Former Xmarks CEO And Serial Entrepreneur James Joaquin Joins Catamount Ventures As Partner

Serial entrepreneur and former Xmarks CEO James Joaquin is announcing today that he has joined Catamount Ventures as a Partner.

Prior to Catamount, Joaquin was the CEO bookmarking startup Xmarks, which was acquired last year by LastPass. In the 80’s, he co-founded Clearview Software, a company acquired by Apple. After six years at Apple in engineering and marketing roles, Joaquin co-founded When.com, an internet calendar and events service that was acquired by AOL. He was also President and CEO of Ofoto and helped lead the service from its start through its acquisition by Kodak.

Joaquin has actually been a venture and angel investor working with Bridgescale Partners and Kapor Capital. He’s personally invested in a number of startups including Pixable, PixelPipe, AdRoll, and 20×200 .
In his new role, he’ll lead investment opportunities in the consumer internet and consumer packaged goods sectors.

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Reddit Evolves Into Reddit Inc., Begins Search For New CEO

Happy Tuesday after Labor Day everybody! In other news, beloved Internet hangout reddit has spun out of Conde Nast and will become its own independent entity, reddit inc., owned by Condé Nast parent company Advance publications.

In a blog post coincidentally enough entitled “Independence,” reddit General Manager Erik Martin implies that the organizational change was due to a combination of technical issues related to company’s ever-expanding growth and a culture clash with Condé Nast.

“When reddit was acquired in October 2006 by Condé Nast, it was receiving about 700k page views per day,” Martin writes. “Now, reddit routinely gets that much traffic in 15 minutes. This explosion in traffic created technical, cultural, and organizational growing pains.”

According to Martin, reddit Inc. will now directly report to a board, which will include co-founder Alexis Ohanian, reddit President Bob Sauerberg, Condé Nast CTO Joe Simon and  Advance VP Andrew Siegel. Martin tells me that the company, which employs eight people out of its SF office and two out of NY with another salesperson based in LA, is looking for a new CEO in the Bay Area.

“It’ll be a much more direct process now, we go to the board like any other company and say that this is the business case for why we’re doing XYZ,” comments Martin on what he thinks will change organizationally moving forward. “It allows us to operate more independently,” he says.

Contrary to (hilarious) reports, Gawker writer Adrian Chen is not in the running for Reddit Editor In Chief.

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Australian Judge Asks For iPad Sales Stats In Galaxy Tab Case

In its unending quest for tablet market supremacy (as if it hadn’t yet achieved such a feat), Apple has been asked by the Australian court to provide iPad sales data from the U.S. and the U.K. Samsung originally sent Apple three modified Galaxy Tabs with the hopes that the fresh “redesign” would coax Apple into dropping the case.

As we expected, that didn’t happen. A Galaxy Tab is still a Galaxy Tab, and Apple clearly wants to destroy it. No number of modifications seems to be changing that.

Getting the preliminary injunction in Australia seemed to be pretty effortless for Apple, but a permanent one requires more scrutiny from the court. Australian judge Annabelle Bennett has asked for sales data from the UK and the U.S. to ensure that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has in fact hurt Apple’s iPad sales, reports Bloomberg. The disclosure of those numbers isn’t mandatory, but since Samsung has vehemently denied claims that its tablet hurt iPad sales, Judge Bennett sees those figures as pretty necessary if Apple wants to walk away with a win.

Everyone already knows that the iPad is the dominant tablet in the market. Sales are up 183 percent in Q3 2011 from the same time last year, though Apple argues that those numbers would be higher if it wasn’t for the Galaxy Tab and its similar “functionality and appearance.” It may be difficult to argue that the GalTab hurt sales while simultaneously seeing such amazing growth out of the iPad. Especially since Samsung has been persistently arguing the opposite.

“People want an Android product, so they will buy an Android product,” said Samsung counsel Neil Murray. “This is not impacting the sales of Apple.” Whether or not that’s true remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure. No one in Australia will be playing with a Galaxy Tab 10.1 until Apple’s happy.

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LG will develop thinner Optimus 3D mobile phone, is expected to launch next year

LG's IFA 2011 and did not like with the blood brothers , as released amazing phone and tablet PCs , but low-profile 3.8-inch screen to show Optimus Sol , almost to forget it in the hands of the flagship phone Optimus 3D. LG engineers Dr. Henry Noh recent interview with Pocket-Lint site visit that the thinner they are developing a 3D mobile to ensure this new mobile phone market next year, when, to become one of the most attractive mobile phone. He did not specify the size, but he mentioned that next year's smartphone is about the thickness of 6mm, 7mm and 3D mobile phone in about. Therefore, we can expect the second generation of Optimus 3D may be greatly reduced thickness of about 4.9mm, and this will be higher than the current 7.9mm thickness of NEC MEDIAS WP N-06C thinner, enough to make consumers believe that 3D cell phone and no longer " thick "equate.

Google+ API Launch Still Months Away

Developers anxiously awaiting the Google+ API (application programming interface) will have to wait a little while longer, we’re told. Although Google is hard at work on building the tools which would enable developers to build third-party applications for the new social networking service from the search giant, the API’s launch is still “months” away.

The timeframe, amorphous and vague as it is, was revealed by a Google+ project manager to a Google+ developer, who has asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.

And it’s certainly disappointing news for anxious Google+ enthusiasts and developers itching to launch or use apps that leverage the network’s unique capabilities, like Circles, Hangouts, Sparks and Huddles.

Last month, for example, we had high hopes that an API was on the horizon, when Sully Taylor, Creative Director for Teens in Tech Labs and Founder & CEO at Sully Creative, released a basic Google+ application for Mac users. He had posted on Google+ that he had “access to private APIs,” which led to a firestorm of speculation about the status of the official Google+ API launch.

