This is Dots. (Photo: iTunes)

Fling those dumb Angry Birds into oblivion already: there’s a new free replacement sitting in the iTunes App Store for your time-killing needs. Enter Dots, a minimalistic game that accentuates the speediness of your swiping skills by connecting as many same-colored dots as possible in 60 seconds. The more dots—or better yet, boxes—you link together and create, the higher you score.

The game was the brainchild of Betaworks hacker-in-residence Patrick Moberg, who had never designed or coded a game before. He began development of Dots in January under the direction that the non-incubator wanted to create a “zen-like” game that people wouldn’t feel guilty playing.

"The most important thing with Dots was trusting our own instincts as players," Mr. Moberg told Betabeat. "Dots is the approach to games that we wanted to see, that almost no one is catering to. And it turns out that there's a bunch more people who feel the same way."

A "bunch" indeed: Since its release Wednesday, the Betaworks-produced game has racked up 200,000 downloads. Half of those came in the first 12 hours, Paul Murphy, Betaworks senior vice president of product, told Betabeat. Not bad for Betawork’s first foray into the crowded gaming field.

Dots started development three months ago, but Mr. Murphy noticed the company had a hit on its hands when people couldn’t put it down during its beta phase at the New York-based office.

"We knew a month-and-a-half ago that it was going to be a hit when we found people spending hours and hours playing it, " exclaimed Mr. Murphy. Without the splashy promotion or marketing power of other game developers (looking at you, Zynga), he explained, the metaphoric rise of Dots is credited to positive buzz on social media.

"There's people sharing high scores and challenging others on Twitter," said Mr. Murphy. Betaworks promoted Dots on its social news site, Digg, in an “Apps We Like” box. He noted that Digg doesn't promote every Betaworks project and said the site has rejected other apps from the company before.

With the instant success of Dots, it's not inconceivable to think that Betaworks has more games up its checkered-colored sleeves. Mr. Murphy said Betaworks is a tech company that's heavily invested in media, not a gaming studio. If another game fits into its model of building out its burgeoning empire, maybe we'll see more.

"Entertainment is another form of media," he hinted.

Mr. Moberg, who's hopefully getting a bonus for catapulting the app to the top 10 of iTunes’ rankings, said he's found the app's instant success a little overwhelming.

"When you're passionate about what you're working on, you over-analyze and second-guess a lot of choices you make.  You can get lost in yourself when you worry too much about how people will react," he wrote. "The success is a testament to Betaworks' ethos of working on projects that you believe in and want to care for."

2 soon 2 say goodbye

It liiives! Digg says a beta version of its Reader replacement will debut in June. The timing makes sense, as Google plans to pull the plug on the original RSS product July 1. The clock is ticking, here. 

Today the team released the results of a second batch of surveys, designed to suss out users' preferences when it comes to features. Almost half of those surveyed said they'd never used Reader's social features (cut in 2011), so don't expect much at launch. But "ultimately we believe that social features which foster connections between readers will be an important part of the Digg experience."

The bad news: It's probably not going to be free. (Come on, you're willing to cough up for Instapaper). From the post:

"Free products on the Internet don’t have a great track record. They tend to disappear, leaving users in a lurch. We need to build a product that people can rely on and trust will always be there for them. We’re not sure how pricing might work, but we do know that we’d like our users to be our customers, not our product. So when we asked survey participants whether or not they would be willing to pay, we were pleased to see that over 40% said yes."

BRB, making a little room in the Betabeat budget.

Mr. Borthwick (photo: screencap)

Stand down, Instapaper fanatics: Betaworks has no plans to shut the service down. That was the first question out of Alexia Tsotsis's mouth this morning at Disrupt, when she took the stage to interview CEO John Borthwick.

Wearing his ubiquitous brown corduroy jacket, Mr. Borthwick told her no, followed by an awful lot of throat-clearing.

"It's a wonderful product, it's a wonderful brand," he said. "It is an important part of what I see as an emerging ecosystem of products, some of which we're building at Betaworks and some of which we see invested in, that relate to the future of news and the future of media. And so we're going to build."

