Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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Jesta Labs Hatches Gush: Fetch, Store And Organize All Your Digital Photos Top
gushThe first startup to come out of New York-based incubator Jesta Labs is Gush, which launches today with a (currently invite-only) service that lets people put all their photos - no matter how many they have - privately in the cloud and organize them in a straightforward way. Gush, which is free of charge, aims to become a central repository for photos that people currently have scattered all over their computers and phones, Facebook profiles, Flickr and Instagram accounts and so on.
 
Video: Anonymous Calls On Protestors To "Occupy The Planet" Top
AnonymousIt wouldn't be utterly shocking to find that you are unaware of the Occupy Wall Street protests currently underway in downtown Manhattan. The mainstream media coverage of it has been shockingly minimal, but it's real, it's happening, and apparently it's spreading. And who, you might ask, has been the mouthpiece for this uprising? None other than the infamous hacktivist group Anonymous, who plans to expand the protest to the far reaches of the globe (or so says their new video).
 
New German Initiative Pools Ad Media To Take Stakes In Startups Top
Screen Shot 2011-09-28 at 18.05.23While startups in the US, especially in the Valley, tend to be able to find funding at different stages of their life-cycle, there remains significant funding gaps remains in Europe, a disparate market of multiple countries. While the seed stage is gradually being addressed by programmes like Seedcamp, SpringBoard, StartupBootcamp and others, the stage just before venture capital kicks in remains problematic. Often that first round of VC is designed for a significant marketing push or expansion. But a new German initiative looks like creating an exciting model for other countries to follow. It's really worth watching how this pans out. The newly created GMPVC German Media Pooltakes a "media for equity" approach.
 
3rd Generation Kindles Get A New Name, Discounted Prices Top
kindlekey2If Amazon's new slew of keyboard-less Kindles leaves you feeling frightened and confused, you've still got time to pick up one of their soon-to-be classic models. The 3rd generation Kindle (which has been retroactively renamed the "Kindle Keyboard") is enjoying a bit of a price drop on Amazon.com as we speak.
 
Make Facebook Look More Like MySpace With Timeline Cover Photos From FBCovers Top
myfbcovers-smallLast week, Facebook introduced one of the boldest makeovers to the Facebook profile page since the company's launch with the new Facebook Timeline. The updated profile provides a deeper look into your past, with navigation that lets you time travel back through the previous months and years spent on Facebook. The most noticeable and eye-catching change to your Facebook profile, however, is not the Timeline navigation - it's the large banner-sized photo that's displayed at the top of the page where, as of today, a series of smaller profile pictures appear. But what if you don't have a good photo to feature there? That's where the newly launched Cover photo resource at MyFBCovers comes in.
 
The Kindle Fire Pulls All Of Amazon's Cloud Media Onto A Tablet Top
Kindle FireToday, at an Amazon event in New York City (read our liveblog), Jeff Bezos unveiled the Kindle Fire, a new media tablet that pulls together all of Amazon's media services from the cloud. These include 18 million digital books, movies, songs, magazines, apps, and games. The $199 Kindle Fire is designed to tap into all of the digital media products and services Amazon has been building for the past few years: Amazon Web Services, Instant Video, Kindle Books, Amazon's MP3 music store, cloud storage, and Android app store. When Amazon was designing the Fire, CEO Jeff Bezos says they asked themselves, "Is there some way we can bring all of these together into a remarkable product offering customers will love?"
 
New Startup Accelerator Advise.me Increases Seed Funding, Adds 5 More To Its Team Top
adviseme-logoOne week after its launch, new startup accelerator and incubator Advise.me has received over 200 applications for its "Global Startup Initiative," a program that encourages companies from all parts of the world to apply. Several of those entrants are "pretty compelling," Solomon Engel, Advise.me Founder and CEO tells us. That may be one of the reasons why the program is now increasing the funding possibilities for its participants.
 
