TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

I cheered wildly when the Seattle Sounders defeated the Philadelphia Union 2-0 in the opening match of the Major League Soccer season.

But when I tried to text a friend, call my wife and check the latest scores in the NCAA men's basketball tournament on my iPhone at last week's match at Qwest Field I was the one who was feeling shut out. And it appears I am not the only iPhone user fed up with poor coverage.

Fans who attend Sounders and Seahawks games at Qwest Field routinely complain of poor cellular coverage at the city's largest sports stadium, pointing fingers at the much maligned AT&T network.

AT&T recognizes the problem and says they're working on ways to offer better service when large crowds gather. Nonetheless, it can get a little ugly when a beer-fueled, iPhone-wielding Sounders fan can't text, talk or Tweet.

We're wrapping another busy month here at TechFlash. And, in case you missed out, here are the top stories on the site for March. Thanks to everyone for reading, commenting and being a part of the TechFlash community.

"WA seeks new tax revenue from software, but not from Microsoft"

"Amazon.com's 1-Click patent confirmed following re-exam"

"The 2005 email that spawned Picnik, Google's latest buy"

"What Microsoft learned from Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates"

"Notes on Project Natal, including how much space you'll need"

"Video: Microsoft's Project Gustav"

"Microsoft sends flowers, card for Internet Explorer 6 funeral"

"PlayStation's Project Natal spoof: Hilarious, and a little misleading"

"Classmates to pay up to $9.5M to settle suit over phantom friends"

"Mexico's Carlos Slim knocks Bill Gates off his top billionaire perch"

"Workers say they're more productive away from the office"

"Picnik CEO: Google deal comes with a 'very happy number'"

"Video: Microsoft Mobile Surface"

"Top 5 worst Google Fiber pitches"

"RealNetworks' Rob Glaser on why Apple's model must be stopped"

Life is just a little funnier in slow motion, especially with the right soundtrack. That's apparently the thought behind a new site from the folks at Cheezburger Network, which recently unveiled a new YouTube channel called SuperSweetSlowMo.

There you can see a human egg fight; dogs jumping in air; and a hammer smashing groceries -- all in slow motion video.

Above is a video of plastic army men set on fire, via New Tee Vee which first reported on the site.

We've been writing about some of the ridiculous things people across America have been doing to entice Google to build high-speed Internet networks in their communities, from politicians jumping in freezing lakes to some really, really bad YouTube videos. But here's a project we could actually support. Portland brewery Hopworks has created "Gigabit IPA," a new beer which brewer Ben Love tells Taplister "honors Portland's new gigabit network project."

IBM is rolling out a new program Wednesday in order to appeal to startups, offering them free cloud-based software services for up to three years, according to The New York Times. The program, which also provides startups access to IBM scientists, marketers and other experts, is part of the company's Smarter Planet campaign. The program is similar to the BizSpark offering from Microsoft, which also provides free software and services to startup companies.

Meru Networks became the eighth venture-backed company to complete an IPO during the first quarter, which Venture Capital Dispatch reports is equal to all of the VC-backed IPOs last year. And while that might be cause for celebration, Scott Austin correctly writes that eight IPOs "still stinks" for venture capitalists.

InfoSpace, the Bellevue company which operates Internet search services such as Webcawler and Dogpile, has named Stephen Hawthornthwaite as vice president of corporate development. In that role, the former managing partner at GCA Savvian Advisors and former investment banker at Jefferies Group will oversee the company's M&A plans. InfoSpace finished 2009 with $226 million in cash and cash equivalents.

Clearwire reportedly suffered an outage of its high-speed wireless network in the Seattle area over the past weekend, according to technical writer and Clearwire subscriber Bruce Miller and others who reported the problems on DSLReports. According to Miller's report, the failure was due to what a spokesman described as an "intermittent software failure" in the network.

Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer talks about the early days of Amazon, Insitu and aQuantive in part two of an Xconomy interview. Among other things, Hanauer had some choice comments about the future of the online ad business in which he said he's actively avoiding investments in the sector because he's just plain bored with it. "I feel like I did it. Been there, done that, it’s just not intrinsically interesting enough anymore for me. And P.S., it’s done. Maybe I’ll be proved wrong, but plus or minus, the online advertising ecosystem is baked." A good read.

Intelius founder Naveen Jain talks about entrepreneurship, people search and more in a Q&A interview with Search Engine Journal. "Openness to change, persistence and thinking without boundaries – both geographically and intellectually are key attributes I would point for being a successful entrepreneur today," Jain says during the interview.

ZipCar, the Boston-based car sharing service which operates in Seattle, is planning to go public in 2010, according to PEHub.com. ZipCar merged with Seattle's Flexcar in 2007.