That Instapaper acquisition, by the way, started with a 2 a.m. email from an anxious Marco Arment, which was trying to figure out how to juggle Instapaper with his other commitments. He wanted to grow the service, but he didn't want to, you know, manage people and raise the money. Then came the late-night bolt from the blue: Betaworks!

Mr. Borthwick declined to divulge the terms of the deal, other than to say that Betaworks has a majority stake and there's some revenue share involved. Apparently that app was making a million bucks a year, though, which explains how Marco's paying for all that fancy coffee.

Elsewhere in the Chelsea-based collective, a team is readying a new product due to launch mid-week, and Mr. Borthwick let slip that it's some sort of game. Sadly it's not Digg's much-anticipated (by bloggers, anyway) Google Reader replacement, which "we're dashing to get done in time."

"We were blindsided a little bit by the timing of the announcement" from Google, he added, though a reader product was already on their roadmap at the time. "It's an important part of the puzzle."

Mr. Borthwick sure likes that image. He refused to pick a favorite Betaworks production, too, telling Ms. Tsotsis, "All these products are related in my mind, and so it all fits together in that puzzle. It's the puzzle that fascinates." What schemes are brewing under all that hair, John?

Ditching the suit for a swimsuit. (Photo: Flickr.com/gpaumier)

Hawaii Zuck-O Look who ditched the hoodie (but kept the Adidas sandals). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was recently spotted indulging in a little Hawaiin R&R with wifey Priscilla Chan. US Weekly reports the pair “looked excited to be spending quality time together,” which makes sense since it's pretty easy to be happy when you’ve escaped the maw of Silicon Valley. The Zucks also “chowed down” on something called “beachside burgers” at a “picnic table.” Stars: they're just like us (but rich).

Instaparty Former Tumblr engineer and prolific blogginghead Marco Arment officially sold his company, read-it-later app Instapaper, to NYC-based Betaworks yesterday. Though he will stay on indefinitely as an advisor, Mr. Arment appeared to be celebrating the occasion by tweeting uncharacteristically adorable things about his followers:

https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/327636666787454976

Of course, this aroused the wry suspicion of Mr. Arment's followers:

https://twitter.com/meaghano/status/327637122309828608

Mr. Arment, as it turns out, appeared to be rightfully celebrating his Betaworks deal with a delicious cold beverage. "I can’t feel my face much anymore," he admitted. "I’ve had one beer. Granted, it’s about 20% ABV. It’s a hell of a beer." Lightweight!

So maj It's become somewhat of a celebrity rite of passage to participate in the ever-meta act of snapping a photo of yourself with Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, then plastering it onto--that's right--your Instagram profile. Stylist, fashion designer and Bravolebrity Rachel Zoe is the latest victim of this trend, snapping the below photo of her and Mr. Systrom. Sorry, Rach, but Kev is much better at smizing.

(Photo: Instagram)

Cult of Steve Erin Caton, a former project manager at Apple, took to Medium today to lament the growing number of douchey startup CEOs, who--in their attempt to emulate Steve Jobs--end up growing ever-douchier and unwilling to listen to peer feedback. To illustrate her story, she shares two anecdotes of her experience with Mr. Jobs: one, in which he cut in front of her in line at the Apple cafeteria (rude!), and another in which he blamed the Mobile Me team for a shoddy launch.

She writes:

Once it was up, we (at least a hundred of us) got called into a meeting with Steve Jobs. We all walked over to the building like we were headed to the guillotine. He stood in front of us and yelled at us, told us that we should be mad at each other, said we could have done a staggered launch and complained that we didn’t even try to do all the things that we (those on the ground floor of production that actuallymake the fucking products of the world) had been begging to do. It was the world’s best de-motivational speech.

We look forward to Ashton Kutcher's dramatic reading of this Medium post.

