Thursday, September 27, 2012

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Wild Rumor: Google/Asus Prepping $99 Nexus 7 iPad Mini Killer For 2012 Release Top
saltgrainsAnd from left field comes a wild rumor. Digitimes is reporting today, citing unnamed sources, that Google and Asus are preparing the next generation of Nexus 7 tablets. There are two versions on tap: A $199 and $99 version. These tabs are reportedly scheduled for a late 2012 release as a counter to Apple's expected 7.85-inch iPad mini. Additional details are nonexistent. There is no word on specs. But judging by the recent release of the Kindle Fire HD and Nook Tablet HD, it's probably safe to assume the $199 version will feature a high-resolution display. And, likewise, the $99 version could have specs similar to that of the current Nexus 7. Google might be more willing to take a loss on hardware now that Google Play is taking off.
 
Gates Foundation Kicks Off $2.5M College Knowledge App Contest With EdTech Hackathon At Facebook Top
Education HackTo inspire developers to build apps that help kids get into, stay in, and graduate from college, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched an education tech Facebook app contest today with 30 prizes totaling $2.5 million. To kick off College Knowledge Challenge the submission period, it's co-hosting an edtech hackathon today at Facebook's headquarters at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park. Devs of all ages are tasked with creating apps that build pathways to college, build peer groups for in-coming college students, and assist with college admission and getting financial aid. So if you want kids to be smarter, build them something and earn some cash.
 
Social Marketing Platform Woobox Lets Businesses Send Apple Passbook Coupons Via SMS Top
passbook-coupon-exampleWoobox, a two-year old social marketing platform, recently added support for Apple's Passbook in its coupons app. The integration lets businesses create Passbook coupons using its system, and can even require customers to perform some sort of social action before gaining access to the coupon. For example, they may have to "like" the brand on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. But the company has also just added another feature which could really spur Passbook adoption at the small business level: support for Passbook coupons over SMS.
 
3D Printer Form 1 Gets 6X Its $100K Funding Goal On Kickstarter… In One Day Top
form1main3D printing is coming into its own. No longer relegated to the professional sector, anyone who has the cash can essentially join in the fun with a Makerbot or a RepRap. But FormLabs has found a way to bring the high-end performance of top-notch machines down to the price of a Makerbot. Yesterday, they launched the Form 1, an affordable, professional 3D printer, on Kickstarter with the goal of reaching $100,000 in funding in one month. Today, they've received about $660,000 and have over 400 backers. And the number keeps climbing.
 
Apple's Whole Hardware History In A 3-Minute Video Top
apple-gallery10_1470400bApple has made a lot of stuff, like a lot. One enterprising fan, August Brandels, has created a three-and-a-half minute video that provides a good overview of most of that stuff, cut from various Apple commercials and promotional spots, and tied to a pulse-pounding soundtrack that actually really leaves you feeling fired up. The video isn't chronological and it doesn't include everything, but for long-time Apple fans, it's a nice trip down memory lane that brings you right up to the present with the iPhone 5 and Retina MacBook Pro.
 
Skyfire Integrates Apps Into Your Mobile Browser With Its Horizon Toolbar Top
skyfire readabilityMobile startup Skyfire is launching a new platform called Horizon today, which is supposed to offer an integrated experience for consumers to access applications like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Yelp while browsing other websites on their phones. Skyfire is probably best known for its Flash-supporting mobile browser, but more recently, CEO Jeff Glueck says the company has been focused on creating products for carriers, like its Rocket Optimizer for video and traffic optimization. In this case, Glueck says the company is addressing "a big gap" in the mobile experience.
 
The Facebook Effect? Shutterstock Prices IPO Shares At $13-$15 To Raise $54.2M, Half The Original $115M Top
shutterstock_logoOnline stock photography company Shutterstock, which filed for an IPO in May, has today filed its S-1. It will be offering 4,500,000 shares, pricing them between $13-15, the document revealed today. But while initially the company had planned to raise up to $115 million -- as noted in documents filed days before Facebook went public -- today it appeared to be singing a different tune. With shares priced at $14, "We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering will be approximately $54.2 million." In other words, about half of the originally intended amount.
 
Meet Plasmyd, A Search Engine/Discussion Platform Just For Scientists Top
Plasmyd_Logo_Short"The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data, news, and documentation," Tim Berners Lee wrote in his Usenet post announcing the World Wide Web in 1991. "We are very interested in spreading the web to other areas, and having gateway servers for other data." Today the "other areas" part has been tremendously successful, but some scientists wish the web was better at its original goal of helping them share information with each other.
 
Airbnb Mobile Usage Soars As Its iOS App Passes 1 Million Downloads, Accounts For 26% Of All Traffic Top
airbnb-logoAirbnb is raising a whole lot of money at a big valuation, we reported yesterday, as the company continues to see hockey stick-like growth. But as quickly as its web usage is taking off, the company is seeing even faster growth among mobile users, specifically those using its mobile apps.
 
And Now For Apple's Next Trick: Inductive Charging, Syncing And Docking For iPhones Top
loudToday is apparently Apple patent application day, and there's another new one just published and unearthed by AppleInsider that describes a method for inductive charging. "But inductive charging already exists," I hear you all cry out in unison. That's true, but Apple's added a device orientation trick to the mix that could vastly alter the scope of what's possible via wireless, magnetic field-based connections.
 
Watch Google's Eric Schmidt Dance Gangnam Style Top
359682-schmidt-gagnamYep. This really happened on a recent Asian business trip to help launch the Nexus 7. Good for Schmidt. Homeboy knows how to have fun. Next up, Steve Ballmer doing the Macarena.
 
