<span>Monthly Archives</span><h1>May 2018</h1>
    Startups

    Scout.fm turns podcasts into personalized talk radio

    May 31, 2018

    Scout.fm wants to change the way people listen to podcasts. Instead of scouring through the over 500,000 shows in your current podcast app, this startup’s new curated podcast service will just ask you a few questions to find out what you like, then create a podcast station customized to you. The experience is primarily designed for use on smart speakers, like Amazon’s Alexa-powered Echo devices, but is also available as iOS and Android applications.

    The company was founded just over a year ago by Cara Meverden (CEO), previously of Google, Twitter, Indiegogo, and Medium; along with Saul Carlin (president and COO), previously head of publisher development at Medium, and before that, Politico; and Daniel McCartney, (CTO) previously an engineer at GrubHub, Klout and Medium.

    At Medium, Meverden explains, they saw an explosion of people creating great written content; but now those publishers had begun to create great audio content, as well.

    But unlike on Medium, which helps to guide readers to topics they like, people today have to seek out new podcasts for themselves. Scout.fm wants to offer a better system, and hopefully bring more listeners to podcasts as a result.

    “We want to take podcast listening mainstream,” she says. “We think the key to that is making podcasts as easy to listen to as the radio – and we think that’s even more critically important, as we enter the smart speaker era.” 

    The Scout.fm service began as a series of experiments on Alexa.

    The company launched over 30 Alexa skills, including a “Game of Thones”-themed podcast radio that was popular while the show was airing on HBO. The goal was to test what worked, what topics and formats drew listeners, and gain feedback through calls-to-action to participate in user surveys.

    The result is Scout.fm, a curated podcast service that’s personalized to your listening preferences – and one that improves over time.

    Here’s how it works on the Alexa platform. You first launch the app by saying “Alexa, open Scout fm.” The app will respond (using a human voice actor’s voice, not Alexa’s) by explaining briefly what Scout.fm does then asks you to choose one of three types of talk radio stations: “Daily news, brain food, or true stories.”

    The first is a news station, similar to Alexa’s “Flash Briefing;” the second, “brain food,” focuses on other interesting and informative content, that’s not day-to-day news; and the last is a true crime podcast station.

    The voice app will then ask you a few more questions as part of this setup process to find out what other subjects appeal to you by having you respond, on a scale of one to ten, how much of a history buff you are, or how much you’re interested in culture, like art, film and literature, for example.

    On subsequent launches, the app will simply ask if you want to return to your “Brain Food” (or other selected) station. If you say no, you can try one of the other options.

    However, once the setup process is over, the experience becomes very much like listening to talk radio.

    A podcast will begin playing – Scout.fm favors those without ads at the very beginning – allowing you to listen as long as you’d like, or say “next” to move to the next one. Each new podcast episodes has a brief, spoken introduction that Scout.fm handwrites, so you know what’s coming up. Your listening can go on for hours, offering you a hands-free means of switching podcasts and discovering new favorites.

    The app will also adjust to your preferences over time, removing those you tend to skip – much like how the thumbs down works on Pandora.

    Scout.fm doesn’t include every podcast that’s out there. Instead, it’s a curated selection of a few hundred with high production values, narrative storytelling and tight editing.

    “So if we listen to something and the two co-hosts kind of go on for half an hour at the beginning, that’s not a great podcast for this format,” Meverden says. “We want shows where they’re going to get right into it. That right away limits things, but there’s still an abundance of content.”

    For example, some of the podcasts Scout.fm includes come from The Wall St. Journal, The New York Times, ESPN, and podcast networks like Gimlet, Wondery, Parcast and others.

    The same curated selection of podcasts is also available in Scout.fm’s mobile apps for iOS and Android, which work with the voice assistant on the phone. (For example, you can tap your AirPods to wake Siri then say “Next” to move between podcasts.)

    “If you’re jogging, our apps are an excellent companion because you don’t have to go back to your phone and try to find a new thing to listen to,” notes Meverden.

    Since Scout.fm’s launch, it has accrued 1.5 million minutes listened across its network of experimental apps ahead of today’s public debut. The Alexa user base listened for twice as long as mobile users.

    Currently, the service is not generating revenue, but, in the future, the team envisions call-to-action ads that could work with the Alexa app to share more information about the products, as well as ways it could utilize the newer in-app purchase mechanisms for Alexa skills.

    The company is backed by $1.4M in seed funding from Bloomberg Beta, Precursor Ventures, Advancit and #Angels.

    “The Scout team’s unique insight is that podcasts, no matter how good, won’t go mainstream until it is much simpler for consumers to find and listen to the content that’s right for them,” said Charles Hudson, managing partner at Precursor Ventures, in a statement about the investment. “The fast adoption of smart speakers changes this. We can open up podcasts to an entirely new audience,” he said.

    Scout.fm is available on Alexa, iOS and Android.


    Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Scout.fm turns podcasts into personalized talk radio

    Tech News

    We tested this dog's DNA and were surprised about more than just her ancestors

    May 31, 2018

    On What’s Your Mutt?, we test the doggy DNA of one pooch to reveal its exact breed mix and genetic makeup, once and for all! Don’t miss the shocking results of our “pawternity” tests, each week!

