Wednesday, October 3, 2012

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Brandery Debuts 3rd Batch, Announces $100M Fund To Turn Cincy Into A Magnet For Startups Top
logoThese days, it seems like every city and township in North America has its own startup accelerator and is on its way to creating a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. While these apparent symptoms of an "accelerator bubble" are sure to make a few eyes roll, if cities and firms lay the foundations with the right goals in mind, these ecosystems can become important engines of job creation -- and even revitalize stagnating civic economies. And that's just what Brandery and Cintrifuse have in mind for Cincinnati.
 
Twitter Partners With Nielsen For @TwitterSurveys To Measure Ad Effectiveness Top
Twitter SurveysTwitter just announced a partnership with Nielsen that should give brands a new way to measure the impact of their advertising campaigns. Apparently, in the same way that you now see Promoted Tweets in your tweet stream, you might also start seeing surveys from the @TwitterSurveys account, asking you to answer a few questions. It sounds like these surveys will measure things like your awareness of a company or brand, or your willingness to purchase a product — in other words, the kinds of things advertisers want to measure to determine the effectiveness of their campaign.
 
Take That Amazon! Target Adds QR Codes In Retail Stores To Help Shoppers Buy Toys On Mobile Devices Top
TargetRetail giant Target is adding a new technology to its mobile initiatives—QR Codes. Target will debut QR codes in stores for the season's 20 most popular toys. You can use the Target mobile app to scan toy QR codes, and shoppers will be able to buy toys and ship them free anywhere in the U.S. from their phones. So in Target stores, each of the top 20 toys of the season will have a QR code that can be scanned to purchase the toy directly using a mobile device. The retailer says that this feature can be particularly useful when a particular toy is sold out in the store. The app would allow a purchaser to just find the item online, and allows Target to keep the sale. The feature will roll out on October 14.
 
Report: Steve Jobs Came to "Loathe" Google For Withholding Turn-By-Turn From Google Maps On iOS Top
maps_turnIn a new piece today that cites multiple current and former Apple employees as sources, Bloomberg Businessweek asks the question of whether Apple's maps fiasco would've happened under Steve Jobs. The report reveals that Jobs had "come to loathe" Google, not only for copying iOS, but also for "withholding" turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation from Google Maps on Apple's mobile platform.
 
Rumor: Apple Enlists Retail Employees In The War On Inaccurate Maps Top
Screen shot 2012-10-03 at 10.47.33 AMThere are over 40,000 Apple retail employees out in the world, and if the rumors from MacRumors are true, at least some of them are working tirelessly to improve iOS 6 Maps. If you've been living under a rock and perchance haven't updated any of your Apple devices in the past few weeks, you may not be aware that Apple's iOS 6 Maps are inaccurate enough and ugly enough for CEO Tim Cook to make a formal apology on the company website.
 
Samsung Galaxy Note II LTE Added To U.K. Carrier EE's 4G Handset Launch Line-Up Top
samsung galaxy note 2Customers of U.K. carriers Orange and T-Mobile keen to sign up to the country's first 4G LTE network (launching from EE), which will go live in ten cities on October 30, will need an LTE handset to do so. EE, the parent company of the Orange, T-Mo joint venture, has today announced it's adding Samsung's latest phablet phone -- the Galaxy Note II LTE -- to its launch line-up of 4G-ready handsets.
 
Samsung Rumored To Reveal A Smaller Spin On The Galaxy S III Next Week Top
samsungsmallinviteA good chunk of Samsung's recent smartphone releases seemed intent on stretching people's hands beyond their limits, but it seems like the company may be ready to buck that trend very soon. According to a recently released press invitation, Samsung will be pulling back the curtains on a smaller-than-usual smartphone at its Mobile Store in Frankfurt on October 11.
 
Mobile Wallet Provider Lemon Launches Lemonade: Developer Tools For Building "Smarter" Cards Top
lemon-walletLemon, the makers of a mobile wallet application for iPhone and Android, is today launching its developer platform, cleverly called "Lemonade." The "ADE" stands for "Application Development Engine," and it represents the first initiative from the company to open up its platform to third-party developers. With Lemon's new API, app developers, merchants and brands will be able to use the wallet platform to better connect with customers by offering their own interactive cards for installation.
 
Apple iPhone Users Most Likely To Research Products, Buy And Bank On Their Devices Top
forrester-mobile-shopingPeople who own iPhones are much more likely to research buying decisions, comparison shop, and actually purchase things on their devices than are mobile users on Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone devices, according to a new study which polled over 50,000 mobile device owners. 85% of iOS users employ their iPhones for shopping research, and 69% percent have actually bought something.
 
Amazon Studios Options Its First Novel, Seed, For A Crowdsourced, Big-Screen Adaptation Top
seed coverFilms of books can often help drive sales of those books, and bestsellers often make for movie blockbusters, so it's no surprise to see online bookseller Amazon today announcing that its content development arm, Amazon Studios, has optioned its first novel, the Amazon-published, Southern horror Seed, to begin making a big-screen adaptation. As with other content optioned by Amazon Studios -- comic Blackburn Burrow being the most recent example -- Amazon will use crowdsourced user feedback to decide how it adapts the book. The book, by Ania Ahlborn, is an Amazon product in more ways than one. It not only was published by 47North, Amazon's sci-fi, fantasy and horror imprint, but it's a self-published horror e-book bestseller, making it something of a posterchild for Amazon's whole move to digital, content creation, and beholder of a publishing marketplace for others as well.
 
Square Launches A Merchant Directory To Help Customers Discover New Places Top
Screen shot 2012-10-03 at 10.11.41 AMSquare, the startup disrupting the payments industry with its easy smartphone/tablet card-reader, has today launched Square Directory. It is a web-based search engine that allows users to find new merchants and restaurants based on their location, and the particular items they may be hunting at the time. The service already has over 200,000 businesses listed in the directory. Square Directory not only helps users find what they're looking for (a bit like Yelp) but offers users access to various local deals and special offers. This is a big step towards Square's focus on more consumer-facing products.
 
RIM Rolls PlayBook 2.1 Update, Improves BlackBerry Bridge, Data Security, And Android App Support Top
4gplaybookRIM is not done with the PlayBook. The company just announced a major update for its tablet. The software update will be available later today for the WiFi PlayBook and brings a host of significant improvements. With this update the tablet now sports SMS capabilities through BlackBerry Bridge, data encryption on personal accounts, and improved Android application support.
 
Mogreet Releases APIs To Let Developers Quickly Add SMS, Video, Rich Media Messaging To Apps Top
mogreet_Twitter_logoMogreet, the Los Angeles-based startup that provides brands and marketers with a distribution platform for mobile video messaging, today announced the release of its API developer portal, which allows third party-developers to easily integrate MMS, SMS, video and in-app messaging into their applications.
 
Investment Platform For Your Savings, Betterment Raises $10M From Menlo Ventures, Bessemer Top
beteremntBetterment, an investment platform for your savings, has raised $10 million in financing led by Menlo Ventures with Bessemer Venture Partners and Anthemis Group also participating in the round. This brings Betterment's total funding to $13 million. Betterment, which launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2010, aims to disrupt the financial savings industry by letting customers invest their savings in a carefully-selected blend of stock and bond portfolios which are rebalanced regularly and automatically. The company combines the accessibility of an online savings account with the performance of an investing account.
 
Watchitoo Launches Playground, A Video Conferencing Tool To Improve Business Communication Top
watchitoologoI've been watching Watchitoo for several years now, and to be honest, I never really got it. A few years ago, the startup launched with some pretty slick consumer-facing technology for group video chats, during which users could share files and video clips, play casual games with one another, and other fun stuff. It was all browser based, and unlike other video chat platforms, didn't require any special or plugins to work. At some point over the last few years, it pivoted from a platform targeted at teens for chatting one another into a "video conferencing and online collaboration tool," which seems like a better target market for actually making money.
 
ShoeDazzle Picks Up Another $6M As Founder Brian Lee Gets Back To Work As CEO Top
shoedazzle shotShoeDazzle, the online shoe and fashion retailer endorsed by Kim Kardashian and backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Polaris, Lightspeed and others, has raised another $6 million in a mixture of equity and debt, according to a filing with the SEC. The news comes on the heels of a tumultuous month for the company, in which Bill Strauss left the role of CEO to be replaced by founder Brian Lee, amid questions (but no official statements) about what might have happened to spur the change.
 
Deutsche Telekom And MetroPCS Boards Give Go-Ahead To T-Mobile Merger Top
metropcsThe boards of T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom and MetroPCS has approved a deal to merge MetroPCS and T-Mobile USA, sources told the Wall Street Journal this morning. T-Mobile previously sought to be acquired by AT&T, but that deal was shot down by U.S. regulators. The news that this deal was being discussed yesterday increased the value of MetroPCS shares by 26 percent, putting its value at the highest in 14 months. The deal could help T-Mobile recover from losses to its subscriber base suffered by not being able to offer the iPhone on its network. The structure of the deal will reportedly operate as a reverse merger, with MetroPCS gobbling up the larger T-Mobile.
 
Skype Fiddles With Classrooms And WiFi PR Stunts While The Product Languishes Top
medium_Junked_Volvo_145-01Skype is coming out with a bunch of announcements today and perhaps (perhaps) it's sign of a re-invigorated operation even though there remains continuing grumbles from users about the actual product development and the lack-lustre, dated, interface and features. First up it's expanding its wireless offering in the UK and Ireland by partnering with wireless broadband provider Wicoms. "Free Skype WiFi" will be offered in high street retailers, hotels and businesses that carry a dedicated Wicoms router. Skype has normally offered free WiFi at travel hubs and on holidays, but this is broader. Users just need to go into those outlets and log on with their Skype ID using the Skype WiFi application, or sign up for one on the spot. Businesses can sign up to it by getting a free router in October only.
 
Ancestry.com Acquires Photo Digitization And Sharing Service 1000memories Top
1m_ACOM_blog1000memories, the San Francisco-based startup which offers web and mobile applications for storing, organizing, sharing, and most importantly, digitizing, your print photographs, has been acquired. Given the company's focus on preserving family memories, it's not too surprising who the new owner is: Ancestry.com. And fortunately for current users of the service, the deal doesn't mean a shutdown of 1000memories' website or apps, but rather more resources to continue their development.
 
Microsoft Prepares For Holiday Push With 32 New Pop-Up Stores Just In Time For Windows 8 Top
Image (1) microsoftretailconstruction-lg.jpg for post 149722Microsoft's retail efforts continue to grow, with its first permanent international store opening in the Yorkdale Mall in Toronto in November, and now the company has also confirmed that temporary stores will be cropping up across the U.S. and Canada to try and capitalize on holiday demand. These stores will open on October 26, and will appear in 32 locations across both countries.
 

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