Samsung Taps Intel To Build A New Linux-Based Open Source Platform: Tizen Top
tizen-linuxIt's no secret (at least, not anymore) that Samsung is scrambling to diversify its mobile platform offerings. Bada, while smart, is kind of a bust, and Android is currently hanging in the balance until everyone figures out just what Googorola's plans are. In the meantime, Samsung's been a busy little bee, signing a deal with Microsoft to cross-license patents in exchange for Android royalties and collaboration on Windows Phone. But that's not all. In conjunction with Intel, Samsung is backing the launch of a new open source Linux-based OS called Tizen, which will inevitably replace the recently abandoned MeeGo platform.
 
Amazon Just Won The Android Tablet Wars With The $199 Kindle Fire Top
KO-aag-kid._V166939189_The Android tablet electoral races are done. There's a new mayor in Droidville. But this guy didn't roll into town with pomp and circumstance. He strolled down Main Street and simply offered more than any other candidate, extolling a plan based on down-to-earth sensibility and affordability. Meet the Kindle Fire. Amazon just unveiled the Kindle Fire, which will, without question, dominate the sub-iPad tablet market for years. Amazon did it right by copying Apple's formula: tablets do not sell on specs; Amazon barely touched on the Fire's hardware during its announcement. Instead, Jeff Bezos, doing his best Steve Jobs impersonation, stood tall on the stage and ran through a long list of features that makes the Fire an iPad alternative the world wanted.
 
IAB: Internet Advertising Reaches A Record $15B In First Half Of 2011; Up 23 Percent Top
Internet Ad RevenuesThe Internet Advertising Bureau just released its numbers of the first half of 2011, and it looks like internet ad revenue reached record highs during the time period. Internet ad revenues rose 23.2 percent — to a record $14.9 billion — in the first half of 2011. The rate of growth more than doubled year-over-year, as last year's first-half ad revenues were $12.1 billion (and represented an 11.3 percent increase over 2009) Internet ad revenues for the second quarter alone also reached new heights, increasing 24.1 percent to $7.7 billion. That's up from the Q2 2010 numbers of $6.2 billion, which is up 13.9 percent from 2009. Display ads totaled more than $5.5 billion in the first six months of 2011 and increased 27.1 percent over the same period in 2010.
 
Wheelz: Automotive Veterans Launch P2P Campus Car Sharing Platform Backed By Former Facebook VP Top
Screen shot 2011-09-28 at 3.21.40 AMKicking it into fifth gear and zooming out of stealth and into the public sphere today is Wheelz, a new person-to-person car sharing platform for campuses -- designed to connect students who have cars with student who need 'em. Granted, when I first heard the basics on Wheelz, I immediately thought, "gadzooks, another car sharing platform!?" What about RelayRides, GetAround, Zimride, and Zipcar? These are all by and large great young businesses, adding value to the space; sure they're not all targeting campuses, but I wasn't so sure we needed another one. Whether you feel the same way or not, Wheelz begs to differ. Launching initially at Stanford University, the startup is bringing campuses a technology and service platform that allows students and other campus dwellers to connect safely and easily -- through Facebook integration, a good-looking iPhone app, and its proprietary in-car hardware system, called DriveBox.
 
The Kindle Fire Will Have A Whole New "Cloud Accelerated" Mobile Browser Called Amazon Silk Top
scaledwm-3315Jeff Bezos announced a new family of Kindle's today, including the Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch. But he also had one more thing. The Kindle Fire tablet is coming with an entirely new mobile browser called Amazon Silk. The browser is "cloud-accelerated" in that it splits tasks between the cloud and the device. "It is very challenging for mobile devices to display modern websites rapidly," says Bezos. "So we wondered is there some way we can use the incredible computational horsepower of Amazon EC2 to accelerate mobile web browsing."
 
Amazon Tops 1 Million Kindle Books In Just Four Years Top
kindleToday at Amazon's press conference in New York city, the company announced the Kindle Fire 7-inch tablet. But that's not all CEO Jeff Bezos had to say — the Amazon boss spoke on the success of Kindle as a service, noting that four years ago "Amazon had 90,000 books. Today we're over a million, and that doesn't include the copyright-free texts."
 
