Tuesday, June 5, 2012

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Don't Know How To Code? Use Scroll Kit To Build Your Next Website Top
scroll kitSo this thing called the Internet makes it easy for pretty much anyone to have a voice and get messages across. The problem is that building beautiful, intuitive websites typically requires some knowledge of code. New York City-based Scroll Kit is trying to change that, with an intuitive web app that allows anyone to build compelling experiences with no background knowledge necessary. Scroll Kit provides users with what's basically an empty canvas on which they can place anything -- text, pictures, whatever -- and with one click publish it to the web. The product goes beyond most WYSIWYG web editors, allowing users to control pretty much every pixel of a page and rearrange page elements at will. While the tool proves that you don't need to know how to code to build something beautiful, the real point is to show that even if you do know how to code, that doesn't mean you will be able to build a great website.
 
Sprint's Virgin Mobile Becomes The Second Carrier To Offer A Prepaid iPhone Top
iphone_4sPoor T-Mobile. It was one thing when the iPhone was only available at AT&T, but then Verizon got it, and then Sprint, and then the bar dropped quite a bit as U.S. Cellular got it, and most recently Cricket Wireless joined ranks offering the iPhone as an unlocked prepaid device. But now, Sprint's Virgin Mobile has taken on the device, according to the WSJ. Again, poor T-Mobile. But enough of that; back to Virgin's iPhone. (That sounds a bit like a Judd Apatow movie, right?)
 
SeeWhy Creates A Hub For Shopping Cart Recovery Tools With SeeWhy CORE Top
seewhy coreThere are plenty of products out there promising to help online merchants reach out to visitors who leave without making a purchase. However, SeeWhy founder and Chief Strategy Officer Charles Nicholls says they're all too narrow — he describes everything currently on the market as "point solutions" that don't fix the whole problem. That's why the company is launching a new hub for different technologies, which it's calling SeeWhy CORE. As part of the research around its existing product, the SeeWhy Conversion Manager (which uses automatic email and social media campaigns to bring back customers who just left a merchant's website), Nicholls says the company realized that there's still a big opportunity here. After all, 97 percent of all visitors to e-commerce websites don't buy anything. However, the odds increase dramatically if they're a return visitor, so SeeWhy CORE wants to integrate the disparate tools available to bring that visitor back.
 
Google Now Warns You If It Suspects You're The Target Of A "State-Sponsored Attack" Top
largeNewGoogleLogoFinalFlat-aApparently it's not unusual for Google to detect that some of its users' accounts are under attack from "states or groups that are state-sponsored." The attacks are so prevalent, it seems, that Google has now launched a new program that will warn users when it detects such an attack. Whenever Google now detects such an attack, it will show a warning at the top of the user's screen, including a link to a page with additional information about how to best protect your Google account.
 
Microsoft Expands $99 Subscription Xbox Program To Best Buy And GameStop Top
xboxcouponEarlier this month, Microsoft decided to try something a little different when it came to selling the Xbox 360. Their plan: to kick off a pilot program under which customers could shell out a mere $99 for a shiny new 4GB Xbox 360 and a Kinect, provided they inked a two-year subscription deal to Xbox Live Gold. Now, it seems the time has come for that pilot program to spread its wings. Microsoft recently announced that later this month, all Best Buy stores and certain GameStop locations would be selling those subscription-friendly Xbox 360s. Well, for a little while anyway.
 
App Devs, Grab Your Credit Cards: You Can Now Buy Mobile-Only Ads On Facebook Top
facebook logoFacebook just made several changes to its self-serve ad options. The big one: That advertisers can now buy mobile-only news feed Sponsored Stories -- potentially huge for app developers looking to buy installs. This could be a key step for Facebook to monetize its massive mobile audience in a significant way — a constant topic among skeptics in the run-up to the company's IPO. Facebook was already moving into mobile advertising, but this new option should be especially attractive to advertisers who want to reach a mobile-only audience.
 
GoPro's New WiFi BacPac + WiFi Remote Combo Kit Will Let You Control 50 GoPros At Once Top
GoPro product shootWhat's better than one GoPro camera? Two, naturally. But what about 50? Well, control over 50 GoPro Hero cameras is exactly what you'll get with the freshly announced WiFi BacPac + WiFi Remote Combo Kit. The combo will allow you to WiFi-enable both your HD Hero and HD Hero2 cameras, a la BacPac, which is an attachable casing. Then, the WiFi Remote will go with you wherever your creative and sport-tastic desires may lead, including underwater, to control up to 50 GoPro cameras at a time from up to 600 feet.
 
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.
 

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