OurielOhayon

The Onion is totally killing it

Must watch video. Hilarious parody of the recent decision of Google to let users Opt Out to benefit from more privacy.
I can't stop laughing

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

iTunes going social? Why wait?

Boy Genius has been reported that Apple is not only planning to include some social connectors to iTunes that would enable you to share more easily what you are listening on different social networks like facebook or twitter [something they kind of do, but in a limited way in iPhoto already]. Now they announce a that it is part of a bigger super secret project involving a separate social network software or property that agregates your social life.



This application would allow to share more easily what your iTunes has in its guts. But only refers to music.

That would make sense. If you think of it iTunes is a connected software but that does not leverage the power of the network since it is ONLY focus on your ego catalog and behaviour. Nothing allows you to enjoy the power of the connected web. True? Well not really.

You can already if you want use great solutions to share your iTunes life around you

• iTunes news stream: If you download Last.fm client on your computer you can already broadcast passively the music you are listening. This creates a feed of music available on Last.fm but also on other networks (eg here mine on future-ex Friendfeed) like facebook or twitter.
• iTunes music sharing: want to listen to your friends' music? Use Simplify media, a great app for computers and iPhone that let you share and stream of your music catalog with your friends for free [i wonder how they react to this announcement]
  
• Apps Sharing: well here i am totally biaised but you can use Appsfire.com to showcase which apps you are sharing (here are mine or screenshot below). Our iPhone app is being currenly reviewed by Apple [will be curious to find out if there is a conflict]

Apple initiative is a great news. But let's see how they play it. Traditionnally Apple makes amazing softwares but poor web sites (remember MobileME at launch?).

Technorati Tags: iTunes iTunes9 apple social facebook twitter

10 random thoughts on FriendFeed acquisition by Facebook

This is one of the biggest tech news of the week. FriendFreed a lifestream service, i have been using nearly from day 1, has been acquired by Facebook. Tons of things are being written here and there. Here are my 10 short random toughts

1. FriendFeed is a Xoopit not a Zappos. Could it have been a Zappos? i don't think so. In spite of an amazing product and massive coverage they never reached more than 1m users. With no clear revenue model and unlike Twitter a very ppor ecosystem of developpers and apps.
   
2. Acquisition price? Before WSJ published the info i twitted yesterday that the price tag was sub 100m USD but not far. With a premium mostly paid in stock. Seems to be the case (around 50m USD)
   
3. Facebook acquired a great technology and amazing talents (they did the same with Parakey than became Facebook iPhone app). Friendfeed news feed is by far the best on the market.
4. Benchmark is both an investor in both Twitter and FriendFeed. Facebook tried to acquire Twitter for 500m USD in stocks and failed (that was before Benchmark invested). I can't imagine that this episode did not help Benchmark in making the deal happening. including being aware of the terms. I can't also imagine that Benchmark did not have some conflicts of interest since both services have a strong overlap (both a re news stream)
   
5. From a VC return point of view Friendfeed should be considererd as a failure. But it's not. Bencharmk invested 5m a year ago probably for 20%. They got back a year later 10/15m USD. Mostly in Facebook stock potentially worth much more.
   
6. Soon i'll be visiting 1 site less. Would not make sense for Facebook to keep Friendfeed alive. Until today i was visiting both every day.
   
7. Friendfeed is a name i never like for a company: but a great name for the new Facebook "News Feed" (a name i never liked either)
8. If FriendFeed was an israeli company not one singly VC would have put money on this company. Me included. Actually i saw a couple of startups in this field no one has put money on them.
9. TO all startups: it is possible to build a better product than giants if you decide to go head to head against them. But you have to be REALLY good at it and be aware that the upside can be limited
10. Everyone says that Facebook acquired a real time search engine. They did not. Friendfeed search engine is not good enough. And it only indexes the feed in their system. A real time search engine should index the whole web and provide the right filters to put out the noise

bonus 1: i think Facebook paid a premium because they wanted to make sure that neither Twitter or Google would acquire them and close the deal fast.
bonus 2: given the amazing number of tweets on the matter i don't understand why friendfeed does not appear on top of the top 10 trending topics. Any idea?

pic: mark zuckerberg and Friendfeed founders..apparently happy

update: wow, i am already #2 link on top of Techmeme with this post!

Don't Miss this: Moritz (Sequoia) and Graham (Ycombinator) on entrepreneurs, bullshit and passion

VCs, investors, entrepreneurs, don't miss this great 1h video talk betweeen Guy Kawazaki (a great moderator) and probably 2 of the top 10 best investors in the world Mike Moritz (Sequoia Capital) and Paul Graham (founder of Ycombinator)

This talk illustrates so well the difference between the old and new generation of investment vehicles. The monster VC behind Yahoo, Cisco, Google and Youtube and the Startup Academy funding totally unknown, unexperienced but highly talented guys before they event come to VCs. This is no surprise btw that Sequoia recently decided to invest in Ycombinator which funds about 50 startups a year.



I really enjoyed this talk. full of insights (specially from Graham which is always to the point, man of few words but spot on)

Some snacks from this talk

• Investing in proven entrepreneurs is a fake. Proven means nothing in early stage. We invest in passion.
  
