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Microsoft has released an extensive blog post that looks back at the history of Windows and then points to where it’s headed for the future. From the days of Windows 1, when reviews called the idea of a mouse “gimmicky,” “anti-productive,” and “uncomfortable,” to today when mice are potentially becoming irrelevant again (thanks to the prominence of touch control), there have been a lot of changes in the way we interact with computers.

And after analyzing this, Microsoft has determined what trends are most prevalent right now. Among those things the company has picked on are that a computer that isn’t connected to the Internet 24/7 is now an oddity, that people use their computers as social devices, and that laptops are quickly becoming far more popular than desktops. Incorporating that functionality, here are the defined goals of Windows 8:

1. Fast and fluid
2. Long battery life
3. Windows 8 apps
4. Live tiles
5. Time-saving
6. “Roam experiences” between PCs
7. Make PC a device, not a “computer”

“Our vision for Windows 8 was to create a modern, fast and fluid user experience that defines the platform for the next decade of computing. One which upends the way conventional people think about tablets and laptops and the role of the devices they carry.
We wanted to create an experience that works however you want to work, powering a new class of PCs that you are proud to own and love having in your life,” Microsoft’s Jensen Harris summed up.

[via MSDN]

Editor’s note: This guest post is written by Derek Andersen, who is the founder of StartupGrindand Vaporware Labs, and is a former entertainment development manager at Electronic Arts.

Paypal created a cost effective way to safely accept payments 10 years ago, but the web has changed dramatically and accepting payments has not. Enter Stripe, a company that in my opinion is going to get very influential over the next few years. At a recent Startup Grind event I interviewed 24-year old Irish co-founder Patrick Collison who has raised $18MM from Sequoia Capital and others. Patrick is leading a company poised to completely disrupt the online payment industry starting with your website.

Background

Patrick has the most valuable of Valley technology skillsets. He’s a technical prodigy having won numerous prestigious awards including Ireland’s 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2005, a national science competition which boasts hundreds of submissions each year from the country’s brightest young scientists. But he also has the personality and presence to be a leader and CEO. His two brothers are equally impressive. John is one of Stripe’s co-founders not to mention a Harvard dropout and one of the first engineers at Auctomatic. His youngest brother, Tommy, is a teenage blogger and writer that probably has more Twitter followers than most of us.

Y Combinator and Paul Graham

Patrick holds the distinction of literally being the face of Y Combinator. He’s the skinny red headed guy you see on the front of their website. While attending MIT at age 18, he and his brother decided to build a better version of eBay. After applying to YC they merged with Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar to build Auctomatic. They moved to an apartment in San Francisco, raised angel funding, and went to work. After launching and getting initial user traction, the company was acquired by Live Current Media and the founders moved to Vancouver to build the product. From start to finish the company’s pre-acquisition life span was just 10-months. Stripe was also eventually funded by YC.

Patrick said that YC’s founder network is one of its most valuable assets. “Having all these other people building startups and having them want to help us because we were a fellow YC company, that was super valuable for us.” He added that perhaps the greatest advantage to YC is that,  “Paul and the (other) partners are just really smart. There is no question that they are very top tier.” Because of the sheer quantity of deals and companies that they interact with combined with those smarts, they’re able to offer both specific and strategic feedback that is second to none.

What makes Paul special? According to Patrick, Paul Graham is able to make surprising ideas and connections that other investors and advisors simply aren’t able to make. What isn’t Paul Graham so good at? Patrick says, “He’s not good at feigning interest.”

Solving Hard Problems

 “The most striking example I know of schlep blindness is Stripe, or rather Stripe’s idea. For over a decade, every hacker who’d ever had to process payments online knew how painful the experience was. Thousands of people must have known about this problem. And yet when they started startups, they decided to build recipe sites, or aggregators for local events. Why? Why work on problems few care much about and no one will pay for, when you could fix one of the most important components of the world’s infrastructure? Because schlep blindness prevented people from even considering the idea of fixing payments.
Probably no one who applied to Y Combinator to work on a recipe site began by asking “should we fix payments, or build a recipe site?” and chose the recipe site. Though the idea of fixing payments was right there in plain sight, they never saw it, because their unconscious mind shrank from the complications involved.”

