The past few weeks have been tumultuous for Apple ever since the company confirmed it slows down iPhones as their batteries age. In a message posted to Apple’s website today, the company formally apologized to customers while explaining how iPhone batteries age, what Apple has already done to prevent unexpected device shutdowns, and what the company will do to address customer concerns.
“We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize,” the letter reads. “There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making. First and foremost, we have never—and would never—do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.”
The final part of the message is the most important for customers, as it lays out Apple’s plans to help them replace old iPhone batteries and better understand their device’s battery performance. The biggest change is that Apple will lower the cost of out-of-warranty battery replacements for iPhone 6 models and later from $79 to $29—a discount of over 60 percent. The program will start in late January and will be available worldwide by the end of 2018.
The company will also add new OS features that give customers “more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery.” While the message is vague about what this means in practice (UI additions? Battery management software? We’re not sure yet), these features will come to iPhones through an iOS software update sometime in early 2018.
Apple may be able to boost the trust of some iPhone users with this battery replacement price reduction. However, it may frustrate those who have an iPhone model not covered by the program.
Some customers, though, have already been frustrated enough by Apple’s practices to take the company to court. The idea that Apple slowed down the performance of older iPhone models has been swirling for at least a year, and some customers have proposed class-action lawsuits against the company for allegedly hiding this practice. Those lawsuits also claim that customers looking to get their smartphone batteries replaced were encouraged to buy a new iPhone.
It’s important to note that Apple’s newest message doesn’t say it will stop slowing down the performance of old iPhones. Contrarily, Apple goes into detail about how this is a side effect of preventing unexpected shutdowns, and how battery age can affect a enhance the issue. Hopefully, Apple’s forthcoming software additions will make it easier for users to understand how their use habits affect their iPhone’s performance over time. That way users can possibly adjust their how they use their iPhone, the device’s settings, and other features to preserve the integrity of the battery for a bit longer.
The report from CB Insights listed Redfin along with Avalara, Rover, PayScale, OfferUp, Avvo, and INRIX as top IPO candidates for 2017. The fact that all the rest remained private was just one of the surprising developments of 2017 on the GeekWire 200, our ranking of the top privately held technology companies in the Pacific Northwest.
Continue reading for a rundown of all the twists and turns of 2017.
Biggest exits of 2017
Redfin’s IPO was one of the biggest things to happen to GeekWire 200 companies in 2017. The tech-powered real estate firm briefly grabbed the top spot from perennial number one DocuSign. With that important milestone out of the way, Redfin executives gave the go-ahead on an IPO and the company began trading publicly in July.
Several other startups moved on from the GeekWire 200 via acquisition. Consumer location analytics startup Placed was acquired by Snapchat parent company Snap in June for $135.1 million. It ranked number 62 at the time of the acquisition.
Simply Measured, a Seattle startup that provides social media marketing insights and the number 31 ranked startup on the list, was acquired by Sprout Social earlier this month.
In October, Virginia telemedicine provider Avizia acquired Carena, a Seattle-based startup that builds the technology behind virtual doctor’s visits. Sightbox, a startup based in Portland, Ore. that offers an annual membership for eye exams and contact lenses sold to Johnson & Johnson in September.
Top Dogs of 2017
The lack of IPOs didn’t leave much room at the top, but plenty of startups made big jumps in 2017, while others inched closer to the upper echelon. Work management company Smartsheet will finish 2017 in the fourth spot, jumping from number 12 a year ago. Vacation rental company Vacasa slipped into the top five, moving up one spot this month and jumping ahead of enterprise automation startup Puppet.
DocuSign, which just acquired the key technology and most of the team behind machine learning company Appuri, closes the year out in the #1 spot, just like it did last year. The electronic signature giant is not in a hurry to go public, so it could hold on to that top spot for a long time.
Second ranked Avalara hinted at the possibility of an IPO after raising $96 million last year, but didn’t commit to anything. It is set to move into a new Seattle headquarters building in 2018.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space venture, checked in at number three to end the year. Blue Origin is working on a suborbital spaceship called New Shepard, manufactured in Kent, Wash. The latest version of the spaceship successfully went through its first uncrewed flight test earlier this month in West Texas, and if all goes according to plan, people could start getting on board the next version sometime next year.
