile hits – at least in terms of visibility and downloads, if not user sentiment or long-term success.

Scholly, for example, is being slammed by a number of one- and two-star reviews from consumers who downloaded the app because they saw it on TV and thought it would be useful – especially considering the fight it caused among Shark Tank investors, leading several to walk off the set. But many users soon discovered that the app still had a number of bugs and, in some cases, pointed to outdated information.

In case you missed it, on the most recent episode of Shark Tank, co-founder Christopher Gray introduced his app Scholly as a way for prospective college students to seek out scholarships and grants. The app scours the web for this information and aggregates its results, though in a fairly unadorned user interface. Many complain that the app isn’t really offering much more information than a number of competing websites already do today, and, in fact, the limitations of a mobile interface is actually an inconvenience since the app doesn’t save your place, and you can’t open tabs like you could in a web browser.

In other words, it’s clear that while Shark Tank can drive traffic in droves, it’s not a proven quality filter.

More importantly, perhaps, the exposure that the show provides, while definitely resulting in a sizable bump in app downloads, doesn’t always mean the company will win in the long run.

In fact, when looking back on a number of past apps that have popped up on the show over the years, it’s apparent the results from being on Shark Tank vary beyond their initial boost.

Scan Hangs On Beyond Its Shark Tank Bump, Sells To Snapchat

Scholly is hardly the first to reap the benefits of a national TV appearance on the show, which features investors Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec, Kevin O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran listening to startup pitches and then choosing to pass or invest, often at steep prices.

Following a 2013 appearance from a company called Scan, a QR code scanner, the app shot up to #1 on the App Store’s Utilities list, and climbed to #25 in Paid Apps on iTunes. Before the show, it was ranked #150 Overall, and #5 in Utilities.

The app didn’t earn an investment on the show, but founder Garrett Gee enjoyed the exposure and he actually closed on $7 million the day before the episode aired. (Gee also cleverly “hacked” Shark Tank by using a QR code in his demo that sent users to his website.)

Today, the app is still holding its own following its sale to Snapchat for $14 million in cash, $3 million in restricted stock units and $33 million in Class B common Snapchat stock. It remains a top 10 app in the Utilities category, over a year after its Shark Tankdebut. Though it has fallen further in the Overall rankings over the past several months, to keep a top 10 position in any iTunes category is a struggle that being on a TV show alone doesn’t solve.

But Even “Hot” Shark Tank App Companies Can Fade In Time

Meanwhile, one of the more popular apps that proved the show’s abilities to push startups into the App Store stratosphere was Cycloramic, a sort of gimmicky but fun app that used the iPhone’s vibration function to turn itself around while taking a 360-degree photo.

As soon as the segment aired, creator Bruno Francois said the app began seeing tens of thousands of downloads in a matter of minutes, and, within the hour, reached 100,000 new installs.

Since its appearance on the tank a year ago, the company released a new versiondesigned for the iPhone 6 whose round edges made its earlier trick where it stood upright and rotated impossible. (The new app uses the iPhone charger for the base instead.

Remarkably, the Shark Tank-promoted app still remains decently ranked, all things considered. It maintained a position in the top 50 “Photo & Video” category on the App Store all last year and in the beginning of 2015, only more recently dropping below the top 100.

Unfortunately for Cycloramic, however, it seems that Shark Tank investors may have overvalued the company’s potential to move beyond what could end up being a one-hit wonder. Its latest version for the iPhone 6 is not doing as well, ranking #1315 in the “Photo & Video” category these days.

In addition, the company’s spinoff into selfies, with selfie360, is faring little better. (#621 in Social Networking, and not ranked elsewhere – meaning it’s ranked lower than #1,500, according to App Annie’s data).

When Shark Tank’s Bump Isn’t Enough

Another app company that got a bump from the show was VerbalizeIt, a human-powered translation service that popped up on the show in spring 2013. 72 hours after its segment, the app had 20,000 new customers and daily revenue tripled. (The app said yes to an O’Leary investment on the show, but after airing turned him down.)

However, co-founder Ryan Frankel told The WSJ in October 2014 that, despite the national visibility, the app still didn’t hit the numbers it needed to be a consumer success. It instead raised a seed round of $830,000 to move into the enterprise market, the paper noted.

