Wednesday, September 1, 2010

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Yes, iTunes 10 Is Finally Here. Get Downloading Top
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been hitting refresh on the Apple iTunes website waiting for them to put iTunes 10 up for download. Sure, it has said it was available since this morning, but when you click through, it would still be iTunes 9.2.1 with a promise that iTunes 10 was “coming soon.” Links being shared on Twitter were likewise bogus. It was starting to look like a Duke Nukem situation. Well, it took several hours, but it’s finally here . Apple announced iTunes 10 this morning at their event in San Francisco. The latest version is more than just a minor update, there are several things that have been reworks, including some UI elements. But the biggest addition is obviously Ping, the music social network Apple has baked into iTunes. I got a chance to use it earlier on some demo computers and on the iPhone/iPod touch — it’s very interesting. Now it’s time to see if 160 million built-in users agree. From the 15 minutes or so I used it earlier, I can also say that it felt noticeably faster than version 9. This has been a huge complaint about the software in the past — that it’s too bloated. Of course, that was also on a brand new machine probably not packed to the brim with media — so we’ll see. The oddest thing about iTunes 10 isn’t the icon revamp (goodbye CD) — I think it has to be the move of the close, minimize, and expand buttons on the Mac version. They’re now vertically aligned — like a traffic light. CrunchBase Information iTunes Information provided by CrunchBase
 
BankSimple Deposits $3.1 Million From First Round, Ron Conway, And Sean Parker Top
New York City startup BankSimple today disclosed that it raised its first venture funding in a round led by First Round Capital , Roger Ehrenberg’s IA Ventures , and Village Ventures , along with seed investors SV Angel (Ron Conway) and Nauiokas Park (Amy Nauiokas and Sean Parker), and . But it did not disclose how much it raised. I’ve confirmed that the round was $2.9 million, with an additional $190,000 raised last year in convertible debt (which converted to shares with this round), for a total of $3.1 million raised. BankSimple has not yet launched. It is trying to develop a better interface for banking, working with financial institutions to actually hold the deposits. “Anything the customer sees is what we do,” says CEO Joshua Reich. BankSimple is creating a new front-end experience for bank customers both online and through mobile apps. The service will simplify their accounts into a single account and gives them a dashboard to see how much they are saving, how much they can spend, and how close they are to reaching financial goals. The whole point is to simplify people’s financial lives by giving them a modern Web interface and realtime data linked to their accounts. So when you are about to reach an overdraft, you might get a notification on your phone. The first customers will be required to own a smartphone so they can download one of BankSimple’s mobile apps (iPhone and Android will probably be first). They will be able to deposit a check by taking a picture of one with their cell phone camera. Customers will also get a bank card tied to their account. “The way banks work is they shove products down the throats of consumers,” says Reich. The more products you sign up for with your bank, the more fees they can charge. BankSimple will not make money from fees. Instead it will split the net interest margin with its partner banks (the net margin interest is the difference between the rate at which banks lend out money and the rate at which they pay depositors). It is looking to partner with wholesale banks to take care of the back end. This strategy of focusing solely on the user experience contrasts with Betterment , a TechCrunch Disrupt finalist which also tries to simplify the online banking experience with a single, smarter account, but does hold deposits. Reich acknowledges that “we would certainly get more revenues if we did it ourselves,” but does not want to be distracted by regulatory compliance and managing large pools of money. Plenty of banks do that better than BankSimple could. Instead he wants to focus on what banks don’t do well: building a technology company and making the customer experience less harrowing. CrunchBase Information banksimple First Round Capital IA Ventures Village Ventures Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Inflection Raises $30 Million To Take On The Public Records Industry Top
Inflection , a company aimed to democratizing the public records system on the web, has raised $30 million in Series A financing led by Matrix Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures . Founded in 2006, Inflection aggregates public records and data from past and present and currently operates Archives.com , a site that sources historical records made available on the web. Archives is meant to allow people to access birth, death, marriage, divorce, and other historical vital records to get information about deceased members of their families. Currently the site has more than 2 million members conducting searches and sees 3 million unique visitors per month. Inflection is also getting into current public record search for people today with the launch of PeopleSmart, a people search engine that mashes up data from public contact information, public records, and social profiles. The site currently features more than 250 million social profiles, 500 million public records, and contact information for a large percentage of U.S. households. The site offers a email plugin that can be installed directly into your Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail inbox so that users can view the sender's social profiles and photos with every email. The people data listing business is surrounded with privacy concerns but PeopleSmart also allows users to manage their listings online, submit corrections and remove information they don’t want shown. And for records which have not yet been digitized, PeopleSmart offers a service that will actually send someone into the actual court archives to retrieve and return the records. This process takes 38 hours on average and is available in 47 states. As a privacy protection, PeopleSmart.com makes email listings private and relays messages on behalf of its users. Recipients can choose whether they want to reply back to the sender or not hear from them again. Monthly memberships to use the service range from $3 to $8 per month. PeopleSmart is trying to add legitimacy to a market that has been known to attract controversy. Competitor Intellius was recently hit with fine injunctions by the Washington state attorney general over post-transaction marketing scams. Even Salesforce-bought Jigsaw has come under fire for its data practices. PeopleSmart’s founders, brothers Brian and Matthew Monahan, say that their site is centered on choice, and allows people to choose what information is available about them. The Monahan brothers add that every dataset the company acquires about individuals goes through extensive diligence across five dimensions, including accuracy, recency, percentage of coverage, depth and clarity. Data is also passed through a series of quality checks, which includes privacy checks related to information about minors, opted out individuals, or other sensitive data. The company plans to use the funds to expand its team, invest in technology, and acquire customers for its web properties. CrunchBase Information Inflection Information provided by CrunchBase
 
