Tuesday, June 16, 2009

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I Will Not Post That Twitter Is Down, I Will Not Post That Twitter Is Down, I Will… Top
Alright, because you’ve demanded it, here’s the post about Twitter being down. Yes, Twitter is down. Yes, it will be down for the next hour or so. Yes, it was scheduled. Actually, this one is interesting because it was rescheduled , apparently at the behest of the U.S. government which wanted to make sure the communication regarding the protests in Iran over the election could go on without interruption. And here’s our favorite tip that Twitter is down so far: You’re TechCrunch. You probably already know. But just in case, Twitter is down right now. For the record, I’m just completing Step 7 of MG’s 15 things to do while Twitter is down list. You remember that list right? If not, check it out . [well played, Timmy] Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Want The Kindle Source Code? You Can Have It. Top
So this isn’t new, it’s actually been available since late 2007 as far as I can tell, but enough people are tweeting about it today , that’s it’s worth mentioning again. Amazon has a page where you can download the Kindle’s source code . What is new today is that the Kindle DX, its new larger reader, has also been added to the mix of downloadable code. And you can also download the code to all the previous firmware version of both the first and second generation Kindles. In big bold letters, Amazon includes the agreement you enter into by downloading the source code: AMAZON AND ITS AFFILIATES PROVIDE THE SOURCE CODE TO YOU ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SOURCE CODE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY APPLICABLE LAW, AMAZON AND ITS AFFILIATES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. AMAZON AND ITS AFFILIATES WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF THE SOURCE CODE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. But if that doesn’t scare you away, go for it. I’m not really sure what anyone has done or is doing with it, but it’s cool that Amazon has opened it up. Update : Here’s a bit more about this from a technical perspective from commenter Rod Begbie : This isn't the source to the Kindle application. It's just the GPL libraries used to power the Kindle software, along with the patches made by Amazon to those libraries. There's nothing in the tarball that relates to reading books. [thanks @danielbru ] CrunchBase Information Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle DX Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
AdWhirl Scores $1 Million For Dynamic Ad Platform For The iPhone Top
AdWhirl, the startup that lets iPhone developers to tap into multiple ad networks, has raised a cool $1 million in seed funding from Foundation Capital, with several angel investors participating. Launched in April, AdWhirl solves a simple problem for iPhone developers. As the number of ad networks available for iPhone apps has increased since the launch of the app store, developers were having a tough time switching between different ad networks. And after switching, developers have to issue updates to their apps, which can take days or weeks to make it through Apple's approval process. AdWhirl allows developers to switch between different ad networks on the fly without having to submit a new application to Apple. The service has support for five different ad networks, including AdMob, Quattro Wireless, Videoegg, and Jumptap (with Millenial Media and Google's Adsense coming soon). In the past two months, AdWhirl (which launched under the name AdRollo) has 1,000 publishers using its publishers and has helped deliver more than one billion ads each per month to iPhone and iPod Touch users through free applications. AdWhirl, which is available to developers for free, offers developers a platform where they rotate between ad networks and specify how often they'd like their ads to appear in their application. Developers can also set up AdWhirl to automatically switch between all available ad networks, optimizing CPM rates to ensure that their apps are generating as much revenue as possible (it can also fill an ad unit when the current network runs out of inventory, which can be a problem on popular applications). Developers can also create customized advertisements and include these in their package. iPhone developers stand to make a good amount of cash from delivering these ads. Yam says that applications actually tend to serve 3-5 impressions each time a customer interacts with them, with even higher figures for some especially engaging applications. AdWhirl recently released a report that said that applications that crack the top 100 in the free apps list make $400-$5000 a day - a wide range to be sure, but even at the low end that works out to around $12,000 a month. Among these top apps, AdWhirl is reporting a notable $1.90 eCPM and 2.6% CTR. Sam Yam and Ra Roath, co-founders of AdWhirl say that they are seeing a lot of developers using the platform to cross promote ads for other apps to help boost their ranks on the apps list. Yam says that there is potential to connect developers together as a collaborative community to further this cross promotion to help each other out. AdWhirl will use the funds to expand out to other potentially lucrative platforms for mobile devices such as Android, Blackberry, and Palm Pre. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Videos: OTOY In Action. You Have To See This. Top
When we first looked at OTOY about a year ago, the small company was trying to deliver a server-side 3D rendering technology that could allow modern video games to be played on basically any client. A lofty goal, for sure. Then OnLive was unveiled in March at GDC, and it sent ripples around much of the gaming world with a similar concept of cloud-based gaming. But OTOY believes it has a more lightweight and elegant way to do things, that is also more extensible. And it has a couple of key partnerships to prove it: EA and AMD . Let’s run through some of the details quickly: OTOY is 100% browser-based, and works is all modern web browsers. All it requires is a broadband connection, and that will give you 720p (HD) graphics, with no plugins and no downloads . There is also a way to get 1080p graphics, though that’s a bit more intensive, obviously. But they key is that this is all done on OTOY’s servers and transmitted down from the cloud to run on whatever client you want, basically instantaneously. Again, all of that may seem hard to believe in a world where the giant power-hungry systems like the Xbox 360 and PS3 are the only way to play graphic-intensive games. So the best way for you to see it, is to watch a video of it in action. [Note that while in the video below, the player is using an Xbox 360 controller, he is playing it on his computer hooked up to his TV.] Pretty awesome, right? But we’ll understand if you’re skeptical. So here’s a video of our own Jason Kincaid playing a version of the hit title Grand Theft Auto on his computer, through his browser. And when I said this can basically run on any client, I meant it. Like perhaps your phone — at 60 frames per second. Stay tuned. CrunchBase Information OTOY Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Brands Beware: You May Be Sucked Into Izea's Paid Shilling Without Your Knowledge Top