Must love Martha Poor Martha Stewart. You could give her a bag of cotton balls, used gum and a Razr phone and she’d craft the most beautiful centerpiece perfect for any Bat Mitzvah. But the one thing she can’t master is the art of filling out her Match.com profile, because it’s too damn hard. “It was, like, impossible,” the 71-year-old told Today bully Matt Lauer. You don’t have to use your words on Tinder, Martha.

https://twitter.com/todayshow/status/327751873564114944

Wows all the way down Storied VC Marc Andreessen took a break from annotating hip hop lyrics this week to gush about the potential transformative nature of Google Glass at the she++ Conference, when he jokingly claimed to already be beta testing Google Contact Lenses. Mr. Andreessen also took time to preach on the life-changing wonders of Google Glass, with a twinge of Valley girl thrown in. “You put it on and you’re like ‘Oh my God, I have the entire internet in my vision. Where have you been all my life?’” Andreessen said.

Andreessen and his firm are known for showing Glass some lovin', having already invested heavily in startups focused on building apps for Google Glass. But Mr. Andreessen is probably so gung-ho about Glass because he's hoping they'll help him finally solve the mystery of Silicon Valley Cougar Night at the Rosewood Hotel.

Get Dorsey Man of few emotions Jack Dorsey showed a flicker of excitement this week. No, he didn’t discover a new train yard to stare at--rather, he’s mildly excited about the new Daft Punk album. He attached a picture of the Get Lucky song art to prove to us that he knows how to take a screenshot or something. Maybe this was all ploy to subtweet us for not giving a shit about Twitter #Music.

https://twitter.com/jack/status/327796327931076609

Mr. Parker. (Photo: Flickr/Le Web)

NYC-based non-incubator Betaworks has acquired a majority stake in the article-bookmarking service Instapaper. Creator Marco Arment wrote on his blog that he will slide into an advising role "indefinitely" as Betaworks oversees operations and expands Instapaper's staff. [PC Mag]

CISPA, the controversial Internet bill, is (probably?) dead. An anonymous source said that "there is no possible plan" to bring it up in the Democratic-controlled Senate because it faces little support from the party. [Daily Dot]

Some big names, like Sean Parker, Steve Ballmer, and Bill Gates, are joining Mark Zuckerberg's political action committee, FWD.us. We would love to be on those brunch-planning emails. [AllThingsD]

Yahoo's Marissa Mayer has joined the board of Jawbone, the hardware maker behind those groovy wireless headsets and speakers. [AllThingsD]

A study of Bitcoin exchanges revealed that 45 percent of them fail, often taking peoples’ money with them. And the exchanges that don't shutter are more likely to be the target of cyber attacks. [Wired]

Brb, running to the Warby Parker store. (Photo: Screencap)

Do unexpectedly blustery days leave you wailing at the fates? Sick of dressing in your smartest spring sandals, only to walk outside and discover there's still a nip in the air?

So are the folks at Betaworks, apparently.

And now, a small team led by hacker-in-residence Kuan Huang has dreamed up Poncho, a new weather service launching today for New York City. It promises to deliver a personalized forecast that'll help you figure out whether you can really get by with just a cardigan.

Mr. Huang told Betabeat that the idea was born as "something for my personal use." He wanted an interpreter for the forecast, who could tell him, "It's 46 degrees, windy; you should wear a scarf." He admitted it's "a pain point I have in my life." You and me both, buddy.

Entrepreneur-in-residence Paul Murphy said, "It's this weird thing where, as tech's gotten more advanced, it's almost like we've gone back in time." There's more data than ever, but amateurs like you and me are left trying to read satellite imagery.

"I just want someone to tell me if I need an umbrella cause its going to rain at 5 when I walk home from the work," Mr. Murphy added, somewhat plaintively.

The site says, "Poncho explains the weather in plain, clear English — just like weather forecasters used to do." When you sign up, you answer a series of questions: Do you have pets that have to be walked? Do you exercise outside? Do you have pollen allergies? What subway to you take to work, and what time? The result is a forecast that boils the outlook into a simple summary, delivered bright and early by email or text message (your choice).