- Paul Graham, SchlepBlindness.

John and Patrick first started working on Stripe in early 2010.  The inspiration came when Patrick, who was working on a few side projects, kept complaining about how difficult it was to accept payments on the web.  The two quickly developed a simple solution and within 2-weeks they had processed their first transaction.  Over the next 6-months they showed it to friends, watched people interact with it, and iterated as fast as they could.

In the beginning they weren’t sure how big the market was or whether they could accomplish their goal of addressing issues like fraud and non-US payments in a user-friendly way.  They originally partnered with a payments company, but quickly realized that the only way to control the entire experience was to control all aspects of the process. That’s when they brought everything in house.

By the fall of 2010, Stripe had become their full-time jobs.  They thought about bootstrapping it, as they had to that point, but soon realized that as a payment startup they would need the kind of institutional credibility that only a top-notch investor could provide.

“Even Turkeys Can Fly In A High Wind”

Stripe’s most requested feature is to expand beyond the United States, which is something he assured me they’re working on. The team also recently moved from Palo Alto to San Francisco to accommodate their rapid expansion.

To date the company’s growth has been completely organic. Before they publicly launched last fall they had more than 1,000 developers on a waiting list and have grown almost exclusively by positive word of mouth. For those wondering why they haven’t heard of Stripe, it’s because true to Steve Blank’s Customer Development process, they have planned to turn on the marketing as soon as they were sure the product was right. Quoting from a Kleiner Perkins founder Eugene Kleiner saying, “Even turkeys can fly in a high wind.” Watch the full interview here.

AT&T has no shortage of value-priced phones, and just lately, a pretty good selection of 4G LTE devices as well. But the two haven’t crossed over much yet, and the ranks of Windows Phone 7 devices are a little slim as well. Happily, all three of these categories can add the Samsung Focus 2, which goes on sale starting today for $49.99 with a two-year contract. Is it worth your hard-earned greenbacks? Let’s find out.

Hardware

Samsung has become surprisingly adept at putting out quality smartphone hardware, even on the low-end of its range. In general build and quality, the Focus 2 feels like a shrunken version of the white Galaxy S II: compact, light, glossy and very solid. The hard plastic shell isn’t the thinnest available, but there’s nearly zero flex, and its gentle curves feel comfortable in the hand. Controls are found mounted within the silver ring surrounding the phone: volume on the left side, power and two-stage camera button (yes!) on the right.

The front of the device is dominated by a 4-inch, 480×800 Super AMOLED display. Margins on the side are small, but fatten out on the top and bottom to accommodate the speaker, front-facing camera and Windows Phone controls. The screen itself is rather typical of Samsung – if you like bright, saturated colors, you’ll be right at home, but if you’re more used to a 720p display or can’t stand the slight fuzziness of PenTile panels, you probably won’t be convinced.

Around the back you’ll find a battery door that uses Samsung’s “snap-on” technique, beneath which is the 1750mAh battery, MicroSIM card slot and not much else. The 5.0 megapixel camera sits next to a tiny speaker. There’s a clever little loop in the speaker grill that pushes up the back of the phone about a millimeter – this ensures that there’s always some space between the back of the phone and a flat surface for speakerphone or video calls. The speaker itself is a little weak, but not nearly so much as some of the others I’ve seen, such as the Galaxy S III.

Under the hood are some respectable specs, even if they won’t set the world on fire. A 1.4ghz single-core processor is paired to 512Mb of RAM – not the best out there, but as we’ll see later, plenty for Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. Internal storage is just 8GB, which you’ll have to make due with, since the Focus 2 lacks a MicroSD card slot. Naturally it’s got all the wireless bells and whistles with WiFi and Bluetooth accompanying 4G LTE. In the box you’ll get the standard wall-wart and data cable combo, plus a surprisingly nice headset with in-line music controls that matches the phone’s glossy white finish.

Software

If you’ve seen one Windows Phone, you’ve seen them all, at least from a software perspective. Aside from AT&T’s rather annoying additions (U-Verse, Navigator, Yellow Pages and more, all of which can be uninstalled) there are no surprises here. If you’re not already familiar with Mango, check out our review here.