The app has since been pulled from the iTunes App Store. It’s dead.

When Shark Tank Investors Pass, Bump Can Be Minimal

For app makers going on Shark Tank, they don’t have to score a deal – or even be liked by investors – in order to get the initial App Store boost. But it may help sustain the boost, it seems.

For instance, a personal security app called EmergenSee saw hundreds of thousands of downloads in the 12 hours after the show aired, and had to add extra servers to handle the traffic.

The app hit #20 in the Lifestyle category following the show, but crashed in the rankings soon after – indicating that the show’s audience is at least somewhat influenced by investors’ opinion on the matter. While Scholly was fought over by investors, EmergenSee was dismissed – and App Store rankings reflect that sentiment in terms of consumer downloads, too.

(With EmergenSee, investors didn’t care for the app’s business model, and weren’t thrilled with the company’s decision to use outsourced developers. Perhaps the audience agreed?)

The EmergenSee app is today ranked lower than #1,500 in all categories, says App Annie. In other words, it’s also effectively dead.

App Goes From Shark Tank To $14.5M Exit

The biggest app success story from the show, however, is that of photo book maker Groovebook. The mobile app lets users build super-cheap photo books using photos stored on their mobile phone.

After its TV appearance in January, the app grew to over a million downloads and saw more than 200 million photos uploaded. GrooveBook had acquired over 18,000 subscribers in the 8 months before the show, but then grew its business to 500,000 paid subscribers after the show aired, the company said in a later update.

Groovebook then went on to make history as the first app appearing on Shark Tank to exit to a publicly traded company, when Shutterfly acquired it for $14.5 million in November 2014.

While an exit like this is certainly notable, it’s worth pointing out that Groovebook’s app wasn’t entirely a runaway success. Its Shark Tank debut in January 2014 pushed it nearly into the top 5 in the hyper-competitive “Photo & Video” category on iTunes at first, but throughout the year, the app’s growth fluctuated wildly in the Overall rankings and it floated in and out of the top 100-150 in the “Photo & Video” section – a decent, but not breathtaking, showing.

The above are only some of the many apps that have appeared on the show over the years. However, if there’s any larger takeaway from the results of this sampling it’s that the show’s ability to provide exposure is certainly beyond question, but its ability to transform apps from unknowns into lasting businesses is definitely not a given.

Read more »

Pebble Time Smashes Through $6.5M On Kickstarter In Half A Day

Early this morning, we noted that the Pebble Time — Pebble’s new color e-ink 

Early this morning, we noted that the Pebble Time — Pebble’s new color e-ink smartwatch — had smashed through its $500,000 goal in an absolutely preposterous seventeen minutes.

We don’t generally do play-by-play updates on Kickstarter campaigns, but this one is a bit too crazy not to note. The Pebble train just won’t stop.

Nine hours after the launch of the campaign, Kickstarter is still vacuuming up cash at an absurd rate. It now sits at $6.5 million, earning it a spot in the Top 5 most funded projects to ever hit the site.

The only projects that have pulled in more? The Ouya console ($8.5M), The Oatmeal’s Exploding Kittens card game ($8.7M), the original Pebble ($10.2M), and the Coolest cooler ($13.2M). All of those had a month-plus to earn their totals; the Pebble Time has joined their ranks in half a day.

Pebble’s repeated success on the platform has started something of a debate, with some arguing that they’re too successful to turn to a crowdfunding site. “It’d be like watching Bill Gates, Mark Cuban and Warren Buffett panhandling on the streets of Seattle”, writes Daniel Cooper on Engadget.

But is that really Kickstarter’s problem to solve? Where does one draw the line? What makes a company too successful for Kickstarter? Public perception? Should having a successful Kickstarter and going on to find retail success prevent you from returning to the well? Or should we let people vote with their wallets and stop romanticizing Kickstarter as something that it’s not?

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S6

It looks like Samsung is finally dispensing with its tradition of faux leather, plastic backs for its Galaxy S range.

That’s according to the teaser image above from T-Mobile — spotted by The Verge — which gives us the clearest glimpse yet of the Galaxy S6, the phone that Samsung is expected to announce next weekend at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

The Korean company has notably introduced two metallic-bodied devices this year — the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 — so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see that part of the design make its way into its latest flagship. Certainly, the plastic backs have gained few supporters since they make the build of Samsung’s phones feel somewhat cheap.

