Friday, January 20, 2012

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Snake Camouflage: Japan Gets Exclusive Metal Gear Solid 3DS System Top
mgsResident Evil isn’t the only big video game series that made the news in Nippon today: Konami announced [JP] the so-called METAL GEAR SOLID SNAKE EATER 3D PREMIUM PACKAGE for the Japanese market. The set includes a special 3DS system, a copy of Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D, and two clear files in MGS design. Here’s the so-called “Snake Camouflage”-style 3DS:
 
SkyGrid Debuts iPad App Touchtv To Allow Users To Watch Content On Demand Top
tvSkyGrid, a startup that offers a powerful news aggregator to consumers is venturing into the TV content and media business with the launch of Touchtv, an iPad app that allows viewers to watch recent programs from popular sports, entertainment, politics, and news channels. Custom designed for the iPad, Touchtv, which is a free app, aims to give viewers their own personal TV via the iPad to watch their favorite channels. SkyGrid has partnered with a number of networks including Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, ESPN, OWN, E! and others to show specific content and programming.
 
Downfall: Photos Of MegaUpload Founder's Valuable Cars Getting Seized Top
megaThe shit really hit the fan over at massively popular file hosting site MegaUpload. Yesterday, the United States Department of Justice seized and shut down the site and commenced criminal cases against its owners and others, sparking retaliatory actions from hacker collective Anonymous. Yesterday, following the DoJ indictment, the Organised and Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand arrested MegaUpload founder Kim Schmitz (aka Kim Dotcom), CMO Finn Batato and CTO Mathias Ortmann.
 
Capcom Announces Surprising November Release For Resident Evil 6 (First Trailer) Top
Picture 2One of the world's biggest video game franchises is getting a new title: Capcom today announced Resident Evil 6 [JP] for the Xbox 360, Sony PS3, and the PC. What's interesting is that the company also said when exactly the game will come out, namely on November 20 in North America and Europe, and two days later in Japan. Note that the release dates are for the console versions, the PC version hasn't been dated yet. By way of comparison: Resident Evil 5 was announced in 2005 and went on sale four years later.
 
Daily Crunch: Sense Effects Top
1526Here are some recent posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: ZOOM's B3 Bass Effects Pedal Launches At NAMM iPads And Digital Textbooks Do Not Belong In Classrooms Yet Apple Announces iBooks 2, A New Textbook Experience For The iPad Sea Change: Apple Guts Textbook Publishing Wireless Sensor Posts Temperature, Humidity, And Radiation Levels To Twitter (Video)
 
VC Investing Soars 22 Percent To $28.4B In 2011, Internet Sector Reaches Highest Levels In A Decade Top
vc=VCs poured significantly more money into deals in 2011, according to a recently released MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters. Venture capitalists invested $28.4 billion in 3,673 deals in 2011, an increase of 22 percent in dollars and a 4 percent rise in deals over the prior year. The amount of venture dollars invested in 2011 represents the third highest annual investment total in the past ten years. In terms of the fourth quarter, investments in the quarter totaled $6.6 billion in 844 deals, which is actually a 10 percent decrease in terms of dollar amount and an 11 percent decrease in deals from the third quarter of 2011 when $7.3 billion went into 953 deals.
 
Damning Evidence Emerges In Google-Apple "No Poach" Antitrust Lawsuit Top
Google Apple AntitrustNext week a class-action civil lawsuit will be heard in San Jose to determine if Google, Apple, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intel, and Intuit conspired to eliminate competition for skilled labor. In anticipation of the hearing, TechCrunch has attainedevidence from the Department of Justice's investigation in 2010 which was made public this evening for the first time. It appears to support the plaintiff's case that the defendant companies tried to suppress employee compensation by entering into "no poach" agreements.
 
Microsoft Girds Itself For Windows 8 Battle And Beyond Top
BattleofIssus333BC-mosaic-detail1Microsoft's quarterly earnings statement didn't have any big surprises. It was generally good news: record total revenue, growth in many key sectors, big sales in Xbox, 525 million total Windows 7 licenses sold, and they even seem to be losing a little less money in the Online Services area. But all that is a side show. 2011 was a big one for Microsoft in mobile (at least, big in that they took major actions), but for their core businesses it has been a hold-steady year. 2012 will be an adventure. Windows 8 is Microsoft's next big thing. And trends suggest that by the time Windows 9 comes around, things in the personal computing industry may look a lot different. The way they handle this next phase will set the stage for the inevitable "post-PC era" changes.
 
Of Course iPads Belong In Classrooms — It's All About Balance Top
ibooks 2"iPads And Digital Textbooks Don't Belong In Classrooms Yet"? What a headline. Alas, it doesn't quite do the post justice; Matt actually raises a few valid points on the potential woes of digitally assisted learning, but they're lost under a headline that (falsely) paint him as some sort of luddite. iPads absolutely have a place in the classroom. It's just a matter of finding a balance.
 
Sheryl Sandberg on Facebook Culture: It's in the Posters Top
valley girlFor the latest episode of her Valley Girl web show, Jesse Draper (daughter of venture capitalist Tim Draper) managed to score an interview with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. For the first half of the interview, Sandberg talks about her work-life balance and her desire to see women in high-profile executive roles — it's engaging and informal, though it largely covers the same ground as the New Yorker's profile of Sandberg last year.
 
