Monday, October 29, 2012

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New Nexus 7 Pricing Confirmed: $199 For 16GB, $249 For 32GB Top
nexus 7Google is dropping the price on its 7-inch tablet. The 16GB model will soon cost $199, down from the original $249 MSRP. Likewise, a new model, a 32GB flavor, will occupy the $249 price point. There's no word what's to come of the 8GB model although early speculation stated that it could drop in price by as much as $100. Google was supposed to have a big Android event today in NYC. But Hurricane Sandy decided to visit the big Apple, take in a show and blow-in the sights.
 
All Aboard The M-Commerce Gravy Train: MobiCart Raises Further $500K For Its Mobile Store Builder Top
MCMobiCart, the mobile commerce startup that makes it easy to build and manage a storefront natively for iOS and Android or as a HTML5 app, has raised a further £300k (approx. $500k). In what is effectively a follow on round, the new funding comes from previous backer, Northstar Ventures-managed Finance for Business North East Proof of Concept Fund, in addition to the Yorkshire Association of Business Angels.
 
Skyscanner Releases Windows 8 App, Plans 100 New Jobs In Its Scotland HQ Top
Screen Shot 2012-10-29 at 11.24.40Last month Skyscanner, which competes with Kayak on flight, hotel and car hire bookings, hit a nice milestetone with 11 million downloads of its free native mobile apps. Today it's adding to that with a Windows 8 version. The free app is available through the Windows Store and is - the company claims - the first app with built in free-text search. That means users can enter "Flights to Berlin next Tuesday, back a week later", rather than completing several data fields, to search for flights. Users can also pin and track flight searches to their Windows desktop through live tiles. Skyscanner's app also runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry.
 
Microsoft Releases Windows 8 Companion App For Syncing Media With Windows Phone 8 Devices Ahead Of Big WP8 Reveal Top
Screen Shot 2012-10-29 at 09.05.46Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 event takes place later today -- where we expect to find out exactly how the integration between WP8, Microsoft's new mobile OS, and its new desktop OS Windows 8 will work. In the meanwhile, the Verge has spotted a companion app that's surfaced on the Windows Store which will allow WP8 users to sync content with a Windows 8 PC.
 
Battling Amazon: Pearson And Bertelsmann To Form Global Consumer Publishing Giant, Penguin Random House, To Build "New Digital Publishing Models" Top
Image (1) oldbooks.jpg for post 350503Publishing giants Pearson and Bertelsmann are creating a joint venture to pool their respective consumer publishing businesses, Penguin and Random House, in a bid to go the distance in the digital age. The pair said the combined organisation will have a "stronger platform and greater resources to invest in rich content, new digital publishing models".
 
As Google And Amazon Fight Up, Apple Refuses To Fight Down Top
fight clubAfter this past week's Apple event, one thing stood out to me above all others. And just to make sure, I watched the event again. Same result. The shots fired at Android tablets. For everything that Apple announced (new MacBook Pros, Mac minis, iMacs, iPads, and iPad minis), this was what I walked away thinking about. It was a fascinating look into the collective mind of Apple.
 
Why The Future Of Search May Look More Like Yahoo Than Google Top
Yahoo_oldRewind to the late 90s. Almost everything you needed – email, news, sports, stocks, maps and more – was conveniently on one site: Yahoo!. Yahoo! was the "portal" to the Internet that strived to deliver everything you could ever want on its own properties. The crazy thing is how successful Yahoo! was at this. Few, if any, have ever done content or media online at that scale.
 
NYSE And NASDAQ To Close Down On Monday And Possibly Tuesday Due To Hurricane Sandy Top
4111211837_a3a6f7e255_zAccording to Reuters, the U.S. Stock Market will be closed on Monday due to interference that will be caused by the logistical nightmare that comes along with such a huge weather event like Hurricane Sandy. Parts of New York City have already been evacuated. As early as six hours ago, it was said that the NYSE would not be closing down, but that decision has apparently been reversed as the severity of the storm has picked up.
 
Is FastPay A Real Alternative To VC Funding? Two Digital Media Startups Say Yes Top
fastpayBack in June, I wrote about a startup called FastPay, which offers credit lines to digital media companies. At the time, CEO and founder Jed Simon pitched the service as an alternative to venture capital. Well, a couple of months later I asked: Are there really companies that used FastPay instead of raising venture funding? In response, the FastPay team put me in touch with two customers — Moguldom Media Group and Giant Media. Since I only talked to two out of what Simon said is about 100 total customers, Moguldom and Giant's probably aren't entirely representative of the FastPay experience. But they did answer my question. So yes, there at least two startups that used FastPay as a VC alternative.
 