The Focus 2 handles Mango with aplomb, even as a budget phone. Navigating the slick and unique interface was quick and fluid, and I didn’t start noticing any slowdown until I began running dozens of apps at once. Speaking of apps, there’s nothing to be done about the lack of them on WP7. While you should be able to find utilities for most tasks, the absence of big names like Pandora is hard to overlook.

Those who are familiar with Windows Phone, or perhaps more likely at this price point, those who haven’t used a smartphone before, will not be disappointed. If you’ve been spoiled for choice of apps on Android or iOS, or you just don’t live in a Windows world, you may want to look elsewhere. WP7 Mango is undeniably beautiful and it’ll handle all the basic tasks of the other big players, but a platform lives and dies on its software support.

Camera and Media

The 5-megapixel camera on the Focus 2 is pretty much what you’d expect: reliable enough for candid snapshots, but “serious” photographers (if the term can be applied to mobile phones at all) will be better served elsewhere. Even in good lighting, I found myself having to adjust the white balance settings for shots where the sun wasn’t directly visible. Colors were erratically over-saturated or muted.

Video is likewise lukewarm. With plenty of lighting the 720p sensor does well enough, but you’ll see some banding when moving around (and with a phone this light, it tends to happen a lot). The VGA front-facing camera is suitable only for video chat – self-pics will turn out better with the rear camera and a little guesswork.

All that said, the two-stage camera button is a fantastic addition (though standard on Windows Phone 7 devices). The shutter is quick to focus and it activated when pressed and held, even when the phone is off. I do not exaggerate when I say, I wish every single smartphone had a dedicated camera button, even when the camera itself is nothing to write home about.

Music is a standard experience, even if it is a little weak coming out of the phone’s speakers. It’s a good thing, then, that the pair of headphones included is a step above the general lot, with easy-to use in-line controls and a microphone. It’s nice to see this inclusion, which is all too often absent on more expensive devices. Video plays well enough, though if you’re constantly browsing YouTube or the like, you’ll want something with a larger screen.

Battery and radio

The 1750mAh battery on the Focus 2 is something more usually found in a much larger smartphone. The combination of an efficient screen and WP7′s generally un-demanding workload mean that the Focus 2 can ho surprisingly long without a charge. Despite some pretty heavy browsing and talking sessions, I couldn’t drain the Focus 2 to less than 40% of its capacity over a 12-hour workday. Those of you who are frustrated with puny run-times shouldn’t have a problem here.

Likewise, the call quality on the Focus 2 is surprising. Speaking with friends and family member across the country was sharp and clear, despite the generally spotty coverage in my mountainous area. While I don’t yet live in an AT&T 4G LTE coverage are, I was at full bars nearly all the time, though actual speeds were a bit disappointing in the 1 to 1.5mbps range, where other AT&T phones tend to get at least 2mbps.

Value

The Focus 2 is undeniably a good deal at $50 on contract. The combination of solid specs, great battery life and good ergonomics would make it an instant recommendation… if it weren’t for other AT&T phones too close to it in the price range. For $50 more you can get the excellent Nokia Lumia 900, which beats it in nearly every category and looks great to boot. If you’re wiling to switch to Android, the 4.5-inch HTC Vivid is just $49.99.

If you’re in an area without LTE or you simply don’t care about the faster data speeds, your options grow even more. There’s the still-respectable iPhone 3GS, currently going for a dollar on AT&T’s website, the original HTC Titan for just a penny, or the 720p LG Nitro HD for the same price. Don’t get me wrong, the Focus 2 is a solid phone… but if I had my heart set on it, I might wait a couple of months for the price to drop to free or practically so.

Wrap-up

The Samsung Focus 2 is a very tidy device, and currently the cheapest phone on AT&T to combine LTE and Windows Phone 7. Anyone who purchases it won’t be disappointed, especially those who require long battery life. That said, if a great camera or a big, high-res screen are in your list of must-haves, look elsewhere.

It’s also hard to recommend the Focus 2 above the Nokia Lumia 900. The extra fifty bones is worth it in basically every category. Likewise, the other alternatives mentioned above can get you access to more apps (if not such a polished OS) for the same or less money. The Focus 2 is ideal for those who want to get into Windows Phone 7 for as little money as possible, without sacrificing build quality or an LTE connection. The phone is on sale starting today for $49.99 with a two-year contract.

