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Shareworthy articles and content syndicated from other sites. These aren’t things I’ve written or necessarily endorse, for the record.

Why the Future of Hardware Is Services

For nearly a decade, I’ve had an unwavering belief that all devices will have a connection to the network — wireless or otherwise. Any devices that have software to take advantage of network- and cloud-based smarts would find eager takers. The combination of hardware, software and connectivity would be key to the future of the hardware.

That shift is now happening, as seen in the growing popularity of Wi-Fi and the huge jump in Wi-Fi traffic. Because of this shift, we are seeing a re-definition of the consumer electronics landscape. It’s not a surprise a hardware-centric company like Sony found itself at a disadvantage, and upstarts like music gadget maker Sonos and forward-TV-anywhere device maker Slingbox found success among the enthusiasts. Today, my long-held notion is finding its way into the market. Internet music players, connected televisions, wireless-enabled photo frames and Internet set-top boxes are commonplace, lining the aisles of Big Box electronics stores.

Maybe it’s time for me to amend that long-held belief a little bit. The future of hardware is hardware, software and connectivity combined with specific services. Without the services, the devices may lose our attention and end up at the back of the proverbial drawer.

The idea became crystal clear in a conversation with Hosain Rehman, co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based mobile device maker, Aliph, well-known for its hit product, Jawbone, a Bluetooth headset. We were talking about his company getting a whopping $49 million from Andreessen Horowitz and existing investors that include Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital, when the conversation turned to the proliferation of sensors and software in today’s devices and how they can be used to improve the device experience.

One way to do it is by attaching a service to the hardware. Let’s examine three of the more popular consumer devices of recent times:

  • Amazon Kindle (the device) has software and connectivity (through Whisper Sync), but what makes it really useful is the “service:” the ability to read and buy books easily.
  • Apple TV (version 2) is successful because of two reasons: It allows you to watch iTunes content, but to many of us, it’s the Netflix on-demand service that makes Apple TV worth owning.
  • Sonos is finding growing demand for its S5 music system, thanks to the ability to not only play the music you own, but also get music from a variety of streaming music services such as Spotify. (Read: How to build a consumer platform, lessons from Sonos.)

Sure, there are some devices, like the iPhone, that have managed to combine the hardware, software and connectivity with a screen to create a platform that allows end users to get third-party “services” via the apps. Now, as we all know, these apps are one of the main reasons why Apple has found a lot of buyers for the iPhone and the iPod touch.

The importance of services cannot be underscored. Here’s why: To me, services are a way for hardware owners to increase engagement with their gadgets. When I first got Sonos, I listened to my own library of music. Then I signed up for Internet radio stations, and lately, I’ve been testing Spotify’s streaming service. Result? It’s now playing in the background, pretty much all the time.

Just as on the social web, engagement drives usage and this usage can then be monetized. Apple’s monetization is coming in the form of the increased use of its payment system, which results in a 30 percent cut of the total sales. On a Kindle, the more books you read, the more you buy, and the more money Amazon makes on the sales of these e-books.

I think in our device-infested and attention-deprived lives, services — if built well — foster constant and ongoing engagement. As ngmoco CEO Neil Young recently told me, the longer you have an opportunity to engage with the customer, the more opportunities you have for more monetization. More importantly, a good service turns a good device into a great one. Just look at Sonos!


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StumbleUpon’s Garrett Camp On What It’s Like To Buy Back Your Company

There aren’t many startup founders that have done what Garrett Camp has done. After selling content discovery service StumbleUpon to eBay for $75 million in 2007, Camp and investors decided to buy it back for a reported $29 million in 2009.

After the initial Series A that was folded back into the spinoff, Camp raised $17 million from August Capital, Accel, and others in a Series B just last week, making StumbleUpon the most rare of comeback success stories.

Thus far buying yourself back after an acquisition is a feat that’s only been accomplished on a large scale by Webshots (which bought itself back from Excite@Home and resold itself to Cnet) and TicketFly, formerly TicketWeb, which bought itself back from TicketMaster and proceeded to directly compete with its former owner.

I sat down with Camp during SXSW to talk about the process of reacquiring your company, what he plans on doing with the StumbleUpon’s rare second chance, and which startup he likes better, StumbleUpon or Uber (of which he is a co-founder).

Highlights:

On the motivation behind the acquisition: “A desire for flexibility. I think bigger companies require more approvals, it takes longer to get stuff done. So I thought we would grow a lot faster if we were a smaller company.”

