Wednesday, December 12, 2012

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Fly Or Die: Kindle Fire HD 8.9 Vs. Nook HD+ Top
Screen Shot 2012-12-12 at 2.14.56 PMShort of an iPad, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and Nook HD+ are about as good as it gets in the 10-inch media tablet space, so we thought it only fitting to Fly or Die these bad boys side-by-side. Though John and I did disagree a bit on which is best, we can both agree that either of these media tablets is an excellent buy for the avid reader and movie lover. Both have excellent displays — the Nook HD+ technically has a slightly higher ppi and laminated screen, while the Fire HD offers stereo speakers. In almost every way, though, it comes down to software.
 
He Who Controls The Mobile Photos, Controls The Universe Top
87452484_e1dac7f532_zA funny, and somewhat unexpected thing happened today. Yahoo!, now with Marissa Mayer at the helm, decided that it was time to bring an all new experience to the world when it comes to photo sharing and hosting. It’s a whole lot of new for Flickr’s site and iOS app, and a bit of old nostalgia at play today, which is quite refreshing. One of the killer features of the new Flickr app that most people haven’t picked up on yet is the fact that it’s super simple to build up, and update, your social graph on Flickr. Yes, playing nice with other companies does have its upside. By simply tapping into your Facebook, Twitter and Address Book contacts, you can completely bring Flickr back to life for your friends, and for yourself. It’s quite simple. Let’s not forget that you can also share all of your photos to these services with simplicity. All you have to do is open the app and start connecting your accounts, if they’re not already. With a simple people picker, you can start sending friend requests from Flickr. Some of those folks are already using the service, since basically everyone has a Yahoo! account from “back in the day.” I’ve personally been getting requests all morning, and it’s nice. Below, you can see how simple it is to connect with existing friends using the Flickr app: Will they be shut down by Facebook and Twitter? Let’s hope not. The power of all of this is that Yahoo! has chosen to be a partnership friendly company, basically, not compete with everyone else. With that approach, they are indeed competing with everyone, but in a nicer way. Twitter doesn’t care where you share photos from really, as long as it’s a great experience for its users. Flickr nailed that with Twitter Card integration. When it comes to Instagram and Facebook, locking the photos away is clearly not what Flickr is all about. The company says that it wants to promote and enable content creators, not hide their work away. This approach can win. I predict that this approach will win. And by win, I mean, becoming a leader in the photo space once again. You remember, everyone was on Flickr, talking about Flickr and using Flickr. Will it happen again? Can it? Let’s wait and see.
 
Google's New Data Highlighter Lets You Add Structured Data To Your Sites Without Touching Any Code Top
google_webmaster_toolsGoogle wants website owners to add as much structured data to their sites as possible in order to improve its search results and Knowledge Graph boxes with rich snippets like event listings, reviews and other information. Adding this kind of metadata to a site, however, isn't always trivial and many small businesses don't really have the expertise to add microdata or RDFa markup to their sites. Starting today, however, you won't have to fiddle with your code to report this data to Google. The company's new Data Highlighter now offers a point-and-click tool for tagging your site to its specifications without having to touch any code.
 
Mobile Gift Card App Gyft Arrives On Android Top
gyftGood things come in threes. Today, a third TechCrunch Disrupt alumni - in this case, Gyft - is launching on Android. Its debut follows news from earlier this morning which saw two other former participants, the Siri-like Maluuba app and Vocre's translation app, also arriving on Google's mobile platform.
 
FreedomPop Debuts In-Home Wireless Broadband With 1GB Free, Sees Nearly 50% Paid Conversions On Mobile Top
freedompopFreedomPop, the wireless broadband company that started out offering free mobile data plans with 500MB of bandwidth for free, today began offering its Hub Burst modem for pre-order with an early 2013 expected arrival date. The modem uses Clearwire's WiMAX network to provide customers with in-home broadband connections at speeds it claims exceed DSL connections, and comes with 1GB per month of free service.
 
Ping.it Launches 'Noise-Less' Social Platform For Sharing Web Links In A More Targeted — But Still Sociable — Way Top
Screen Shot 2012-12-12 at 16.26.07Ping.it, a Norwegian startup that wants to cut down on social networking noise by building a more controlled sharing platform -- described as a cross between email and social networking -- has launched its platform in open beta today. The startup was shortlisted at this year's Dublin Web Summit's startup competition, one of 100 to make the final shortlist.
 
Android-Based Siri Alternative Maluuba Gets Into Online Shopping, Partners With Best Buy And Walmart Top
maluuba_headerTechCrunch Disrupt alumni Maluuba is launching the latest version of its Siri-like Android app in the Google Play store today. The major new feature in this latest release is the addition of shopping-related queries and results to the 18 other categories Maluuba currently understands.
 
General Catalyst Backs Roughdraft.VC To Fund Student-Run Startups And Ideas In Boston Top
roughThere's no shortage of college student who have startup ideas and want to turn their entrepreneurial dreams into a reality. But getting the money, even if it is a few hundred dollars to set up servers, isn't easy for college students. First Round Capital recently debuted its Dorm Room Fund to help back ideas started by students in the Philadelphia area. NEA has also started a similar fund at Harvard. And today, General Catalyst is debuting its version of the service, Roughdraft.VC, to fund students at universities in Boston.
 