Samsung has already hinted that the Galaxy S6 will be curved, and that seems to be pretty certain at this point. This teaser again suggests that the model will take on the curved edge of the experimental Galaxy Note Edge, but on both sides of the phone. It isn’t clear whether a curved version will be offered alongside a regular version of the phone — as is the case with the Note 4/Note Edge — or whether this is the only version of the Galaxy S6.

Two versions wouldn’t be a huge surprise, particularly given that there’s little evidence that curved screens are something that consumers particular want, or indeed need. Apple sells two different sized versions the iPhone 6, and Samsung has long released multiple versions of its phones to suit different tastes and budgets. The Galaxy S5, for example, is available in Active, Zoom, and Mini versions.

Read more »

Line Of Sight

You’ve probably heard that the FAA proposed its rules for commercial drones last weekend. There’s some good and some bad in those rules. The good thing is that drone startups finally know what kind of rules they will operate under once they are codified in the next year or so. The bad: many of the most interesting use cases for drones, including drone delivery, will be unfeasible under these rules.

The FAA rules are pretty lenient in that you only need to pass a knowledge test, register your drone and stay under 500 feet. The proposed fees are pretty reasonable, too. But — and this is the deal breaker for many: your drone can only fly within your line of sight (or that of an observer). Now you may think: what if I set up cameras and keep an eye on the drone that way? Well, that isn’t going to work either, because the FAA clearly states you (or your observer) have to be able to see the drone with your own eyes — not even binoculars are allowed. This means you can inspect an antenna tower with your drone, but there’s no way Amazon or Google can fly a delivery drone this way.

Now the good thing is, as the FAA clarified later in the week, drones can to fly autonomously and that alone opens up lots of use cases in crop monitoring, surveying and other areas.

The reaction from the drone industry to these new rules has been pretty positive overall. But not everybody agrees, of course. Amazon’s vice president of Global Public Policy Paul Misener told us last week that he believes that “the FAA needs to begin and expeditiously complete the formal process to address the needs of our business, and ultimately our customers.” Otherwise, he noted, Amazon is “prepared to deploy where we have the regulatory support we need.”

One thing to remember is that the FAA is clearly aware that the line-of-sight rule isn’t ideal for many potential drone use cases. The agency argues that the safety concerns it has currently outweigh the benefits. Still, the FAA noted that these rules could change over time, especially as obstacle avoidance technology becomes more dependable.

For now then, the FAA’s rules finally provide the industry with the certainty it needs to move forward. It’s not ideal, but it’s significantly better than many expected — just don’t expect a TacoCopter to deliver your favorite burrito to you within the next few years.

Read more »

Gemalto Claims Its Products Are ‘Secure’ In Response To Reported NSA Hack

Gemalto, the SIM card maker that reportedly had its encryption keys stolen by the NSA and GCHQ, has claimed that its products are secure, despite apparent leaked NSA documents suggesting otherwise.

The Amsterdam-based company is putting on a brave, if defiant, face. In a statement issued today, it said initial investigations showed its products to be secure:

Initial conclusions already indicate that Gemalto SIM products (as well as banking cards, passports and other products and platforms) are secure and the Company doesn’t expect to endure a significant financial prejudice.

We’ll know more about those exact findings on Wednesday. The company has scheduled a press conference in Paris starting at 10:30 am local time that day, at which it will discuss its full investigation in more detail.

Gemalto reportedly produces over 2 billion SIM cards per year and works with more than 600 operators worldwide. The company admitted last week that it was unaware that British and U.S. spying agencies had penetrated its encryption, potentially allowing them to access information from millions of mobile users who have its SIM cards in their phones.

The Intercept, the news organization run by Glenn Greenwald and backed by Pierre Omidyar’s First Look Media, broke the news last week based on leaks from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The report, and others that followed it, prompted a backlash from Dutch PMs, who demanded further details, while privacy advocates weighed in on the importance of the leak.

Speaking to TechCrunch last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundations’ Mark Rumold said the disclosure was “incredibly significant.”