Izea’s paid shilling scheme first launched in 2006 and has evolved from there. But the essence of it is the same: people get paid to shill products on their blogs (and now Twitter). It’s pollution. Disclosure of the conflict of interest became mandatory for people shilling products in late 2006. But that disclosure is often muddled. For example, people shilling on Twitter need only add “#spon” to the post to satisfy the disclosure requirements. Most big brands have avoided Izea like the plague. FCC regulations on word of mouth advertising are becoming stricter over time, and Izea is on the front line of this nonsense. But now brands may be sucked into Izea’s pay per post scheme whether they like it or not. WOMMA founder and spam fighter Andy Sernovitz noticed a number of well known brands, like USA Today, Home Shopping Network, Priceline, 1-800-Contacts, Carbonite and StubHub (owned by eBay) all recently had campaigns running on Izea’s SocialSpark site. It’s shocking that those brands would associate themselves with Izea, so he dug further. And it turns out that at least some of them (and probably all of them) had no idea they were listed as Izea advertisers. Izea pulled them in through Commission Junction , an affiliate marketing company, via a program they are testing called the Izea Partner Network: “Izea works with third party affiliate and display networks to syndicate unique and exciting offers to the SocialSpark social media network. These opportunities are only CPC and CPA and are largely performance driven.” The result? Brands like Home Shopping Network, who have no relationship with Izea, are spammed across Twitter and blogs with $0.13/click links. All of these ads were quickly taken down. We’ve contacted a few for comment. Carbonite CEO David Friend wrote back “A CJ affiliate was using pay-per-post to try to sell Carbonite and a bunch of other products. This was apparent because the landing page had a Commission Junction cookie on it. We checked a few of the guy’s other “featured” companies and they all had the same sort of affiliate tracking code. Our affiliate manager contacted CJ and cut them off because we don’t allow pay-per-post schemes. An affiliate program requires constant policing because some of these guys will try almost anything and you just have to monitor it very carefully. We have a full time person on it.” Commission Junction hasn’t responded to an inquiry yet. Izea CEO Ted Murphy responded with “Thanks for reaching out to me. I am a bit tied up. What type of questions do you have? Everything in test right now. Not much to it yet.” Let’s just hope Commission Junction and other advertising networks put a stop to this test before other brands are hurt. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
TweetDeck Nears For The iPhone. Set To Battle Tweetie Top
Digg co-founder Kevin Rose got his hands on a new iPhone application that a lot of people will be interested in: TweetDeck . Yes, the popular desktop application is coming to the iPhone “soon,” according to Rose. But what’s really interesting about it is his statement that, “I can say now that it’s going to replace tweetie as my default twitter iphone app.” That’s a bold statement, given that Tweetie has been the iPhone app of choice for many diehard Twitter users for months now. And this move by TweetDeck is an interesting one because it clearly signals a budding rivalry between the two, as Tweetie just recently moved from the iPhone to the desktop as well. Now TweetDeck will move the opposite way. Another player in this game, Seesmic, is also about to launch an iPhone app . So what features does TweetDeck offer? Rose’s details are scant, but he offers up a lot of pictures. And here’s features he did highlight: - Column based friend groups! (like TweetDeck desktop) - TweetDeck desktop syncing (make a change on the iphone and it’s reflected back on the PC) - Facebook toolbar like status updates Update : We’ve just seen TweetDeck running on the iPhone as well. Easily the best feature about it is the way you can group those you are following together. I’ve basically wanted this forever on Twitter, and it’s one of the reasons why I really like FriendFeed — and increasingly Facebook. But grouping seems to make even more sense on the iPhone, where the screen is obviously much smaller, and it’s harder to see more tweets. The way these groups are handled is very nice. You simply swipe from side to side to switch between them. TweetDeck for the iPhone is currently in the process of being reviewed by the App Store. It’s been about 9 days since it was submitted, we’re told, but Apple is apparently backed up a bit on approvals following its big WWDC conference, so it should launch any day now. [photos via Kevin Rose blogg ] CrunchBase Information TweetDeck iPhone Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
TweetTabs Is An Awesome Way To Search Twitter In Near Real-Time Top
