Friday, August 31, 2012

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TheFunded, Founder Institute And Wilson Sonsini Debut Startup-Friendly Seed-Financing Vehicle, Convertible Equity Top
debtThere has been no shortage of controversy and criticism around the convertible note, a popular investing vehicle that's used by seed stage and angel investors. As a refresher, a convertible note is a loan that automatically converts into equity upon the closing of a Series A round of financing. Sometimes these loans have a valuation cap and/or a discount. Although these types of notes are relatively easy and cheap to form, many have argued that these types of vehicles are not startup-friendly for a variety of reasons, which we'll explain below. Today, TheFunded.com and the Founder Institute is announcing in conjunction with law firm Wilson Sonsini, Convertible Equity, a startup-friendly seed-financing vehicle intended to replace Convertible Debt notes. TTheFunded.com and the Founder Institute founder Adeo Ressi tells us that the Convertible Equity vehicle provides a fast, cheap and flexible way for angel investors to invest money in a startup, that converts to equity at the time of a future round. The point, he says, is to avoid time-consuming valuation negotiations and allowing a variable amount of capital to be raised.
 
Angry Birds And Minesweeper: Microsoft Announces The First Wave Of Xbox Live Games For Windows 8 Top
Mahjong-Splash-Screen-no-logos-smallEarlier this year, Microsoft announced that it was bringing parts of the Xbox Live experience to Windows 8 and today, the company announced the first wave of Xbox games for its new desktop operating system. There aren't too many surprises here and the focus is clearly on casual games. Among the 40 titles in this first wave are hits like Angry Birds, Angry Birds Space, Fruit Ninja, Reckless Racing and old Microsoft standbys like Mahjong, Solitaire and Minesweeper.
 
Facebook Improving Site Integrity Systems To Combat False Likes Top
screen-shot-2012-05-14-at-3-58-27-amFacebook updated its site integrity system today in an effort to crack down on fake likes, a move that the company says will benefit legitimate users and page owners. The company says the improved automated efforts will detect and remove Likes obtained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users or purchased mass Likes. While Facebook says it has always protected against these threats, the new system will specifically be tailored to identify and erase suspect Likes.
 
KiteDesk Goes Where Greplin Failed: Aggregates Cloud Services For Search, Discovery & Interoperability Top
KiteDesk-Logo006aKiteDesk, which got its start as an Outlook-like add-on for enterprise users of Google Apps, received a major, more consumer-friendly redesign ahead of this week's official launch. Now, the company is more focused on the broader vision of integrating multiple cloud services under one umbrella, and making the data they contain actionable. The platform lets you connect email messages, contacts, calendar events as well as documents from Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Apps into your KiteDesk account, so you can search across all these services at once, drag-and-drop files from one folder to the next, as well as organize content into personalized "streams" of content sourced from multiple services.
 
The Loudest Voice At A Political Convention Is A Tech Company Top
photoHow times have changed: the loudest voice at the Republican National Convention wasn't an oil conglomerate or SuperPAC; it was a tech company, Google. A free coffee shop, blazing-fast Wifi and a broadcast studio was enough to make Google's swanky convention digs the hip hangout spot at the conservative quadrennial mecca. But, beyond the cutesy "MTV cribs"-style stories that have been written about the stylish hub, Google's strategic play may be most significant for its psychological impact on the attendees. "It's great," says Congressman Michael Grimm "It's obviously fun and energizing, it's showing you the latest technology. But, what I like about it, is it's bringing technology to the forefront of politics."
 
500 Startups-Backed Monogram Raises $840k To Be Your Personal Shopper On The iPad Top
monogram buttonWhen we saw Monogram show off its iPad app at 500 Startups demo day, it was instantly one of our favorites of the bunch. Well, we're not the only fans of the app, as the startup has raised $840,000 in seed funding led by Quest Venture Partners. Monogram has created an app that is like your own personal shopper on the iPad, taking the pain out of searching for your favorite brands or discovering new clothing lines that you might not have heard of. It seeks to eliminate the fragmentation in the e-commerce market, by aggregating the best clothing lines and deals from across multiple fashion-centric e-commerce sites and delivering them to you in one slick user interface. That way, users will no longer have to search multiple sites to find the clothes they're looking for.
 
