Mozilla scraps Firefox for Windows 8′s Metro citing low adoption of the platform

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Mozilla today announced it is abandoning the Metro version of its Firefox browser, before the first release for Windows 8 even sees the light of day. Firefox Vice President Johnathan Nightingale ordered the company’s engineering leads and release managers to halt development earlier this week, saying that shipping a 1.0 version

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Switched On: Birth of a platform

Regardless of what one may think about the potential for smartwatches, one of the most exciting things about a new device category is that there is so much experimentation with form factors and capabilities. We've already seen products with different display technologies (Memory LCD, LCD and OLED) and varying screen sizes. Some have various combinations of microphones, speakers, cameras, touchscreens, WiFi or cellular radios. Their prices have ranged from less than $100 to $400 and beyond and their battery life has varied from a day to a year. And then, of course, there are many of the factors that differentiate traditional watches -- size, design and materials.

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OUYA Everywhere is bringing the Android game platform to other devices

OUYA has plans to level up in the near future, and it has nothing to do with a new console. In fact, it has nothing to do with any console at all, as the startup has confirmed to Engadget that its software/platform will soon extend to other devices, including set-top boxes and smart TVs. As you'd expect, the firm's keeping most details about the "Everywhere" initiative a secret at this point, but OUYA's slated to announce its first deal with a hardware manufacturer within the next two weeks.

This development doesn't mean one of Kickstarter's biggest success stories is about to get out of the hardware business, though, as a rep told us "...there will always be OUYA hardware." The firm will push through with the annual refresh cycle it promised, though he couldn't share details about the next reference design. If you're crossing your fingers for a mobile release, though, we're sorry to say that won't be happening. At this point, we're told the Everywhere project has nothing to do with mobile, since "Julie

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Cleeng wants to help you monetize your event’s livestream with a new self-service ticketing platform

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Vector Capital Makes Controlling Investment In CollabNet Developer Platform

CollabNet is one of the leading agile development platforms in the enterprise and the company behind the Subversion version control software. It has millions of users on its platform, which launched back in 1999. Today, Vector Capital is making a controlling investment in the company as part of a concurrent equity round that includes another, undisclosed investor.

The company did not disclose the size of the round, but Vector Capital currently manages over $2 billion in equity capital and typically invests from $100 million to $300 million in each of its portfolio companies.

Vector Capital may not be a household name, but the company has previously invested in companies like Corel, LANDesk, RealNetworks, Register.com and WinZip. The firm says it usually invests in companies with at least $100 million in revenue.

As Vector Capital partner Rob Amen told me, CollabNet is exactly the kind of company the firm likes to invest in. “CollabNet is a gem,” he told me. “It is rare, as a technology investor, to get an opportunity like this. It’s A

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Sonatype Updates Component Lifecycle Management Platform To Protect Open-Source Components

Software components are a vital aspect of app development. They are the pieces of code that make the software what it is, and they can come from thousands of sources. But they can be subject to tampering. For example, last summer, Chinese hackers exploited vulnerabilities in Struts, an open-source framework for developing Java-based web applications. Struts has been managed under the umbrella of the Apache Foundation. It was recently announced that Struts had reached its “end-of-life” and will no longer be supported.

To help address this issue, Sonatype has updated its component lifecycle management (CLM) technology to protect software developers from using rogue open-source components that could be used to attack any kind of software, including an app for your phone or even your car or heart monitor. The technology then automates the process for enforcing policies that help provide assurances to the software developer that the components are okay to use.

Sonatype allows for components to be fixed through the software development cycle to help identify flaws such as those that surfaced when Struts was hacked.

Features in the new version include an inventory that notifies developers about the potential issues of the components that might include security risks and what components are out of date or might have potential licensing liabilities. It also includes the ability to replace unsafe components with the appropriate version. It’s that ability to identify components that becomes important as software integrates into everyday things, said CEO Wayne Jackson in a recent phone interview.

Sonatype also announced that it has hired well-known security expert Josh Corman as its chief technology officer. Corman, who is known for his work at 451 Research, Akamai and IBM, tells me in an email that the work at Sonatype correlates to his focus on defensible infrastructure, application security and how to make the Internet of Things less vulnerable to attack. A preventive approach is needed with the spread of connected things. In many respects IT is growing faster than the ability to secure it,  as he discussed in a TED talk this past December.

So does the risk of open-source software components unleash an unhealthy dose of FUD? No. Instead, it’s a good reason to give thought about how to prevent security exploits instead of just continuing reacting to crises as they inevitably arise.

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Retired Messaging Platform Just.me Reveals Chance, A New App For Random Chats

Mobile messaging app Just.me auctioned off its assets late last year, pre-traction, in order to get out from under its $1.5 million in venture debt. But Just.me, founded by Keith Teare (who also co-founded TechCrunch), won the auction itself using funds from Teare’s incubator Archimedes Labs, beating out nearly two dozen other bids. Now the company is revealing its next move: a series of messaging apps built using the Just.me platform and assets two years in the making, starting with Chance, a private messaging app that connects users with strangers.

Revealed first in the December 31st iTunes App Store release notes for the original Just.me, the company, now a fully fledged app development studio (Just.me, Inc.), is transforming Just.me’s underpinnings into Chance and other apps. Teare explains that Chance is only the first of many apps to be spun out from the original Just.me, all of which will combine the various features of mobile messaging in different ways.

