Friday, January 6, 2012

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Andreessen Horowitz, Salesforce Put $1.4M In Real-Time Messaging Infrastructure Startup Flotype Top
FlotypeFlotype, a startup that offers a suite of technologies that simplify real-time messaging for cloud and mobile applications, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners, Yuri Milner, Salesforce, and Y Combinator. Flotype, which was part of Y Combinator's Winter 2011 class, is announcing that its first product is Bridge, a technology that enables real-time communication between any server, any device, on any platform. Bridge is essentially an API that developers can use to avoid the complexity of building real-time messaging into their applications, and help push more data faster between servers, web browsers, mobile phones and other devices.
 
Animoto Learns To Play Friendly With Instagram, Now Pulls Photos In Directly Top
AnimotoIt's not a bad day for Instagram. First came the announcement that they were 2011 Crunchies Finalists. Shortly thereafter, they finally figured out how to push fullsize Instagrams to your Facebook Timeline. Capping off the day, automatic video slideshow service Animoto has launched full, built-in Instagram support.
 
Yammer, We Just Can't Quit You Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-05 at 6.52.35 PMDo you have a product or service you don't really like, always complain about, yet can't really stop using? Everyone knows someone who owns a car that always breaks down, or dates a girl that they're not particularly into but for some reason they haven't made the move to cut ties. You just kind of wave the annoyances away like, "Yeah, [whatever it is] sucks," but you don't want to go through the trouble of getting a new one because the switching costs (i.e. the time it takes to adapt to a new product/service/girlfriend) are too high.
 
For The 5th Year In A Row, Apple Wins CES. Before It Starts. Without Showing Up. Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-05 at 5.45.35 PMAre you ready for CES? I know I am. The PR emails are flowing in and I'm going to respond to every single one of them. I can't wait to hear about Samsung's social media stuff. And Vizio's new thingy. I can't wait to get my hands on that one thing made by those guys who did that other thing last year that no one bought. It's gonna be fantastic. So pumped. ... No, I'm not going to CES. I've never been to CES. I doubt I'll ever go to CES. Why would I?
 
Millennial Media Files For IPO, Keeping Status As The Top Independent Mobile Ad Network Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-05 at 5.41.34 PMAs the second-largest mobile ad network, and the top independent one, Millennial Media is the first to try to get an exit the old-fashioned way. It filed its S-1 documents today as the first step in going public, having nearly achieved profitability. According to the filing, its revenues grew to nearly $70 million in the first nine months of 2011, a 138% increase over the same period in 2010; net losses, meanwhile, declined from $5.4 million to $417,000.
 
You Can Now Post Full Size Instagram Pics To Facebook (And Timeline) Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-05 at 5.04.38 PMYou know what's cool? When you subconsciously want something and a startup responds to your (unvoiced) requests. Well, mobile photosharing app Instagram has just made a very small tweak that has the potential for huge growth: You can now send your Instagram photos full size to Facebook, and they automatically display "beautifully" in your Facebook Timeline. Photos shared from Instagram will appear in your Timeline with the original caption that you posted on Instagram, as well as a link to the public Instagram URL.
 
LG Shows Off Its New Google TV Set Before CES Top
LG Google TV 01.jpg[20120106092650465]In keeping with our prediction that Google TV would be seeing something of an expansion this year at CES, LG's first foray into the Google TV ecosystem has just been unveiled ahead of the show. As you can see in the picture, it's got a new interface but the guts are still Google TV. This is probably something that we'll be seeing more of: manufacturer-specific builds, like Sense and TouchWiz for your TV.
 
BenchPrep Is Codecademy For Any Subject, High School To Med School Top
BenchPrep LogoBooks are not the best way to learn. To retain knowledge you have to interact with it, and that's where BenchPrep comes in. The startup licenses textbooks from big publishers like McGraw Hill and converts them into interactive web and mobile learning courses. Today, BenchPrep announces its expansion beyond college admission test prep. It will now offer courses to assist with high school, university, law, medicine, professional certifications, army, and more. It's also releasing a new evaluation tool that determines a student's weaknesses in a given subject. BenchPrep is the future of the 'education anywhere' movement.
 
Watch An iPad (And GoPro Camera) Survive A 100,000 Foot Drop Top
gformThere were doubters last time. They said a 1300 foot drop wasn't all that much. It wasn't a true test. It fell onto grass, they said. Well, G-Form is back with another marketing ploy. This time they sent an iPad encased in G-Form's $45 Extreme Edge case to the cusp of space and back. The iPad of course survived. It's an impressive feat if it really happened. When the iPad eventually touches down, there's a bit a russling the weeds that sounds more like footsteps than a parachute crashing. Just saying.
 
Is The Internet A Human Right? Top
header_fistNo. At least, that is what Vint Cerf, of TCP/IP, IEEE, and Google fame, decides in a NY Times op-ed piece. But the idea is subtler than the flame-bait headline; the decidedly less flashy "technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself" expresses it more accurately. It's a difficult topic to address, not just because it's naturally inflammatory, but because it is difficult to pin down what exactly is meant by "right," and what is meant by "internet." Without defining terms, any assertion is meaningless. But a little thought seems to exonerate both Cerf's position and that of the people who take exception to it.
 