On the advantages of being part of a larger company: “The great thing about eBay is that I could totally focus on product, totally focused on engineering, I didn’t have to deal with fundraising, I didn’t have to deal with all the operational issues you have at a company. Because I was focused on that we actually grew really well. We tripled in size during out time there. We were there times bigger when we left than when we came in.”

On whether he’s more excited about StumbleUpon or Uber (the company he co-founded with Travis Kalanick: “That’s like saying ‘which is your favorite kid?’ I mean that’s hard to pick. Uber was basically a side project …”

Advice to other founders that find themselves bored post acquisition: “The decision you want to make is ‘Do you want to keep working on what you’re working on?’”

Pulling a phoenix from the ashes is that simple, except when it’s not.

HOW TO: Get Started with the Less Framework

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For the past few years, CSS grid systems have become increasingly popular with web designers. Thanks to efforts like Nathan Smith’s 960.gs, designing with a grid is less complicated, and better looking sites can be crafted with ease.

One of my favorite CSS grid systems of late is Less Framework. Now in its fourth revision, Less Framework takes the power of a CSS grid system and adds in support for CSS media queries to support multiple design and typography layouts.

In May 2010, Ethan Marcotte’s “Responsive Web Design” helped spur a movement of building websites designed to fluidly adapt to various platforms and device sizes — think mobile optimized sites and tablet-specific layouts — without the need for an entirely different design or special URL.

Less Framework is, in my opinion, one of the best ways for web developers without lots of experience in designing responsive websites (or media queries in general) to take advantage of this new trend.

I am currently in the process of redesigning my own very out-of-date website and am using Less Framework as my base. Here are some tips and tricks that I’ve come across for newcomers looking for a way to get started using Less Framework or just testing the waters of responsive web design.

Knowing the Basics

Created by Joni Korpi, Less Framework is built on a single grid and includes four layouts and three different typography presets. The default layout is a 10-column, 992-pixel grid. This layout is what larger screens or browser windows will display, and it is also the layout that older browsers lacking support for CSS3 media queries will use.

There is also an 8-column, 768-pixel layout for iPad and other tablets, as well as two mobile layouts. When you download Less Framework, you can also choose to include a retina media query that targets devices — like the iPhone 4 and iPod touch fourth generation — that use a device-pixel ratio of 2 or more.

Visit LessFramework.com and resize your browser to see the implementation in action.

Text, images and columns adapt to the needs and size of the web browser or device. It’s a really great way to create a design that can be optimized across platforms.

Guides and Templates

  • Sitepoint’s Guide to Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and the Less Framework 3 — Sitepoint’s guide to using Less Framework and HTML5 in creating responsive web design is a great starting point for new or unsure designers. This guide was written for the previous version of Less Framework, but the tips and information still carry over to the new version.
  • Less Grid Overlay — Arnau March created his own grid overlay plugin for help in developing his own Less Framework 4 site. The tool works the same way as the 960 Gridder and it uses jQuery to display a proper grid overlay on your website. This is especially useful for designers who like to design in the browser.
  • Less Guides 4 — Ari Palo created guides for Adobe Fireworks, Photoshop and Illustrator. Each guide contains grids for each layout.
  • Mark Host’s Less Framework 4 PSD — Mark Host created a PSD that combines various Less Framework grids from Ari Palo and Henry Moran. If you use Photoshop, you might want to start with this file.
  • Less Plugin for Compass — Compass is a stylesheet framework that is designed to make stylesheets easier to build and maintain. William Wells created this plugin for Compass that utilizes Less Framework 4 and can really help speed up development time.

Less-Ready Themes

A number of themes and templates are already available for platforms like WordPress that take advantage of Less Framework. They include:

  • Whiteboard Framework 3.1.2 — Whiteboard is a WordPress framework designed to take advantage of not just Less Framework, but also various WordPress features. Using Whiteboard, theme developers can create their own responsive WordPress themes and still easily take advantage of the features in WordPress 3.0 and up.
  • Less for Drupal — Steven Wood created Less as an HTML5 theme for Drupal 7
  • Less Work for Mura — I’ll be honest, I’m not familiar with the Mura CMS. However Ryan Ward created this free theme based on Less Framework 4.

What do you think of responsive web design and frameworks and grids like Less Framework? Let us know in the comments.

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More About: css3, HTML5, less framework, responsive web design, web design, Web Development, WordPress

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