September 1, 2017

Welcome to Force Friday, one of my favorite days of the year. I still fondly remember watching Star Wars with my dad when I was 11. As I walked out of the theater, I asked him if we could buy another ticket right then and watch it again. He denied me that night, but we went and saw it again a few days later.

Sphero just released two new droids, R2-D2 and BB-9E, which now rounds out the family that includes BB-8 and the Force Band (so you can control the droids with the Force).

Next up is the littleBits Droid Inventor Kit.

May the Force be with you.

Also published on Medium.

Previous PostPeople Are The Price of Admission

Original author: Brad Feld

Original author: MitraSramana

The Mi Mix 2, as seen in a conceptual product design video. Starck/Facebook

On September 12, Apple is due to formally announce the eagerly anticipated iPhone 8 — a high-end device with an almost edge-to-edge screen.

One day before, on September 11, another high-end device with an almost edge-to-edge screen will launch — from Xiaomi, a tech startup sometimes referred to as the "Apple of China."

As previously reported by The Verge, The Chinese electronics firm is gearing up to formally reveal the Mi Mix 2. A designer has already shared a "conceptual product design" video, while a managing director has teased its design in a tweet.

Xiaomi, once the most valuable startup in the world, has previously built phones that are similar in design to Apple's — so much so that Apple design chief Jony Ive once accused the company and others like it of "theft." Its CEO has also adopted a Steve Jobs-esque demeanor, borrowing his outfit and signature "one more thing" line.

But in recent years, Xiaomi's products have been more differentiated — and the firm has even poked fun at Apple in presentations, making unflattering comparisons between its products and Apple's allegedly inferior offerings.

Tweet Embed:
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Mi MIX 2 Ž Ž Ž #excited pic.twitter.com/W68XIqk6Gx

The iPhone 8 — alternately referred to as the iPhone Edition, iPhone X, or iPhone Pro — marks ten years since the first iPhone was unveiled. It is rumoured to feature a radical redesign with an almost bezel-free screen with no physical home button, a revamped camera, facial recognition tech for unlocking the device, and a glass back.

But its almost edge-to-edge screen, while new for Apple, isn't the first of its kind. The original Xiaomi Mi Mix, announced in 2016, helped pioneer the design. Other major manufacturers including Samsung have also already launched flagship phones with near-edge-to-edge screens earlier in 2017.

Original author: Rob Price

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Spotify's former global head of content partnerships Tom Calderone Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Remember that Spotify does video?

Its global head of content partnerships, Tom Calderone, has left as the company rethinks its strategy ahead of an IPO — and as the competition closes in.

We first saw the news on Bloomberg. Spotify confirmed Calderone's departure and said it would focus on video for its most popular streaming playlists, like "Rap Caviar" and "Rock This."

Most people still associate Spotify with pure-play music streaming, but the company hired Calderone from VH1 last year to change that.

According to Bloomberg, he had focused on bringing in original content from producers like actor Tim Robbins and Def Jam cofounder Russell Simmons. Now, it seems, Spotify wants video to be closely tied to its core music strategy.

Business Insider spoke to ad and entertainment industry executives last year who suggested Spotify's efforts in video seemed confused. Some production firms complained that they almost had series commissioned for Spotify, only for the company to pull the plug. And advertisers said they simply didn't know what Spotify's plans in video were.

Calderone himself said at the time that the company was being picky about video content, and described Spotify's strategy as "surgical."

His exit comes as Spotify reportedly prepares to go public, and as its biggest rival in music, Apple, plans to spend a cool $1 billion (£773 million) on original content.

Original author: Shona Ghosh

Israeli startup entrepreneur and investor Moshe Hogeg Baz Ratner/Reuters

Moshe Hogeg, the entrepreneur behind messaging app Yo!, photo-sharing firm Mobli, and phone startup Sirin, has promised to invest in every Israeli blockchain startup that approaches him for investment.

It's a bold statement from an entrepreneur Bloomberg once described as Israel's "hype master."

It also coincides with unprecedented levels of interest — sceptics might say hype — in cryptocurrencies, the underlying blockchain technology, and initial coin offerings (ICOs). VCs have invested almost $1.9 billion (£1.5 billion) in blockchain startups to date, according to Coindesk.