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here and the tablet app roundup here.

If you enjoy this roundup, feel free to upvote and comment on Reddit.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Official Android Police t-shirts are now on sale, with over 25 designs to call yours.

• Add The Android Police Edition On Google Currents Now!
• Car Lovers Unite: BBC Worldwide Release Official 'Top Gear' App
• 3 Best Android 3.0+ Apps For Tablets From Last Week (11/6/11 - 11/13/11) - The Mind-Blowing/Gorgeous Edition
• Flipboard APK Pulled From The Galaxy S III, Available For Download - We Go Hands-On
• New York Times App Review

33 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (5/5/12 - 5/20/12) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

When thinking of model places for workplace perks, the successful startups of Silicon Valley undoubtedly come to mind. And while heavy-hitters such as Google and Facebook are famous for their jaw-dropping employee amenities, up-and-coming mid-level companies are also getting in on the act.

Mashable took a tour of Zynga, a wildly popular distributor of some of the most played social and mobile games. When it comes to perks, the father of FarmVille doesn’t skimp. In fact, Zynga’s office is so loaded with perks and amenities, it would make working from home a bore.

Good Food

It’s not uncommon for tech companies in Silicon Valley and San Francisco to offer its employees catered lunches, but Zynga takes it further with meals cooked on-site by professional chefs. Each floor has a fully-stocked and themed kitchen, including a candy kitchen and a healthy “zen” kitchen.

Everything is prepared on-site — there’s even a pizza oven — and made with locally sourced ingredients. The company’s executive chef is Matthew DuTrumble, who was the youngest chef instructor at the California Culinary Academy and also had a show on the Food Network, Private Chefs of Beverly Hills. Want to eat some meat for lunch? The on-site butcher will take care of that in his two-floor kitchen.

If you’re more interested in keeping a good diet, there are always healthy options, including a fully loaded salad bar and freshly brewed Kombucha. The healthy options are an important perk, considering desk jobs are notorious for helping people pack on pounds.

Good Fun

In the basement, there is a lounge area packed with big screen TVs, a curved wood bar area and free beer on tap. If you’d rather unwind with a workout than an ice-cold beer, you can hit up the Zynga gym. Employees can take CrossFit classes, meet with a nutritionist or schedule a free massage.

And if you want to work and play with your canine friend, he’s more than welcome — every day is bring your dog to work day at Zynga. After all, the company is named after the CEO Mark Pincus’ late dog, Zinga.

Work Hard, Play Hard

Zynga provides hotel-like amenities to keep employees happy and retain (and attract) talent. Tech companies in particular are notorious for providing awesome on-site perks to encourage employees stay at work longer and up their productivity. Facebook offers employees a free shuttle to work, plus numerous “micro-kitchens” stocked with snacks, and a free cafeteria where employees are welcome to invite family members for lunch. Google has a golf course, basketball courts and nap pods for a mid-day snooze.

Zynga churned out six games in the first quarter of 2012, so the team is definitely working hard. Despite the long hours, the employees’ access to a spacious top-of-the-line gym, a team of chefs and all the free beer you can drink makes for quite the hook-up.

All the perks in the startup world make sense — several Gallup studies have shown a correlation between productivity and worker happiness, and Gallup estimates that organizations whose employees are not happy and engaged lose out on billions of dollars in potential revenue.

Check out the gallery of pics below to see some of the cool stuff they get to do at Zynga.

Work Life at Zynga

This staircase leads to the lounge area and the gym.

Click here to view this gallery.

What do you think about this company? Would you work here? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments.

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More About: mashable, open forum, startup, Zynga

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This week we recorded live from the show floor at Disrupt NYC. We sat through 24 hours straight of hot-rod hacking at the Hackathon and now we’re preparing for the main show and, most important, the brand new Hardware Alley where we’ll have loads of great hardware start-ups for you guys to check out.

In this episode we talk about Disrupt, the new EVO 4G LTE, and the rumors of the four-inch iPhone. We also talk about the “thumb touches anywhere on the screen” iPhone chestnut, how good the battery life is on some Android phones, the late night Nerf wars at the hackathon, and my horrible sausage fingers.

