Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Y! Alert: TechCrunch

Yahoo! Alerts
My Alerts

The latest from TechCrunch

1000s of Journalists Use Facebook Subscribe, Here's How They Get Likes Top
Facebook Subscribe4 months after it launched its Twitter-style asymmetrical Subscribe feature, Facebook and its Journalist Program Manager Vadim Lavrusik's efforts to weaken Twitter's stranglehold on breaking news are paying off. The company just announced that thousands of journalists now use Subscribe, including 90 reporters from The New York Times and 50 from the Washington Post. If Facebook can get your favorite journalists publishing through Subscribe, you'll have less need for Twitter. Next I hear it's setting its sights on getting celebrities and  entertainment tastemakers onboard. Additionally, Facebook released some best practices for how journalists can maximize the engagement (Likes, comments, and shares) on their posts.
 
Kickstarter: Cassette, A Documentary About, You Guessed It, Cassettes Top
cassetteThose of our readers old enough to remember the 90s will almost certainly recall cassette tapes fondly. The clacky little tapes and their creaky cases have more or less disappeared from the world, and no surprise: they were fragile, limited, and sounded pretty bad. But they were also hugely empowering, and helped produce in an age of comparative consumer powerlessness the same feeling we take for granted today: that we should be able to copy, lend, and duplicate the content we've bought. Cassette is a documentary looking for a few bucks on Kickstarter that hopes to highlight cassette culture then and now.
 
President Clinton's Former Chief Of Staff Says: "Yes We Scan" (TCTV) Top
Podesta-tc_upload.mp4While the topic didn't make its way into President Obama's Sate of the Union speech last night, Mr. Obama's former transition team co-chair, John Podesta, thinks creating a "Digital Library of Congress" comprised of "the vast holdings of the federal government" deserves executive level attention. He's calling the initiative, "Yes We Scan" My suggestion to him: get Google to do it for free in return for a reprieve from the government's never-ending antitrust investigations. I am only half-joking.
 
BeachMint Raises Another Big Round: $35 Million For Celebrity-Backed Shopping Experiences Top
beachmintlogoBeachMint — an ecommerce startup that lets customers subscribe to receive products hand-picked by celebrities each month  — has quickly become one of the hottest companies in Los Angeles. Today the company is announcing that it's raised a $35 million funding round with some big-name investors: the round is being led by Accel Partners, with participation from Goldman Sachs, New World Ventures, NYC-based and Millennium Technology Value Partners, with existing investors participating as well. Accel's Greg Waldorf will be joining BeachMint's board. This brings BeachMint's total funding to a whopping $75 million. This is obviously a big raise, and it comes only seven months after the company raised $23.5 million at a rumored $150 million valuation. Why are they raising so much? The short answer: they're growing like crazy and are planning to go international — and they'll be fending off plenty of competition.
 
Apple Overtakes Exxon As Most Valuable Traded Company In The World… Again Top
Apple-MoneyIt happened once before, in August, but that was due to a stock market collapse that left both Exxon and Apple well below their usual share price. This time, however, it would seem that Apple's Q1 earnings call yesterday has led to a fresh spike on the stock market and what do you know? Apple is once again the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, with a market cap of $414.83 billion.
 
Top European Blogging Platform OverBlog Acquires Timeline Creator Timekiwi Top
timekiwiNormally, Palo Alto companies buy European ones, but sometimes there are exceptions. Case in point: today OverBlog, a leading blog platform in Europe with over 32 million uniques according to comScore, is announcing it has acquired Timekiwi, a tool that helps you make a timeline using your social media postings. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but OverBlog says Timekiwi will be integrated into its platform by summer 2012.
 
$99 Nokia Lumia 900 To Hit AT&T On March 18? Top
nokia-lumia-900-official-109Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was all to eager to show off the Lumia 900 at this year's CES, but he unforunately kept to himself when it came to its price or release date. Now, thanks to a timely leak, it looks as though Nokia's flagship Windows Phone could hit AT&T's shelves on March 18. That's apparently the plan, anyway. The date, given to BGR by their anonymous sources, seemingly confirms earlier rumors about the device's launch window, though they're quick to note that the date isn't set in stone since the 900 hasn't yet completed the technical acceptance process.
 
LG Nitro HD Surpasses 1 Million Units Sold Top
nitrohdcomScore recently ranked LG second in the world in terms of mobile OEM market share, and it would seem the good news keeps on coming for the smiley-face company. The Nitro HD, or Optimus LTE if you're from outside of the States, has reportedly hit 1 million units sold. It was first available in South Korea last year in October, and LG sold 600,000 units on its home turf. After venturing into new lands, including Japan, Canada, and the US of A, another 400,000 units were sold. According to my calculator, 600,000 plus 400,000 does indeed total 1 million units.
 
Online Investing Platform Kapitall Now Lets You Trade Stocks Top
kapitallKapitall, a web app that investors can use to research and analyze stocks, mutual funds and exchange traded funds, is debuting the ability to trade stocks via its platform today. Kapitall's interface is inspired by video game design and combines a graphical user interface with tools that make it easy to build portfolios, share ideas and execute trades. The startup believes that people can learn to navigate the stock market even if they don't have a financial planner or don't have the experience to sift through financial statements of public companies. The drag and drop interface was designed by Cordell Ratzlaff who led the design of Mac OS X at Apple.
 
Google: "Hundreds" Of Schools In 41 States Use Chromebooks Top
IMG_20120125_081356During this morning's keynote at the annual Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) conference in Orlando, Florida, Google's Product Manager for Chromebooks, Rajen Sheth, shared an update on Chromebooks' headway in educational institutions. According to Sheth, today there are now "hundreds" of schools using Chomebooks in 41 states across the U.S.
 