Tweet of the day via @mulka: "Where is the Redfin of car dealerships??"

Breaking News: MOD Systems co-founder and former CEO Mark Phillips has been arrested on two counts of wire fraud. [Post updated]

An arrest warrant was issued for Phillips last night, and he appeared in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge James Donohue this afternoon after turning himself into authorities. The 35-year-old did not address the court during the proceedings today, and he was ordered to be incarcerated pending a detention hearing set for Friday at 3:15 p.m. His attorney, David Bukey, declined to comment.

Phillips' arrest follows ongoing civil litigation between him and MOD, a heavily-funded Seattle company developing a way to access movies and TV shows from digital media kiosks. The legal battle, which Bukey today described in court as "hotly contested," has escalated in recent days. On March 16th, an attorney for MOD Systems reached out to the U.S. Attorney's Office and suggested that Phillips may have been involved in criminal activity. In an interview, Assistant U.S. Attorney Aravind Swaminathan declined to speculate on MOD's "motivations" for bringing the alleged conduct to light after ongoing civil litigation. He said the criminal investigation is in the early stages of development.

Meanwhile, A Dot Corp. -- a 7-year-old company operated by Phillips -- filed a lawsuit today in federal court against MOD CEO Anthony Bay, Richard Barber, Derek De Bakker, David Douglass, Jan Wallace and others alleging that they illegally accessed computers owned by A Dot.

Very few people have actually seen an iPad, let alone picked one up or tested one out. But Apple's highly-touted touchscreen device -- scheduled to debut this Saturday -- is already capturing the imagination of consumers and developers.

Some are projecting that Apple could sell between 200,000 to 400,000 iPads in the opening weekend alone, while high-tech analyst Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford & Bernstein estimates that Apple could sell five million iPads in the first 12 months, according to BusinessWeek.

Apple is being extremely tight-lipped about the iPad launch, with Reuters reporting that Apple's retail store employees have yet to see the device. Meanwhile, some developers we've talked to are under strict orders from Apple not to tout their upcoming applications until Saturday.

From left, Xconomy's Greg Huang, Nathan Myhrvold, and Leroy Hood

Former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold and genomics pioneer Leroy Hood, head of Seattle's Institute for Systems Biology, explored the intersection of computing and biology in a provocative keynote at Xconomy Forum in Seattle today. The two tech luminaries talked about the vast potential for the two fields to work together — and the barriers keeping them apart.

Myhrvold also had plenty to say about his controversial patent-collecting firm Intellectual Ventures, his efforts to build a new type of nuclear reactor, global warming, entrepreneurship — and why he thinks the Internet wasn't really a breakthrough idea.

Read on for some of the choice excerpts from their keynote talk.

We've known since last year that Microsoft's Mac software team was making a native version of Outlook for Apple computers, shifting away from its Entourage email client, but Boy Genius Report today has the first glimpse of Outlook for Mac, and other Office 2011 programs. They're slated for release later this year.

Apple is working on two new iPhones, including one that would work with Verizon Wireless' CDMA technology, the Wall Street Journal reports, fueling another wave of speculation about the future of the popular device. Engadget says the next-generation iPhone, dubbed the iPhone HD, is slated to be unveiled in June.

This week marks the 15th anniversary of the release of Microsoft Bob, and Technologizer looks back on the milestone with a retrospective on the "legendary software flop." For more on the subject, Monica Harrington wrote a great guest post on the subject on TechFlash last year: Innovation: The lessons of Bob.

PAX East, the Boston version of Seattle's homegrown Penny Arcade Expo video-game event, looks to have been a big success over the weekend -- so much so that organizers are planning to hold it in a bigger venue next year. Don't worry, the Seattle version is still very much in business, scheduled for Sept. 3-5.

A sign of the improving economy? Employee perks are making a comeback at Silicon Valley tech companies, according to this Los Angeles Times story today.

Seattle-based journalist Glenn Fleishman has a great piece today in Ars Technica: The state of 4G: It's all about congestion, not speed.

Hanauer

As an initial investor in Amazon.com and founder of aQuantive, Seattle venture capitalist and entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has played a part in some of the region's biggest technological successes. But how do entrepreneurs really come up with breakthrough ideas?

Hanauer -- speaking today at the Xconomy Forum in Seattle -- said it sometimes take entrepreneurs who have the right "oddity quotient" as well as what he terms a "black sheep instinct." In fact, Hanauer offered three key steps to coming up with breakthrough ideas.

Nearly every tech-focused venture capital firm in the Seattle area is tossing financial support behind TechStars, a "startup boot camp" of sorts which plans to accept its first 10 enrollees this fall. TechStars -- already established in Boston and Boulder -- has raised $450,000 in Seattle from more than 15 venture capital firms and angel investors.

