Wednesday, August 29, 2012

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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.
 
Pac-12 Networks Brings Live College Sports Online And On The iPad, With An Assist From Ooyala Top
pac12_devices_02Pac-12 is going digital in a big way, with the launch of a website and an iPad app that will let college sports fans follow all their favorite teams wherever they are. The whole thing was made possible because 18 months ago, the Pac-12 conference decided to consolidate all of its media rights, and launch its own sports networks for fans of its teams. It then built a studio in San Francisco for the TV networks and hired a digital team to create an online and mobile presence. Now, all of that work is paying off, especially on the digital side of things. The digital team was formed in February, and has just 12 team members. Yet, in just six months it launched the Pac-12 video site has live feeds from its various networks, as well as a ton of on-demand video, including recaps of key matchups, exclusive interviews, and behind-the-scenes stories about student athletes, faculty, and their universities.
 
Facebook-Instagram Deal Approved By CA Department Of Corporations Top
FacebookEven though Federal Trade Commission approved Facebook's acquisition of Instagram last week, the social network was still waiting for a California Department of Corporations "fairness" ruling for the issuance of 23,000 shares to close the deal. It looks like Facebook got the approval, and will be able to close the acquisition of the photo-sharing startup. Mark Leyes, Director of Communications at California Department of Corporations tell us, "The hearing officer concluded the transaction is fair, just and equitable to shareholders of Instagram."
 
Google Launches New Ad Formats To Help Developers Monetize Google Maps Top
Google Maps ad unit largeAs Google Maps continues to face headwind from competitors like OpenStreetMap, Google has to find new ways to entice developers to continue to use its mapping solution. Today, the company is launching new ad units for Google Maps that bring Google's standard AdSense link units to its maps on third-party sites. These new ad formats join Google's long-established Maps Ad Unit, which the company introduced back in 2009.
 
Simple Heads Into Mint.com Territory With Debut Of Spending Reports Top
simple-logoThe startup known as Simple (formerly BankSimple) has been busy rolling out new features since its public debut earlier this summer. Last week, the company unveiled "savings goals," to help users more easily set money aside. Today, Simple again moves further into territory that has previously been the domain of third-party financial services platforms, like the Intuit-owned Mint.com, for example, with the launch of a detailed, and also very visual, reporting feature.
 
Samsung Announces The Galaxy Camera: 4.8″ Display, 16MP CMOS Sensor, 21x Zoom, And Jelly Bean Top
S_003_Right-Angle_white_resizedAt the IFA conference in Berlin, Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Camera, a 4.8-inch Android-powered camera with WiFi, 3G (or 4G) connectivity, and a quad-core SoC. See, digital cameras have lost their swagger. With the combination of pretty decent micro lenses and smartphones, the digital imaging sector has been left to the serious hobbyists and professionals. But Samsung, following a precedent set by the Nikon CoolPix S800c, is looking boost the point-and-shoot business with a dash of Android.
 
Samsung Brings Its S-Pen To Its Series 5 and 7 Slate PCs With Detachable Keyboards Top
Samsung Series 5 and 7The half-tablet, half-notebook space is filling up quickly. Samsung unveiled its products and has a different take on that market thanks to the S-Pen stylus that was originally created for the Galaxy Note series. It introduced the updated version of its Series 5 and Series 7 slate PCs during its IFA 2012 press conference in Berlin today. The most important new feature is the addition of the S-Pen that will allow you to take handwritten notes or draw sketches. In the Galaxy Note 10.1 review, the S-Pen felt like a great combination with a 10.1 screen. S-Pen apps were a joy to use. Yet, Windows 8 S-Pen apps remain to be seen.
 

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