Thursday, June 7, 2012

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Amazon Latest To Start Selling The Nest Learning Thermostat Top
nestNever minding the legal wranglings with Honeywell, Nest Labs is on a roll lately and just announced Amazon as the latest retailer to sell the Nest Learning Thermostat. This follows similar announcements concerning Lowes and the Apple Store. Amazon is currently selling the product at its full $249 MSRP, but it is available through Prime, making it a little better deal than from other retailers.
 
Songza, The Music Streaming Service That Does All Work For You, Launches An iPad App Top
Screen shot 2012-06-07 at 4.47.44 PMMusic is as annoying as it is wonderful. I mean, the listening part is great. But taking the time to curate playlists on Spotify or conjure up the right artist to feed Pandora in exchange for a fresh playlist is tedious, at the very least. But Songza brings the expertly curated playlist straight to your smartphone with little to no work on your part, and today that magic extends to iPad land. That's right. Songza has just launched an iPad app, and let me tell you, it's beautiful.
 
Thanks to YouTube, Netflix and Facebook, IPv6 Traffic Hits New Heights On IPv6 Launch Day Top
World_IPv6_launch_badge_512You probably didn't notice, but yesterday was IPv6 Launch Day and thanks to support from major sites like YouTube, Netflix and others, it was quite a success. In 2011, a number of leading websites, ISPs and home router equipment manufacturers came together to test the successor of IPv4. This time around, the organizers were not just trying to get participants to test their systems but to fully deploy IPv6 on their services. Given the ever-shrinking numbers of available IPv4 addresses, moving to IPv6 is a necessity, but the move to the new protocol has been rather slow.
 
Brands Start Automating Social Media Responses On Facebook And Twitter Top
human-vs-robot-09 (1)Bots in Facebook?  Robots in Twitter?  Pinterest Run by HAL 9000?  It's all very possible. That's right, surprisingly. in the next phase of the social web, brands are applying analysis and digital intelligence to better reach us.  Here's how it's gonna go down.... Companies are struggling to keep up with social media conversations, the growth in this channel has exploded, and will soon automate their responses, for better or for worse.  Expect industries that have intense customer support woes like airlines like United Airlines and telecommunications like Comcast to be overwhelmed with angry customers spilling to social media sites to complain and demand fixes, and consumer companies like Coke, Pepsi, hospitality like Hyatt and Retailers like Best Buy to want to reach out and entice potential customers.
 
Hark Strikes A Deal With Universal To Bring Your Favorite Movie Sound Bites Online Top
hark-logoHark, the online repository for audio clips, is getting more studio content Thursday, with a deal that will bring sound bites from Universal's film library online. Hark will get access to about 100 Universal films, which it will cut up into bite-sized audio clips and add to its sound bite library. That will include memorable one-liners from movies like Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and The Breakfast Club -- satisfying the desires of all of us who still like to quote stuff from the 70's. So why would a studio agree to let Hark distribute its sound clips? For one thing, those clips are usually out there already in some way, shape, or form. But they're usually not accessible in a clean, well-lit place. And they're usually not being monetized. Hark allows studios to control some of the presentation for how those clips appear, and also to sell ads against them.
 
"In the Studio," Prismatic's Bradford Cross Wants to Reinvent Social News Top
Screen shot 2012-06-07 at 1.29.18 AM"In the Studio" continues this by welcoming an engineer who founded a company that predicted flight delays, has gone through Y Combinator, began his career building trading software for an asset management firm, and most recently, has helped cofound a new company with the ambitious goal of building a social newspaper for the modern world. Bradford Cross is not your average technical founder. As a heavy Twitter user, I've been skeptical about applications built on top of the feed for a few reasons. My belief is that most Twitter users are, by default, power users (relative to the population), and that they have been trained to view their newsfeed in a native format. Therefore, asking those users to jump from what's comfortable (native feeds) to an entirely new product or service that is built on top of their activity may sound nice but, in reality, impose deep, behavioral switching costs. (For a bit more on this topic and discussion, check out this topic stash on PandaWhale.)
 