AOL's First Mobile Game 'Clucks' Uses Nuance Voice Recognition In A Video- And Turn-Based Mobile Word Game Top
Clucks_iPhone5_1Among consumers, AOL is probably best known for its media holdings (it owns sites like TechCrunch, Engadget and HuffingtonPost, as well as AOL.com) and its past life as an ISP, but it has long been trying to position itself as a mobile content player as well -- and today sees the latest development in that direction. It's launching Clucks -- a quirkily-named social mobile word-guessing game that (perhaps cynically) hits all the right trends. It uses mobile video via the Viddy network; it's based on turn-based gameplay a la Song Pop and Draw Something; it offers social graph integration with Facebook; and voice recognition, using APIs from Nuance, the voice company's first foray into mobile gaming. But you know what? I think AOL may just be on to something.
 
A Guide To Guest Columns On TechCrunch Top
Screen Shot 2012-09-26 at 4.13.48 PMTechCrunch has been running guest posts since the early days. Here's one about The State of Online Feed Readers from 2006 (hey, it was a hot topic back then!). But times have changed (not just for RSS!), and today we actually have a fairly formal system for how we handle blatant self-promotion these types of articles.
 
Google Marks 14 Years Organizing The World's Information With Birthday Doodle Top
Googles_14th_Birthday-2012-2-hpThe chameleonic Google Doodle is currently marking a very special occasion for Mountain View: today is the search giant's 14th birthday. The Birthday Doodle is a rather simplistic affair, compared to some Doodles past (playable Pac-Man was a particular highlight) -- showing a layer cake that breaks down to form the Google logo, while the cake's candles rearrange to chalk up the 14 years since Larry and Sergey set up their startup shop in a Menlo Park garage.
 
12 Tips To Building A Successful Startup Community Where You Live Top
aeriel-viewEditor's Note: This is a guest post by Mark Suster (@msuster), a 2x entrepreneur, now VC at GRP Partners. Read more about Suster at Bothsidesofthetable In the first phase of the Internet - roughly from 1995-2005 it was difficult to build massive Internet-based companies outside of Silicon Valley. The big companies to be built and scaled were mostly infrastructure: databases, routers, browsers, spam filters, search engines and the like. Plus the obvious initial pioneers of the web like Yahoo!, eBay, Craigslist and so on. But the infrastructure is now in such a state the we're seeing the emergence of large tech businesses being built all across the United States including Gilt Groupe & Etsy in NYC, Living Social in DC, Groupon in Chicago, DemandMedia & Cornerstone OnDemand in LA. And many more. What does it take to build a successful entrepreneurial community? Can you build one locally? This post explores the 12 components of every successful startup city. Details after the jump.
 
New Zealand Prime Minister Apologizes To Kim Dotcom As Megaupload Nears Relaunch Top
3dea73f8c0ea11e1aebc1231381b647a_7"Headlines from Britain to Malaysia, France to China, Germany to Brazil, Australia to the US. An apology can go a long way," said Kim Dotcom in a recent tweet. It's true. This comes after the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key issued a rather frank apology to the internet mogul saying, "I apologize to Mr Dotcom. I apologize to New Zealanders because every New Zealander... is entitled to be protected from the law when it comes to the GCSB, and we failed to provide that appropriate protection for him." PM John Key is of course referring to the spying conducted by the New Zealand government which lead to the dramatic take-down of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. As it turns out, members of the New Zealand government conducted the invasive investigation under the pretense Dotcom was a foreign nationalist when in fact he had acquired residency status, thus affording him the rights of the country.
 
Amazon Rejects Apple's Claim That Its Use Of "App Store" Is False Advertising Top
images-screenshots-captures-amazon-appstore-logo-21032011_00B4000000001978Flashback! Remember this one? Last year, Apple filed a trademark lawsuit against Amazon, claiming that Amazon's use of the term "App Store" (as in "Amazon Appstore") could contribute to confusion among consumers as it was not, as Amazon believes, "a generic term." Other app store providers like Microsoft and Google have made a point to brand their app stores differently by calling them the Windows Marketplace and the Android Market (now Google Play), respectively, just to be on the safe side. But Amazon has stuck to its guns, saying that the phrase should not be subject to trademark protection. The case is still underway, and in a filing on Wednesday with the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, Amazon has asked a federal judge to reject Apple's "false advertising" claim.
 
HowAboutWe Provides Hand-Picked Date Ideas To Help Couples Fall And Stay In Love Top
Screen Shot 2012-09-26 at 4.29.46 PMHelping couples to stay happy, connected and in love is what HowAboutWe is all about. Each month, couples receive a DateBook with beautifully presented, one-of-a-kind dates specifically curated for its users. Couples just have to select their romantic local experiences and the service will take care of everything. The newly launched service comes on top of a more traditional dating site to find someone special that has been around since 2010. The date remains the common thread between the two core products.
 
Pew Pew Pew! iPhone 5 Destroyed By Lasers [Video] Top
laseriphoneI've avoided posting videos of people shooting the iPhone with bullets, dropping iPhones into squirrel pens, and ingesting and then excreting iPhones because I think such videos are wasteful and pointless. But this video is a little too cool not to post.
 
Website Creation Platform Joomla Debuts Version 3.0, Mobile And Tablet Optimized Thanks To Twitter Bootstrap Top
joomla logoJoomla, the open-source-based content management system that competes against WordPress, Drupal and others in the world of blog, website and intranet creation, has today taken a step up in the world of converged media. The opensource community, which says its platform powers 3% of all the websites in the world, has released version 3.0 of its CMS, which automatically optimizes content created on the platform for the mobile web. Joomla says that its mobile implementation is the first to be built on Twitter Bootstrap, the mobile-friendly toolkit developed by Twitter and released on Github in August 2011 that is a collection of base CSS styles for typography, forms, buttons, tables, grids, navigation, alerts and more that are already widely used in the development of websites and apps.
 

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