“NSA and GCHQ basically have the keys to decyrpting mobile communications anywhere in the world, even without the participation of local communication carriers (which, even if not much, acts as some check on intelligence agency behavior). It’s the equivalent of these agencies having printed doorkeys for the front doors to millions or even billions of homes around the world, just in case they one day decided they needed to get in. Frankly, people should have no faith in the security of global mobile communications,” he added.

Gemalto may want to believe it can move on, but its business is already showing signs of issues. Australia’s telecom operators are investigating the revelations, and may order a mass recall of SIM cards in response to security concerns.

Mud sticks, and you’d imagine that it will take more than a self-prescribed ‘all clear’ from the company’s internal report to remove the doubt that will exist in the minds of the industry and consumers.

Read more »

Main Street Hub Lands $20M To Bring Social Media Marketing To Small Business

Main Street Hub, a company that helps mom and pop businesses run social media marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation recently announced it has received $20M in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank.

The company has raised a total of $40M. The most recent funding before this announcement was $14M in Series B in January, 2014. It has 6000 subscribers who are paying an average of $350 per month using a tiered pricing model, according to company officials.

Most small business owners are swamped just trying to keep their businesses running. They have little time to deal with modern online marketing or monitoring their Yelp page reviews. That’s where Main Street Hub comes in.

For a monthly fee, Matt Stuart, co-CEO at Main Street Hub says his company does all the heavy lifting across online channels for these businesses. “We deliver a combined product using existing communication channels including marketing automation, CRM, social media, reputation management and mobile, web and email marketing,” Stuart explained.

Stuart likens his company to the old Yellow Pages customer representative, who used to call on the store owner and handle all their marketing through a Yellow Pages ad. Today, potential customers are online and Main Street Hub is trying to help get those customers into the store, just as the Yellow Pages did back in the day.

Using a combination of data, content and human customer support, Main Street Hub works directly with subscribers to help bring people into their shops, the goal of every small business owner. They describe their content library that the company has built up over the last five years as “informative, funny or engaging in some way.”

“We help you acquire new customers by reaching out to nearby consumers who are expressing a need online for something you offer,” Andrew Allison, the other co-CEO told TechCrunch.

As Allison points out, a lot of small business web sites are dated and not terribly useful. Main Street Hub sends potential customers to a modern looking landing page. For instance, if someone expresses a desire for a local restaurant for lunch on Twitter, Main Street Hub is watching and will respond with a link to the business website, tuned for whatever device the person happens to be using.

If the customer checks in, leaves a review on Yelp or a comment on Twitter (or takes another online action), it sees that too and may respond on behalf of the business, as appropriate.

There are marketing automation tools like Marketo and Eloqua, but these tend focus on larger businesses, whereas Main Street Hub is entirely focused on small ones. It does count chains and franchises among its clients, but even then the focus is at the store level, Stuart explained.

The founders began what became Main Street Hub when they were students at Stanford Business School. The original business helped people find local car mechanics online, before they pivoted to Main Street Hub. They ran the business for a year from 2010 to 2011 in San Francisco before moving to the current headquarters in Austin. At the time of the move, the company had 11 employees. Today it has 470.

Main Street Hub hopes to use the big influx of money to continue to expand the business, and is looking to add 300 people to the Austin and New York City offices in the next year, including tripling the size of the engineering and product teams.

Product photos courtesy of Main Street Hub.

Read more »

what’s on the menu at London fashion week

Serving in style: waiters at the Marc Jacobs show. Photograph: Elliott Cole

The last thing one expects to hear when discussing the willowy guests at London fashion week is that they are partial to cheese toasties. But Bertie de Rougemont, a caterer whose clients range from Chanel to Louis Vuitton to Prada, knows this to be true.

Catering for the fashion industry, he says, “is about a state of mind. People might be on an extremely low-carb diet, but when they’re being served Nominé-Renard Blanc de Blancs champagne and toasted cheese sandwiches with black truffle, it’s that moment that is important.”

As the founder and managing director of Cellar Society, de Rougemont is the best-known caterer in the fashion industry (he also served the food at Kate Moss’s wedding), so he knows his caramelised onions.

In general, he says, fashion catering tends towards “chic, understated and minimalist. You don’t worry about how full people are. You worry about how things are presented, how they are served.”

