Sneaky Business

Is broadband going down the tubes?

Broadband services are set to take another giant leap forwards in the UK. Perhaps to boldly go where no man has gone, or has wanted to go, before. According to the BBC, fiber firm H20 will soon establish the UK's first "fiber town", delivering super-fast download speed of 100MBps – via the sewer system.

Anthony Walker, head of the UK's Broadband Stakeholder's Group cautioned that the H20 scheme would not create a fibered Britain alone. ""There are clearly benefits to using the sewers and this fibre deployment is good news but it is only a small piece of the jigsaw," he said."

Is New Home Robot Doomed From The Start?

Every once in a while a seemingly rational company missteps badly with a new product launch. The CEO, perhaps intoxicated by the charms of a persuasive consulting team, or just giddy from the prospect of global domination, decides to boldly go in a new, exciting direction.

Back in the 1980's the Sinclair C5 proved that Sir Clive Sinclair, a genius with an apparently sane grasp of market economics, was not immune to product craziness. His little-red-wagon styled personal electric vehicle was widely ridiculed and laughed off the road.

More recently Palm's Folio debacle produced a collective sense of "Oh My God!" from investors. Fortunately Palm's CEO yanked it out of the pipeline before more harm was done.

This week iRobot stepped into the fray with two new product launches. The Looj, an extension to their robotic cleaning systems, is quite happy crawling down gutters removing unwanted leaf build-up. This makes sense - and sits neatly alongside their Scooba and Roomba products.

The ConnectR however is a completely different robotic beast. The systems is billed as a "telepresence" system that you leave at home, then control remotely from across the internet. (Not to be confused with Cisco's corporate Telepresence products - though it would be nice if the two were interoperable). The robot roams around your house under your control, providing visual feedback from a webcam and voice communications through built in speakers and a microphone.

What would you want to do with your new $499 remote control? The iRobot site outlines many wonderful possibilities:

Participate in family moments even though you're working late. On a business trip? Read your kids a story and see their faces light up. Join the fun from near or far. Throw a party from a thousand miles away. Tell Fido he's a "good boy" even while you're on vacation.

According to the Washington Post:

IRobot chief executive Colin Angle conducted an unintentionally hilarious demo of the thing in which he, as the traveling businessman, "called" his wife (really, another iRobot exec) by logging into the ConnectR from his laptop and speaking to her through it. She asked him to read the kids a bedtime story, at which point the robot wheeled towards the bedroom. Then a set of pictures portrayed the ConnectR interacting with kids and dogs.

Perhaps Colin Angle should have used his ConnectR to talk with Sony chief Sir Howard Stringer. One of his first tasks after taking the helm of the ailing electronics giant was to can the Aibo robot dog project. Maybe Mr. Angle will be considering the same solution for ConnectR shortly.

Tapping In To The Human Network For Renewable Energy

The price of crude oil, hovering at around $70 a barrel, continues to put pressure on domestic energy bills. As consumers feel the heat, more and more companies are looking to renewable energy as the way forward. Nuclear, hydro, solar and wind energy have been the traditional favorites. However, on the back of continued advances in technology and against the backdrop of ever more challenging oil exploration, a variety of alternatives are being placed on the table.

Gizmag recently covered advances in the use of humans as a source of energy:

"A new thermoelectric system created by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute is at the forefront of these developments - running on a miniscule 200 millivolts the device is able to create an electrical charge from body heat and could lend itself to an endless array of applications that go way beyond powering your own mobile phone."

And if this isn't enough, human-based piezoelectricity may go one step further:

"Piezoelectricity is the charge generated by certain materials when placed under stress, for example the energy generated by footsteps.  Japanese train stations are collecting the piezoelectric energy of commuters walking through the gates, and MIT is working on a “crowd farm” which would use a special floor to harness the energy created by the circulation of a large amount of people."

