Y Combinator sees no shortage of startups that apply to be a part of their funding cycles. But they don’t always see all the ideas they’d like to see come out of the classes. So starting with the upcoming Winter 2010 cycle, they have a new idea called RFS, Requests For Startups. Basically, Y Combinator will issue some ideas of what they’re looking for in any cycle, and will accept the ones that pitch the best way to do the idea.
Now, to be clear, Y Combinator will not be forgoing its usual method of combing over any and all startup pitches outside of the ones they lay out. “We don’t expect responses to RFSes will ever be more than a fraction of the applications we accept. We wouldn’t want them to be. Most good ideas should be ones that surprise us, not ones we’re waiting for,” Paul Graham writes on the site today. The hope is that this will help guide some new startups without solid ideas in the direction of something that is missing in the market. Or encourage ones that already have a similar idea to apply.
Y Combinator’s RFSes won’t describe exactly what Y Combinator is looking for, but rather will give a general idea, with the hopes that the startups can come up with even better plans than Y Combinator is thinking of, Graham says.
So what is the first RFS? Well, it’s something near and dear to our hearts: The Future Of Journalism. Y Combinator is wondering what the online content sites will look like in the future when print publications are gone. Certainly some, like TechCrunch, have gotten large enough to support themselves now, but most content sites are still built on the notion of content first, monetization later. Y Combinator notes that in the heyday of print media, the approach was often the opposite, there was a business plan in place before the launch. It believes that approach can still work, and has laid out a rough outline of what it’s looking for from startups that want to do this:
Groups applying to work on this idea should include at least one writer who can write well and rapidly about any topic, one or more programmers who are good at statistics, data mining, and making sites scale, and someone who’s reasonably competent at graphic design. These functions can of course be combined, and in fact it’s even better if they are. Xooglers would be particularly well suited to this project.
This RFS is just the first of 3 to 5 that Y Combinator hopes to get out there before the October 26 Winter 2010 class application deadline, Graham tells us. Startups applying specifically for these RFS ideas will be able to indicate that on their applications.
Graham notes that Y Combinator has sort of passively given ideas to startups in the past, like this, but thinks this new explicit call will lead to some interesting things.
We asked Graham if this new approach means these types of startups will get different financial deals from Y Combinator. “Not significantly,” Graham says. “Execution matters so much more than the idea that even if we supplied the entire idea we wouldn’t be entitled to more than 10% of the company,” he notes. On his post he gives a bit more:
We might ask for a little more equity from startups responding to an RFS, because we’d expect to contribute more to them. But at most a percent or two, and often nothing. Ideas count for something, but execution matters far more.
Firefox 3.5, which we’ve Firefox 3.5, which we’ve ranted about recently, is not playing nicely with Twitter. In fact, for the last week at least users (including me, including today) have had a lot of problems updating status messages and following new people if they use Firefox 3.5. The site just hangs forever.
Twitter knows about the issue and says they’re working on it. And the odd thing is that the issue seems to come and go.
The worst part about this is that Twitter was actively promoting Firefox 3.5 downloads in July, and a lot of Twitter users are probably using it. This version of Firefox alone has around 4.5% market share already.
My apologies to Power Twitter, I originally (privately) accused them for the problems, and it looks like I was wrong. Update: I’m testing Twitter with a download of the most recent alpha build of Firefox 3.7, and it doesn’t work either.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Here we go again. The newspaper industry is blaming online news aggregators for its dwindling profits and inability to adapt to a world of links and truly-free flowing information. (They like it when information flows freely into their pages, but not so much when it flows out).
The vast majority of the value gets captured by aggregators linking and scraping rather than by the news organizations that get linked and scraped.
It is not really clear whom he is calling an aggregator—actual news aggregators like Yahoo News, Google News, Digg, Techmeme and the Huffington Post, or anyone who links to a news story. After all, he equates the entire web to the blogosphere, which says more about his parochial industry view than about the web. In his mind, the web is the enemy and links are bad.