Amazon Unveils New $79 E-Ink Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch Top
scaledwm-3267Looks like the Kindle Fire wasn't all Amazon had planned for us. Amazon has revealed a new line of E-Ink Kindles that looks to bolster their "traditional" eReader lineup. The three new models have taken the stage: the $79 Kindle, the $99 Kindle Touch, and the $149 Kindle Touch 3G.
 
Zenprise Launches New Product To Lock Down iPhones And iPads In Enterprise Top
zenprise_logoMobile device management company Zenprise is today introducing its new enterprise-grade mobile DLP (Data Leakage Prevention) that aims to help I.T. departments with the growing "bring your own device" to work trend. The Zenprise Enterprise Mobile DLP will be offered as an optional add-on to the company's larger solution, the Zenprise Mobile Enterprise Security Framework, when it launches later this fall. At first, the new product will specifically target iOS devices, including the Apple iPad, but an Android version is in the works.
 
Amazon Fires $199, 7-Inch Tablet At Apple Top
kindle-fireAmazon's not-so-secret project is finally unveiled and is the company's first real tablet contender. The Kindle Fire is Amazon's prize fighter in the battle for tablet dominance. But the new LCD-equipped Kindle isn't in the corner alone. Amazon also took the wraps off of two new, more-traditional Kindles, including a $99 touchscreen model and a stripped-down $79 option. The Fire itself is rather characterless and dull. It looks a lot like the 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook (probably for good reason) and features just enough tech to pass as acceptable. There's a tw0-point multitouch screen (the iPad has a 10-point screen), and an unspecified CPU although reports place a TI OMAP CPU at the core. There are no physical buttons on the black slate along with little Amazon branding. The Fire doesn't have a camera, mic or 3G connectivity although it does pack WiFi. It's all about the experience
 
Report: 41% Of North American Mobile Users To Buy The iPhone 5 Top
Touch PanelWe know the iPhone 5 is being debuted soon and reports point to Sprint as the new carrier. But just how popular will the device be off the bat? InMobi, one of the largest independent mobile ad networks, is releasing a study that forecasts the scope and effect of the iPhone 5 announcement in North America. The recent InMobi consumer smartphone survey uncovers that 41% of current mobile users in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada plan to buy an iPhone 5—potentially making it the most successful launch from the consumer electronics giant to date. The study also finds that over 50% of those users will make the purchase within the first six months of the iPhone 5 launch, which inMobi says could take Apple significantly ahead of its June 2011 market position, and increase its mobile platform market share from 27% in June (comScore) to 41%.
 
Well Done Google – But TechCity Needs To Storm The Olympic Park Next Top
storming_the_bastille[1]There are two sides to the story of Google's move to create a massive, seven storey startup / developer hub slap bang in the middle of of Shoreditch, where so many London/UK/European startups seem to be congregating. Drawn by the cluster effect and the plethora of events in the area aimed at developers, Google's move surely makes sense. But behind the scenes I happen to know that Number 10 has been lobbying for this kind of move for some time.
 
Live At The Amazon Event In New York City Top
scaledwm-3324Watch this space because beginning at 10am Eastern/7am Pacific we will be live from the Amazon event in New York City. What are we expecting? The Fire, of course - Amazon's newest Kindle that will come with a full-color, touch-sensitive screen and perhaps a few other tricks including Prime ebook subscriptions and a more robust and compelling Amazon app store. We'll update this post during the event, so refresh early and often. UPDATE - Here we go. Getting started now.
 
Amazon Tacitly Confirms The "Kindle Fire" On Their Website Top
techcrunch-kindle-tabletIt won't be long now before Amazon kicks off their big press conference, where the much-awaited Kindle tablet is rumored to make its first public appearance. We've learned recently that Amazon will be calling it the Kindle Fire, and the company seems to have quietly confirmed the name on their website.
 

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