Tuesday, April 17, 2012

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Twitter Announces Innovator's Patent Agreement, Gives IP Control To Engineers And Designers Top
Twitter just published a blog post outlining a new way to handle patents. Called the Innovator’s Patent Agreement, Twitter says the agreement would commit companies to only use patents defensively — any offensive litigation could only happen through the approval of employees. updating
 
Gnip Signs Deal To Syndicate Tumblr Firehose Top
gnip logoSocial data startup Gnip has scored another impressive partnership — it says it's the first company to syndicate the full firehose of content from blogging service Tumblr. Gnip is probably best-known for being the first authorized reseller of the Twitter firehose, but it also offers data from Facebook, Google+, Disqus, WordPress, YouTube, and more. So what does Tumblr add to the mix? (Besides hipster puppies, that is.) President and COO Chris Moody tells me via email:
 
YouTube Now Lets Video Creators Solicit Donations For Kickstarter & Indiegogo Projects Top
donate-exGoogle is announcing this morning that YouTube creators can now link their videos to projects on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The company says that these crowd-sourced fundraising platforms were already being by many YouTube creators, so it wanted to make it easier for those folks to connect their YouTube viewers to their project's page. The new links will be supported by YouTube's annotations feature, says Google.
 
Report: Wearable Computing Will Soon Intensify The Platform Wars Top
proejct_glass_350Google made quite a splash with its Project Glass video earlier this month. While Google's vision of wearable computing still looks a bit like science fiction today, a new report by Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps argues that "in three years, wearables will matter to every product strategist" and that smart developers should start experimenting with applications for wearables on the "big five" platforms (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook) today.
 
Setster Gives All Daily Deal Companies Their Own Groupon Scheduler Top
setster_logo_square As the daily deal space has become increasingly crowded over the last two years, local merchants increasingly feel pressured to run deals, but for many reasons, they end up overwhelmed by the prospect of managing those deals from start to finish, and the big deals players are failing to help them. So, Setster has decided to do what LivingSocial, Woot, Gilt, and other deal providers are either too lazy or distracted to do, today launching an API that allows them to offer integrated scheduling packages to local merchants using their platforms. As Setster wrote in its blog post today, daily deal companies are doing an abysmal job of helping merchants close the loop "on the mile of the transaction where [they] have been touching the client." Their API aims to change that.
 
Happly For iPad Helps Curious Kids Discover The Web…Safely Top
iPad_TOC_sizediPad guilt? There needs to be a technical term for that feeling in the pit of a parent's stomach that arises from handing over the iPad to their kids, only to watch them play brain rotting Outfit7 games or level after level of Angry Birds. Fortunately, some startups are focusing on developing more educational content for the iPad to help parents assuage some of their guilt over their kids' ever-increasing screen time. One such company is Daily Interactive, which is now launching Happly for iPad, a collection of original and curated content for kids, including online videos, games, and stories. And while the content may be deemed educational, the kids might not realize it, given the app's focus on topics kids love to explore, like dinosaurs, space, sports, animals, how to's and more.
 
Klout Launches Brand Pages To Help Companies Engage Influencers Top
kloutKlout, the startup that measures influence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare, Google+ and other social apps, is launching a new feature called Brand Squads, consisting of dedicated profile pages which give companies a centralized place to engage with influencers. For background, Klout evaluates users' behavior with complex ranking algorithms and semantic analysis of content to measure the influence of individuals on social networks. The company is now topping 12 billion API calls, which is up from 100 million API calls in January 2011. The company has more than 5,000 API partners, up from around 100 in early 2010. And it has indexed north of 100 million public profiles. Klout also just raised around $30 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins and others, with partner Chi-Hua Chien joining the startup's board.
 
Shasta Ventures, Founders Fund Put $4.5 Million In The Uber For Carwashes, Cherry Top
CherryCherry, a recently launched startup that brings on-demand car washes to you and your car, has raised $4.5 million in new funding from Shasta Ventures, Founders Fund, Shervin Pishevar and Bill Lee. Shasta managing partner Tod Francis will join Cherry's Board. The startup previously raised $750,000 in seed funding from a number of ex-PayPal employees including Yammer CEO David Sacks, PayPal founder Max Levchin and Square COO Keith Rabois. In addition to the funding news, Cherry is also expanding to include their service in a total of 10 cities in the Bay Area, and releasing a new iPhone app. Similar to Airbnb, Uber, and GetAround, Cherry is a business that wants to make our lives in the real world better using data, location and mobile technologies. Via either the web or a native iOS app (Android will be released in a month), users can specify the location of their car on a street (as well as what type of car, color and license plate number) in a parking lot, or another public area. Once you check in with your car's location on Cherry, the service's technology immediately finds and dispatches a car wash professional to wash your car right where you left it, and you don't even need to be there.
 