20 Year Old Founder Jessica Mah Raises Over $1 Million For InDinero Top
We’ve confirmed that wunderkind Jessica Mah is one week away from closing a hotly anticipated round of seed financing for her banking startup InDinero. Confirmed investors in the round (which still has three open spots reserved for valley VIPs like SV Angel) include 500 StartUps ‘ Dave McClure, Microsoft’s Fritz Lanman, and YouTube’s Jawed Karim. Part of the YCombinator class of 2010, InDinero aims to be the Mint for small businesses and is off to a running start as this latest round is set to close between 1 and 1.5 million. We’ve heard reports that she had to turn investors away, and Mah promises that more “juicy details” about the story behind the funding are yet to come. Perhaps the closest we’ve got to a female Mark Zuckerberg, Mah founded her first startup at age of 13, and entered into the Computer Science program at Berekley at 15, where she started internshipIN.com . In raising over a million at twenty, the serial entrepreneur’s got a ways to go before she gets jaded. Here’s recent video of her explaining InDinero’s usefulness and simplicity. CrunchBase Information Indinero Jessica Mah Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Elevation's LPs Refuse Extension for New Deals, Fund Riding on Facebook and Yelp Top
The hits just keep on coming for Elevation Partners , the one-time digital media, private equity dream team that has reconfigured itself as an investor in late stage Web 2.0 treasures. Earlier this summer, Elevation requested an extension on investing its $1.9 billion fund, and TechCrunch has learned that that request was denied—a move that came as surprise to us and to Elevation, we hear. So what does that mean? Clearly, LPs are sending a strong message that has to do with Elevation, but also has a lot to do with the broader market: They want to see some returns before they pony up more money. But the news isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. For one thing, we’re only talking about $100 million or so of the $1.9 billion fund. At most, this would have represented one more deal in the portfolio. What’s more Elevation can still call up that $100 million to invest in a follow-on round in existing portfolio companies, so it’s not like the fund size has necessarily been reduced to $1.8 billion. There is just a new restriction on how they can spend that last $100 million. What does this mean for that Pandora deal ? It doesn't kill it, because Elevation signed an agreement to invest before the original five-year investment period elapsed. But that deal isn’t done and it’s unclear if there’s a snag or the deal is just taking some time. In our earlier story, Pandora confirmed that Elevation had expressed interest and sources close to Elevation say an agreement to invest was already signed. Either way, the fund will hinge on Elevation’s investments in Yelp and Facebook. As we reported before, if you average together Elevation’s investment in Facebook it holds its shares at a valuation of $29 per share and Facebook has been trading as high as $70 a share on the secondary market. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Elevation loses money on this, but the concern is when and how do they cash out? Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly telegraphed that he’s in no hurry to do an IPO, and his use of late stage and secondary deals has alleviated the pressure to do one. Typically companies go public because early employees want liquidity, the company wants a hoard of cash to grow or the company wants a stock currency to do acquisitions. Facebook has checked most of those off. Early shareholders can (and many have already) exit on the secondary market or through one-time deals like the one with DST . The company has raised a whopping $836 million in capital according to CrunchBase and is reported by some to be doing revenues in the $2 billion range. And, again, thanks to the secondary market, Facebook has an externally validated price, making it easier to do any stock transactions than it would have been for a private company ten years ago. On paper, Elevation’s investment in Facebook is soaring. But LPs are going to want to see more than paper if they’re going to invest in a second fund. That brings us to Yelp. Yelp’s ascendancy is far less of a sure thing than Facebook’s, but Elevation owns a much bigger chunk of the company. It bought shares at a price that valued Yelp at $475 million, just shy of the price it reportedly turned down from Google. Few (rational) people think Yelp will be worth nothing. The question is: Does it wind up somewhere around the price of Slide or does it become one of the few $1 billion winners of the Web 2.0 era? For Elevation to make the kind of return it’s hoping for, Yelp needs to make sure upstarts like Groupon and FourSquare don’t steal its opportunities for micro-local monetization. Personally, I’m still bullish on Yelp’s odds, and the early results of its first San Francisco deal look promising . But a sure thing it is not. Pandora could be the last deal Elevation does in this fund, or if Yelp goes south, it could be the last deal Elevation does ever . Even though the firm can call that last $100 million for a follow-on, odds are Elevation won’t. Facebook valuations are soaring out of control on the secondary market and the company already owns one of the largest stakes in Yelp. The Palm-batross is gone, and Forbes is what it is. It’s a near-certainty no more money is going towards saving Forbes, especially given Elevation’s re-tooled team and investment approach. The firm has learned the lesson about putting too much into one company the Palm-way. The bets have been made and Elevation’s partners will have to wait for the roulette wheel to stop spinning, doing what they can in the mean time to help make their companies stronger. I talked to one small limited partner this week who said he personally wouldn’t invest in a second fund, and another who said he loved the new team, but worried the change in strategy just came too late. Like Yelp, I think Elevation has a decent chance of pulling the second fund off. There is clearly a market for these mega, late-stage transactions, and there aren't a ton of Valley teams who have experience doing them and few Wall Street teams that have the contacts here. But don't expect them to hit the fundraising trail until Yelp and Facebook exits look more certain. CrunchBase Information Elevation Partners Information provided by CrunchBase CrunchBase Information Yelp Information provided by CrunchBase CrunchBase Information Pandora Information provided by CrunchBase CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase
 