“If you are launching a new Ford Fiesta, you are thinking about how to fill the bellies of rotund car dealers. Fashion is a bit more complex. You are always thinking about doing things in a manner that people might not expect. Sometimes, that is street food – particularly for hip, younger brands. Sometimes, it is an exquisite ethereal creation that is so beautiful that you feel guilty eating it.”

 cucumber soda. Photograph: Alamy

The big brands from Italy and France, he says, “will almost always want menus that reflect their history and heritage. Fendi, for example, would never serve a shepherd’s pie. Hackett is much more about seasonal, locally sourced British ingredients – it would never, ever serve risotto. All of Stella McCartney’s food is vegetarian and 100% natural and always has been. Prada is about simplicity [de Rougemont was responsible for the lilac duck egg and soldiers at Prada], elegance and an absolute lack of pretentiousness.” He believes these details are noticed by the fashion crowd, who tend to be sensitive to nuance. Given that the fashion editor gossip after Prada’s last show – where chunks of dark chocolate were served on toast – was as much about the food as the clothes, he’s probably right.

“Catering is part of the bigger picture in fashion – part of the image of the brand and the collection,” he says. “If that season is all about water, it would be inappropriate for us to serve mini-burgers. Likewise, if the collection was about the forest, it would be strange for us to serve spoons of raspberry air.”

Instagram/Imogen Fox

And so mood boards are sent, look books are shared, colours are discussed in detail – only black and red canapes might be ordered, to match a season’s colour scheme. Fashion designers love esoteric references – and food is no exception. “We were given one tough brief about different states of mind,” says de Rougemont. “We had to try to illustrate ‘deprivation’ – which is really quite difficult to do with food – and ‘plenty’. So ‘plenty’ was all about the most perfect duck egg and ‘deprivation’ was about the empty shell next to it. I think people got it.”

Advertisement

Less subtly, last season, Cellar Society staffed a party with topless bartenders and naked waiters riding white stallions. Which sounds a bit hen party until you find out that the designer in question was Rick Owens – of penises-on-the-catwalk fame – and, for fashion experts at least, the brand message starts to make sense.

In general, though, more than anything conceptual, a lot of the experience is about “serving something chic with incredibly handsome waiters who are dedicated to the happiness of the guests”.

Ah, yes, the waiters. In general, Cellar Society’s staff are “hot guys – actors and models – who also have manners and the ability to communicate properly”. Mainly, they are men, not women, he says because “men look very good in traditional waiter’s outfits”.

But while handsome men in uniforms will never go out of style, food trends come and go. So, what’s hot right now?

Avocado on toast with goat’s cheese and spinach shoots is a current winner. A tipple he thinks the crowds will go wild for this season is cucumber soda, made with freshly juiced cucumber, raw cane sugar and a bit of lemon juice passed through a SodaStream. De Rougemont also predicts big things for a black-coloured charcoal lime and lychee juice by Botanic labs. “It’s all natural fruit sugars, and the charcoal absorbs toxins. It is delicious with vodka, there’s a feeling that all the badness will disappear into the charcoal – a kind of pop-will-eat-itself drink concept that only fashion could come up with.”

Doug Schneider Photography/Getty Images/Flickr RM

And what is irredeemably naff? Cupcakes peaked around the time the second Sex and the City movie bombed (“although we do some lovely carrot and beetroot ones”), but the worst case scenario is serving something another brand is also dishing up. Bouches would not be amused.

If that makes fashion types sound more exacting than most then – as far as chic is concerned – they probably are. De Rougemont also notes that fashion people tend not to care if their requests are physically impossible. “L’Wren Scott,” he says, “God rest her soul, used to have us serve lunch to 150 people in six minutes, darling. It doesn’t matter if it’s possible – it’s just got to be done. I quite like that about fashion, actually.”

Still, regardless of nuance, some outsiders might find it hard to believe that fashion people would devour more than a lettuce leaf or two (and I have seen them served, with a scoop of creamed chicken, at many fashion parties). Actually, he says, there is a side of fashion that is very homely and convivial. At the launch of Liberty London Girl - AKA Sasha Wilkinson’s book - it was all about chicken pie.