The Makers Of Smartphone-Shot Feature Film Olive Hope To Rethink Movie Distribution Top
olive behind the scenesNine months ago, we wrote about Olive, whose makers hoped to make it the first feature-length film shot on a smartphone (specifically a Nokia N8 fitted with a special 35MM lens) that made it into movie theaters. Now, co-director Hooman Khalili says he has a different goal — he and his co-director Pat Gilles have rethought movie production, so they're hoping to "democratize distribution" too. The movie probably has the connections to make that happen — after all, one of the movie's executive producers, Chris Kelly, is also involved in the "indie Netflix" site Fandor and movie distribution startup GoDigital. (Kelly was formerly Facebook's chief privacy officer, and he isn't Olive's only link to Facebook — Randi Zuckerberg also has a small part.) Khalili suggests that an independently-produced movie with a a sincere message just isn't a good fit for Hollywood executives — but it does play well with the elderly, soccer moms, children, and people of faith.
 
Amazon Talks Up Android Appstore Growth Ahead Of New Kindle Fire Announcement Top
amazon-appsAnd Amazon's pre-announcement PR onslaught continues. While the recent Kindle Fire leak may have ruined Amazon's big surprise, the online retail giant is still working to position itself as a hotspot for Android developers, and has just released some new stats about the growth of its Android Appstore to back up its claims.
 
Chomp-Inspired iOS 6 App Store Redesign Could Impact Long Tail Of App Developers Top
ipad-app-storeIt appears that at least some of the innovations found in early 2012 Apple acquisition Chomp, a mobile app search and discovery platform, have made their way into the new iOS 6 App Store application. Screenshots from the beta version of Apple's mobile operating system were posted by 9to5Mac.com and are now making their way around the web. The most notable Chomp-inspired characteristic in the new App Store design? Swipeable cards for browsing through apps instead of lists featuring small icons and text.
 
Uber Now Allows Users To Order Motorcycle Taxis In Paris Top
UberUber has been steadily expanding its on-demand car service from black cars to SUVs, taxis, Hybrids, private drivers and more. Today, the company is announcing the addition of motorcycle taxis (aka moto taxis) in Paris. Starting Monday, Uber users in Paris will be able to order motorcycle taxis via the app. Similar to the way you can see taxis and black cars on the Uber app in Chicago, you'll be able to see both the motorcycle and car icons on the map to determine the drivers closest to you.
 
This Is The Best Look At The New iPhone Yet Top
Img352051370Ah, the next-gen iPhone. What more can we say? Almost sadly, we already know the screen will be bigger, the connecting port is smaller, and the design will be drastically different, with a two-tone metal casing. And yet, we still haven't seen one of these bad boys fully assembled. We've seen parts — boy have we seen parts! But with two weeks left until the official announcement, this is the first assembled handset we've seen, and it's smiling for pics alongside the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, no less!
 
The Weather Channel iPad App Tops 10 Million Downloads Top
mzl.lhpmxhpi.480x480-75We've followed The Weather Channel through its transition into the digital era. It started with a beautiful iPad app, and then the company revamped its iPhone app and website to match the new look and feel. And boy were there features! Social elements, notifications when it will rain, and personalized weather were all in the forecast. And today, the iPad app that started it all has surpassed 10 million downloads.
 
Hello Beautiful! Nokia's Windows Phone 8 820/920 PureView Smartphones Leak Top
920Another day, another leak -- this time, a set of new images that purportedly depict Nokia's next set of Lumia smartphones have begun to make the rounds. Coming from a random Twitter source (planned corporate or PR leaker?), these images are reportedly of the 4.3-inch Nokia 820 and the 920 PureView, the latter of which apparently packs Nokia's super imaging system. These phones were supposed to be revealed for the first time at a September 6th event. Whoops. Nokia knows how to make a good-looking phone. Starting with the N8 in 2010, Nokia has since outed several innovative and fresh smartphones. The latest seem more of the same. That's a good thing. Just like their predecessors, these are fantastic looking phones. Well done, Nokia.
 
