The latest from TechCrunch
- In Time For The Holidays, Borders Slashes Prices Of E-Book Readers
- Dept. Of Advertising: Check Into Cheryl Cole Billboards With Facebook Places
- AdMob Brings Interactive Video Ads To Android
- A Week In The Technology-Packed 2011 Ford Edge Sport
- PaperBecause: A Paper Industry Astroturf Defending Paper
- Is Cloud OS Maker Jolicloud Preparing To Sell A Netbook Of Its Own?
- Amazon Touts Kindle Sales Numbers Without Sharing Kindle Sales Numbers
- Innovalight Chief Awarded For Making Solar Cells (And Industry) More Efficient
- How To Protect Your Login Information From Firesheep
- Five Years Later, Ray Ozzie Pens Another Great Memo: "Dawn Of A New Day"
- LDK Solar Inks $300 Million Deal With BYD
| In Time For The Holidays, Borders Slashes Prices Of E-Book Readers | Top |
| The arrival of the holiday shopping season is certainly escalating the e-book wars. Today, Amazon released data showing rapid Kindle sales and Barnes and Noble is expected to release a color version of the Nook. Borders is jumping into the mix by announcing a number of deals on its assortment of e-readers in time for the holiday shopping season. For the next week, Borders is offering free shipping on online eReader orders, a $25 gift card, free eBooks, 20 percent off device accessories and more incentives for shoppers to choose Borders for the e-book gifts. So if you purchase pre-order the Velocity Micro Cruz Tablet, which costs about $299.99, you will receive a $25 Borders gift card. Borders is also knocking $30 off the Velocity Micro Cruz Reader with WiFi to bring the price down to $169.99. The Kobo eReader, which lists for $129.99, is now priced at $99.99; and the Aluratek Libre is now $99.99 through Nov. 15. Borders is also throwing in five free eBooks with any pre-order of the Kobo Wireless eReader ($139.99) and offering a Sony Reader cover with built-in light with the purchase of any Sony device. The company will be knocking off 20 percent on all eReader accessories with the purchase of any device. It’s a competitive market, and Borders doesn’t nearly have the share that Amazon does. Price cuts can be a sales driver during the holiday time, and these sort of deals are necessary to compete with the big guys. And Borders has previously used price cuts on readers to draw traffic and sales. Earlier this year, Borders launched a branded eBook store and released the BlackBerry, Android, iPad and iPhone eReading applications, all powered by Kobo. And as more and more players enter the market, prices will continue to drop. I think we can expect more price-cuts, features and deals coming from all e-book distributors over the next few months. CrunchBase Information Kobo Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Dept. Of Advertising: Check Into Cheryl Cole Billboards With Facebook Places | Top |
| When Facebook launched Places in August, it encouraged advertisers to list their businesses in the Places directory. But now an advertiser is taking it one step further and asking passersby to check into a billboard using Facebook Places. In a new outdoor campaign across the UK for British singer Cheryl Cole , who has a new album coming out and a concert tour, fans who check into the billboard will be taken to her Facebook page and get a chance to win two free tickets (plus travel and hotel) to one of her X Factor shows. The campaign was designed by Mediacom and Polydor Records. I am not really sure a billboard counts as place, although I do suppose it is location-specific. But tying together check-ins with outdoor advertising like billboards and posters is something we will probably keep seeing. It is not the first time someone has this approach. A Nets billboard on the side of a building in New York City this summer, for instance, urged people to check in with Gowalla. It is not clear how successful these billboard check-in campaigns will be, however. It just seems more natural to offer promotions tied to actual places of business. But as the check-in concept expands from checking into a place to checking into brands, it could become more of a simple call to action. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| AdMob Brings Interactive Video Ads To Android | Top |
| Google’s recently purchased mobile ad network AdMob is announcing today that it is bringing interactive video ads to Android phones. AdMob already offers the video ad format for iPhones. Similar to the iPhone formats, the new SDK for Android devices includes interactive video and interactive interstitial ad units. The ad network will dynamically identify screen resolution, size, and network connection speed to serve users the best ad for each device. And Android developers have more interactive options when including ads in their applications. The new ad units themselves can be placed when an app opens or within an app. AdMob says that it has run over 120 video and interactive interstitial campaigns for clients such as Universal Pictures, Best Buy and Seattle's Best Coffee. Google’s big push for AdMob has been the ability to serve interactive mobile ads across many mobile platforms, whereas single-platform options like iAd have been focused on only serving iOS devices, limiting reach for advertisers. Interestingly, Apple is also eying the video ad space and is rumored to be developing iAds for video. CrunchBase Information AdMob Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| A Week In The Technology-Packed 2011 Ford Edge Sport | Top |
