Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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iPhone 4 + Verizon + January = Boom? Top
This is it, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Well, maybe. A report today in Bloomberg citing two unnamed sources claims that Verizon Wireless will be getting the iPhone in January. Yes, Verizon, iPhone, January. Naturally, all the companies involved are declining to comment on the record, but Bloomberg sounds pretty confident in the report thanks to their two sources “familiar with the plans.” This information is close to what the Wall Street Journal was reporting back in March which stated that a CDMA (the type of network Verizon uses) iPhone would be entering production later this year to be released at some point after that . This report also goes along well with recent maneuvers AT&T has been making to ensure they lock in customers for another two years with the new iPhone 4.
 
Twitter Slashes API Rate Limits In Half Across The Board To Deal With Capacity Issues Top
As you may have noticed, Twitter has been having a rough month. Due in part to traffic from the World Cup , Twitter has had its worst month in terms of uptime in a year. The Fail Whale has been out in full force , and it’s partially Twitter’s own fault as they’re trying to overhaul their internal network during this time of high traffic. And today they’ve announced another move to help deal with network strain: an API rate limit cut. And this isn’t a minor rate limit cut either. Twitter is taking the default limit from 350 and cutting it to 175. And they’re slashing the rates in half across the board. This means that everyone from the smallest Twitter sites to those whitelisted will be affected. Even Twitter’s own mobile properties (which use the same API) are being forced to deal with this cut. “ To ensure fairness to all users of the API, the reduced rate limit is proportional to that application or users’ allowance rather than a fixed value of requests ,” Twitter notes on its FAQ site for the cut. “ Reducing the API rate-limit is not the first or only method we use and is one we try to avoid if possible. However, it is also one of the more effective ways to reduce load and ensure that the Twitter service remains available to the greatest number of users ,” Twitter developer advocate Matt Harris writes in the Twitter Development Tool Google Group today. And 175 isn’t as low as Twitter may need to go at time. For example, earlier today Twitter slashed the rate all the way down to 75, and started slashing features such as integrated search. It was re-established a few hours later, but Harris warns that developers can expect more of that in the coming weeks — and these downgrades can happen without notice as Twitter attempts to maintain service availability. The number of people this change will affect is pretty staggering. “ The API represents approximately 75% of the traffic that comes to twitter.com ,” Twitter notes. [photo: flickr/ thetruthabout ] CrunchBase Information Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Microsoft's Data Collection Technology PivotViewer Now Available For Download Top
Last year we wrote an in-depth feature on Pivot, a Microsoft Live Labs technology that helps make sense of interconnectedness between objects on the web. The underlying premise of Pivot is to view relationships between “collections” of individual information on the the web. Many of the connections between items on the web aren’t necessarily tangible, but Pivot helps crawl massive amount of objects on the web and produces sleek visualizations of all that is connected. Today, Microsoft is using the technology to power Silverlight PivotViewer, which is now available for download. PivotViewer lets the user visualize thousands of items at once and then organize and navigate them within a rich media application. Pivot and Silverlight technologies are the core of the PivotViewer. Developers and designers can now use Silverlight PivotViewer to build collections and embed them on their websites. Using the Deep Zoom technology in Silverlight 4, you can zoom into high resolution content and pan around to find what you're looking for. PivotViewer’s collections combine large groups of similar data that connects a series of isolated pages. Live Labs will continue the Pivot experiment to continue to develop new visualizations for large collections of information. A number of sites are already using the technology for rich media data visualizations, including Hitched, a wedding planning site in the UK (see screeshot below). Pivot isn’t the first compelling technology to come out of Microsoft’s Live Labs. Photosynth, a graduate of Live Labs, is an impressive photo viewing project that stiches together images to create pseudo-3D worlds. CrunchBase Information Microsoft Information provided by CrunchBase
 
New Verizon Commercial Is Foursquare Obsessed Top
Foursquare has gotten some pretty big publicity before — like in Vegas . But a new Verizon commercial appears to be completely predicated around the service. Well, provided you know what Foursquare is. As you can see in the 30-second spot embedded below, a girl is walking around a city on her Verizon Droid phone. She pulls it out of her pocket, starts walking, and immediately begins using the device. So what’s she using on it? About 6 seconds in, you’ll see she’s checking-in to a venue on the Android version of Foursquare. She keeps using her phone as she’s walking, but we don’t see the screen until 11 seconds later. What’s she doing then? Again, she’s checking Foursquare. Now, unlike the c ommercial that ran on Bravo earlier this year, Foursquare is never mentioned, nor do we even see the branding here. And the main point of the commercial is that Verizon’s towers are where ever you go. But still, this type of thing indicates that Foursquare is starting to enter the mainstream consciousness. She’s not checking Facebook. She’s not tweeting. She’s using Foursquare. This is a great thing to show investors when you’re in the midst of raising a new round . CrunchBase Information Foursquare Verizon Information provided by CrunchBase
 