• Passion can't be faked. Don't use the word passion in your pitch. Show you are passionate about what you do.
• Is there a reason why so many enterpreneurs are 25-ish years old and not 35-ish? It's easier to start when your young. Moritz "Mozart died at 35" [brilliant]
• How do you detect Bullshit in entrepreneurs? it's all about sincerity [but honestly i felt that their answers was kind of BS-ish]
• Where do you help entrepreneurs when they start? Graham:in deciding what to build first [seems obvious, but SO important indeed]
• Next trends? Graham: if we knew we would build the startup...See where hackers are spending their time and you'll gean idea (eg iPhone, Twitter, Facebook,...)
• Would you invest in a wife/husband business? Moritz: Cisco was the case. Graham:yes, if the persons are right for the business and not here because of the relation
• How do you set valuation? Kawazaki: for each engineer in the team add 500k USD. for each MBA take off 250k USD (so funny)
  

10 altenatives to rejected iPhone apps developpers

No one single day without an App rejected from the App Store. No matter whether you are a Giant like Google (Google Voice) or a small unknown developper with great apps (NinjaWords). Apple has a blackbox and even if the SDK is quite documented your app can be easily rejected. We just submitted our awesome iPhone app for AppsFire to Apple. We hope it will be accepted [we send them business so i hope it will be fine..]. But what if it does not?

We thought of a few alternatives and decided to share it with others. You never know.

1. Try again

Sometimes your app can be rejected for a stupid reason easy to fix (eg: you used an iPhone visual in your app which is forbidden). The team will let you know. Just fix it and try again...

2. Talk with Apple

Apple recently created a specific email adress for developpers so they can better communicate with Apple and optimize the approval process. Use it.

3. Go Browser

Web apps were there before the App Store. you can do pretty nifty things within the browser. Even Google is considering coming to the iPhone via the browser. Over time with HTML 5 browser based apps will be nearly as good as desktop apps. Apple can't block them

4. Go Jailbreak

Definitely not the best option because you won t enjoy the iTunes juice. But some app are doing very nice over there. Sometimes it's even better to start there. An app like TuneWiki would have been probably rejected from day 1 if they submitted it to the App Store. They gain massive traction in Cidya (the jailbreak app store) and could eventually by way of negociating clean agreements with majors submit successfully their app to Apple.

Bear in mind that also the Jailbreak community is about less than 10% of the total iPhone population. Read also this piece by Wired on the Jailbreak way

5. Go Android and Co

Yes, the App Store is THE Store. but not for long. Android and other app stores will soon be as big maybe bigger. So if your idea is good it s also good for other platforms. The only problem is that you'll have to code your app again since it's not the same framework. As a piece of advice if you want to build a big business, don't make it iPhone Specific

6. Go Fight..but good luck with that

It is highly likely that a rejected phone app will give food to the blogosphere. Use it. Maybe you'll manage to get some better attention from Apple. Like here


7. Hire a developper in the know

Working with Yann on Appsfire is a real pleasure. There are so many mistakes i would have made by myself. Not because he s a developper and i am not but because he went through the process of submitting an App several times. Actually i even believe there is room for a small independant service to help developpers get on board on the Appstore. Who's working on it?

8. Go Home

Getting approved is like an exam: you work a lot for it and still be out. This can be a definite energy/motivation killer. If you don't believe enough in your app, or if you are tired maybe it's time to give up. But first make sure you tried everything.

And like for all exams: make sure you are ready enough. Starting by reading this SDK and benchmarking yourself with already approved/rejected apps.

9. Make Steve a present

Offer him what he will never be able to buy - A PC

10. Go to an app group therapy

Given the numbers of rejected apps, a good way to treat that would be a nice group therapy. But you know what? Try those above before...



Technorati Tags: iphone app appstore

MicroJob : Windows dev junior. Some hours work, dollars and lifetime credit

A friend of mine working on a hot new project is looking for someone with this kind of profile below.

- windows developer junior+, with English or French proficiency, good problem solving skills

- ability to create a robust .exe (with Installer a plus)

- ability to manage a web service using the http POST protocol

- available for 2 days, Tel Aviv location a plus.

If interested shoot me an email on myblog AT ohayon dot name

Orange is doing something wrong in marketing the iPhone in Israel

The iPhone is coming to Israel. I registered on the web to the waiting list of Orange to buy a new iPhone (3GS). Yesterday someone from Orange called me.  So far, So good

Now comes the ugly part. They asked me to pay a fee of 9.9 NIS (2 dollars) to have the privilege to buy first the iPhone in Israel. I tried to understand if that was giving me something more beyond having the right to buy an iPhone? No - except a printed card with my name on it for which i absolutely do not care.

What disturbs me in that practice is that i have to pay something without having a single clue of the terms by which the iPhone will be sold: what price? what data package? what commitment?....Orange was no willing to share that over the phone. They just ask you to pay for the "Dmei retsinut" (literally "fee of commitment"). But i thing this is wrong.  Worse: they called me again this am to offer the same thing again, after i complained (hello, have you heard about CRM???)

I cannot be asked to commit to something i have no clue about. I would even say this is not legal and i hope someone will bring light on it.

I love the iPhone but the hype around it is leading to this kind of abuse. Israelis are not "frairim". They won't pay to have the right to buy something.

Orange precised me that i could retreat at any moment and cancel this fee. But i don't care. I am not ready to give anything on a promise of something unclear.

Orange wants to make sure you are serious about your intention. I ask them the same: be serious about what you commit to.

Here is how they should do it right

> ask for a fee that will be deducted from any purchase at Orange
> precise immediately the price and availability date of the iPhone
> explain to the customer that the waiting list is too large to be treated at once and that enable them to garantee customer quality service

Someone at Orange listening? Change this now.