| Hello, gorgeous. A 2011 Ford Edge Sport just hit my driveway and I’m in love. This vehicle is a looker inside and out. It’s funny how much more modern this model feels over last year’s model — I guess a bit of sheet metal plastic surgery can go a long way. There’s now a large grill and sweeping headlights up front that define the rest of the crossover’s lines. Even the wheels got hit with the redesign hammer, going from wannabe-luxury to urban. The biggest update is inside, particularly at the infotainment suite. The 2011 Edge is one of the first vehicle’s in Ford’s line-up with a totally-redesigned center stack and gauge cluster dubbed MyFord Touch. Gone are the days of push buttons and analog gauges. This vehicle instead employs two totally customizable LCD screens on either side of a traditional speedometer along with a robust entertainment screen in the center of the dash. Think of it as the smartphone of in-vehicle controls. I would drive a Ford Pinto if it had this system. | |
| PaperBecause: A Paper Industry Astroturf Defending Paper | Top |
| How prescient! I just wrote that the dead-tree book is dying and a tipster sent us in this charming little site dedicated to the joy of paper – funded by a paper manufacturer, one of the biggest in the world. Domtar is the “largest integrated producer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and the second largest in the world based on production capacity” and business, thus far, has been good. Like buggy whip manufacturers, however, the writing is on the wall – a great deal of the paper they spew out will soon be replaced by bits. While most of that information, including the lip-service to sustainability, is false, I don’t envy Dotmar’s position. They are a massive paper conglomerate and their bottom line is being attacked by a free newspaper app you can download for iPad. Their best customers for centuries are now, slowly, turning away from them. That said, the website is a ham-handed attempt (one example bit of advice “Senior Executives prefer print…A resume is a summary of your professional career, not a blog about what you had for breakfast.” That’s why they’re called Senior. Duh!) by an entrenched industry to keep making money. Read more… | |
| Is Cloud OS Maker Jolicloud Preparing To Sell A Netbook Of Its Own? | Top |
| Jolicloud , which set out to build a cloud-based operating system for netbooks , appears to be preparing to build and sell its own line of actual netbooks, too. Tariq Krim , founder and CEO of the French startup, earlier today tweeted links to two interesting pictures : As others are speculating , these pictures suggest Jolicloud is working on a proper netbook rather than sticking with just building software to run them . For background, Jolicloud’s upcoming 1.1 release will no longer be all about netbooks, but also for people to replace older desktop and laptop computers still running Windows with a faster ‘Internet OS’. Krim loves to call it the company’s “HTML5 iOS”. Krim stopped short of confirming to me that they are preparing to sell custom Jolicloud computers directly, and declined to go into detail about the pictures and the computer that can be seen in them. He did, however, promise me to share more information about what’s cooking in the Jolicloud kitchen soon enough (I have a meeting planned with him during an upcoming event in Dublin, Ireland, later this week), so hold tight. I’ve spoken to other sources, however, who confirmed to me that Jolicloud is in fact partnering with a hardware manufacturer to build a ‘social netbook’ (activation would be as simply as clicking a Facebook Connect button and importing your social graph), targeting the 12-25 year old demographic. None of them would confirm pricing of the ‘jolibook’ to me, however, although clearly for that demographic the price needs be low enough to remain interesting, say $250-$350. The elephant in the room is of course the imminent launch of Google’s Chrome OS , which will steal much of Jolicloud’s thunder no matter how both operating systems stack up on a product quality level. On a sidenote: we’ve heard rumors about Google prepping the launch of a proper Chrome OS-based netbook , too. A lot will of course depend on positioning. If it turns out Jolicloud will focus primarily on selling to youngsters, its strategy could differ from Google’s enough to carve out a niche of their own. Founded back in 2008, Jolicloud has raised $4.2 million from London-based Atomico Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners in July 2009. CrunchBase Information Jolicloud Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Amazon Touts Kindle Sales Numbers Without Sharing Kindle Sales Numbers | Top |