Top10′s Nifty Spotify App Drives 100,000 Song Recommendations In Three Weeks Top
top10shotOn November 30 2011, Spotify made a bold move: it became an application platform, allowing third-party apps to live within the walls of Spotify's official application so that they could take advantage of the service's full-song streaming and tight Facebook integration. The revamped Spotify went live last month, and there are 13 third-party apps now available as part of the App Finder. One app is especially straightforward, and it's also surprisingly fun. It's called Top10, and you can find it right here.
 
Even Sprint's "Truly Unlimited" Plan Isn't Truly Unlimited Top
Truly UnlimitedWatch the video up above. Note the end:
"Truly Unlimited Data for your iPhone. The only national carrier with no throttling, no metering, no overages"
We already knew the wireless industry's definition of "Unlimited" had changed — hence Sprint's ad. Now even the definition of "truly" has changed.
 
After A Breakout 2011, Yammer Works On A Big New Funding Round Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-05 at 2.12.52 PMYammer, the Facebook/Twitter for companies, has been coming into its own, even as big competitors like Salesforce try to compete with rival enterprise social networking products. Having generated somewhere between $5 million and $10 million in revenues over 2010, Yammer more than doubled that in 2011, reaching towards $25 million according to sources close to the company. Now, it's working on a big new funding round, we're hearing -- in the $40 million range if not more.
 
Why Aren't Chromebooks Saving Password Changes? Top
chromebooksThere's something weird going on with Chromebooks - the Google-branded laptop computers powered by the company's web-based operating system Chrome OS. They're not saving the password changes you make to your Google account. Basically, if you change your password, shut down your machine, then reboot, the Chromebook will ask you for your old password instead of the new one. The problem has to do with Google's sessions being persistent (that is, they don't log you out), and leads to a relatively minor security threat. Meaning, if someone was to take advantage of this threat, they would need physical access to your Chromebook. In the grand scheme of things, that puts this threat on the low-end of the risk spectrum. However, because Chromebooks are pitched as low-cost, secure, easy-to-use alternatives to traditional laptops for businesses and educational institutions, it's important to highlight issues such as this to make the community aware. Also, I just think it's annoying.
 
Online Ad Confirms A Sprint-Bound Galaxy Nexus (Update: With 1.5GHz Processor) Top
sprintnexus2Well that was... timely. It was just a little while ago that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse dropped some details about his company's forthcoming network, and now a Sprint Galaxy Nexus ad has just appeared on CNET's website. If this ad proves to be legitimate (and I've got all my fingers crossed), Sprint customers may truly be rewarded for their patience. Hovering over the bottom right touchpoint reveals a very tantalizing tidbit: Sprint's variant will apparently have a 1.5GHz processor instead of the 1.2GHz proc as seen in the international and Verizon models. Wow.
 
4 Facebook Employees Built A Working Demo Of Timeline In One Night Top
Facebook Engineering TimelineRome wasn't built in a day, but Timeline was. What now allows hundreds of millions to tell the story of their lives started as an all-night Hackathon project in 2010. 2 brave Facebook engineers, an intern, and a designer cobbled together a working prototype that a year later would become Facebook's flashiest redesign. A Note published today by Facebook's engineering team details how the project came to fruition.
 
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse Reveals First LTE Markets: Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio Top
sprintlteNot wanting to be outdone by their larger rivals, Sprint also has a big LTE-related announcement today. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse just confirmed to everyone at Citigroup's 22nd Global Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference that Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio will be the company's first LTE markets. Those cities are just the tip of the iceberg though, as Sprint ultimately wants their LTE network lit up in ten markets before the first half of 2012 rolls around. Here's hoping that the coasts get a little LTE love too, as the three of the announced markets are in a single (admittedly large) state, and the other isn't that far away from them.
 
Fujifilm's New X-Pro1 Leaked Along With Some Lovely Lenses Top
xpro1_miniWe just wrote up Fujifilm's CES lineup of normal point-and-shoots, and I noted that there was no sign of the interchangeable-lens X-series camera we saw leaked in prototype form a while back. I expected it to show at CES proper, but it seems that Fuji didn't want to spoil the surprise by putting the news out early. Luckily for us, someone else did! French photo magazine Réponses Photo has gone to press with an article on the new camera, called the X-Pro1, and a few sweet new lenses.
 
Is Best Buy Really Finished? Top
shutterstock_32427793I was just reading over the excellent (and long) story about Best Buy at Forbes and wondered, in light of today's B&N announcement to pull the Nook financials out of their sinking brick-and-mortar business, whether stores like Best Buy and media giants like B&N need to exist at all. First, before we begin, let's talk about the Forbes' article's money shot:
But the numbers only scratch the surface. To discover the real reasons behind the company's decline, just take this simple test. Walk into one of the company's retail locations or shop online. And try, really try, not to lose your temper.
 
Semiconductor Startup SuVolta Collects $17.6M In Second Funding Round Top
suvoLast month we highlighted some work by SuVolta, a startup in tech that is not involved with the web or social media, but rather is taking aim at the foundational technologies of computing. The small team has reportedly put together a new process for manufacturing transistors that reduces their power requirements dramatically, making the resultant chips especially good for devices like handsets and tablets. They caught the eye of Fujitsu, which has helped them execute the technology, and now they've drawn a hefty second funding round, raising $17.6 million from new and old investors.
 

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