If you’ve ever shopped for a pair of prescription glasses, you’ve probably seen first hand how expensive a set can be. Warby Parker’s co-founders are right there with you.

Both fed-up and puzzled over paying hundreds of dollars for a product that’s been around for hundreds of years, the Warby Parker team is shaking up the eyewear industry by selling prescription glasses online, at a price tag of just a pair.

Having crafted their plan during business school, the foursome launched the company two years ago this month. Three weeks after the initial pair went on sale, co-founder, Neil Blumenthal says Warby Parker hit its sales targets for the entire year and adds “we sold out of our top 15 styles in four weeks”. The company has since ramped up to 60-employees.

Two of Warby Parker’s co-founders, David Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal recently stopped by TCTV to give Founder Stories host, Chris Dixon the backstory on how the company got started.

As lifelong eyeglass wearers, Gilboa tells Dixon the group couldn’t understand why “glasses cost more than an iPhone.” After doing some research they realized “there’s a handful of companies that control the entire supply chain.” Not content to roll with the status quo, Gilboa says the team set out to change the landscape by creating “our own brand of glasses …. so we could sell the same product that normally costs 0 for .”

However, because their product was only available online, the team had to figure out a way for customers to try on the frames. Blumenthal says their solution was to create a “first of its kind” program “in the US where you select 5 frames, we ship it to you free of cost and you have 5 days to try them on at home, with no obligation to buy.”

Gilboa adds that this process enables customers to receive feedback from people “they trust” (versus paid sales staffers) and as an added benefit, Warby Parker receives “millions of free impressions” from users who post tryout pictures to their social networking sites.

As the interview unfolds, Gilboa and Blumenthal share plenty more insights, so sure to watch the entire video to hear more.

Past episodes for Founder Stories featuring Jeff Clavier, Cyrus Massoumi, Stephen Kaufer, Mayor Bloomberg and many other leaders are here.

Episode II of this interview is coming up.

TechCrunch

The Pulse Surface Controller is a vibration-based musical instrument that finally puts those years of air drumming to use. It’s a small, piezo-based MIDI controller that lets you turn pretty much any surface into a musical instrument. The device has a built-in suction cup, comes with velcro straps and plugs into your computer’s microphone port. The fun really starts with the dedicated controller software, that converts your percussive punches to your virtual instrument of choice. You’re not limited to drums either, as you can map your taps to a velocity sensitive melodic generator to create musical tones and scales. Luckily you won’t have to sit on your hands to get one of these either, as the Pulse Surface Controller System is available now for , or you can tap-tap-tap the video after the break for a demo.

Continue reading Pulse Surface Controller System: bangs the drum, desk, window

Pulse Surface Controller System: bangs the drum, desk, window originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just spotted in Orkut, Google’s also-ran social networking site: a new Google+ badge, one of the first integrations between the two services. Orkut members who also have a Google+ account are now being rewarded in the form of a badge reading “Google+ user,” which they can choose to make visible on their Orkut profile. No, it’s not a big deal in terms of the feature itself (oooh, a badge), but it’s an indication of Orkut’s current status in Google’s eyes. Orkut and Google+ are different products, and both sites will continue to exist, the company tells us today by way of explanation.

“Orkut has a large user base, especially in Brazil and India, and we will continue to invest in the product,” notes a Google spokesperson. Wait really? How on earth does that fit in with your current social strategy? Sorry, Google, continuing Orkut support just doesn’t make any sense.

The badge was spotted over on Indian tech blog pluggd.in, which prompted the inquiry into Google’s official position on the matter. The company says that over time, it will determine how to best integrate the two products, and that we’re just now starting to see this play out. Things like the Google+ badge, a minor, non-threatening, but obviously awareness-raising new feature is one of those first steps.

Orkut, which still has a sizeable audience of 66 million, thanks to Brazil and India, is still far from dead, though it’s now losing out to Facebook in its home country of Brazil (comScore, January 2011). Google continues to support the service, even confusingly releasing a new Orkut iPhone app just last month, a move some dubbed “too little, too late.”

The increased Facebook usage in the few countries where Orkut once had an edge impacts Orkut’s metrics, but the shift is gradual. The service even grew by 5% in Brazil over 2011 and it’s still the 3rd most popular social network in India, behind Facebook and YouTube. So it’s not that users are shutting down their Orkut accounts, necessarily, it’s that, in time, they’ll slowly abandon them as they migrate to Facebook. It’s not too unlike how we all collectively moved from MySpace to Facebook. It didn’t happen overnight. (You may even still have a MySpace account, but the question is, when is the last time you checked it?)

Given the declining mindshare for Orkut, however, Google’s continued support for the service doesn’t seem to make much sense. Now is the time to strike, before Orkut turns into a wasteland of inactive accounts. Now is the time to shift those users over to Google+.

What’s surprising is how gentle the Orkut to Google+ shift is beginning – a huge difference from Google’s other efforts at forcing G+ signups across its platform. New Orkut iPhone apps? That’s a confusing message for a company that has pushed Google+ at all costs since its 2011 launch, even to the extent of compromising search results and cluttering up its stark homepage with a “share” button. But with Orkut, Google just treats a large chunk of the world’s social networking users as “those other folks,” using that “different product.”

Sorry, Google, that’s wrong. If your agenda is to kindly shove Google+ down the web’s collective throats through controversial Google+ search result favoritism, forced registrations, cross-platform unification and the like, why does Orkut get a pass? Look, I may not be a fan of the pushy, inorganic growth strategy Google has adopted for Google+, but it’s a strategy. And 90 million accounts later, one could even argue that it’s a strategy that’s working. But Google, if you’re going to go all in, don’t flounce around with Orkut. There’s a narrow window to push those Google-loving, social networking holdouts from one Google product to the next.

Kill the Orkut iPhone apps, forget the silly badges, and announce to the entire Orkut user base that all data will be migrated (or will be exportable) to Google+ in X number of days. Then prepare your blog post touting all the new users Google+ now has. (Sigh).

Image credit, Orkut badge: Pluggd.in.

TechCrunch

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Arnova launches 8b G2 slate, hopes to keep it cheap originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HBO has been quietly working on its PunchForce tech since about 2010, when it tried to convince British star Amir Khan and Argentine boxer Marcos Maidana to wear the sensors for their light welterweight title bout. Neither seemed particularly eager. Now though, over a year later, the latest in fist-tracking technology seems to be nearing its big debut. Tiny wireless monitors, worn under the wrist of the gloves feed velocity and impact data back to a laptop with a special receiver — all of which now have Uncle Sam’s approval. The real fun though, is what happens next. The information gathered isn’t meant to be locked away in lab, it’ll be broadcast to viewers throughout the fight and, eventually, fed to accompanying apps, presumably alongside its PunchZone stats. Check out the gallery below for a behind the scenes glimpse of PunchForce and hit up the source link to peruse the full user manual.

HBO’s PunchForce hits the FCC, turns fists into data… violent, violent data originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you’re like us and really want to know what’s going on, then you’ve come to the right place. This week, we bring you announcements of LTE expansion from AT&T, US Cellular and Verizon, along with news of three Samsung smartphones that received WiFi certification — each are thought to be high-end devices and bound for US carriers. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride. Let’s explore the “best of the rest” for this week of February 13th, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of February 13th, 2012

Mobile Miscellany: week of February 13th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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