    Rescue pup Scout clearly comes from wolfy descendants, but is she really as old as she says she is? Read more…

    More about Dogs, Animals, Mashable Video, Embark, and What S Your Mutt
    Source: Mashable | We tested this dog's DNA and were surprised about more than just her ancestors

    Tech News

    iOS App Store has seen over 170B downloads, over $130B in revenue since July 2010

    May 31, 2018

    The App Store has seen over 170 billion downloads over the past decade, totaling over $130 billion in consumer spend. This data was shared this morning by app intelligence firm App Annie, which is marking the App Store’s 10th Anniversary with a look back on the store’s growth and the larger trends it’s seen. These figures aren’t the full picture, however – the App Store launched on July 10, 2008 with just 500 applications, but App Annie arrived in 2010. The historical data for this report, therefore, goes from July 2010 through December 2017.

    That means the true numbers are even higher that what App Annie can confirm.

    The report paints a picture of the continued growth of the App Store over the years, noting that iOS App Store revenue growth outpaces downloads, and that nearly doubled between 2015 to 2017.

    iOS device owners apparently love to spend on apps, too.

    The iOS App Store only has a 30 percent share of worldwide downloads, but accounts for 66 percent of consumer spend, the report says.

    But this isn’t a complete picture of the iOS vs. Android battle, as Google Play isn’t available in China. App Annie’s data is incomplete on this front as it’s not accounting for the third-party Android app stores in China.

    China today plays an outsized role, as App Annie has repeatedly reported, in terms of App Store revenue, even without Google Play. In fact, the APAC region accounts for nearly 60 percent of consumer spend – a trend that began in earnest with the October 2014 release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in China.

    But when you look back at the App Store trends to date (or, as of July 2010 – which is as far back as App Annie’s data goes), it’s the U.S. that leads by a slim margin. China has quickly caught up but the U.S. is still the top country for all-time downloads, with 40.1 billion to China’s 39.9 billion; and it has generated $36 billion in consumer spend to China’s $27.7 billion.

    iPhone users are heavy app users, too, the report notes.

    In several markets, users have 100 or more apps installed, including Australia, India, China, Germany, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, and France. The U.S., U.K., and Mexico come close, with 96, 90, and 89 average monthly apps installed in 2017, respectively.

    Of course the numbers of apps used monthly are much smaller, but still range in the high 30’s to low 40’s, App Annie claims.

    The report additionally examines the impact of games, which accounted for only 31 percent of downloads in 2017, but generated 75 percent of the revenue. The APAC regions plays a large role here as well, with 3.4 billion game downloads last year, and $19.3 billion in consumer spend.

    Subscriptions, meanwhile, are a newer trend, but one that’s already boosting App Store revenues considerably, accounting for $10.6 billion in consumer spend in 2017. This is driven mainly by media streaming apps like Netflix, Pandora, and Tencent Video, for example, but Tinder makes a notable showing as one of the top five worldwide apps by revenue.

    Thanks to subscriptions and other trends, App Annie predicts the worldwide iOS App Store revenue will grow 80 percent from 2017 to $75.7 billion by 2022.

    And while the App Store today has over 2 million apps, it has seen over 4.5 million apps released on its store to date. Many of these have been removed by Apple or the developers, which is why the number of live apps is so much lower.

    The full report with the charts included is here.

    Source: Tech Crunch Mobiles | iOS App Store has seen over 170B downloads, over 0B in revenue since July 2010

    Tech News

    Don't miss this sale on 'Sid Meier's Civilization VI' and its expansion pack

    May 31, 2018

    The Sid Meier’s Civilization series of turn-based, strategic city simulators has been turning regular gamers into visionary, calculating, and occasionally bloodthirsty emperors since 1991. Here are the basics: gamers take the role of ruler and, starting with a tiny settlement, you build up your civilization into a mighty empire. Whether your reign is one of peace and enlightenment or one of terror and might is totally up to you. And that’s why it’s awesome.

    The game blends a fun, propulsive pace with smart, addictive gameplay, and the series has evolved into one of the most unique experiences in video games—culminating with Civilization VI and its recent expansion, Rise & Fall.  Read more…

    More about Gaming, Mashable Shopping, Shopping Stackcommerce, Shopping Solo, and Sid Meier S Civilization


    Source: Mashable | Don't miss this sale on 'Sid Meier's Civilization VI' and its expansion pack

    Tech News

    Meghan Markle is a princess (okay, duchess) now and the Internet celebrated with memes

    May 31, 2018

    Meghan Markle married Prince Harry and secured herself some universal healthcare and a royal title. The Internet watched and reacted to their wedding the only way they know how: with memes.

    Join us as we cover the breaking memes rocking the Internet each week. Let us know below what are some of your favorite memes are this week and we’ll see you next week with All the Memes! Read more…

    More about Mashable Video, Prince Harry, Royal Wedding, Meghan Markle, and All The Memes
    Source: Mashable | Meghan Markle is a princess (okay, duchess) now and the Internet celebrated with memes

    World News

    Did Trump Fire Comey Over the Russia Inquiry or Not?

    May 31, 2018
    1. Did Trump Fire Comey Over the Russia Inquiry or Not?  New York Times
    2. Fox’s Hume checks Trump on Comey: ‘POTUS told NBC the firing was about the Russia probe’  The Hill
    3. Trump, again, denies firing Comey over Russia despite saying exactly that at the time  CNN
    4. We Already Know Why Trump Fired Comey, and Any Excuse Is a Lie  RollingStone.com
    5. Full coverage

    Source: Google News | Did Trump Fire Comey Over the Russia Inquiry or Not?