Appropriately, there's more than HAL 9000 doling out the advice. In addition to the technology handling the real-time data, "we also have a human who lives in New York City who goes outside and provides the human element to the weather and they influence the data." He added, "When it feels really cold out, they can add that context." Mr. Murphy said pilot users are abandoning the iPhone's default weather feature in favor of Poncho.

The service is currently limited to New York City, but Mr. Huang says over the next few weeks they'll take a look at their waiting list and see which zip codes have the most demand.

(Screenshot: Google Reader)

Fretful newshounds and anxious bloggers can stop sitting shiva. Digg, or rather Betaworks' reboot of old Digg, wants to resurrect yet another ailing online mainstay. On its blog this afternoon, the startup announced it would be building a reader to replace the "much-loved, if under-appreciated" Google Reader.

In the post, Andrew McLaughlin, the former vice president of Tumblr who joined Betaworks as an entrepreneur-in-residence last summer, said Reader's "early social features were forward-thinking and hugely useful." However, as with the revamped Digg, the new iteration won't look exactly like its predecessor:

"We hope to identify and rebuild the best of Google Reader’s features (including its API), but also advance them to fit the Internet of 2013, where networks and communities like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit and Hacker News offer powerful but often overwhelming signals as to what’s interesting. Don’t get us wrong: we don’t expect this to be a trivial undertaking. But we’re confident we can cook up a worthy successor."

He also assured fans of the revamped Digg--and the traffic it brings!--that this won't impinge on their aggregator, implying it will function separately.

Betaworks already has some skin in the reader game. It owns a piece of the real-time tech company Superfeeder, which fetches and parses RSS or Atom feeds, as well as Bloglovin', a service that lets you know when the blogs you want to follow are updated. Both startups made a plea to bereft Google Reader acolytes today. It's also worth noting that Betaworks companies do tend to collaborate--like Bitly and Chartbeat.

In cased you missed all the service journalism, there are already a myriad of alternatives--although it's hard not to watch them fall short when compared to the "800-pound gorilla in the RSS space." As a positive sign for Digg's own attempt at a better reader, the company is welcoming input from the yearning masses, struggling to blog free. Says Mr. McLaughlin:

In order to pull this off in such a small window, we’re going to need your help. We need your input on what you want to see in a reader. What problems should it solve for you? What’s useful? What isn’t? What do you wish it could do that it can’t today?

Fair warning to Digg, you're soliciting input from a pretty vociferous bunch, who could give a shit whether their problems are universal concerns.

Bloggers who have spent years painstakingly curating feeds, lovingly organizing them into folders based on urgency and topic, may have even come to think of their top-secret feed resources as the modern day counterpart to the source rolodex. Asking to see a fellow blogger's Google Reader is basically like asking them to share their sources--something that many would feel territorial about.

Though many may decry the downfall of RSS, for those who spend time sorting through large swaths of information and consuming as many news items as possible, Reader was a simplified way to sort through the noise (though that 1,000+ number was always pretty overwhelming).

The Betaworks team seems well-suited to revive RSS. In fact, they might want to make Lazarusing web 1.0 a full-time thing. Guess that would make them Internet Jesus?

Peter Stern, Bitly's (now-former) CEO. (linkedin.com)

Sometimes Silicon Alley can make your head spin: out of the blue, in a terse blog post, Bitly just announced  that CEO Peter Stern has resigned in order to "pursue other interests."

Say what?

The announcement, which clocked in at a mere 61 words, had just this to say about Mr. Stern's tenure:

“Peter has been a key leader and contributor to the Company,” said Bitly Board member Sam Mandel. “In particular he has been instrumental in transforming Bitly into a successful business while growing its unparalleled data set. We are very happy that he will remain a shareholder and supporter.”

After a lengthy effort to raise funds, the company announced a $15 million round from Khosla Ventures in July, bringing its total raised to $28.5 million.

When Twitter got into the link-shortening business, Bitly insisted its strength was really in metadata. Concurrent with fund-raising, the company was working on a revamp that focused more on getting consumers to subscribe.

