Wednesday, July 25, 2012

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Ticketfly Gets Ready To Rock Sporting Events, International, IPO With New $22M Series C Top
Ticketfly LogoTicketfly is not content playing second fiddle to Ticketmaster, so it just raised a $22 million Series C with each investor chosen for a strength they bring to the stage: Northgate - sports, SAP Ventures (the round's leader) - international, Cross Creek - IPO, and Mohr Davidow - connections in Silicon Valley. The round brings Ticketfly up to $37 million in funding to disrupt event ticketing. CEO and co-founder Andrew Dreskin has lofty aspirations and tells me "A changing of the guard is at foot, the fundamentals of the ticketing space are experiencing great change." But considering Ticketmaster has signed long contracts with clients, and is just half of the LiveNation juggernaut that owns venues and and artist management deals, Ticketfly will need to play its heart out to win the crowd.
 
The Droid X360 Is The Standard-Bearer For Counterfeit Chinese Products Top
7633900340_bc098ba75cFollow me here. The Droid X360 has the mind of Android, a body of a Vita, and branding of Verizon's Android phones and Microsoft's gaming system. Plus, the thing ships with 9 different emulators, allowing the owner to play games from Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Game boy Color, NES/FC, SNES, SEGA Mega Drive and SEGA Game Gear. The only way it could infringe on more trademarks would be if there was a Mercedes-Benz logo on the backside.
 
Stealth-Mode DC Lobby Group Internet Association (Google, Amazon, FB, eBay) Names CEO Top
Capitol Hill - Washington, DC | Flickr - Photo Sharing!A sign, if you needed one, of how big tech companies have become, how central they would like to be in the world of policymaking -- and how they may be getting nervous about heavier regulation down the line: a new lobbying group is being formed called The Internet Association, with charter members reportedly including Google, Amazon, eBay and Facebook. The group, due to launch formally in September, has made very little noise up to now, but today it announced the appointment of a president and CEO -- Washington insider Michael Beckerman -- to lead it in a more public effort. The news comes in the same week that it was revealed that Google's budget for lobbying went up by 90 percent in the last quarter to nearly $4 million (on par with large telcos like Verizon), while Facebook's went up by 200 percent to $960,000, according to Reuters.
 
SnapKnot Relaunches With A Pinterest-Style Layout To Connect Brides With Photographers Top
snapknot-logo-big-300x60The wedding space is blowing up here in tech, and for one very obvious reason. Almost everything about planning a wedding is pretty ancient. People build out complicated spreadsheets for their guest list, they are forced to search high and low for ways to spread around photos and invite-type information, and searching for vendors is about as accurate as doing a Google search for wedding photographers. But the technology is catching up to the process, especially on that last point about photographers, as SnapKnot. has undergone a major update to make sure brides have the very best images of their big day to look back on. SnapKnot has always made it easy for brides to search for photographers by location and budget. But what about the pictures themselves?
 
Google SEC Filing Details Why It Paid $12.4 Billion For Motorola Top
motorola_mobilityIn an SEC filing, Google spelled out why it paid $12.4 billion for hardware maker Motorola Mobility, in a deal that closed in May. $5.5 billion of the total price was for intellectual property, specifically "patents and developed technology." Another $2.9 billion was attributed to cash acquired, $2.6 billion was for "goodwill," $730 million for customer relationships and $670 million was for "other net assets acquired." And in case you're wondering, Google says that goodwill is "primarily attributed to the synergies expected to arise after the acquisition." Yep, they said synergies.
 
Andreessen Horowitz Keeps Eating The Software World With $11.2 Million Investment In JavaScript Framework Company Meteor Top
MeteorMeteor, the company behind an application development framework of the same name, today announced $11.2 series A funding from Andreessen Horowitz, with Matrix Partners also contributing. The investment follows Andreeseen Horowitz' record breaking $100 million investment in Github. The Meteor framework is free and open source and can be used for creating rich, Google Docs style applications in the browser. The developer preview launched last April. The company plans to monetize the product by selling enterprise support and services.
 
Google Gets Scientific, Adds A Voice-Enabled 34-Button Calculator To Desktop And Mobile Search Top
awesomeOh Google. Sometimes you're so awesome. Google search has long featured a built-in calculator function but a recent update added a fully functional 34-button scientific calculator. Previously, when a user entered, say, 2+2, Google would simply display the sum above the search result. Now, when that equation is entered into the search bar, the answer pops up along with the new calculator. Best of all, this works in mobile browsers and voice search, too.
 
