Thursday, August 30, 2012

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Western Digital My Book VelociRaptor Duo Review: An Expensive Drive That Makes Good Use Of Thunderbolt Top
Featured imageShort version: Western Digital has finally released a Thunderbolt external hard drive to justify the existence of the Thunderbolt port on your laptop. The My Book VelociRaptor Duo is a desktop external hard drive, which uses two 3.5-inch 1 TB VelociRaptor. Those drives are high-end 10,000 RPM and are a good compromise between speed and storage for a desktop computer. Yet, using them in an external enclosure comes with a major drawback, a hefty price of $899.
 
Payleven, The Rocket-Fueled Square-Clone, Opens In UK, Netherlands, Brazil; Confirms Double-Digit Round Top
screen-shot-2012-06-22-at-10-57-41Rocket Internet, the incubator/investment vehicle from the Samwer brothers, is known to move fast: Today, news comes that Payeleven, its recently outed Square-clone, has opened its doors in the UK, Netherlands, Poland and Brazil, in addition to its existing operation in native Germany. That looks like the beginnings of a pretty ambitious international expansion plan and will certainly keep European rivals iZettle and SumUp on its toes, along with the UK's mPowa, given the Samwers' reputation for aggressive execution. Meanwhile, Jack Dorsey's Square is yet to launch this side of the pond. As noted last month, Payleven reportedly raised "tens of millions" of euros in funding from New Enterprise Associates, Holtzbrinck Ventures and the Russian VC ru-net. Today, the company finally confirms that is indeed the case, describing the size of the round only as in the "double digit million euro" region.
 
Music Streaming Service Spotify Inks Deal With Germany's Deutsche Telekom In Telco's Wider Media Push Top
spotify germanyAdd one more distribution partner to Spotify's list as it seeks more scale for its music streaming service to make it more profitable: Deutsche Telekom, owners of T-Mobile, says that beginning in October, it will be making 18 million tracks from Spotify available to its 35.4 million customers in Germany, with the data usage associated with the streaming not counting against subscribers' data limits. The agreement is part of a larger push at the German operator to expand its media operations around the IFA consumer technology show in Berlin this week. The Spotify deal sounds similar to one that the music company has with Virgin Media in the UK, in which the cable operator bundles Spotify with its premium subscriptions and makes it available over its connected TV service, as a way of driving more subscribers to its pay-TV service.
 
Amazon vs B&N Heats Up In Europe: Android Appstore Goes Live In UK, Germany, France, Italy & Spain; B&N Adds More Nook Retailers Top
images-screenshots-captures-amazon-appstore-logo-21032011_00B4000000001978In what might be the closest sign yet we've seen to Amazon preparing to launch the Kindle Fire tablet outside of the U.S., Amazon is finally launching its Android apps Appstore in Europe. The first markets to come online will be the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the company noted today in an announcement. The news comes in the same week that its U.S. rival Barnes & Noble announced its first retail partner for its own push outside of the U.S. -- it will be partnering with John Lewis in the UK. Amazon itself has signed a deal with the UK bookseller Waterstones to distribute its Kindle products both in stores and online.
 
Is Facebook Testing Out New Newsfeed And Skyscraper Display Ad Units In New Zealand? No, Adware Strikes Again Top
FB NZ ads 2New Zealand was the first country to get Facebook's new-look Timeline last December. Now the country looks like it may be putting in another special appearance, as Facebook's push for more advertising (and revenue) leads the social network into new pastures on the display front. A reader in New Zealand has sent us some screenshots (embedded below) that appear to show ads in two new areas on his page: a skyscraper on the left side (not the right) and an enlarged, display ad directly in his Newsfeed. Update: a Facebooker says this is adware, not a legit Facebook test. Full details below.
 
Shuffler.fm Brings Its "Flipboard For Music" Service To iPhone, Offers Sneak Peek At Spotify App Top
Screen shot 2012-08-29 at 8.28.38 PMAs the Web is stuffed with more and more content, we're increasingly in need of good curators to help us discover the things we'll love amidst the noise. Flipboard, for one, rose to popularity by transforming your favorite digital news sources into a socially-curated mobile magazine. Shuffler.fm is on a mission to do the same for music discovery, combining Flipboard's successful formula with a little Pandora and a little ex.fm. The result is what the Amsterdam-based startup is calling a "radiozine" -- a music discovery guide that turns the industry's popular blogs and websites into mobile radio stations. Launching its iPad app in November, Shuffler.fm aggregates content from a long list of mainstream and niche music sites, allowing users to peruse, discover and listen to tunes based on genre, style and what's trending. And now Shuffler is spreading to the rest of iOS, bringing its radiozine-style music discovery service to the iPhone and iPod Touch, along with giving us a sneak peek at the debut of its Spotify app.
 