This January, Bitly debuted three new social data APIs and better search functionality. Chief data scientist Hilary Mason promised: “You can expect to see much better stats for consumers that will draw off of this data, as well as better discovery tools on the enterprise side and audience analysis tools.” The company's revenue depends on selling insights from consumers to enterprise clients.

We've reached out to Mr. Stern for comment and will update if we learn anything more.

UPDATE: Betabeat has heard that the reason for Mr. Stern's departure was related to a difference of opinion. According to a source familiar with the company, Mr. Stern was interested in moving Bitly more toward an ad-tech business. There are a number of ad-tech companies interested in using insights about sharing and consumer intention as an extra edge in arbitraging data sets.

However, Bitly's management team and board felt that approach ignored Bitly's growing data trove and its potential as a social media platform for data analysis. As Bitly noted in a blog post just yesterday, the company has been "nearly 100 billion human beings clicking on bitly-powered links."

Mr. Mandel, a longtime Bitly board member and former EVP of business operations at Tweetdeck, will act as interim president, with Ms. Mason and Peter Miron, SVP of engineering at Bitly, rounding out the company's key players. They will move forward in trying to monetize the metadata Bitly collects in a way that makes sense for consumers and brands. Their goal will also be to accelerate launching new products.

According to the source, Bitly sees itself as part of the social infrastructure in large part because of its 20,000 to 30,000 API partners, like The New York Times, Amazon, Foursquare, and even the U.S. government.

(Wikipedia)

New York City is pretty well saturated with incubators and accelerators and the like, such that when West coast stalwart 500 Startups decided to move into Silicon Alley, it opted to launch a coworking space, rather than further clutter an already crowded market.

Not that the plethora of local options is stopping everyone from piling into the accelerator game: According to a post on The New York Times website, the paper of record is launching a program called timeSpace:

a new initiative from The New York Times that brings entrepreneurs to our headquarters to refine and grow their businesses. Over four months, you and your team will work out of 620 8th Avenue, meet with relevant Times staff, demo your product and teach/learn alongside entrepreneurs and employees who make their livings in digital media, technology and journalism.

Well, why not? The existence of prior offerings from smaller, earlier competitors has rarely stopped The New York Times from piling into a story. What's good for editorial strategy is good for the tech portfolio, no?

But slow down.

Just because the Times has invested in digital media startups such as WordPress, Betaworks and Federated Media, doesn't mean it's seeking equity in timeSpace companies—which, per the announcement, will likely be early stage startups with a product already launched: "If and when you raise an institutional round of financing, The New York Times Company will separately consider participating if invited."

As for whether New York needs another accelerator, the Times appears to be hedging there as well.

"You may call it an accelerator or an incubator," the Grey Lady said in its carefully-worded call for applications. "Right now we are calling it an experiment and looking forward to working alongside you."

(Photo: Branch)

Conversation platform Branch announced in a post on its blog today that it is now out of invite-only beta and open to the public. With no more wait list, users can sign up immediately to start a conversation or group on Branch.

The startup also announced a host of new features, including the ability to highlight quotes in various branches as a way to reward positive feedback. "We think this serves two purposes," wrote Branch cofounder Josh Miller. "Creating valuable feedback for writers by letting them know when something they write is great, and a helpful signal for other readers by making branches easier to skim."

A new activity feed feature also allows users to see who is listening or watching a conversation they're hosting or participating in. Sorry, y'all: no more anony eavesdropping.

Branch kicked off 2013 by moving out of Betaworks into its own office space on 23rd St. and 3rd Ave. Mr. Miller told Betabeat that the new office is serving as a coworking space for a veritable who's who of New York tech, including "Amanda Peyton and the Grand St. crew, two ex-Foursquare employees doing a banking app, Anil Dash, Gina Trapani and Paul Ford." Medium, the new blogging platform from Twitter founder (and Branch mentor) Ev Williams, will also host its content team out of the Branch HQ.