Tuesday, June 5, 2012

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Keen On… Larry Sanger: Does Wikipedia Need To Be Censored? [TCTV] Top
Screen Shot 2012-06-05 at 9.26.26 AMWhen we think Wikipedia, we think Jimmy Wales. But most of us don't know that Wikipedia actually had a co-founder - a fellow called Larry Sanger, who not only worked on the original version of Wikipedia (called Nupedia) with Wales back in 2000, but claims to have been the guy who "brought to the idea of the wiki" to the crowdsourced encyclopedia.
 
Loosecubes Secures $7.8M From NEA, Accel To Become The Airbnb For Shared Office Space Top
loosecubes_lLoosecubes, the community marketplace for shared workspace, has today announced that it has secured $7.8 million in series A financing, bringing its total funding to $9 million. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates and Revolution Ventures, with participation from previous investors, Accel Partners and Battery Ventures. As a result of the round, Tige Savage of Revolution Ventures and Alex Kinnuer of NEA will be joining the startup's board of directors. For those who work remotely, far from company headquarters, or are busy plugging away at an early-stage business, finding cool, local office space can be tricky -- and expensive. There are a number of cool initiatives that offer community workspace for startups and their founders, but Loosecubes aims to simplify the process through a marketplace that connects those with empty desks, studios, ands sofas to workers looking for a friendly, productive setting in which to work.
 
No Resumes, Just Skills: Smarterer Grabs $1.75M From True, Google Ventures; Tony Conrad Joins Board Top
smartererlogoBoston-based startup Smarterer has been quietly building a gamified platform that provides job searchers with a simple way to show employers what they know by taking quizzes in subjects that range from engineering to music. Smarterer crowdsources its test designs and employs a smart ranking system to give its candidates a score and lets them broadcast their successes to the world. Today, the startup offers more than 500 skills and today announced that its community has now answered over 10 million questions -- at an average of 70K questions per day. To harness this growth, Smarterer is taking on another round of capital, as it officially closed $1.75 million in series A financing today, bringing its total funding to $3 million. True Ventures led the round, with participation from previous investor Google Ventures and a dozen or so angel investors. True Ventures (and About.me) Founder Tony Conrad will be joining the startup's board as a result of the round.
 
Achievement Unlocked! Sidequest Pokes Fun At RPG Gaming Tropes Top
Screen Shot 2012-06-05 at 10.37.50 AMIn honor of today's arguably lackluster Nintendo presser, I present Sidequest, a game that asks you to do all sorts of side quests. Over and over again. Ad infinitum.
 
Is The U.N. Really Trying To Take Over The Internet? Nope. Top
itu_logoAt a U.S. House of Representatives hearing earlier this week, a number of government officials from both sides of the aisle, as well as Google's chief Internet evangelist and inventor of the TCP/IP protocol Vint Cerf, warned that the U.N.'s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) could try to wrestle control away from the U.S.-centric ICANN and "take control of the Internet." For the most part, all of these fears are completely speculative at this point and as the ITU's secretary-general Hamadoun I. Touré himself clearly pointed out earlier this year, "this is simply ridiculous."
 
With More Than 2M Downloads, HotelTonight Raises Another $23M From US Venture Partners Top
hoteltonightLast-minute hotel booking startup HotelTonight just announced that it raised a $23 million Series C round led by U.S. Venture Partners (USVP). The financing includes existing investors Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, and First Round Capital. In addition to the funding, HotelTongiht will be adding USVP general partner Rick Lewis to its board of directors. HotelTonight has rolled out a number of mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android, which allow users to find low-priced, last-minute hotel accommodations on the fly. That lets hotels sell unsold inventory, and gives users cheap options at high-quality locations in more than 40 cities in the U.S. It's gained some decent user traction for its free-to-download apps, with 2 million downloads to date.
 
Urbanspoon Debuts Rezbook "Right Now," Lets Diners See Real-Time Availability For Reservations & Waitlists Top
iPhone_tables_availableUrbanspoon is continuing to heat up the competition between it and competitor OpenTable with the launch of a new feature for Rezbook, its iPad-based reservation and tablet management system for restaurant owners. Today, the company is introducing Rezbook "Right Now" which lets diners view immediate table availability at the restaurants found in Urbanspoon. The feature supports real-time availability for both reservations and walk-ins, the company says.
 
