Thursday, September 29, 2011

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Myspace Owner-Specific Media Hit With Layoffs Top
specificmediaMyspace owner-Specific Media has laid of a percentage of its staff today, we've confirmed with the company. Specific Media said these layoffs took place in sales and operating areas, and was part of a consolidation effort to eliminate redundancies between the two businesses. As Specific Media says in a statement: The company is consolidating forces to ensure greater alignment between its workforce and the direction in which it's headed. Specific Media says that "less than 8%" of the company's employees were laid off. Specific Media has about 750 employees, so around 50-60 employees may have been let go. Apart from Myspace, Specific Media is an ad technology company that aims to help drive viewership for content owners, engagement for brands and relevance for consumers. The company allows marketers to buy digital ads across the Web, TV, online video, mobile platforms. Of course, you may know that Specific Media (along with Justin Timberlake) bought Myspace earlier this year from News Corp. for around $35 million.
 
Google Analytics Catches Up With Real-Time, Launches Enterprise Tier Top
googlerealtimeGoogle Analytics, the immensely popular suite of tools that Google offers to help webmasters track their site traffic, is getting a big boost this week: the service has launched a real-time dashboard that updates with user events as they happen. That's a big deal, as it brings Google more in line with popular real-time analytics products like Chartbeat, which allows you to track things like how many people are currently on your site, and how much traffic each individual article has gotten in the last few minutes. Prior to today's launch of real-time, Google Analytics reports typically had a delay window upwards of three hours (and often longer), which meant this kind of tracking wasn't possible.
 
Swatch Announces Touchscreen Watches Top
scaled.sc01_11_swatch_touch_PRshot_All_Press(RGB)Ugly though they may be, these Swatch watches have a trick up their sleeves. Using the same technology found in the Tissot T-Touch line, these Swatch Touch watches are touch-sensitive and allow you to swipe through different functions and control most of the watch features with a simple finger tap. The Touch 2011 models support two timezones, a date display, chronograph, alarm, and timer. There are no buttons and it has a curved glass display and weirdly proportioned numerals. It has an integrated strap.
 
Music Piracy Down As Streaming Services Take Over Top
shutterstock_75068491The Swedish polling company, Media Vision, has released a study (in Swedish) about downloading habits in the country where Spotify was born. Their results? 23 percent of Swedes download music illegally, down 2 to 3 percent since 2010. In short, music piracy, at least in that market, is falling rapidly and much of that decline can be attributed to the popularity of services like Spotify. As Torrentfreak notes, there's no way to compete with free, but when content is made available on multiple platforms for a fair price it's clear that consumers will react favorably.
 
Make It HD: Star Trek TNG Remastered For Blu-ray Top
tngHold onto your phasers — the dream of many a Trekkie is about to come true. Star Trek: The Next Generation will be released on Blu-ray starting in 2012. Every one of the show's 178 episodes will be released eventually, though not all at once. Why such a slow release? Well, it turns out that instead of upconverting and selling for a premium, the producers of this new version are doing it right. How right? They're scanning the original 35mm footage, cutting together the shows from that, and re-creating the original effects in high definition. Now that's what I call a proper remastering. George Lucas, take note.
 
This Guy Built His Own iPhone 5 "Design Prototype" Top
Fan-made iPhone 5 prototype 4Oh, you think you're a hardcore Apple fan? Sure, you might have plastered the back window of your hybrid with Apple stickers. Yeah, you've got something MG Jobs said painted on the wall above your bed. Hell, you even named your first daughter McKenzie, just so you could call her "Mac". But this guy milled his own iPhone 5 prototype, based on nothing but rumors and speculation. Just so he could see what it was like. Yeah. Bar raised.
 