Social TV Analytics Startup Bluefin Labs Hires Former Razorfish Chief JP Maheu As Its New CEO Top
bluefin labs logoOver the past year and a half, social TV analytics company Bluefin Labs has gone from being a stealth startup to becoming an invaluable provider of research for TV networks, brands, and agencies who want to delve into the social conversations that are happening around TV shows. Now, as it prepares to take its next steps forward, the company has hired veteran agency executive JP Maheu as its new CEO. Bluefin Labs provides detailed analytics around social messages that TV viewers send while watching television. It scours Twitter and other social networks in realtime to determine audience sentiment and affinity data around various TV shows. It can tell networks which shows viewers are most engaged with, what shows share affinity graphs, and the like. It can also provide pretty granular data around brand advertising, showing brands and agencies how viewers are responding to their adverts during different shows.
 
Payvia Debuts New Carrier Billing Platform, Offers Support For T-Mobile & Sprint Top
payvia-logoToday, a company called payvia is launching a new mobile payments platform for carrier billing. But unlike several in this space, payvia is not a new player in the mobile industry. The company was spun out from m-Qube, which started a transaction and carrier billing network in North America in 2004. Originally focused on supporting carrier billing for entertainment services (think ringtones, wallpaper, etc.), the goal with payvia is to help the company transition into digital goods and services.
 
Samsung Officially Brings Motion-Controlled Angry Birds To Select Smart TVs Top
Samsung-AngryBirdsIt was only a few weeks ago that we first heard about Angry Birds coming to Samsung's Smart TVs, and it would appear that one of the most popular games in the world has now become available on select models. You see, Angry Birds has been revamped to work with Samsung's Smart Interaction feature, meaning that the user will sling birds without a remote control or touch interface, as the game is entirely gesture-controlled. The Angry Birds game will work on Samsung's 2012 LED 7500 Smart TV and up, along with the Plasma 8000 models.
 
OS X Mountain Lion: Quick, Familiar, Cheap, And Drenched In iOS Goodness Top
Screen Shot 2012-07-25 at 1.11.07 AMTrying to write a review of OS X Mountain Lion is tricky. First of all, I had already written a review back in February, when Apple legitimately surprised the world with the revelation that the ninth iteration of OS X was just about ready to go. Granted, back then I only had a few days to play with an early build. But it was already pretty solid at that point. Now, months later, I've had a lot of time to play with Mountain Lion, and I'm happy to report that it's even more solid. But ending my review there wouldn't do Mountain Lion the justice it deserves. It's definitely the most polished and robust version of OS X yet. If you liked Lion, you'll love Mountain Lion. If you didn't like Lion, you'll probably love Mountain Lion even more because it seems to fix a lot of the performance/quirkiness issues that some folks were having with the last version of OS X. I didn't have any of those issues with Lion, so as someone who had started using an iOS device far more than a Mac, I liked Lion right from the start because it borrowed a lot of little ideas from iOS. And Mountain Lion expands upon that practice. So, unsurprisingly, I like it even more.
 
No Wi-Fi, Please, We're British: Olympics Will Ban Personal Hotspots Top
Screen Shot 2012-07-25 at 8.09.19 AMAs if the rules at the 2012 London Olympics didn't sound draconian enough, the organization has banned personal Wi-Fi hotspots from the games, thereby ensuring that people will just tether their phones in secret and surf the web like the champions they are. This follows hot on the heels of prohibitions from sharing Olympic news via social media. Can we all just agree that this isn't about sportsmanship anymore and is rather about the host city not getting stuck with a janky Olympic village in the middle of town and instead making loads and loads of money?
 
Online Fitness Provider Wello Uses Two-Way Video Chat To Bring Personal Trainers To You Top
Wello-LogoWello has launched a marketplace that connects personal trainers with potential clients, using two-way video chat to enable anyone to get training sessions at their convenience. All users need is a laptop, web connection, and webcam, and they can begin scheduling and taking personal fitness classes. The startup has a wide range of exercise disciplines to choose from, including yoga, Pilates, martial arts, and strength training. Once users determine what type of exercise they want to take part in, Wello can connect them with trainers who fit their personal schedule and exercise style, whether they prefer a more laid-back approach or need a drill sergeant-type personal motivator. Users can also choose between 25-, 40-, and 55-minute sessions, depending on how much time they have. Once booked, users will receive a link to log in to their one-on-one training session.
 
