Thursday, September 29, 2011

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Best Buy Kicks Off PlayBook Sale, Cuts Prices By $200 Top
bbplaybookWe reported earlier this week that Staples and Office Depot are running sales promotions for the ailing BlackBerry PlayBook, and today another big-box retailer has jumped into the fray. CNET reports that Best Buy has begun to sell all models of the PlayBook with a hefty $200 discount. That price break brings RIM's 16GB model down to $299, the 32GB model to $399, and the 64GB model to $499.
 
Hipmunk Now Reducing Agony On Android Top
android-hipmunk-frontpageHot flight search startup Hipmunk is about to land on Android. The app will be available for free, and you can install it right here. I've tested the app and it looks great (it's a nice reminder that Android apps can be slick and well designed, even if a lot of them aren't...). And it works just as you'd expect: enter your destination, departure/arrival dates, and choose from coach, business or first class. The app will present Hipmunk's grid of flights, which you can sort by Agony, Price, and Time. Oh, and all flights carrying life-sustaining Wifi are clearly labeled with nice orange icons.
 
Goldman Sachs Leads $20M Round In Social Media Marketing Platform Networked Insights Top
networked-insightsNetworked Insights, the developers of a marketing decision platform has raised $20 million in new funding led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. This brings the startup's total funding to nearly $30 million. Founded in 2006, Networked Insights' SocialSense platform analyzes social data help brands strategize and spend on marketing, advertising, research and product development. Networked Insights says it's able to mine data from 750 million people and billions online conversations on a monthly basis, which enables marketers to harness insights and streamline research for future advertising campaigns. Networked Insights makes sense of this massive amount of fata to figure out were brands should spend media dollars, whether that be TV, mobile, social etc.
 
Real Estate Platform Trulia Debuts Android Tablet And Rentals Apps Top
trulia2Real estate search engine Trulia is expanding its mobile offerings today with a new Android tablet app as well as an Android app devoted specifically for rentals. The company already offers comprehensive iPhone, iPad, Android and mobile web apps that feature much of the functionality of the site. Trulia's Android tablet app is similar to the iPad app in that it uses the full screen to display property photos and a large, interactive map with properties. Unique to Android, the app allows you to view property slideshows on the tablet's entire screen. You can also see where restaurants, schools and other points of interest are in relation to homes for sale or rent and access the agent's contact info for the property.
 
Who Should You Trust? Redfin Launches A Scouting Report For 1 Million Real Estate Agents Top
redfin_logo_smallRedfin, the online platform for real estate search and brokerage services, has made some noise in the past, building a service that's currently being valued at $230 million, at least according to trading on SharesPost. It's been a little while since we've heard some big news from the Seattle-based company, but this morning the real estate brokerage is releasing a cool new feature that puts real estate agents on notice and gives home buyers and sellers a nifty "hot or not" comparison tool. Redfin is today releasing the "Redfin Scouting Report", a way for users to look up the performance statistics for over 1 million real estate agents in 14 major metropolitan areas, with information on nearly every agent in these cities, according to Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman.
 
Report: Google Remains 'Most Attractive Employer' Among Business, Engineering Students Top
googUniversum, a company that specializes in employer branding, has published some findings based on the preferences of over 160,000 career seekers with a business or engineering background from the world´s 12 largest economies (based on nominal GDP). The goal: to find out which company is most attractive an employer according to business and engineering students. Well, there's no way around it: Google is solidly numero uno in both categories - just like last year and the year before that (see PDF).
 
DELL STREAK PRO 101DL (An Android PHONE) With Super AMOLED Display To Hit Japan 2012 Top
dell streakAnd here's the third phone from Japanese carrier SoftBank's fall/winter line-up that deserves a dedicated article: it's the so-called DELL STREAK PRO 101DL [JP], which the company will start offering to its subscribers in January 2012 (price tbd). And this isn't an Android tablet but a phone. And judging by the specs, it's going to be quite a nice one.
 
SweetLabs Raises $13 Million From Intel, Google And Others For Pokki App Platform Top
sweetSweetLabs, the San Diego company behind the Pokki app platform and the OpenCandy advertising network, has raised $13 million in funding in a Series C round led by Intel Capital, with earlier backers Google Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners also participating. The fresh money will primarily be used to invest in Pokki, a platform that lets developers create and distribute desktop apps using standard Web languages like CSS3 and JavaScript, the company says.
 
Android Phone + Lumix Camera = Panasonic's LUMIX Phone 101P For Japan Top
03_pic_02Sharp's AQUOS PHONE 102SH wasn't the only cool Android phone to hit the Japanese market today. Local carrier SoftBank will also start distributing the so-called LUMIX Phone 101P [JP] as part of its fall/winter line-up of new cell phones in November. Made by Panasonic, the Android device is designed to be a mix between a phone and a digital camera (and it sure looks like it).
 
Dogpatch Labs SF Moves From Pier 38 To Palo Alto, Opens New Accelerator In Dublin Top
dogAs you may have heard, the San Francisco Port Authority recently shut down the tech hub located at Pier 38, which was home to companies like Automattic, True Ventures, 99Designs, and others. One of the tenants, Polaris Venture Partners' Dogpatch Labs, was also kicked out and has now moved to downtown Palo Alto along with its 18 current residents. Xconomy reports that Dogpatch Labs' new Palo Alto home is adjacent to the also new Polaris Venture Partners office (the might want to update their website if this is indeed the case).
 