So will either of these promising energy sources see the light of day in the business setting? Sneaky Business convened a meeting of our technology advisory board to consider the possibilities. After much eco-friendly debate, we concluded that the following scenarios have the most promise:

• Meetings powered by nervous energy: Piezoelectric floor mats placed below a conference table and smaller devices placed inside swivel chairs capture toe-tapping and seat rocking. The energy generated from a typical six-person one hour meeting should be sufficient to power room lighting and a conference projector.
• Office "electric chair": Thermoelectric generators embedded in seat, back and arm-rests power six tilt and swivel motors. Particularly warm bodied individuals may generate sufficient energy for occasional cross floor motion (e.g. to and from the waste basket)
• Cube-based human generators: Thermoelectric "cube shoes" connect directly to in-building power grid. Rough calculations (completed near the end of a particularly grueling, and highly alcoholic advisory board session) suggest that five hundred users wearing the devices for six hours per day could power sixteen office printers, twenty five fax machines and one Macho Pop, Back Counter Popcorn Machine.
• Piezoelectric office gym: All aerobic exercise machines fitted with piezoelectric devices. Energy generated sufficient to power in room air conditioning and ambient music audio system.
• Carbon neutral PCs: Thermoelectric hand-rests and piezoelectric keyboard / mouse ensure that battery / AC requirements should be reduced by at least 50%. Optional "stress reducing" crank handle would allow users to juice up the battery during idle time in the office.

Coming Through! The Best Ways To Make That Flight Connection

Trudging through subways and airports can become a mind-numbing chore for the frequent business traveler. Indeed, a recent DayNovo Consulting Group study found that intra-facility transit can add up to 25% to the length of a typical business journey.

So what can the weary traveler do to reduce his or her down-time from bag-schlepping? Intriguingly, a number of niche startups are approaching this market across the world. We reveal the best of the best below:

Parisian walkway grand vitesse: The French have long had a love affair with the moving walkway. Gustave Eiffel himself proposed a high speed one in 1887 to transport World Exhibition visitors from Paris directly to the Loire Valley. (The journey time of over 28 hours was considered too grueling for even the most enthusiastic of travelers, and the idea was rejected.) More recently the idea has resurfaced in the Paris Metro. The Journal recently reported new trials of a system at Montparnasse Station. Although initial tests only resulted in a handful of serious injuries, RATP management have thus far refused to turn up the speed beyond 3mph. (See full video story from the Journal below)

Dallas airport: Faced with ever increasing transit times between terminals, airport officials have turned to an enterprising startup company for an answer. Starting in December business travelers will be able to hop aboard in-building taxi cabs to ease their connection worries. PriusCab will offer a fleet of twenty-five bright orange vehicles within terminals one through five. Flashing lights and an ear-piercing bull-horn will be used to warn pedestrians of approaching cars, while the use of hybrids will keep in-building fumes to a minimum. Fees are expected to start at $25.

Amsterdam airport: Travelers at Schippol have always faced agonizingly long walks between flights. During 2006 at least fifteen business travelers succumbed to the arduous hike.  It was no surprise then that earlier this year BizBikes began offering rental bikes for business travelers in need of a leg up. Prices start at $30 per ride, though budget travelers can ride tandem for only $10 per person. For an additional $25 travelers can request a professional tandem "driver" to take the strain even further.

Calgary airport: Recent tar sands oil exploration has stressed Calgary International airport to its limits. In response AirRides now offers a wide selection of in-terminal steers that are saddled up and waiting to charge their passengers towards the appropriate gate. Prices start at $30 for a more leisurely ride up to $60 for a true bare-knuckles bronco. 

Five ways to make the iPhone more business friendly

Steve J. has undoubtedly scored a big success with the iPhone. Even if few of them are currently visible in everyday life. Or, more to the point, in everyday corporate America.

A recent report stirred up the iPhiles with claims that business users cannot come to grips with the phone's glass-like keyboard. Regardless of whether you fully subscribe to its claims, the article does lay a finger on an important weakness of the iPhone – namely that fat, corporate-styled digits find it difficult to navigate its tightly dimensioned virtual keys. Finger whittling is a solution, though one that is unlikely to catch on among executives.