MakieLab Banks $1.4m To 3D-Print Avatars Into Real, Upgradeable Collectables Top
makie11Want a toy designed to look like your online avatar? That's what's possible with "smart toys" company MakieLab which quietly launched recently with its 3D-printed dolls based on an avatar you create on the site. But this is not just kids stuff. MakieLab just closed a seed round investment of $1.4 million. The round was led by early-stage investors Lifeline Ventures and Sunstone Capital and is joined by Anime and gaming industry veterans Matthew Wiggins, Daniel James and Cedric Littardi of superangel-fund Ynnis Ventures.
 
Hey Bloomberg, HTC Is Not Being Shut Out By Microsoft Top
Apollo_001At what point did Bloomberg start writing ridiculously sensationalistic and misleading headlines? It apparently started last night with the following: HTC Said To Be Shut Out Of Next Version Of Windows. Last I checked, HTC is in the business of making smartphones, not tablets. The four previous tablets built by HTC were likely built to appease the carriers. Regardless of whether or not HTC is allowed to build devices for Windows 8 proper, that won't be true for Windows Phone 8, say multiple sources. The writing's been on the wall. It's not rocket science.
 
LevelUp Grabs $12M From Highland, Google Ventures To Take Its Mobile Payment Solution National Top
Screen shot 2012-06-07 at 10.26.55 AMAt the beginning of the year, Square doubled its retail presence, landing in about 20K outlets nationwide. As Jack Dorsey's mobile payment system continues to find legs, all the major players have been rushing to bring their own solutions to market. Believing mobile payments are the future, Seth Priebatsch (of SCVNGR fame) and team launched LevelUP, a mobile payment and rewards network into beta in July 2011. Since then, the mobile payment network has been growing fast, as it now counts over 200K users and has partnered with more than 3K merchants in Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, and more. Today, SCVNGR and LevelUp are adding more coin to their coffers to kick the payment network's expansion into high gear, announcing that they've collectively raised $12 million in funding. SCVNGR's existing investors, including Highland Capital, Google Ventures, Balderton Capital participated in the round, along with new investors Continental Advisors and Transmedia Capital.
 
Chrome For Metro Set To Arrive In Next Dev Channel Release Top
chromium_logoAs the release of Windows 8 draws closer, all of the major browser vendors are also preparing to launching their applications for the touch-centric Metro UI that will prominently feature in next version of Microsoft's flagship operating system. Today, Google announced that - assuming you are running the Release Preview of Windows 8 - you'll soon be able to test Chrome in Windows 8's Metro mode. Once the next version of Chrome arrives in the Dev channel, you will be able to take Chrome for Metro for a spin after setting it as your default browser.
 
Ireland's MTT Raises $5 Million Series A From DFJ Esprit Top
mobiletravel_190112Running out of Ireland, Mobile Travel Technologies has raised a $5 million Series A investment from DFJ Esprit's new third fund. In case you hadn't heard, MTT is a large mobile platform aimed at the travel industry which includes easyJet and Qantas Group's Jetstar amongst its customers. The financing will support MTT's expansion into new markets and strengthen the team at its headquarters in The Digital Hub in Dublin, at its offices in London and Manila, and as it enters new territories.
 
Twitter Hires Senior Google Ad Exec Richard Alfonsi; Long-Time Product Leader Elad Gil To Advisory Role Top
RichardAlfonsi405vertTwitter is still busy making changes to its senior management. Following up on product leader Satya Patel's departure earlier this week, we've learned of two other significant moves. The first supports the company's recent statements about its ad business growing faster than many observers had expected. Richard Alfonsi has been recruited from a senior sales position at Google to be Twitter's new vice president of global online sales. According to his LinkedIn bio, he was previously responsible for "driving global sales and business strategy across Google's full Display Ads product set including the Google Display Network, buy-side advertiser platforms, sell-side publisher platforms, and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange."
 
Samsung Joins The Linux Foundation Top
samsung-logoSamsung, the world's leading producer of mobile phones, on Tuesday became a Platinum member of the Linux Foundation. Just the seventh company to join at the Platinum level, Samsung will now have a seat on the Linux Foundation Board of Directors. Samsung has long been a participant with the global Linux community, and as the largest manufacturer of Android handsets they've been extremely successful at marketing Linux-powered devices to the masses. This announcement secures Samsung's commitment to Linux and Android. Almost all of the consumer electronic goods produced by Samsung can be powered by Linux, so it makes sense for them to join the Linux Foundation. They'll be in a position to steward embedded Linux development, contribute non-competitive advancements back to the global community, and enjoy the worldwide development efforts focused on Linux and Android.
 