"I actually think it's underhyped," said Hogeg, who plans to invest anything from a few thousand dollars to a few million in local blockchain startups. Hogeg will invest personally, rather than through his VC firm Singulariteam.

He likened scepticism towards blockchain technologies to early public reactions to the car. "When the first car was introduced, people laughed," he said. "It drove very slowly, and broke down every few kilometres. The horse was better, and never broke. But looking back in time, we know what happened."

BI Intelligence

In practice, Hogeg won't be bankrupting himself with this promise. He claimed there were fewer than 20 blockchain startups in Israel, and his investment guarantee is designed to encourage more.

"Israel is a startup nation, but I don't take it for granted this is the situation," he said. "When I look at the number of companies active in blockchain in Israel, it's less than 20, which is terrible. So I've decided to promote this industry within Israel, and the best way to do that is to inject money into the industry."

"I want to get dealflow, and I want 100% of the deals. The best way to do that is to invest in every single one of them."

Other than the cryptocurrency bitcoin, there's been relatively little to show so far that the blockchain will revolutionise any other industry, though banks, retailers, and consultancies have all jumped on the bandwagon.

Hogeg points to insurance. One theory is that blockchain technologies could lead to the automation of insurance payouts through "smart contracts". Automated payouts would mean lower admin costs, and reduced risk of fraud. There's clearly some interest in the idea: five of Europe's biggest insurers decided last year to explore smart contracts.

"In my opinion, its going to be much bigger than what people understand today," Hogeg said. "100%, there's a bandwagon situation when people read in newspapers that raising $100 million, or $200 million looks easy, even though it's not."

Hogeg was fast-talking and enthusiastic about blockchain during his call with Business Insider. But several of his previous bets have not quite paid off. He is cofounder of Sirin, which recently pivoted away from its original proposition of a $16,000 (£12,000) Android phone and cut staff. He sold the patents from his startup Mobli to Snapchat earlier this year. And messaging app Yo!, while hugely popular, was a flash-in-the-pan success.

"Actually the last six months were the best we ever had in terms of my group," Hogeg said, citing three exits totalling $250 million (£193 million), including the Mobli patent sale, the sale of ride-hailing firm Juno to GetTaxi, and the sale of medical startup GeneSort to Hong Kong-based AID Partners.

As for Sirin, Hogeg said it had pivoted to a "less expensive phone" which would be announced soon.

Hogeg isn't working alone to encourage more blockchain startups in Israel. His VC firm Singulariteam has partnered two local firms, Blockchain IL and CoinTree Capital, to form a kind of blockchain and ICO consultancy called "Alignment."

According to a statement, Alignment will "consult, develop and fund Blockchain early-stage projects and existing companies, from inception through ICO, and beyond." Startups will need to pay for the privilege, and Alignment's listed clients to date include Bancor, messaging app Kik, and Stox — Bancor conducted a $153 million (£118 million) ICO, while Kik has a $125 million (£97 million) ICO planned for September.

Original author: Shona Ghosh

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AP/Eric Risberg

There are now dozens of companies that can legally test self-driving cars in California, which is quickly evolving into a mecca for the new transportation technology.

Samsung became the latest firm to get permission from California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DOV) on Thursday as it looks to keep up with rivals like Google and Apple.

The DOV added Samsung to an online list of companies that can legally test self-driving cars on public roads across The Golden State. As a result, Samsung will be able to test a Toyota Prius and two Audi A3s, according to a DOV spokesperson cited by The Financial Times.

Samsung made its ambitions in the autonomous car market clear in March this year when it acquired automotive supplier Harman International for $8 billion (£6 billion).

The South Korean tech giant was given permission to test self-driving cars in its home country in May.

Samsung did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

There are now almost 40 companies with permits to test self-driving cars in California. Others include BMW, Honda, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Waymo (owned by Google parent company Alphabet), and Drive.ai.