Tune in today and look for another episode next week from the show floor.

Authorities in Pakistan blocked access to Twitter on Sunday, over mention of a contest held in 2010 asking people to draw images of the Prophet Muhammad, and a corresponding Facebook page attempting to make May 20 “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.”

At first it wasn’t clear who instituted the ban, but the Washington Post reported the chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Mohammad Yaseen, said “this is not a simple decision, it is a high-level decision.”

The Christian Science Monitor reported the “Minister for Information Technology, Raja Pervez Ashraf, issued a blanket ban on the site inside the country, upping the pressure on Twitter as negotiations continue.”

The shutdown occurred around Noon on Sunday. Yaseen told reporters that Facebook had been cooperative in shutting down the offensive page, but they had heard no response from Twitter. A few hours later, the ban was lifted.

Are there any circumstances in which it’s appropriate for a government to censor social media sites? Tell us in the comments.

More About: censorship, Facebook, Twitter

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Microsoft’s So.cl social network and companion search tool has exited beta, promising to integrate comprehensive data gathering into a research tool ideal for students and knowledge addicts. Unveiled back in December 2011, So.cl was described at the time as a way of creating “montages of visual web content” by tagging search results and seeing other suggested topics from fellow researchers. However, Microsoft continues to insist that So.cl is intended to live alongside – not replace – your Facebook, Google+ or Twitter account.

According to the So.cl (pronounced “social”) FAQ, Microsoft fully expects users of the service “to continue using products such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other existing social networks, as well as Bing, Google and other search tools” rather than switch wholesale. “We hope to encourage students to reimagine how our everyday communication and learning tools can be improved,” the company says, “by researching, learning and sharing in their everyday lives.”

Initially, So.cl was available in limited beta to students at the University of Washington, Syracuse University, and New York University. Since then, the team behind the service has been busy refining it, adding concepts like “riffing” on topics – basically taking concepts or content others have posted and allowing users to give it their own spin – and public exploring through themed tagging.

There’s also “video parties” which pull together communal playlists of content guiding viewers through a tagged theme, complete with companion chat, and so-called “rich” posts of automatically created montages from text, photos, audio and video. By default, all So.cl content is available publicly – though it can be set to private – so as to encourage community learning.

You can try So.cl by logging in with your Facebook or Windows Live account here.

Disrupt NYC 2012 begins in approximately 12 hours (tickets here).

But it’s been two years since Soluto, the software that will make your computer simply run better, took home the Disrupt Cup at the TC Disrupt NYC Battlefield in 2010. The company entered the competition with a total of $7.8 million, and after walking away with the $50,000 round, secured another $10.2 million in Series B from Index Ventures for a total of $18 million in funding under their belts.

It’s been a wild ride, starting with about 400 users as the then-stealth company stepped on stage, and only a few days later they were dealing with hundreds of thousands of users. In fact, CEO and co-founder Tomer Dvir said that the platform almost had trouble dealing with all the data being sent back by the flood of new users.

But, in his own words, “Disrupt is one of the best ways to release.”

Here’s the interview I had with Mr. Dvir in its entirety:

TechCrunch: What was it like to launch your product on stage at Disrupt?

Soluto: The amazing part was that we had about 400 users when we launched. It took a really long time to develop the product because it’s complicated and hardcore. It’s something that sits deep inside the OS. That 400 users was mostly friends and family and people we asked to install the product.

But just one minute after we came off the stage we turned it on, and suddenly were bombarded with quantities of users we couldn’t imagine before that. It was way beyond anything we were prepared for. It’s not just jumping into deep waters, it’s being pulled down into the deep water.

We weren’t really ready for that. We thought we were, but reality struck and we realized we had never learned to scale before. The challenge with our system is that every user’s machine starts sending us data. We were flooded with way more data than we had imagined. We knew that coming to Disrupt would get us some traction, and we expected maybe tens of thousands of users.

It ended up being around 50 times more than that.

It was a pretty awesome experience, launching on stage at Disrupt. We went from being with less than 1,000 users to several hundreds of thousands in a matter of days or maybe a week. We went from being nameless — no one knew what we were doing — to being known. We felt like stars at the show. People got connected to the idea, to the vision.

