LogMeIn IPO Shows Mobile Workforce Is Expanding

by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

It has been a slow year for IPOs, especially Venture backed IPOs, but LogMeIn excited investors when it went public on Wednesday. The offering of the remote access company based in Woburn, Massachusetts was so anticipated that analyst John Fitzgibbon said the IPO “should blow the socks of people.”

LogMeIn offered its shares at $16 apiece, but closed its first day with shares at $20.02, up 25%. Such a good opening day scored nearly 10x returns for the four venture firms that together invested $20 million dollars in the company. LogMeIn now has a market cap of $428 million.

Founded in 2003, LogMeIn has poised itself to profit from an increasingly mobile and decentralized workforce. Mobile broadband growth in particular has accelerated this trend, and adoption rates will only continue to speed up. As the need for remote access intensifies, companies have began to look for tools proactively — all of this is very good for LogMeIn.

Some analysts believe today’s success could prompt dormant VCs to start investing in technology again. Despite a slow year overall, every tech related IPO in 2009 has gained in the first day of trading. Innovation, it seems, always draws dollars, even in tough times.

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Semanti: Where Search Meets Your Friends

by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

There have been several attempts to use crowdsourcing to help users find the information they are looking for on the web. The whole social bookmarking approach can be seen as a human solution to a mass of information and less-than-perfect search results. Google even displaysStumbleUpon ratted sites with a star ranking for SU users. While knowing a site is popular can be helpful for many searches, a recommendation from a friend is usually more valuable.

Enter Semanti, a Firefox add-on that combines search results, semantic parsing and friend recommendations through Facebook Connect. Just install the add-on and start saving search results you like with the Semanti button. Semanti stores your queries and saved results, so the next time you search for the same term (or something similar) on Google, Yahoo or Bing, the saved results will appear at the top. Next, invite yourFacebook friends to use Semanti and their favored results will also appear at the top of your search results. You can access your Semanti saved searches on any computer or any search engine, as long as the add-on is installed in your browser.

The semantic parsing is also personalized, by you. Instead of relying on complex language software to determine what you mean in a given searchquerie, Semanti displays several definitions in a definition menu. If you need to specify what you meant to refine your search, simply click on the menu and chose from the variety of meanings.

Of course the power of the “friendsourcing” will depend on how many of your friends adopt the tool. Given the mass of add-ons for Firefox, you may have to sell your friends on the concept. However, the one-click bookmarking and automatic return of favored searches on similar terms makes Semanti atime-saver for me, even if I can’t get any of my friends to use it. No longer will I need to try and remember which site was useful the last time I searched for something, Semanti saves it all right there. Plus, I may even get a little help form my friends.

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Palm Pre, iPhone 3GS Comparison by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

Palm Pre

Price

* $200 after $100 rebate when you sign up for Sprint or renew your contract

Battery Life

* 5 hours of use time
*Removable, rechargeable battery

Calendar Syncing

* WebOS’s Synergy system syncs up with Outlook, Google and Facebook at no extra charge
* Integrated personal and work calendar

Fun/Helpful Features

* 3 Mega pixel camera with LED flash
* Video recorder
* Remote Data wipe if phone is lost
* Watch live television of select programs from Sprint TV

iPhone

Price

*16 GB model for $200, or 32 GB model for $300 when you sign up or renew your At&t contract

Battery Life

* 5 hours of 3G talk time
* 6 additional iPod listening hours
* 3 additional Wi-fi, video watching hours
* Unremoveable, rechargeable battery

Caledar Syncing

* Syncing with Outlook, Google and Yahoo is available along with a MobileMe account for $99 per year

Fun/Helpful Features

* 3 Mega pixel camera with autofocus, auto-macro and enhanced low-light performance
* Video recorder and limited video editing
* Lost phone-finder calls can be placed through MobileMe
* Remote data wipe if phone is lost

Conclusion: For most basic smartphone features, the Palm Pre and the iPhone are about the same. AT&T and Apple seem to charge a bit more for services and extras associated with the phone like MobileMe, though the iPhone does have more options in extras and fun features.