ReadyForZero Wants To Help You Get Control Of Credit Card Debt Top
Credit card debt is a undoubtedly serious issue for many Americans. Defaulting on credit card bills can result in damage to your credit score and even bankruptcy. Y Combinator -backed ReadyForZero is launching today as easy to use web-based platform to help guide consumers out of credit card debt. The site asks you to import your credit card information, including what types of cards you have, the amount owed, and will then walk you through the same steps a trusted financial advisor would give you. Based on your minimum payments, salary and balance, ReadyForZero will figures out an optimal strategy for what to pay and when. The site will send you reminders and you can track your progress online. While you cannot actually pay your bills directly from ReadyForZero, the startup will eventually allow users to do this directly from the site. ReadyForZero is trying to help those consumers who are having trouble paying their debt off, as opposed to those who are already in collections or bankruptcy. Essentially the site is trying to help people be able to eventually not carry any balances month to month. The company says that in the US alone there are 100 million people with revolving balances, meaning they carry credit card debt from month to month. Combined they owe $900 billion to banks and credit card companies. The site will eventually pull in additional data for users such as credit scores and even facilitate lending. In terms of revenue, ReadyForZero could make money in lead generation by recommending budget-friendly cards from credit card companies who charge lower interest rates. Of course some credit card companies and banks offer financial planning and advice on how to manage credit. But ReadyForZero is taking a more hands-on, web-based approach to helping people control their debt. And the site provides assistance via phone and live web chat. There’s no doubt that consumers need more information when it comes to credit counseling and financial planning; ReadyForZero is definitely a interactive yet informative way to manage your debt. CrunchBase Information ReadyForZero Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Ooyala Expands Into Australia, Appoints Former Adobe Exec As Managing Director Top
Premium streaming video service Ooyala , serving such influential media properties as Fremantle Media, Vice Magazine, Glam Media, Electronic Arts as well as yours truly, today announces its plan to expand its operations to Australia. To helm this initiative, the company has appointed former Adobe executive John Treloar as Managing Director for the Australia and New Zealand region. Founded by former Googlers, Ooyala’s “killer app” is the simplicity of its “Backlot” video platform as well as its souped up analytics for content managers and advertisers. From Jay Fulcher, President and CEO of Ooyala: "We see tremendous opportunity in the Asia Pacific region, we've had some early success with local customers and count some of the biggest companies in the region as partners or customers. With our expansion to Australia, we plan to not only grow in the local market, but to use this as a springboard into Southeast Asia." As Education Director, Asia Pacific at Adobe, Treloar oversaw the business development of the education vertical before accepting the Managing Director position at Ooyala. The most recent Australia/New Zealand expansion jives well with the company’s continued thrust into the Asia Pacific region, having recently partnered with NTT Smartconnect in Japan. Otherwise, Ooyala was most recently in the news for being the first video platform to offer a system of content monetization for the iPad. And in case anyone in the Asia/Pacific region is interested in working out of the newly minted Sydney office, they’re hiring. CrunchBase Information Ooyala Information provided by CrunchBase
 