| Unsurprisingly, the fourth quarter is usually the best sales period for the Kindle (and most retail products), but it looks like this year will be especially strong as more consumers flock to e-books. After announcing a new e-book loan feature last week, Amazon is revealing a number of new Kindle stats today in time for the holiday shopping rush. According to the company, sales of the new generation Kindle devices have already surpassed total Kindle device sales from the holiday season of last year (October through December 2009). Sales of individual Kindle titles are flying off the digital bookshelves. Amazon sold more than three times as many Kindle books in the first nine months of 2010 as in the first nine months of 2009. Amazon also said that Kindle book sales continue to overtake print on Amazon.com. This data is consistent with Q2 and Q1 Kindle numbers Amazon revealed during its earnings call in July. And in the past 30 days, Amazon.com customers purchased more Kindle books than print books, which includes both hardcover and paperback combined, for the top 10, 25, 100, and 1,000 bestselling books on Amazon.com. In the three months since Amazon debuted the new Kindle, Kindle devices or Kindle-related items such as Kindle books and covers represented 15 of the top 15 bestselling items on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk combined. Of course, this dramatic growth is buoyed by the fact that e-book sales are rapidly growing (Amazon says sales are up 193 percent between January and August 2010). Kindle book sales growth during the same period exceeded this rate. All of this growth sounds pretty great, but it’s really hard to accept these stats and data without the actual numbers of Kindles sold or e-books sold. Clearly, Kindles are big-sellers for the e-commerce giant (perhaps because the company slashed prices of the device to $139 for WiFi-only and $189 for the full-featured model). Amazon is notorious for sending out releases or news touting Kindle sales while never releasing the actual numbers (data which Apple reveals all the time). For now, Kindle sales will continue to be one of the best-kept secrets in device land. Also related: B&N will be releasing a color version of its Kindle competitor, the Nook, this week. CrunchBase Information Amazon Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Innovalight Chief Awarded For Making Solar Cells (And Industry) More Efficient | Top |
| The chief executive and president of Innovalight, Conrad Burke , won the 2010 Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award, the companies announced today, following the ceremony in Dublin, Ireland earlier this week. The award recognizes “entrepreneurs who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses” according to an E&Y press statement. According to Innovalight’s website its silicon ink technology improves the photon to electron conversion efficiency of solar cells by one percent, which can drive the cost of solar energy down by six percent. Solar cells are semiconductor devices that convert photons from the sun into electrical current. The U.S. Department of Energy backed Innovalight in 2008 with a $3 million grant for: “…Developing very high-efficiency, low-cost solar cells and modules by ink-jet printing their proprietary ‘silicon ink’ onto thin-crystalline silicon wafers. The company’s contact-less printing process has been demonstrated to significantly reduce both the manufacturing costs and the complexity required to make today’s highly efficient [solar] cells and modules.” Under Burke’s leadership, Innovalight has developed sales through licensing and collaboration deals with solar manufacturers, rather than through the manufacture and sales of its own solar photovoltaics. The company’s customers are major manufacturers seeking to increase the megawatts-per-year that they produce per line without increasing expenditures on new equipment. These include several of China's top solar concerns, among them Yingli Green Energy, JA Power and as of last week SolarFun Power. In January this year, the company raised $18 million in a series D round led by EDB Investments (EDBI) of Singapore, and joined by Vertex Venture Holdings (the venture subsidiary of Temasek Holdings in Singapore) and its pervious investors: Apax Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Convexa Capital, Harris & Harris Group, Sevin Rosen Funds and Triton Ventures. That brought Innovalight’s total raised capital, mostly from venture, to about $60 million. CrunchBase Information Innovalight Information provided by CrunchBase CrunchBase Information Sevin Rosen Funds Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| How To Protect Your Login Information From Firesheep | Top |