Watch Out, Best Buy, Ikea Will Soon Sell Their Own HDTV System And It's Awesome Top
ikeaIkea is entering a brave new world: home entertainment systems. The company unveiled its UPPLEVA line today with a smart YouTube ad (embedded after the jump). The video spot quickly explains that the UPPLEVA line is the savior to living rooms everywhere with hidden cable tracks, integrated wireless components and a customizable cabinet design. Argue all you want, but an HDTV is a glorified monitor. It should not be the primary point of focus when designing a home theater system. The new UPPLEVA line completely disrupts the big box store's HDTV buying process with a high-dose injection of Ikea genius.
 
Review: Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 All-in-One Printer Top
wfp4540_fca-cor-fi_396x264We've covered quite a bit of the Epson line and usually found the printers to be solid, respectable, and inexpensive. This latest addition to the WorkForce family, the WP-4540 is arguably all of those with a few caveats. This is a workhorse printer, designed solely to pump out as much paper as possible in an office setting. It's quite large and heavy, and adding on the extra paper drawer makes it nearly a foot high. It weighs in at 36 lbs, making it cousin to some more compact laser printers. It can hold 580 sheets and prints duplex, which is at once a potential cost and time savings as your employees use less paper and have to fill the thing up less frequently.
 
This $650 iPhone Case Can Withstand A .50 Caliber Shot In The Back Top
info-product-007The iPhone is a notoriously fragile device. That's where cases come in. However, this case, by a Japanese firm called Marudai, might be the toughest (and most impractical) case ever made. The massive backside is made of a combination of steel and aluminum, which is apparently tough enough to save an iPhone from a .50 caliber bullet. That is, of course, if the round hits the backside 'cause the front is as exposed as a naked iPhone on the subway.
 
Oakley Could Be Cooking Up Smart Glasses To Take On Google's Project Glass Top
oakleypatentBack when rumors of Google's fabled augmented-reality glasses began picking up steam, one of the most frequently repeated bits was that they bore a striking resemblance to (rather old) Oakley's Thump mp3-friendly sunglasses. The concept that Google eventually revealed looked nothing like them, but it turns out Oakley may eventually throw their hat into the smart eyewear ring. In a brief interview with Bloomberg, Oakley CEO Colin Baden revealed that the company has been working on a way to project information directly onto lenses since 1997. Once perfected, the technology would allow the company to create a rival to Google's Project Glass
 
Hulu Changes Deal For Advertisers: Now They Only Pay When Viewers Watch The Whole Ad Top
hulu-logoThis morning, at the Ad Age Digital Conference in NYC, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar announced a significant change in how the media company will charge its advertisers. Going forward, advertisers will only be charged based on a 100% completion rate. In other words, if viewers don't watch the whole ad, it doesn't count. The change will be effective in both the free level of service and the subscription offering, Hulu Plus.
 
Interview: Megadeth's David Ellefson Talks Shop About Rock Shop (Video) Top
rockshop2David Ellefson Rock Shop is a solid and simple guitar/bass amp-modeling app that runs on iOS. It is made by PocketLabWorks and works in conjunction with the company's iRiff Port cable/interface. In case you hadn't guessed by the name of the app, special consultation was provided by David Ellefson (bass player and founding member of Megadeth) in order to achieve the sound of his bass and guitar rigs. How does it sound? The tones, while specific to a few amps and cabinets, are quite excellent and resonant. The settings are based off Mr. Ellefson's amp setup which provides a gritty bass tone, full of attack. I liked it. (You can hear David playing through it at the PocketLabWorks website). I had a few questions about how it was developed so rather than take my usual Paneldome approach, this time I was able to track down David for a Skype call and get some info from him directly. He was kind enough to take the time to talk with me.
 
