Xero
Latest
Square makes accounting easier for merchants by integrating with Xero
Square can make accepting credit cards easy for small businesses. Things get less simple, however, when it comes time to do the books for those businesses -- something that often involves painstakingly inputting Square transactions into accounting software manually. To lessen that misery, last November Square launched a partnership with QuickBooks, and today the company announced another integration, this time with accounting program Xero.
Google, HelloFax, Manilla, Fujitsu and others urge you to go paperless in 2013
Even with the popularity of cloud computing and terabyte servers, most US offices are still drowning in a sea of dead trees; around 10,000 sheets of paper a year per worker, according to the EPA. Enter Paperless 2013, a campaign that will email you monthly tips on how to make the paperless office a reality. It's funded by the "Paperless Coalition," a group of digital solution companies comprised of Google Drive, HelloFax, Manilla, HelloSign, Expensify, Xero and Fujitsu ScanSnap -- none of which have any ulterior motive behind encouraging this paper-free existence. None at all. Of course, you don't have to go with these specific companies to go eco-friendly (Dropbox and PDFPen are a couple of other options) but if you need some advice on how to shed those wasteful printing habits, then go ahead and sign up at the source. Or you could do what we did and unplug our printers altogether -- just in case it gets possessed.
Xero's eBoard Neo skateboard is battery-powered, gun-controlled
It may not be the first electric skateboard, or the fastest, or the least skateboard-like, but Xero's new eBoard Neo is controlled by a gun, and that's got to count for something. In addition to attracting attention from the law, this board will propel you along with ease at 14 miles per hour, hit 0 to 20 (kilometers, presumably) in just four seconds, and last for around 13.5 miles on a single charge -- a complete recharge will take three to four hours. At £220 (or just over $360), however, this one doesn't exactly come cheap, although you can also snag the slightly less speedy (and gun-less) eBoard Junior or eBoard Flow for £120 and £150, respectively, or step up to the heavy duty eBoard Pro for £250.
ROK's acquisition of Xero officially now a vapor-acquisition
We certainly can't give Xero Mobile credit for launching any actual product -- because they haven't -- but we're all about giving credit where credit is due, and in Xero's case, we've gotta hand it to 'em for continuing the magnificent vaporware parade for as long as they have. It's now been nearly 14 months since the ad revenue-supported MVNO had originally claimed to be targeting a launch, and as far as we can tell, they're still doing something behind the scenes; that "something" may have absolutely nothing to do with actually launching, but hey, announcing partnerships and potential acquisitions must pay the bills, we suppose. Speaking of potential acquisitions, suitor ROK Entertainment has unceremoniously dropped its bid this week without giving any rhyme or reason, leading us to wonder where this leaves Xero's liquidity -- do they have enough money to continue trying to sell themselves, let alone launch an MVNO?
Xero Mobile in yet another round of acquisition talks
The fact that former Gizmondo peeps are still associated with the vaporware artists at Xero Mobile would send most would-be investors sprinting in the opposite direction, we'd think, but what do we know? After announcing a series of stock swaps, partnerships with companies we've never heard of (whose execs just happen to be on Xero's management team), and failed buyouts, ROK Entertainment Group -- which offers video downloads to phones, apparently -- has inexplicably announced an interest in acquiring the perpetual hype machine. If we had to guess, we'd figure that there's some sort of shady business deal going on behind the scenes that lets parties involved make yet another obscene profit without actually launching any actual product, but we've gotta ask: just how many times can the same team of scam artists run the same con and continue to pad their wallets without getting busted? All we need to see, Xero, is a functional website where we can sign up for one of your ad revenue-subsidized plans you've been touting for ages, and we'll start to believe. Honest!
