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Jeremy Richardson heads up Business Development atMixpanel, Inc. a real-time analytics service that helps companies understand how users behave with web applications. For a while, a big limitation of online optimization tools was their lack of real-time reporting. Google Analytics , the most popular analytics service out there, can easily take a full day before displaying your data. This was acceptable back when the web was static, but as websites become more and more dynamic, the rate at which we analyze and iterate based on our collected data has dramatically increased. There are many industries where optimizing in real-time can have a large impact on overall business performance. Unfortunately, not all companies are aware of the potential value in tracking information in real-time. Let’s take a look at a few areas where real-time data processing is already making a big impact. Content Websites One area where we are seeing real-time analytics improve content companies is in article h

According to French-language newspaper Le Soleil, Apple has acquired Poly9, an online mapping company based in Quebec. The translated article reports that since the acquisition, the majority of Poly9 employees have moved from Quebec to Apple’s offices in California. As Apple Insider notes, the Poly9 website is down, although parts of the Poly9 Globe site are still accessible. The Poly9 Globe was described as “a cross-browser, cross-platform 3D globe which does not require any download.” Think of it as a JavaScript-based 3D globe that can be manipulated with your mouse to adjust its axis and rotation points. The software then offers users statistics on their virtual locations. Basically it’s Google Earth in the browser. While the product is now listed as “discontinued,” you can see it in action from some its partners like Skypeand ConduitLive. Second Mapping Acquisition for Apple If this report is true (we are awaiting confirmation from Apple) this is the second location-based acquisiti

Those intrepid folks at Improv Everywhere are at it again — this time they invaded a New York City subway car, treating passengers to a reenactment of the first Princess Leia/Darth Vader scene from Star Wars. We’ve seen comedy troop Improv Everywhere undertaking a ton of missions in the past — from the No-Pants Subway Ride to staging a scene from Ghostbusters in the New York Public Library — but we’ve never seen such a big reaction from onlookers. In the Ghostbusters vid it was immediately obvious who was a native New Yorker and who was a tourist –even sans walking lane — judging by who had the biggest reaction to the goings-on. This time, however, everyone on the train seem pleased and delighted, a heady task on a NYC subway car during the summer (a.k.a. roughly the eighth ring of hell). “The white walls and sliding doors on the train reminded us of the rebel ship from the movie, and we thought it would be fun to see how people would react to a surprise appearance by the iconic charac

Google’s “Send-To-Car” feature lets users send destinations from Google Maps directly to their vehicles. This feature previously worked with BMW and Audi vehicles, and now Google has extended its partner base for the program to Ford and GM. Owners of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles enabled with Ford’s SYNC system, as well as Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC , Hummer, Pontiac, Saab or Saturn vehicles via GM’s OnStar navigation, can now take advantage of the “Send-to-Car” function. To try it out, type in a destination into Google Maps search, click “Send,” choose “Car” and then type in your car’s details. You can then access the destination through your car’s navigation system. It may sound like extra work to seasoned in-car navigators, but once you get used to it, it probably beats fiddling with the navigation system in the car. Check out a video preview of the feature coupled with GM’s OnStar below.

Facebook’s Open Graph, the platform that extends and spreads Facebook’s social network throughout the web, is going mobile, according to Facebook’s Head of Mobile Products Eric Tseng. At the MobileBeat 2010 conference in San Francisco, Tseng said that Facebook “really sees mobile as the future,” and that we can expect to see Facebook’s “Like” buttons in mobile applications soon. Tseng used geolocation as an example to illustrate the power of the mobile Open Graph. If you were to walk near a coffee shop and get a location-aware notification that there’s a happy hour going on there, you’ll probably be even more inclined to visit it if the notification comes bundled with recommendations from your Facebook friends. He also had some interesting ideas about mobile app discovery, which he thinks will become more social. Without going into the details, Tseng said that “Inevitably, app stores will become more social. As we get more apps, that’s going to be great. But the average user isn’t goi