HP's Internal $99 TouchPad Sale More Popular Than Expected, Crushes Web Server Top
images (3)People love the $99 TouchPad including HP employees. The TouchPad hit the HP's employee purchasing program yesterday and potential buyers showed up en mass, promptly crashing the servers. It's unclear how many TouchPads were sold, but my HP source didn't manage to snag a cheap TouchPad yet. Instead, he received (and forwarded) an email detailing the problem and warning employees not to bother the call center with their woes. "Our site is too slow," he said. HP might still have TouchPads reserved for employees as he hasn't received an email stating they're sold out. Hopefully after HP takes care of its employees the company will release the last TouchPads to retailers. After the first batch dried up last month, most stores started wait lists after HP announced more were on their way. My daily routine involves checking several retailers' websites in the hope that I stumble upon an active Buy Now link -- apparently a good chunk of HP's 300,000 employees are doing the same thing right now.
 
Bing Launches Airport Maps For 42 US Cities Top
bing_logoMicrosoft's search service Bing is today announcing the launch of airport maps for 42 major airports across the U.S., with plans to expand to other airports over time. The new feature is available now in Bing Maps on the desktop (some airport maps were previously available on mobile). With this, you can see inside airports in order to locate terminals, check-in counters, restrooms, shops, restaurants, baggage claim areas, information desks and more.
 
Logitech Lands Six-Figure Fine From EPA For Misleading Ads Top
LogitechMx3200Logitech is known for their keyboards and mice, and the company always seems to find new ways to make what should be boring old accessories interesting. The MX 3200 Laser keyboard and mouse are an awesome example, as Logitech said the combo pack was built using an AgION surface meant to disrupt the growth of bacterial cells. Not a bad idea at all, but the way that Logitech marketed the MX 3200 Laser didn't please the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency one bit.
 
Shazam Ditches The Monthly Tagging Limits For iOS And Android Devices Top
ShazamBack in late 2009, then-free music identifying service Shazam made a rather drastic change to their business model: they went freemium. Everybody got 5 free song identifications per month... but after that, they'd have to cough up for premium app, "Shazam Encore". That worked well enough for a while — then the competition rolled in, and gave away what Shazam was trying to charge for. Shazam responded with an experiment: they'd remove the tagging limits in their app, with a single "sponsor" covering their costs in exchange for ad placement — but only for Android, and only until the end of the year. Seems that worked well enough: Shazam has just removed the tagging limits in their iOS and Android apps indefinitely.
 
Nokia Preparing New "Meltemi" OS For Low-End Phones Top
Image (1) nokialineup.jpg for post 68830It's no secret that Nokia has put their faith in Windows Phone 7 to carry their future smartphones, but they haven't forgotten the millions of customers who count on them for their lower-end handsets. A new report from the Wall Street Journal suggests that Nokia is hard at work on a Linux-based OS codenamed "Meltemi."
 
StoryDesk Brings Sales Catalogs To The iPad Top
StoryDesk_logo_largeStoryDesk, a tablet publishing platform for enterprise, is today launching its first product called CatalogApp, an iPad application that lets businesses bring their sales catalogs to the tablet computer. The application is designed to be easy to use, even for those without technical expertise. With StoryDesk's Web-based content management system, CatalogApp users can enter in or even drag-and-drop product information, photos and pricing into the StoryDesk online interface. The changes made are then immediately synced to the iPad application on the end user's device.
 
The Best (Fake) iPhone 5 Video Yet Top
fake iphoneReally? Could this video really show the iPhone 5? Probably not. The video's authenticity is tipped by several subtle clues. But the video is still worth watching. The creator clearly knows his way around video editing software and deserves major props for this timely video. It's good and I want it to be real.
 
Bezos: "In The Modern Era Of Consumer Electronics Devices, If You Are Just Building A Device You Are Unlikely To Succeed." Top
scaledwm-3314The Kindle Fire may be poised to win the Android tablet wars, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos doesn't think of it as a tablet. "We think of Kindle Fire as an end-to-end service," he told me yesterday in an interview after his presentation, picking up on a theme he introduced earlier onstage (see video above). The Kindle Fire is a wrapper for all of Amazon's digital media products in the cloud. It is designed specifically to consume digital media in all its forms, from books and magazines to movies, games, and apps. Bezos sees the Kindle Fire holistically as a delivery device which will help unleash all the digital media services Amazon offers.
 
