Tuesday, October 30, 2012

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Aiming To Be A Full-Service Fitness Platform, Runtastic Launches New Indoor App Suite; Hits 14M Downloads Top
Screen shot 2012-10-30 at 10.38.55 AMThanks to MapMyFitness, RunKeeper, Nike and many more, apps that keep track of your exercise and push you to drop those extra pounds are by no means novel. Nonetheless, bootstrapped European startup Runtastic is still managing to carve out a name for itself in a crowded space by offering a simple user experience, while still offering the deeper functionality of higher-end products. Continuing to build out what it intends to be a full-service health and fitness platform, Runtastic today expanded beyond what has been its core focus to date -- outdoor recreation, like running and cycling -- launching a new suite of apps that target indoor exercise enthusiasts. Its so-called "Fitness App Collection," which is now available for Android, iOS and the Web, includes four motion-activated apps, including PullUps, PushUps, SitUps and Squats. You can probably guess at their content.
 
Gallows Humor Top
Screen Shot 2012-10-30 at 6.52.48 PMManhattan, a place I've always considered a spiritual home and sometimes an actual one, actually turned into a real life version of all those post-apocalyptic movies about Manhattan on Monday evening as Superstorm Sandy hit landfall. We all learned that what the disaster movies miss in their bathos is something elemental to human behavior in these sorts of situations: Gallows humor. Those of us with access to the Internet watched enthralled as the center of world commerce, New York City, was swallowed by flooding that eventually left 43 people dead and millions of dollars of property damaged. Because of all of the aforementioned disaster movies, the scenes broadcast were eerily familiar. Fake photos of the carnage abounded, trumped only by the more horrific, and real photos of the carnage. And jokes, lots of jokes.
 
Social Game Developer King.com Makes A Big Push Onto Mobile With Candy Crush Saga Launch Top
css_phone_ipad_printMirroring a shift in the rest of the social gaming industry over the past few years, European developer King.com is making a big push onto mobile platforms with the release of its most popular Facebook game Candy Crush Saga on iOS next month. The new mobile game has a very deep integration with Facebook, featuring cross-platform play where you can take your achievements and virtual currency purchases from the Facebook canvas into the native iOS app and vice versa.
 
With The New iPad, Apple Accelerates; With The iPad Mini, It's Pedal To The Metal Top
e"So why is iPad so phenomenally successful? Well it turns out that there's a simple reason for this," Apple CEO Tim Cook told an audience at the Apple event last week in San Jose. "People love their iPads." The response drew some awkward laughs as it seemed almost like the punchline of a misfired joke. But it wasn't a joke — Cook was absolutely serious.
 
Zetrip Finds Travel Photos And Recommendations From Your Facebook Friends, Raises Seed Funding Top
zetrip logoZetrip, new startup offering to help users find "travel inspiration" based on the activity of their Facebook friends, just raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Inspiration Ventures. Co-founder and CEO Edouard Tabet said he came up with the idea last year, when he was planning a trip to the Galapagos and wanted to see which of his Facebook friends had been there too.
 
Fanboy Targeting: Facebook Advertisers Can Now Choose What Mobile Devices Their Ads Appear On Top
Fanboy TargetingWhich mobile device you use says a lot about your buying habits. That's why Facebook just began allowing advertisers to select which devices and operating systems their Facebook mobile ads show up on. This lets Android app developers avoid wasting money advertising to iPhone users, and luxury brands can target people with iPads. If Facebook is going to be a mobile ads company.
 
George Lucas: I Sold Lucasfilm To Disney To 'Protect It' Top
Screen Shot 2012-10-30 at 4.26.43 PMThough it's obviously more of a show business story than it is a technology industry story, the news of Lucasfilm's $4 billion sale to Disney has reverberated throughout the tech world this afternoon. This is partly just because of Star Wars' cult status among the geeks (and I use that term with all respect and love) who make the web go 'round. But also, Lucasfilm has straddled the worlds of tech and film in a unique way, with its headquarters in San Francisco instead of LA and its strong operations in tech- and engineering-heavy things such as visual effects, sound design, animation, and gaming.
 
New York's Fab.com Temporarily Halts Shipping Over Hurricane Sandy Fallout Top
fab-comThe fallout from Hurricane Sandy is still affecting startups left and right. New York's Fab.com sent a memo out to customers today saying that it is temporarily halting shipments of packages because its New Jersey-based warehouses are currently without power. The company's headquarters in New York's West Village also remain without power and are closed. CEO Jason Goldberg says that about a dozen Fab employees are, in fact, working from his home right now trying to figure out how to get operations back in swing as soon as possible.
 
Microsoft Says Windows Phone 8 Is Like Xbox: Better For Being Late — And Dubs WP8′s Closeness To Windows 8 "A Huge Catalyst" Top
7328405210_7c150758baMicrosoft is sounding very bullish about the Sisyphean challenge facing it in the smartphone space: to transform Windows Phone from an also-ran into a serious, top-three smartphone contender -- pointing to lessons learned from the Xbox launch on how to be an underdog and still end up as market leader. It also reckons it has "a huge catalyst" for selling Windows Phones -- in the form of Windows 8.
 