Cloud Security Provider Zscaler Scales Up, Takes Its First Outside Investment: $38M From Lightspeed Top
zscaler_logoZscaler, a provider of cloud security services to small businesses, corporates and service providers, has raised a hefty $38 million from a single investor, Lightspeed Venture Partners. This is the first outside investment ever taken by Zscaler, which was founded in 2007, and had in the past been funded internally. The company is currently cash-flow positive, but it's getting the new injection of funds from Lightspeed to scale up its business: the investment, Zscaler says, will be used for product development -- particularly in the area of mobility -- and to expand Zscaler's sales and marketing efforts.
 
Revealed: Mint.com Could Soon Fire Back At Simple With A Debit Card Of Its Own Top
mintEarlier today, online banking startup Simple unveiled new reporting features that will allow users to see how much -- and where -- they're spending money in their bank accounts. Those features seemed aimed squarely at Intuit-owned Mint.com, which has been one of the leading online budgeting and data visualization tools. One advantage that Simple has over Mint and other online budgeting tools is that is linked directly to a user's bank account, meaning all of the data and reporting that it generates is directly actionable. And it can do that because users have their own Simple-branded debit cards and checking accounts. Well, it might not have that advantage for very long, as it appears that Mint will soon introduce its own debit card, called the Mint Control Card.
 
After 28.5M iOS Downloads, ESPN Launches A Faster, All-New ScoreCenter For iPad Top
ESPN ScoreCenter logoGoogle's report today shows just how integral the multiscreen experience has become in the consumption of digital content. For content of the athletic variety, it seems even more substantial. I struggle to watch baseball games without obsessively checking stats, figures on my tablet or tweeting from my phone. Many of us try to support startups or smaller app developers when it comes to multiscreen experiences, but ESPN is making a serious play for your mobile attention. Since launching in 2010, ESPN's ScoreCenter -- which delivers live scores, news and standings just about every sports league to your mobile devices -- has been downloaded 28.5 million times on iOS devices. While popular, the user experience has been far from perfect. So, it started from scratch and is today launching a complete overhaul of ScoreCenter for the iPad, meant to improve the app's speed, utility and personalization as the first of its apps to fully utilize its new API program.
 
Ticketing Startup SeatGeek Raises $1.65M To Embrace Mobile And More Top
seatgeek logoSeatGeek, the ticketing startup that launched at TechCrunch50 three years ago, has raised $1.65 million in new funding. The round was disclosed in an SEC filing, and co-founder Jack Groetzinger just confirmed it. The company offers a ticket search engine that helps users find the best deals across multiple sites. It's probably best-known as a site for sporting tickets, but it has also been growing its efforts around live music. Groetzinger says the company is working to become more comprehensive — not just selling tickets, but also providing related services around live events, like a personalized calendar.
 
LinuxCon 2012: OpenStack and Open Clouds Top
openstackAt LinuxCon and CloudOpen this week, attendees are being bombarded with cloud, cloud, cloud. Most of the cloud goings-on revolve around OpenStack, the open source infrastructure-as-a-service project started by Rackspace and NASA. Today SUSE announced their SUSE Cloud product, which is a commercially supported version of OpenStack integreated with SUSE Linux. Red Hat has an unsupported preview release of their OpenStack offering, and Canonical recently announced OpenStack support in the 12.04.1 point release of Ubuntu. OpenStack isn't the only game in town. Citrix has CloudStack, and Eucalyptus Systems has their eponymous product as well. But OpenStack is clearly becoming the de facto choice for folks looking for cloud computing.
 
AroundMe Local Search App Launches On Windows Phone Top
primaryImageLocal search app AroundMe recently surpassed the 6 million user mark, and is looking to expand its availability even more. The company has just announced a Windows Phone version of the app, which is available now in the Windows Phone Marketplace. AroundMe's iPhone app has been out since 2008, and just recently the company revamped the Android app with a new look and feel. As per usual with Microsoft's mobile platform, AroundMe looks substantially different on a Windows Phone-powered device.
 