But at many of the shows “guests have been from New York to London to Milan to Paris. You can’t expect them to be up for a big one every night. Sometimes it’s just about food that looks gorgeous. You know, ‘I’ll pop one tiny one in my mouth because I ate last week.’ Ha! But no, more often it’s a very, very, very small starter, a decent-sized main course and no pudding, because, by that point, people are running around being fabulous and popping out for a fag.”

“You need to understand fashion to do this,” he says. “A lot of caterers just don’t get it.”

Read more »

Microsoft Has Suddenly Gotten Serious With Mobile

MICROSOFT is suddenly a powerful presence on my phone.

Yes, you read that right. This is the same Microsoft that spent almost a half-decade trying to offer a credible alternative to Apple’s iPhone and mobile devices running Google’s Android. And it’s the same Microsoft that paid more than $7 billion to buy Nokia’s once-mighty handset business, only to see its mobile business sink further. The company now clings precariously to a 3 percent share of new smartphone sales.

Make no mistake, Microsoft still wants its mobile operating system, Windows, to be the software in our smartphones. But mobile developers continue to focus on making apps for Apple or Android devices instead, making Windows phones an increasingly hard sell.

That reality has finally sunk in at Microsoft, and a new strategy is afoot. When Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, took the top job at the company about a year ago, he signaled that the company’s priorities were shifting. Microsoft, he said, was in a “mobile-first, cloud-first world.”

Since then, the company has brought more of its apps and services to the Apple and Android devices people actually use, rather than the ones Microsoft would like them to use — those that run Windows.

What’s even more surprising is that Microsoft’s heart seems to be in the effort.

Over the last several months, Microsoft has been taking up more and more space on my own iPhone’s home screen. I’ve installed mobile versions of its Office apps as well as OneDrive, the company’s answer to Dropbox, Google Drive and other cloud storage services.

For the last couple of weeks, I have also relied heavily on Microsoft’s latest mobile creation, Outlook for the iPhone. (It’s available on Android, too; both versions are free for personal use.) Outlook is an email and calendar app that bears a resemblance to the PC version of the software, but mostly just in name. Instead of trying to jam all the features of the PC version into the app, Outlook is thoughtfully tailored for how people use email on smartphones.

The new Outlook is not Microsoft’s work, exactly. The app is mostly a rebranding of Acompli, an existing app made by a start-up that Microsoft acquired in December for $200 million. But there is no shame in using acquisitions to inject new talent and technology into a company. Facebook, Google and Amazon all employ a similar strategy.

The fact that Microsoft released the new Outlook in late January, when the ink was barely dry on its Acompli deal, is a clear sign of how quickly the company feels it needs to move in the mobile business. Last week, the company bought the maker of Sunrise, a popular mobile calendar app, suggesting that Microsoft has no plans to let up on its deal-making.

Until it released its new mail app, Microsoft offered OWA for iPhone and Android. The name stands for Outlook Web Access, and as the name suggests, the app was essentially a shortcut to a web page and lacked the performance and richness of a native mobile app.

Continue reading the main story

The new Outlook is everything its predecessor was not — snappy and, for people who are heavy email users on mobile, a genuine improvement on the standard Apple email app that comes on every iPhone.

“People end up looking at their email client many, many times a day, but they do it in short bursts,” said Javier Soltero, the general manager of Outlook at Microsoft and the former chief executive of Acompli. “For us, the average session length is about 24 seconds. How do you make that 24 seconds most productive?”

Outlook’s answer is to use software algorithms to automatically divide emails into two queues: Focused and Other. Put simply, Focused is supposed to give me the messages I’ll want to look at in those 24-second glances, while Other is stuff I might want to look at later or not at all.

Microsoft is hardly the first to sort like this. Google’s Gmail app for iPhone, for instance, has an email queue known as priority inbox for messages it determines you’ll want to see.

Both Google and Microsoft have similar tricks for ranking important emails. They look at who you’ve emailed in the past, whose messages you open and who you bother replying to. They generally downgrade messages from broad email lists and social media notifications.

The problem with this kind of intelligent email sorting is that it’s often hard for users to trust. No one wants to miss a crucial email from a boss. And if the sorting isn’t reliable, many users will simply look at two inboxes instead of one.

