Instagram CEO feels Twitter card removal is 'the correct thing for our business' but calls changes 'really confusing' to users. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom just took the stage at the LeWeb conference and is speaking directly to this morning's controversial change that removed Twitter card support.
Right off the bat, Systrom made it clear that "we will always be integrated with Twitter in a way that you can tweet out from Instagram to Twitter," but he also acknowledged that the change is "really confusing" and offered his apologies to any confused users. Systrom also wanted to make it clear that the change wasn't due to Facebook policy; he said that "this isn't actually a consequence of us getting acquired. " Additionally, Systrom claimed that "we have a really good relationship with Twitter," despite recent evidence to the contrary — he specifically denied the possibility that Instagram's removal of Twitter cards was a tit for tat response to Twitter blocking Instagram from using its friend-finding API.
Nest CEO Fadell: Internet of things is a decade away. PARIS -- It will take 10 years before the "Internet of things" catches on widely, said Nest Labs Chief Executive Tony Fadell, whose smart-thermostat startup embodies the technology.
"People think there's this Internet of all kinds of crazy devices that are going to talk to each other. It's going to take some time," Fadell said at the LeWeb show here. "Give it five or eight years and then you'll see machines talking to machines. Then it'll be commonplace in 10 years or so. " Taxibeat Launches Its Taxi Driver Marketplace And Smartphone App In Paris Just In Time For LeWeb.
What is it about taxi startups launching in time for LeWeb?
Then again, you can’t beat a captive audience. And so it is that Taxibeat, the hail-a-cab smartphone app and taxi driver marketplace, has launched in Paris this week, just in time to help ferry a bunch of geeks to the LeWeb conference and countless after-parties. For Taxibeat it represents a fairly aggressive international roll-out strategy over the last four months.
Having first launched in the startup’s native Athens, Greece, in May 2011, it’s recently expanded to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil; Oslo, Norway; and Bucharest, Romania. As of today, the company can add the City of Light to that list. Taxibeat’s smartphone app, available on iOS and Android, enables users to locate nearby taxis, hail the driver of their choice and rate them once the ride is over. For taxi drivers using the system, there are no setup fees or monthly subscriptions. Here are the 16 teams vying for glory in LeWeb’s 2012 Startup Competition. 7 November '12, 02:56pm Follow Huge conference LeWeb is a firm fixture on the European tech events calendar, pulling in attendees from across the world to meet, network, do business and socialize in Paris each December.
So, it’s no surprise that the LeWeb Startup Competition is one of the most high-profile places that a company can launch in Europe. This year’s competition opened for applicants back in September, and the final 16, who will be presenting onstage at the event next month, have now been announced. All have raised less than €1.5m ($2m US) of investment and will launch either their company or a new product or feature at this year’s event. LeWeb’s theme for 2012 is the Internet of Things, and so some of the finalists are tackling the challenges of bringing the physical world online. Nest’s Tony Fadell Talks Thermostats, Apple, Kickstarter And Hardware Startups At LeWeb.
At LeWeb Paris this morning, Nest Labs‘ Founder and CEO Tony Fadell took the stage with the Iliad Group’s founder Xavier Niel to talk about his advanced thermostat and the Internet of Things.
Fadell noted that, in the U.S., more than 10 million thermostats are sold every year. When he built his own home, Fadell noticed that nobody had innovated on thermostat for years, despite the fact that they control almost half of the energy used every year. Asked about how he went from designing the iPad to a thermostat, he argued that’s what he learned in the process at Apple. Steve Jobs, he said, taught him that “every consumer touch point is extremely powerful,” including the boxing, the retail experience and the customer support. The product experience, that was such a focus for Apple, is something he also wanted to bring to Nest. Talking about startups, Fadell noted that it’s about being fast, stealthy and being ready when people are ready to buy it. Nest And The Internet Of Things.