Y Combinator Alum Flutter Raises $1.4 Million For Gesture Recognition Tech Top
Screen shot 2012-03-26 at 3.40.53 PMFlutter, the startup that launched this past spring out of Y Combinator's Winter 2012 class, has closed on $1.4 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and Spring Ventures, along with Start Fund and a handful of individual angel investors. The cash will be put toward further scaling out Flutter's team and technology, which provides gesture detection and recognition from standard webcam devices.
 
Goodnight, Sweet $199 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook Top
Hands-On-With-New-BlackBerry-PlayBook-2.0-OS-e1326548182672The 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook is no more. A rumor began circulating this morning stating that the low-end model was getting the ax and it was apparently true. In a statement released to Engadget RIM confirms and explains that 32GB and 64GB models offer a better value. This means that going forward the least expensive path to the PlayBook is through the $249 32GB model with the 64GB model running $50 more. The PlayBook took too long to mature. In its current state, thanks to BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, the PlayBook is a fine tablet complete with a very capable set of tools. But it took RIM too long to build the product to this state. Rather than launching the tablet with a core set of features, RIM outed the tablet and proceed to update the product over the following months. It wasn't until earlier this year, nearly 9 months after it launched, that the PlayBook finally became a viable product.
 
Last.fm Reveals That "Some" User Passwords Have Been Leaked Top
lastfmIt looks like LinkedIn isn't the only company dealing with password woes as of late. Just one day after it was reported that 6.5 million LinkedIn user passwords were dumped onto the web, London-based music recommendation network Last.fm has just recently announced on their website that they too are "investigating the leak of some Last.fm user passwords."
 
One Thousand Foxconn Workers Riot In Chengdu, China Plant Top
the-future-of-foxconn-the-birdsAccording to a brief in the Want China Times, workers in the Foxconn plant in Chengdu rioted in a male dormitory, throwing bottles, trash, and furniture after plant security came to the dormitory to investigate a thief.
 
The Only Logical Thing To Do With These Lenovo IdeaPad Ads Is Start A Caption Contest Top
horsesMarketing never ceases to crack me up. Sometimes that's a good thing, like when Samsung cracks a few fanboi jokes at Apple ahead of the Superbowl. It's funny, and it delivers their message in a compelling, entertaining way. But there are some marketing efforts that are unintentionally hilarious — like when Samsung partnered with hot new clothing line Rag & Bone in February and had models walk down the runway with giant-ass phones in their hand. Sure, humans hold their phones as they walk, so I guess product placement like this is somewhat true to life. But this isn't funny cause it's true; it's funny cause it's sad. People concerned with Rag & Bone don't give two shits about the Galaxy Note, and conversely, people who are extremely interested in the Galaxy Note probably aren't all that into Rag & Bone. I'm not trying to generalize; I just think that both brands are missing their mark. I mean, consider this: Anna Wintour, the goddess-diva-almighty-ruler of fashion, is using a flip phone and what appears to be a BlackBerry in every picture I can find of her. At the same time, look at our how our Hackathon hackers dress themselves. These worlds simply don't collide, which is why I find it so hilarious that Lenovo is promoting its new IdeaPad 310 and 410 ultrabooks with fancy-shmancy editorial fashion photo shoots.
 
Google Launches Trusted Stores Program, Offers $1,000 Lifetime Purchase Protection Top
google_trusted_logoGoogle today announced the official launch of its Trusted Stores Program. This program is meant to give online shoppers more assurances that participating online retailers are actually trustworthy. Online retailers who choose to participate in this program will be able to display report cards on their sites that rate the stores' overall service and the reliability of their shipping services. The badge, says Google, "is only awarded to online stores that deliver a great overall experience, so even if you haven't shopped with this merchant before, you can easily tell if they are trustworthy, ship quickly and reliably, and offer exceptional customer service."
 
Behold, Facebook's New App Center Leaks Into iOS Top
photo (3)Facebook is planning to launch a new mobile App Center in the coming days -- possibly at an app-themed press event that the company is holding this evening in San Francisco. In the meantime, we've just received a slew of screenshots from an iPhone-using reader who appears to be seeing it live already. Update: Facebook says "Since we announced the App Center to developers last month, we've been testing it with a small percentage of users. We have no further details to announce at this time." Well, here's what the new App Center looks like:
 

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