Sprint Plans To Kill The BlackBerry PlayBook… Again Top
playbookkilledFor the second time over the course of a year, it would seem as though Sprint's ready to kill the BlackBerry PlayBook. A new version of the PlayBook OS is set to debut in February, but according to an EOL (End of Life) report out of SprintFeed, Sprint isn't prepared for the wait. Not even for a week. Of course, the WiFi-only PlayBook will still be available at various office stores like Best Buy and from RIM directly, but Sprint's execution of the PlayBook marks the end of the product's life on a carrier shelf.
 
Popular Barcode Scanning App ShopSavvy Launches Mobile Marketplace Top
iPhone4-5ShopSavvy, which you probably know as the barcode-scanning, price comparison app, is  launching a major new feature today: SavvyListings, a mobile marketplace. With the addition, the company is hoping to turn its user base of some 20 million into customers who buy and sell items directly with each other.
 
Now You Can Control Your Galaxy Nexus By Groping A Wall Top
Screen shot 2012-01-25 at 10.34.38 AMThe Galaxy Nexus's 4.65-inch display may make it a handful for some, but a nifty new project from a developer known as DDRBoxman allows users to interact with their Galaxy Nexus on an even grander scale. With the help of a projector, a Kinect camera, and a specially tweaked Ice Cream Sandwich ROM, he was able to interact with his Nexus by touching a wall.
 
Accel And SV Angel Back Endorse With $4.25 Million To Close The Loop Between Shoppers And Brands Top
endorseBrands and businesses can track their reputations online and connect with consumers through social media. But what about in the real world? One of the biggest prizes in Startupland will go to whoever can figure out how to connect real-world shopping to brands and businesses. Steve Carpenter is going after that prize with his latest startup, Endorse. Carpenter has been incubating the company for a year as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Accel. (He sold his last company, Cake Financial, to Etrade in 2010). Endorse just raised $4.25 million in a Series A led by Accel, with SV Angel also investing. His co-founders and team include early employees from YouTube and Paypal (Erik Klein, Mayrose Dunton, and Franck Chastagnol).
 
JNSQ, An Independent Style Mag For iPad, Makes Its Public Debut Top
jnsqJNSQ, the first independent style magazine for the iPad, is making its public debut today. The app, created by former Beauty.com marketing manager Melissa Middleton and angel investor and stealth startup founder Fritz Lanman, features similar content as to what's found on the online version of the company, at www.jenesequa.com, but is published monthly - like a real magazine.
 
Samsung Employee Leaks New Info On Future Galaxy Tabs Top
Screen shot 2012-01-25 at 10.04.24 AMI just love it when leaks come straight from the horse's mouth. A leaky horse mouth, if you will. Electronista is reporting that a Samsung product marketing manager by the name of Ryan Bidan has let slip a few details on the next Galaxy Tab or, potentially, the next iteration of the Galaxy Note. According to the report, Mr. Bidan hinted at the inclusion of an S pen (the same stylus used with the Note), 3D gestures courtesy of the front-facing camera, and perhaps even some voice controls "in certain circumstances."
 
Fab Hits 2 Million Members, Plots International Expansion, Opens For All Top
fabFab.com founder and CEO Jason Goldberg just made a significant announcement on his blog about some new and upcoming changes at the ridiculously fast-growing startup. The design shopping site now boasts 2 million members, having added more than 400,000 new members in the past month and doubling membership since November. Expect that number to grow fast, because the site is now open for everyone immediately upon sign-up, and will soon become available in Canada and Europe to boot.
 
Social Brand Marketing Booms In 2011, Buddy Media Ups Revenue 2.5X Top
Buddy Media Blue LogoWith 300 new big brand customers and 2.5X revenue, 2011 was a landmark year for social media marketing software developer Buddy Media. As CEO Michael Lazerow told us that Buddy Media was on track to hit $20 million in revenue in 2010, it could have pulled in $50 million during 2011. It attracted premier clients such as Citibank, IBM, and the NFL with its reputation for helping brands promote through Facebook. The company grew from 100 to 225 employees, and opened new offices in London, SF, and Singapore. In short, brands are getting serious about social marketing, and Buddy Media is a tool they trust.
 
Mark Shuttleworth Unveils New Head-Up Display for Ubuntu 12.04 Top
ubuntu-hud-01Every time I write about Ubuntu and its (not-so) new Unity interface, I see lots and lots of comments decrying it as useless, an abomination, the worst thing to ever happen to computers, etc. Personally, I'm not so flummoxed by it, but there's no denying that Unity has been a divisive addition to Canonical's flagship Linux distribution. The choice to move application menus up to the global bar at the top of the screen has been frustrating to many, and a lot of power users find Unity too mouse-intensive. Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu's Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life, yesterday unveiled the next step in the Unity evolution: the Head-Up Display. According to Shuttleworth, their testing revealed that "users spent a lot of time, relatively speaking, navigating the menus of their applications, either to learn about the capabilities of the app, or to take a specific action." The goal of the new Head-Up display is to -- eventually -- replace menus altogether. Instead of clicking through menus, users type the command they require in a search box.
 
TIBCO Updates Social Enterprise App Tibbr With Geo-Location Features Top
tibbrEnterprise software company TIBCO is debuting a new version of its Yammer-clone Tibbr today. The newest version of the company's social communications app includes geo-location capabilities called Tibbr GEO, which integrates the 'check-in' model in the enterprise. By incorporating location into Tibbr, the service wants to physical places into data hubs that can immediately stream important insights relevant to that specific place. Tibbr GEO gives companies the ability to tag important places, whether in the enterprise or as part of the extended enterprise. As Tibbr users approach these places, they're automatically presented relevant in-stream information.
 

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.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)