There's Some Spotify In My Sonos Top
Great news for Europeans and those few U.S. users of music streaming service Spotify. Sonos , creator of the super cool (my descripton) S5 music player, is announcing today that users will soon be able to listen to streaming Spotify music through their Sonos devices. That means users will now be able to listen to music files stored on any computer in their home as well as Spotify, Rhapsody, Napster, Deezer, Pandora and other services. U.S. users still have to wait for Spotify to launch here, of course, or find another way to access the service. On the upside, Sonos says their iPad controller app will be hitting iTunes sometime soon. So they’ve got that going for them, which is nice. CrunchBase Information Sonos Spotify Information provided by CrunchBase
 
What Does It Mean? Microsoft Rides The 'Double Rainbow' Meme To Pimp Its Wares Top
An anonymous tipster – we have reason to believe it was actually a Microsoft employee or contractor – just casually pointed us to a new promotional video that was published on one of the Redmond software giant’s YouTube channels. Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few weeks, or are the type of person that goes out and actually interacts with people in real life on a regular basis, you’ll immediately realize they are riding the coattails of the (awesome) ‘Double Rainbow’ meme . Update: here’s the corresponding blog post from the Windows Live team. The clip actually stars Paul "Bear" Vasquez , the guy who shot the original video, and there’s another one featuring him that’s being released in the future. Which pretty much means the ‘Double Rainbow’ meme is now officially a goner. Not criticizing, evidently, since we’ve fooled around with it too, as have hipster Web startups and even Adolf Hitler . Still, a slightly awkward, if totally intense way for Microsoft to promote that Windows Live Hotmail Gallery Photo Stitch Home service – or something like that . Here’s the original video, and the one with that damn song that is forever stuck in my head. Because we need more double rainbows in times like these . CrunchBase Information Microsoft Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Amazon Unveils $.99 Fox And ABC TV Show Purchases. Apple Fanboys say wha? Top
Whoa, this came out of left-field. Amazon just announced that its Video on demand service will be serving up $.99 ABC and Fox rentals just like Apple wait, no, these are $.99 per episode — like you actually own the content rather than just having a short window to watch. Plus, it’s not just limited to one platform as Amazon Video on demand is widely available a bunch of products. This could be huge and might take some sales away from the new Apple TV .
 
