SimplePrints Launches “Photo Magic,” A Photo Book Publishing Service That Works Over SMS

SimplePrints Launches “Photo Magic,” A Photo Book Publishing Service That Works Over SMS

The growth in shopping-by-SMS services knows no bounds, apparently. The latest entrant into the field is now Photo Magic – no relation to on-demand delivery service Magic.
(Or perhaps the company is aiming for brand confusion?). The new service is an offshoot of the photo book publishing company SimplePrints, which currently offers mobile apps that allow consumers to build books by uploading photos from their smartphone. With Photo Magic, however, the process of building a photo book is even easier – users can now just text in their requests to SimplePrints instead.

While there are already a number of alternatives to Magic, including Operator, GoButler, Fetch, and more recently, Scratch, Photo Magic is among the first among this new cadre of services to exploit the idea of shopping by way of text messaging for a dedicated niche – in its case, photo books.

Like the others in this space, the process of “shopping” begins by SMS. On the one side, you have the consumer, who starts by sending a text to the company which is then handled by a “photo curation specialist,” who responds by asking a few questions and providing a secure link for uploading the photos to SimplePrints. (Apparently you can’t just text in your photos to the service, which would have been clever, if potentially less secure.)

That being said, the process is still quicker and far less painless than downloading a standalone mobile application and then customizing your photo book yourself
According to SimplePrints CEO Matt Sullivan, the idea to expand into the realm of SMS-based ordering was prompted by activity his team witnessed within the app’s user base. A number of customers would begin building a book on their smartphone, but then not make it to checkout.

“With SimplePrints we’ve tried to make the photo book creation process super simple and streamlined, but we still see a high percentage of users getting through the install, sign-up, and even adding a bunch of photos, only to stop there,” Sullivan explains. “When we ask them what happened, the answer is usually that they ran out of time or it was ‘too much work’ to layout the photos,” he says.

In addition, the app-less service also works to address a problem a number of startups are today facing: that despite the fact that consumers today are spending 85 percent of their time on smartphones using apps, only around five third-party apps (non-native apps) are regularly used. Niche apps like photo book builders can have trouble gaining traction in this kind of environment.

To its credit, SimplePrints has done fairly well, in spite of these challenges. The company is today doing $4 million to $5 million in revenues and is profitable, says Sullivan. In addition, two-thirds of its customers had never purchased a photo book before using SimplePrints, and it’s also managing to attract high-value customers who are spending more than $40 per order on average.

BikeTag Is A Smart Safety Sensor For Cycling

BikeTag Is A Smart Safety Sensor For Cycling

Hardware startup Tagit Labs is building a tracking and safety device for extreme sports, focused initially on cycling. Co-founder John Anthony is a competitive cyclist himself, so knows a thing or two about being knocked off his bike.

The startup, which was founded a year ago, has just kicked off pre-orders for its forthcoming gizmo, BikeTag — which Anthony calls a “smart safety” tag — with the aim of shipping the first units to buyers in early September. RRP will be $100 for the basic device (which will include auto-tracking and crash detection features). Additional features will cost more — via a premium subscription service.

While it’s true there are scores of GPS trackers for fitness and sports already on the market, the aim with BikeTag is to supplement other trackers with cycling-specific features (such as event-based alerts, like ‘end of ride’ or crash alerts), and by interoperating with other tracking services. Anthony notes the BikeTag can be set to auto upload workouts to Strava, for instance.

It’s also aiming to stand out in the space by building a robust, safety-oriented tag which requires little agency for continued operation — meaning riders don’t have to think about enabling it before each ride or switching on specific safety features. Once it’s set up, they just get on their bike and go.

“While I got more into cycling, for fitness/competitive reasons and as a means of commuting to my office, it became clear that there was a gap in the overall safety space for bicyclists. Specifically, there were no products that seamlessly (and automatically) give the rider and the rider’s closest family members or friends the peace of mind that they are ok while riding,” he tells TechCrunch.

You can compare this thinking to the trajectory of connected home devices — taking smart lightbulbs as the first-gen example, which afford user control over in home lighting conditions lightbulbs via an app. However, as more and more devices in the home get connected, having to use an app to control every thing you own clearly does not scale. And more automated operation starts to look essential. (We’re already seeing some of this thinking in startups like Stack, which is making sensor-enabled lightbulbs, for example. The key idea is to find ways to enable the Internet of Things to think for itself.)

Tagit Labs sees this sort of automatic operation as a core differentiator for what it hopes will end up as a range of smart safety tags for different extreme sports. In the first instance, with BikeTag, it’s using a mix of motion sensors, algorithms and iBeacon tech to power a tracker that tracks as soon as the rider pushes off. It also relies on the GPS radio in a rider’s smartphone to reduce battery load.