It’d be an understatement to say that this has been a terrible week for Apple, and we haven’t even reached the halfway point. On Monday, Consumer Reports dealt a devastating blow to the iPhone 4 when it declined to recommend the device to consumers due to its antenna reception problem. Consumer Reports concluded from its tests that cell reception is indeed lost if you cover up the small gap between the two metal bands on the bottom corner of the phone. The media quickly picked up the story. Tuesday wasn’t any better for the tech giant. Consumer Reports slammed Apple for not providing a fix to customers at no extra cost. Some have even suggested that a recall was imminent — an endeavor that would cost the company $1.5 billion. All of this news resulted in a sharp dive in Apple’s stock price, although it has since made a partial recovery. There are even class action lawsuits waiting in the wings. Apple has a nightmare on its hands and no software fix will make the problem go away. The is

Early in March, Opera released its Opera Mini mobile browser, version 5.0 beta, for Android phones. The app has now been polished enough to reach version 5.1 and drop the beta tag it’s been carrying for so long. The new version doesn’t bring too many major improvements, except overall better stability and improved page layout on those high-end Android phones with huge screens we’ve beenseeing lately. For a list of improvements in version 5.0 beta, seehere. You can download Opera Mini 5.1 for Android from the Android market, or over at m.opera.com.

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Bolder Quick Pitch: Bolder makes social responsibility tangible and fun for both businesses and people. Genius Idea: At Mashable, we’re always excited about web products that affect social change and social good. A new site we’ve found that attempts to do this is Bolder. Bolder works with business and brands to inspire actions that benefit society. The business creates a challenge for people to do something good. For example, the challenge could be to go shopping with a reusable bag or buy something from a local business rather than a national chain retailer. Individuals then login to the site — Facebook Connect is the simplest way to do so — and record their actions to complete the challenge. The business that created the challenge

Google has launched a new website to centralize its efforts to build an ultra high-speed fiber optic Internet network, better known as Google Fiber. Earlier this year, Google announced its plan to build a high-speed network, delivering connection speeds 100 times faster than typical U.S. connections. The announcement produced a frenzy of interest: 600+ communities applied to become ground zero for Google’s experimental high-speed network. Topeka, Kansas even changed its name to Google, Kansas in order to win the contract. The search giant is once again moving forward with its fiber network plans. It announced the launch of Google Fiber for Communities, a simple and straightforward homepage for the project, complete with videos, an FAQ, suggestions for how to take action, and a full list of the communities that have requested more information on Google Fiber. It’s another step towards the eventual announcement of the first community to gain Google’s high-speed network, expected later t

Intel’s earnings this quarter — with revenues of $10.8 billion and net income of $2.9 billion — are the best the company has ever reported in its 42-year history, according to a release posted today on Intel Corporation’s website. Apparently, Intel’s most powerful microprocessors are selling like hotcakes, global recession be damned. “The PC and server segments are healthy and the demand for leading-edge technology will continue to increase for the foreseeable future,” said CEO Paul Otellini. Year-over-year, revenue was up 34% and net income a staggering 175% as compared to Q2 2009. One of the highlights of the company’s quarterly report was the Intel Atom microprocessor and chipset revenue of $413 million, a 16% increase sequentially. In Q2, the company spent $3.25 billion on research and development (R&D) and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The company saw a net gain from equity investments of $204 million, around $25 million more than expected. Intel’s finance team forecasts

An east-coast company called XPRT Ventures has filled a lawsuit against eBay for a hefty $3.8 billion, claiming that the online auction site stole its inventions when filing for patents related to PayPal. One XPRT’s lawyers was quoted by Reuters accusing eBay of “trade secret theft, along with sheer patent infringement.” The plaintiffs claim that they shared their ideas with eBay in confidence years ago, so the big company knew they had invented certain e-commerce technologies when it starting using the technology in 2002 and applied for patents in 2003. By applying for the patents, it supposedly acknowledged that the intellectual property was of value. The XPRT patents connected to the lawsuit include U.S. patents 7483856, 7567937, 7627528, 7610244,7599881 and 7512563. You can read the whole saga in the formal complaint, which is available in a massive PDF file. According to the press release and complaint, PayPal, Shopping.com, Bill Me Later and StubHub are under fire as well. They’r