Sneaky Business tapped into our advisory board to seek alternative ways to buff up the iPhone's corporate appeal. After a long weekend of closed door sessions, brainstorming and intensive drinking they came up with their top-five list of ideas. Let's hope that one enterprising VC has the guts to fund one of them:

• Key-set truncation: Offer only alternate letters from a full QWERTY keyboard. Resulting space between the keys is sufficient for even the pudgiest of fingers. End user only has to type half the number of letters – and built-in software can extrapolate best-fit words.
• Keyboard projector: Built in mini-projector displays enlarged keyboard image onto any surface. Wii-style motion sensors detect keys selected and record entry into phone. May add slightly to bill of materials ($60) – but Apple should be able to pass on at least $90 of this to consumers as an improved "lifestyle choice".
• Voice keyboard: Keyboard image maintained on screen, but user has to speak individual letters. Built-in speech-to-text engine converts spoken word to screen letters.
• Outsourced text-assistants: For severely keyboard-challenged executives. Personalized 1-800 number transfers user to Indian call center staffed with "transcription experts". User dictates message, and words are instantly transcribed back onto the screen.
• RIM-emulation engine: Users type message into their RIM Blackberry device. Service then forwards the message to their iPhone, so that user can have "satisfaction" of sending it from sexier device.

Even with these options, our advisors remained unconvinced about the chances of the iPhone. "Corporate users need their core applications – Outlook, SAP, Siebel, Gears of War. Without at least one of those it will remain a very nice to have"

[Sneaky Business is currently assessing an iPhone device. We'll bring you our opinions in a later piece. Rest assured, none of our fingers will be modified during the trial.]

Steampunk niche to drive PC industry growth

Could "steampunk" (the repackaging of modern technology products such as PCs, DVRs, cameras and iPods in Victorian-era shells) represent a new growth opportunity for the PC industry? According to anonymous discussions with Sneaky Business, several leading PC vendors may think so. "It might be best chance yet of generating significant growth in the over '65s segment" commented one product manager in Austin, Texas. Another sounded equally optimistic, "We've established a new retro working team to build the business plan. We think this one has legs."

To date breakthrough PC design has largely been shaped by a futuristic and clean aesthetic. However, the Victorian era represents a largely untapped, high-value niche in the market (see embedded video from the Journal). "This will give us a chance to really offer PCs with a full set of bells and whistles" commented another PC industry insider, "We're already thinking ahead to the Roman and Greek time periods."

CEOs Yearn For Normal Life – Without Paper Trail

We were interested to read about the active and bellicose anonymous forum postings of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey in the WSJ today. According to documents filed by the FTC, Mackey "….posted to Internet sites pseudonymously, often using the name Rahodeb." (A cunning anagram of his wife's name – Deborah). The postings routinely rubbished the progress of Wild Oats, a Whole Foods competitor that Mackey wishes to acquire. The FTC views such activity as seriously below the belt for someone in Mackey's position. Not surprisingly the Whole Foods CEO views it differently, and posted a vigorous defense of his actions on his own blog.

We believe CEO's deserve the right to express their views - anonymously, and without legal recourse. We recently profiled a startup in India that may have a solution. ExecuPost Services provides a no-questions-asked posting service aimed at channeling CEO frustrations to the widest audience. From their non-descript warehouse in Bangalore teams of bloggers and forum-posters are standing by to translate CEO fears and ambitions into succinct postings under a wide variety of pseudonyms. "You shouldn't give up your rights as an individual just because you're famous, or stupendously wealthy", explains CEO Josh Ardkin, "We simply provide the tools and personas to give a voice back to the mega-rich". ExecuPost's clients include CEOs, pop-stars, politicians and heads of global-religious organizations. "We currently generate around 10% of all traffic to the most popular finance-based online forums", continues Ardkin, "We hope to get that up to around 50% by next year". When asked if he uses the service himself, Ardkin declined to comment.

In-Flight Seat Auctions

Analysis:

Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, many airlines have turned to creative means for increasing CARPM (Captive Audience Revenue Per Mile). Initial efforts to charge extra for aisle seats, food and oxygen masks have generated little interest. However, as airlines continue to trim seating space and decrease cabin temperature (see charts below), many passengers are becoming increasingly desperate to improve their in-flight experience.