Apparently, TweetMeme is getting big enough that it can have its own “20%” projects, like Google does. That’s how TweetTabs was born, a great new way to search Twitter in real-time. True to its name, TweetTabs allows you to open several tabs with different Twitter search queries. While some Twitter desktop clients also allow you to do this, TweetTabs is completely browser-based. And it’s great because it’s so simple. All you do is enter a query into the search box and a new tab will automatically pop open that will update in real-time. There are also a list of the top trending topics on Twitter across the top of the site, which you can click on to open a tab for any of those searches as well. Another nice feature is that clicking on any link provides an overlay to give you more information about the URL, including a few quick lines from blog posts and a thumbnail of an image used. Naturally, there is also a retweet button here to allow you to easily resend the tweet back to Twitter by way of TweetMeme. Hovering over a Twitter icon in TweetTabs also presents the options to retweet, reply to a tweet, or to see that user’s Twitter profile. You can drag and drop to change the order of the tabs, and if you close the window, TweetTabs will remember which searches you had opened. A service like this really couldn’t come along at a more perfect time. If you want to track what is going on in Iran, but really don’t want to have a dedicated Twitter Search window just open to that all day, it can now just be one of the many search tabs you have open. And if you really don’t like the browser-only aspect of it, TweetTabs has a solution for that too: If you want to get #TweetTabs on your desktop then download chrome or prism for firefox and save it as an application! Unfortunately, I think the API may be limiting the full real-time aspect of the service. Tweets about Iran, for example, start flowing quickly but then seem to hang for a while. If they can get that resolved though, this may be the ultimate web-based Twitter search tool. TweetTabs is just the first of a range of “complimentary” Twitter-based services TweetMeme founder Nick Halstead plans to launch over the next several months, he says. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
MySpace Executes 30% Staff Reduction Today Top
Those MySpace rumors we’ve been talking about are very real. A week ago we wrote that MySpace and parent company Fox Interactive Media would layoff hundreds of employees . Today the company is confirming those cuts, saying they’ll “reduce staff by nearly 30%.” We’re updating our layoff tracker to include this information. A MySpace employee writes to tell us that there is extra security in the building right now, and that managers are being given boxes (presumably to give to employees to pack their stuff). Human resources booked a conference room from 12 - 4 as well. MySpace has around 1,600 employees, which means 480 or so of them are going to be out of a job by 4 pm. Time to update your resumes. Our guess is another 300 will be gone by end of year. Press release below: MYSPACE REDUCES STAFF BY NEARLY 30% Return to Start-Up Culture a Focus for Company Moving Forward LOS ANGELES—June 16, 2009—As part of a plan to restructure itself into a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business, MySpace announced today that it will reduce its staff by nearly 30%. This restructuring plan crosses all U.S. divisions of the company and lowers the total number of domestic staff at MySpace to 1,000 employees. "Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," said MySpace Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta. "I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product." "MySpace grew too big considering the realities of today's marketplace," said Jonathan Miller, News Corporation's CEO of Digital Media and Chief Digital Officer. “I believe this restructuring will help MySpace operate much more effectively both structurally and financially moving forward. I am confident in MySpace’s next phase under the leadership of Owen and his team." ### About MySpace MySpace is a technology company connecting people through personal expression, content, and culture. MySpace empowers its global community to experience the Internet through a social lens by integrating personal profiles, photos, videos, mobile, messaging, games, and the world's largest music community. MySpace is a division of News Corporation. (NYSE: NWS - News, NWS.A - News; ASX:NWS - News, NWSLV - News) Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Facebook Loses Lawsuit Against German Clone StudiVZ, Gets Criticized For Sloppy Preparation Top
Bad news for Facebook from Germany today. Facebook has had issues with Berlin-based social network StudiVZ (”student directory” in German) for years before deciding last summer to finally sue their German clone in the US . In November, Facebook filed another suit [PDF], this time in Germany. The allegation in both cases: Intellectual property theft, with Facebook saying StudiVZ infringes on their site’s design, features and services. In addition, StudiVZ is accused of having stolen PHP source code from Facebook. Anyone who spends more than 2 minutes on StudiVZ must come to the conclusion that the site is a total knock-off of the American original. It’s even rumored that several lines of very early StudiVZ code contained the word “Fakebook” and as a German, I can say StudiVZ is more or less a translated duplicate. But today the County Court in Cologne (where the suit was filed in November) decided against Facebook. And the judges were pretty harsh in their verdict. The court argues that it can’t identify any unfair practices, mainly due to the fact that StudiVZ isn’t trying to trick users into thinking they are actually on Facebook. Another factor in favor of the German site: When StudiVZ went live in Germany in November 2005, Facebook was virtually unknown in that country. The court says this changed only in March last year when Facebook started specifically targeting German users. And as if that’s not enough, the court criticized Facebook’s lawyers for being too sloppy, saying they made too many unfounded guesses instead of presenting hard facts that prove StudiVZ stole source code. As a consequence, the judges refrained from getting the opinion of independent experts who could have looked into this specific allegation. However, it was acknowledged in court that StudiVZ and Facebook “obviously share some similar and identical elements”. Take a look at this screenshot of a profile page below: It’s still open if Facebook will appeal the ruling (a Facebook spokeswoman said her company would now review all legal options). The lawsuit against StudiVZ in the US is still on. And Facebook might want to boost their efforts to at least win that one since winning in Germany means winning in Europe’s biggest web market , where the StudiVZ network is a big player: A total of 12.9 million people from German-speaking countries are registered at StudiVZ itself (mainly for university students) and its spin-offs schuelerVZ (for high-school students) and meinVZ (for everybody else). Facebook has about 2 million users in Germany. Screenshot from Golem.de Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Exclusive Video: Hands-On With Opera Unite (It Rocks) Top
