Tuesday, July 3, 2012

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Google's "Do A Barrel Roll" Easter Egg Now Spinning Jelly Bean Screens Top
do-a-barrel-rollIn case you missed it the first time around, go to Google and search for "Do a barrel roll." Clever, right? It's a fun play on the classic Star Fox saying. But now with the power of Google Now, Android users can perform a barrel roll on by simply speaking to their phone. Try getting Siri to do that.
 
Ghosts In The Machine – What Really Happened When The Lights Went Out At Amazon Web Services Top
aws.amazonAs we all know by now, Amazon Web Services (AWS) had an outage on Friday. It would not have been much of a big deal except that it was AWS. And the fact that the outage took down big consumer properties like Netflix and Instagram. AWS is usually quite silent about what it does but to its credit they have posted a lengthy explanation about what happened in North Carolina when the massive storms hit the East Coast and took out one of its data centers.
 
Google+ Integration Comes To Chrome Web Store, Now Powers Social Discovery Of Apps Top
Screen shot 2012-07-02 at 10.29.07 AMJust because Google I/O is over, that doesn't mean the Google+ announcements have stopped flowing. Yesterday, the company revamped its Google+ iOS app (it's now "Google+ Local" and includes Zagat integration), and today, it's integrating Google+ into its Chrome Web App Store. The integration presents itself in a section dedicated to social discovery of new apps, add-ons and games called "From Your Circles."
 
Read About It: Gartner Survey Finds Tablets Are Leading To A 'Less Paper' But Not 'Paperless' Publishing World Top
ibookstoreA report out earlier today from NPD highlighted how tablets are taking over from notebooks as the mobile PC of choice. By coincidence, a survey has been published by Gartner today that sheds some light on the "how" behind that shift: more people are using tablets for the functions that used to be the preserve of PCs, such as checking email, social networking and checking the weather. The survey also found that tablets are becoming a mainstay for people who read newspapers, magazines and books. More than 50 percent of respondents said they preferred to read on tablets instead of on paper. It's not clear if 'tablets' in this case includes devices like the Kindle as well, but what's clear so far is that a portable touchscreen is not replacing the physical versions of those completely, yet: it's about "less paper" rather than "paperless", Gartner says.
 
With Places, Payments Platform Dwolla Finally Lists Where It Works, Lets You Request Merchant Support Top
want-dwollaMobile payments platform Dwolla has the potential to disrupt how money moves in the new, digital economy. It's an idea of how a payments network should look, if one had been built today, as opposed to tacking on digital payments to the legacy system that is the current credit card network. But there has been one big problem for end users of Dwolla - no one had any clue where they could actually try the darned thing. That's going to change starting today with the launch of  Dwolla "Places."
 
Netflix Subscribers Watched 1 Billion Hours Of Video In June, Or More Than An Hour A Day On Average Top
netflix-reed-hastingsHere's more evidence that Netflix is slowly chipping away at traditional TV viewing. According to a public Facebook post by CEO Reed Hastings, Netflix subscribers watched a total of 1 billion hours of video for the first time in June. Do a little back of the envelope math, and that comes out to more than an hour of video per subscriber each day. The milestone comes as Netflix is trying to right the ship after a few missteps last year. After announcing plans to split apart and rebrand its DVD-by-mail service -- and then rescinding those plans -- the company lost subscribers in the last year's third quarter. Since then, it's been working to repair its brand image, and apparently succeeding.
 
BenchPrep Grabs $6M From NEA, Revolution For Cross-Platform, Interactive Courses Top
BenchPrepWhen it comes to learning, BenchPrep believes that the most effective educational content doesn't come in the form of books -- or even eBooks. Instead, it's interactive and cross platform. That's why the Chicago-based startup is on a mission to build an adaptive learning hub for interactive courses, where students can study content from any publisher, on the Web or on any mobile device. The startup has already released 100 courses, which are being consumed by 250K students, but the team has bigger ambitions -- they want to reach 500 courses and one million students within the year. To help it meet this scale, BenchPrep is today announcing that it has closed $6 million in venture funding, led by New Enterprise Associates with participation from Revolution Growth. This is BenchPrep's second round of funding, following the $2.2 million it raised from Lightbank last year (when it became one of the Groupon founders' first investments), bringing its total to $8.2 million.
 