Sources: Snapchat Raising "North Of $10M" At Around $70M Valuation, Led By Benchmark's Mitch Lasky Top
mzl.uqchfnwv.320x480-75We now have a foil for all the young consumer startups trying to raise their first venture rounds. Snapchat, an increasingly popular mobile app that auto-deletes photos shortly after viewing, is about to close a big new round of funding from Benchmark Capital. We've been chasing for the last week or two, but Om Malik has published first -- with a few different details.
 
Following Walmart.com's Lead, Amazon Adds Facebook-Enabled Gift Suggestions Top
friends-and-family-amazonAmazon today announced a new feature called Friends and Family Gifting, aimed at helping customers better organize their gift lists and gift ideas for others, generate Facebook-enabled gift suggestions, receive reminders, and share their gift lists out via email or to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
 
After Cashing Out Of Seesmic, Loic LeMeur Sells Majority Stake In LeWeb Conference Biz To ReedMidem Top
leweb_logo_12Here's a crash-bang follow up to last week's LeWeb tech conference in Paris. Today, the trade event giant Reed Exhibitions announced that it has bought a majority stake in the franchise from Loic and Geraldine LeMeur, who founded the event in 2004 in Paris and have grown it to be one of the bigger tech conferences in Europe.
 
MasterCard Backs And Partners With Mobile Wallet Infrastructure Platform C-SAM Top
cMasterCard has announced an investment in and partnership with mobile wallet and transactions platform provider C-SAM. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
 
Disrupt Alum Vocre Finally Brings Its Voice Translation App To Android Top
vocre-androidIf there was ever an issue that the folks behind the (Disrupt audience choice winning) mobile translation app Vocre needed to address, it's that Vocre has only ever been available for iOS users. Fortunately for you Android-using non-polyglots out there, that's all changed -- Vocre has just pushed its voice translation app into the Google Play store.
 
Apple Grabs 84% Of Mobile PC Shipments For Q2 2012, Tablet Market Predicted To Remain Strong In 2013 Top
chromatik ipadApple was responsible for an impressive 84 percent of total mobile PC shipments in Q2 2012, owing primarily to the success of its iPad line, according to a new report from supply chain analysis firm NPD DisplaySearch. LG Display reaped the benefit of that market domination, leading the industry in mobile PC panel shipments in 2012 thanks to its supplier relationship with Apple.
 
Crowdtilt Launches Crowdfunding API To Give Developers Easy Access To Group Payments & Social Fundraising Top
ct_logo_RGBSince launching in February, Y Combinator grad Crowdtilt has been on a mission to become the easiest way for friends and groups of people to raise money for any cause. Last month, the group-funding platform added deeper support for non-profits and charitable fundraising initiatives by enabling users to make tax-deductible donations to 501(c)(3) organizations and receive auto-generated tax-deductible receipts. The startup has been looking for business development opportunities and ways to increase its reach, both among non-profits and startups. Hot on the heels of announcing support for charitable fundraising, Crowdtilt is today adding another piece to its customer acquisition strategy with the (beta) launch of its API. With its new API in place, Crowdtilt now enables third-party developers and businesses to quickly tap into its group-payment capabilities.
 
Vivino Raises $1M From Creandum For Mobile Wine Cellar Top
vivVivino, a mobile wine app that allows users to keep track of wines they drink, rate them for future reference, and share their favorites with others, has raised $1 million in Series A financing from Creandum, the Nordic venture capital firm known for its early investments in Spotify, iZettle, and Wrapp. Vivino previously received seed funding last year from SEED Capital and Skype co-founder Janus Friis.
 
Google's Zeitgeist Reveals Whitney Houston As Top Search Trend Of 2012; iPad 3, SOPA, Hurricane Sandy & More Among Top Trends Top
Zeitgeist 2012 – GoogleBing and Yahoo may have already released their respective looks back on the top searches of 2012, but let's be honest here - Google's 2012 Zeitgeist is the one we've been waiting for. Now in its twelfth year, this year-end wrap up tells us what the world has been searching for, as seen through the billions of searches performed on Google throughout the year.
 
Location Discovery App Spindle's New Alerts Anticipates Questions Before They're Asked Top
Spindle LogoiOS app Spindle just launched Spindle Alerts, which provides customized and timely alerts about events and special deals at each user's favorite places. Co-founder Pat Kinsel told me Spindle Alerts sets itself apart from services like Foursquare Radar by not only recommending nearby places and events to users, but also using the company's search technology to decide how interesting and useful an update will be to them. Spindle constantly monitors social networking updates from businesses and organizations in Boston, San Francisco and New York City, the three cities currently covered by the app.
 
Pew: Social Networking Most Popular In The UK, And Despite The Smartphone App Boom, Voice Calls Remain King Top
pew global attitudesThe Pew Center has been running a long-term study on U.S. consumer habits on the Internet and  other digital media (you can read about past findings here); today it's releasing a new set of data that looks at the wider global state of affairs, as part of Pew's Global Attitudes Project, specifically covering social media and Internet and mobile usage.
 
Video Discovery Startup Plizy Raises $4M Series A From Atlas Venture To Expand Audience, Build Android, iPhone Apps Top
plizy-85607412Video discovery startup Plizy -- which last month relaunched its iPad app and website with a new look and a mission to become a "media center in the cloud" -- has announced it's raised a $4 million Series A round from Atlas Venture. David Marcus, President of PayPal will join Plizy's board of directors, along with Fred Destin, partner in the technology group at Atlas.
 

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