The web is understandably abuzz with chatter over Opera Unite , the technology platform the Norwegian software company unveiled earlier this morning. It’s an intriguing concept, and it could fundamentally change the way we think about how content is shared on the Internet. Expect this to be a source of inspiration for other browser makers, hopefully crediting Opera Software for getting this type of innovation jump-started. Or could this effectively cause the company’s desktop browser to gain more traction and as much acclaim as its mobile browser deservedly receives? I’ve been toying with Opera 10 and the built-in Unite Services for a few hours now, and I like the simplicity of it and the sheer potential for external developers to build more stuff on top of the platform. Bugs and kinks notwithstanding - the product is in a fairly rudimentary state for now and has never been tested on such a large scale before today’s launch - I genuinely think we’re at the start of something powerful here, but I’ve also noticed a bit of confusion about what it does and what it is capable of. Fortunately, I got the chance to do a live demo with the folks over at Opera, and they were nice enough to record a video of the session so I could share it with you. The video is embedded below, and it shows the team testing a couple of services but also features Philip Gronvold (product analyst at Opera) diving a bit deeper into the overall concept of Opera Unite, addressing some of the concerns raised by several people in the comment section of our earlier post (mostly about security, privacy and connectivity). CrunchBase Information Opera Software Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Fred Wilson: The Value Of Twitter Is In "The Power Of Passed Links" Top
Venture capitalist Fred Wilson , who is an investor in Twitter, argues that the value of Twitter is “all about links.” Today at the 140 Characters Conference in New York City, Wilson gave a presentation ostensibly about how to make money from Twitter. The value of Twitter, he says, is in “the power of the passed link.” He compared Twitter’s recent organic growth to the early growth of Google (minus any mention of Twitter’s recent slowdown ) and shared some analysis of traffic to the Websites of his portfolio companies and his blog. Google is the dominant source of traffic, but over the past 12 months Twitter traffic has been growing 30 to 40 percent per month. It is becoming a significant source of traffic to those Websites, to the point where it is now bringing about 20 percent as much traffic as Google. Wilson predicts that at current growth rates, Twitter “will surpass Google [as a source of traffic] for many websites in the next year.” And that just as nearly every site on the Web has become addicted to Google juice, they will increasingly try to find ways to get more links from Twitter. Because Twitter equals traffic. (We’ve noticed a similar trend at TechCrunch, where Twitter is now our second largest outside source of traffic after Google). Moreover, he asserts that these Twitter links “convert better” than search links because they are often pre-filtered and come in the form of a recommendation from someone you are following. And while spam is a growing issue, it is somewhat mitigated by the ability to unfollow anyone who abuses your trust. Given these dynamics, Twitter needs to “inject a paid model” into its service, says Wilson. He is clear that he is not speaking on behalf of Twitter: I am not telegraphing anything here. It is the obvious thing to do. If they don't do it, someone will figure out how to do it as a third party application. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was sitting right next to me when Wilson said this onstage. He didn’t seem surprised by anything Wilson was saying. But how exactly is the best way to inject paid or sponsored links into Twitter? Again, looking at Google might be instructive. Google delivers traffic to Websites through a combination of organic and paid links. The paid links amount to billions of dollars in revenues for Google, but they wouldn’t work without the links in natural results. Twitter needs to come up with unobtrusive ways to inject sponsored Tweets with paid links into people’s Twitter streams. It is still not clear, however, how it can do this without turning off users. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Former MySpace Exec Shawn Gold Raises Seed Funding For Stealth Startup Cocodot Top
Former MySpace CMO Shawn Gold is starting up a new social media business dubbed Cocodot , which is poised for launch next September. The current website for the venture doesn’t reveal much, and all we know at this point about Cocodot is that it will provide a “style-driven communication and guest management platform for people and brands to create celebrations”. We didn’t get that either, but apparently Gold is close to announcing several alliances with some of America’s biggest consumer brands pre-launch, so our expectations are on the high side. And investors are interested, too. The startup has just closed its first round of financing, securing seed funding from investors like Anthem Venture Partners and William Morris’ Mail Room Fund . The amount raised was just south of $1 million. For your reference: Gold was the former President of Intermix Media , the company that used to be eUniverse and owned the MySpace website before it was sold to News Corp. for a reported $670 million. He was also President of Weblogs Inc , which was acquired by AOL for $25 million back in 2005. We’ll be keeping a close eye on Cocodot for the foreseeable future. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Taptu, the Alternative Search Machine for iPhone Top
Everyone moans about the lack of Flash on the iPhone, right? Let's face it: if someone makes a solid Flash implementation for the iPhone there would be substantially less interest in making native iPhone apps. You could create a rich user environment in the browser, and the iPhone App Store would be less and less relevant. As things stand now, I prefer native apps over browser apps for iPhone services. I use the dedicated mail client to access my GMail account, rather than load the mobile GMail interface in Safari. I use a dedicated Twitter client, FaceBook client, and LinkedIn client rather than load the mobile version of those sites (assuming a mobile version even exists!). Often, though, no native client exists, and you're stuck using a web site. It can be a real pain to find a mobile-friendly version of the sites you need, sometimes. Enter Taptu, the alternative search machine. This free app provides iPhone-friendly search results in a surprisingly intuitive way.