Read It Later Rebrands As Free App, Pocket; Updates UI With Filters, Favorites And More Top
PocketRead It Later, an app that allows you to save articles and other content on the web to "read them later, is debuting a new version of its service and rebranding as "Pocket." Founded in August 2007 by Nathan Weiner, Pocket has a mission that similar to Dropbox's: it wants to give you access to that content on any of your devices, be it a phone, tablet, television, or computer, without having to think about where you saved what. When you discover an interesting article, video or web page, but don't have time to view it you can save the URL to Pocket, and the list of content will be visible on any device. While Read It Later was previously a paid app, with today's relaunch, Pocket's Android, iOS and Kindle Fire apps have been set free.
 
Sun Co-founder's WayIn Launches End-To-End Platform For Easy Twitter Polling Top
Screen shot 2012-04-16 at 1.50.13 AMIn late 2010, Sun Microsystems Co-founder Scott McNealy and finance veteran Scott Johnston, launched WayIn, a mobile Q&A and polling service designed to let individuals and brands quickly create and respond to polls on anything their hearts desire. Thanks to the managerial clout behind it, the Silicon Valley-based startup has gone on to raise $20 million in venture funding. Now WayIn is extending its functionality with a new service called Twitpolls, which enables users and brands to engage with (and gather) realtime feedback from their Twitter followers -- without requiring users to leave the comfort of their tweet stream.
 
Dog Patch Labs Says It's Kicking It From Dublin. Can Incubators Solve Europe's issues? Top
Dogpatch_Dublin_sept302011Dogpatch Labs, the incubator backed by Polaris Ventures, is perhaps most famous for helping out startups like Instagram, TurntableFM, Mixel, FancyHands and Formspring in their early days, out of offices in the Bay Area, NYC or Cambridge. It's definitely had a higher profile in the U.S. than in Europe where it launched a Dublin-based offshoot 6 months ago. However, that move appears to be paying dividends, with DPL saying it has seen six investments of $1M or more already. These include funding rounds for Profitero, the pricing intelligence for retailers, which announced a $1M investment by Irish VC Delta Partners.
 
European Carriers Aren't Digging Nokia's Lumia Line Top
Screen shot 2012-04-17 at 9.18.31 AMNokia hasn't had the best year. Of course, the launch of the Lumia line has been refreshing, as Nokia's much-anticipated Windows Powered offerings are finally out in the world, trying to woo owners like neon-colored puppies in a pet shop window. The only problem is that four of the major wireless operators in Europe have deemed Nokia's WP phones "not good enough to compete with Apple's iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy phones," according to Reuters.
 
12Society Grabs Michael Strahan, Nets Funding From Groupon Co-founders, BeachMint President Top
Screen shot 2012-04-17 at 2.42.41 AMWhen we last heard from 12Society -- the stealth startup described as a "guy-focused lifestyle platform built on the intersection of culture, technology and commerce" -- San Francisco Giants' starting pitcher and World Series Champ, Tim Lincecum, had just joined as a co-founder. At the time, the team said more "big name" co-founders were on the way, and, today, the startup made good, announcing the addition of long-time New York Giant, Super Bowl winner, and current media analyst on Fox NFL Sunday and others, Michael Strahan to its founding roster. While few celebrity-founded startups have stood the test of time, 12Society is taking steps that it believes will ensure its longevity. Last month, it added a number of veteran entrepreneurs to its advisory board, and, today, as it prepares for launch, the startup revealed that it has closed a round of seed financing from Chicago-based seed/venture firm Lightbank as well as from Diego Berdakin, the co-founder of venture-backed commerce startup BeachMint.
 
Threadflip Gets $1.6M From Baseline, First Round, Dave Morin And Others To Virtualize The Clothing Swap Top
Screen Shot 2012-04-17 at 5.58.48 AMThere has to be something in the air: Just when I thought that I had enough distraction in my life, one more sweet clothing swap site launches, allowing me to focus on my hobby (fashion, and specifically upcycled fashion) while I'm supposed to be focusing on my work. In the same space as Poshmarks, 99Dresses and Copius, Threadflip allows you to upload and sell items of clothing as well as buy others' beloved but for whatever reason unwanted items of clothing. Unlike 99Dresses (which I am addicted to) Threadflip focuses on higher end clothing and expands beyond dresses to shoes, bags, accessories and jewelry.
 

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