Thursday, April 5, 2012

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Appeals Court Rejects YouTube Victory Over Viacom, YouTube Says, "No Big Deal" Top
youtube logoHey, remember when Viacom sued YouTube for copyright infringement of shows like South Park and The Daily Show? And YouTube won a summary judgement nearly two years ago, with a judge basically throwing out the case? Well, it looks like the fight isn't over. Today, an appeals court reversed the earlier decision. That doesn't mean Viacom has won, but it does mean YouTube-owner Google will have to go back to court to fight this battle again.
 
FormMobi Aims To Be A Better 'Mobile Clipboard' With Easy Form Creation And Distribution Top
formmobiI don't think anyone in history has ever thought of filling out forms as sexy, but it's a necessary evil for many a business or organization. Still, there's plenty of room for improvement, and that's where a la mode inc. comes into play — their FormMobi app aims to simplify the process of creating forms and getting them into the field where they're actually needed. Seeing FormMobi in action is actually rather cool (never thought I'd say that about a service that makes forms) — after creating a FormMobi account, users can log into the service's online Form Base and use drag-and-drop components (think fields for the date, address, costs, etc.) to build a form. From there, that form can be accessed by a team in the field so long as they're running the FormMobi app on their Android or iOS device.
 
Google's GoMo Expands, Adds DIY Mobile Website Building Tools Top
gomo-main-logoDudaMobile, the DIY mobile website maker, fresh off news of its $6 million Series B, is today announcing a partnership with Google. Going forward, Google's GoMo service, which launched last November to refer business customers to development shops that could take their website mobile, is now offering a mobile website builder that's powered by DudaMobile.
 
Indie Music Agency Merlin Scores Another Settlement: $1.6 Million From Sirius Top
Merlin logoOn the heels of a payout from the owners of P2P filesharing site Limewire, another claim finally settled for Merlin, the group that represents independent music labels in licensing negotiations and legal actions: the group says that Sirius Satellite Radio has settled for $1.6 million in a copyright infringement suit brought against Sirius by the agency. The claim concerned Sirius' Stiletto recording device, and was years in coming: Sirius had settled similar claims brought by the major record labels in 2007 and 2008.
 
Don't Hold Your Breath For A 3D Samsung Smartphone Top
samsung-galaxy-s-IIIOf all the peculiar gimmicks a smartphone manufacturer could lean on to make a device stand out, 3D always seemed like one of the most pointless. Sure, it sounds great in theory — who doesn't want fully immersive video and apps — but actually using it on-the-go can be a completely different story. As it turns out, Samsung is right there with me. In an effort to combat some of the more fanciful Galaxy S III rumors floating around, the company told Engadget today that they have no intention to release a 3D smartphone any time soon.
 
Nokia Lumia 900 Review: Head-To-Head With The Lumia 800 And iPhone 4S Top
Screen shot 2012-04-05 at 9.39.16 AMYep, I'm writing another post on the Lumia 900. It'll be my fourth in the span of 24 hours, but there's just so much to talk about. So after receiving a fly and a die, getting checked out by our camera crew, and being weighed by yours truly, we're putting the Lumia 900 up against baby brother Lumia 800 and the titan of smartphones: the iPhone 4S. Which will come out victorious? Well, that all depends on what you need and want, so let's not beat around the bush any longer.
 
Graphicly Kills Its Mobile Apps To Double Down On Publishing Tools Top
graphicly logoOver the past few months, Graphicly started to abandon its vision of becoming the "iTunes of comics" and instead focused on digital publishing tools for comics and other image-heavy books. Today it's fully committing itself to that strategy, shutting down the comic store apps that it offered on both iPhone and Android. CEO Micah Baldwin says that decision reflects the difficulties of launching a marketplace app in the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace — you face your own challenges attracting users to those app, then only a fraction of those users are going to purchase any individual title.
 
FLUD 2.0 Rolls Out To Android & Windows Phone, As Startup Readies Its Series A Top
FludAndroid_2FLUD, the scrappy news reader backed by $1 million in seed funding, is today introducing FLUD 2.0 for Android and Windows Phone. FLUD 2.0, for those who don't recall, was the big redesign that turned FLUD from being just another news reader into a true social news experience. Although participating in a crowded space, where it goes up against better-known brands like Flipboard, Zite, and Pulse, FLUD founder Bobby Ghoshal believes his company has what it takes to stand out from the crowd. Not only is the startup building its own social network - as opposed to one built on top of Facebook or Twitter - it's now also doing so cross-platform.
 