 
Flip Announces Flip Channels, Adds Easier Video Sharing Top
Not content to let others do the heavy lifting, Pure Digital , now part of Cisco, has added Flip Channels to their popular - and surprisingly useful - FlipShare software. The software is pre-installed on every Flip devices (we have the HD) and the Channels are yet another way to upload and share your videos in the interwebs. Videos sent to your channel can be viewed at FlipShare.com or using the FlipShare iPhone app, also available today. The software also supports DVD authoring and standard sharing with YouTube and MySpace. I sent a video to myself using the service, a real cinematic magnum opus . You cannot formally embed videos sent to channels - you can embed them on the sly using the actual HTML or grabbing to a site like Posterous - but obviously you can embed videos sent to YouTube.
 
Armorize Lands More Funding For Web App Security Technology Top
Armorize , provider of web application security solutions, has secured a Series B round of financing from its (unnamed) Silicon Valley-based Series A investors, Estonian seed fund Ambient Sound Investments and Asian firm Birch Venture Capital . For your information, ASI is the investment vehicle of Skype’s founding engineers. They’ve recently invested in a European community network for pet owners, which we covered last week. Armorize provides Web application security solutions such as malicious code detection, real time web application protection, and static source code analysis services throughout the system development life cycle, under brand names like CodeSecure, SmartWAF, HackAlert and Archon Scanner. Armorize caters to a variety of industries, including finance, telecom, government, and technology sectors. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Santa Clara, California with an additional office in Taipei, Taiwan. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
BOKU Launches, Makes Some Mobile Purchases For Mobile Payments Top
Dead simple mobile payments for micro-transactions on the web are slowly gaining traction and a new, well-funded player has entered the growing space. Recently launched mobile payments startup BOKU has acquired competitors Paymo and Mobillcash and raised $13 million in Series A funding from Benchmark Capital, with Khosla Ventures and Index Ventures participating. BOKU did not disclose how much the startup paid to acquire Mobillcash and Paymo. BOKU, Paymo and Mobillcash all function in a similar way to make micropayments for games and applications. BOKU’s system doesn't require users to have a credit card or bank account. Users enter their cell phone number on the site, reply to a Paymo text message and then all virtual charges are automatically charged to the user's monthly cell phone bill. It's disarmingly easy. BOKU is gaining a significant international base with the acquisition of Paymo and Mobillcash. Paymo and social network hi5 recently partnered to let members in 24 countries use their mobile phones to purchase hi5 Coins, hi5's virtual currency. Paymo is available to hi5 users in the U.S., Canada, France, Hong Kong, Thailand, Russia and Colombia thanks to a cash system that accepts and processes various types of currencies. Paymo’s technology can be accessed in 45 markets around the globe, enabling mobile payments in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Paymo recently expanded service in the U.S. after striking deals with mobile carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile to allow users to make online purchases using their phone. Mobillcash is UK-based and has a strong presence mainly in Europe. With these acquisitions and global reach (53 countries), BOKU has been able to secure partnerships with most major global mobile carriers. BOKU’s will initially launch its services on Hi5, Puzzle Pirates, Aeria Games, and on multitude of apps on Facebook and MySpace. Paymo has said in the past that 75 percent of the online community worldwide does not have a credit card but 3 billion consumers own a mobile phone. And the market for online payments via mobile is being driven by the growth of virtual goods and games on social networks and mobile applications. With that in mind, mobile payments, which avoid credit cards or bank accounts, have the potential to take off. But there is one obstacle to mobile payments seriously becoming a viable micropayment option. Often, mobile carriers charge costly fees to the payment systems (which are then passed on to the consumer) remains a serious problem. BOKU says that different cell phone carriers charge varying fees that range between 10% to 50% of the purchase price, which is a pretty large amount in transaction fees. As we said in our earlier analysis, this could pose a significant roadblock to these types of services, which channel user payments through mobile carriers. It appears that it would be hard to sustain these fees in the long term. But if mobile carriers lower their fees, mobile payments have the potential to be the go-to way to pay for microtransactions. And BOKU, with its recent acquisitions and funding could be in prime position to make this happen in the space. Competitors to BOKU include Zong (a former TechCrunch 50 exhibitor ) and Netsize. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
That Reinvention Of The Web Thing Opera Was Talking About? It's Called Opera Unite Top