“To achieve a battery life of greater than a year while simultaneously being 100% automatic, we use motion sensors to understand when the bike is being moved in combination with iBeacon technology to understand when the rider is in proximity of the bike to begin to turn on the BikeTag safety features,” Anthony explains.

“Even when this condition is met, for example, we still don’t turn on all the features at once as this would create unnecessary drain on the BikeTag and user’s smart phone battery. Instead, we use motion algorithms and heuristics to turn on certain features when they’re needed.”

Why does BikeTag need to be separate hardware at all? Couldn’t it just be an app on a rider’s phone if they’re going to need to have that with them anyway? Anthony claims separate tag hardware is needed to reduce battery drain while also enabling more automated operation.

He adds that the particular sensors it’s packing into BikeTag are able to provide more granular crash data than could otherwise be pulled via smartphone sensors — claiming: “We will detect every fall/crash with few or no false positives.”

Very low friction operation is clearly going to become an increasingly key requirement of the Internet of Things as the number of devices proliferates. As is building smart hardware that can operate autonomously in a way that supports what the user wants to do, rather than entirely wresting control out of their hands. Taking the strain without simply taking charge is the necessary balance.

Thus BikeTag does have a companion app where users can access to “fine-grained” controls, specifying with whom they share their ride status, location and crash information, for example. “The user is always in control of who sees what,” adds Anthony.

The team has production units at this stage of the product’s development — and Anthony says it’s in the “final stages of beta testing”.

“All development of the MVP features (auto-tracking, crash detection, crash alerts) are completed. At this point we are working through a punch list of minor fixes to the BikeTag mobile application and incorporating feedback from our testers,” he adds.

Additional work to do before being able to ship to buyers includes finalizing the premium Live Tracking and Ride Alert features. The initial BikeTag will be iOS, but support for Android is in the works, he adds.

Instagram Brings Search To The Web

Instagram Brings Search To The Web

Today, Instagram is adding search to its desktop experience. Users can now search hashtags, profiles and locations on instagram.com in a viewing experience that is beginning to grow much more congruous with the Instagram mobile app where content is still created on.

“While Instagram.com is designed to be complementary to the mobile apps, it’s important to the global conversations that happen on Instagram,” an Instagram spokesperson said.

In addition to enabling simple search, Instagram has also created landing pages for geotags and hashtags and you’ll also be able to see some of the top posts when you search locations or hashtags.

Though Instagram began as a definitive mobile-first app, as web embeds of their content grow more integral to driving traffic, its important that they create a positive experience for users that are directed to the site. Instagram specified that these embeds are generating nearly 5.3 billion impressions for them.

Ebay Doubles Down On Its “Valet” Service With Acquisition Of Clothing Resale Startup Twice

Ebay Doubles Down On Its “Valet” Service With Acquisition Of Clothing Resale Startup Twice

Ebay is expanding its investment in eBay Valet, its assisted selling service which connects consumers

with merchants who will sell items on their behalf for a split of the proceeds, with the acquisition of online clothing resale store Twice. With the deal, eBay says it will gain access to Twice’s technology and customer list, and it will be making offers to 10 members of Twice’s team. Twice’s co-founders Calvin Young and Noah Ready-Campbell have confirmed they’re joining eBay following the acquisition’s close.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Twice had raised $23 million in outside funding to date from Jeff Jordan at Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis Ventures, Great Oaks, Lerer Hippeau and others. (Disclosure: CrunchFund, which was founded by TechCrunch’s founder, invested in Twice’s Series A). Investors are said to be pleased with the deal’s terms, even if it’s not a huge exit.

The news of the acquisition is timed strategically, of course – today is the first day that eBay and PayPal began trading as separate companies, following their split. Ebay earlier reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings ahead of PayPal’s spinoff, after taking into account the sale of its eBay Enterprise business. The eBay Marketplaces business didn’t fare as well in Q2 – its gross merchandise value declined 2 percent, though this was largely attributed to currency exchange rates.

How Twice Will Help Ebay Valet

For a long time, eBay has been trying to figure out how to convert its 150 million-plus buyers into sellers, and that’s where eBay Valet comes in. The service, available online and as a mobile app, allows customers to print a shipping label in order to send in their merchandise to eBay to have it sold for them. They can also drop off merchandise at select locations.

The idea is to encourage those who would otherwise find selling on eBay a hassle to participate in the process while unloading items like electronics, collectibles, sporting goods, and more, including, more recently, clothing. The company today has partnered with two processing centers where items are unpacked and photographed and listed for sale. When the sales are finalized, the item’s original owner gets to share in the proceeds.