Earlybird Invests $2 Million In Social Media Analytics Firm Socialbakers Top
socialbakersSocial media analytics company Socialbakers, previously known as Facebakers, has raised $2 million in funding in a round led by Earlybird Venture Capital. The funding will enable Socialbakers, which was founded in 2009 and says it is already profitable, to extend its offerings for social media monitoring. Read on at TechCrunch Europe.
 
Sharp's New Android Phone: Waterproof Body, 4.5-Inch 3D QHD Display, 12MP Cam, DLNA Top
Picture 1Sharp has been producing quite a few nice Android phones for the Japanese market lately (with a 25% share, it's the leading manufacturer over here), and today, the company introduced [JP] another great-looking handset, the AQUOS PHONE 102SH. Local carrier SoftBank will start distributing the phone in Japan in December as part of its fall/winter line-up. And there can be now doubt that subscribers can get a real monster with this model.
 
The Planets Are Aligned: Facebook's Spartan And iPad Projects Set To Launch Early Next Week Top
eclipse95Earlier tonight, Alexia found and posted some screenshots of something that sure looked a lot like the mythical "Project Spartan". Shortly thereafter, Facebook took down the page in question. And for good reason. That was Project Spartan, we've now confirmed. Whoops. Well, to be fair, I've heard numerous times that they don't actually call it that internally. That may be a name that external developers use. No matter — we all know what I mean. It's the HTML5-based mobile platform that Facebook has been building in secret for months. And now it's done. In fact, it has been done for a while. From what I hear, it has been waiting on one thing...
 
Oh, Nokia. Another 3,500 People Laid Off, Manufacturing Operations Trimmed Down Top
nokia-logo-1Nokia this morning announced "plans to take additional actions to align its workforce and operations". You know what that means: mass layoffs and then some. In a press release, the Finnish mobile giant says it will reduce its staff by at least 3,500 employees by the end of 2012. Nokia also says there will be reductions in manufacturing; the company is closing its manufacturing facility in Romania by the end of this year and says it will be doubling down on its Asian factories instead.
 
Delicious Fixes Firefox Extension, Starts "Bookmark Rescue Operation" Top
deliAVOS has been getting a whole lot of criticism by former Delicious users and fans - and even original founder Joshua Schachter - after the recent launch of the all-new Delicious. And granted, perhaps they would have been better off waiting a couple more months before launching. But AVOS quickly moved to fix some issues, and announced that it was working on fixing others.
 
More Disrupt Beijing Speakers: Kai-Fu Lee, David Li, Fritz Demopoulos and More Top
disrupt_beijing_photoWith all the recent TechCrunch drama-- not to mention my own busy September giving birth-- you might think our upcoming Disrupt Beijing conference had gotten pushed to the back-burner. You'd be wrong. We've been busy ferreting out and booking more of the hottest names in the Chinese startup scene to augment our already announced keynotes by Tencent CEO Pony Ma, Chinese angel and entrepreneur Lei Jun, and a host of Western entrepreneurs who are traveling to China along with the TechCrunch staff. One of our most anticipated keynotes is no stranger to Silicon Valley: Innovation Works founder and former head of Google China Kai-Fu Lee. Lee is one of those rare executives who has deep experience in the US with top companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google and deep connections in China as well.
 
This Is Facebook's Project Spartan [Screenshots] Top
Facebook Mobile Developer PageThis Facebook mobile developers page is pretty interesting, first of all because it starts with a statistic, "350 million users access Facebook from a mobile device every month," which was just released and then because it describes Facebook mobile web app features and includes screenshots that are unlike anything we've seen live.
 
Real Journalism, VentureBeat Style Top
BS VB post
And that, by the way, is why anyone who cares about real journalism mistrusts TechCrunch—Dylan Tweney, VentureBeat
TechCrunch has plenty of critics. But I don't think I've ever read such a botched attempt at a takedown as a post published this evening on VentureBeat by Dylan Tweney titled, How TechCrunch's back-room deals destroy its credibility (which has now been taken down—here is a splogged version). Tweney emailed me about 20 minutes before he posted claiming, "We have proof that you guys trade favorable coverage for future exclusives, and we're going to publish this evening." What exactly was this "proof"?
 
Google And Samsung Announce October 11 Event: Nexus Prime Imminent Top
samsungunpackedIt looks like the wait for the elusive Nexus Prime may soon be over. Samsung has just started sending out invites for a special Samsung/Google event that's being held on October 11 at 11:30 AM in San Diego. The topic isn't listed, but the invitation says we'll see "what's new from Android". The Prime, which has been rumored for months but is still unconfirmed, is expected to be the first device running Ice Cream Sandwich — the next major Android update, which will unify for 'mobile' Gingerbread OS with 'Tablet' Honeycomb. It's also expected to be a beast specs-wise, with a dual-core processor, 4.5" or 4.65" screen, and 4G. Oh, and my favorite rumor: it's supposed to be running on Verizon's top-notch 4G network.
 
Official Flickr App Arrives For Android Top
flickrapppBeing an Android user as well as a Flickr user has been dangerous territory for quite a long time now. There's been no official app, and the third-party ones haven't been too hot. Luckily for us, Yahoo has finally dropped a Flickr app that not only has their official blessing, but doesn't suck at all.
 

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