We told you last week that browser maker Opera was generating quite some buzz by being secretive about their plans to ‘reinvent the web’ . Well, the company this morning unveiled what it was referring to: technology that essentially turns every computer running the Opera browser into a full-fledged Web server. Behold Opera Unite . You can use Opera Unite to share documents, music, photos, videos, or use it to run websites or even chat rooms without third-party requirements. The company extended the collaborative technology to a platform that comes with a set of APIs, encouraging developers to create their own applications (known as Opera Unite services ) on top of it, directly linking people's personal computers together, no matter which OS they are running and without the need to download additional software. The company recognizes that the current services are fairly basic, but says this is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll take a deeper dive in Opera Unite real soon, but I’m impressed with what it looks like on the surface. This is a really good idea at its core, and I encourage you to read Opera product analyst Lawrence Eng’s blog post on the subject for more background and an idea of where Opera is heading with the concept. A small excerpt: “Currently, most of us contribute content to the Web (for example by putting our personal information on social networking sites, uploading photos to Flickr, or maybe publishing blog posts), but we don't contribute to its fabric — the underlying infrastructure that defines the online landscape that we inhabit. Our computers are only dumb terminals connected to other computers (meaning servers) owned by other people — such as large corporations — who we depend upon to host our words, thoughts, and images. We depend on them to do it well and with our best interests at heart. We place our trust in these third parties, and we hope for the best, but as long as our own computers are not first class citizens on the Web, we are merely tenants, and hosting companies are the landlords of the Internet.” CrunchBase Information Opera Software Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Adobe AIR Zooms Past 200 Million Installs, And We Have Some Apps To Recommend Top
We’ll say it right off the bat: there’s a good chance you have a recent version of Adobe Reader installed on your computer, so that probably means you’ve also installed Adobe AIR , the company’s cross-platform runtime environment for RIAs, as well as the Acrobat.com application. You may not even be aware those came bundled, but you still have the option to uninstall both and still keep Adobe Reader. Glad we got that out of the way. On to the news: by means of a blog post, Adobe Systems has just confirmed the number of installs for Adobe AIR that had been floating around the Web ever since CTO Kevin Lynch mentioned something along those lines at the recent Flash Camp Keynote in San Francisco: 200 million , double the amount the company touted at the end of January 2009. The number was reached a little over two weeks ago, about 16 months after its debut on the market. Whether you’re aware that you’ve installed Adobe AIR at some point or not, or whether you think the 200 million installs is actually on the low rather than the high side (I think the number is fairly moderate), there are some really good applications out there that you don’t know yet but might want to check out: imeem Uploader : Allows users to upload music, videos, and photos to imeem . This app will automatically discover all your iTunes playlists and enable you to easily zip them over to your imeem profile. You can also drag and drop your desired tracks for upload to imeem, create custom playlists and share your music with others. Flair : An elegant search tool for Flickr , which utilizes several methods of its public API. Flair matches search queries by tags and makes it easy to jump to the original resolution upload (often easily wallpaper quality) and the source photographers photostream (by clicking their user icon). Comapping : An intuitive and extensive desktop app for mind-mapping purposes, tied to web app Comapping.com . Use it to manage and share information more efficiently. NetBook : Ebook reader for the Gutenberg online book library . Ebooks are available free of charge in both text and audio format. NetBook lets you search the Gutenberg database, download and read/listen to ebooks and store them in cache for offline use. MyMediaPlayer : Yes, Hulu has an official desktop application too, but this one is worth a second look (we’ve covered this one before). MYMediaplayer allows users to browse the Hulu library while watching videos, and you can dock the window to the side of the monitor so you can work and watch TV at the same time. Perfect for procrastination! You can find these and 500 other applications on the AIR Marketplace . Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
iPhone 3G S Shipments In The Air For June 17 Arrival Top
Orders for the new iPhone 3G S are now in the air from Shenzen, China. And people who ordered them right away last week may be in for a treat - arrival two days early. A friend who ordered the phone as soon as he could got his UPS notice today that the phone has been shipped, and the tracking page on the UPS site shows a June 17 delivery date, two days before the phones will be available in stores. If it does arrive then, will AT&T activate it? Or will it be an iBrick for two days? We’ll check back with him as soon as it arrives for an unboxing. And if he’s amenable, a tear down. I want to see the insides of this thing first hand. CrunchBase Information iPhone 3G S Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
With An iPhone And Android Strategy, Imeem Mobile Pushes Past A Million Users Top