Facebook Will Hit $2 Billion 2010 Revenue, Says Mob Of Unofficial Facebook Spokespersons Top
I’m done digging on this story and I’m just going to come out and say it. Facebook revenue estimates have been all over the place for 2010 – from less than a billion ranging up to nearly $2 billion . eMarketer recently estimated $1.28 billion , for example. I haven’t poked around on the Facebook CFO’s laptop for a while now (those were the days!), so I don’t have anything better to report. Except this – fairly senior Facebook employees are telling their friends that the company will hit and just exceed $2 billion in revenue this year. Part of this is just talking to friends. And part of it is recruiting . Right or wrong, it’s a consistent message over the last several weeks that has come from half a dozen or more second hand sources. And it’s always the same message – “my friend at Facebook just told me they were going to have more than $2 billion in 2010 revenue.” As a point of comparison, Google first crossed the $1 billion in revenue threshold in 2004, the year they went public. By 2006 they had $10 billion in revenue, and they crossed $20 billion in 2008. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Pinger's Textfree Is Massive, Now Over 3.5 Billion Messages Sent Top
It’s a promise sounds too good to be true: free, unlimited texting to and from your iPhone. And even if a service did manage to offer it, it certainly couldn’t be sustainable, could it? Pinger , a startup that launched back in 2006 as a voicemail service but has since pivoted in a big way, would beg to differ: the company has managed to become immensely popular on the iPhone by offering free text messages to users through an application called Textfree . And it’s just blown past another major milestone: users have sent 3.5 billion text messages using Textfree since it launched in March 2009. So how do the do it? The key, unsurprisingly, is ads. Textfree has gotten such massive distribution that it can now turn a profit by placing ads in the application (the company has been profitable since December). Textfree doesn’t insert ads into your conversations — rather, it shows basic display ads which get 1.4 billion ad impressions a month. The application has been downloaded 7 million times which gives you an idea of its reach, but it’s also extremely engaging: users open it an average of ten times a day. Using Textfree isn’t quite as straightforward as ‘normal’ text messaging, but users don’t seem to mind. The service assigns each user a new telephone number, free of charge. From then on you can text as much as you’d like, and can receive inbound texts that are sent to this special Textfree number. This can obviously be slightly irritating if you already have a phone number (i.e. on an iPhone), but remember, there are millions of devices running iOS that don’t have phone service, namely the iPod Touch. And Textfree gives all of those users the ability to text as much as they’d like, provided they have a Wifi connection. The iPod Touch has proven to be Textfree’s bread-and-butter — 70% of its users are on the device. And Pinger says that carriers actually like their service, because it turns all of these iPod Touch users into extra nodes — they may be sending free text messages, but they’re certainly going to be sending and receiving messages from users who are on traditional carriers. Textfree originally launched last year as a premium application that would charge users $6 per year for unlimited texting. That proved to be quite popular, but Pinger found that it could do even better by shifting the app to a free model and relying exclusively on advertising to generate revenue. CrunchBase Information Pinger Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Steve Jobs' Doublespeak Strikes Again: "No" Actually Meant "Yes" For Apple TV Top