Sully later removed the comment from his Google+ profile at the request of Google, saying that it was “misleading.” In addition, Google also told us that no developer has private API access.
And it looks like no developer will for some time yet.

In the meantime, there are several unofficial workarounds available for accessing parts of the Google+ service, including this unofficial Google Plus API on Github and this Java object for accessing a few basics from the network, like profile details, friend lists, and posts, for example. The problem, of course, with using these unofficial methods is that they’re often difficult to build, prone to breaking as things on Google+ change, buggy and incomplete.

That said, given that Google+ launched in late June, an API launch by year-end would be a solid 6 months after the social network’s debut – certainly a reasonable timeframe (even speedy, perhaps) for an API of such scope.

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New Startup JPEGmini Reduces Photos’ Size, Not Their Quality

Photographers, take note. A startup called JPEGmini is introducing a new photo compression technology for JPEG photos which reduces the overall file size (by up to 5 times), while preserving the photo’s quality and resolution.

The technology is designed specifically with the Web in mind, as more photographers, both amateur and professional, use online storage for photo archival purposes. With JPEGmini, photos can be uploaded, emailed and shared faster, while saving on storage and bandwidth costs.

Sounds great, of course. But the question is: does it work?

According to the company, the JPEGmini technology works by analyzing the input image using a unique quality detector which imitates the human visual system. Based on this analysis, it applies the maximum amount of compression which will not cause visible artifacts. The second part of the system is a JPEG encoder, which adapts the JPEG encoding process to the original photos, creating the most compact representation of the photos that is possible under the JPEG standard.

So, to be clear: JPEGmini is not a new file format, it uses the JPEG file format.
And in some cases, it can achieve a recompression ratio of up to 5 times, or an 80% reduction.

The key phrase here is “some cases.” JPEGmini doesn’t always surpass the capabilities of current technology, it seems. Says San Francisco-based professional photographer Jim Goldstein of JMG Galleries, in tests, JPEGmini achieves greater file size savings on larger Web images than Photoshop did. But with smaller images, Photoshop’s “Save for Web” setting (at 60% quality) did better. (More details on the tests here).
This seems to confirm what JPEGmini itself says – the higher the original JPEG photo resolution, the greater the file size reduction it can offer. (Only photos 8 MP and higher can achieve the 80% reduction rate using this technology, for example).

As a professional photographer, Goldstein was also careful to read through the Terms of Service for JPEGmini, which says that if you choose to upload a photo to the site, they can use it to promote their service. This is overly broad, but could be ameliorated simply by adding the line “upon request.”
In addition, it’s worth noting that JPEGmini preserves all the photo’s metadata.

Still, for professionals, the best savings and balance of image quality would come from saving a JPEG for a RAW file, and ideally, doing compressions in batches, not one-by-one as with JPEGmini’s service, explains Goldstein. Correction: JPEGmini lets you upload folders. 

So perhaps professional photographers don’t have need of JPEGmini, after all. But other consumers might…especially those who don’t own a copy of Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom, for example. The technology could be integrated into consumer electronics, like phones and digital cameras, too, as a way to save storage space and bandwidth when saving or sharing photos.

JPEGmini was developed by ICVT, an Israeli startup company based in Tel-Aviv. Its founder, Sharon Carmel, previously co-founded Emblaze, which developed the Internet’s first vector-based graphics player, preceding Macromedia Flash, and BeInSync, a P2P sync and backup company acquired by Phoenix Technologies in 2008. JPEGmini is self-funded.

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Hot, Flat, And Widescreen: The Rise Of The Minitabs

The past three days have brought us a trio of interesting “tabs:” the Samsung Note, the 7.7 Gal Tab, and (bear with me) the new, flatter iPhone. Sadly, two of those may not make it to the US of A (and one can’t even be shown in Germany), but it’s clear that there’s a trend. Wait a few months and we’ll see more new 5- to 7-inch tablets/phones on the market than, I’d wager, 10-inch tablets. But why the shrink? Who is clamoring for a flatter, bigger “minitab” about the size of a phone but just a hair bigger?

First, this trend is not new. It began with the HTC HD2 (and, going back further, with a few recent Archos tablets) and many Android phones have gone the “flat and big” route, creating phones that are more in line with widescreen media players than what we currently call candybar style.

Hardware designers run in packs. A few years ago, the hardware designers at LG, Samsung, and Apple all went for something they called piano black. Everything was piano black – phones, cameras, TVs, DVD players. You had some splashes of “color” in the trade dress, but glossy plastic a la iPhone 3G was all the rage.

The same thing is happening here – the running of the herd – but for a few interesting reasons. First, the 10-inch tablet market is tapped. There is nowhere to go. To build another one is folly and to many consumers to buy anything other than an iPad is moral failure.

Gadgets hold totemic significance and their shape is important to manufacturers. Shape allows for a level of differentiation that is immediately apparent to the consumer and allows the manufacturer to hide any number of sins. Chip speeds are stagnant and the physical limitations of a compact device are forcing manufacturers to rethink the size and shape of their devices.

Consumers, too, are looking for something new. The 10-inch tablet is boring and, more important (at least according to Apple) a patent violation. What better way to keep tab-like gadgets in the pipeline than to smoosh them down?

Additionally, big touchscreens are still hard to come by. With everyone focusing on glass that maxes at 10 inches and larger, manufacturers can reduce costs by hunting down smaller pieces.

In the end, the next tablet is the next tablet. There is a certain fickleness to hardware size and it’s based on fashion, manufacturing ability, and some designer’s whim. Whether we buy these things as they get bigger (or smaller) is a matter of taste and quality. Manufacturers are trying to figure us out while reducing costs and, for a while, we’re going to be saddled with some truly pocket-straining devices until the next technology comes along to replace this one.

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