Lift Brings A Simple Habit-Tracking And Self-Improvement Experience To Your iPhone Top
Screen shot 2012-08-29 at 2.02.56 PMThough our ideal self-images tend to project what we wish we were (in mine I look like David Beckham, talk like John Cleese), the reality is often at least slightly more painful. As a result, many of us are on a mission to pursue our better selves as we devise and harbor umpteen (often vague) person goals, like actually going to the dentist or finally finishing an Ironman. Now, thanks to the rise (and affordability) of smarter tools, apps and devices, it's easier than ever to track our progress, which has in turn given new life to the Quantified Self movement. But people are busy, and it can be a Herculean struggle to shed those 10 pounds or eat more of those damn brussel sprouts. There are a number of startups trying to help people stay motivated with different approaches to incentivization, be they monetary rewards for meeting health goals or peer pressure. Lift wants to do better. Through a new, simplicity-focused mobile experience launched today, the Obvious Corp-backed startup is on a mission to make it easy (and painless) for people to reach their personal goals -- by providing positive support and eliminating willpower as a factor in achieving those goals.
 
Braintree's Payments Platform Launches Across Europe And Canada Top
braintree-payment-solutionsAs promised earlier this summer, the Accel-backed payments platform Braintree is opening up its doors to non-U.S. merchants for the first time, with the launch of its service across Europe and in Canada. As of today, merchants in 27 countries can access the company's payment gateway, recurring billing, and vault credit card storage features. They will also be able to accept payments in over 130 different currencies, the company says.
 
Sequoia Capital's Jim Goetz Will Be With Us At Disrupt SF Top
disrupt-sf12-eventSequoia Capital partner Jim Goetz, who focuses on mobile, software and enterprise investments for the firm, has had a busy year. Jive and Palo Alto Networks, companies where Goetz serves on the board of directors, have both gone public successfully. Sequoia was also in mobile app du jour Instagram right before it sold to Facebook. And the firm has raised nearly $1 billion for new funds for its U.S., China and Israeli investments.
 
The State Of Linux — How Even Apple Is Going Open Source Top
linuxcloudBig business is calling - and they want to talk about Linux. Linux is evolving now that the cloud is here and much of it is built on open source. Big business gets that and they want to get on the train. Even Apple is adapting. Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation opened with the keynote in San Diego for the first CloudOpen, making the point that everything is becoming a service. Those services are moving to the forefront of the enterprise and they are built on open source.
 
Pandora's Q2 2013: $101.3M In Revenue, 54.9M Active Users, And A Net Loss Of $5.4M Top
Pandora RadioInternet music service Pandora just announced its financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2013. The company posted total revenue of $101.3 million, which was up 51 percent year-over-year. Yet, Pandora still reported a net loss per share of $0.03. As always, the most important expense for Pandora is content acquisition — in other words, music royalties. Non-GAAP earnings per share were breakeven excluding approximately $6 million in stock-based compensation.
 
President Barack Obama Joins Reddit, Does An AMA Top
reddit-obamaU.S. President Barack Obama is making an unscheduled appearance on Reddit today. Just a few minutes ago, Obama joined Reddit and is scheduled to host an AMA (Reddit slang for "ask me anything") session starting at 4:30pm ET. Reddit's moderators have confirmed that this is indeed legit and the questions from Reddit's users are already coming in at a rapid pace. Obama is scheduled to answer questions for about half an hour.
 
Google Brings Voice-Guided Turn-By-Turn Biking Navigation To Google Maps For Android Top
google-maps-new-logo-androidBiking directions on Google Maps are nothing new for users in the U.S. and Canada, but starting today, Google will also allow Android users to get voice-guided turn-by-turn directions during their bike trips. Riders, Google says, can now "mount their device on their handlebars, see upcoming turns and use speaker mode to hear voice-guided directions." The turn-by-turn directions can even help you avoid steep hills, Google notes.
 
Rewards Site Swagbucks Now Rewards Users For Shopping, Too Top
swagbucks logoSwagbucks, a site where users earn rewards for performing tasks like watching videos and taking surveys, is expanding with the launch of a new shopping page. Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Scott Dudelson tells me that there's clearly money to be made in affiliate shopping programs, but Swagbucks has held off, and instead built "a large reputable loyalty brand around other Internet activities." It has also built a profitable, bootstrapped business, with $23 million in revenue last year (not including the shopping launch, he says the company is on-track for $30 million in 2012) and more than 5 million registered users.
 

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