Bob Iger Says Disney Will Focus On Mobile And Social (Not Console) Star Wars Games Top
star wars logoThe big emphasis during Disney's conference call discussing its acquisition of Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion was, not surprisingly, the enormous earnings potential of the Star Wars franchise. And that includes gaming — so one of the analysts on the call asked for more details about Disney's interactive strategy. CEO Bob Iger responded that the company is "likely to focus more on social and mobile than we are on console." However, he added that Disney will look at console games "opportunistically," using licensing deals to allow other companies to create Star Wars games for consoles.
 
Reminder: Our Northern Meetups Are Next Week. Is Your Pitch Ready? Top
meetups21-121We've had such a great response and such persistent requests for additional tickets to the Northern Meetups that we've decided to release some more. While about 800 of ya'll will be able to hang out with us, all at the same time, we're gonna give a few more tickets and let folks in on a 1-in-1-out basis. So grab a ticket and come on down early so you can be one of the first 800 folks in the door. Drink tickets go to the first 800 folks that show up, but if you miss the free drink tickets, well, you can always buy a beer and hang out. This is quite literally the last time we'll release tickets so get cracking.
 
You Get A Router! And You Get A Router! Meraki Is Giving Startups $15K In Free Wi-Fi Gear Top
Startups Get RoutersMeraki wants to celebrate 150 percent revenue growth and its 10,000th customer by bringing Oprah's generosity to networking infrastructure. Now any company with angel, seed, or Series A funding can apply for a free Meraki Startup Kit with wireless access points and five-year license. The "gift" will help Meraki lock down future customers and make sure entrepreneurs have extra cash to strap up their boots.
 
Where Hollywood And Tech Collide: Disney To Buy 'Star Wars' Maker Lucasfilm For $4.05 Billion Top
yodalucasfilmThe worlds of Hollywood, tech, and gaming are getting cozier than ever. The latest evidence of this came this afternoon, with the announcement that entertainment juggernaut Walt Disney Company will buy Lucasfilm, the film production company best known for making the Star Wars series, in a cash-and-stock deal worth $4.05 billion.
 
N2A Cards Brings Jelly Bean And All Android Apps To B&N's Nook Top
n2cards_logoBarnes & Noble's Nook Color and Tablet are capable and affordable media tablets, but they run an old and locked-down version of Android. If you are fairly technical, you can obviously use CyanogenMod to bypass B&N's firmware and install a new version of Android on your device. If you're not that technical, though, the easiest way to get Jelly Bean on your Nook tablet is to buy one of the company's pre-loaded cards for $29.99 (available online and at Fry's) or $19.99 to download the software and install it on your own microSD card.
 
Acer Wisely Shelves Windows RT Tablet Launch Until Q2 2013 Top
acerHope you weren't waiting for an Acer Windows RT tablet. The company is not releasing its offering until later next year. Originally, Acer was going to launch Windows RT tablets in the first quarter of 2013, but the company is wisely going to sit on the sidelines a bit and watch the market's reaction to other WinRT tabs -- most notable the Microsoft Surface.
 
Facebook Fraudster Paul Ceglia's 8th Lawyer Ditches Him After Arrest For Faking Evidence Top
Ceglia Behind BarsChasing a massive payday, lawyers flocked to a man who claimed to have evidence that he owned half of Facebook. But after Paul Ceglia's arrest for forging that evidence this week, his lawyer Dean Boland has wised up that that payday is never gonna come. Boland has now requested the court's permission to cease representing the con artist.
 
Square Redesigns Its Career Page To Better Match Its Culture Of Beautiful Design And Interactivity Top
sr-register-coffeeAs I've been digging deeper into companies, specifically their internal culture, one company that has stuck out to me is payments powerhouse Square. As I wrote last week, the company does some pretty interesting things to keep its team connected and on the same page. At the same time, Square is on an absolute hiring spree and is moving into a larger office in San Francisco in hopes of filling it up with talented people.
 
Google Updates Its iOS Search App To Answer All Your Burning Questions Top
iosvoicesearchgoogleGoogle first announced its plans to bring enhanced voice search to iOS back in August, and now the company has finally made good on its word — an update to the Google Search iOS app has just gone live for all you search aficionados to tinker with.
 
Facebook Becomes Nation's Hurricane Bulletin Board: "We Are Ok" Is #1 Shared Term This Morning Top
We_re OK Map DoneWhile Twitter plays both the rumor mill and fact checker for Hurricane Sandy news reports, Facebook is how people are leaving notes for loved ones about their particular situations. "We are ok" was the most shared term on Facebook as of 10am EST today. Others in the top 10 included "power" (lost power, have power), "made it," and "safe." Here's the full list and why Facebook and Twitter trends differ.
 
Yelp Launching Visual Menus With User-Contributed Photos Top
yelp menu pageYelp is announcing a new feature today that allows users to browse restaurant menus (with accompanying food porn) directly from the Yelp website and mobile app. Last year, the company added the ability for businesses to include menu links in their Yelp profiles, but until now there hasn't been any menu functionality on Yelp itself. A spokesperson sent me an early copy of the company blog post describing the feature:
 

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