Fixed Raises $1.2 Million For A Mobile App That Fights Your Parking Tickets For You
by Sarah Perez (@sarahintampa)
Fixed, the clever mobile application that helps you fight your parking tickets just by snapping a photo of the ticket with your mobile phone, has now closed on $1.2 million in seed funding. Investors in the round include Y Combinator, Merus Capital, Scott Banister, John Cobbs, Mark Randolph, Matt Humphries, Eric Wu and David King.
Headquartered in San Francisco, which also serves as its debut market, Fixed first launched this January, allowing residents to snap photos of their tickets using an iOS device. Afterwards, Fixed checks for common errors before proceeding to write a customized contest letter on your behalf, which is sent to the city.
The company recently opened up its waitlist to the entire San Francisco metro area and has since seen 35,000 users sign up for its service.
fixed-appSo what does the city think of Fixed? Apparently, not much.
While the app hasn’t seen explicit pushback from the city the way that some other transportation or “sharing economy” startups have, San Francisco hasn’t been entirely cooperative, either, Fixed’s co-founder claims.
“San Francisco doesn’t have a way to submit a contest electronically, they insist that you mail it in,” explains co-founder David Hegarty, who created the company after receiving what he felt were several erroneously issued tickets. “After one or two contests got ‘lost in the mail’ we started faxing our submissions so we’d have an electronic record of delivery,” he says of Fixed’s early days.
“This week, they emailed us a pretty curt email to tell us ‘Stop using the fax machine’. No reason given” he continues. “After we politely pointed out that the Californian Vehicle Code allowed for the submission of Contests via Fax, they shut off the fax machine.”
Um, yikes.
But Fixed believes it’s operating within the law, and is now seeing around 1 percent of the city’s some 28,000 weekly parking tickets filtered through its app – or, around 300+ tickets per week. The company was in private beta since March, and has been growing its volume at 25 percent to 35 percent week-over-week, and more so since removing the waitlist function last month.
As for the tickets themselves, win rates are at 20 percent to 30 percent, depending on the violation type. Some violations are prone to errors, and with those Fixed has a higher win rate, Hegarty explains, while others are more difficult to contest.
But he also believes that Fixed’s win rate would be higher if the SFMTA followed the rules of the San Francisco Transportation Code and Californian Vehicle Code. “They are absolute sticklers for the law when issuing the ticket – no mercy or sense of fairness – but when it comes to the rules on how a citation must be properly written and contested, they take a very ‘lax’ interpretation of the rules to suit them,” he proclaims.
As for how his company plans to keep the city honest, so to speak, Hegarty couldn’t yet say, noting that Fixed would be weighing its options there.
Despite these challenges, Fixed’s seed round was oversubscribed, forcing the startup to turn money away.
With the additional funds, the company plans to now expand in San Francisco, increase its marketing efforts, and hire advocates to meet the increasing ticket volumes.
Today, the company has six employees in its office and 10 to 12 – dubbed Fixed’s “Ticket Heroes” – on the street. These are the first responders for the incoming tickets and are responsible for checking them for errors.
Longer term, if Fixed is able to scale its business to critical mass in San Francisco, the larger goal is to then take that blueprint to expand the service to other cities around the U.S., including New York, L.A. and Chicago for starters. The hope is to establish Fixed as a viable service in the U.S.’s top 100 cities within just two years – which seems fairly ambitious given the local pushback the startup has already received.
Bose sues Beats over headphone noise-cancellation patents
BY ANDREW CHUNG
(Reuters) – High-end sound system and headphone maker Bose Corp is going after the newer kid on the block, Beats Electronics, with a lawsuit accusing Beats of infringing several patents related to noise-cancellation technology.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Delaware, Bose said Beats had willfully infringed upon five of its patents,which Beats allegedly uses in its Studio and Studio Wireless line of headphones. Bose said it had lost profits and sales as a result.
Bose was seeking unspecified damages from Beats, which Apple Inc announced this year it would acquire for $3 billion.
Privately held Bose also filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission seeking to prevent Beats’ noise-cancellation headphones from being imported into the United States from China.
“We are committed to protecting our investment, protecting our customers, and defending the patents we own,” a Bose representative said in a statement. Beats declined to comment.
Founded by rap mogul Dr. Dre and music producer Jimmy Iovine in 2006, Beats headphones have become popular with music fans.
Apples deal to acquire Beats is pending regulatory approval. If the deal is consummated, the Bose lawsuit would be another legal front for Apple, which is already waging patent battles with companies such as Samsung.
In the filing, Bose said the patents relate to the company’s “active noise reduction” technology, first used in Bose products for the military in the 1980s and released for consumers in 2000.
Earlier this month, Beats filed a lawsuit in Illinois against unnamed individuals and businesses from China that it claimed sold counterfeit Beats products over the Internet. The company said it had a “worldwide anti-counterfeiting program” that regularly swept websites and marketplaces for suspicious products.
The suit is Bose Corp v. Beats Electronics LLC and Beats Electronics International Ltd, in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 14-cv-00980.
White House working on privacy guidelines for consumer drones
by Jeff John Roberts
Drones are a hot topic these days – not just the ones flying over Pakistan, but the growing number of lightweight and camera-equipped devices flying through American air. These consumer drones are on the verge of transforming a range of industries, from farming to news gathering, but are also creating conflicts – like this one at the beach – as people fear for their privacy.
In response, President Obama is preparing an executive order to develop privacy guidelines for commercial drones. According to Politico, the details are still under wraps but the White House has confirmed that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is bringing together companies and consumer groups to create a voluntary set of best practices.