Nielsen: U.S., UK Couch Potatoes Love To Tap On Tablets While Watching TV Top
couch potatoFor anyone who's loved to watch Twitter reactions or a liveblog of a big event on TV, this will probably come as no surprise. For advertisers and broadcasters who haven't figured out how to capitalize on this, you are missing a trick: we are fast becoming a culture of people who love to use devices like smartphones and tablets while watching television. According to the latest study from Nielsen covering Q4 2011, in the U.S., a full 86 percent of tablet owners and 88 percent of smartphone owners said that they used their devices while watching regular TV at least once in a 30-day period. Nearly half (45 percent) actually did this on daily basis with their tablets, with 41 percent saying they watched TV while tapping on a smartphone every day. But what's perhaps surprising is that, while sites like GetGlue and Twitter have capitalized on the idea of social streams coinciding with TV viewing, Nielsen says the most popular activity is actually checking email, with the second most-popular activity being related to checking content related to the program or products being advertised around it.
 
YouTube Adds A "Play In 3D" Option Across Its Site Top
youtube3dLast September, YouTube began offering new tools that allowed users to convert their uploaded 2D videos into 3D videos with just a click. That feature, which has been in beta testing, was available only to YouTube creators at the time. Today, YouTube is rolling out the beta to all of YouTube's users - creators and viewers alike - by offering the option to automatically convert short-form videos that were uploaded in 1080p to 3D. In other words, viewers no longer have to wait on YouTube creators to convert their videos into 3D - you can now do it yourself.
 
Amazon Goes Bilingual In The U.S. Kindle Store With Launch Of Spanish Tienda Kindle Top
KIndle en EspanolAmazon has been making some big strides in extending its footprint outside of the U.S. with its Kindle e-readers and Kindle bookstore, but today it took a step to improve how it caters to Spanish speakers closer to home, with the launch of a new section of its U.S. Kindle store dedicated to books in Spanish. Called "eBooks Kindle en Español," Amazon says the store features 30,000 e-books in Spanish along with a whole new level of customer support aimed at Spanish-speaking users, including help pages as well as phone and email customer support in the language. The move represents how Amazon is looking to take its Kindle offerings beyond the first tier of early adopters that have bought the product to date. It also underscores how companies like Amazon are trying to capitalize on the rise of e-readers and e-books. Research out today from Pew shows that at the moment only about 21 percent of adults in the U.S. have read an e-book in the last year. That number appears to be on the rise, going up by three percent just between December 2011 and February 2012.
 
Nest 2.0 Adds Advanced Energy-Saving Features Top
nest-thermostat-energy-history-iphone3An update to the Nest thermostat is rolling out to device owners over the next two days, just in time for AC season. The improvements include advanced energy monitoring - essentially more data about your current energy usage - and something called Airwave, a program that will turn down your air conditioner and run the fan for a period of time, thereby saving energy.
 
New Project Aims To Add A Little High-Tech To Antiques Appraisal Top
london_dated_hallmarksAs the proud owner of a number of antiques including an original Game Boy and an unopened box of Circus Fun cereal, I'm well aware of the value of those things passed down to us from the ancients. However, when you're dealing with jewelry and other high-end baubles, the value depends quite a bit on hallmarks, mint marks, and quality notes. This project, called Info-Snap, aims to improve the process of assessing hallmarks in the wild, making anyone a junior antiques detective.
 
Here's A More Realistic Look At Google's Project Glass [Video] Top
Because walking and texting isn't dangerous enough, Google Glasses will put AdSense 5mm in front of your retina. Disclaimer: I actually don't know if Google plans on using in ads in their glasses.
 