Imeem has a great Android app. In fact, it’s still one of the few very good apps available on that platform as it continues to find its legs. It’s so good that we gave it a Crunchie this year . But as good as it is, it took the application coming to the iPhone platform to push the company past a big milestone: 1 million mobile platform installs. Imeem Mobile for the iPhone, which we were the first to report on back in May right before it launched, already accounts for 1/3 of Imeem’s mobile users, we’re told. It’s been consistently in the top 5 music apps and near the top 50 overall in the App Store since then. But does that mean that it’s better than the Android version? No, in fact, it’s worse for one reason: It can’t run in the background. That of course, isn’t Imeem’s fault. Rival Pandora suffers from the same problem because Apple will not allow these apps to stay open while you do other things on your phone, or put its screen to sleep. That may change eventually , but it seems likely that this isn’t happening anytime soon. So, for now, Imeem has decided to continue this fully two-pronged approach to the mobile app world: Android and iPhone. On one hand it now has the sexy iPhone app, which gives them access to all those iPhone users. On the other hand, it has its fully-functional Android app, which offers much higher engagement. In fact, Android listening session lengths are more than twice as long as they are on the iPhone, Imeem CEO Dalton Caldwell tells us. And the Android platform offers another advantage in that Imeem knows that its app is now on 2 out of every 3 Android phones out there right now. That’s pretty crazy. And 1/3 of the users who install the mobile version of Imeem are completely new to the service. Of course, all of these things are just fairly inconsequential stats if the service isn’t monetizing them in some way. There has been of a lot of speculation about Imeem’s future , after reports surfaced that some of the major music labels which had been backing it, were not seeing returns on their investment and were backing out. Warner Music was the one in particular that was unhappy . But reports today indicate that they’re back in the mix after renegotiating some kind of deal with Imeem. Caldwell wouldn’t comment on that, but we’ve heard that Warner is back in as well. This follows Imeem raising more money to continue onward last month. In terms of monetization, Caldwell said that Imeem beat their Q2 goal for ad sales, and that they’re particularly excited about the mobile ad numbers they’re seeing. And there’s apparently a growing interest in cross-platform ad buys, from advertisers who want access to the site, the mobile apps, audio ads, and the widgets that Imeem makes, all in one package. Pandora told us last month that it had been seeing some great numbers with regards to music downloads being driven by their app. Caldwell sounds less enthusiastic about those, but said the click-through rates are always good in that area because there’s such a high intention rate when it comes to buying music through the app. So with a million mobile installs and a firm commitment to the iPhone and Android platforms, what’s next for Imeem in the mobile space? Well, the company is taking a wait-and-see approach. When asked about the hot phone of choice right now, the Palm Pre, Caldwell is cautious. “We’ve been very judicious in our use of resources,” he says. But he notes that they are watching the Pre closesly (Pandora was one of the phone’s launch partners), and sounds much more interested in that platform than any of the other ones out there not named the iPhone or Andorid. “They [the other platforms] don’t have a great distribution model. It’s a total pain to install anything on the BlackBerry.” Instead of an expansion to another platform, we’ll have to make due with an update to the Imeem Android app, which is due shortly. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Are Silicon Valley Startups More Likely To Be Acquired? Top
Does where you start your company matter? Statistically, it may. Jim Karsten pulled data from CrunchBase to look at where startups are based and the likelihood of an acquisition. The results show that 41.2% of startups that we track are based in Silicon Valley, but that those startups account for 53.3% of the reported acquisitions. A startup based in Silicon Valley has a 6.9% chance of being acquired. New York startups come in second with a 4.9% acquisition rate. It’s not clear exactly what data was pulled (years, transaction size, etc.), although there are more details here . We’re running our own analysis of the data over the last few years (back to startups founded in 2004 and later, to take into account transaction sizes and to include international data) and should have a deeper dive available soon. But until then, the data is clear - all else being equal, start your company in Silicon Valley. Although we strongly suggest that before you relocate your family and employees you wait for our more detailed analysis. More from John Cook , who’s hopelessly in love with Seattle. Also worth reading is Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman’s rant last year about Silicon Valley working too hard (my response , his last word ). The bottom line is this. If you have the means, start your company in Silicon Valley. It’s the big leagues. Like I said last year to those crazy Seattleites that keep saying they’re basically a suburb of Silicon Valley: “If staring at lakes and skiing after work are important to you, don't pretend to be surprised when your startup doesn't cut it.” Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Behold! The New Facebook Headquarters. Top
Earlier tonight, we spent some time at an open house to show off the new Facebook Headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Previously, the company had its HQ on what’s considered to be Palo Alto’s downtown area on University Ave. But that HQ was spread across a collection of buildings, and at nearly 1,000 employees now, Facebook grew too big for that. It needed a campus. The new HQ is massive — some 150,000 square feet. It’s in a building that used to be owned by HP, but has been vacant for several years. It’s not only much bigger, but it’s much more open, so employees can actually see who they work with now. Check out the pictures and video of the tour below. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Facebook Has A Program To End Hunger Too. Downloading IE8 Not Required. Top