“You’re going to be able to be watching a movie, push it to your TV, and finish watching it there. You’re going to be able to push photos from your iPad to your TV… it’s going to be pretty cool.” – Apple CEO Steve Jobs, September 1st, 2010 Many people noticed that Jobs’ “and one more thing …” intro today was reserved for Apple’s “hobby,” Apple TV. Jobs also referred to Apple’s TV venture as a “hobby” back at the D8 conference in June with significantly less tongue in cheek. In an interview with AllThingsDigital’s Kara Swisher, the Apple CEO implied that he had given up on it with the dismissive “smarter people than us will figure it out.” “The problem with innovation in the TV industry is the go-to-market strategy … Ask TiVo, ask Roku, ask us. … ask Google in a few months. It’s not a problem of technology, it’s not a problem of vision, it’s a problem of go to market strategy. [TV] is very tower of Babel-ish, it’s Balkanized.” A closer look at other Steve Jobs statements reveals that he tends to not mean what he says with regards to future product development, whether it be about Apple’s forays into mobile , the video iPod and his “tablets are for losers” doublespeak before launching the iPad. Jobs’ “Smarter people than us will figure it out” is pretty far off from today’s “It’s going to be pretty cool. ” Judging by the sheer amount of promotional materials alone it looks like Apple is ready to take Apple TV seriously, or at least trying to make the situation less of a nightmare. And in case you actually want to know what Jobs means when he says stuff about Apple TV, here’s a particularly prescient TechCrunch post from June on why today’s Apple TV hockey puck might be a stepping stone towards greater aspirations: " I can almost hear Jobs now: Apple Television: it's the best television out there. But it's also the best web surfing experience from your couch, the best app console in your living room, and the best connected media player in your house.” Apparently MG can now hear Steve Jobs, FROM THE FUTURE. CrunchBase Information Apple Steve Jobs Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Preview: Apple's Ping Music Social Network In Action On iOS [Pictures] Top
One of the big announcements at Apple’s event today was Ping , the music social network that Apple has baked into iTunes. But it’s not just on iTunes for the computer, it’s also a part of iTunes on the iPhone and iPod touch. This will be a part of the new iOS 4.1 release which is going out to developers right now, and should be out for consumers next week. In the demo area after the event, Apple had a bunch of iPod touches loaded with iOS 4.1, so we got to play around with it. It’s a pretty slick experience on the device because it’s so simple. Below find some pictures of how it works. As you can see, Ping is the new middle button on the iTunes app itself. The main screen that loads when you click on it is the Activity stream, which is populated with music choice updates from the people you follow (both friends and artists). This account happens to follow 27 people. Only artists are shown here, but again, this People tab includes both artists and your friends. Here’s a page for an artist showing their most recent activity on Ping. Arists can upload pictures (such as from tours) and videos to this feed. Obviously, there is the nice one-click purchase of music. You can “Like” or “Comment” on any item in this feed. The “My Profile” tab is obviously the profile tied to this account (in this case, one Erin Steed). She has 0 followers (sad), but it’s not clear if that’s her own choice — Ping has settings so you can can be followed by anyone, have to accept followers, or be followed by no one. Fairly standard looking comment page — almost Facebook-like (the iPhone version). Here’s the one-click-to-buy option in the stream. You can also stream music previews (only 30 seconds still). Here’s a regular old album page on iTunes — but as you can see there is now the Like and Post button below the main info. Here’s what comes up when you click on post (a place to comment if you choose). And here’s what happens when you post — it goes right over to your profile (and in your followers’ streams). Obviously, all of this info syncs with iTunes on the computer and vice versa. CrunchBase Information Apple iTunes Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Round-up: Our Take On Apple's New Media Devices Top
Apple’s new lineup has been announced: A new iPod touch with a Retina display and dual cameras, a bite-sized touchscreen Nano , a sandwich-sized stream-only Apple TV , and updates to both iTunes and iOS , improving their social and gaming capabilities. We’ve got the news in about 20 separate posts , sure, but we have yet to apply our keen blogging sense to the announcements, rooting through the specs and pricing like trained truffle-hogs , and emerging gorged with opinion. Only then, our blog-thirst sated with Coldplay and turtlenecks, can we resume normal coverage of non-Apple news. Continue reading…
 