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The Kindle DX: Bigger Screen, Bigger Price Point

by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

Amazon’s latest evolution of the e-reader, the Kindle DX, shipped last week just four months after the Kindle 2 made its debut. In March, I wrote that the improved functionality of the Kindle 2, though impressive, was ultimately disappointing. Consumers seemed to have sci-fi influenced expectations of e-readers. How does the DX measure up? Better, but the cost is probably too high for most to justify the cost.

At the top of the wish list for many e-reader devotees is a bigger screen — for reading magazine and newspaper articles without a loss. The DX has a screen with 2.5 times the display size of the Kindle 2, measuring about 9.7 inches diagonally. But there is still no color. The DX produces impressive monochromatic images, but lack of color renders magazine reading somewhat lifeless. The interface also doesn’t replicate newspaper page layouts, but rather displays individual articles whole, which is convenient, but a bit blocky in appearance at times.

At the release of the last Kindle, users also complained the reader didn’t support enough formats or the ability to edit documents. The new DX does include a built in PDF reader that allows readers to access many more PDF files than previous Kindles. This opens up, among other things, the Google books library. There is still no file editing, but not even the prototypes e-readers offer more than the ability ad “notes” to a displayed document. As I mentioned in my March article, full document editing is probably better left to a laptop than the e-reader.

Amazon says the DX isn’t primarily aimed at consumers, but rather textbook toting students and professionals with lots of business documents. Since these two markets probably have the most demand for the convenience of an e-reader, it is understandable Amazon would want to be the leader in larger e-readers. But at a cost of $490, I think Amazon may have priced themselves out for most people that would be interested in a Kindle DX. Workers may indeed benefit from the 3.3 gigs of storage, but the textbooks have yet arrive for the DX. I don’t see many students shelling out the cash for a product they can’t benefit from yet.

With the competition still lagging behind, it will be interesting to see if this premium-priced device truly establishes the Kindle brand as the undisputed standard for e-readers for consumers, professionals and students. If so, Amazon will benefit down the road even if initial sales are small.

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ATT Wireless Announces 3G Upgrade, Plans for 4G Evolution

by Mielle Sullivan, Janus Networks

American Telephone & Telegraph (ATT) announced last week that big advancements are on the way for its wireless service. By the end of the year, users will have stronger indoor coverage and download speeds twice as fast as what they currently experience.

“With the array of smartphones, laptops and emerging devices taking advantage of ATT’s 3G network today, we know that customers are excited to experience higher mobile broadband speeds, and we are deploying the right technologies at the right times to help them get the most from that experience,” said Ralph de la Vega, the President and CEO of ATT Mobility and Consumer Markets.

Currently, ATT uses a technology called High Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telephone System (HSDPA/UMTS) with typical download speeds of 700-1.7 Mbit/seec. The upgrade will be to the similar, but more evolved, High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 wireless technology. HSPA 7.2 has theoretical download speeds of 7.2 Mbits – or about 1 megabyte – per second. However, At&t admits that real world speeds will be significantly slower.

To increase the reach of its network and deliver stronger indoor service, the carrier also plans to nearly double the 850 MHz spectrum it has dedicated to high-speed wireless. 2,100 cell site connections will be added across the country to achieve this goal. Dropped calls and spotty service are chief complaints among At&t’s customer base. Stronger reception may improve the company’s reputation and lure more customers.

Even bigger plans are on the way for 2010 when ATT will begin testing LTE, or Long Term Evolution wireless technology. LTE is a contender for the 4G standard and is similar to WiMax. But LTE is less open, more proprietary and currently faster than WiMax — all of which has contributed to wider adoption among carriers. In a few years, some analysts believe LTE and WiMax could advance to compete with wired broadband. If that happens, it wouldn’t just be a wireless evolution, but rather a second wireless revolution and ATT could be poised at the front.