Smart TVs Fail To Score With Consumers In U.S. And Other Western Markets: GfK Top
yellow_old_tvHere's one reason why Apple may not be producing a television with its name blazoned on it in the near term: it doesn't look like people have, so far, shown that much interested in them yet. According to a new report out from consumer researchers GfK, connected TV televisions are faring much better in markets like China, Brazil and India compared to the U.S., UK and other developed markets -- with China commanding the highest usage at 44% and the UK and U.S. leading more advanced markets with just 11% penetration. GfK puts it down to consumers in the latter category stuck in an "analog" mindset -- although consumers in the latter markets are also big users of other ways of getting the same experience without forking out for a pricey connected TV set.
 
Nokia + Microsoft Kick Off $23M AppCampus Incubator: Over $1M Going To 36 Startups Top
appcampusNext week Nokia and Microsoft are expected to unveil the first handset(s) running on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform, and today comes news about the apps they hope will lure in more users to buy them. AppCampus, an $23 million (€18 million) JV between Microsoft, Nokia and Aalto University in Finland, first announced in May, to foster more app development on the platform, said it has doled out the first $1 million-plus of their budget on 36 developers out of a total of 900 submissions, an average of $30,000 per app, although individual investments over the course of the JV will be between $25,000 and $88,000. Pekka Sivonen, Head of AppCampus, tells me the apps are expected to be coming out starting in October, and will run exclusively on Windows Phone and "other Nokia platforms" for their first six months -- potentially touching some 500 million devices out in the market today.
 
With $275M In Capital Deployed To Main Street Businesses, On Deck Raises $100M Of Its Own Top
56343v5-max-250x250We make a lot of noise about the venture capital and angel funding startups raise to help grow their businesses. But there are a lot of mom-and-pop shops out there -- businesses that are equally important to the success of the economy, whether they be restaurants or small brick-and-mortar retailers -- that don't qualify for funding from top firms. Instead, the country's small businesses have to turn to bank loans, which historically are tricky to secure. These SMBs don't have finance departments or the experience to nail the lengthy, 14-item loan packages that would make them attractive to lenders. On Deck Capital launched in 2006 to give those small businesses a capital lifeline. Using a blend of data aggregation and ePayment technology, the company aims to simplify the borrowing process for Main Street businesses.
 
Watsi Is Using Crowdfunding To Treat The 1B+ Worldwide Without Access To Medical Care Top
how-it-works-steps-d4d390091859bb475a60d4768832a789Entrepreneurs are inherently risk-takers. But, the tech industry today needs more of the type of risk-takers who go against the grain by actually tackling big, difficult problems. I mean the type of trenchant problems no one likes to talk about -- the ones that are solved over years (if at all) and can affect real change. Not better social shopping. How about this for a hard problem? Today, we live in a world where more than one billion people are unable to afford (or do not have access to) adequate medical services. The type of care most of us now take for granted. Viewed in juxtaposition with the intelligent device/computer you're reading this from, this fact is more than unsettling. So, Watsi, is trying to do something about it -- by tackling that outsized problem on a smaller and more approachable scale: The individual.
 
How Twitter Uses Open Source Top
The Linux FoundationTwitter's Chris Aniszcyk gave the keynote this morning at CloudOpen and talked about how Twitter uses open source. His talk provided insights into how open source technology can also be used in an enterprise environment for scaling infrastructure. That's an emerging topic of interest in the enterprise world.
 
Facebook To Roll Out Email- and Phone Number-Based Ad Targeting Next Week Top
Facebook-ads-megaphoneFacebook will be launching new features next week that allow advertisers to target their ads to customers based on contact information that the advertiser has already collected. It's a way for businesses to connect their Facebook ads with the customer lists they may have built up elsewhere. Inside Facebook first reported on the feature after tipsters saw it go live temporarily. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed this afternoon that it's a real product, and she walked me through how the program will work.
 
ShoutEm Launches Development Platform To Make HTML5 Mobile Apps Look Native Top
ShoutEmWhen ShoutEm was first launched back in 2008, it was focused on helping users to build their own social networking platforms. Well, the world has changed, and since then, it's transitioned the business as a platform that can be used to build mobile applications. But not everyone needs (or wants) a native app -- so ShoutEm now has a way to easily create HTML5 apps that can be viewed in any mobile web browser. With the ShoutEm HTML5 development platform, developers can quickly and easily make mobile web apps that have a lot of the same functionality as native mobile apps. Many businesses are developing native apps already, but for those who don't have an iPhone or Android phone, using HTML5 will allow them to reach a large number of users on feature phones or other smartphone platforms.
 

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