Here is the full list:

Volkswagen Group of America Mercedes Benz Waymo Delphi Automotive Tesla Motors Bosch Nissan GM Cruise LLC BMW Honda Ford Zoox, Inc. Drive.ai, Inc. Faraday & Future Inc. Baidu USA LLC Wheego Electric Cars Inc. Valeo North America, Inc. NextEV USA, Inc. Telenav, Inc. NVIDIA Corporation AutoX Technologies Inc Subaru Udacity, Inc Navya Inc. Renovo.auto UATC LLC (Uber) PlusAi Inc Nuro, Inc CarOne LLC Apple Inc. Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation Pony.AI TuSimple Jingchi Corp SAIC Innovation Center, LLC Almotive Inc Aurora Innovation Nullmax Samsung Electronics

Original author: Sam Shead

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The Lloyd's of London building, home to a global insurance market. Milan Gonda/Shutterstock

LONDON — More than £200 million has been invested into UK "InsurTech" — insurance technology startups — so far this year amid a flood of interest from investors, according to new figures from Accenture.

The consultancy said on Friday that £218 million has been invested into InsurTech businesses in the first half of 2017, according to an analysis of figures from venture capital tracking company CB Insights. That's up from just £7.8 million of investment in the first half of 2016, representing a 2695% jump.

Roy Jubraj, Accenture’s Digital & Innovation Lead for Insurance, said in a statement: "2017 is looking like the year of UK insurtech, with a dramatic increase in investment and deals in the last 12 months."

The figures are bulked up by a blockbuster £180 million investment in startup Gryphon Insurance in June. However, even when this deal is stripped out UK InsurTech investment activity rose by 422% in the first half of 2017.

Jubraj says: "Europe overall is gathering momentum, with the UK topping the table and confirming its place as a global hub for insurtech."

Earlier this week well-known Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel led a $10 million seed investment into Berlin-based digital insurance startup Coya, signalling increasing global interest in European "InsurTech."

Unheard of a few years ago, InsurTech has become one of the hottest areas of investment for venture capitalists over the last 18 months. Inspired by the success of fintech startups, investors and entrepreneurs are keen to take on the paper-heavy world of insurance and bring it into the digital and mobile age.

Jubraj says: "The explosion of data made available by an increasingly connected world is bringing unprecedented change and allowing modern insurers to understand customers and create personalised, dynamic relationships with consumers.

"Investors can see the potential in this and are backing efforts to unlock the value of technologies. That is why we are seeing deals that range from an app for buying short-term car insurance to a connected home solution that complements home insurance policies."

Accenture says that London is the "undisputed centre for European insurtech investment with 30% of all deals in the continent taking place in the city." London is home to global insurance market Lloyd's of London and has long been an international hot spot for insurance. Berlin and Paris are the next biggest hubs for InsurTech investment, Accenture says.

Original author: Oscar Williams-Grut

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Dozens of tech-industry titans are joining forces to urge President Donald Trump to maintain protections for undocumented immigrants who are covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

That program, better known by the acronym DACA, is an Obama-era policy that shields immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the US illegally as children.

Trump was expected to announce changes to DACA on Friday, ahead of a deadline by which 10 attorneys general threatened to sue over the program if Trump did not take action.

Executives from Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many others echoed other business leaders in their letter to Trump, saying "All DACA recipients grew up in America, registered with our government, submitted to extensive background checks, and are diligently giving back to our communities and paying income taxes." their joint letter read.

"Our economy would lose $460.3 billion from the national GDP and $24.6 billion in Social Security and Medicare tax contributions," if DACA recipients lose their protections and face deportation, the letter continued, calling dreamers "vital to the future of our companies and our economy."

(L to R) Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon, Larry Page, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc. (parent company of Google), Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, Vice President-elect Mike Pence listen as President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting of technology executives at Trump Tower, December 14, 2016 in New York City. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The letter was posted on FWD.us, a bipartisan organization backed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other top tech industry executives. Dozens of them have signed the letter, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who wrote in a separate statement on Thursday: "DACA recipients bring a wide array of educational and professional backgrounds that enable them to contribute in crucial ways to our nation’s workforce."

Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post, "I stand with the Dreamers -- the young people brought to our country by their parents. Many have lived here as long as they can remember. Dreamers have a special love for this country because they can't take living here for granted."

Silicon Valley luminaries and corporate CEOs have increasingly leaned in on Trump recently. Several chief executives rebuked the president over his handling of the white nationalist Charlottesville protests that turned deadly on August 12.

Trump has previously wavered on his support for DACA, saying in February, "We are going to deal with DACA with heart," and calling the deliberations "very, very difficult."

Original author: Bryan Logan

The National Labor Relations Board has filed an official complaint against Tesla, saying the company violated workers' rights by suppressing their unionization efforts.