Yesterday, we wrote about Microsoft’s pledge to feed the hungry if you download their web browser. That campaign is misleading, and it really shows when you compare it to another campaign of a similar nature. Today, while at Facebook’s new headquarters in Palo Alto, we noticed that it too is involved in a campaign to end hunger. But rather than pledging to feed hungry people only if you download something from Facebook, the company is doing it on the down-low, asking its employees to help out, in its own cafeteria. As you can see in the poster in this post, ShareYourLunch.net asks you to “Share Your Lunch With 20 Children For Just $10.” Right off the bat this is better. First and foremost, rather than trying to tie the number of people being saved into some marketing number (8 for IE8), ShareYourLunch picks a round number that actually makes sense. Secondly, either ShareYourLunch is getting a worse deal, or they’re being more realistic with their money. While Microsoft’s promotion was saying that $1.15 would provide 8 meals (about $0.14 a meal), this campaign says that $10 will provide 20 meals (about $0.50 a meal). And these meals are for small children, not adults like at least some of Microsoft’s campaign would presumably be for. Third, rather than claiming it is providing 8 meals to people, when that really just means that it’s sending the charity a set amount of money based on some regulatory guidelines for what a “meal” is (here’s the crux of the statement I got from representatives from Microsoft on the matter: “The USDA defines a meal as 1.28 pounds of food”), ShareYourLunch is actually buying real food. From the site: We use cash donations to buy healthy foods that are appealing to children, such as fresh produce, granola bars, juice, cereal, tuna and crackers. We have nutritionists on staff to ensure that all food allocations are balanced and meet the minimum food guidelines. It just seems like Facebook is working towards ending hunger in a much more classy way, that’s not so misleading. That’s not to say that Microsoft’s money pledge isn’t helpful, mostly I just think it’s kind of tacky to tie it into a web browser promotion based on the version number. I guess if there’s ever an IE9, more people will be saved from hunger because they’ll be able to jack up the number of people fed to 9. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
OpenCalais Updates Tagging System To Be More Social And Recession Friendly Top
Thomson Reuters’ OpenCalais, a service and open API that lets users to incorporate semantic tagging in blogs, content management systems, or website content, has been upgraded to include social tagging, integration for Spanish content, and improved linked data depth for companies. OpenCalais’ technology is powered by text analytics company Clear Forest, which was acquired by Reuters in 2007. OpenCalais, which is free, uses natural language processing, machine learning and other methods to analyze a document and finds the entities within it. CNET and Huffington Post are among the blogs and sites that use OpenCalais. OpenCalais 4.1 (released today) and 4.2 (to be released in a few weeks) will first include a new social component that will emulate how a human might tag a document. While OpenCalais is a semantic data extraction engine, it doesn’t necessarily take out the kind of tags a human would put on an article. For example, in an article about luxury cars, OpenCalais would be able to pick out BMW and Porsche as tags but wouldn’t necessarily pick out descriptions like “sports cars” or “automobiles.” OpenCalais’s technology will now generate these sort of tags, called “Social Tags,” and will analyze content and map it to a knowledgebase based on Wikipedia and other sites. The new version will also extract tags from content written in Spanish. OpenCalais previously supported English and French. One of the neat things about OpenCalais is that it lets publishers combine their content with Linked Data assets from Wikipedia, IMDB and other databases. The new version has also upgraded the Linked Data features for company data, linking to new enterprise information sites like our own CrunchBase. And OpenCalais’s semantic entity database has been spruced up to include recession relevant terms such as accounting changes, labor issues, layoffs, earnings restatements, delayed filings and more. Like Akismet andAnother player in this space is Zemanta, which we’ve reviewed here. div class=”cbw snap_nopreview”> CrunchBase Information OpenCalais Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Twitter Reschedules Maintenance To Allow Iranian Protests To Continue Top
Twitter had been planning to have a 90 minute downtime tonight for maintenance. Given what’s going on over in Iran right now, that was a problem. And so Twitter has decided to reschedule the maintenance so the protests can go on. This is a good move by Twitter. It clearly didn’t want to have to move the maintenance window that it calls a “critical network upgrade,” but the #nomaintenance hashtag that has spent the entire day on the trending topic list, made it pretty clear that Twitter’s users don’t want the service going down at all during this important time. So Twitter worked with its network partner NTT America to reschedule the maintenance for 2-3 PM Pacific, which will be 1:30 in the morning in Iran, rather than during the day. Twitter uses the rest of the post to praise NTT America for its flexibility, but really this is all about Iran. The people over there are using Twitter as a tool of choice to spread information about what is going on, even as other outlets for communication are being blocked . [photo: flickr/. faramarz ] Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 

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