Microsoft's SemanticMap: After Project Glass, Another Take On How To Make The World More User-Specific Top
SemanticMap_04Augmented reality seems to be all the rage this week: Microsoft earlier today got in touch to give us the heads up on some technology it's been working on -- its designs for how to make a user's experience of a location specific only to that user -- one day after Google revealed more details about its own take on that idea in the form of Project Glass. Called SemanticMap, the idea is technology that lets physical signage change based on a specific user, that user's location and what that person is looking for. Unlike Google's glasses, Microsoft's technology doesn't require the user to have any special headgear or other equipment; and it makes use of three key bits of technology that Microsoft is working on and will very likely become more and more ubiquitous in the years ahead: face analysis, gesture recognition and proximity detection. Microsoft has already been using some of this to good effect in the Kinect.
 
Hipmunk Adds Calendar Integration To Mobile Apps For Trip Planning Bliss Top
hipmunklogoHipmunk, the flight and hotel search startup known for its snazzy user interfaces, has done it again. The company today is unveiling new integrations with popular calendar applications iCal, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook to its mobile apps for the iPad, iPhone and Android smartphones, making the often odious task of searching for travel transportation and accommodation just a bit easier and more plugged-in to the way many modern web aficionados function today.
 
16M Users Strong, TwitchTV Takes Live-Streamed Gaming Portal Mobile With iPad And Android Apps Top
iphone_screensTwitchTV, a live-streamed video game portal and community for gamers that was spawned last June from live video platform Justin.tv, has been booming in terms of growth and revenue. But the platform didn't yet offer native mobile apps for the iPad or Android, which was a main requests from users. Today, TwitchTV is debuting an Android application and a universal iOS app for the iPad and the iPhone (we're told the iOS app has not yet gone live in the App Store but should be available soon). Piggybacking on the massive success of Machinima, TwitchTV features live video competitions of a variety of games and platforms with top gamers, tournaments and commentary. The platform aims to be a one-stop-shop for live video for 'eSports,' which the company says is synonymous with competitive video gaming. TwitchTV features live video game battles and commentary from titles like Halo:Reach, Starcraft II, World Of Warcraft, Call Of Duty: Black Ops and others.
 
With JOBS Act Becoming Law, Crowdfunding Platforms Look To Create Self-Regulatory Body Top
Screen shot 2012-04-05 at 1.15.09 AMToday, President Obama signs the JOBS Act into law, legalizing crowdfunding in startups by non-accredited investors, so that anyone and their mother can invest. The new law stipulates that entrepreneurs can now raise money from any and all, however, startups are limited to $1 million per year, and must stick to portals approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. What's more, the legislation dispenses with the 500-shareholder rule, which put a limit on the number of shareholders a company was allowed before registering with the SEC (and going public). The new law gives high-growth companies a longer grace period, or on-ramp, leading up to IPOs, and lifts some of the one-size-fits all regulation that likely has been hampering the IPO market. While this is a big win for startups, it puts significant pressure on the crowdfunding market to self-regulate -- which is risky. That's why 13 equity and debt crowdfunding platforms and insiders have come together to form a leadership group to bring attention to the need -- really, requirement -- for the industry to develop effective self-regulation, best practices, and investor protection.
 
Yandex.Disk Wants To Give iCloud, Skydrive and Dropbox A Run For Their Money In Russia Top
yandexYandex may be in line to become the default search engine on devices that Apple sells in Russia. But for now it's engaging in a little competition with Cupertino, and others. Today the Russian search giant is launching its own answer to iCloud: a free web-based storage product it's calling Yandex.Disk. Users of Yandex.Disk get up to 10 gigabytes of space that they can use for personal documents, photos, music and videos, and like iCloud and Microsoft's Skydrive the service is aimed specifically at offering storage services that help keep users tied in to the rest of Yandex's portfolio of products. The files can subsequently be accessed from any internet-enabled device.
 
Help Wanted: Songkick Founders Bring Back Silicon Milkroundabout Networking Event Top
silicon milkroundaboutAttention young engineers and budding product geniuses! If you're thinking about moving jobs, or if you'd like to work for one of the UK's hawt startups, mark out May 26/27 in your calendars for the third edition of the Silicon Milkroundabout. Nature abhors a vacuum and so it goes that because there are actually very few hiring events for startups in London, past Milkroundabouts have been massively oversubscribed. "We had to turn a bunch of people away on the day," Pete Smith, co-founder of Milkroundabout (and co-founder and COO of one of the UK's startup success stories, the live music alert service Songkick) said of the debut event. "The bar ran dry and every company there hired at least one person and some hired four or five people."
 

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