TechCrunch Meetup Madrid — Come Along This Thursday Top
Madrid's city lights, Madrid car rentalTo my knowledge TechCrunch has never had an official meetup in Madrid, so it's time to rectify that. We're joining forces with the WebSummit people as part of their European Tech Crawl this Thursday night, 6-8pm. Details and the sign up page is here. It will be good to meet some tech startup people and fill the sadly gaping hole in my knowledge of Spain-based startups. So bring along your iPad demos etc and please come and say hi!
 
Seeking To Become The Eventbrite Of Japan, PeaTiX Raises $1 Million From 500 Startups And Others Top
peatixLike the U.S., Japan has a ticketing problem. Big incumbents keep independent event producers from managing ticket sales and growing their events. In the same way that Eventbrite helped to provide more efficient options for event organizers to get the word out and sell tickets in the U.S., PeaTiX is offering up a similar platform for managing event promotion online in Japan. And it's raised a bit of cash to do so. PeaTiX just closed $1 million in seed funding from a number of investors, including 500 Startups, DG Incubation, Itochu Technology Ventures, and SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg.
 
AppThwack Takes On Android Fragmentation With New Automated Testing Service Top
appthwack-logoAndroid development doesn't always have to look like this. Smaller developers without their own in-house QA departments often outsource their testing to services like  Testdroid, for example, which tests their Android apps on physical devices. But today, Testdroid and the like will have some new competition from a company called AppThwack, which plans to not only match Testdroid's capabilities, but will go even further in terms of the number of automation frameworks it supports.
 
MOG Went For A Song. HTC Says Beats Paid Only $14M For The Music Streaming Service Top
MOG_device_collageYesterday, Beats Electronics confirmed that it was buying the music streaming service MOG. Today, HTC, which invested $309 million in Beats last year, revealed to its shareholders just how much was paid: $14 million -- a song compared to the $4 billion valuation swirling around its competitor Spotify. The note, first spotted by the blog Unwired View, is embedded on HTC's investor relations site. It also confirms that the sale was only for certain assets belonging to MOG and have been made as a "strategic investment" through Beats subsidiary Daisy. As we reported yesterday, Beats has bought only the streaming portion of MOG's business; the advertising and online network will continue as its own standalone entity.
 
iFixit Tears Apart The Nexus 7, Deems It Less Repairable Than The Kindle Fire Top
nexus-7-ifixitThe guys at iFixit are at it again and just posted their Nexus 7 teardown guide. Overall, iFixit found that the device is rather serviceable and seemingly well designed. Unlike the iPad 2 and new iPad, the Nexus 7 employs clips to hold the whole assembly together. This results in an extra 1mm of thickness, but they allow owners to open the case with just a little prying. Once inside, the battery can be replaced with ease; it doesn't even require the removal of any screws. Asus used standard Philips #00 throughout the Nexus 7 which also lends to its serviceability. However, unlike the Kindle Fire, iFixit found that the LCD screen is affixed to the front display assembly. This means that the entire front panel will need to be replaced if something happens to either the bezel or screen.
 
Leaked RIM Roadmap Points To 2 BlackBerry 10 Phones In Q1 2013, New Tablet In Q3 Top
rim-roadmap-2013-tviOf all the disappointing details heard during RIM's most recent earnings call, the company's decision to push back the launch of its first BlackBerry 10 devices was among the most devastating to the company's loyal legion of fans. Bummer though it may be, we may now have a clearer view of RIM's hardware plans for the next year thanks to a newly-leaked roadmap obtained by BlackBerryOS. You know the drill folks -- have those grains of salt at the ready.
 
"Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview" Available For Rent In iTunes Top
lostinterviewSix months after its teaser trailer showed up online, Robert X. Cringely's "lost" interview with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has now available for rent in iTunes for $3.99. In 1995, Cringely interviewed Jobs, who was then running NeXT, and two years out from what would later be his triumphant return to Apple, for a PBS documentary called "Triumph of the Nerds". However, much of their discussion ended up on the cutting room floor - 70 minutes worth, in fact. In the un-aired portions, Jobs talked about his approach to product design, team building and product evolution, among other things. At the time, those insights may not have had the impact they do now, as the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad had yet to be invented.
 