That said, I like how Outlook sorts emails and prefer its approach over the Gmail app. Outlook generally allowed more messages into my Focused queue than I would like, though it lets you filter similar messages in the future. Gmail, in contrast, omitted things from my Important queue that I wanted to see.

Another way Outlook helps people be more efficient is by integrating a calendar. When trying to arrange a meeting over email, there’s no more need to jump out of email and into a separate calendar.

With a few taps, you can list free times in your schedule in an email. The recipient of the message can pick one, and your meeting is automatically scheduled on your calendar.

It would be easy to dismiss Outlook as a fluke if Microsoft were not also making so many other credible mobile apps. Early last year, it finally released high-quality versions of its main Office apps — Word, Excel and PowerPoint — for iPhone, iPad and their Android variants. Then the company made nearly complete versions of the apps free.

Microsoft is still hoping to get people to upgrade to a paid subscription to Office 365, which costs $6.99 a month to use Office on a single smartphone, tablet and PC or Mac. Households that want to share a subscription for Office on up to five devices of each type pay $9.99 a month.

There are excellent free productivity apps on mobile and PCs from Google, Apple and others, and the prospect of those apps chipping away at its Office business is terrifying for Microsoft.

Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main story

But Microsoft has sweetened its Office 365 deal by including unlimited online storage through OneDrive, its cloud storage service.

That’s not a misprint. You can create an online copy of all of your pictures, videos, music and other files in the cloud, with no limits. One terabyte of online storage costs $19.99 from Apple’s iCloud service, while Dropbox and Google each charge $9.99 a month.

I can’t imagine personally needing much more than a terabyte of online backup — it is more than 300,000 photos or 1,000 hours of video. But I might get there someday as the resolution in cameras increases. It’s comforting to know I have a copy of all my data in case my computer is stolen, destroyed in a fire or just conks out.

A OneDrive app on my iPhone automatically backs up everything I shoot with the phone’s camera. Its integration with Office is seamless, too.

The other day, my daughter put together a birthday tribute to her mother in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. She composed it on a Mac, which automatically backed it up to OneDrive. We went to a restaurant, my daughter opened PowerPoint on my iPhone 6 Plus and did the presentation right there at our table.

My wife was in tears — and it would have not have been possible using Microsoft products a little over a year ago.

Read more »

Bali, Welcome to the Island of the Gods

BALI — THE “ULTIMATE ISLAND”

the island of Bali in Indonesia is year after year voted by the readers of all major travel magazines as one of the most enchanting travel and holiday destination in the whole world.
Bali is constantly changing. It’s dynamic. It’s organic. There is rapid development of Bali’s economy, local and international tourism, the influx of people from other Indonesian islands. However Bali has managed to maintain its uniqueness and magic over the decades, and keeps enchanting visitors from all over the world. Many of whom return regularly.

Bali

Bali offers an incredible wide variety of attractions and there are countless reasons why one should come to the Island of the Gods and enjoy an unforgettable holiday. The welcoming nature of the Balinese, the incredible value for money ratio for almost anything the island has to offer (particularly hotels and resorts, restaurants, private villas, and spas) the unique, vibrant and alive culture, the physical beauty of the island, and the year-round pleasant climate make Bali a place regarded by many visitors as the “Ultimate Island Holiday Destination”.
Is Bali still authentic? What our editor has to say about that.

The friendly people and the overall safety guarantee visitors a totally relaxing stay. Bali is basically easy and safe. And if you respect some basic rules you will not get into trouble and you can roam around on this beautiful Indonesian Island without problems and enjoy a lifestyle atmosphere that is indeed difficult to describe. Check out the hotels, restaurants, activities on our partner site. You can find everything your heart desires – Bali is perfect for backpackers and for super luxury holiday seekers looking for a private villa with cook, driver and spectacular views. The amount of choices at hand can be quite overwhelming. You might look for one of the best surfing experience Indonesia has to offer. Or you seek a relaxing, luxurious time out. You look to discover a different culture authentically? Stay in the best hotels and resorts and pay little? Get pampered in the best spas in Asia or get relaxing foot massages in one of the many small and really cheap spas that are scattered all over the island? All is there!