For some time now, Flickr users have been able to use Picnik to edit photos in-stream without leaving the app. Now that Picnik is a Google property, Picasa users will have roughly the same advantage. As of today, Picasa Web Albums users will be able to use Picnik’s editing tools without ever leaving their accounts. Google acquired Picnik back in March. While Picnik’s free web app lacks the fuller features of tools like Aviary’s Phoenix, its simplicity makes it an appropriate complement for online photo-sharing sites. On Picnik’s web app, users can crop and resize photos and adjust brightness, saturation, contrast and other attributes free of charge. The Picasa implementation will also let you add stickers, apply special effects and use advanced tools. Edited photos can be saved as new images in your Picasa Web Album, or they can be used to replace the original image. Here’s an example of what the app will look like and what you can do with it: Although Flickr is a Yahoo property, Fli

We'd argue that the "wow" factor still isn't there quite yet, but we'll admit: Symbian 4 is clearly going to be a bit of a departure from the versions that came before it. The Symbian Foundation has posted the first handful of home screen UI shots on its developer wiki recently showing redesigned widgets, app categories and search, pop-up menus, and a standard-issue numeric touchscreen keypad -- and unlike Nokia's concept videos from before, these are from a real emulator running real code. While MeeGo is still expected to dominate the high end of its range, Nokia's expecting to use Symbian^4 in at least some of its devices by early 2011 -- and knowing how these guys like to go big with global roll-outs spanning tens or hundreds of millions of devices, this is a UI you might end up getting to know extremely well within a year or two.

LG didn't hold back when it came time to market its Ally , but was a tie-in with one of the summer's biggest blockbusters really enough? We found some rather unforgivable flaws during our testing, but that's honestly beside the point -- we're here to hear about your thoughts on the device. Priced initially at just $100 on contract, it was (and still is, to an extent) one of the best deals going for an Android-based smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard, but has it really lived up to your expectations? Are you wishing you had held out a bit longer? Is the keyboard really a winner? How do you like / dislike the UI overlay? How's it handle when held left-handed? Go on, get really real in comments below. We're all ears. How would you change LG's Ally? originally appeared on Engadget on

That rumored software update for HTC's Droid Incredible is apparently now hitting some devices, and it's a doozy -- it's impressive enough, in fact, that it darn near gives you a new phone (short of Froyo, anyway). The headline features are the addition of Verizon's mobile hotspot app (for which you'll pay $20 a month for 2GB in order to use) and 720p video recording, a feature that's becoming virtually standard on top-tier smartphones this year -- including Sprint's EVO 4G, which essentially shares the Droid Incredible's camera hardware. You'll also get the Skype app integrated and some other Verizon-related software goodies plus a sweet new boot animation, so overall, you're definitely going to want to accept this update once you're phone notifies you that it's available. Don't be afraid -- remember, it's the evil Droid eye that you really need to fear.

Nokia's looking to ride the mojo of any negative fallout from today's Apple press conference, slipping out a rather fascinating statement this afternoon. The gist of it is that Espoo's keen on letting everyone know how much blood, sweat, and tears they've poured into perfecting their antenna design strategy over the years, going so far as to say that they "prioritize" it over the physical design of the phone if they need to in order to optimize its call performance -- an opinion moderately different from the "we want to have our cake and eat it too" philosophy espoused by Jobs today. In closing, Nokia acknowledges that a "tight grip" can mess with the performance, though they say they've done a bunch of research on the ways their phones are typically held so that the antennas are placed optimally. Interestingly, there was a stink not long ago about the severe signal degradation some E71 users were seeing when they placed their hands on

We knew this was eventually coming, and here it is: Google is giving everyone the heads-up that it just got a fresh batch of Nexus One s in stock, and once they've been sold through, they'll no longer be offered directly through the company's online store. For what it's worth, the customer service lines will stay open even after that happens -- and you'll still be able to buy a phone through KT in South Korea, Vodafone in Europe, and "possibly other [retailers] based on local market conditions" -- but by and large, your average American is going to have a hard time getting one pretty shortly. If you're a registered Android developer, though, Google's looking at continuing to offer the device through some sort of sales partner -- a wise move considering it'll be just about the only thing you can buy unlocked running a clean-slate latest build.a

It's become the stuff of legend over the past few weeks, but if you've been holding out for a white iPhone 4 , well, today's not your lucky day -- but Apple's now saying it'll ship by the end of July. That's later than the previously announced middle of July ship date, but we're going to keep believing that when it does arrive, it'll be the answer to all of our problems. Be sure to check out our live coverage of the iPhone press event here!