eBay Adds Facebook Platform And Mobile Marketing Exec Katie Mitic To Board Top
Katie Burke MiticeBay is adding a new member to its board today—Facebook executive Katie Burke Mitic. She joins current board members eBay CEO John Donahoe, Pierre Omidyar, Scott Cook, Fred D. Anderson, William Ford, Marc Andreessen, Edward W. Barnholt, Dawn Lepore, David Moffett, Richard Schlosberg, and Thomas Tierney. Mitic currently leads Platform and Mobile Marketing for Facebook, with responsibility for shaping and growing products for over two million developers and businesses that engage with Facebook's 800 million active users. Prior to joining Facebook, Mitic served as Senior Vice President of Global Product Marketing at Palm, where she oversaw hardware and software product management and marketing, as well as business and corporate development.
 
Gibson Shipping The Firebird X, A Computer Inside A Guitar Top
gibsonfirebirdxeng2010Announced at CES 2011, the Gibson Firebird X has been a fascinating example of a traditional instrument maker building something that, arguably, is quite revolutionary. The Firebird X is essentially a computer inside a guitar. The guitar itself contains a Freescale processor and can run apps approved and sold through the Gibson website. The guitar can model over 2,000 different sounds and styles out of the box and, when coupled with Gibson's auto-tuning machine heads, you can select any number of tuning possibilities automatically. Guitar purists are an angry lot and many innovations, including the Fretlight, are welcomed with derision and snark. To be fair, guitars haven't improved much since Les Paul strapped some strings to a hunk of 4x4. As electronic music has eclipsed "real" instruments, it's good to see that Gibson is still trying new things. They could just sit back and keep making sunbursts until the end of days, but instead they're building what amounts to a PC in a solid-body electric.
 
The Europas Awards For European Tech Startups Launches Top
europaslogo2_white (1)The Europas, the European Tech Startup Awards, were held for the second time December 2010, in London, supported by TechCrunch Europe. It was the culmination of a month of online voting by the European tech startup industry for the finalists, where some 33,126 votes were cast, judges deliberated over the results and over 350 people joined the cream of Europe's startups, VCs and entrepreneurs at a huge awards event. This year it's getting bigger to get the community even more involved, create an even bigger event, and find the best startups in Europe. You can enter here and tickets are here.
 
Vostu Debuts Golmania, A Multi-Player Soccer Game For Orkut And Facebook Top
golBrazilian social gaming company Vostu is unveiling its first title that mixes casual gaming with social gaming, Golmania. The multi-player soccer game will launch on Orkut and Facebook in English, Spanish and Portuguese For background, Vostu is one of the largest social gaming companies in Brazil. The gaming company, which now has more than 35 million users, was founded in 2007 by three Harvard classmates: CEO Daniel Kafie, chief scientist Mario Schlosser, and Joshua Kushner (who is also an active seed investor through Thrive Capital). Vostu is backed by Tiger Management, Accel Partners, Intel Capital and General Catalyst. The company has also been embroiled in a nasty lawsuit with social gaming giant Zynga.
 
Huzzah! A Wooden Frame For Settlers Of Catan Top
catan_showcase_tilespips_textWhen you woke up this morning, did you think that the world would change? Well it did, people. It did. Boardcrafting is a Kickstarter project that will change the way people play Settlers of Catan forever by replacing the easily-jostled cardboard pieces with real wooden markers and pips. If you're not familiar with Catan it's a game for former D&D nerds who want to feel like they're kind of playing Civilization. We're a Carcassonne family, but that doesn't mean we don't like to whip out our sheep and wheat and colonize the island a bit. However, because the game is made of light cardboard it tends to shift and flop around during play, especially on uneven surfaces. That's where Boardcrafting comes in.
 
GetJar Gold Gives Away $1 Million In Free Apps Top
getjar_logo_2010 (1)Earlier this month, third-party mobile app store GetJar announced the public launch of its GetJar Gold Program (previously in beta), a catalog of premium Android applications made available for free. Today, the company is providing an update on the catalog's success: over $1 million in free applications have been downloaded in the three weeks post-launch, Get Jar says. It has also spurred an increase in GetJar's free app downloads, too - a 5000% increase, in fact.
 

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