The latest from TechCrunch
- Kwedit Gets Slammed On Colbert, But Raises $3.3 Million To Soften The Blow
- Google's Gesture Search Gives You A New Way To Search Android
- webOS Gets The Facebook App It Should Have Always Had
- Will Valve Revitalize Mac Gaming With Steam For OS X?
| Kwedit Gets Slammed On Colbert, But Raises $3.3 Million To Soften The Blow | Top |
| Kwedit , the innovative new alternate payment product for social games and just about any other virtual good, is on a roll. They’ve raised a second round of financing – $3.3 million in a round led by Maveron . And they were also on the Colbert Report last night. Just, not so much in a good way. Colbert ridiculed the company as a “website that hooks little kids on borrowing credit.” You can watch the clip here . One of Kwedit’s products is a sort of credit system. Users promise to pay back the Kwedit, and social game gives in game currency based on that promise. There’s no enforcement mechanism if the user doesn’t pay, other than a lower Kwedit score and difficulty in getting more in game Kwedit. See our overview here . So while the Colbert clip is funny, it’s not very accurate. The company says that they absolutely do not encourage use by young children. You must be at least 13 to use Kwedit. And while Kwedit teaches users how to use credit, it’s not actually a credit product. The credit business is about charging interest over time, ideally on balances that are never fully paid off. There is no interest in Kwedit. Kwedit says they’ve signed six new merchant contracts since launch across a variety of verticals. PokeTalk, a VoIP provider, is among them, as well as a MMO, a test prep service and a credit record protection service. PokeTalk is using the Kwedit Direct product, which allows users to agree to pay for something online and then pay for the item by mailing in cash, or by going to a local 7-11 and paying there. Pre-paid cards also require a big up front investment in printing and distribution to get up and running. Some of Kwedit’s partners seem to be very interested in that 7-11 angle. It’s very hard to get any kind of presence in those stores, but they can get in immediately by using Kwedit. In fact, says the company, they are seeing “tremendous interest” in the Kwedit Direct product. Kwedit also says that they can enable charitable donations via Kwedit Direct, and neither they nor 7-11 will charge any fees for these payments. So charities looking for a new way to accept payments will likely give this a look. As I said in our launch post, I’m very intrigued by Kwedit. It’s the only truly unique payment product I’ve seen recently and has a real chance of helping social gaming companies and other virtual goods companies increase revenue per customer in a world where only 1-3% of users are willing to open their wallet. Colbert may joke about it, but Kwedit is, actually, serious business. CrunchBase Information Kwedit Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Google's Gesture Search Gives You A New Way To Search Android | Top |
| Android users have a new way to search their phones today, and it’s pretty damn cool. Google has just released a new application called Gesture Search that lets you search your phone’s contacts, bookmarks, applications, and music simply by scribbling out letters with your finger. No hunting and pecking — you just draw out each letter as if you’re finger painting. The new application is currently only available for devices running Eclair (Android 2.0, which is currently only found on the Nexus One and Verizon Droid). Using Gesture Search is quite simple. First, you boot up the Gesture Search application, which you need to download from Android Market. After installing it, your phone will prompt you to ask if you want to add the application to your home screen (which you’ll probably want to do if you intend to use it with any frequency). Tap the application, and you’ll see a black screen, where you’re supposed to start drawing the first few letters of your query. As you complete each letter, the application will refine your results. If you mess up, you can delete the last letter by drawing a horizontal line to the left (you can delete the entire word by swiping to the right). I’ve been playing with the new application, and the character recognition seems to work pretty well. It’s still too early to tell how useful this will be on a day-to-day basis, but it has potential. For one, it’s great for people who don’t like having to flick through long lists or use the phone’s integrated keyboard. And because everyone knows how to draw these letters by heart, it makes for a good way to search when you can’t keep your eyes on your phone (don’t take this as a recommendation to use it while driving, though — that’s never safe). CrunchBase Information Android Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| webOS Gets The Facebook App It Should Have Always Had | Top |
| At long last, webOS has been granted a Facebook application worth its weight in kilobytes. A completely revamped version of the Facebook application has just gone live in the Palm App Catalog – and boy, is it an improvement. Palm has offered some level of Facebook support on webOS since the launch of the Pixi – but as we noted in our Pixi review , calling what it had “Facebook support” was probably exaggerating. You could sync your Facebook contacts, read your news feed, and.. well, that’s it. The new app, however… Read the rest at MobileCrunch >> | |
| Will Valve Revitalize Mac Gaming With Steam For OS X? | Top |
| Valve is in the midst of a media blitz at the moment — not that you’d notice, since their idea of a media blitz is secretly launching a complex alternate reality game , or emailing single novelty screenshots to six different media outlets. You could be forgiven for expecting a full-site skin for 1UP, or a week-long series of “developer diaries” on IGN — that’s what every other game company out there thinks makes games sell. At any rate, GDC is coming up and the expected announcements are Steam on OS X (definite) and possibly a peek at Portal 2, Half-Life: Episode 3 , or both (speculative). Of course, the idea of Steam on the Mac makes fanboys of all stripes froth delicately at the mouth — but while an excellent game-distribution client like Steam would be welcome on the Mac, it may not be the gaming renaissance people are hoping for. It’s worth taking a bit of time to look at, since gaming is increasingly a major source of revenue and a wedge to increase market share . Let’s take a look at what Steam is up against. Read the rest of this story on CrunchGear… | |
CREATE MORE ALERTS:
Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted
Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope
Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more
News - Only the news you want, delivered!
Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more
Weather - Get today's weather conditions
| You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. |
No comments:
Post a Comment