In-Flight Seat Auctions

FlightFromHell.net offers a win-win solution for airlines and customers alike. "Our in-flight software allows passengers to bid for other seats in the cabin while they are onboard" explains Edward Steptoe, CEO and co-founder. Their solution, once installed in seat-back entertainment systems, provides seat maps with useful physical statistics of current occupants (height, weight etc). Passengers may ping the seat-holder with a proposed switching payment (including a 30% "handling fee" to cover the airline's "inconvenience"). Once a price is agreed, additional optional fees such as overhead baggage relocation and in-flight sock transfer may be negotiated. "Early trials with Tashkent Airlines have proved wildly popular" says Steptoe, "God willing, we'll be introducing the system into a regional Irish airline in the new year."

Captchanomics : Securing Ever More Profit From New Customers

Analysis:

Companies have generally wised up to the hoards of bot-controlled spammers waiting to overwhelm their websites with get-rich-quick schemes. Captcha systems have become the de facto approach for defeating would-be bot-anarchists (see diagram below). For customers with 20-20 vision and a healthy imagination, captcha screens are a mildly annoying but generally acceptable barrier to entry. However, would be spammers have been evolving their methods. Some have employed more advanced automated captcha readers, while others are enrolling substantial low-cost workforces to crack into sites. McBainsey, a consultancy, estimates that the entire population of Western Samoa is now gainfully employed in captcha-cracking practices.

An opportunity exists to beef up site security while squeezing additional profits from new customers. DayNovo, a consultancy, has identified three promising startups in this new area of "captchanomics".

Captcha Reading Systems

Reading traditional captcha screens can prove difficult for certain demographic groups (e.g. the elderly, the mentally unstable, the Welsh). Captcha Optics Inc, a Delaware-based company, is currently testing its new Captcha Grabber system in local assisted living establishments. Featuring state of the art Karl Zise optics, advanced image processing and a rubberized nose-grip, the system could revolutionize web-site entry for millions of customers. "So far so good" said Anthony Hume, CTO and co-founder, "We've managed to gain entry into five web-sites, and we're confident we'll reach ten by the end of the month".

Next-Gen Captcha Screens

FuzzyKey Technologies, a spin-out from the University of Devonport, has developed stereogram images that contain web-site login codes. "Traditional captcha screens typically take a human around five seconds to decode. Our newest FuzzyKey images will take you at least five minutes to figure out." boasts Prof. Arnold Hastie, FuzzyKey's founder and CEO. "And once we embed a captcha image into our own stereogram you might be staring at the screen all afternoon."

Outsourced Captcha Services

Captchat Services offers a fee-based call center to help struggling customers decipher captcha screens. Hundreds of highly trained and over-caffeinated Mongolian nomads are waiting in a decentralized call center network to assist callers. Mongol agents take control of the customer's screen while soothing regional hunting music plays in the background. Particularly troubling phrases are escalated, free of charge, to a committee of the wise for further analysis.

Market Opportunity: Impenetrable Packaging

Analysis:

Packaging, for even the most mundane of products, has grown significantly more robust during the last ten years. US companies, under extreme legal pressure to prevent product tampering, have increasingly turned to clamshell heat-seals, spot-welding and knotted razor wire to keep out troublesome customers. However, progress has come at the cost of increased customer frustration and personal risk. McBainsy, a consultancy, estimates that 1,500 adults were severely injured or maimed while attempting to open Tickle Me Elmo Extreme dolls during the 2006 holiday season. Clearly there's money, in addition to a few severed digits, being left on the table.

Concept:

• Provide adjunct product-opening products at point of sale
• Remove existing product warranties for products not opened using approved product openers
• Provide combined products and product openers in an appropriately priced bundle (easy to open)

Target Markets / Customers:

• Time-sensitive products where desperate customers cannot stand to fight their way through packaging (e.g. ground coffee, bandages, epinephrine kits)
• Shock sensitive products that may well be damaged by ham-fisted attempts to open them with blunt-edged kitchen knives (e.g. eggs, glassware, condoms)
• Ironic-products (e.g. scissors, knives, display swords)

Example - Lego home-package entry system: