Friday, October 26, 2012

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Want To Read App.net Status Messages In The Official Twitter App? Here's How With Apparchy Top
6250717968_437721f226_zThe great thing about San Francisco is that it's a small town in size. As I was walking to the office today I walked by Steve Streza of Pocket and we caught up on what he's working on lately. Yesterday, there was an App.net hackathon and Steve showed me what he made, and it's really cool. If you're unsure, App.net is a project that is kind of like Twitter, for those who don't want to necessarily be on Twitter. Kind of.
 
Microsoft Brings Its Lync Messenger To The New Windows UI, Launches Updated OneNote App Top
4075.Lync1.png-550x0Microsoft just announced that it is bringing its Lync messenger to the Windows Store and the new Windows user interface. In addition, the company also just launched a new version of its OneNote note-taking app for Windows 8.
 
Shufflr Aims To Fill The Social Video Void On Windows 8 Top
shufflr_logoAlthea Systems, the startup behind social video app Shufflr, is launching the Windows 8 version of Shufflr today. Of course, it's hardly alone in releasing a Windows app this week, since the Windows Store itself just launched, with a reported 3,500 apps. However, Shufflr co-founder Rajnish (he goes by one name) pointed out that in the video category, most of the big names like YouTube and Vimeo are absent. (At least in an official capacity — there are some YouTube-viewing apps built by third-party developers). So Rajnish argued that the Windows launch presents Shufflr with an opportunity that it didn't have on other platforms, to claim massive userbase before there's too much competition.
 
Google App Engine Has Major Service Disruption As Dropbox and Tumblr Also Suffer Top
Google App EngineGoogle App Engine is down with a major service disruption affecting thousands of customers around the world that use the platform-as-a-service. The Google  Engine team posted the following update:
 
Bald Beliebers Remind Us: Just Because You Read It On Twitter, Doesn't Mean It's True Top
bieberbaldMy mom always said that the most dangerous lies are the ones mixed with truth. That's why the internet, namely Twitter, can be such a spurious environment. We sometimes forget that with the real-time, viral benefits of the short-winded social network come the same negative effects. Truth can spread like wildfire, and so can lies. Today, the Bieber nation has learned that lesson. Behold, dear readers, the horror.
 
Developer Auction Racks Up $78 Million More Bids, Expands To LA Top
aboutLast month we wrote about DevelopersAuction, a company that lets startups “bid” on developers who are looking for work. During the first two week long auction companies made $30 million worth of offers from companies like Quora and DropBox. Our first story on the company garnered plenty of skepticism in the comments, but the most recent auction hit $78 million worth of bids according to co-founder Matt Mickiewicz. And now the company is expanding beyond New York City, Boston and San Francisco to Los Angeles. Not that DevelopersAuction has been sticking too closely to its original parameters anyway. Ostensibly the company solicits developers who are graduates of Stanford or MIT and/or have worked for companies like Google, Facebook or Apple. But at least one Chicago based developer was accepted even though he didn’t match those criteria. Blaine Schanfeldt tells me he’s a high school and college dropout. His main experience comes from a computer consulting business he started when he was 17 and a cloud computing startup he founded after meeting some fellow entrepreneurs at Startup Weekend. That actually doesn’t sound unlike Mickiewicz’s own background — he started Sitepoint.com, the development and design resource publisher, when he was 14. Schanfeldt says the companies that bid on him definitely knew that they weren’t bidding on an Ivy Leaguer from an A-list web giant. In fact they viewed his resume and many were actually attracted to his entrepreneur spirit — 15 companies to be exact. Mostly in the Bay Area but a couple from New York City and one in Chicago. He also says that the types of companies varied from brand new startups looking to hire employee number one, to more established small companies looking to hire employee number 101. He hasn’t accepted an offer yet — no developer is required to accept the highest bid. Companies are supposed to make good on their promises — assuming they still want to hire a developer after an in-person interview. In other words, neither party is guaranteed anything at the end of the auction. Schanfeldt is planning a trip to the Bay area for a round of interviews. He doesn’t come off as a hot-shot programmer. He says he was really surprised how much attention his resume attracted. “I was really excited when the first offer came in,” he says. He likes that the process has put him in touch with more companies
 
DreamIt Ventures Partners With Microsoft To Offer BizSpark To All Of Its Startups Top
DreamIt Ventures PictureDreamIt Ventures just announced that it is partnering with Microsoft's BizSpark initiative to offer its startups access to the resources available through Microsoft's program. As part of this partnership, DreamIt will also designate one of the companies from each of its programs as a "BizSpark Fellow." This company wil receive a number of extra benefits, including access to Microsoft engineers and evangelists.
 
The Hex3 JaJa Stylus: A Pressure-Sensitive iPad Drawing Tool That Uses Sound To Paint A Picture Top
jaja-1Meet the Hex3 JaJa stylus, a pressure-sensitive drawing tool for the iPad (and other tablets, too) that transmits information to the device via sound waves, eschewing the need for a Bluetooth connection. It's only one of a recent crop of pressure-sensitive styli for the iPad, but its unique, quirky design provides both its big advantages and its most significant flaws.
 
Mobile Shopping App "Best Decision" Introduces A Universal Cart That Works Across Dozens Of Retailers Top
best-decisionLEAP Commerce, a somewhat under-the radar mobile shopping startup, is today releasing a major update to its "Best Decision" shopping iOS app which introduces a true universal cart for consumers. What that means is that shoppers can now buy from many of their favorite stores at the same time, using a single shopping cart. The company is working with 23 e-commerce sites, including top retailers like Walmart and Amazon, as well newer companies like Gilt and Svpply, to integrate their product catalogs.
 
ExecOnline Raises 800K From Washington Post For Executive Education Service That Partners With Top 10 Business Schools Top
execonlinelogoExecOnline has raised $800,000 in seed funding from the Washington Post for executives to get online training from top 10 business schools. The service will target Fortune 500 companies that often send executives to Harvard University and other top business schools for immersive business school training.
 
Brazil's Google News Boycott Reportedly Only Drops Traffic 5%. Oof. Top
google-sad1-300x200"The fact is, Google News is absolutely irrelevant in Brazil," said Carlos Müller, communications advisor for National Association of Newspapers in Brazil (AJN), after a widespread boycott of Google's popular news aggregator. Many empires, from News Corp to the entire country of France, have threatened to pull of Google because the search giant doesn't compensate them for displaying snippets of their content, but none have yet to follow through out of the fear of boycotting the world's most popular website. The AJN reports that Brazilian newspaper have seen a meager 5% drop in traffic, which not only justifies their own protest but could inspire a mass revolt online.
 
Bing Launches Its Election Site, Lets You Filter News By Political Perspective Top
BingBetter late than never. With less than two weeks to go before the U.S. presidential election on November 6, Microsoft's Bing just unveiled Bing Elections. The site features news results from major U.S. publications that can be filtered by political preference (right, left, center), as well as an interactive map with election results and sentiment analysis across key issues based on data from Twitter and Facebook.
 
New Google Maps Basemap Now Shows Terrain, Vegetation By Default Top
tlc blog - vancouver 02The Google Maps basemap is getting a visual overhaul today. Unlike most updates, though, this one is for the actual maps and not just the interface. Starting today, Google Maps will show you information about terrain, as well as color gradations to depict vegetation and additional labels for natural land formations like the Gobi Desert and the Amazon Basin.
 
Here Comes The Nexus 4 Smartphone, 3G Nexus 7 Tablet, And The Nexus 10 iPad Killer Top
next-nexusGoogle is about to throw down. At next week's NYC Android event, the big G is expected to yell "me too!" and reveal a full line of Nexus devices. Watch out, Mr. Consumer. These devices aren't just for the nerds. Google is ready to take the Nexus brand mainstream and provide legitimate alternatives to the iPhones, iPads and Galaxy devices of the world.
 
Pinbooster Launches Its Pay-To-Pin Ad Platform For Pinterest Top
pinbooster_logoThis week, Pinterest cracked the top 50 most trafficked websites in the U.S. with its now 25.3 million stateside visitors, but the social photo-sharing site has yet to determine how it will monetize all those pins. However, that hasn't stopped other companies from using Pinterest's growing popularity to generate revenue for themselves. Case in point: today, a new startup called Pinbooster is officially opening its doors, becoming the first ad platform which pays users to re-pin ad messages from brands.
 
Samsung's Epic Smartphone Quarter: Galaxy SIII, Big Screens Help It To Record 31%+ Share In Q3 (More Than 2X Apple's Portion) Top
samsung-logoA raft of smartphone market analyst numbers are out and they all continue to make very pleasant reading for Samsung -- the maker of the Galaxy range of smartphones -- underlining the success of the Korean company's strategy of steamrollering the competition by offering an extensive portfolio of mobile devices at a variety of screen sizes and price points vs the handful of iPhones Apple offers.
 
Introducing CrunchGov, TechCrunch's Policy Platform Top
bill-icon-techcrunch-crunch-govNearly a year after citizens blindsided the government with an unprecedented protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act, Congress is at a loss for how to proceed. Luddite officials see complex tech issues as a mysterious minefield and the greenhorn technology industry does not have the insider D.C. connections to move beyond unwieldy protests outside the gated halls of DC. As a startup-focused publication, TechCrunch gets to see the results of tech policy every day. And we think we can help the two sides understand each other better. So we're launching a new project today called CrunchGov.
 
Get An iPhone 5 That Looks Like Unicorn Poop For Only $1700 Top
colorware-iphone-5-xlApple only offers its iPhone 5 in sober black or white/gray, and while I respect their minimalist design sensibilities, some people might want more color options for their smartphone companion. Well, if you're willing to pay more than double the asking price of the unlocked 16GB iPhone 5, you can get whatever color iPhone you want, along with the ability to mix and match for freakish results.
 
Streaming Radio Service 8tracks Relaunches On iPhone: App Rebuilt From Ground-Up With New Look, Better Music Discovery Top
8tracks_2.0_smallStreaming music startup 8tracks is officially relaunching its iPhone application today, which offers a much-needed (and really well done) user interface revamp. For those who remember the earlier version of the app out last year, it will be as if you're getting a brand-new application altogether. 8tracks 2.0, as the update is being called, introduces a number of new components, including fullscreen album artwork, the ability to find and invite friends, and a unique music discovery feature which lets you find music by both mood and genre. While 8tracks has always offered a great way of finding new music, the mobile interface was somewhat lacking. Today, you finally have best of both worlds: beauty and brains.
 
Video Game Journalist Out Of A Job For Calling Out Dead-Eyed, Dorito-Hoarding Journalists Top
600x-1-1In the great, wide world of journalism, games journalism is a weird animal. Those who "practice" - and practice it well - face a barrage of PR perks, free trips, and angry houses. Access is given and taken away by marketing folks on a whim. There are a few great news sources (Polygon is one as is Rock, Paper, Shotgun), a few silly ones, and a few horrible ones. But on the whole, not many folks think much about the business of writing about games. Yet, if we're culturally current, we consume quite a bit of games writing and, sadly, that writing is often compromised by the broken PR system.
 

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