Cheapskates Rejoice: Amazon Wireless Is Selling Verizon's Galaxy Nexus For A Penny Top
verizon-galaxy-nexus-540x389There's no better way to kick off the day than with a wicked phone deal (that's how I've always looked at it, anyway), and the folks Amazon Wireless have a real winner lined up for today. For a brief time, they'll be selling the Galaxy Nexus with a two-year contract to new Verizon customers for the low, low price of $0.01. Not shabby at all, considering that the Galaxy Nexus is still one of the best Ice Cream Sandwich devices on the market (not to mention one of the few that leaves ICS untouched).
 
Nintendo Announces The Wii U At E3 Top
nintendo-e3-11It was just yesterday that Nintendo unveiled the Wii U Gamepad, but today is the big announcement. Everybody welcome the Wii U. The new console, coupled with the Gamepad, will change gaming entirely, according to Nintendo: at its core, Wii U changes gaming, how you interact with your gaming friends, and it changes the way you enjoy your TV. That means Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Video and YouTube, along with the brand new form of gaming brought about by the marriage of the Wii U and the Gamepad.
 
Google Acquires Mobile Productivity Company Quickoffice Top
quickoffice_logoGoogle just announced that it has acquired Quickoffice, a company best known for its mobile productivity suite for Android and iOS. Google plans to bring Quickoffice's "powerful technology" to its own Apps product suite. Quickoffice allows its users to create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on their mobile devices. The company says its software is currently installed on over 300 million devices in more than 180 countries. The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed by either Google or Quickoffice.
 
Audi Is Testing Out 4G LTE Connectivity In Its Cars, Courtesy Of Sierra Wireless Top
audi3G connectivity has been baked into cars for years now. Audi and Ford pioneered the technology, but times are a-changin'. The end-all be-all in wireless is no longer 3G as 4G LTE has taken the main stage. That said, Audi is once again positioning itself as a front-runner, bringing an LTE-capable infotainment system to its newest models with the help of Sierra Wireless. According to the release, "Audi is using Sierra Wireless AirPrime embedded wireless modules to help develop and test the system." But the real thing won't be available for quite a while — we're still in the development and testing phases. Drive tests began toward the end of 2011 and are ongoing. As I said, wireless connectivity in automobiles isn't novel, but it would seem that many wireless providers and auto manufacturers are in a race to bring the fastest connection available to their customers.
 
Startup Launch As Celebrity Bonanza: Airtime's Ritzy, Glitzy, Glitchy Debut Top
fanning-parkerOnce upon a time, a humble click of a button could send a web service live. A couple of e-mails out or a post on a message board might be sufficient to draw the interest of a few early adopters. No longer. Somehow, somewhere along the line, certain startup launches and demo days have become more like celebrity-studded movie premieres or gallery openings. We all go and gawk. We might stay. We might leave. But we're all there for a show. And nowhere is the shift of technology industry from mainstream culture's periphery to its center more evident than in the story of Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning -- who are debuting their much-anticipated (and more family-friendly!) version of ChatRoulette today. More than 15 years ago, Fanning and Parker were just teenagers trolling chat rooms. "We were both hackers," Parker said in New York today. "We were interested in computer security. The goal was some sort of miscreant behavior.... We were basically cyber criminals."
 
Cloud Gaming Company OnLive Adds LG Smart TVs And In-Browser Gameplay For Publishers Top
OnLive Game Service on LG G2 Series TVTwo years ago, OnLive launched with a dramatic plan to upend the gaming industry: By putting game processing in the cloud and streaming over the Internet, it could enable a whole new realm of devices to access games that were previously only playable on high-powered PCs and gaming consoles. Now it's expanding availability beyond its own desktop applications and streaming console to make games available on more devices and web destinations. At this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), OnLive is announcing a couple of new platforms that its cloud-based gaming system can run on. That includes the ability to play its games directly from next-generation LG Smart TVs with Google TV installed, as well as the ability to access them on nearly any browser on any device.
 
Live From Nintendo's 2012 E3 Keynote Top
nintendo-e3-2The geeks have gathered, the music is loud, and paired with the graphics on the big screens, this place is basically a stoner's wet dream. The doors of the Nokia Theater have opened, and as more nerds filter in, we've set up shop to bring you the event live. It's safe to expect Wii U news, plenty of video game trailers, and maybe, just maybe, a hint of renewed strength in the once-iconic gaming brand. We miss you Nintendo; come back to us. Join us after the jump!
 
