Thursday, January 19, 2012

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TCTV: Hundreds Rally In The Streets Of NYC To Defend The Internet Top
rallyfeatYesterday, as some of the biggest sites on the web 'blacked out' in bold protests of the deeply flawed anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in several cities across the US to take the fight offline.
 
German Clone King Faces Battle With Former Staff, And Satirical Dance Track Of His Memos Top
oliRocket Internet, the Berlin-based incubator most famous for slavishly cloning US companies like Zappos, AirBnB and now Pinterest in Germany, now faces a new competitor - in the form of some of its key employees. As we reported recently the core team of Rocket, lead by Oliver Samwer and his two other brothers, left to set up something new, and now we know what it is.
 
Houghton Mifflin, McGraw Hill, Pearson First Textbook Publishing Partners For Apple's iBooks 2 Top
Screen shot 2012-01-19 at 10.48.25 AMToday at Apple's education event, the company introduced iBooks 2, a textbook platform that effectively transforms $200 textbooks into iPad apps at a much more reasonable price. But of course, a textbook platform isn't worth a thing without the educational powerhouse publishers behind it. Luckily, the first up to the bat on the iBooks 2 platform are names we know well: Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. They're responsible for 90 percent of the textbooks sold.
 
Apple Isn't The Only Disruptor: How Amazon Is Killing Publishers Top
Maxwell_PerkinsWhile we're on the subject of publishing, Sarah Lacy found a great monologue on the current state of publishing and how, in short, Amazon is tearing old publishing houses a new one. Publishers, like music producers, don't make money piddling around with 50 mid-list books. They make money buying (for millions) and selling (a few) books by human black holes like Snooki and the Kardashians. They make money selling Stephen King novels and Newt Gingrich screeds. They make money, to mix industries, by betting on big budget dramas and reality TV. Sometimes a gem sneaks through, but it's rare.
 
The Shareholder Pitchforks Are Out For Netflix Top
Simpsons netflixArmed with pitchforks and hindsight, class action lawyers are gathering up mobs of angry shareholders who lost money and going after the company. Earlier this week a lawsuit was filed against Netflix senior management for not disclosing the short-term nature of its contracts to stream certain movies. And this morning a shareholder rights group called Robbins Umeda announced an "investigation" which could lead to another class-action suit.
 
Apple Unveils New iBooks Author Tool, Not Just For Textbooks Top
iboksauthorApple has spent the past few moments demoing all the new education-friendly featured in iBooks 2, but they have just now answered the question of how authors can create that kind of rich content. All the magic happens in a new OSX application called iBooks Author, which gives users a simple way to integrate different types of media in order to create iBooks of any stripe.
 
Sea Change: Apple Guts Textbook Publishing Top
shutterstock_77959174The days of the $500 college textbook bills are, it seems, over. With Apple's announcement of iBooks 2, the world of textbooks is changed forever. Education is a hard nut to crack. There are bright spots and clever new ideas, but technology hasn't quite figured out how to do a better job than the "old ways." That's why Apple's decision to launch iBooks 2 and the attendant editing tools is so important: it tears down a number of entrenched technologies while maintaining the scaffolding of familiarity. It leaves the stuff that works and saves the schools, students, and parents money and time. In short, it stabs the publishing industry while it embraces it, ensuring that its old methods are no longer profitable but offering it new tools to go forward. Whether they survive the initial thrust, though, is anyone's guess.
 
The Soul Still Burns: Classic Brawler Soul Calibur Lands On iOS Top
ios-soulReady for a blast of late 90's fighting game nostalgia? Well, get those thumbs ready, because Namco's arcade/Dreamcast classic Soul Calibur has just been released for iOS. I enjoyed a long-standing fling with Soul Calibur in my younger days, mostly because it was the only fighting game I was ever good at. My skills seem to have dulled considerably over the intervening years, though the touch controls probably don't help much.
 
Apple: 20,000 Education iPad Apps Developed; 1.5 Million Devices In Use At Schools Top
AppleAt Apple's education event today, the company revealed a number of compelling stats regarding iPad use in the education and learning space. Apple's SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller announced that there are currently 20,000 education and learning applications that have been built for the iPad. He added that 1.5 million iPads are currently in use in educational institutions and schools. Obviously, Apple is looking to increase this number, which is why the company is partnering with publishing houses and innovating on iBooks to offer more a more student-focused and education-friendly experience.
 
Apple Announces iBooks 2, A New Textbook Experience For The iPad Top
apple-education-liveblog2585"Education is deep in our DNA, and it has been since the very beginning," said Phil Schiller, Apple's SVP of Worldwide Marketing. On that thought Apple just announced iBooks 2. This move is centered around reinvent the textbook. Schiller explained today that Apple sees textbooks as amazing devices, but they're heavy, not searchable or durable. According to Apple the iPad is the perfect counter. It's portable, durable, interactive, searchable, current and capable of containing even richer content.
 