The Rebuttal: An EVO 4G Owner Walks Into An Apple Store (NSFW) Top
Yesterday, we posted a video showing an iPhone shopper talking to an EVO 4G salesman . That video was a little one-sided, depicting the iPhone buyer as a mindless drone who wanted the iPhone no matter what features the EVO offered. Today comes a video from the other side. In this video, also made by tinywatchproductions using Xtranormal text-to-speed software, an owner of an EVO 4G walks into an Apple Store to try and get his phone fixed. “But this has a 4th G, the iPhone 4 is missing a ‘G’.” Just as before, the language here gets a bit NSFW. CrunchBase Information HTC EVO 4G iPhone 4 Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Hulu Launches Premium Subscription Service 'Hulu Plus', Coming To iPhone, iPad & PS3 Top
The rumors were true. Today, Hulu is announcing a limited launch of Hulu Plus, an ad-supported, premium subscription service that will run $9.99 per month and includes HD access to full season runs of shows from Fox, ABC, and NBC. Better yet, Hulu Plus will work across a multitude of platforms, including PCs, the iPad, iPhone, some Samsung Blu-ray players, and soon, the PlayStation 3. The service is currently only available to select Hulu members who have been invited — you can request an invite here . Even if you don’t have an invite, you’ll still be able to download a Hulu Plus application on the iPad, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (it isn’t up on the App Store yet — we’ll update when it is). The application will feature a limited number of episodes, but you’ll be able to get a feel what the service will be like. Hulu says that the service will launch broadly in the coming months. The new subscription service will feature shows from over 100 content providers, including both current and ‘classic’ episodes. Subscribers will have access to every episode from current seasons of 45 programs from ABC, Fox, and NBC, including Glee, Modern Family, 30 Rock, and The Office through a ‘Season Ticket’ system (see the screenshot below). The service will also offer a back catalog of older shows, some of which will include the entire series run of episodes. Content will be delivered at a resolution of 720p (HD) when available, and can be downgraded in low-bandwidth scenarios. Hulu clearly hopes to distribute the service across as many platforms as it can. Along with the aforementioned device partners, Hulu intends to include Hulu support with more Blu-ray players and TVs, including some from Sony and VIZIO. Support for the Xbox 360 will be coming in early 2011. You can see a full list of supported devices here . This has been a long time coming. We’ve been hearing about an iPad version of Hulu for months now, and rumors have persisted about a possible Hulu subscription for much longer than that. In March Hulu CEO Jason Kilar announced that the company was profitable based on ads that are served against its free videos, but that hasn’t stopped content owners from pushing for a premium offering. The question now is whether people will pay for it. My hunch is yes, provided the content owners are willing to ensure that Hulu’s library is both current and full of compelling older shows. Hulu isn’t the only company looking to offer premium on-demand video service — Apple has been rumored to be working on one of its own, and Netflix offers some (generally less recent) shows through a streaming service as well. CrunchBase Information hulu Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Tesla IPO Shares Pop, Drop, And Rally. Market Values It At $1.7 Billion. Top
With the Dow down more than 250 points, today is not the best day for an IPO. But Tesla shares are rallying after an initial scare. Tesla Motors rang the Nasdaq opening bell earlier this morning to commemorate its initial public offering under the ticker symbol TSLA The shares opened at $19, a 12% jump from its $17 pricing yesterday. But then they immediately dropped, dipping below $17.70 before rallying again. Currently, they are trading above $18, which gives Tesla a market cap of about $1.7 billion The company was able to price the shares above its $14 to $16 range, and will collect $202 million from the IPO Tesla is selling 13.3 million shares, 11,880,600 through the company and 1,419,400 through selling stockholders, including founder Elon Musk . This is the first time an automotive company has gone public in more than 50 years. (For a skeptical take on Tesla’s chances, read this in-depth Reuters article , in which GM’s Bob Lutz predicts, “These geniuses always get their comeuppance”). Any bets on where the shares will end the day? Update: Tesla’s shares rose to $21.24 at 2:24pm. CrunchBase Information Tesla Motors Information provided by CrunchBase
 

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