Tesla will have to submit an answer to the charges on or before September 14 and appear at a hearing before an NLRB administrative law judge in Oakland, California, that will begin November 14.

The United Auto Workers, a labor union, and three Tesla employees submitted separate complaints in April claiming the company had coerced employees trying to aid a unionization effort into silence. The NLRB said it has found merit to the charges and filed them into one official complaint.

The complaint says Tesla forced employees to sign a restrictive confidentiality agreement that prevented them from organizing or discussing their work conditions. It also claims some Tesla security guards and human-resources employees intimidated factory workers who were trying to pass out leaflets regarding the union organizing efforts and asked them to leave the premises.

Some workers at Tesla's Fremont factory have been calling for a union since the the beginning of this year. Those part of the union effort say they regularly face excessive mandatory overtime and dangerous work conditions.

"These allegations, which have been filed by the same contingent of union organizers who have been so outspoken with media, are entirely without merit," a Tesla spokesperson said in a statement. "We will obviously be responding as part of the NLRB process.”

“As we approach Labor Day weekend, there’s a certain irony in just how far the UAW has strayed from the original mission of the American labor movement, which once advocated so nobly for the rights of workers and is the reason we recognize this important holiday. Faced with declining membership, an overwhelming loss at a Nissan plant earlier this month, corruption charges that were recently leveled against union leaders who misused UAW funds, and failure to gain traction with our employees, it’s no surprise the union is feeling pressured to continue its publicity campaign against Tesla. For seven years, the UAW has used every tool in its playbook: misleading and outright false communications, unsolicited and unwelcomed visits to the homes of our employees, attempts to discredit Tesla publicly in the media, and now another tactic that has been used in every union campaign since the beginning of time – baseless ULP filings that are meant only to generate headlines. These allegations, which have been filed by the same contingent of union organizers who have been so outspoken with media, are entirely without merit. We will obviously be responding as part of the NLRB process.”

Get the latest Tesla stock price here.

Original author: Danielle Muoio

BIITechnology is disrupting nearly every part of our daily lives.

Smartphones have allowed us to stay connected to each other at literally every moment of our lives, whether it's on our daily commutes or on faraway vacations.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is making us more connected than ever with smart home devices that can control our lights and thermostats and order food for us with simple voice commands.

Robo advisors are making investing more accessible and more affordable for everyone.

And the list is growing.

Almost every industry has been disrupted by digital technologies over the past decade. And, in 2017 we expect to see more revolutionary developments impacting our businesses, careers, and lives.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together a list of 30 Big Tech Predictions for 2017 across Mobile, Digital Media, Payments, IoT, E-Commerce, and Fintech. Some of these major predictions include:

Autonomous car road testsSnapchat and Amazon rattling the digital ad spaceVR hardware competing with popular gaming consolesThe grocery industry making the move onlineMobile wallets adding value to usersInsurtech ascending with investments from legacy players and tech giantsSocial video taking 2017 by storm

This comprehensive list of 30 predictions can be yours for free today. As an added bonus, you will gain immediate access to the team’s exclusive FREE newsletter, BI Intelligence Daily.

To get your copy of this slide deck, simply click here.

Original author: BI Intelligence

Thanks to smartphones, millions of people around the globe are turning into prolific photographers. According to estimates from InfoTrends, people will take a hundred billion more photos in 2017 than they did in 2016. As highlighted by this chart from Statista — which is based on the InfoTrends' data — the vast majority of those photos will be taken on smartphones. 

Sales of digital cameras have drastically declined over the years, dropping from 121.5 million in 2010 to an estimated 13 million in the first half of 2016, according to the Camera and Imaging Products Association. The sophistication of smartphone cameras allows everyday users to take high-quality pictures easily, and for most consumers, it makes no sense to spend extra money on a separate device just to take photographs.

The popularity of social-media sites including Facebook and Instagram has likely played another key role in the rise of smartphone cameras, since it's generally much easier to upload photos from a smartphone than from stand-alone cameras. Mike Nudelman/Business Insider

Original author: Caroline Cakebread

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is speaking out in favor of DREAMers Getty Images/Stephen Brashear

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took to LinkedIn on Thursday to stand up for the DREAMers — undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.