Biggest Risers of 2017
Convoy co-founders Dan Lewis, CEO, and Grant Goodale, CTO, inside the company’s Seattle headquarters. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)
A $62 million funding round for the fast-growing Seattle on-demand trucking startup helped push Convoy into the top 50 of the GeekWire 200. Convoy provides a network matching trucking companies with shippers looking to move freight. Not only is it well-funded, but its list of backers is a tech all-star team: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Barry Diller and Marc Benioff among others.
Convoy doubled its workforce in eight months to 120 people as of June. Convoy’s employee count on LinkedIn now sits at 211.
The company, which won Startup of the Year at the 2017 GeekWire Awards, initially worked with smaller shippers doing short routes on the West Coast. But it has expanded its reach and is now inking deals with Fortune 500 companies like Anheuser-Busch and Unilever.
An artist’s conception shows BlackSky’s satellite constellation in low Earth orbit. (Spaceflight Industries Illustration)
No company rose higher over the last 12 months than Seattle space startup Spaceflight Industries. In November, GeekWire reported that the company is seeking $150 million in new investment as it gets ready for a key rocket launch and a dramatic expansion of its satellite presence.
Spaceflight Industries has two main lines of business. One division, Spaceflight, focuses on launch services and mission management for rideshare payloads. The payloads go up on other companies’ rockets, including SpaceX’s Falcon 9, India’s PSLV and Orbital ATK’s Antares. The other, Black Sky, is building a constellation of Earth-observing satellites and a software platform that would let customers acquire low-cost imagery from orbit in as little as 90 minutes. The first prototype Black Sky satellite was launched a year ago, and 60 satellites are due to go into orbit by 2020.
The company’s backers include Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital Management, RRE Venture Capital and Razor’s Edge Ventures.
Donuts — which does not focus on fried rings of doughy goodness but instead deals with website domains — shot up the list this year after it acquired fellow domain startup Rightside Group for $213 million in June.
In the deal, Donuts got both Rightside’s registry of domain name extensions such as .band, .dance and .sale and the registrar business that sells specific domain names to the public. Prior to the acquisition, Donuts owned close to 200 domain name extensions, including .movie, .LTD, .agency, .email, .school and .group.
The two companies — located just a few miles apart — have flirted in the past. Last year, Rightside turned down what it called an unsolicited and opportunistic offer from Donuts to buy its domain registry business for $70 million.
“Augmented writing” startup Textio vaulted 50 spots on the GeekWire 200 in the last 12 months as it continues to grow. The company, which provides a platform to help companies put together more effective job postings, raised $20 million over the summer to expand to other types of business writing.
Textio representatives said earlier this year they expected to have a head count of 55 to 60 at the end of the year. Its employee count now comes in at 65, according to LinkedIn, indicating the company is growing a little faster than expected.
Cryptocurrency mania took over the tech world toward the end of the year as Bitcoin surged to insane heights and caused panic when it started to drop. Seattle esports betting startup Unikrn operates in this brave new world with its own currency: UnikoinGold.
UnikoinGold is based on the Ethereum blockchain, which is similar to Bitcoin, and can be used on its platform to bet on esports matches. Those tokens can be exchanged for other major cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, which can then be exchanged for U.S. dollars.
The GeekWire 200 — sponsored by our partners at EY — is derived from our broader list of more than 1,200 Pacific Northwest tech startups. The list is designed to provide a better understanding of the startup landscape in the Northwest. The rankings are generated from publicly available data, including social media followings, approximate employee counts (via LinkedIn) and inbound web links.
To make sure your startup is eligible for inclusion in the GeekWire 200, first make sure it’s included in the broader Startup List. If so, there’s no need to submit it separately for the GeekWire 200. If your Pacific Northwest startup isn’t among the companies on that larger list, you can submit it for inclusion here, and our algorithm will crunch the numbers to see if your company makes next month’s GeekWire 200. (Please, no service providers, marketing agencies, etc.)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Apple just published a letter to customers apologizing for the "misunderstanding" around older iPhones being slowed down, following its recent admission that it was, in fact, slowing down older phones in order to compensate for degrading batteries. "We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down," says the company. "We apologize." Apple says in its letter that batteries are "consumable components," and is offering anyone with an iPhone 6 or later a battery replacement for $29 starting in late January through December 2018 — a discount of $50 from the usual replacement cost. Apple’s also promising to add features to iOS that provide more information about the battery health in early 2018, so that users are aware of when their batteries are no longer capable of supporting maximum phone performance.