Messaging apps can be public or private, with users who can be anonymous or named, and having conversations in groups or one-on-one, Teare says. The new Just.me, Inc. will experiment with these ideas in standalone apps, the first of which is Chance, an app built in a month’s time. A second app is likely only a few months away, he adds.

With Chance, users are connected with random strangers from around the world, allowing you to chat, exchange disappearing pictures and texts. If you see someone you’d like to get to know, you can begin a conversation, otherwise, you simply tap “Next.” (Yes, it’s very Chatroulette.) As Teare explained earlier, public expression was something that had seen the most usage in Just.me, which had led the company to adding features like “confessions,” which could be anonymous.

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Google's Ingress to become a platform for other augmented reality games

Eventually, Google's Niantic Labs will have to wind down Ingress' storyline. However, that won't be the end of the developer's augmented reality efforts. Niantic tells The Verge that it's working on programming kits that would let aspiring coders build their own games with chat layers, location info and (if necessary) in-game ads. Jut don't expect to write your own title any time soon. Niantic doesn't yet know when the tools will be ready, and their availability may depend on the kind of flexibility that the team wants to offer. If the developer plays its cards right, though, Ingress fans will have a lot more to look forward to than just the beta's end or iOS support.

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Source: The Verge

Tags: alternaterealitygame, android, api, AugmentedReality, developer, gaming, google, ingress, mobilepostcross, NianticLabs Next: Lomography's Petzval lens ships to Kickstarter backers, pre-order it now for $599 .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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LifeLock Acquires Mobile Wallet Platform Lemon For $42.6 Million, Launches LifeLock Wallet

Lemon, a digital wallet platform which allows users to store their ID, payment, loyalty cards and more on their smartphone, has been acquired by identity theft protection service LifeLock for approximately $42.6 million, the companies are announcing today. LifeLock is also now launching a new application called “LifeLock Wallet,” which is based on Lemon Wallet Plus technology.

Lemon first launched in 2011, and had previously raised $8 million in Series A funding the following year from Maveron, Lightspeed Venture Partners, CampVentures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social

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Salesforce’s Ex-CMO Launches GetFeedback, A New Mobile-First Customer Survey Platform

Back in 2006, two enterpreneurs called Kraig Swensrud and Sean Whiteley started a business based around the idea that Salesforce could be used for more than just helping salespeople organise their accounts and targets. Kieden, as the startup was called, created an add-on for Salesforce that let users create and manage Google AdWords advertising campaigns, and in that same year, it was acquired by Salesforce itself, where the two held various roles and Swensrud eventually became the CMO. Now the pair have left the mothership to forge out into the startup world again. Today they are launching GetFeedback to fill what they see as yet another hole in the market: mobile-first customer surveys.

Swensrud says that GetFeedback is launching with an unspecified amount of seed funding from Salesforce itself, along with some unnamed investors.

Today is GetFeedback’s official launch, but in beta, GetFeedback had already picked up some 1,000 customers. They include Appirio, Amazon.com Student, Dropbox, Heroku, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com — and a few out of the blue sporting outfits, the Association of Surfing Professionals and the North Face.

For those who follow the world of online marketing, you will know that the survey market is big — worth some $2 billion, according to one estimate — but also very crowded. SurveyMonkey and Google are among some of the larger companies, and lots of startups like Loop, Zoho, Polar and others are also vying for business in the same space.

Swensrud says that what’s still lacking, though, are great experiences that are mobile-first. “It’s a mobile revolution,” he told me. While online surveys have largely replaced more analog paper and in-person feedback gathering (although some of the wave-makers, like Panorama Education, have adhered to them anyway), today the game is changing again.

“There are a host of companies in the $2B market for online survey and research software,” he says. “But many of them have been exclusively focused on delivering browser-based surveys, which translate horribly onto smartphones and cause response rates to plummet, while some of them focus on specific niches in the enterprise such as market research.

“Audiences now expect every experience they have with every company to be engaging on the devices they carry with them 24/7: the smartphone and the tablet,” he says. “Furthermore, the adoption of modern mobile apps such as Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have retrained audiences to expect engaging, fun, simple, visually-rich experiences on these devices.”

Indeed, GetFeedback includes a lot of bells and whistles that are already commonplace in mobile media experiences elsewhere: the ability for those conducting their surveys to customize the look and branding as well as add images and video to complement text. The surveys as well are responsive, automatically resizing to whatever screen and platform where they are used.

But the promise of mobile will also make it a contested space: indeed SurveyMonkey, one of the bigger players in online, browser-based surveys, hasn’t yet make a real splash in mobile. But now that it is taking its own growth efforts up a notch (with a new enteprise service and more concerted international expansion), it may well choose to focus more on mobile either through inorganic acquisition or through an in-house developed offering.

Some of the premise of GetFeedback is about getting in on the game early — this year there will be 1 billion smartphones shipped and that number will go up to 1.7 billion by 2017, says IDC. And some of the premise is addressing what is already a need today. “Already, around 50% of all surveys are opened on a smartphone or tablet,” he says. “How will businesses evolve in this rapidly changing world, and how will businesses continue to make great decisions?”

For now, the service GetFeedback.com is pitching itself as a freemium product, with a basic offering at no charge, and a monthly pay-as-you-go subscription, based partly on a maximum number of responses generated and partly the level of technical support desired, ranging from $20/month (for up to 100 responses) to $125/month (for up to 10,000 responses). This includes also includes a self-service plan.

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