With President Trump reportedly considering ending an Obama-era program that protected such immigrants from deportation, Nadella defended "smart immigration" policies, saying they can "help our economic growth and global competitiveness."  

"We care deeply about the DREAMers who work at Microsoft and fully support them. We will always stand for diversity and economic opportunity for everyone," he wrote. 

Nadella also discussed his own immigration story. As a child, he was inspired by the "ingenuity of American technology." Later, he was able to come to the US to pursue his dreams thanks to the country's then-welcoming immigration polices. 

"This is the America that I know and of which I am a proud citizen," he wrote. "This is the America that I love and that my family and I call home. And this is the America that I will always advocate for." 

Nadella's note followed a post on Microsoft's official blog by Brad Smith, the company's president. Microsoft is "deeply concerned" at the prospect of Trump ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects DREAMers, Smith wrote, noting that the move would affect 27 company employees. Over the next decade, the program's end could cost the American economy $460 billion in lost gross domestic product, and could mean $24.6 billion less in contributions to Social Security and Medicare, he said, citing unnamed studies. 

"DACA recipients bring a wide array of educational and professional backgrounds that enable them to contribute in crucial ways to our nation’s workforce," he wrote.

This isn't the first time Microsoft officials have raised their voices to oppose Trump's immigration policies. The company and Nadella also issued a statement when Trump announced his plan to ban immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Earlier this year, Nadella spoke at the White House, talking about his path to the American dream and advocating for diversity and opportunity for all. 

You can read Nadella's full statement here.

Get the latest Microsoft stock price here.

Original author: Caroline Cakebread

Flooding in Simonton, Texas, left by Hurricane Harvey and its remnant storms.DigitalGlobeAs eastern Texas saw its first clear skies and sunshine in days on Wednesday, satellites in space got to work photographing the damage left by Hurricane Harvey.

Harris County and the Greater Houston area in Texas, which is home to roughly 5 million people, took the brunt of the storm's record-breaking rainfall.

So far only drones and airplanes have been able to perform photo surveys from above the storm's devastation, which claimed dozens of lives.

On Thursday, however, companies like Deimos Imaging, UrtheCast, and DigitalGlobe — which operate satellites in orbit and sell the image data — released a fresh batch of before-and-after photos of Texas.

Here are some of the most revealing views of the devastation. To compare pre- and post-Harvey images, drag the slider to the left and right.

Original author: Dave Mosher

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Douugh

There is nothing quite like checking your bank statement at the end of the month and realizing you’ve spent a small fortune on $7 lattes.

Managing money is tough. And when your money is spread across multiple accounts and apps like Stash, Robinhood, and Venmo, it's can be even harder.

A new app from Australian entrepreneur Andy Taylor could make things a lot easier. 

Called Douugh, the app is designed to be a financial control center. More intriguingly, it employs an intelligent virtual assistant named Sophie to help users fully understand and manage their finances. 

Users start by plugging in all their bank account information into Sophie. Once she has access to those, she's able to use them to map out users' financial situations. From there, she can categorize users' spending and see if they're living beyond their means.

You can interact with Sophie via an in-app chatbot. If you ask her, "How much did I spend on food this week?" she'll not only answer your question, she'll tell you if that amount is higher than usual and even help you set a spending target for the rest of the month.

Taylor previously worked at SocietyOne, a marketplace lending platform he cofounded. While there, he realized how much of a problem financial literacy was in Australia and the US. That led him to launch Douugh last year. 

"I got quite excited about how we could use tech to empower customers to manage their money and fast track them to financial freedom," Taylor said. 

Right now, Sophie is in training mode. Taylor said the company will remain in beta for the rest of the year and launch in February once Sophie has been trained on enough data. Eventually, Douugh plans to build out a full suite of financial products and make Sophie accessible via Alexa and Siri, he said.

In the future, Sophie could serve as a kind of personal banker for users, operating on autopilot and making transactions. For example, if Sophie sees that you're about to be charged an overdraft fee for an account you've kept empty, Sophie could transfer a few dollars from another account to prevent it. 

"Sophie should really be like a genie on your shoulder that has got your back with your finances," Taylor said. 

Trusting your money to an invisible bot may sound like a terrifying prospect, but that's part of the reason why Douugh is going slowly and not rushing towards an official launch. The company wants to make sure its taken the necessary steps to secure the data it collects from users and is ready to handle anything hackers could throw its way. 