The irony of working with cheap, dull knives in the kitchen is that you’re more likely to accidentally cut yourself than if you had razor-sharp blades to slice and dice with. But if you’re as skilled at sharpening knives as YouTube’s Kiwami Japan is, you can turn a dollar store blade into a tool for master chefs.
The transformation of this $1 blade is nothing short of astounding; it goes from barely being able to cut through a sheet of paper to turning a tomato into tissue-thin slices with minimal effort. Just don’t get any bright ideas about buying up cheap knives and sharpening them into kitchen tools worth hundreds of dollars. This knife unfortunately won’t hold its edge for long, and you’ll probably end up spending more time re-sharpening it than actually cooking.
I like to think that Sheppy got his tenacity to ferret out a deal from me. I don’t mind spending money, but I am going to spend less than anyone else for the same item. Shep and his Kinja Deals helped to save (spend) a lot this year.
My favorite deal—Shep, turn your eyes away—was the Ex-Officio underwear. There, I said it. Granny panties galore and what a deal. I am not a granny yet, by the way (Shep, get on that). Not only did I stock my drawers with drawers, I bought a bunch of these quick dry wonders for Shep’s younger brother too. He is a mountain man and Ex-Officio is the bomb for camping. He and I drove to Alaska in the fall. He started the trip with his 5 new pairs. By the time we got to Anchorage he only had the pair he was wearing. Not sure where he lost the rest along the way but we will hope this deal reappears in 2018.
I enjoy the fashion deals that Kinja has started listing. Fashionable, I am not, but I LOVE the Spyder Hayer Top I got recently. It makes me feel like Superman. Pretty, pretty sure if I wore it in a race, I would win. Like a marathon in under three hours kind of winning. Yep, that good. Also on the same running theme, Anker’s Soundbuds Curve Wireless headphones are the only bluetooth earbuds that have actually stayed in my ears when I run. They look kind of ridiculous, but they stay put and still allow me to listen for traffic. I can hear my 80’s music and trucks thundering by. Win-Win.
The McAllister house added a few Victorinox knives to the kitchen collection this year. These are the workhorses in my kitchen. They sharpen easily, and have never let me down. I have lost worthy competitors to butternut squashes. These knives hold up to everything.
The kitchen gadget I didn’t know I needed but now can not image life without is the Vremi Olive Oil Dispenser bottle. What a dirty spoon and time saver. Not sure how it hadn’t been invented before 2017 (editor’s note: it’s several years old), but I’m very glad someone came up with the idea, I just wish it had been me.
I jumped in on the Cutie’s Baby Wipe sale. My youngest baby is 23 years old, so clearly I am not using them on humans, but I can’t imagine not having wipes in the car to wash my hands after I actually have to shop in a real store. The volume of packages in this deal leads me to believe I will never have to order wipes again.
For the money saving winner of the year I’m going with the Zyllion Shiatsu Pillow Massager with Heat for Back, Neck, Shoulders. I have a lot of problems with my neck and shoulder blades. A few cycles of this and I didn’t have to call for as many chiropractor and massage therapist appointments. Also, it is quite relaxing and puts me to sleep.
Sandusky’s Steel Garden Utility Wagon will handle anything I might come across in my garden that needs moving from one place to another. It’s much more stable for things like wood than a wheelbarrow. A good addition, and another item I didn’t know I needed until I saw it on Kinja Deals.
I purchased an Aukey phone car mount a while ago, and have bought several for other cars and family members since. It isn’t particularly noticeable in the car, but it has never failed to hold my hugely oversized iPhone 7+. Not sure if I will go for such a big phone next go-around, but I know I’ll stick with Aukey. Also in the family station wagon is iClever Boostdrive dual USB car charger. It sits flush in the power outlet. I don’t even know it is there until someone riding with me needs to power up their phone. A good change from the awful things that stuck out of sockets and toppled over from being so tall. Hooray for technology!