The Apple TV Isn't For Pirates, It's For Parents Top
I’m going to just assume that if you’re reading this, you’re familiar with torrenting and the like. It’s pretty much commonplace now and while I’m not here to argue its legal ground, it’s a fact that many people get their TV and movie content this way. Yes, it’s illegal, but the fact is there are products specifically geared for that market. The Apple TV isn’t one of them. Oh no, the Apple TV is for those on the up and up. It’s clearly for those that for one reason or another, want an easier or legal way to get on-demand content on their HDTV. I can’t think of a single device that makes renting TV shows and movies easier. The Roku? Well, it has Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand, but even those require one or two more steps than the new Apple TV — and you can’t get the latest TV episodes, either. Its dead simple interface and feature set are the Apple TV’s main draw and, I suspect, why it will be successful.
 
Live Nation To Power Concert Listings, Ticket Sales In iTunes 10 Top
In case you were wondering (I’m looking at you Levine ): Live Nation and sister company Ticketmaster have jointly announced that they’ll be the ones powering the concert listings feature on iTunes 10 . In addition, the company said it will deliver a “way for millions of iTunes users to purchase concert tickets at Livenation.com and Ticketmaster.com “. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think CEO Steve Jobs left that part out of his keynote , although the official press release does mention Live Nation briefly, indicating only that the company will be providing tour info for Concert pages. Says Michael Rapino, President and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment: “Our partnership with Apple is a key part of our strategy to empower fans with the greatest access to live entertainment.” So there you have it. It’s not just a new logo and a feature-poor social network, folks. For what it’s worth: Live Nation Entertainment is a logical partner if only because of its sheer size (for better or worse ). In 2009, the company said it sold a grand total of 140 million tickets, promoted 21,000 concerts, partnered with 850 sponsors and averaged 25 million unique monthly users of its e-commerce sites. Ticketmaster, obviously, is one of the largest e-commerce and ticketing sites on the Web, with operations in 18 markets worldwide. CrunchBase Information Live Nation Ticketmaster Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Apple Strikes Trademark Agreement With Golf Equipment Company PING Top
Golf sporting goods PING has just issued a release stating that it has comes to a trademark agreement with Apple over the technology company’s new music social network, aptly called Ping. PING, which apparently owns the trademark for the name “ping,” and its parent company, Karsten Manufacturing Corporation is licensing its trademark for the name PING, so that Apple could use the name for its new feature. John Solheim, Chairman and CEO of Karsten Manufacturing Corporation and PING said in a statement: “Like PING, Apple carries a reputation for innovation and quality. I have always had great respect for companies that have changed and improved the ways things are done and I continue to model PING along those lines. Apple is a truly great example of this kind of enterprise.” Who knew that Apple and a golfing goods company would somehow be affiliated? Apple’s Ping also shares its name with social network syndication service Ping.fm, which was acquired by Seesmic at the start of this year. In June, Cisco licensed the “iOS” trademark to Apple after the company renamed its mobile operating system. And FaceTime Communications transferred the rights of its name to Apple for the company’s new video chat feature. Apple has clearly learned its lesson after being sued by Cisco over the “iPhone” trademark. CrunchBase Information Apple Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Want An Apple TV Right Now? Buy A Roku Top
The new Apple TV , is, well, boring. Sorry, it is. But more on that later. Right now, I thought I should point out that there’s already a well-developed product on the market that not only competes directly with the new Apple TV, but in many ways, is vastly superior: The Roku . Update : Amazon just leveled the playing field for Roku (and others like TiVo).
 