"We take that stuff very seriously, which is why we aren't rushing into voice activation," Taylor said. "We want to get everything down pat before we deal with the fun stuff." 

Getting people to a place where they can ask a voice assistant to pay their rent might be a long way off. But much sooner than that, people will need to have an AI "genie" like Sophie to understand their finances. 

"In the next few years, your money will be everywhere, in so many apps, you'll need some way to make sense of it all," he said.

Original author: Caroline Cakebread

Here's me, swinging my virtual lightsaber around. Matt Weinberger/Business Insider

If you ask Apple, the next big thing in computing is augmented reality, or AR — the technology for overlaying digital imagery on the real world. Indeed, when the iPhone 8 launches on September 12th, expect AR to be a big focus.

The eventual goal, as promised by Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and startups like Magic Leap, is a pair of smart glasses that combine the digital and physical world. From there, why would you need a smartphone? After all, your text messages, Instagram feed, and Netflix would just pop up in your field of vision.

Well, we're not there yet. The first version of Google Glass was a famous fiasco; Microsoft's HoloLens is on the market, but it costs a cool $1,500 and is clearly meant for businesses and the earliest of the early adopters.

But if you need a sign that this is where things are headed, look to a galaxy far, far away.

On Thursday, Disney and Lenovo unveiled "Star Wars: Jedi Challenges," a $199 augmented reality headset that lets you lightsaber battle with Darth Vader and lead Resistance troops into combat. And while it's far from perfect, it's a sure sign that the augmented reality revolution is way closer to reality than people might think. 

Here's a trailer showing off what "Jedi Challenges" is all about:

I got some hands-on time with "Jedi Challenges" at a Disney event earlier in August. And to make a long story short, I think a lot of people are going to want this headset. Pre-orders for "Jedi Challenges" begin on Friday at Best Buy and Lenovo's online store, for delivery some time later this year.

A more elegant weapon

First, and most importantly, "Jedi Challenges" is a lot of fun.

In my demo, I swung the lightsaber controller to fight off Kylo Ren, the villain of the upcoming "Star Wars: The Last Jedi." The headset does a pretty reasonable job of making you think he's in the room with you, given the early stages of the technology. When you hold the lightsaber in your field of vision, it extends out a digital blade. The game is launching with 6 villains that you can fight, including Darth Maul.

Other modes include a strategy game where you act as the field general to the forces of the Resistance as they combat the villainous First Order. I didn't get to try it, but the concept of literally ordering virtual X-Wing fighters around my living room to attack is irresistible.

Fighting Kylo Ren in "Star Wars: Jedi Challenges." Disney

Finally, "Jedi Challenges" will feature "Holochess," the holographic chess game played by Chewbacca and C-3PO in 1977's "Star Wars: A New Hope." That's a pretty exciting inclusion for the discerning "Star Wars" fan.

There are some limitations: The motion-tracking for the lightsaber sometimes failed, even in my short demo, with that virtual blade jutting off at an awkward 90-degree angle. I was able to reset it, and it didn't interfere with my enjoyment. More worryingly, there's no multiplayer of any kind, at least in its current form. 

With that said, "Jedi Challenges" represents a notable technical achievement. 

Got it where it counts

Like Samsung's Gear VR, or Google's low-cost Cardboard virtual reality gear, the "Jedi Challenges" headset requires you to slot in your own smartphone to provide the computing muscle. And it comes with a bright purple "beacon" that you need to put on the floor in front of you, giving the system a point of reference for when it projects images.

Otherwise, it's self-contained. You put on the headset, and pick up the (very hefty, very solid-feeling) lightsaber controller, and you are a Jedi, like your father before you. 

It should be noted, right off the bat, that "Jedi Challenges" pulls off some impressive technical feats. For example, the Microsoft HoloLens has a very limited field-of-view — meaning that the digital imagery is only visible in a small section of your vision.

Matt Weinberger/Business Insider

"Jedi Challenges," by contrast, has a much wider field-of-view, encompassing most of the area in front of you. And this headset uses what's called "inside-out positional tracking," an inside-baseball term for a headset that doesn't require an exterior camera to track the movements of your head. 