I got a Philips Norelco OneBlade for Shep’s brother who reports it is great. It was a good Kinja Deal price when I got it. Moms, if you have mountain men college age boys, keep your eye out for one of these if you want them to clean up for family gathering. Another Kinja Deal for him was Cowin’s E-7 Headphones. He got those for his birthday over the summer, and they are still going strong. I have seen them listed for sale a couple of times. I give them 2 thumbs up based on the fact that they still work after a semester in the dorm.
I admit it…I bought the Accutrements Horse Head Squirrel Feeder. I had to hide it in the yard because Shep’s dad is far more concerned with how the yard looks than I am. I won’t give up its location in case his dad reads my post, but suffice it to say, Shep was right when he said everyone needed one of these. Listen to Shep when he tells you to buy something. He is always right.
(Editor’s note: This is true. Thanks, Mom)
I had 210 Amazon orders for the year. Not a record, but a lot of shopping to be sure. Shep knows how to find a deal and I count on him to make sure I know I spent the least amount possible on things I didn’t know I needed until I saw them on Kinja.
The whole idea of cryptocurrency can be a little hard for the average joe to wrap their mind around. Perhaps this commercial parody from a recent episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers will help us understand Bitcoin, blockchain technology, and virtual economies better.
"Star Wars" fans are pretty divided on "The Last Jedi," which for the record I thought was pretty good. But here are some things that jumped out at me about the movie:
– Why is Laura Dern’s character, a freaking Vice Admiral leading a rebellion that’s about to be snuffed out, dressed like she has dinner reservations in midtown Manhattan? She looks like she’s about to send a steak back to the kitchen: "I asked for medium rare, this is overdone–no, I don’t want to hear your excuses, take it away."
– Why is Kylo Ren’s voice module so shitty? With the helmet on he sounds like he’s speaking through the door intercom of a low-income-housing apartment building. Whenever I hear his voice I feel like I’m about to buzz the pizza guy in. "I SAID, THE ELEVATOR IS BROKEN, YOU NEED TO TAKE THE STAIRS."
– Whenever Kylo and Rey did their Space Skype/ForceTime chats, I wanted to see those chats preceded with a buffering symbol. Ideally it would look like the GIF at left but with the Death Star in the middle of it.
– Snoke has clearly been in some kind of moped accident, yet can’t be bothered to get reconstructive surgery to fix his eyeline? The man is Supreme Leader for chrissakes, and all political leaders at that level are vain. Also he needs to get Invisalign and see a dermatologist.
– How did Captain Phasma ever get promoted to Captain? She’s utterly incompetent; I’d sooner follow Captain Crunch into battle. Maybe if she spent more time training and less time polishing her armor she’d be effective. "Phasma" should be spelled with an "F" for "Fail."
– In the earlier films, even when they cast older Jedi–Sir Alec Guinness, Liam Neeson–they had a vitality to them. Not so with Luke this time around. I kept waiting for him to yell "Rey! Have you seen my fanny pack? I can’t find my heart pills!"
– When Poe is reunited with BB-8, Poe is so happy to see him that he uses both hands to stimulate the droid’s belly like he’s rubbing a spherical puppy. I found this gross and unhygienic. Because of the manner in which he locomotes, BB-8’s entire body is like the sole of a shoe. Poe Dameron has just wiped his mitts over every filthy flooring surface in the movie and you never see him wash his hands.
– Instead of being armed with laser rifles, all of Snoke’s bodyguards have freaking melee weapons. When the camera panned across them I expected to see the last four holding a baseball bat, a tennis racket, a rolled-up newspaper and a broken beer bottle.
How lightsabers are made
– When Luke runs into Yoda’s ghost, the latter says "Missed you I have, Skywalker." Luke should’ve been like "Well, whose fault is that? You’re the Force Ghost that can just pop in whenever he wants, it’s not like I can go visit you. Unless I kill myself at the end of this movie and become a Force Ghost too. Okay, hint received."
– There’s a scene where the transport ships are being bombarded and Poe screams something at the female pilot like "C’mon, faster, give it full thrusters!" and she goes "I am, sir." Her line should’ve been "No shit, you mansplaining dick, I’ve already got it floored! They’re shooting at us, you think I’ve got this motherf*cker in second gear?"