TechCrunch: You guys obviously won at Disrupt. It’s been two years, so what’s happened since, and how did Disrupt shape the past two years of your company history?

Soluto: I guess we learned what it means to be a company. Without Disrupt, it would have been the same growth but much, much slower. We might have gotten press here or there, but suddenly Disrupt was like a leap. A shortcut. I can’t even estimate how much time and money it would have taken to get to that state as quickly as we did.

Our biggest challenge since then has been scaling. We had to understand how to grow and not gradually, because on Day One it was already crazy.

We wanted to grow the company and get the right people. We got some amazing support, kept developing, and kept progressing and re-writing stuff.

We also had to learn how to answer reporters. We had to accelerate all processes in a company including growing our talent. We were around 20 people at launch, and now we’re at 50 employees.

Outside of the technical part, it was the first touch of the company with the press and blogosphere. The New York Times approached us. Everyone was suddenly approaching us. On Day One we were swimming with the big fish, and dealing with the press was just another thing we had to learn quickly.

TechCrunch: Do you think that winning Disrupt made it easier for you to get funded and/or bring in new talent?

Soluto: Winning or participating won’t get you funded, but it gets you the exposure you need to get there. If you have a good company you can get funded, but Disrupt works as a good foot in the door because you aren’t so nameless. VC’s meet a thousand companies a year, and after launching or winning at Disrupt you become one of the more interesting hundred or fifty, instead of just one of thousands.

TechCrunch: It seems that launching your product on a stage at a huge conference like Disrupt might be a little intimidating. Were you worried or do you think it served the company well?

Soluto: It may not fit everyone, but it was an awesome experience for us. There are several advantages.

The first is that you have a concrete deadline. It’s a good thing for a company to have something you can’t move. You can always move PR and even a TechCrunch post, but Disrupt is a freaking competition which people are trying to get into and people have bought tickets to. It’s going to happen no matter what, so you need to be ready on time.

In terms of timing, we came close to being able to release a product a few months before Disrupt and then we heard about the conference and it all aligned. It was perfect.

I don’t know if I would postpone a release for three months if it wasn’t the perfect opportunity.

Getting an on-stage launch also sends a company into the extreme. It forces you to be ready for an unexpected amount of users.

There’s also the advice you’re getting. Having Marissa Mayer and Michael Arrington see your product and give feedback, and sometimes tear it apart, it only pushes the entire company to get some awesome results on time.

It’s one of the best ways to release, I can’t think of anything to compare.

TechCrunch: I find the Battlefield to be intensely emotional. Obviously a lot of good came out of it for Soluto, but how did you feel up there on stage?

Soluto: All of us are going to remember it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It took two and a half years to release the product. Working so long and putting it out into the world in a single day is an amazing experience.

TechCrunch: Care to share any user/download numbers with us?

Soluto: Well, currently we have two products. The original product was a local download, and since launch we’ve hit 3 million downloads. We’re not sharing numbers around our web product right now, but it’s been only four and a half months and we’re definitely impressed with the numbers. We’ve really had no paid marketing, ads, or PR, so we’re certainly pleased.

TechCrunch: What advice would you give to people about to present their products at Disrupt NYC 2012?

Soluto: Acknowledge that you’re sitting in front of senior people that see good and bad companies. You have to be humble. You’re listening to people who have a shallow view of the product, but they have instincts and insights, so you must be in listening mode.

Don’t think you have all the answers. It’s fine if you don’t. Try to give your insight but really, really listen and see if there’s something they might say which is smart. Some of the smartest people around are the ones who listen.

We saw many companies present before us and they were looking for fast answers. We thought about that and felt that it wasn’t the way. Listen, be open, and make sure they understand the service and product that you’ve shown and then it’s up to you to think about the different angles.

Disrupt NYC is set to be one of our biggest shows yet, with returns from Michael Arrington and MG Siegler, along with a variety of big names like Marissa Mayer, Sarah Tavel, Fred Wilson, and David Lee and more. It’s going to be huge.

If you’re interested in checking out Disrupt and/or the Hackathon yourself, tickets are still on sale here and info on the Hackathon can be found here. Companies who want to join the Battleground can apply for the last remaining spots in Startup Alley. You can find the full agenda here.