To date, eBay says over one hundred thousand customers have tried the eBay Valet service, and 70 percent are new, lapsed or previously unsuccessful sellers. 30 to 40 percent of Valet orders are repeat customers, which indicates these customers often find the service makes sense as an easier way to sell on eBay

Garance Doré

However, with eBay Valet, the company is taking on new and unfamiliar role of playing middleman – and that’s where Twice comes in. According to Jordan Sweetnam, VP of Seller Experiences at eBay Marketplaces, Twice had a head start in this space and its tech and expertise which can now help eBay.

“The journey that they’re on was very similar that we’re on,” says Sweetnam. “We know a lot about first-party selling on our platform, but being in the middle of processing – receiving items, taking photos, doing offers, picking, packing and fulfillment – we’re very much learning…and we can learn from [Twice].” In addition, Twice’s team and tech will help eBay expand its Valet service beyond the categories it supports today, he adds.

Consumers know Twice as website and mobile app where they can buy or sell their clothing and accessories, but co-founder Noah Ready-Campbell says that’s just “the tip of the iceberg.” The bulk of its engineering work involves its own proprietary ops management software suite called Vulcan. This software, which is installed on hundreds of devices in Twice’s warehouse, helps Twice process the clothing and other items it receives.

The companies won’t discuss in detail what Vulcan as a whole provides, but one aspect involves being able to retouch photographs without human photo editors involved.

“Photos are extremely important for selling online, and its one of the ways assisted selling can be easier for first-time sellers on eBay’s platform,” notes Ready-Campbell. “We handle all the photography and all the photo retouching is handles algorithmically,” he says. That means Twice, and now eBay, not only can decrease processing times on new orders, it can also automate online listings even with a very small team.

Following the integration of Twice’s tech and team with eBay, the company also plans to expand eBay Valet’s feature set based on other learnings from Twice, including making “instant offers” on items so sellers don’t have to wait for sales to finalize before getting cash for their items.

Twice is announcing its acquisition to its own staff at 10 AM PT and says that those who aren’t being given offers to join eBay will be given fair severance deals. The company had 40 full-time personnel and 200 part-time staff, who helped it process millions of items of clothing for hundreds of thousands of customers to date.

Twice’s team joining eBay will work out of eBay’s headquarters and its office in San Francisco. Twice’s consumer-facing website and apps will close by month-end, following an inventory-clearing sale and returns of unsold merchandise to the original owners.

Huawei Talkband B2 review

1. Huawei Talkband B2 review
2. 
4. "Hey! Do you know what would be really, like, super useful? If you could pop your fitness tracker out of its strap and use it as a Bluetooth headset to take a call," said no one ever.
5. 
   
6. Welcome, then, to the weird world of the Huawei TalkBand B2, a wearable that's also a Bluetooth headset. It arrives with an air expectation unparalleled outside of a sequel to Battlefield Earth. What I'm saying is, the original TalkBand B1 was possibly the worst wearable ever. So expectations are not stellar.
7. 
   
8. Battery and screen
9. 
   
10. Pop it out of the mostly pleasing packaging and the TalkBand comes 90% charged. Huawei estimates that a full juice-up will deliver six days of calorie snooping, but I found it lasted for about four days of reasonably energetic use. This will be less, obviously, if you use the strange Bluetooth headset.
11. 
    
12. The screen is a 0.73-inch, 128 x 88 pixel, mono PMOLED touchscreen, so prod the single side button, and sweep a finger over it to cycle through running distance, sleep time, fuel burned and steps, alongside a generic time/battery charge/date main display. It's mono, but clear as a bell and readable even in glaring sunlight.
13. 
    
14. Strap, comfort and style

DEFROSTED U.S., Cuba Restore Full Diplomatic Ties After 5 Decades

U.S., Cuba Restore Full Diplomatic Ties After 5 Decades

DEFROSTED

WASHINGTON (AP) — 

Cuba's blue, red and white-starred flag was hoisted Monday at the country's embassy in Washington in a symbolic move signaling the start of a new post-Cold War era in U.S.-Cuba relations.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez presided over the flag-raising ceremony hours after full diplomatic relations with the United States were restored at the stroke of midnight, when an agreement to resume normal ties on July 20 took effect. Earlier, without ceremony, the Cuban flag was hung in the lobby of the State Department alongside those of other countries with which the U.S. has diplomatic ties. U.S. and Cuban diplomats in Washington and Havana had also noted the upgrade in social media posts.