– At the end there’s like 200 of those crystal fox-dog things running around, and not a single one of them takes a crystal dump or lifts his leg on an X-wing? I’m not buying it. At least two of the escapees on the Millennium Falcon should be wrinkling their noses and inspecting their shoes going "Goddammit–Rey, you got any paper towels on this thing? Or like a scrubber brush?"
– When Finn is on his suicide run, Rose supposedly swings her ship around and crashes into him to knock him out of the way and save his life. On the ground they exchange some dialogue, she steals a kiss and then appears to succumb to her wounds.
I’ve thought about it a lot and realized what really happened. Rose is a technician with no mention of piloting experience. She probably crashed into him by accident, improvised a good excuse, stole a kiss to distract from the obviousness of her lie, then pretended to die because she was so embarrassed. Well-played, Rose Tico.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Michael Ramirez, combines an encyclopedic knowledge of the news with a captivating drawing style to create consistently outstanding editorial cartoons on Ammoland Shooting Sports News.
“An editorial cartoon is not just a funny picture,” says internationally known editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez. “It is a powerful instrument of journalism, sometimes sharp and refined, its message cutting quickly to the point, and other times, blunt and overpowering, seizing the readers’ attention with its dark imagery.”
In order to ensure the maximum effectiveness of your press release, you will want to make sure that they conform to certain generally accepted formatting practices. By following the press release format guide below, you’ll increase the reach and popularity of your company.
But first, what is a press release?
A press release is defined as “a public relations announcement issued to the news media and other targeted publications for the purpose of informing the public about company developments”.
Simply put, a press release is simply your ticket to publicity.
Whether you are planning on having a startup or you already have a company, here’s a handy guide on how to write a press release.
Step One
As a first step, you’ll want to alert whoever is reading the press release when the news is “officially” available. Often, companies will send out press releases a day or two in advance of an event in order to give media outlets some time to prepare a story.
In the top left corner, you’ll want to use either “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” (in all capital letters) or “HOLD FOR RELEASE UNTIL [DATE]”.
Step Two
You’ll also want to pay a lot of attention to the headline and sub-headline. The headline needs to clearly communicate the story of your press release and it must include the name of your company. The sub-headline can be longer and should provide some additional facts and information that will attract the attention of journalists.
Step Three
Every press release will list the location (including city and state) and date of the story. The inclusion of those pieces of information is important because many media outlets consider news on whether it is a local, regional or national event. A local media outlet is only interested in covering stories that are of relevance to a small geographic area.
Step Four
Now that you’ve completed the first three steps, it’s important to come up with the text for the press releases. As a general rule of thumb, you will need to limit your press release to 300-500 words. Your goal is to tell the who, what, why, when and where of your story as succinctly as possible. It’s best to divide the body text into a series of short paragraphs of no more than 2-4 sentences each.
Step Five
When writing the press release, you will also need to observe certain norms within the industry. For example, it’s customary to include at least one quote from someone involved with the story. This helps to bring your press release to life. Also, you should always use the third person when writing about your company . Avoid the use of words like “we” or “I” or “you.”
Step Six
You will also need to include relevant contact information of your company at the very end of the press release. This is called the “boilerplate” and will often consist of one very brief paragraph. It includes details about your company and specific contact information, like web, phone or email.
Step Seven
It’s still customary to mark the end of a press release with the word “END” and the inclusion of “###” at the very end. This is a long-time practice. In fact, back then, press releases were sent out over the wire and people receiving them wanted to make sure that they had all the necessary information.
Final Words
What’s fascinating is that the modern press release looks almost identical to the first-ever press release which was sent in October 1906. That press release had a headline, a sub-headline, a date, content, geographic information, and entirely similar structure. It also used short block paragraphs to tell the story.
When it comes to sending out a press release, you want to make sure that it looks just right.
Above all, press releases that are formatted based on the traditional structure will definitely do well in increasing the popularity of your product or story. Remember, a press release can change the story and outreach of your company.
April, the tiny star of Arthur Metcalf’s horror short He’s Watching, is an A+ hellraiser. When her parents foolishly leave her home alone, all kinds of mayhem, destruction, and cheese pizza-consumption ensues… some of it involving an axe-wielding intruder that April doesn’t seem to notice. Or does she?