Blyk: another MVNO enters the ads-for-minutes fold
We're not entirely sure what chemical they've put in the water in the past couple years to make everyone suddenly think that cellphone users want to get blasted with ads in exchange for airtime -- but alas, please welcome Blyk (not to be confused with "bilk") to the party. The upstart Finnish MVNO, put together by an ex-Nokia exec, looks to target young Europeans aged 16 to 24 as soon as next summer by hooking them up with questionnaires that will allow advertisers to send ultra-targeted ads based on lifestyle, hobbies, and preferences. Blyk claims that most handsets already on the market will be compatible with its service -- even those without graphical displays -- suggesting that most ads will initially fly over SMS. The company is making a big stink over the fact that they're the first to suggest that this is a good idea; we think Xero Mobile would beg to differ, but that's one chicken we won't be counting 'til it hatches.[Via Smart Mobs]
Xero allegedly in talks to sell company
In an announcement that (as far as we can tell) brings them no closer to having an actual -- what's the word we're looking for? -- product, would-be MVNO Xero Mobile is saying that they've "entered into discussions" to be bought out by a management company. To refresh everyone's memory, Xero is that fabulous group of ex-Gizmondo employees looking to adapt the oh-so-successful Gizmondo business model to mobile phones, apparently with the goal of providing free phone service to college students. Xero CEO du jour Roger Davis says "We're excited about the opportunity to work with the new team," which we think is execu-speak for "We're excited to watch this press release marginally boost our share price, dump our holdings, and forget this whole thing ever happened," but we suppose we can't really be sure until that magic January 2007 date when Xero claims they'll be launching.[Via Techdirt]Update: RCR News indicates that the sale is now a done deal. A new operation going by "Advanced Mobile" has apparently completed a stock swap with Xero, though exact terms of the deal weren't disclosed. What's not immediately clear is whether Xero's existing executive team of ex-Gizmondo whiz kids will find their way to Advanced Mobile or whether the January '07 launch is still on, but we imagine we'll get hit up with some press releases from these folks before too long.
Gizmondo Execs land at Xero Mobile
Whenever a company asks us to modify anything on the site, we always conduct some research to determine if the item that offends the company is in fact false. Early yesterday morning, Xero Mobile asked us to remove a reader comment that was, in their view, incorrect. The comment suggested that Stefan Ericksson -- the now-jailed exec who totalled a million-dollar Enzo Ferrari and multi-million dollar games company Gizmondo -- still held an executive position at MVNO Xero Mobile. We removed the comment from Joystiq because we could find no proof that it was true. However, in doing this research, we did turn up information about Xero Mobile's connection to Ericksson's now-defunct Gizmondo. The most reliable source we could find on the subject was the venerable Financial Times, which states that "Peter Lilley, who headed up Gizmondo's Smart Adds business unit, David Levett who was formerly chief software architect at Gizmondo, and Rich Clayton, US producer for Gizmondo, are involved in setting up a new company called Xero Mobile, based in Beverley Hills." Plenty of others (Sean Ryan, Om Malik, Moco News, The Inquirer, to name a few) have chimed in on the linkage between the companies, and have further noted the similarities between Gizmondo's "Smart Adds" technology and the business model of Xero Mobile, which will provide free cell phone service to users who are willing to watch or listen to advertisements in exchange for that service. In short, we could find no link between Ericksson and Xero Mobile, though ample linkages exist between Xero and Gizmondo, according to multiple sources, some of them quite reliable.
Watch out: Xero merges, now a publicly traded company
Well wouldn't you know it, the same people behind Gizmondo who're now behind Xero Mobile (those that aren't in jail, anyway) have found a way to bypass an IPO in getting Xero as a publicly traded company. Basically they merged with Desi TV, a publicly traded company (that couldn't dig up even a little info on), swapped the ticker symbol to XRMB, and started trading on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board securities market. Oh, did we mention the first thing they did with their stock was split it 25-to-1? 25 to freaking 1, man! Peter Lilley, CEO of Xero Mobile (and former head of Gizmondo's Smart Adds division) seemed pretty stoked about "implementing [their] ground-breaking business plan." Uh, would that be the same business plan that sunk his former game company and lost a half a billion dollars? Right, dude. Investors beware; remember those who learned a hard lesson about that fateful UK-based game company that seemed eager to cash in on VCs and work a pump n' dump stock scam on all y'all.