SOPA Protests Sway Congress: 31 Opponents Yesterday, 122 Now Top
Congress On SOPA DoneYesterday the Internet the internet cried out in protest of SOPA-PIPA, and congress heard us loud and clear. At the beginning of Janaury 18th, there were 80 members of congress who supported the legislation, and 31 opponents. Now, just 63 support SOPA-PIPA, and opposition has surged to 122, according to ProPublica. Now lets look at the breakdown by House, Senate, Democrat, and Republican, and see if there's enough opposition to defeat the bills. Currently there are still enough stated supporters for PIPA to pass in the Senate...
 
Does Google+ Really Have 60% Daily Engagement? Probably Not Top
Vic Gundotra - Google+With 90 million users, it would seem that things are going quite well for Google+. Those numbers don't mean much without context, though. Google+'s Vic Gundotra seemingly providedsome of that context by posting an image that said "over 60% sign in daily" and "over 80% sign in weekly," but it looks like Google is being rather vague about whether this means that 60% and 80% of Google+'s total users sign into Google+ or if they sign into Google (or if it means something completely different instead).
 
Pulse Jumped From 1 Million To 11 Million Downloads In 2011; Now Seeing Download Every 2 Seconds Top
screen-shot-2011-11-15-at-11-05-20-pmIn November, Amazon began shipping its new Kindle. At the time, even though reactions were varied, though Amazon hoped for the best, as some projected it would sell as many as 5 million by the end of 2011. Though the indications are that it didn't get there. However, the media hype and early Kindle sales have still been a boon for a young startup that you're probably by now familiar with: Pulse.
 
Does Google Have An Interest In Pinterest? Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-19 at 4.42.57 PMI've spent about a week trying to track down the rumors that Google had expressed interest in a Pinterest acquisition and here's what I know thus far (here's where to email if you know more): So Google never gave an official offer to grid bookmarking service Pinterest, but the desire to do was expressed (somehow?) indirectly, with a price in the "hundreds of millions" according to multiple sources. This makes sense, as Google wanted to buy Path for $200 million before it had any users. Pinterest has a bajillion users.
 
Mozilla's Anti-SOPA Message Reached 40 Million People Top
Mozilla BlackoutBy blacking out the default Firefox start page and using social media, Mozilla reached 40 million people with its anti-SOPA/PIPA message. According to a stats wrap-up just posted to the Mozilla blog, 30 million people in the US saw the start page's call to action, 1.8 million visited its mozilla.org/SOPA info page, and the effort generated 360,000 emails to Congress. Here's how it stacked up against the impact of Google and Wikimedia's protests:
 
Anonymous Reacts to Megaupload Takedown With "Largest Attack Ever" Top
anonymousHacker group Anonymous isn't happy about the takedown of file-sharing site Megaupload, and as a result, it's targeting some big companies and government agencies are going to Earlier this afternoon, interspersed with a stream of anti-SOPA and PIPA tweets, Anonymous the main Anonymous Twitter account declared, "The government takes down #Megaupload? 15 minutes later #Anonymous takes down government & record label sites. #ExpectUs." Specifically, the group claimed responsibility for taking down the Universal Music, RIAA (the record industry's lobbying arm), and Department of Justice websites, among others. As of 3pm Pacific, the sites were still down for me, although some comments on Twitter suggested that they were returning online sporadically.
 
Google Commerce Starts The Year Off With A Reorganization Top
Google-WalletSome of Google's core product areas, like search and YouTube, have the enviable duty of retaining market dominance. Others, like its Android mobile operating system, get to be the free-wheeling disruptor. Google Commerce, meanwhile, has the perennial chore of trying to gain ground versus a vareity of well-established payments competitors ranging from PayPal on the web to Apple's iTunes and Amazon on mobile. So, it's not that surprising to hear about a reorganization within the commerce area as Google tries to figure this space out, as we and others did yesterday. Stephanie Tilenius, one of the two executives that Google poached from PayPal a couple years ago, has been moved to the side, according to two industry sources I've spoken with.
 
iSuppli Agrees With IDC, Gartner: Windows Phone To Surpass iOS By 2015 Top
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANobody wants to give Windows Phone a chance except for Robin and a whole bunch of analysts. Back in September, IDC and Gartner predicted that Windows would overtake iOS for the number two spot in the market by 2015, and Windows Phone head of marketing Achim Berg called that prediction conservative. Now iSuppli has joined in, predicting that Windows Phone will grab a 16.7 percent market share by 2015, while Apple's market share is expected to decline from 18 percent to 16.6 percent in 2015.
 
Larry Page: Display Advertising Is A $5 Billion Business Top
Larry Page EarningsThe engine of Google's business is search advertising, but its display advertising business is becoming a very large business. During today's earnings call, CEO Larry Page that Google's display advertising business is at an "annualized run rate of $5 billion." That doesn't mean that $5 billion of Google's $38 billion in revenues in 2011 came from display advertising. It means that if you annualize the display advertising revenues in the fourth quarter, you would get $5 billion.
 
It's Still Funny, But It Might Not Be A Joke: Jotly Arrives On Android Top
jotlyI'm beginning to think the team at Firespotter Labs are marketing geniuses. Prior to launching their new iPhone app Jotly (you know, as a joke), they released a hilarious video featuring a "fake" app by the same name. In the video, a guy goes around rating things like parking meters, hiding spots, ice cubes, and a beer in the alley that was left in the sun (F-, if you're curious). The video was meant to be a parody of our mobile/social app obsession, and perhaps our culture's tendency towards over-sharing. It also was strikingly similar to Kevin Rose's Oink, which launched soon after. But here's the thing: Jotly is no longer a joke. The company (also the maker of Nosh), has just released the Android version of Jotly. And an API, too.
 

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