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• Likelii Is A Database Of Booze That Bends To Your Whims
• Philadelphia Startup SnipSnap Gets More Social With Its Updated Coupon Clipping iOS App
• Biotech Startup Transcriptic Receives $1.2M In Seed Funding Led By Google Ventures And FF Angel
• PayPal Launches Prepaid "PayPal My Cash Card," Allowing Cash-Preferred Customers To Shop Online
• Amazon Puts Instant Video On iPhone And iPod Touch, Cloud Player Music On Roku And Samsung Smart TVs
• Wake N Shake Turns Waking Up Into A Multi-Player Game
• With $46M Now In The Bank, textPlus Looks To Go Big Abroad, Launches Cheap International Calling On Android
• With Audiogalaxy Acquisition, Dropbox Signals Its Cloud Music Ambitions
• Bigger Is Better: Samsung Will Allegedly Slap A 6.3″ Display On The Galaxy Note III
• Last.fm Will Turn Down The Volume On Global Radio Services In January, Take Others Behind Paywall
• Adobe Lightroom 4.3 Adds Retina Support, New Lens Profiles For Apple iPhone 5 And iPhone 4S
• Shocker: Google Maps Surges To Top Free App In The App Store In Just One Night
• Google Launches New Ad Feature To Cut Down On Accidental Mobile Clicks
• BrainNook For iPad Makes Learning Language & Math As Fun As Club Penguin
• Apple Patents Intelligent Call Waiting With Custom Hold Options And Celeb-Spotting Facial Recognition
• With DoJ Suit Still In Play, Apple And Four Big Publishers Settle Price Fixing Probe In Europe
• Sprint Looks To Buy Out Remainder Of Clearwire For Around $2.1B
• With An IPO On Its Radar, Lending Club Adds Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers To Its Heavyweight Board
• SpotHero Raises $2.5M From Battery, Lightbank To Help You Reserve Parking In Garages
• U.S. Federal Agency That Switched From BlackBerrys To iPhones Has A Rethink: Plans To Test BB10 Devices Next Year

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Likelii Is A Database Of Booze That Bends To Your Whims	Top
Because I am a conessueir conneseur lover of fine wines, cordials, spirits, toner, rubbing alcohol, and cooking sherry, I find myself often dealing with entrepreneurs who are focused on the selection and sale of these fine beverages. Luckily, these websites are getting better and better. Take Likelii, for example. The team there has created a sort of Pandora for booze, building a unique DNA for almost every brand they sell and recommending wines based on your personal preference.
Philadelphia Startup SnipSnap Gets More Social With Its Updated Coupon Clipping iOS App	Top
The holidays can be a ridiculously expensive time of the year, and really, who couldn't stand a save a little more money when buying pricey geegaws for loved ones? That's where Philadelphia-based team at SnipSnap comes in (again). The team's eponymous coupon clipping mobile app (the one made its debut on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage in New York) has just gotten a big update to streamline the process of clipping and using coupons on your iPhone.
Biotech Startup Transcriptic Receives $1.2M In Seed Funding Led By Google Ventures And FF Angel	Top
Startup biotech company Transcriptic has raised $1.2 million in a seed funding round from a wide group of investors led by Google Ventures and FF Angel (Founders Fund's seed stage arm), and private investors Mark Cuban and Naval Ravikant. Notably, more than 60 accredited investors contributed $150,000 through a partnership between investment platforms AngelList and SecondMarket, which Transcriptic says makes it the first company to raise a significant equity round online.
PayPal Launches Prepaid "PayPal My Cash Card," Allowing Cash-Preferred Customers To Shop Online	Top
PayPal announced today the launch of its first fully-branded cash loading card, called the PayPal My Cash Card, which will allow users to load up their PayPal accounts using cash instead of bank transfers. The card will be sold at pharmacies and discount stores, including CVS, Rite Aid, Fred's, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and others soon.
Amazon Puts Instant Video On iPhone And iPod Touch, Cloud Player Music On Roku And Samsung Smart TVs	Top
Amazon has announced a number of new platform expansions for its streaming media services today, including Cloud Player apps for Samsung Smart TVs and Roku set top boxes, as well as dedicated Amazon Instant Video apps for iPhone and iPod touch. The move indicates a strong push to get streaming media content on as many platforms as possible, which is the right move for a company now competing with giants like Apple and Google mostly on the strength of its media ecosystem.
Wake N Shake Turns Waking Up Into A Multi-Player Game	Top
Unless you're plagued with serious night terrors, waking up is one of the hardest parts of the day. But what if your rise and shine moment was turned into a game that let you compete against your friends? Let me tell you, it wouldn't fix the problem entirely, but it would make the process a little less painless. That's what Wake N Shake aims to do. The app originally launched as the "merciless" alarm clock, with no snooze button and no relief until you shake the crap out of your iPhone. But a recent update has added the ability to make waking up social, and gamified even.
With $46M Now In The Bank, textPlus Looks To Go Big Abroad, Launches Cheap International Calling On Android	Top
It's been a big year for the artist formerly known as GOGII. Back in October, the Southern California-based startup raised $18 million in series D financing from The Raine Group, Kleiner Perkins, Matrix Partners and GRP, bringing its total investment to just over $46 million. The round was a testament to the continuing success of its flagship product, textPlus, a free text messaging app that has seen 40 million downloads in the U.S. and Canada to date -- half of which came in 2012 alone. In recognition of this phenomenal adoption, the startup rebranded from GOGII to textPlus in October.
With Audiogalaxy Acquisition, Dropbox Signals Its Cloud Music Ambitions	Top
Dropbox broadly hinted at its future plans yesterday, with the acquisition of Audiogalaxy, a startup allowing users to store their music files and playlists in the cloud then stream them to any device. The announcement was made via a short post on the Audiogalaxy blog, signed by company founders Michael Merhej, Tom Kleinpeter and Viraj Mody.