It's fairly obvious that the howls around the web for Apple to address this antenna issue has gotten underneath the skin of one Steve Jobs, and in a fashion that's very much unlike Apple (or AT&T, for that matter), the aforesaid CEO has actually handed out a bit of hard data surrounding dropped calls on the iPhone 4. According to Jobs, AT&T won't reveal the exact amount of call drops for competitive reasons, but they did manage to push out a meaningful delta. As of today, they've noticed that the " iPhone 4 drops less than one additional call per 100 than the 3GS." In other words, the iPhone 4 has actually been dropping more calls than the 3GS in the three weeks that the former has been on the market. Of course, Steve's also playing up the fact that just a fraction of a percent of all buyers have bothered to call in about their bout with dropped calls (and why would you, knowing there's no cure?), but it's still interesting to finally ge

If you think the proximity sensor on your iPhone 4 has been acting wacky, don't worry, turns out you're not crazy: Apple has just committed to fixing weirdness in the next software update at itspress conference today. Problems have mainly revolved around the sensor failing to detect your face when you're on a call, leading to accidentally hang-ups, mutes, and so on as your ear makes contact with the screen -- not too cool. Then again, if you've been staying off your phone lately for fear of dropping a call, well... maybe you didn't notice.

Apple's not really ready to say it's sorry about the iPhone 4 antenna design, but it is willing to give all you darn squeaky wheels free cases for your trouble. Since Apple can't build its own Bumpers fast enough, it will give you a few options and let you decide, then send it your way for free as long as you purchased the phone before September 30th. Not good enough for you? Well, if you already bought a bumper from Apple you'll get a refund, and you can also return your phone for a full refund within 30 days as long as it's unharmed. This solution comes at the end of 22 days of Apple engineers "working their butts off," according to Steve, with "physics" ultimately being pinned as the main culprit. Apple claims you can replicate the left-handed "death grip" bar-dropping problem on the BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, and Samsung Omnia II, and that "phones aren't perfect." Steve also claims that only 0.55% of peopl

In today's iPhone 4 press conference out in Cupertino, Apple has revealed that they've pushed 3 million phones so far since launch a little under a month ago. For the record, that's about twice the number Apple sold in the first weekend -- 1.7 million -- so the pace has clearly slowed down a bit, though that would appear to be due almost exclusively to supply constraints. As for how many of those sold phones are staying out in the field, Jobs has revealed return rates, too: 1.7 percent, which works out to about 51,000 phones, compared to 6 percent for the 3GS. Seems like most of these returners would've been better off eBaying for a profit, eh?

There's been a lot of chatter going around the interwebs in the past 24 hours about the Droid X 's exceptionally well-locked bootloader -- a situation that is going to make running custom ROMs considerably more difficult (bordering on impossible) compared to your average HTC. Specifically, the culprit is said to be a technology known as eFuse -- developed by IBM several years ago -- which allows circuits to be physically altered at the silicon level on demand. Thing is, the term "eFuse" has taken on an unrelated meaning this week, with My Droid World claiming that some chip inside the Droid X is commanded to "blow the fuse" if it's unable to verify the stock bootloader, which permanently bricks the phone. It amounts to a really, really hard slap on the wrist for anyone trying to hack, say, Sense or stock Froyo onto it. Considering IBM's historically non-nefarious usage of the term "eFuse," we suspected something was amiss here, so we reac

There's been a lot of chatter going around the interwebs in the past 24 hours about the Droid X 's exceptionally well-locked bootloader -- a situation that is going to make running custom ROMs considerably more difficult (bordering on impossible) compared to your average HTC. Specifically, the culprit is said to be a technology known as eFuse -- developed by IBM several years ago -- which allows circuits to be physically altered at the silicon level on demand. Thing is, the term "eFuse" has taken on an unrelated meaning this week, with My Droid World claiming that some chip inside the Droid X is commanded to "blow the fuse" if it's unable to verify the stock bootloader, which permanently bricks the phone. It amounts to a really, really hard slap on the wrist for anyone trying to hack, say, Sense or stock Froyo onto it. Considering IBM's historically non-nefarious usage of the term "eFuse," we suspected something was amiss here, so we reac