AOL Q2: Revenues Down To $531M, Lowest Decline In 7 Years; Traffic, Ad Revenues Up Top
aollogoAOL (owner of TechCrunch) continues to stem its declines, although it is still declining. In Q2 results reported just now, the company noted revenues of $531 million. That's a two percent decline on the same period last year, but it is still the lowest decline it's had in seven years. Diluted earnings per share were $10.17, while net income was $970.8 million, compared to a net loss of $11.8 million in the same quarter last year. Traffic is also up by four percent on last year to 112 million unique visitors, with the Huffington Post continuing to drive those numbers.
 
GoodData Raises $25 Million To Extend Cloud Based Business Intelligence Platform Top
alternate typefacesGoodData has raised $25 million to continue developing its cloud-based business intelligence technology. The funding brings GoodData's total to $55 million. Founder and CEO Roman Stanek said the investment came from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, Fidelity Growth Partners and Windcrest Partners also contributing to the round.
 
NBC Links Up With Storify For Real-Time Curated Olympics Coverage Across Today.com And Owned Station Sites Top
london2012-nbclogoOn the heels of a deal with Facebook to promote Olympic conversations on NBC's Facebook page, the broadcast network today is taking one more step to improve its social standing during the big sports event. It is linking up with Storify, the social-media "story creator", to put streams of real-time Olympic content, curated by NBC journalists, across Today.com as well as NBC's 10 owned TV station websites. An NBC spokesperson tells me that this is one of the "bigger things" that NBC has attempted to do using social media. NBC journalists -- 40 in all that will be in London and elsewhere -- will be mining content from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social media sites, and putting into the Storify platform to create running narratives. It will be the first time that journalists affiliated with the local sites will work in collaboration with the NBC News team on an effort like this.
 
Social Media Revenues To Reach $16.9B In 2012; Ads Remain Leading Driver At $8.8B, Predicts Gartner Top
facebook-money-360For those of you who get frustrated with the idea that in many social networks, you are not just a user but also a product, prepare to grit your teeth a bit more: a new forecast out from Gartner notes that advertising will remain the main way that social media services make money. The analysts predict that this year social media revenue will generate $16.9 billion in revenues, with more than half of that, $8.8 billion, to come from advertising. The estimates are coming out on the same day that social gaming giant Zynga is reporting earnings, and days before Facebook posts its results. That $16.9 billion figure represents a rise of 43 percent over last year, when social media services like Facebook, Spotify, Twitter and more generated $11.8 billion in revenues. While sales will continue to grow at fast clip, however, Gartner notes that the user base of social media services, now numbering at over one billion users, will only grow at a "moderate pace."
 
Microchip Giant ARM Reports Q2 Earnings: Sales £136M, Net Profit £39.4M, EPS Of £3.58; 'Record Order Backlog' Top
arm products-phoneARM Holdings -- supplier of microchips for Apple's iPhone and iPad products, Samsung's Galaxy line and soon technology for Microsoft's Windows 8 devices -- continues to report strong results while riding the wireless device boom and expanding to newer areas. The company reported Q2 earnings (ended June 30) of £135.5 million ($213 million), beating analyst estimates of $206 million. Net profit was up by 48 percent, to £39.4 million compared to £26.6 million for the same quarter a year ago. Pointedly, the company is gearing up for continuing good fortune, at least for the next quarter: It says it has a "record order backlog" that will let it ride well into Q3, but cautioned that macroeconomic uncertainties may impact what happens in Q4.
 
NEA Has Closed On $2.6 Billion For Its 14th Fund, Perhaps The Biggest In VC History Top
Screen shot 2012-05-09 at 4.53.42 PMNew Enterprise Associates, the global venture capital firm with headquarters in Silicon Valley, confirmed today that it has raised $2.6 billion for NEA 14, its fourteenth venture capital fund. TechCrunch reported it was raising the fund back in May. NEA is known for raising large funds, but this one takes the cake as the largest in its history, and perhaps as the largest in venture capital history.
 
Foursquare Rolls Out Its First Big Money-Making Feature: 'Promoted Updates' Top
foursquare_logoFoursquare has revamped the experience of its app from the perspective of its users on both the consumer and merchant side. And on Wednesday, the company is pulling back the curtains on a long-awaited feature for all Foursquare watchers: Revenue generation. Foursquare is announcing today the pilot launch of "promoted updates," which will let companies issue messages about deals or available products to Foursquare users.
 

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