Foxconn Chief Equates Employees To Animals Top
the-future-of-foxconn-the-birdsWhile I suspect there's a lot lost in translation here,Foxconn chairman Terry Gou made a wildly distasteful joke this week at the Taipei Zoo, saying (according to WantChinaTimes): "Hon Hai (Foxconn) has a workforce of over one million worldwide and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache." The comments came during a presentation at the zoo where the superintendant Chin Shih-chien gave a talk on feeding and taking care of his charges. Gou has apparently hired Chin to make recommendations and help Foxconn executives learn how to manage large organizations.
 
Here Come The iPad 2S/3 Cases! Top
433630702_800It's that time again, friends. Apple rumors are swirling and case makers are trying to get a jump in their competitive field. So much so that a Chinese manufacturing company "Chineestyle Co., Limited" is actually selling cases for the next-gen iPad, which they are calling the iPad 2S. Yep, it's that time again.
 
Samsung: One In Ten South Koreans Now Owns A Samsung Galaxy S II Top
White Galaxy S2 3It's not really news to say that the Galaxy S II is a hit, but it has actually become a mega hit in South Korea. According to maker Samsung, the Android handset has been sold a whopping 5 million times in its domestic market since release at the end of April 2011. In other words, a little more than 10% of the country's entire population (48 million people) are now proud owners of the phone. It's the first cell phone that has reached this milestone in mobile-crazy South Korea, according to Japanese business daily The Nikkei. The paper also says that one out of four South Korean smartphones users owns a Galaxy S II (sounds like feature phones don't play a big role in that country anymore).
 
Report: 798 Daily Deal Sites Folded In The Last 6 Months Of 2011 Top
Lighted matchAccording to a new report from Daily Deal Media, a great source of news, information and data about the hot daily deal industry, there's a whole lot of consolidation and death going on among the many Groupon wannabes on this planet - at least in some regions. Daily Deal Media is keeping most of the good stuff behind a steep paywall, but shared some key findings from its report in a press release earlier this morning. According to them, the world has lost close to 800 - 798 to be precise - daily deal sites in the second half of 2011.
 
Linux Foundation Expects More Enterprise Gains in 2012 Top
linux-on-the-riseThe Linux Foundation is sharing the results of their latest invitation-only survey of enterprise Linux users. Their last such survey, in August 2010, revealed Linux was gaining popularity in enterprise computing. It should come as no real surprise that the latest survey shows more of the same. A lot has happened since late 2010, and the Linux Foundation survey reflects that. In "Linux Adoption Trends 2012: A Survey of Enterprise End Users" we find that a substantial number of enterprise users "expressed concern with the rapid growth of data, and Linux is clearly the platform of choice to address it." Less than half of respondents are planning to use Windows to handle their "Big Data" requirements.
 
The iRig PRE: A New Microphone Interface For iOS Devices Top
iRigPREJeez, CES is barely over and already NAMM is upon us. Unfortunately, this blogger is not in Anaheim for that event, but to be honest, I am still reeling from the few days I spent at CES with Team TechCrunch. Instead, I'll happily watch the music industry event from a safe distance this year. I did however spy the iRig PRE while I was at CES but it was not yet ready for prime time. It has been officially announced.
 
Wireless Sensor Posts Temperature, Humidity, And Radiation Levels To Twitter (Video) Top
uc technologyJapan-based UC Technology Corp. [JP] has developed a wireless sensor that can automatically post data like temperature, humidity, illuminance, or radiation levels to Twitter. The so-called "Tsubuyaku Sensor" [JP, PDF] is mainly designed for use in food warehouses, plants, or wine cellars. The data can be checked remotely on Twitter (the account can be set to private or public). UC Technology says that the sensor has a battery life of a year when it posts data once per minute.
 
Peecho Lands $750,000 For Its 'Cloud Print Button' Top
peechoPeecho, a Dutch startup that enables anyone to sell professionally printed products from their website, mobile or desktop apps, has raised $750,000 in financing from Peak Capital and DHG Holding to boost development and marketing of its embeddable 'cloud print button' service. Basically, their solution lets anyone sell digital content as physical products (think magazines, photo books, canvas prints and whatnot), by helping its customers hook into a network of professional print production facilities.
 
Former Google CIO Raises $73 Million To Reform Payday Loans With Data-Driven Startup ZestCash Top
zestcash-pictureZestCash, a company founded by former Google CIO and VP of engineering Douglas Merrill to legitimize the payday loan industry, has raised $73 million round of funding. The company raised $23 million in an equity round led by Matrix Partners. Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, GRP Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, and Lighthouse Capital Partners also fully participated in the round. The company also raised a separate $50 million line of debt financing from Victory Park Capital to fund its loan portfolio. ZestCash takes an entirely different approach to underwriting by combining Google-style machine learning techniques and data analysis, combined with traditional credit scoring. As a result, the company can offer credit to many people who historically would have been turned away.
 
BigCommerce Establishes $2 Million Fund For Developers Top
bigcommerceExclusive - E-commerce platform company BigCommerce has set up a $2 million fund for developers. With the launch of the fund, the Sydney, Australia-based company aims to sway third-party developers into submitting their integration and application ideas. Caveat: investments in successful entries are capped at $20,000 per project.
 

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