Tuesday, January 17, 2012

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Tomorrow Facebook Will Fill Your Timeline + Ticker With Shopping, Travel, and More Apps Top
Facebook Lifestyle AppsIn September at f8, Facebook announced partnerships with slew of companies who would develop Open Graph Timeline apps. Airbnb, Path, Ticketmaster, Payvment, Causes and 30 others all said they were onboard to produce apps allowing users to share when they "traveled", "purchased" something online, "donated" to a charity, and other activity. 4 months later and many of these Open Graph applications have yet to launch, but that will change tomorrow night according to our sources when a new class of Open Graph lifestyle apps is unveiled at a Facebook press event.
 
Samsung Not Sold On The Bada-Tizen Merger Just Yet Top
badatizenI've long wondered what exactly Samsung would do with their homegrown Bada operating system, and for a little while there the answer seemed clear -- Samsung SVP Tae-jin Kang recently noted that Bada would be merged with the Intel-backed Tizen OS project. In fact, he said at CES that the work to combine both platforms had already begun, which seemed like a pretty definitive conclusion for Bada. Now it seems like Samsung may be having second thoughts about the whole process. Samsung representatives have reached out to AllThingsD and Information Week to say that a final decision regarding a merger hasn't yet been made.
 
SOPA Isn't Dead, It's Just Sleeping (Until February) Top
nicholsonOh, you thought SOPA was dead? That the riled rallying of the entire Internet, the blacking out of dozens of popular websites in protest, or the President himself coming out against the bill would be enough to kill it off? Nope. It'll be back — they're just taking a little break.
 
Facebook Study Reveals Facebook Is Not An Echo Chamber (For Some Values Of "Echo Chamber") Top
tiezSome of Facebook's scholars-in-residence have published an analysis of approximately 283 million Facebook users' sharing habits. The study, which has to do with the paths by which information is caught up and shared — which types of friends share the most, where you post the most content from, and so on. The study itself was, no doubt, spurred by honest intellectual curiosity, but the summary on Facebook a slightly editorializing bent that suggests things were more purposeful. The conclusions are largely in line with analogous social propagation situations. They cite "The Strength of Weak Ties," validate many of its hypotheses in relation to this new data, and use its terminology throughout. It should soothe, they say, those among us who feel Facebook may be something of an echo chamber. It seems to me, though, that the study actually reinforces that idea.
 
Lionsgate Sacrifices "Abduction" To Test Simultaneous Facebook/DVD Release Top
abduction dvdWhen you're in charge of getting people to rent a move like Abduction, with its Metacritic score of 25 and a truly remarkable 4% on Rotten Tomatoes, what can you really do? The answer: whatever the hell you want. Short of stuffing free money into every box, few things could really help this one take off — so you might as well experiment, right? And experiment they shall. Throwing Abduction to the sharks for the sake of testing their teeth, Lionsgate is releasing the film on DVD and Facebook simultaneously.
 
What Is A 3D Printer Good For? Stop-Motion Cartoons Featuring Princesses, Of Course! Top
Makerbot creator Bre Pettis and his musician friends from Scary Car made this cute little video featuring 3D printed action figures being created in (near) real-time and then discovering love.
 
TechCrunch Readers Love Slides (And Other Stats From SlideShare) Top
SlideShare blogs 2011Okay, it's official. TechCrunch readers love slides. We occasionally embed slideshows from SlideShare like the one below (which is filled with its 2011 zeitgeist stats). In 2011, TechCrunch generated more slideshow traffic for SlideShare than any other tech blog—a dubious honor, but we'll take it. Since you all love slides so much, here are a few more facts from SlideShare.
 
Do We Need A "GarageBand For Books?" Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-17 at 12.50.44 PMMy Dad used to take me to Long's Bookstore on the OSU campus when I was young - I'd say this was during the 1980s and very early 1990s although in my mind these afternoons spent on campus are tinged with a 1970s wash out of color, as if I were remembering my time in Kansas before Oz. We'd rumble through the stacks, picking out used titles from the basement that were beaten and worn by years of the students' buy/read/return-for-a-pittance cycle so common at universities. Most of the books there were, obviously, but Long's stocked quite a bit of ephemera including my favorite Mad Magazine digests and sci-fi. Long's is now a Barnes & Noble, its handsome neon sign taken down during a massive restructuring of OSU's student core. Most of the old book stores are gone. The local head shop, Monkey's Retreat, turned into a Taoist center. Long's and its competitor, the University Book Exchange, are gone. Even Larry's, where I went to poetry readings as a petulant high-schooler is gone. To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, they paved paradise and put up a Quizno's.
 
Yes, Google Will Protest SOPA on its Homepage Top
antisopaTomorrow, Google's US homepage will include a link declaring its opposition to the Stop Online Privacy Act and the Protect IP Act. The news was reported on CNET and confirmed by Google in a statement emailed to TechCrunch.
 
Try-Before-You-Buy Gadget Site YBUY Launches With $750K In Funding Top
ybuy-logoGood news, gadget hounds! The new "try before you buy" subscription service called YBUY is exiting its public beta, backed by $750,000 in seed funding. The concept is simple, and should have major appeal for the gadget-obsessed: for just $24.95 per month, you can test drive the latest electronics, home and kitchen gadgets for 30 days before deciding to purchase or return the items. At launch, the site is serving up highly sought-after gadgets like the iPad 2, Dyson heaters, Jawbone headsets, iRobot Roombas and more.
 