About half of those funds will be used for operations of the Seattle branch, while the other half will go to direct investments in the companies accepted into the program, said Andy Sack, a Seattle angel investor who is helping to organize TechStars Seattle. Sack, who also runs the angel firm Founder's Co-op, said Seattle is unique in the way the entire investment community has rallied to support the idea.

Chris Hopen and Parvez Anandam think consumers should be able to take their photos, movies, music and other digital files with them wherever they go. And their new Seattle startup company, HomePipe Networks, has just released a new service for users of laptops, smartphones and netbooks called Secure Home Access that does just that.

"HomePipe enable(s) secure access to all your personal content wherever it lives -- at home on a Windows machine or at work on a Mac or at home on a network drive," said Hopen, who previously co-founded and served as chief technical officer at Aventail.

Luderer

Leroy Hood's Integrated Diagnostics already has big financial backers behind it, launching last fall with more than $30 million in funding from InterWest Partners, The Wellcome Trust and dievini Hopp Biotech. Now, the company is bringing on board a new CEO to help push the startup forward.

The Seattle company, which is developing diagnostic tools to detect diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's at the earliest stages, has named Albert Luderer as CEO. Luderer most recently served as CEO of Woburn, Mass.-based BioTrove, which was sold for an undisclosed amount last December to Life Technologies. Before that, Luderer held the CEO title for five years at Bellevue-based Light Sciences Oncology.

Vancouver's skyline. (Flickr photo, RickC)

Over the weekend we were alerted to a blog post last week on the BCBusiness Magazine website that previewed a "memorandum of understanding" in the works between DigiBC, the Digital Media and Wireless Association of BC, and EnterpriseSeattle's Washington Interactive Network.

We've put out messages to the groups to find out more about their agreement, which doesn't appear to have been officially announced yet. On the surface, at least, it seems like an interesting idea, although these types of regional economic alliances tend to come and go, with varying degrees of effectiveness.

The idea, as explained by BCBusiness blogger Tony Wanless, is to "explore how they can leverage the region into a kind of supercluster of games and interactive entertainment companies," in part to better rival Silicon Valley as a hub for the industry.

Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow says he doesn't want a broadband wireless war between WiMax and long-term evolution, a competing technology being touted by Verizon and others. "We are not going to fight a war. We are going to provide customers access. ... We can add on LTE if we need to. Once it reaches the equivalency to WiMAX, we can do that," Morrow said during remarks this week at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas. Fierce Wireless has more on Morrow's remarks.

EveryBlock, the hyperlocal news service that msnbc.com purchased last summer, has expanded to Portland in part because of the Oregon city's new open data initiative. As part of that effort, EveryBlock says it can now provide detailed neighborhood information about building permits, crime, liquor license applications, 911 calls and more.

Apple has pushed back the delivery date of its Wi-Fi-enabled iPad device from April 3 to April 12th, signaling strong demand for the touchscreen computer. Mashable reports that the change in delivery date signals that the first week of iPads has simply sold out.

Zulily, a private sales club for busy moms, has tapped David Atchison as vice president of marketing. Atchison previously held that role at Red Envelope and before that worked at ProFlowers. Backed by Maveron, Zulily is led by Blue Nile veterans Darrel Cavens and Mark Vadon.

The Urbanspoon restaurant search app has been downloaded more than 9 million times, and has recorded more than half a billion "shakes" since its debut in the Apple App Store in the summer of 2008, reports TechCrunch. And it appears that the Urbanspoon Web site continues -- now attracting about seven million unique visitors -- after its sale to IAC last year.

Adaptive TCR, a new spinoff from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center, has raised $4.5 million, according to Xconomy. More on the company here.

Sustainable Oils, a joint venture between Targeted Growth and Green Earth Fuels, said that a U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II recently completed a 90 minute flight on a 50-50 blend of camelina-based jet fuel and traditional jet fuel. Video of the flight -- which the Air Force test pilot described as "uneventful and predictable" -- here.

KidZui, a kid-friendly Internet browser, has reportedly raised an additional $4 million and landed a partnership with Best Buy, Comcast and Dreamworks. The San Diego-based company is backed by the Seattle venture firm Maveron, Mission Ventures and others.

Bono

Bono has been named the "worst investor in America," says 24/7 Wall Street. The U2 lead singer has been part of some "disastrous investments" at Elevation Partners, a private equity firm that has backed companies such as Palm and Move.com. PeHub.com says Elevation is hardly the worst firm out there, but perhaps Bono should take some advice from his good pal Bill Gates.

PV Powered, a Bend maker of solar power components, has been sold to Fort Collins, Colo.-based Advanced Energy Industries for as much as $90 million. PV employs 90 people and posted revenue of $21 million last year, according to Sustainable Business Oregon.