Airtime Launches A Video Chat Network That's The New Place To Hangout Online Top
Airtime Featured ImageReady your arsenal of funny viral videos, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning have just launched their video chat and sharing network Airtime. Built on Facebook with a stunning $33.5 million in funding, Airtime puts you onstage with a friend or matches you with an interesting stranger. There's no application to install, it works straight from your browser. [Update: And today at the celebrity-filled Airtime launch party, Parker told me that iOS and Android apps are "coming very soon".] You could call it a more fun version of Skype, a one-on-one Google+ Hangouts with your Facebook graph, or the evolution of Chat Roulette. But what you're going to call it is fun. Pull in a favorite YouTube video or select one you've already shared to Facebook and instantly you're watching together. It feels simple, intimate, and casual -- like you're actually interacting in person.
 
Any.DO's To-Do List App Hits 100,000 iOS Downloads In 24 Hours Top
Any.DO WhiteHow hot are to-do lists? Quite hot, apparently. After Sunday's launch of the popular Android to-do list app Any.DO on iOS and web, co-founder and CEO Omer Perchik tells us that download numbers are exploding. Try this number on for size: Any.DO saw 100,000 downloads of its iOS application in just 24 hours. And this is without the app being featured by Apple, he says. In addition to the download numbers, Perchik says that iPhone users created over 500,000 tasks using the free app just yesterday. (Wow, you guys are busy! I only have one thing on my to-do list:"blog.")
 
Oracle Buys Another: First Vitrue, Now Market Intelligence Firm Collective Intellect Top
Screen shot 2012-06-05 at 7.41.11 AMFollowing its acquisition of marketing giant Vitrue two weeks ago for $300 million, today Oracle struck again. The company has just announced that it has agreed to acquire cloud-based social intelligence solutions provider, Collective Intellect. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The seven-year-old company has developed tools that allow businesses to optimize the way they monitor, make sense of, and respond to their customers conversations on social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter. The company's cloud-based solutions turn social conversations (and Chatter, eh?) into actionable intelligence, boosting customer experience and the generation of targeted leads.
 
on{X}: The Coolest Thing to Happen to Android. Courtesy of… Microsoft Israel? Top
onXLook at your Android phone! Now back at this post! Imagine you could program your Android to text your wife when you left work. Now imagine your Android reminding you in the morning to grab your umbrella if it's going to rain later in the day. Now look back at your Android Phone! Now look at Microsoft! Wait, what? Microsoft? That's right, your favorite Redmond techno-giant is sitting on a horse. Backwards. Microsoft is today announcing the beta release of on{X} (pronounced 'on-ex'), a website and Android app combo that provides users with extended control of their Android phones via remote programming. The semi-geeky can hit the ground running with ready made 'recipes,' while the ultra-geeky can sink their teeth into a JavaScript API.
 
Face To Face: How Airtime Will Re-Humanize The Internet Top
Sean Parker & Shawn Fanning PhotoOne minute into using Airtime I was laughing with someone I'd never met. That's something special when despite all the asynchronous connection, the Internet threatens to make us feel lonely. On Airtime, you experience together thanks to real-time video chat and video sharing. You're both the performer and the audience. When you look at your friend or a stranger you've been paired with, you get their body language, gestures, and attitude. Co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning tell me that on Airtime "there's a depth of communication that doesn't come through on something like Facebook. It's much higher bandwidth." The Internet doesn't have to isolate us. In fact, it's a party, and Parker and Fanning aim to be the hosts. "Airtime relates people to each other, makes the connections as comfortable as possible. But without a facilitator [like Airtime], the fear of rejection is so powerful" Fanning adds. "People are way more entertaining than we give them credit for" Parker adds.
 
The Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate Is Cheap, Fast, And Eco-Friendly: Launches June 10 At AT&T Top
samexhilarateLTE is a wonderful thing. It's like seeing the ocean for the very first time, or taking off in a plane. The speed is brand new, and it's beautiful. But unfortunately, most LTE smartphones tend to hang out on the expensive end of the shelf, and not everyone has $200-$300 to slap down for a phone, especially considering that none of it goes toward data and airtime. But Samsung is known for building the greatest variety of phones, from feature to low-end to super smart, and the latest member of the Samsung mobile family is sure to offer high-speeds at a low price. Meet the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate.
 

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