What really seems to concern him, however, are news aggregation sites. They threaten newspapers because they are emerging as the new front page which people skim every morning for headlines instead of going to any single newspaper site. Mishkin argues:
Historically, the value of those casual browsers was captured by the newspaper because the readers would have to buy a copy. Now all the value gets captured by the aggregator that scrapes the copy and creates a front page that a set of readers choose to scan.
Set aside for a second that ads on news aggregation sites are usually worth a lot less than ads on original content sites and thus they are not capturing the same value. More to the point, when I first read this my immediate response was that the value of news sites does not come from getting people to skim headlines, but to actually click through and read the actual stories. The newspaper industry wants to go back to the world before the Web, when each newspaper was a small media bundle packed with stories, 80 percent of which sucked. But it didn’t matter because you’d gladly pay a dollar to read the one or two stories that caught your eye on the front page, hoping there would be more inside.
Well, guess what? The media bundle is dead. News sites can no longer capture reader’s attention with 20 percent news, and 80 percent suck. Each story stands on its own in a world of atomized content where readers can come from anywhere on the Web, not just the front page. Now in addition to the front page, there are a million side doors. Reader lock-in is gone. The sooner newspapers get used to that concept, the sooner they can start to adapt and survive.
Which brings us back to the value of news aggregators. The newspaper industry is looking for someone to blame. Usually, it’s Google, but really anyone on the Web will do. Rather than blame the aggregators, news site should take advantage of them. On the Web, every side door can be a front page, whether it is Google News or search or Digg or Twitter or a feed reader or My Yahoo. I’ve said this before about Google, but it applies to any site that links to the news:
Google does not control the news, it exposes it. . . . It is incumbent upon each of us to attract an audience by having something original or interesting to say.
And if a news site or a blog can say enough interesting things enough times that news aggregators (or other sites) keep linking to them, then they can build up their brand and reader loyalty. Maybe readers will click on those links if they see it is coming from a trusted source, and then maybe some of those will start coming to the news site itself on a regular basis. But that loyalty must be earned every day, story by story, post by post. The more front pages (or side pages) which point to a news site’s stories, the more chances it has to gain that loyalty.
But the days of the media bundle when readers got all of the day’s news from one site are long gone. So too are gone the cushy days when newspapers could count “casual browsers” as real readers and sell them to advertisers. Newspapers had better get used to a world where links exist and can whisk readers away as quickly as they bring them. Those who don’t will learn that trying to recreate the past is a sure a path to an early grave.
We’ve been gushing for weeks now about the latest Chromium builds for Mac. Every day, they seem to get better. The problem is that every day, several updates are released and you have to manually go to the site and scroll down a long list to find the newest version to download. So we’ve made an application that allows you to easily ensure that you have the latest version at all times.
Our Mac Chromium Updater was built with the help of Greg Rosen, who created a script to check your version of Chromium versus the latest build. Then one our our developers, Hunter, created an Automator process so you don’t have to deal with installing something like Wget on your machine. The end result is a simple app that you run and let it update Chromium for you. You can find it here.
For those who aren’t aware, Chromium is the open source project behind Google’s web browser, Chrome. While there are pre-release versions of regular Chrome available for Mac as well, the Chromium builds get updated much more frequently, and as such, are the closest to a working version of Chrome on the Mac. For example, latest versions of Chromium include Flash support and bookmark support. Overall, the project is coming along very nicely.
A couple quick notes about our app: First, when you run the app, depending on the speed of your connection, it may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to download the newest build of Chromium. So even if you don’t think the app is doing anything, let it run, and eventually you will see the latest build of Chromium open on your screen. Second, this has only been tested of OS X 10.5 Leopard, but Chromium will only run on Leopard, so there you go.
Enjoy. We’ve included a read me file in the zip with a few more obvious disclaimers and a note of who to email with problems.