The process may give a boost to consumer drone advocates, who believe that the many positive stories about drones, such as their role in search-and-rescue operations, are drowned out by sensationalist headlines about spying.
The term “drone” itself is controversial among some advocates, who prefer terms like “UAV” or unmanned-aerial-vehicle. But it appears to have caught on as more consumers and companies launch the devices.
The executive order process also comes as the FAA continues to fumble the process of developing rules to integrate unmanned aircraft into civilian airspace. The agency has banned the use of almost any commercial drone but it appears to have no legal basis for doing so. Right now, the FAA’s authority over drones near airports is clear, but otherwise it appears the power to police drones lies with state and local authorities.
As the legal details get sorted out, companies are pushing forward with all sorts of consumer drone plans. Amazon is chafing to start “Air Prime,” while drone start-up Airware just raised $25 million to build out its drone software that will let the devices used in more industries.
Verizon 4G LTE users to be subject to ‘Network Optimization’
Previously, only 3G users were tapped for optimization — what some say is throttling — designed to avoid clogs. But a report says that’s changing.
by Don Reisinger @donreisinger
Verizon Wireless is making a quick but potentially major change to the way it handles clogged networks.
Starting October 1, Verizon will expand its Network Optimization service to 4G LTE devices. Droid-Life was first to report on the change, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the carrier’s plans. Verizon previously used Network Optimization only for 3G customers.
Verizon’s Network Optimization was first unveiled in September 2011 and claimed to have affected only a small number of the company’s customers. Verizon’s Network Optimization analyzes data usage and traffic on both the user and cell tower level, and at times will harness speeds to ensure everyone connecting to its network is able to stay up and on the Web.
Though some have called Verizon’s Network Optimization speed throttling, the company is quick to point out in an FAQ on its website that it’s nothing of the sort. Instead, Verizon argues that its technique is far more intelligent than simply throttling data speeds.
“The difference between our Network Optimization practices and throttling is network intelligence,” Verizon says. “With throttling, your wireless data speed is reduced for your entire cycle, 100 percent of the time, no matter where you are. Network Optimization is based on the theory that all customers should have the best network possible, and if you’re not causing congestion for others, even if you are using a high amount of data, your connection speed should be as good as possible.” For more information on network intelligence and how to use it to resolve your business’s site problems, visit ThousandEyes.
“So, if you’re in the top 5 percent of data users, your speed is reduced only when you are connected to a cell site experiencing high demand,” the company continues on its FAQ page. “Once you are no longer connected to a site experiencing high demand, your speed will return to normal. This could mean a matter of seconds or hours, depending on your location and time of day.”
Essentially, Verizon’s Network Optimization affects only those with unlimited data plans and when both individual usage is high and a particular cell tower is experiencing heavy demand for data. Verizon pegs heavy-usage users at 4.7GB of data per month.
The big change, however, is that the service previously only affected 3G users, which made the pool of customers affected by it even smaller. With Verizon now planning to add 4G LTE users to the mix, more users could be affected.
For its part, Verizon has offered some solutions for potentially affected users. The company says that if users migrate to a More Everything plan, Network Optimization won’t affect them. In addition, users can switch to a Wi-Fi network or do a better job of managing data usage.
Update at 4:36 p.m. PT to include Verizon’s statement: Verizon has since posted a blog confirming the addition of 4G LTE devices to its Network Optimization platform. Here’s what the company had to say:
“We understand that our customers rely on their smartphones and tablets every day,” Verizon vice president Mike Haberman wrote. “Our network optimization policy provides the best path to ensure a continued great wireless experience for all of our customers on the best and largest wireless network in the US.”
Unlocking phones in the US will soon be legal
Congress passes unlocking bill, and Obama plans to sign
By Jacob Kastrenakes
Consumers in the US will soon be able to legally unlock their phones for use on other wireless networks. The House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill this afternoon legalizing cell phone unlocking, following the lead of the US Senate earlier this summer. President Obama came out in support of the policy over a year ago, spurring this activity in Congress, and now all that’s left is for him to sign this bill into law – which the president has said that he’ll do.
“The bill Congress passed today is another step toward giving ordinary Americans more flexibility and choice, so that they can find a cell phone carrier that meets their needs and their budget,” Obama says in a statement. “I commend Chairmen Leahy and Goodlatte, and Ranking Members Grassley and Conyers for their leadership on this important consumer issue and look forward to signing this bill into law.”
“IT WILL PROVIDE GREATER COMPETITION AND MORE CONSUMER CHOICE.”
The bill, known as the “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act,” directs the Library of Congress to allow consumers and third-parties to legally unlock phones that were received through a carrier. Carriers have always been able to unlock these phones on their own, but until recently they often had convoluted and arbitrary rules governing if and when they would actually unlock one. This is in contrast to other countries, such as the United Kingdom, where unlocking a phone is an easy service – click here for more info – available without question.
Today’s legislation will not permanently allow legal phone unlocking, however. The rule will be reconsidered by the Library of Congress once again in 2015 and every three years thereafter unless circumstances should change. It appears unlikely that unlocking will be banned again next year given the wide support for it, but there may be a continued struggle for its legalization in the future.
“The cell phone unlocking bill has a direct impact on Americans as we become more reliant on our wireless devices,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says in a statement. “This bipartisan bill is pro-consumer and pro-competition and allows for greater ease in the portability of devices. It will provide greater competition and more consumer choice.”