There are some trade-offs, however. To achieve that wider field-of-view using a smartphone's limited processing power, the resolution is fairly low, meaning things get blurry if you stare too close. And if there are plans to add more content later, Disney and Lenovo are staying mum for now, meaning it's pretty limited, all told.

And yet, the fact that there's going to be a consumer AR headset, for $199, that works, and works pretty well, before the end of 2017, is kind of crazy. I would never have thought it would get this close, so soon. But I guess nobody told Disney and Lenovo the odds.

Original author: Matt Weinberger

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When Qadium CEO Tim Junio walks into a sales meeting, he employs an unusual tactic.

"We tell the prospect something they don't know about themselves," Junio told Business Insider.

It's not a new-age spiritual thing. Qadium is in the business of scanning the public internet to make sure its customers' devices aren't outside of their corporate firewalls, leaving those customers vulnerable to attack. After all, in 2016, attackers used insecure printers, DVRs, and other appliances to essentially take numerous major websites, including Amazon, Netflix and Twitter, offline.

So potential security problems are things that most CEOs want to know about. But when it comes to sales, figuring out how to talk about such issues is also a matter of reading the room, Junio said.

If you point out that a CEO's favorite Android tablet is a risk, you could embarrass her; if you find that programmers have been operating a contraband server for months, you risk embarrassing the same security team you're hoping will buy your service.

"It is definitely awkward, depending on the audience," he said.

Qadium and Junio may be in for a lot more awkward conversations, thanks to a new boost in funding that will allow it to expand its sales team. The company, which counts Capital One and CVS among its mostly big-business customers, announced Thursday that it's raised $40 million in a new round of financing that was led by IVP. That brings its total funding to $65 million. 

The road Junio traveled to becoming the head of a fast-growing security startup began at the CIA before taking him to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Here's how Qadium emerged from that journey — and where the company will go next.

'We didn't know what the destiny was going to be'

Junio started his career at the CIA, working on assessing computer systems for the risk of cyberattack.

His research in that field led him to DARPA, an agency of the US Department of Defense that's famous for helping create the precursor to the internet. At DARPA, Junio met Matt Kraning, a Stanford graduate student who was consulting with the agency on his own cyber-defense research. 

The two hit it off, given their shared interests. They soon they had so many ideas around cybersecurity that they would have to leave DARPA to explore them all. And so in 2012, they formed Qadium. Initially, they lacked a business plan, because they formed the organization as a vehicle for experimentation and trying new technologies.

Qadium's technology scans the open internet and finds devices that are potentially exposed. Qadium

"We founded the company for [research and development]," Junio said. "We didn't know what the destiny was going to be."

Qadium thrived for years, taking in $10 million in DARPA grants and winning deals with government agencies. It didn't have product per se; instead, the agencies called Qadium in to apply its research to real-world problems.

By 2015, Junio and Kraning looked back and realized that, over time, they had done the "foundational development" for a commercial product. And so, the modern Qadium was born. 

'How right we were'

Qadium's service, which it calls Expander, scans the public internet on behalf of its customers, looking for exposed devices. The startup promises to alert customers about rogue, unprotected gadgets within an hour of finding them by sending push notifications to their IT departments.

Expander relies on a few different methods to pick a specific customer's device out of the billions of gadgets connected to the internet, Junio said. Sometimes, it relies on a sophisticated algorithm that looks for the characteristics of devices associated with particular customers' networks. Other times, the service can find devices through much simpler techniques, such as taking note when an iPhone uses a customer's company name in its network description, he said. 

Qadium is betting that IT departments want to know precisely which devices they they do (and don't) have on the internet, regardless of how those gadgets are detected. While many startups initially target smaller companies, Qadium is pitching its service at larger corporations, with an average deal price in the six figures, Junio said.

So far, that focus looks like it was a smart bet. The company is gaining traction among many of the Fortune 500, he said.

Indeed, Junio said, Qadium has been surprised by "how right we were and how quickly."

With its new funding, Qadium plans to expand from 60 employees to 80 by the end of the year. Many of its new hires will be in sales and marketing.

Those new employees will be welcome additions, Junio said, because he, Kraning, and other executives have been doing the sales pitches themselves. That's despite the fact that they have "no experience in enterprise sales and marketing."

Original author: Matt Weinberger