| TechCrunch reader Steve Manuel claims to have found a workaround to Firesheep , the controversial Firefox extension that allows anyone on an insecure open Wifi network to access user login info for almost every single social network in existence. Firesheep banks on the fact that most social sites default to the HTTP protocol because it’s quicker. The already existing Firefox extension Force-TLS attempts to circumvent this by forcing those sites to use the HTTPS protocol, therefore making user cookies invisible to Firesheep. Like the alternative option HTTPS Everywhere , the Force-TLS Firefox extension allows your browser to change HTTP to HTTPS on sites that you indicate in the Firefox Add On “Preferences” menu, protecting your login information and ensuring a secure connection when you access social sites. HTTPS encrypts user data, so if a script like Firesheep’s like tries to pull it, it can’t be read. Force-TLS forces a number of sites to make all of their requests over an SSL secured channel and while some sites, like Amazon, don’t currently have the secure option, the majors like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc all allow a HTTPS connection. How to configure: 1. Download the plugin here and install into Firefox. 2. Open “Preferences” and add the domains you want to force the HTTPS connection with. 3. Restart Firefox. Note: Unlike HTTPS Everywhere, Force-TLS relies on the user defining the sites they want to access through a secure HTTPS connection. And while everyone should have learned by now that there’s always some privacy risk when interacting online, hopefully the installation of Force-TLS will at least put less of a damper on today’s stint at your local “free Wifi!” boasting cafe. I’m also looking into the possibility of equivalents for this extension on other browsers and will update this post as soon as I have alternative options. Thanks: Steve Manuel Teaser Image: Kevin Steele | |
| Five Years Later, Ray Ozzie Pens Another Great Memo: "Dawn Of A New Day" | Top |
| Ray Ozzie , who famously took over the reins as Chief Software Architect at Microsoft when Bill Gates formally retired from the company (his last full-time day was June 27, 2008), stepped down from that position last week and will leave the company behind within months. Ozzie, of course, you should know as the historical driving force behind Lotus Notes, a popular e-mail and collaborative workspace software package. He also co-founded Groove Networks, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2005. Five years ago this week, Ozzie penned a memorable memo, 5,000 words long, entitled “The Internet Services Disruption” , outlining the challenge for Microsoft to catch up to its rivals in the Internet and cloud computing space. He’s celebrating that birthday with a fresh memo : “Dawn of a New Day” . Below is a short excerpt from the end of the memo, as I wouldn’t dream of stealing the man’s thunder (read the whole, 3,477-word thing here ): Let there be no doubt that the big shifts occurring over the next five years ensure that this will absolutely be a time of great opportunity for those who put past technologies & successes into perspective, and envision all the transformational value that can be offered moving forward to individuals, businesses, governments and society. It's the dawn of a new day – the sun having now arisen on a world of continuous services and connected devices . (Hat tip to @ScepticGeek ) CrunchBase Information Ray Ozzie Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| LDK Solar Inks $300 Million Deal With BYD | Top |
| Several big names in solar have settled from recent highs on Wall Street, but there’s still a lot of money running into the sector. On Monday morning, LDK Solar announced that it has locked up a new two-year sales deal with Chinese juggernaut BYD worth roughly $300 million. Under the deal, LDK will provide monthly shipments of polysilicon starting on January 2011. It’s another win for the solar wafer manufacturer, which earlier this month raised its third quarter revenue guidance about 7% to a range of $610 to $640 million. In addition to raising its outlook, LDK noted that shipments of solar wafers and modules were outpacing demand. For its part, the diversified BYD— which makes everything from automobiles to mobile phone batteries— has made no secret of its ambitions in green tech. Earlier this year BYD announced that it will spend more than $3 billion over five years to construct one of China’s biggest solar power battery plant in Shangluo. Meanwhile, the company has also been working on large-scale energy storage solutions and their all-electric vehicle, the e6, is being prepped for a US debut. Although BYD (which Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has a 10% stake in) has struggled this year amid soft demand in China’s auto market, the company has seemingly maintained its aggressive stride in the green sector. “We are very excited to add BYD, a leading high-tech enterprise that has a strong commitment to the green energy sector, as a key customer,” LDK’s CEO, Xiaofeng Peng said in a statement. CrunchBase Information LDK Solar Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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