Google Making Extraordinary Counteroffers To Stop Flow Of Employees To Facebook Top
Facebook is in what’s called a recruiting sweet spot right now. Out of control growth in users and revenue and a nearly certain IPO run in the near future. That’s when employee growth expands at the greatest rate for a company as it grows from hundreds to thousands and then tens of thousands of employees. And with low priced private stock as currency, companies in that position can generally get anyone they want. Yahoo of course does more than its fair share of feeding the beast, but they’re everyone’s favorite recruiting pool right now. But plenty of Googler’s are heading to Facebook, too – LinkedIn is tracking 118 of them to date. For some Googlers, it’s paying off just to go get an offer from Facebook and then tell their employer – a counter offer is almost sure to come, and it may be stratospheric. One recent Googler, we’ve confirmed, was recently offered a counter offer he couldn’t refuse (except he did). He was offered a 15% raise on his $150,000 mid level developer salary, quadruple the stock benefits and…wait for it…a $500,000 cash bonus to stay for a year. He took the Facebook offer anyway. Sources close to Google tell us that about 80% of people stay when they’re offered a counter to a Facebook offer. But some still leave. Part of that may be that Facebook is quietly telling people, never in writing, that there’s no reason their stock won’t hit $100 billion in total valuation over the next couple of years. No guarantees, yadda yadda, but hey if you get 1/10 of 1%, that’s $100 million in stock. Now it’s a party. Google isn’t making these kind of counter offers to everyone, but it’s not a one off, either. It seems to me that every Google engineer at least should be taking a personal day to go collect a Facebook offer. Even if it’s just to get a counter offer from their current employer. Art: Audrey Fukuman CrunchBase Information Facebook Google Information provided by CrunchBase
 
The Apple TV: Now Smaller and Cheaper (kind of) Top
Forget the iTV name, the refreshed Apple TV is still called the Apple TV. But that’s about where the similarities end. The entire system from the form factor to the UI is different; even the entire concept is different. I think we can officially say Apple is taking the Apple TV and the whole streaming market seriously now. It’s no longer just a hobby  despite what Steve says . Continue reading…
 
iTunes Downloads: 100M Movies, 450M TV Episodes, 35M Books, 11.7B Songs Top
Another interesting tidbit from the Apple event today. Jobs said that People have downloaded over 11.7 billion songs from iTunes, with the 12 billion mark approaching in the near future. Jobs also said over 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, and 35 million books have been downloaded. People have created over 160 million accounts with credit cards and 1-click shopping in 23 countries. The numbers are enormous but not particularly surprising. Clearly, iTunes is seeing major traction amongst users. Apple also revealed a new version of iTunes, and a music-focused social network Ping.
 
Apple's Ping Music Social Network Starts With 160 Million Users Top
During their event today in San Francisco, Apple announced iTunes 10, the latest version of their music software. But they also introduced a big new feature in the app — Ping: a social network for music. It’s like “ Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes ,” Jobs says. “ But it’s not Facebook, it’s not Twitter ,” Jobs is quick to note — “ it’s a social network all about music. ” And guess what? It has 160 million users in 23 countries built in right away (Apple will presumably be opening it up to other iTunes users later). And it’s available on your iPhone and iPod touch — right in the iTunes Store. Jobs notes that this feature is all about discovery. You can follow both artists and your friends. And you can be followed. With it, you get custom song and album charts to discover new music. And you can post your thoughts and opinions about your favorite music. Plus, there are 17,000 concert listing in the network. Last.fm, MySpace Music, etc. — look out. Oh, and another Apple competitor has been doing something similar for a while — Microsoft with Zune. But again, 160 million users out of the box. Ping is available as a part of iTunes 10 — which is available today. CrunchBase Information iTunes Information provided by CrunchBase
 
iTunes 10 Features New Logo And Social Media Sharing Service, Ping Top
Like Siamese twins, the iPod and iTunes go hand-in-hand. This week’s iPod update, then brought a whole new version of iTunes, v10, with a new logo and a few new features.
 
275 Million iPods Sold To Date, iPod Touch Is The Most Popular Top
At today’s Apple Press event, Steve Jobs dropped some pretty impressive iPod stats, as he announced a complete revamp of the line. In addition to the new Nano, Shuffle, Jobs introduced a ramped up iPod touch, which is the most popular iPod model and also outsells Nintendo and Sony combined in terms of being a portable game player. The iPod sales contribute to the over 230K iOS devices activated a day as well as provide distribution channels for Apple’s very lucrative content business, says Jobs. “People have downloaded over 11.7 billion songs from iTunes, and we’re just about to cross 12b. Over 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, 35 million books, and over 160 million accounts with credit cards and 1-click shopping in 23 countries.” The new iPod line will ship next week. Thanks: Harry McCracken
 

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