Badabing! For iOS Helps You Find All Of Your Facebook Friends' Bikini Pics Top
2573375356_a0edb3d42d_zOk, so this app made me feel really dirty when I downloaded it. It's called Badabing! and it basically goes through your friends' photos on Facebook to pull out the ones of them at the pool or beach. In other words, we're talking about scantily clad photos here. I of course, for the sake of technology journalism, had to download the app and give it a whirl. It actually kind of works and it's really creepy. To protect the not so innocent, I'm not going to post any actual screenshots of my Facebook friends. They'd kill me. And probably the folks who made this app.
 
Everyone At Once On The Second Screen Top
SECOND SCREENINGWhen the world's gaze focuses on a single televised moment, it's what's in the periphery of our vision that unites us. The second screen brings awareness of the millions watching alongside, no matter where they are. It reaffirms our interest and passion, while adding depth and fresh perspective. If you watch the game on delay, or check out the debates online later, you're missing something special.
 
The Paper I Buy Top
photo We're living in a pre-barbaric age. Gutenberg and the printed word cast out the darkness of a hundred mistakes, a thousand benighted cities hastened from the gloom, a million lights winked on in a million windows. The word, once hidden in the chests of the mind, was now scratched onto paper and carefully typeset into folios. The barbarians were cast out, fleeing ahead of the coming enlightenment.
 
Amazon Gets Feisty, Updates Homepage To Talk Smack On The iPad Mini Top
amazonsmackCompetition in the low-cost tablet space has been heating up for a while now thanks to strong new hardware from the likes of Asus, Google, and Barnes & Noble, but it seems the time has come for the Kindle Fire hucksters at Amazon to go on the offensive against a very prominent rival: Apple's iPad mini.
 
To Successfully Launch A Product, You Have To Tell A Compelling Story Top
42760256_c5376f3cf5_b"The art of narration and dramatic presentation, together with a keen sense of the oral epic style, became a characteristic quality of the Russian people." —Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale At the end of a week filled with product launches and press conferences, it's hard not to compare those marketing events. Without even talking about the products, some were much more compelling than others. And it all comes down to the story that you tell, as a company. Failing at that task will greatly endanger your product.
 
The Best Ad Campaign on the Web? Top
image (2)Over the past two weeks, I've been involved in a Facebook ad campaign whose results are astonishing.  It's a political campaign supporting California's Proposition 37 (Label Genetically Engineered Foods). Our Facebook sales rep was ecstatic when she first saw the numbers. She'd never seen anything like it in her career. But before I share the details, let me explain why I'm passionate about this.
 
Now That Windows 8 And The Surface Tablet Have Launched, Microsoft Turns Its Focus To Developers Top
build_microsoft_2012_logoMicrosoft's heavy schedule of launches and events this month, including the Windows 8 and Surface events in New York last week and its Windows Phone 8 event in San Francisco on Monday, is set to reach its end with the Build developer conference on the company's huge Redmond, WA campus starting on Tuesday. In some way, this is almost symbolic, given that the future of the Windows 8 platform is now really in the hands of the developers.
 
6 Business Friendly Features In iOS 6 And What They Say About The New "Surface" Threat Top
Surface vs iPadApple CEO Tim Cook said in the earnings call this past week that 80% of the Fortune 500 companies use iPhones and iPads. To make his point, Cook said companies such as Canon are outfitting its entire field sales teams with iPads.
 
Attention Rupert Murdoch: Steve Jobs Passed Away On October 5th, Not October 28th Top
3488040165_57cd14c8b9_zSo this guy, Rupert Murdoch, who is supposed to know a thing or two about technology, tweeted this out today.
 
Killing Your Startup on a Thursday Night Top
shutterstock_82940494This is what you do when you close down your startup: you call Rackspace and cancel the Windows SQL server plan. You email SendGrid and give them notice on your Silver SMTP Service Package. You close down your Wells Fargo Business Checking account and your Paypal Merchant account. Glamorous stuff. Harder than that: you email your cofounders and tell them you're jumping into the deadpool. Your fingers will hover over the keyboard for a long time as you decide what to say. Because now shit is getting real.
 
The Sleeping Giants Of African Mobile Payments Top
Screen Shot 2012-10-27 at 5.51.59 PMKenya's M-PESA is the poster child for mobile money services in Africa, but it is also increasingly gaining attention further abroad. It is, however, only one of the mobile payment systems on the continent that have bypassed the typical financial rites of passage and are very quickly catapulting consumers into a truly cashless economy, as well as transforming lives in a very real sense.
 

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