Facebook has submitted v. 3.0 of their iPhone application to Apple, Joe Hewitt says via Twitter: “Just uploaded Facebook for iPhone 3.0 to the App Store for review. :)”
Hewitt also says he’ll post screen shots and more detais on this Facebook page for the iPhone app next week, and that he’s looking forward to getting started on v. 3.1 tomorrow.
We’ve been tracking 3.0 since details first became available in July. A list of some of the much needed improvements is here. And as a bonus, Hewitt said he’d be able to include video uploads to Facebook from iPhone 3Gs phones as well. And from our most recent post (yes, Hewitt has been teasing this out for weeks):
That means that shortly, we'll have access to the much-improved app which is scheduled to have features such as a News Feed that is more like the one on Facebook's site, the ability to "like" items and a new customizable home screen. More importantly, it will also have video support for the iPhone 3GS, something which Hewitt threw-in at the last second, unexpectedly. And perhaps best of all, the app will have the ability to manage events, finally.
It’s likely Apple will approve this app in short order. Not only are they trying to avoid high profile app problems, there’s also not very much in the Facebook app that they or AT&T would take exception to.
This guest post was written by Alex Ahlund, founder of AppVee.
We are just past of a year since the App Store launched and there are more than 60,000 applications released for the iPhone and iPod Touch. When we wrote our 2008 year-end app wrap-up, we had just surpassed the 10,000 app milestone. In early June 2009, the store reached 50,000 apps. At present, we are looking at a staggering 300 new applications being released every single day. How does the average iPhone user find the gems in this deluge?
Unfortunately, the process is entirely overwhelming for the average iPhone user. The bulk of consumers use iTunes' Top and front page listings. Since placement on the top lists is derived entirely from unit sales, there is a disturbing skew towards the $.99 applications. This not only discourages big developers from putting high budgets and serious resources towards development of really useful applications and games, but also does a disservice to us, as iPhone users. If all we see are ninety-nine cent gimmicks and toys, how will we realize the true potential of our device? Apple attempts to offset this with editor's picks, but this simply isn't enough to make sense of the App Store.
There are new third party services and tools coming onto the scene to help show how to best navigate the App Store. AppVee has been doing in-depth reviews of applications since the launch of the App Store and will soon celebrate our one-year anniversary with nearly 1,000 video reviews of the top applications. We're often asked if we are overwhelmed with the number of applications currently released and the number we are capable of covering. The answer is no. 90% of apps currently out there are of no use to anyone. There are a massive number of clones, one-off gimmicks, volumes of books and reference material, and a never-ending supply of uninteresting games. So, we try to act as a filter for consumers, directing them to what is worth their time and money.
The following is a round-up of our top picks so far this year:
A fantastic alternative to Pandora, which carries a larger catalog and offers Premium accounts that offers something we've always loathed about Pandora – unlimited song skips. (Similar: Pandora, WunderRadio, Last.fm)
2. Hey Where Are You A beautifully simple application that takes advantage of Push Notification, by letting users ask and answer the question "Hey, Where Are You?" (Similar: Loopt)
3. Textfree Unlimited Currently the best alternative to high SMS plan costs, offering free text messaging using Push Notification.
4. Bento Create simple databases to store information about every aspect of your life.
5. TweetDeck Our new, favorite Twitter client that takes advantage of the same layout as its desktop counterpart – multiple columns, separation of user groups, and more. (Similar: Tweetie, Twinkle, TwitterFON)
6. Print and Share Print files, emails, web pages, contacts, images and even snapshots direct from your camera, straight to your home printer. Simple setup and works perfectly.
7. Flight Tracker Watch flights in real-time and get up-to-the-minute arrival and departure times. This has saved me countless delayed pick-ups from the airport.
8. Read It Later Store any web page for offline reading or to mark as a reminder to read. A bit tricky to setup at first, but it will quickly replace bookmarking for articles.
