Alright, kiddies, gather 'round, because it's time for everyone's favorite class: Palm Model Codes 101. As you might recall from Sunnyvale's previous exploits in the FCC's system, P101 devices are Pres, while P121s are Pixis. That part of the code is followed by a three-character string indicating the radio type: EWW for CDMA, UEU for European GSM, and UNA for North American GSM. Using everything we know there, we can safely deduce that the P121UNA that just crossed the wires is the AT&T-branded version of the Pixi Plus, a device that we know to be hitting shelves "in the coming months." Whether FCC certification was one of the roadblocks in getting it launched is a mystery, but it certainly can't hurt the process, can it?
AT&T's Palm Pixi Plus granted the FCC's best wishes originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Mar 2010 04:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The rumor circulating around Silicon Valley yesterday: Walt Mosspuppet, the foul-mouthed and funny puppet version of the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, is actually the brainchild of Newsweek’s Dan Lyons, AKA Fake Steve Jobs. Lyons, says the rumor, actually writes the scripts for all of the videos, and Brian Hogg acts them out with the puppet.
The fact that Lyons promotes many of the Mosspuppet videos on Fake Steve certainly suggests a strong connection.
The truth, at least according to Dan Lyons (I think I was talking to Dan, but it may have been Fake Steve. I’m never sure with him): Not true. Lyons says he helped Hogg with some of the early scripts and has advised him to shorten the videos, but other than that he’s just a fan.
“Would you lie to me, Dan?”
“Never, Mike. Never.” He added “If I was writing the scripts to Mosspuppet, they’d be a lot funnier.”
So there you have it.
Video streaming apps on the iPhone in the U.S. have always had to contend with the limitations of AT&T’s data network. For a long time, video streaming apps were not allowed in the App Store. And when they did finally get approved, at first they could only stream videos via WiFi.
As AT&T slowly beefs up its data network, iPhone apps can now deliver streams over 3G. But network availability is still an issue, so much so that Apple is now requiring that video watching apps support multiple streaming bitrates before it will approve an app. At least that was the case for Justin.tv’s iPhone video app, which hit the App Store earlier this week. During the approval process, Justin.tv was asked to incorporate both high-quality (200 kbps) and low-quality (64 kbps) streams. The video switches to a low-quality when the 3G network is overloaded or only the slower EDGE network is available (which renders any video painful to watch no matter what the bitrate).
“We were a bit confused by this request at the time, as none of the other live video applications in the App Store had that feature,” reports Justin.tv marketing VP Evan Solomon. “Apple was very adamant that we add it—they wouldn’t approve our app without it,” he adds.
Apple is increasingly encouraging developers of video apps to include adaptive bitrates which vary based on the user’s connection. Currently Apple requires all long-form video (which includes live streams and anything over 10 minutes) to support low and high quality streams. But eventually Apple will likely start to enforce this policy for all videos and video apps, no matter what the length. Already at least one online video platform, Brightcove, dynamically adjusts the streaming rates when it detects a video request from an iPhone app. So it is becoming more of an industry practice. Now it looks like Apple is starting to reinforce that practice through the App Store approval process as well.
What do Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Redpoint Ventures have in common? Besides being tier one venture capitalists, at least one thing: They are all fighting furiously to be the lead investor in Foursquare’s next venture round.
All that competition is driving the valuation massively upwards, too. A couple of weeks ago we’d heard that the deal would likely be closed at around a $50 million valuation. Today we’ve confirmed that the final price will likely be $60 million – $70 million. They’re raising around $10 million, which means when it’s all over Foursquare will be worth up to $80 million on paper.
The front runner in the deal is Gideon Yu from Khosla, we’ve heard from multiple sources. Yu is tight with both Jack Dorsey (he’s an investor in Dorsey’s Square) and Chris Dixon (likewise, he’s an investor in Dixon’s Hunch). And Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley is relying heavily on the advice of his close friends for the deal. And those close friends include Jack Dorsey, who’s an investor in Foursquare, and Dixon.
What a choice, though. Most entrepreneurs would sacrifice a kitten to get anywhere near any of these investors, and Crowley has his choice of any of them. A final decision is expected in the next few days, say our sources.