Bigger Is Better: Samsung Will Allegedly Slap A 6.3″ Display On The Galaxy Note III	Top
According to the Korea Times, Samsung is trying to put a 6.3-inch display in the next iteration of the Galaxy Note. The Galaxy Note II, which launched relatively recently, debuted with a 5.5-inch display, already a step up from the original Note's 5-inch screen. Bigger is apparently better.
Last.fm Will Turn Down The Volume On Global Radio Services In January, Take Others Behind Paywall	Top
Last.fm, an early mover in the streaming music business, is scaling back some of its operations, and putting others behind a paywall, in a bid to cut costs and make more money out of its existing business, the company has announced.
Adobe Lightroom 4.3 Adds Retina Support, New Lens Profiles For Apple iPhone 5 And iPhone 4S	Top
Adobe has released the full version of Lightroom 4.3, which adds some nice new features for Mac fans and Apple aficionados. Previously, Adobe had released a beta version of the update for testing, but now the final is out there and available for download, either by going to the Adobe Lightroom website or opening the image management software and getting the prompt to update.
Shocker: Google Maps Surges To Top Free App In The App Store In Just One Night	Top
Google Maps has already flown to the number one spot in the Apple App Store after being available for one night. The app is the number one free app in the App Store, overtaking YouTube and two gamse, Fun Run and Interlocked. Interestingly enough, Apple isn't featuring the Google Maps iOS app in its special Maps-related Featured section. The company first introduced the "Find Maps for Your iPhone" Featured section just after iOS 6 was released and the world realized just how flawed Apple's Maps are.
Google Launches New Ad Feature To Cut Down On Accidental Mobile Clicks	Top
Google is announcing a new mobile ad feature today, one that the company says should alleviate the "fat finger" issue, where you accidentally tap on a banner ad on your phone. That's annoying for the consumer, since they're directed to a site that they had no intention of visiting, and it's bad for the advertiser too, since they're paying for a click that doesn't have much value. Jonathan Alferness, Google's product director for mobile ads, said the company has already tackled the problem in its text and app promotion ad formats — those ads include a blue arrow, and if you tap on the ad, but don't not on the arrow, it enlarges into a "visit site" button, which you have to tap again to actually go to the advertiser's site. In other words, if there's some ambiguity about whether you really meant to select the ad, Google will ask you to confirm that it was intentional. The format was first tested a few years ago and became more widely available after AdMob was integrated with AdWords in June.
BrainNook For iPad Makes Learning Language & Math As Fun As Club Penguin	Top
BrainNook, a social, educational gaming site for children grades 1 through 5, is today expanding to the iPad with the debut of the first in a series of apps from the company. These apps will focus on teaching children math and language skills, but have the goal of being as entertaining and engaging as other popular kids' virtual worlds, like Moshi Monsters or Club Penguin.
Apple Patents Intelligent Call Waiting With Custom Hold Options And Celeb-Spotting Facial Recognition	Top
Two new patent applications published by the USPTO today describe a couple of pieces of tech that both help make mobile devices smarter, albeit in very different ways. The first is a facial recognition system that can identify people and things using vector-based "faceprints" picked up from photos, and the second is a call waiting system that can provide inbound callers with a lot more than just a repeated tone to let them know they're still on hold.
With DoJ Suit Still In Play, Apple And Four Big Publishers Settle Price Fixing Probe In Europe	Top
Good news for Amazon, and for consumers on the lookout for bargain prices for e-books in Europe. Apple, along with the publishers Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette and Holtzbrinck (Macmillan), have reached a settlement over e-book pricing in Europe. That deal had become the subject of an antitrust probe initiated in December 2011: the European Commission believed it gave Apple and the publishers an unfair advantage over how they priced e-books. Ironically, the biggest winner in this antitrust settlement might be the biggest e-book retailer of them all, Amazon.
Sprint Looks To Buy Out Remainder Of Clearwire For Around $2.1B	Top
Earlier, it was rumored that Sprint was considering a buy-out of the remaining 48 percent of Clearwire shares it didn't own, after the pending Softbank investment in its company promised to deliver it enough cash to negate the adverse effect of taking on Clearwire's money-losing financials. Now, Bloomberg reports that Sprint is indeed looking to buy, in a deal worth about $2.1 billion according to the carrier.
With An IPO On Its Radar, Lending Club Adds Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers To Its Heavyweight Board	Top
Today, Larry Summers became the latest prominent name to endorse Lending Club -- the fast-growing peer-to-peer lending company that aims to connect creditworthy borrowers with smart investors -- as the former U.S. Treasury Secretary joined the company's growing, star-studded board of directors. The economist, also known for serving as the 27th president of Harvard University and as the Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama, joins names like John Mack, the ex-chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, and Kleiner Perkins Partner Mary Meeker.
SpotHero Raises $2.5M From Battery, Lightbank To Help You Reserve Parking In Garages	Top
Parking garage reservation startup SpotHero has raised $2.5 Million in funding led by Battery Ventures with 500 Startups, David Cohen's Bullet Time, e.Ventures, OCA Ventures, New World Ventures, Lightbank, & Draper VC also participating.
U.S. Federal Agency That Switched From BlackBerrys To iPhones Has A Rethink: Plans To Test BB10 Devices Next Year	Top
Some good news for embattled smartphone maker RIM: the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has said it plans to test BlackBerry 10 devices next year. ICE had previously announced it would switch its staff from BlackBerrys to iPhones but now plans to begin a pilot program on RIM's new line of BlackBerry 10 smartphones and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 early next year.

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