An Interview With DECE/UltraViolet President Mitch Singer Goes Horribly Right Top
headerOur readers are probably familiar in passing with UltraViolet, a new content rights management system that is supposed to unify the rights architecture on the web, allowing cross-platform sharing and authentication of movies and TV. But for such a major effort by so many device makers and content producers, very little has been heard or said about it. Probably because it's still in its infancy: only 19 titles with UV compatibility were released in 2011, and the first signups occurred in October. Yet despite its tender age and low profile, the most common sentiment has been one of preemptive rejection. And why shouldn't that be the case? Consumers have been treated like thieves by content companies for years, experimented on with DRM schemes, ripped off with faulty authentication systems, and generally disappointed in the efforts to meet consumer demands. This feeling is premature, however: 2012 will be the year UltraViolet makes its real debut, and it is in 2012 that it will prove itself or fail. It was with this in mind that we spoke to Mitch Singer, President of DECE (UltraViolet's creator and controller) and CTO of Sony Pictures, at CES. And believe it or not, he convinced us that UltraViolet may in fact be the beginning of a very good thing.
 
Study: Facebook Pages Shouldn't Post More Than 1x Every 3 hours Top
Facebook Page PostThe average news feed post by a Facebook Page receives Likes and comments for 3 hours after being published. To maximize the engagement, impressions, and traffic driven by the news feed, Facebook Page owners should wait at least 3 hours between posts. This new finding from a study by Facebook Page analytics company EdgeRank Checker could help Page owners avoid cutting short the lifetimes of their posts and overshadowing them with new content.
 
Trigger Gets $1M From SV Angel, Paul Graham And Others To Make Cross-Platform Mobile Development Effortless Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-17 at 10.30.28 AMMobile development platform Trigger is announcing one million dollars in funding today, from way legit investors SV Angel, Paul Graham, Ron Conway, 500 Startups, Russ Siegelman, Steve Walske, RightVentures, Venture51 and John Taysom.
 
DreamIt Ventures Launches First Israel-U.S. Accelerator Top
dreamitStartup incubator DreamIt Ventures is announcing the first Israel-U.S. accelerator, which will help up to five Israeli startups expand into the U.S. market through DreamIt's NYC 2012 program. The new program, called DreamIt Israel, will take place over four months, with the first month in Israel followed by three months in New York. The startups will also participate in two Demo Day events - one in the U.S. and the other back home with local investors.
 
Aviary Launches Major Upgrade To SDK, Now Powering 10 Million Photo Edits Per Month Top
aviaryshotAviary, the company that makes it easy for mobile developers to integrate image editing into their apps, has a major launch today: they're introducing an overhauled version of their mobile SDK that's both more powerful and significantly better looking than the previous one, which launched in September. You may associate Aviary with the startup's advanced suite of web-based image editing apps, which is what it focused on for years. But last year it shifted toward this developer-facing mobile SDK, which allows third-party developers to quickly integrate photo editing, filters, virtual stickers, and other related features into their applications. It's essentially a drop-in photo editor, and given how popular image sharing apps like Instagram are these days, it's no surprise that plenty of mobile developers are baking it into their apps.
 
Bionic Panda Builds A Social Gaming Business On Android, Raises Funding From Top Investors Top
logoIf you're trying to build a mobile game for the hardcore crowd, you're going to want things like at least moderately elaborate graphics... you'll probably choose to build on iOS first. But if you're trying to build a casual-style game that anyone can play easily, that reaches as many people as possible, Android is looking better and better. That's at least the thesis behind Bionic Panda, the Android-focused gaming company from veteran entrepreneur Charles Hudson. The company is today announcing some growth numbers and a founding round -- in other words, its strategy seems to be working out so far.
 
HTC And Sprint Working On Software Updates That Remove Carrier IQ Top
carrierIQMost of the furor surrounding the Carrier IQ diagnostic software has wound down by now, but that doesn't mean that the companies involved have already forgotten. HTC has confirmed to The Verge that they were working with Sprint to push out maintenance updates that would remove the Carrier IQ software from affected devices.
 
Science Data Sharing Site figshare Relaunches, Adds Features Top
figshare logofigshare, originally launched in January 2011, is re-launching today with some new features. figshare aims to be a repository for scientific figures, raw datasets, videos and more. The retooled service offers AWS storage, version control, and unlimited public storage capacity. All uploaded data is made available with easy-to-use citation links (and a QR code) and is licensed under CreativeCommons terms to encourage re-use. In addition to faster uploads and an easier-to-navigate interface, figshare is also working on desktop clients. According to their FAQ, "We are a data sharing platform where you can add figures that might otherwise go unpublished – complete with the raw data tables." All data is organized by categorgy and tags and is readily searchable, making it easy for researchers to find the data they need. Visitors can comment on the works, too.
 
With Focus On International Expansion, Airbnb Comes To Android And Revamps Mobile Web Offerings Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-17 at 8.52.10 AMAfter about a year of being iPhone only, the Airbnb app comes to Android this morning alongside a complete revamp of the Airbnb mobile features. With over 500K downloads and 125k active users on iOS, and over 10% of its traffic coming through mobile, Airbnb mobile web genius Andrew Vilcsak tells me that the move to Android was inevitable, "The biggest complaint was that it wasn't on Android, which currently holds 48% of the entire world's market share."
 
comScore Publishes December 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings; Facebook Slips Top
fbAudience measurement firm comScore has just released its U.S. online video rankings for December 2011. There are few surprises: Google's YouTube is still king of the hill, while VEVO remains firmly in second place with roughly a third of Google Sites' audience. In total, comScore says 182 million U.S. users watched online video content in December 2011 for an average of 23.2 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience viewed 43.5 billion videos. What caught my eye, however, was that Facebook dropped from third place in November 2011 to fifth place, trailing Yahoo and Viacom properties again, in a single month.
 

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