Several hundred people gathered on the street outside the embassy, cheering as the Cuban national anthem was played and three Cuban soldiers in dress uniforms stood at the base of the flagpole and raised the flag.

The United States and Cuba severed diplomatic relations in 1961 and since the 1970s had been represented in each other's capitals by limited service interests sections. Their conversion to embassies tolled a knell for policy approaches spawned and hardened over the five decades since President John F. Kennedy first tangled with youthful revolutionary Fidel Castro over Soviet expansion in the Americas.

Rodriguez is to meet later with Secretary of State John Kerry and address reporters at a joint news conference. Kerry will travel to Havana Aug. 14 to preside over a flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. Embassy there.

Shortly after midnight, the Cuban Interests Section in Washington switched its Twitter account to say "embassy." In Havana, the U.S. Interests Section uploaded a new profile pictures to its Facebook and Twitter accounts that says US EMBASSY CUBA. And, Conrad Tribble, the deputy chief of mission for the United States in Havana, tweeted: "Just made first phone call to State Dept. Ops Center from United States Embassy Havana ever. It didn't exist in Jan 1961."

Though normalization has taken center stage in the U.S.-Cuba relationship, there remains a deep ideological gulf between the nations and many issues still to resolve. Among them: thorny disputes such as over mutual claims for economic reparations, Havana's insistence on the end of the 53-year-old trade embargo and U.S. calls forCuba to improve on human rights and democracy. Some U.S. lawmakers, including several prominent Republican presidential candidates, have vowed not to repeal the embargo and pledged to roll back Obama's moves on Cuba.

Still, Monday's events cap a remarkable change of course in U.S. policy toward the communist island under President Barack Obama, who had sought rapprochement with Cuba since he first took office and has progressively loosened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island.

Shortly after midnight, the Cuban Interests Section in Washington switched its Twitter account to say "embassy." In Havana, the U.S. Interests Section uploaded a new profile pictures to its Facebook and Twitter accounts that says US EMBASSY CUBA. And, Conrad Tribble, the deputy chief of mission for the United States in Havana, tweeted: "Just made first phone call to State Dept. Ops Center from United States Embassy Havana ever. It didn't exist in Jan 1961."

Obama's efforts at engagement were frustrated for years by Cuba's imprisonment of U.S. Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross on espionage charges. But months of secret negotiations led in December to Gross's release, along with a number of political prisoners in Cuba and the remaining members of a Cuban spy ring jailed in the United States. On Dec. 17, Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced they would resume full diplomatic relations.

Declaring the longstanding policy a failure that had not achieved any of its intended results, Obama declared that the U.S. could not keep doing the same thing and expect a change. Thus, he said work would begin apace on normalization.

That process dragged on until the U.S. removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in late May and then bogged down over issues of U.S. diplomats' access to ordinary Cubans.

On July 1, however, the issues were resolved and the U.S. and Cuba exchanged diplomatic notes agreeing that the date for the restoration of full relations would be July 20.

Some 500 guests, including a 30-member delegation of diplomatic, cultural and other leaders from the Caribbean nation, attended the Cuban ceremony at the stately 16th Street mansion in Washington that has been operating as an interests section under the auspices of the Swiss embassy. The U.S. was represented at the event by Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson, who led U.S. negotiators in six months of talks leading to the July 1 announcement, and Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana who will now become charge d'affaires.

Although the Interests Section in Havana won't see the pomp and circumstance of a flag-raising on Monday, workers there have already drilled holes on the exterior to hang signage flown in from the U.S., and arranged to print new business cards and letterhead that say "Embassy" instead of "Interests Section." What for years was a lonely flagpole outside the glassy six-story edifice on Havana's seafront Malecon boulevard recently got a rehab, complete with a paved walkway.

Every day for the last week, employees have been hanging hand-lettered signs on the fence counting down, in Spanish, to Monday: "In 6 days we will become an embassy!" and so on.

Dozens killed as explosion rips through a rally in Turkey

Dozens killed as explosion rips through a rally in Turkey

An apparent suicide bombing ripped through a rally Monday in the Turkish border town of Suruc, leaving at least 28 people dead and wounding 100 others, provincial Gov. Izzettin Kucuk told Turkish media.


The explosion occurred at midday at the Amara Cultural Park in Suruc, where a group had gathered calling for more help to rebuild the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani, CNN Turk reported.

Suruc is about 6 miles from the border and Kobani, the Syrian city that was the scene of intense fighting between Syrian rebels and Kurdish forces and ISIS.

Photos and video taken from the scene show bodies strewn around a park and dazed people at the blast site while emergency teams rush to aid victims.