Where to stay on Bali

Bali is not easy to grasp in the beginning. There is simply too much to discover and all areas are different. Have a look at our Bali area guide on where to stay and then filter our partner hotel list accordingly. There are more than 3000 hotels you can choose from. There are more resorts and small guesthouses coming up. Plus, the many private villas that can be a great alternative for smaller groups or families.
Or check out our partner’s hotel listing with more than 3000 hotels – but make sure you use the filters and the map view, this helps a great deal to narrow down your choice

Read more »

From Florence & The Machine to Jamey Johnson

Florence & The Machine
"What Kind Of Man"
Republic 
Florence Welch usually fluctuates between indie-pop siren and art-rock weirdo, but on this head-spinning ambient-R&B single, she's both. "With one kiss, you inspired a fire of devotion," she sings, proving few singers do widescreen melodrama better. --Ryan Reed

Florence & The Machine: The Billboard Cover Story

Jamey Johnson
"You Can"
Big Gassed Records 
An upright bass strut morphs into big-band brassiness before nuggets of honky-tonk wisdom give way to a vaudevillian hook on "You Can," which precedes Jamey Johnson's new album. It's an unexpectedly frisky ping-pong of musical styles for a veteran trad-country singer-songwriter, and that's a good thing.--Jason Lipshutz

Jamey Johnson's 'Christmas' Gift to Fans: New Music

Charlie Puth Featuring Meghan Trainor
"Marvin Gaye"
Atlantic 
Charlie Puth plays a game of "spot the Marvin reference" on his debut single, repackaging lines from a number of soul classics in the not-so-subtly titled tune. Trainor lends Puth some of her doo-wop swagger, but the track seems more ­academic ­exercise than an attempt at ­seduction. --Elias Leight

Alabama Shakes Unleash Fresh Songs in New York

Alabama Shakes
"Don't Wanna Fight"
Ato Records 
Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard makes raw pain feel sensual, and "Don't Wanna Fight" is their ­sauciest ­offering yet. "Why can't I catch my breath? I'm gonna work myself to death," she bellows over reverbed guitar, ­which evokes dusty, Daptone-school retro-funk rather than the band's usual Dixie rock. --Dan Hyman

Read more »

Kanye West: 'Dame Dash Presented Me to the World'

In Breakfast Club interview, Ye admits to being disloyal to the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder.

By Moriba Cummings

Posted: 02/20/2015 01:13 PM EST

Filed Under Dame Dash, Music News, Kanye West, The Breakfast Club, BET Honors

Kanye West's interview on Power 105's The Breakfast Club gave a lot of insight into his approaches to fashion, music, and entrepreneurship. One of the most outstanding segments of the sit-down, however, was his words about former boss Damon Dash, whom he credits for introducing him to the world.

 "He presented me to the world," he told Charlamagne Tha God, Angela Yee and DJ Envy. "I wouldn't have a record deal if it wasn't for Dame Dash."
Before West made it big, he was refused by several record labels because he did not resemble the quintessential street image that was being portrayed in hip hop at the time. Damon Dash, however, along with fellow label head Jay Z, signed a then green West to Roc-A-Fella Records.
West even humbly admitted to being disloyal to Dash, saying that by him choosing to side with Hov following the label's demise, their relationship was heavily strained. He even went on to wonder how different his career would have been if he had he ventured off with Dash instead:
"It was the moment when Roc-A-Fella split and it made more sense for me career-wise to roll with Jay even though Dame had supported me," he said. "But then I wonder, I say, 'Where would I be if I had rolled with Dame? Would I have been more successful? Would I have been less successful?' I can't say. But at that time, you know I came to Roc-A-Fella because Jay Z was my idol, and it would've been very hard for me at that young state where I was to separate from my idol."
Dash and Yeezy recently reconnected at the 2015 BET Honors, where the former record exec presented him with the Visionary award. West says that this is only the beginning of their reconnection as business partners.
"Is there anything that Dame and I could do together now to make money? I think so," he said. "We're going to work on films. I really like the films that he's doing. Dame is like the original person that understood culture and really was in it in every situation. You gotta definitely say that Dame is a real n***a."
Make sure you tune in on Monday, February 23 at 9P/8C to see Kanye West receive his BET Honors award.
BET.com is your #1 source for Black celebrity news, photos, exclusive videos and all the latest in the world of hip hop and R&B music.
Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

(Photos from Left: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images, HRC/ WENN.com)

Read more »