Latest Rumor Pegs Retina iMac For An October Release Top
imacGrab your salt shakers, friends. The always vocal trade publication, DigiTimes, is reporting that Apple is preparing for an October release of a retina-equipped iMac following a spec bump this July. This conflicts with previous reports citing Apple executives saying redesigned iMacs would hit next year. It's entirely possible that Apple will stuff a Retina display within the current iMac, and then in turn, launch a redesigned model next year like previous reports suggest. As demonstrated by the MacBook Pro with Retina Display's price, the ultra high-resolution display is a costly component. Apple is likely holding out until LCD makers can increase their production yield, therefore dropping the price of the units. A Retina-equipped iMac is all but guaranteed; Apple just needs to make sure the model is priced right.
 
NPD: Tablets To Overtake Notebooks By 2016 As The Most Popular Mobile 'PC' Top
mobile PC shipments NPDTablets, and specifically the iPad from Apple, have been one of the big drivers for growth in mobile in the last couple of years, but figures out today from NPD indicate that their popularity is going to get even bigger: the market for tablets, its researchers predict, is set to boom from 121 million shipped tablets today to 416 million devices by 2017, when they will overtake notebooks to become the most popular mobile PC device, driven by a drop in costs and a rise in features. Overall mobile PC shipments will reach 809 million units by 2017, from 347 million today. But over that time, the rise of tablets will remain largely a story about developed/mature markets. Regions like North America and Western Europe, along with single countries like Japan, currently account for 66 percent of all tablet shipments (and most likely sales), and that proportion, NPD predicts, will remain in the 60 percent range for the next five years. That works out to 254 million units by 2017, versus 80 million today.
 
Online Video Ad Startup LiveRail Introduces Checkpoint To Let Publishers Block Unwanted Ads Top
14501v6-max-250x250LiveRail provides an ad serving platform used by a number of premium video publishers to insert ads into their content. The LiveRail for Publishers platform is designed to provide targeting and yield optimization capabilities, as well as campaign management and real-time analytics. That's all pretty standard fare for publishers, and so LiveRail is trying to sweeten the deal, with a new offering that will give them more control over inventory they sell through private exchanges or real-time bidding platforms. The product, called Checkpoint, will let publishers choose which ads are delivered -- or not -- and allow them to block unwanted ads before being served to viewers.
 
Melting Point For ICS? Its Share Of Android Penetration Is Growing While Others Falling Top
icecreamsandwichGoogle has released its latest Android developer stats, which show that Gingerbread, version 2.3, at 63.6 percent, remains the single most-popular Android version, based on how many devices have accesed the Google Play app store in the last two weeks. But some number crunching, courtesy of Ben Evans, shows that the newer Ice Cream Sandwich may be picking up some speed. Google says that in the last two weeks, ICS accounted for 10.7 percent of all Google play visits. But Evans' calculations indicate that in that time there were actually more ICS than Gingerbread devices added to the overall base -- for the first time. In fact, it looks like ICS devices are actually growing in their overall percentage of all active Android devices, while all other versions are seeing declines.
 
LoungeUp Scores Seed Round To Help Hotels Keep Guests App Happy Top
VillaMarie_iPadAnything that helps hotels improve their customer service levels is welcome in my book. Tools to help them upsell, not quite so much. To that end, LoungeUp, a startup that provides a platform to enable hotels to jump on the mobile app bandwagon, has announced that it's raised a seed round of "several hundred thousand euros" from Pôle Capital and several Angels, including Nicolas Baudy (previously VoyagesSNCF and Weekendesk), Francesco Maio (NowFashion, Attractive World), and Didier Herrmann (ex President of Unilog). LoungeUp's mobile app which runs on tablets, smartphones and laptops (via native and browser-based versions) is designed to help hotels keep their guests happy through a better interface for hotel services as well local partnerships -- and the ability to up sell in new ways.
 
One Week In, New York Times' Chinese Social Media Accounts Shut Down, Site Still Up Top
sina weibo ny timesSo much for that experiment in freedom of speech. Last week, the New York Times launched an online Chinese edition of its newspaper -- and with it a social media presence in the country. As of today, the NYT Chinese site is still working, but the social media presence is not: a visit to the New York Times' Sina Weibo page -- confirmed to us last week by the New York Times as officially theirs -- brings up a "user does not exist" page. Ditto qq, Sohu, and 163 -- other popular social networking platforms with New York Times' accounts (although we never confirmed their authenticity with the paper). The disappearance of the sites was first spotted by the Chinese internet monitors Great Fire, which notes that at least as of June 29, NYT's Chinese site is not being blocked in the country, either.
 

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