9. iEmoji Activate emoticons in your keyboard to include in emails and text messages. Works only for iPhones, but the end reader does not need the app to see emoticons in your texts.
10. Birthday Reminder Rarely check Facebook to see upcoming birthdays? This app downloads all of that information so you can access and easily see upcoming bdays offline.
11. Mover Swap contacts and photos with other iPhones in an easy way. Requires both users to have the application, but it is free and quick to download. (Similar: Bump)
12. Simplify Music 2 Listen to your entire music library from your home computer, streamed quickly and without any lag. (Similar: Simply Music, imeem)
13. Cell Minute Tracker We prefer Cell Minute Tracker to AT&T's minute tracker any day. Much simpler, easy to navigate and much faster.
14. QuickOffice Edit Word and Excel documents on the go.
15. Photogene There are a multitude of photo editing apps out there, but you really only need one. Crop, rotate, adjust colors, and add filters with Photogene. (Similar: Camera Bag)
16. Skype Superb quality Skype-to-Skype over WiFi using the Skype application. Finally be free of your computer and microphone to make those long distance calls. (Similar: Truphone)
17. Kindle Skeptical at first, but found eBook reader surprisingly easy on the eyes and good for taking in a quick chapter. Offers plenty of free content, but won't be replacing your physical Kindle.
18. Beejive IM 3.0 We mentioned this on last year's roundup, but it deems reiteration. So far, the best multi-IM service client on the iPhone, now with Push Notification. AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and more.
19. Redlaser Extremely reluctant to include this on the list, but it does deserve a bottom slot. Scan UPC codes for price comparisons on the go, but wait for an update for improved scanning and database.
Best Games
20. Real Racing Standard track based racing game, but has the best graphics on an iPhone game to-date. Worth it alone to see what the iPhone is capable of.
21. Sims 3 Slightly watered down Sims 3, but still an excellent version on the go. Fantastic graphics and runs well.
22. My Brute Create a fighter and compete in daily arena matches. Very simplistic, but highly addicting and will bring you back daily.
23. Mecho Wars Advanced Wars for your iPhone and iPod Touch, enough said. Interesting art style and background story.
24. Zenonia The first fully featured traditional 2D action RPG for your iPhone and iPod Touch.
25. Peggle The time sucking, simple Pachinko style casual PC game from PopCap ported to your device.
26. Marble Blast Mobile Another PC game port where you roll your marble through various levels, filled with obstacles and hazards. http://www.appvee.com/t/iphone-app-review-marble-blast-mobile
28. Merlin's Legacy An original IP based around two dueling wizards, battling for control across a 2D side-scrolling field. Interesting game mechanic based on spells and timing.
29. Assassin's Creed A smaller version of Assassin's Creed on your iPhone and iPod Touch. Plays rather smoothly and provides solid entertainment.
30. Oregon Trail The classic Oregon Trail, updated with fantastic graphics and animation. Will keep you entertained just like when you were in school. Try not to die of dysentery.
31. Rolando 2 The sequel to the popular game of rolling little Rolandos around to save the kingdom. Your hands may cramp from hours of play.
Fun Timewasters
32. Doodle Jump Dominated the Top 25 list for quite a while. Accelerometer based movement—you guide your Doodle to bounce off platforms, jumping to the highest point possible as you avoid getting hit.
33. Mouth Off Cover your mouth with your device and show off an assortment of crazy mouths that animate to the input sound of your voice. I've annoyed dining mates with this one more than once.
34. Pocket God Well done, episodic content based on a simple toy of dealing with your islanders. Fun to show off to friends and receive new updates.
35. Flight Control Elegantly simple and highly addictive game. You direct various planes to different landing strips, all the while trying to avoid collisions. Updated with Bluetooth device co-op.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunchMobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Firefox 3.5, which we’ve 
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Facebook has submitted v. 3.0 of their iPhone application to Apple, 
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